Thrifty Work Space Solutions: Dining Room/Office Before and After

You ever dream that you'll finally have every single thing you own pedantically organized, labeled, filed away in a spreadsheet? You every wish every yawn and blink was scheduled? I'm almost there! I'm almost organized to the extreme and it feels so good! Regard my new work space if you need inspiration:

This is an in-between shot, I was moving items to be stored in the new work space to dining room/office area and searching for the "perfect" cabinet to store it all. After months of hunting at thrift, flea markets, curbsides (no shame!) and comparison shopping I gave in and bought the cheapest thing I could find retail.

These are two tiny Closet Maid closets I got on clearance from Target and stacked on top of each other. It's a huge help having this right in the work space! I'll keep searching second hand for a second cabinet to store packing materials.

This was the first time in a while I've to break the "Buy Nothing New" rule to retain my sanity! Worth it though, I love how rearranging this space hasn't just made it organized, a fresh new look in the work space  is always inspiring. Now I'm going to jump in there and get back to work!

What do you use to get to organize your art/craft/reselling supplies? I'm always on the prowl for furniture and items to use for organization while thrifting.

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Getting it Together 2013: The Closet Evolution and a Wardrobe Purge

For years I've been forced any and all closets in my apartments for art project or merchandise storage. I worked hard at it to clear out and get my closet back at the start of this year and got rid of as much clothing as possible. Now everything I own to hear is hanging in one closet and easy to access. I can see it all at a glance and appreciate how less is more. It's easier to put outfits together when you own only your best.

I used this thought process to separate feelings and purge my wardrobe. I was brutal and effective  don't let emotion get in the way of a good clothing purge!

Doesn't fit? Donate it! (Don't wait until you "lose weight" again, to the thrifts with it!)
Don't "feel right" in it? Donate!
Don't like that color on me? DONATE!
Don't wear it anymore? DONATE!
Doesn't make me feel AWESOME when I wear it? DONATE!
I liked this in high school but don't wear it anymore... DONATE! 
Doesn't fit quite right...DONATE!
Not clothing or bedding related? Get it out of the bedroom closet!
Work clothes I no longer need or wear? DONATE!
But it was a gift! BITCH, DONATE IT!

And so the thrift stores received a huge donate or pretty clothes I just don't wear anymore and in return I have a normal closet and I can see the floor! This has been my theme with  my home purge this year, keeping only what I use, and only the best. There's no room for anything else.

What thought process do you go through for a purge? There may be a level one or two Hoarder lurking within us, let's defeat it and reclaim our closets this year!

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Getting it Together 2013: Organizing a (Mostly) Vegan Kitchen

I love a fresh new year and the opportunity to start it on the right track by getting the home organized. This week I want to talk about organizing our homes, business, and inner turmoil! I started with a room I've found myself in a lot this year, the kitchen.

I am blessed with an enormous amount of storage space for an apartment dweller, I have a big kitchen outfitted with 6 roomy cabinets and a large pantry space, and I wasn't utilizing it to it's fullest potential. In the before picture above you see wasted space. I can't see my items at a glance.

Now everything can be seen at a glance, I have stations for frequently-performed actions, and I've rearranged the art collections displayed within for better visual balance.

One thing I do to reduce kitchen clutter and dish pile-up is limit the amount of dishes and cups I keep in the kitchen- helpful for a high traffic apartment with a roomie and frequent visitors! If we want more cups, we have to wash the ones we have. I love having all my spices displayed and easy to select now.

For those who are curious about pantry staples for raw vegans, it often looks a lot like this. I love keeping my nuts in sealed glass jars, it has an attractive apothecary look while keeping my food fresh. Not much drinking happens around these parts anymore so they're put in this shelf, out of the way of the main kitchen traffic.

I'm excited about how I re-arranged the kitchen art, too. This watercolor painting looks better above the stove and the thick black frame goes well with the appliances. I like how it's a portrait of the artist's friend cooking with her favorite Sanrio character, My Melody.

And I love my display of masks Ponce carnival masks from Puerto Rico, every time I visit family I bring home a new one. I love how it brings my personal culture into the "heart" of my home.

I set a chopping/juicing station for chopping up my daily salads. The dressings often need some lemon or orange juice for my "Octojuicer" is always on Stand-by. And the Mario and Donkey Kong art just makes me smile!

Then we have the tea station, the kitty and tea set were bought back with me from Japan, and I talk about how I framed the Junko Mizuno art in this post.

I make a smoothie daily and often use these tools and ingredients, so I set up a smoothie station with a vintage tray. The Kirby chef toy kind of adds to the fun Nintendo theme.

The little coffee area is for my roommate, I can't drink coffee. It makes me bounce off the walls like a rabid banshee! I'd have to work up my caffeine tolerance again.

I re-arranged things in our large pantry. My roomie (who isn't vegan) has her food on the top shelf and we share the rest.

And now I'm off to make some luscious grub in the kitchen! Time to blend and chop up some masterpieces.

How do you keep your kitchen organized? Any tips to share? What are you organizing for the new year?

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

Quick and Thrifty Bedroom/Bathroom Colorful Art Remix

It's been eight months since I shared the first peek at my huge, sunny new 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment in Riverside, Jacksonville. I finally got the reseller mess (oh the boxes, they were everywhere!) under control but I'm still setting in and making the space a home. 

Today I'm sharing a look into a space you haven't seen, the master bathroom, and showing how hanging a few thrifted things I had around made a space more cozy and inspiring:

After I cleared out the final boxes to be organized (any other apartment dwelling resellers forced to use your poor bedrooms as storage?) I had to tackle the bedroom and attached bathroom which felt empty, imbalanced, and soulless.

Left: My nightstand, Right: A Wall in the Master Bathroom

Displaying art I've collected from thrifting, local art shows, and comic book conventions that were languishing (!) in the closet gave the spaces the personable, cozy, relaxing vibe they needed.

The bathroom feels much more comfortable with eclectic art pieces displayed on the walls, too. The Italian Little Mermaid Poster is a childhood relic...

And pieces like the Audrey II on the left and small fish paintings on Canvas on the right are from artist friends. Thrifted Plaques and art from sandy beach artists around the world are on display, too.

This is the biggest apartment I've occupied and I don't have enough furniture to make it feel cozy, but filling the tall walls with eclectic collections is helping to fill the gaps. I hope I'll encounter some chairs and couches while thrifitng to fill some voids as well!

In the past I'd have been tempted to hit retail stores to fill unattractive white space in my home, as many people do. After two years of buying nothing but essentials new, I'm patient. I wait for the right pieces to come to me and use what I have on hand to create a space that's uniquely me!

What do you use to decorate your home? I like to use record cases (I have Prince, Michael Jackson, and Jackson 5 ones on the walls!), and thrifted collections... 

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Thrifty Vintage Violet Planter Ideas: Great Gifts or Merchandise

I'm about to give you even more excuses to scoop up vintage planters and potter you encounter at the thrift store. Who wouldn't want to have fun filling it with kitschy creatures and lovely violets?

My guy gave me a pretty (and huge!) baskets of violets for the project. Transplanting them was easy. I used a little black aquarium gravel on the bottom for drainage and more on top as mulch to help keep the soil moist and provide a glossy, professional finish.

Violets are excellent houseplants. It's not hard to keep the soil the proper level of moist (not soaking!) and although they need a lot of sunlight they don't like hot direct sunlight, so a sunny windowsill is fine. They also thrive on artificial houselights and I've seen people keep them happy far from windows in an office. I'm going to put these three planters in my Treasure House antique store booth today, I wonder how they'll do!

I still have dozens of vintage planters to plant-up, stage, and play with. They're my weakness! What do you have trouble resisting at the thrift stores?

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

Thrifty Bedroom Makeover: Am I a Grown-Up Now?

Ever since I got my first apartment when I was 19 my bedroom has gotten the shaft. I've never fully been satisfied with it and I'm never motivated to use more than what I have in stock from my thrift adventures to revamp it. The room is a work in progress, but it's looking and feeling better than ever after a recent clean-up:

The room is felling much better with some custom original art, ar prints from friends, and dozens of boxes out of the way and stacked neatly in the closet.

This is the room after some extensive cleaning. The room was stuffed to the brim with boxes of merchandise I was organizing, so much so that it was hard to even walk in the space. A very stressful place to sleep, it 'twas! 

Even after cleaning it needed help. I can do better than this...

I took the mod lamp home from one of my antique store booths, looks perfect on my dresser top. The framed moon print is a poster than came with my first telescope.

I'm calling this corner my Tim Burton Still Life, we've got a vintage Halloween votive, Nightmare Before Christmas lamp, and Lydia and Beetlejuice art from my friends. Did I mention I love Tim Burton and Halloween? I'd live in Halloween Town or a haunted mansion if I could...

The room feels so much larger with all of the boxes and clutter out of the way. This will do for now, but I'm excited to look for or create custom mod-style furniture pieces for the space in time.

And little details make the room feel special. Like little art print post cards by favorite local artists, this little kitty print was to help Tsunami victims in Japan. The Aladdin lamp is a thrifted gift from my brother.

Robots are the theme in this shot, we have transformers on my windowsill, my robot art piece made specifically for the bedroom, and megaman robot villan artwork on hangers by my friend Ed.

Oh look, I even bought my first scented candle! It makes me feel like I'm graduating to an adult mindset at the advanced age of 25 for some reason. But then again, right next to the fancy lavender vanilla candle we have...

Robots in Disguise! Nah, I'll never grow up. I'll have robots on my nightstand forever! They make me happy.

But I guess that's what makes me happy about the bedroom, every item within represents something I've loved since childhood, it makes the space really homey.

Most importantly, Yuko-chan approves on the new digs. Mission accomplished!

What do you do when a room needs a thrifty facelift? Do you rush to the thrift, use what you have, or hit retail shops for merch and/or inspiration?

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

Vintage Knick-Knack Painting Tips for the Impatient Crafter

Painting vintage knick-knacks and other thrifted finds is a hot new trend. I typically like the original vintage colors, but a fresh coat of paint revitalizes a find. It comes in handy if you want to cover chips or for selling an item that's been sitting on the shelves for too long.

Here are tips for painting vintage knick-knacks for the impatient bastard crafter!:

1. Use spray paint. Pick any brand, but use a primer.

Any brand of spray paint you use will do the trick, just make sure you apply a nice solid white base coat to help the colors pop and prevent and bleed-through of the original color.

2. I skip the sanding, so should you!

What can I say, I'm an impatient crafter. I'm not going to sit around sanding knick-knacks for hours. Primer usually does the trick.

3. Be mindful of the colors you choose.

Some colors like yellow and light green can be a nightmare. They apply thinly and take multiple coats to come out right. If you're impatient like me, choose bold vibrant colors which are usually a thicker consistency.

Painting vintage is less daunting than it may seem. It's cheap, fun, and easy. What I love about painting thrifted finds is that there's no guilty if you mess it up, you can't "make mistakes" with cheap or free finds! Experiment with your thrift finds and see what works for you!


How do you paint your vintage finds? What do you like better, painted or un-painted scores?

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

Thrifted Before & After: DIY Kitschy Chessboard Table

After revealing my plans to transform my water-damaged dining room table into a kitschy "chessboard table" two friends kindly spend 3.5 hours cutting and pasting squares with me!

This craft is easy to do, the hard part is being patient enough to cut out and put down each square carefully. The best way you can do this is with an x-acto knife and t-square, I couldn't find mine so we used scissors.

After the table was done my friends settled down to play checkers and chess...with bits of food like almonds and bowtie noodles. The next craft we need to make are some hilarious kitsch chess pieces.

The total cost of this project was $2.00! The result is a pretty table that can double as entertainment when my friends are bored. I like it better now than when I found the table brand new!

This post is linked to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays and Make Share.

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

A Thrifty Bedroom Vanity: Before/After

Authorities agree: Keep computers out of the bedroom. They stimulate, they make sleep impossible. With my masochistic ways of staying up late to work, I needed a change...

So I moved my "writing nook" [see it in its opening day glory].

And now it lives in [an awkward] spot in the dining room. The switch makes the energy in both rooms flow better.

All details like my tin collection (holding toiletries), the art, and vintage mirror tray have been thrifted for over time. The table is a previously unused desk, it was in the dining room where my computer now lives.

I made the "jewelry holder" above from cardboard, fabric, and a thrift store frame. [Tutorial: Easy Message Board on a Budget]

In a few minutes I carved out an inviting corner of the room. It's far from done, but it's already an alluring space to start my day.

What aspects of your bedroom inspire you to sleep? I need all the help I can get...

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