Another no-spend month!

January 02, 2015

I’ve been busy going through rooms, purging and organizing and it feels so good. I love it. I’ve had zero desire to bring anything new into the house – it all must go! So I figured this would be a great time to do another one of my no-spend months.

I’ve done these a couple times before and it’s just a time for me to focus on what we have, make things work and get stuff done around the house. I always have list a mile long of projects I want to accomplish that get pushed aside because of the bigger stuff. And it just feels good to not bring any more STUFF into the house. My only cheat may be an IKEA trip that’s already planned, but I may just reschedule. ;)

I thought I would share a few of my favorite projects from no-spends past so you can see what I’m up to during these months.

I still love my little candlestick table that sits in our family room:

board and batten walls

You can see how I made that (with items from Goodwill that I had) here.

Years ago I found an amazing online resource for free prints and used that to create some art in the family room:

free art printables

I later added some gold rub n buff to the corners of those frames too:

corner fireplaceThose prints now sit on the built ins near one of my other favorite no-spend projects, the DIY wood troughgray fireplace

This is one of the projects I get asked about most! I made it from scrap wood and it’s SO EASY. These are great for the middle of a long table too.

Another one of my best no-spend projects was when I took an old 80’s night stand we had forever:painting over dark wood

And made it over with white paint and handles (all we had on hand).

So much better!:

80's nightstand redo

I didn’t love the scrolly wood underneath so I recently removed that with my jigsaw, as you can see in this Instagram pic from the other night:

gray accent wall

It removed even more of the 80’s feel. ;)

I used some scrap wood to build some shelves in the guest room closet:

using all of closet

I hate wasted space and this makes that awkward spot SO much more useful!

I also finished up a big project in that same room:

ombre painted wall

I had the paint…I just never took the time to do it! Still love this ombre wall!

We had some drapes that needed lined and some sheets I was going to drop off at Goodwill – so I used the sheets to line the drapes:

how to line drapes I share how to line drapes in that post too. The sheets were the perfect weight – love how full they make the drapes.

Like I said, I tend to get a lot of little things done in these months and last time I finished up a bunch of little details in our basement bathroom and shared the reveal:

blue and green bathroom

I adore this room and it’s pretty colors! You can see more of this space here.

I’m looking forward to getting some projects knocked off the list! Hope you’ll find them useful too!

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Comments

  1. I love your blog! Where did you get the two coordinating rugs in your more formal living room and "dining room" with the bookshelves, I love them!!!

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  2. Great projects. I like the idea of a no spend month, and repurposing things you already have on hand.

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  3. I love those months where I just finish up projects that I have been wanting to get done for forever. And what a better time to do it then the beginning of the year.

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  4. I thoroughly enjoy seeing your projects. No spend months are a good idea for using what you already have on hand. Please share what is the trick to mitering the inside corners on the base molding. I love it, but have never installed it before.

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  5. I love that white side table! so so cute!

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  6. The side table was definitely a good makeover. Did you just paint right over the wood, did you have to sand the heck out of it or just lightly sand it? I have a similar cherry piece I've been wanting to redo forever. I just don't want to sand it!
    -ash
    www.stylizedwannabe.blogspot.com

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  7. I love your wooden trough. I made one too. I am concerned that my trough is too tall. It is 48 inches long but I may have made it too tall. Can you share the height of your box?
    Thank you so much for this delightful blog. I read it faithfully. I try things I have never had the courage to try. Happy New Year!

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  8. Unfortunately, it's going to be another spending month for me. On Christmas Eve day, I wanted to vacuum my living room really well and steam clean the traffic areas. The vacuum cleaner brush bar stopped working and it wouldn't pick up any lint/fluff/dog hair. I decided to vacuum with the Bissell, then switch it to steam cleaning for the spot. The vacuum was working, but the machine didn't sound right, then I smelled something burning. So now I have a burned spot on my carpet, too. My company kindly overlooked all that. The vacuum cleaner can be repaired, but I need to replace the Bissell with some other carpet shampoo machine. I have 2 dogs, so my carpet constantly needs to be cleaned. Maybe next month can be a no spend month for me.

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  9. Love all your projects! We just finished a plank wall in our master bath, so I'm ready to tackle some smaller DIY decor projects. We're in a no-spend month, too! :-)

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  10. Thanks for this post! These are some really cool ideas, keep up the awesome work!

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  11. I loved all the items you showed us and knowing you spent nothing on it is awesome. As we need to do a lot around our home but just do not have the money and seeing what all you did for nothing has inspired me to start going room to room and using what we have. So I would like to say thank you.

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  12. Can you tell me where you got your bedding?

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  13. Love all your projects! I just finished a plank wall in our master bathroom, so I'm ready to tackle some smaller deco-projects. I will go to a new house from scratch to top!!!

    God Bless You Sarah!!!!

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  14. Purging does feel so good. My family recently filled a 10 yard dumpster and it felt awesome. That didn't even count the stuff to Goodwill.

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If you have a specific question I will do my best to answer you back here!

You can find our paint colors and links to items at the "Our Home" tab at the top of my site.

THANKS so much for reading!