Warning: I’m about to show you something gross. Okay, not really gross, but sort of pathetic, and a little embarrassing. Are you ready?
Gah! My eyes! The combination of the automatic flash + my racoon cat makes this look like a crime scene photo, when in fact it’s the sad, sorry little corner where I sat to get ready for the day. Objects in the photo include, but are not limited to: books, a box of golf balls, dirty laundry, clean laundry, printer paper, lady products, and canadian flag in the window. Every morning, in the midst of this hodge-podge, I would plop down on the floor, blindly shove my contacts into my eyes, plug in my blowdryer and slap on some makeup. Usually in that order.
While the rest of my house has, fortunately, moved away from “university student” decor over the past few years, a few leftover clues remain (our bedside table is a rubbermaid container with a scarf over it). This corner still looked like it was inhabited by a 20-something college kid who was either jacked up on coffee or hungover from a night of smoke machines and dollar beers.
Over the holidays, I was newly inspired by my mom’s thrifty solutions to decor problems, so I decided to attack this corner with the same strategy. The result:
Much better! Wouldn’t you say?
The room renovation began with a hunt for a vanity. My first stop was the trusted Salvation Army. I didn’t come home with a vanity. I did, however, come home with the cute lamp and big mirror you see above. Both $4.99. A few days later, I paid a visit to the Bibles For Missions Thrift Store. They usually have a larger selection of furniture, and lo, they had this charming dressing table! The vanity cost me more than I wanted ($35 plus a delivery charge of nearly as much). However, when you’re shopping at a place that exists only to further missionary projects run by the Bible League, you can also consider your purchase a donation – and that should make anyone loosen their purse strings.
I also picked up a small stool for $10, and a whack of stripey yellow fabric for $2.50 (I originally picked out a totally awesome hippy-dippy paisley pattern, but when I asked my husband how much he hated he, he said “I hate it so much”. If he had responded with “I hate it only a little” I would have taken it).
So, once home, I recovered the seat with the stripey fabric. Note: I don’t sew, I don’t craft, I don’t even staple – I used thumb tacks. Don’t judge. It worked! I also had enough fabric to make a neat little jewelry board out of a frame I picked up from a church garage sale. You might recognize it from this post. Now I won’t have to spend ten minutes unknotting my jewelry after pulling it out of a drawer. Small victories!
I grabbed a few other items from the house (a flower pot for my hairspray products, and a wicker box to house my makeup) and suddenly the forgotten corner didn’t look so scary.
Most of the miscellaneous items I listed before found new homes in the vanity drawers. I’m also hoping that since this corner no longer looks like a dump, I’ll be less inclined to treat it as one. The dirty laundry will go directly into the hamper, and the clean laundry will go to the floor of my closest (hey, I’m a realist). All in all, I’m quite pleased with my new space! I won’t be bursting out “I feel pretty” every morning, but I can at least give myself morning pep talks with some dignity. And I love my morning pep talks.
Any forgotten corners in your home you’d like to tackle?