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Friday, June 3, 2011

Friday Finds...Christopher and Anne!

Welcome Christopher and Anne! Thanks for coming over to The Notebook to share some of your brilliant DIYs!




Hi, Meaghan!  I am so excited to be a part of your "Friday Finds Design".  I have tried to share some ideas and projects that I hope will help inspire others to make things beautiful without breaking the bank!  Thank you so very much for having me - I am flattered :)

1. What inspires you and your hubbie to do your DIYs?

I have the sweetest husband in the world who is always oh-so-willing to try whatever crazy idea I throw at him.  We absolutely love working on projects together - I would definitely say it is our little hobby.  We are inspired by lots of things - mostly blogs and magazine pictures.  

Christopher is also super creative, and he has honestly thought up a lot of little ideas on his own.  For example, he envisioned a great way to make glass front cabinets in our kitchen for around $20.  They add such an "upgraded" feel - without the cost of custom cabinets. (http://christopherandanne.blogspot.com/2010/11/glass-front-cabinets.html



2.  What is your favorite "bargain" makeover?  

One of the cheapest things we have used to make a HUGE difference in our house a little product called "Rub'N'Buff" (around $4 at Michael's).  I discovered this little miracle product when I was googling "indoor spray painting."  Yes, I was actually looking to see if there was a way.  Let me explain.  You see, we have these incredibly tall ceilings in our dining room.  We are talking over 20 feet - which meant renting scaffolding to take down the 1991 light fixture to paint or replace it.  Not really an option for us.

Welcome "Rub'N'Buff".  I literally stood on a ladder and "painted" the brassy gold light fixture with my finger to completely transform it.  Obviously, I could not paint the chain all the way to the top, but you really don't even notice.  I love that it completely updated our chandelier without having removed the light fixture.  http://christopherandanne.blogspot.com/2010/10/rub-n-buff.html



3.  What is your most proud DIY project?  I would say hands down it is the DIY Trellis Mirror (http://christopherandanne.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-finished-part-3.html)  that we created for our living room.  When we renovated our master bathroom, we were left with a large builders grade mirror that neither one of us could bear to part with.  So I started doing a little research online and found this amazing headboard featured in Sunset Magazine (http://www.sunset.com/home/decorating/great-ideas-for-headboards-00400000039992/).  I thought, hey, we could make that, right???  

After many, many, many hours of measuring and cutting and painting little pieces of wood - we finally created what I could call our little masterpiece to hang above the living room sofa.  Honestly, I was not sure how it would turn out when we started it.  But now it is one of our favorite things in our home and definitely a conversation piece.  

Funny side note - we actually drew the design on the mirror with a dry erase marker over and over again until we got it right.  My daughter (who was 14 months at the time) thought it was hilarious to walk around all over the mirror in her socks, erasing everything.  Mom and Dad - well, we did not think it was so funny  :)



4.  What total room transformation are you most proud of?
We just completed our master bathroom - for a little less than $250 total.  I could not be happier with the results.  We purchased a new light fixture and mirrors, used leftover paint, and added beadboard and trim to create a totally fresh and transformed space.  It was a happy day saying goodbye to that yucky old builders grade bathroom.  And it was totally do-able without spending a fortune.  http://christopherandanne.blogspot.com/2011/05/master-bathroom-is-finished.html



Well, there you have it.  Thanks so much for letting me share a few projects that we have worked on over here at the Newman house.  And to all of your sweet readers - thanks for taking your time to check out some of our little projects.  I am always happy to answer any questions you may have!  ~Anne


Thanks for stopping by Newmans!

2 comments:

  1. Anne is such the decorating superstar :)!!!!!

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  2. I agree, Anne is completely amazing! That mirror will forever be one of my favorite (and most impressive) DIY's!!!

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