Vintage Suitcase & Food Storage

I have been coveting the suitcase decor trend for awhile now. This week I finally dropped five whole dollars at the DI {thrift store} on two blue lovelies.

Check out some awesome suitcase inspiration-

This is almost a carbon copy of one of the suitcases I purchased.

Source: crate.typepad.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

Source: cupcakesandcashmere.com via Rebecca on Pinteret

 Source: sweetandsaucysupply.com via Janice on Pinterest

Do you guys have vaulted ceilings? 

If you do, then you probably have some weird nook, where the wall stops and doesn't touch the ceiling. This creates a strange, dust collecting, ledge that's ridiculously hard to decorate.

Unfortunately, I have a major lack of storage space.
Well actually, the condo has great storage for a "normal" people. But when you are packing in a year's worth of food, hygeine products, cleaning products and 3+ months of animal food-
well, you get the idea.


This is what we have been living with. No amount of Photoshop is going to spiff up  this picture. It is what it is, dust collecting ledge "awesome" architectural feature being used as an animal food storage shelf.
{Yup, there's a grill up there too.}

I almost mentioned this ledge way back when I first started blogging, in my post about small space food storage solutions. But then I quickly realized the post was intended to be about food storing SOLUTIONS, not eye sores in your living room!
Enter the suitcases.

They'll be working double duty. On the one hand I needed some older items to temper all the modern pieces I've been buying or refurbishing.
On the other, they'll be creating some {always} needed storage. The suitcases are large enough to each fit a 20lb of cat/dog food, with room to spare! Yay! Totally awesome news because we believe in food storage and don't want our furry family to starve, but I cannot look at cat food bags even one more day!

 Pretty much these sweet little babies are saving the day!

The dark blue one had a name written on it in black sharpie. I used a Magic Eraser and it took it right off. Actually, the Magic Eraser took off like 40 years of grime off of each of them. Uh, gross. Next I cleaned the exterior with my homemade all purpose cleaner.

I used my carpet cleaner on the inside fabric and scrubbed the heck out of it!
Where the fabric was gaping, I used some spray adhesive and just shot it right into the hole! Then smoothed the fabric back down and it worked like a charm.

This is what things are looking like these days. For now I'll be keeping the color. I have so many projects planned that involve this side of the room, that it just doesn't make sense to change them yet.

 

 I am thinking about painting them. Mostly I'm playing around with the idea of a light gray or a white with gray undertones. Don't these look beautiful? I like that the hardware is painted, as well.

I have some more to add on this side of the suitcases, a few more vintage items.
But was actually thinking about getting one more suitcase. That would be one more bag of food out of sight or out of my guest room closet.

What about you guys? Have some hard to decorate area of you home? How about storage problems? Or storage solutions?!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.

✥Sneak Peak-Sectional✥

You all know how I've been shopping for a grey sectional for months?! You guessed it, we decided on one! Yahoo! It was custom made and will take a few weeks to be made but remember when I talked about the mac compatible room planner found on the pottery barn website? I decided to use it to give you a sneak preview of our new couch~ 

As you can tell, I went with the larger size but the curved back. I like how the seating works better in the corner seat with a curved back, it allows for a for someone to sit correctly and have full room for their legs. With the true L shaped sectionals you cannot sit back in that spot and have leg room.

For now that's all I'm doing, if I can get the pics off my new phone I'll give you a few fabric swatches to preview as well!

I party HERE-

Spray Grip Goodness

In my last post I mentioned I was desperately hoping to have at least one of the lamps I have stashed finished for Mandi's lamp linky party- but the weather completely foiled my plans. I have to spray paint outside and it has been big time WINDY and RAINY.  Bummer.

So instead I have a recent find for you all that you'll LOVE.

So, if I ruled the world my first official decree would be the gift of one new spray grip for everyone!!

OK, maybe not actually- 

but it's so fantastic it's understandable why I would say such a thing!

No longer must we always pay 7 bucks for the spray paint with the trigger sprayer- now we can spend 3.43 for the regular stuff and attach our 2.50 Spray Grip Goodness to it.
 

The spray grip is, in fact, goodness. It clips onto most bottles of spray paint and then allows you to adjust the amount of pressure you're apply using your whole hand and not just your index finger. I was able to lacquer like never before!

So just in case you were wondering if you should drop the 2+ bucks, and you don't have a Z Berger standing by to tell you that your index finger is worth it- then allow me to be your Z Berger and say to you-

BUY IT!!

- Becca -

➹ Homemade Cleaning Supplies ▻ Part 1 ➷

I mentioned that Z and I have incorporated a years' supply of cleaning and hygiene products as a part of our food storage. I discussed how to keep track of what you've bought and buying on sale, but now let's talk cleaners.

I thought a lot about how I wanted to store all these cleaning products in our home- how much, where, which ones. In the end I surprised even myself with the answer.  We've decided to store the items that go into cleaners so that we can make our own, store less toxins in the condo, make anything we want as we need it.

Recipes can be found all over the Internet- but here are the basics you'll need to start:

Liquid Castile Soup, Washing Soda, White Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Borax, Baking Soda, Olive Oil

With these items you can clean just about anything- and they're pretty stinkin' cheap too!

Homemade  Laundry Detergent- All Natural

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar (of grated) Castile Soap 

Just grate a dried out bar of soap and mix in with other ingredients in reusable container .

Use  2-3 tbsp per load depending on its size.

Homemade Surface Spray- All Natural

2 tsp Borax

1/4 tsp Liquid Castile soap

16 oz Spray Bottle

Hot Water 

Furniture Polish 

 1/2 tsp Olive Oil

1/4 cup Vinegar or Lemon Juice

Mix in a glass jar and use rag to polish surfaces.

Floor Cleaner

1 cup Vinegar

2 Gallons Warm Water 
 

Toilet Cleaner 

Baking Soda or Borax

Liquid Castile Soap

 

Dishwasher Detergent

2 cups Borax

2 cups Baking Soda

4 packages Lemon Unsweetened Kool-Aid or 1/2 cup Citric Acid

Window/Glass Cleaner

 5 parts Water to 1 part White Vinegar

Spray Bottle 

 Carpet and Stain Remover

 1 part Borax

10 parts Warm Water 

Spray Bottle

Mix and then spray on stain, wait 5-10 minutes and blot clean.

That's the basics! Isn't this the perfect project to put in cute bottles and make some homemade labels? Do you see it?

source

I do! Let me know if you have any questions,  have recipes to add, or want some more recipes from me.

I'll be back tomorrow from my trip. Gotta get my projects going!! Woot Woot!

UPDATE:

I've added more recipes! Check'em out here!

And Here!

More Helpful Tips {Food}

DID YOU KNOW?

*Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

*Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

*Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

*Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. *Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

*Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

*To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

*For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

*Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

*Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.  Simple chop them up with the food chopper.  Peel, core and slice a few apples.  Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

More helpful hints from my home to yours!

- Becca - 

Track your Year's Supply of Storage (Hygeine/Food)

Along with the traditional year's supply of food storage and the 90 day supply of short term foods we have decided to add a year's supply of hygiene and cleaning products.

We started with and excel spread sheet and made a list of all the items we would NEED for one year.

 We made a list that we kept handy and each week when the sales ads would come out we would look for our usual foods and also the items we needed to stock up on. 

Instead of buying all at once, we saved a ton of moula by buying good deals and keeping the items we HAD and NEEDED ORGANIZED on the computer.

If you're not Excel savvy these cute girls from Food Storage Made Easy have made a downloadable spreadsheet for short and long term food storage needs. You can either modify the long or short term storage sheet to keep track of your hygiene products and cleaning supplies.

 Now that we're on this system we need to make sure we track when something's empty. For us it's easiest to print off copies of the spreadsheets and put one in each bathroom and in the kitchen. This was we can write it down right as we're throwing out the old deodorant or whatever.

 Here' what the cabinet in Z's bathroom looks like. It has mostly his year supply of hygiene products.

 
Then on the cabinet door we have our spreadsheet printed out.  We just write in when we've opened  a new item.

There's probably a fancier way to display it and keep track of it- but the truth is, you have to have a system you'll actually do.

It would be easier if we could remember to input the stuff directly, but it never seemed to work out that way.

Each week when I look over the ads and fliers I input all the lists into the computer and add whatever is needed to the grocery list. A little work each week keeps us stocked up and helps us to buy things when they are on sale.

And who doesn't like saving money?!

- Becca -

Partying here 
and  here !

Room Planners for Macs

WOW!
I am LATE posting today! It has been a super busy morning and afternoon, but today we are talking about space planning.

I've been looking for a comfy, charcoal colored sectional with modern lines for over three months. I've found out that in my area they pretty much come in two lengths. One where I may have room for a small end table and one where I won't. 

A room planner is one great way to decide what you want to do. But it can be difficult to find one that works with Macs.

Pottery Barn has this room planner available and it works like a charm. You can set up an account and save your top choices.

What do you think?

As for me, I'm still deciding...Shorter...Longer? hmm.
One thing I do know- this space planner is the BOMB!
Try it out and link up your plans!

- Becca -

I party HERE
and more specifically here and here.

Attention Utah Peeps!

A big hello to all you Utahans out there, especially those of you near Orem. 

Why you ask?

Weelllll, I was browsing for my very special grey sectional at the Downeast Outlet in Orem-

you know the one off of Sate St?

Instead of finding my couch- I came across a lovely POTTERY BARN SLIP COVERED SECTIONAL for ONLY 1700 BUCKS! Marked down from 3300!

It is so comfy, covered in a tan velvety fabric. 

Someone needs to get over there and score that deal!

I'm guessing that slipcover was a grade B fabric (maybe the brushed canvas in walnut?)

cuz it was sweet!

"Like a Post-It Note for Wallpaper"

You all know I've been thinking about wallpaper alternatives for my bedroom. I've pretty much decided to do wall decals on a focal wall or two. 

But while doing some blog hopping today I came across this image from Isabella and Max. 

Don't you just love the interest and dimension the wallpaper adds? I'm pretty sure we've all seen grass cloth before. It was super popular in the 70's and has swing around to popular again in the last few years. 

I thought to my self, self- is there removable wall paper. I want/need/crave this texture in my home...can I have it?

The answer is- I'm not sure.

 

There IS repositional, removable, temporary wall paper!

Browsing around the Internet it seems there's quite a few options out there and most seem pretty pricey. The cheapest I could find came from Sherwin Williams and they have a ton of options. Most places are selling paper for upwards of 75 dollars a roll. At Sherwin Williams it's more like $20-30!

Unfortunately, I haven't found glass cloth. But there are option for every style preference and some that look textural. Check it out!

- Becca -

✥ Shopping for Parts ✥

Phase two of the headboard DIY project...the materials hunt!

 I  outlined the list of materials I was looking for.

I know I need fabric and a lot of it. Those of you who have purchased fabric know it can be really pricey. I did go through a few local fabric stores but could not bring myself to pay the large price tags for the thick velvet I already decided that I wanted. So I started browsing for curtain panels that worked into my color scheme. I figured this would save me quite a bit and would be exactly the right size I needed for my king size bed.

 curtain panel

The winning panel turned out to be from Target. It is the same brand as all the other linens I have on my bed- Fieldcrest Luxury. I liked a few of my options at other stores as well- most of my options came in at around 30 buckaroos. But the winning panel was on sale for $8, yes $8 dollars!! That's some serious savings! It was the same cream color as my bedsheets and bed skirt. Actually it has tonal striping that matches my damask striped sheets perfectly. Not that I am in love with matchy-matchy- but the sheets barely show with a made bed and I think it will be very pretty.

sheets

The next stop was Lowe's for the piece of wood. Some of the "how to's" online mentioned getting real wood for the headboard, while others went for a particle board. Of course I chose the cheaper particle board- the cost coming in at only 15 bucks.

I also picked up the french cleat that allows the headboard to slide into place on the wall and eliminates the need for legs. That was 15 dollars.

While at Lowe's I walked past the carpet padding and stopped mid stride. I has already priced out the cost of foam and knew it wasn't going to be cheap. So I had the gal quote me on a layer of their thickest carpet padding. The total came in under 20 bucks. So three birds with one stone!

Because the carpet padding is less "squishy" than the foam I wanted to put an extra layer of batting down. I had a coupon for the craft store and almost got two bags for the price of one. Sweet!

The last step was the nail head trim. I really wanted to buy local because I wanted to see the finished project the same day. I was outta luck. The only trim I could find where boxes of 24 nails and they didn't have the huge number I would need. So I had to buy online. I ended up with an ebay seller who took three weeks before popping my item in the mail. I could've killed him and wish I would've paid the extra DOLLAR  to get through a online store! This is when my "fruggle-ness" turns into cheap-ness and I could kick myself.

I choose the french natural color because it matched the pulls on the antique dressers. Although most the metal accents in my home are the more common brushed nickel.

If you're adding everything up you know I'm under 85 bucks for the project! 

Not bad, right? 

All From Ikea

I was asked to out together a living room design in a modern aesthetic for a friend of mine. She was starting from zero, as in from scratch. We were working on, my favorite, a BUDGET!

I like working on a budget. It gives a project parameters. It helps you to define where the bulk of your money should go. I am always bargain shopping, whether out of necessity or not. It's kind of like a game and I am the winner when I find a good deal on exactly what I want. Meaning, I don't like to settle with an inferior style or quality just to save money. It still needs to look good, last a long time, and be something you love. Do not bring things into your home you don't love. That's always a waste of money.

Okay, I apologize for the tangent. Back to the design.

To decorate this living room I knew I was going to do mainly from Ikea for two reasons. One: my friend is a big fan of their clean lines and likes the more modern the better. Two: she is not a shopper like I am. I was going to need to find almost everything there for here because going from place to place looking for just the right accessory is not her idea of fun. (Although why not, I don't know?)

My parameters included a $1000 budget, a color scheme of black and red, the necessity for a sofa bed and storage. 

The starting point was supposed to be a very modern, black sofa. But sitting on it just wasn't that comfortable. They look so sleek and stream lined, but when the arms and back of the couch are low and the same height there's no where to rest your head. So comfort won out and I needed to incorporate the tan/beige sofa into my color scheme. This primarily changed the curtains and the pillows, but the walls are already a lighter tan than the couch so it should look great.

At $699 the couch is really fantastic. There is storage underneath the chaise and under the love seat portion there's a pullout that pops up and turns the couch into a double bed. It is also very comfortable and easy on the eyes. We got the curtains to bring more black around the room. It is actually wavy stripes of black gray and tan. The same colors as in two of the pillows.

I choose this bookshelf for her storage problems and the red boxes fit on the shelves perfectly. The bookshelf will actually be on its side and multitask as a room divider. We went cheap on the TV stand- cheap on price but not on style. There's nothing offensive to the senses here.

For side tables I convinced her to go rogue and we left Ikea to get some square storage ottomans. They're black and we got two to act as two side tables for now, but  on a whim they could work as a coffee table or even a bench if she wanted them to. The top can be flipped over and works as a hard surface for drinks or whatever.

That pretty much killed the budget. But think about it, the couch was 700 bucks so we got her a whole living room for 300 additional buckaroos.
We chose a club chair to bring a pop of red to the other side of the room. It was a great price and is actually comfortable. Love. Ikea.
I choose some accessories for her to keep her eye on. We picked out a trendy sunburst mirror and some red lamps. Also her contribution was a vase and sticks that mimicked the wavy lines in the curtains.

I would love to do more in the way of accessories but it's just not her style, she's actually had blank walls for the last 6 years. So I guess it's baby steps and I'll take what I  can get. If it were up to me I would suggest she do one of those amazing vinyl graphics, something like a gray silhouette of an organic shape. Also, some black floating shelves with tan and gray vases or glassware. Then a photo wall with black frames and black and white prints.

This was a really fun project. Personal shoppers and decorators are so lucky. They get to shop all the time and don't have to spend their own dinero. The only challenge is moving away from your own style towards one that will please your client/friend.

Hopefully I can get some after shots to show off my labors!

Getting down to Business!

Z and I inherited an antique dresser set from my family that we have been using in the master bedroom. It is very decorative with scrolled wood work in a deep ebony brown. We love having it mixed in with all the other modern elements in our home. But, it has prevented me from having a headboard for years because nothing really matched.

I decided to get an upholstered one a while back but my cheap fruggle nature prevented me from spending the $300+ to buy one when I knew it couldn't be that hard to make one and I bet I could do it for under 100 bucks.

So first and foremost I started my search. Which ones do I love and what would I want mine to look like.

I decided that a rich fabric would best compliment the ornate dressers, so I was leaning towards something like velvet. I liked the idea of nailhead trim- I thought it would boost it out of the "I did this at home" look and into the "of course I paid a ton of money for this" look.

Urban Outfitters- Modern Velvet

CSN.com

Now I know there's a ton of info online of how to make your own headboard, mostly because that's how I'm learning how to do it!

But I think I will primarily outline my budget saving ways and gloss over the stuff you could find anywhere. (As for the how to, I really liked the info I found on centsationalgirl.com )

So- the list of things I will need to buy:
wood
fabric
batting padding
nailhead trim
hanging apparatus

Let the search begin!