Garbage Treasures: Trendy Magazine Stand

It is crazy how much good stuff goes to garbage! Great materials and quite often complete pieces of furniture that would need just a wash and few layers of paint. This magazine/book stand is one example. Or to be clear magazine/book stand is what I saw in this metallic piece, I have no idea what this has originally been. As I found this it had a little bit of rust and dirt and lacked the shelf boards. Otherwise it was in good condition, firm metal stand that could easily be transformed in to trendy home decor accessory. This stand is one of three items I found from the garbage a few weeks ago. I also had to leave lots of good stuff because I just don´t have space to all and I am already giving away some of my works. Also I am not a kind of decorator who puts all away and then starts all over again. I love to keep memories and build a layered home with elements from past and new founds. This small piece had power to change the whole furniture order in my living room area! I am quite lazy cleaner and only way to make a proper cleaning for every corner is to do it among the decorating process.

 As I said it was rusty and needed a good wash. After cleaning I used 3 in 1 metal lack in golden that goes against the rust plus gives a good firm paint cover. I applied two layers which made the look even and finished. After this I cut the shelf boards from left over board ( I have found the board from garbage as well some four years ago). I had to clean the boards too as they have been in storage for years and gotten spray paint dots and dust. So far I had used just half a can from 7€ paint.

I wanted to really transform the look and have a neatly finished and luxurious piece. One of my guilty pleasures is to buy interior magazines and books. I love to put piles of beautiful books with inspiring covers on every drawer and table. The stand would be perfect for the most beautiful books and magazines. Marble has been a trend for a while but still seems to get space in interior blogs and magazines. I thought marble looking sticky back plastic would look perfect. It was very easy to attach the marble to the shelves and the look changed completely. I used about half from a 17€ roll of sticky back plastic. Then I glued the shelves to the stand. Yet it needed stoppers so that the magazines won't slip away. I sawed the stoppers from wood and painted white. Now the look was complete! Cost of materials was about 15€ including plastic marble, paint, glue and white acrylic paint.

One of the luxuries of life is definitely clean and organized home. As it is me living in here it means that this state won't be long. Rainy days have allowed me to stay inside and finish my quilting project. I started the project on Easter and still it is in progress. Today I might get all the parts ready and attached to each other so the next step will be stitching the layers together. I will show pictures of that on social media and blog. What I can promise is that my quilt really puts colorful in to a new level! I have already shared photos from the mid part and the borders are at least as colorful :) It is wonderful to stay indoors sewing even though it means fabric dust spreading all over the house. Well, home is for living, right?

Have a great Thursday and Weekend Friends!

Sannu

DIY: Flower fairy lights from soap bottles

It is snowing the third or fourth day in row. Cloudy days are also a bit dark and I feel a need to light little fairy lights to bring a touch of coming spring to my home. This year the first blossoms of spring come from the bathroom as these flowers are made of soap and shampoo bottles. If you are as lazy as I am you might already have some empty soap bottles on the bathroom sink so you don´t have to wait until the bottles are empty :) 

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You will need: 

transparent shampoo/soap/dishwasher bottles

battery operated fairy lights that do not heat (!)

scissors

drilling machine

4mm drill

small nail

hammer

transparent elastic band

Cut the leaves and flowers following the pictures above. Hammer little holes to the leaves so that you can thread them to elastic band. Twine the elastic band with leaves to the wire. After you have cut a flower drill a hole in the middle and then cut the flower open as shown in the last picture. This way it is easy to place the flowers around the lights. Now you are ready!

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I have noticed that there is more traffic on my site. It is nice to see that you people can find my blog! If you are interested to follow my blog you can add yourself to my bloglovin´or google followers. It would also be nice to hear about you in the comment box.

I have made the site easier to navigate by adding pages where you can read about me and find all DIY tutorials in the same place. There are also labels on the right sidebar.

I have been planning lots of new projects to share here in my blog and I hope to see You here again :)

Best of wishes Sannu