Fresh, Frugal Ideas! Here are some great ideas for bringing
freshness of spring into your home.Sponge paint your walls, or a key piece of furniture. Blues, greens, pinks, and yellows in pastel shades refresh a room, and softness of sponging gives an “impressionistic” appeal.
Take clippings from outdoor ivy, and root in water for FREE houseplants. Buy inexpensive shade annuals and pot them up for indoors- fuchsias, impatiens, begonias, and primroses are wonderful for bringing in color, and deal well with lower light indoors.
Dress up candles as natural works of art instead of putting them away for warm months. Use a glue gun to attach organic materials such as dried twigs, flowers, cinnamon sticks, worn out potpourri, pressed leaves, coffee beans…use what you have! Or, tie on raffia or ribbon and group candles on a shelf, tabletop, or on a mirror.
Paint inexpensive houseplant pots to give your room designer touches. Sponge paint over clay pots, or use a stencil or simple pattern to give interest. This technique can also be used on your outdoor pots. Hint: for a more elegant look, try using new metallic craft paints over clay pots. Simply sponging on some metallic paint (try combing them) can look extremely upscale.
Got an old wooden stepladder? Use it as a great plant stand to bring green indoors. You can paint it or leave it rustic and weathered, depending on style of your room. Full size wooden ladders can look great on patio.
Add spring detail to your window treatments by using small grapevine wreaths as tiebacks or swag holders. You can add more interest by gluing on a small bunch of dried flowers. This is a great way to reuse flowers from a damaged arrangement, or leftovers from another project.
Buy artificial plant vines at craft store, and drape them over tops of your window treatments, or wrap them around a floor lamp. Watch craft stores carefully, and you can usually catch them on sale for just a couple of bucks.
Cover cardboard boxes with fresh floral fabric, and stack on a table like hatboxes. If you utilize scraps from another project, you will have creative, decorative storage, virtually free!
Give your kitchen a garden window by installing cheap shelving across inside frame. This can be nothing more than a small wooden block nailed into frame on each side, and a simple board resting on top of them. Fill this with plants and cuttings, and you will have big impact. Bonus; plants will thrive I bright light, and moisture of kitchen. Caution: Do not do this in a south facing window…the direct sun is just too much for most houseplant.
Paint small paper mache bird houses and hang them from your curtain rod, or bottom of a shelf or cabinet. I found them at my craft store for 50 cents, or you could easily make them from small cardboard containers and paper mache paste.
