Yesterday on Twitter I mentioned that I hit the jackpot at a new-to-me fabric store. I didn’t just hit the jackpot, I nailed it.

This store is my new favorite secret place. Like a secret garden, but with fabric for $2/yd.

My own little paradise.

I may have come home with just a few fabrics…

I’ve seen most of these fabrics in stores for $10-20 so even Justin was impressed with my $2/yd purchases. I mean when a guy is impressed, I know I did well. Some of the fabrics will be used in our house, and some are for a fun project down the road.

Almost as much fun as getting great fabrics for cheap is having a secret store to throw into conversation. Poor Justin has no idea just how much this is going to come up in our conversations. I almost feel bad for him.

Justin: “Do you want eggs for dinner?”

Me: “Umm, secret store?”

Justin: “I married an idiot.”

Me: “Duh.”

What about you guys, have you ever found a hidden gem in your city that you wanted to keep to yourself?

P.S. There’s still time to enter the giveaway! I’ll announce the winner on Monday!

Last week I was passing by a Goodwill and at the last minute decided to turn in. And I do mean the you’re-in-the-right-lane-and-in-two-seconds-need-to-be-in-the-left-lane kind of last minute.

Luckily it was worth the pit stop! I found this beauty for $10. Not too shabby, huh?

It’s slowly making it’s way around the house as I search for the perfect place to put it. Now all I need is a fun cushion and I’ve got a great chair for super cheap. Nothing makes me happier than cheap.

I take that back. Free. Free always makes me happier than cheap.

What about you guys, any fun thrift store finds lately?

I love to paint.

I love that it’s the cheapest and easiest way to completely transform a space.

I also hate to paint.

I hate when I’m covered in paint drips and hunched over from painting baseboards for hours.

It’s a double-edged sword if there ever was one. As I type, I’m still finding smears of paint of my fingers and toes and wondering how much money I waste on accidently painting myself. Does this happen to anyone else?

I had been looking for the perfect shade of gray for our master bathroom for months and, drumroll, I finally found it this weekend! I’m still not sure who was happier, me, or Justin who no longer had to answer the question “which sample is your favorite and why” every night. Every, single, night. I’m nothing if not thorough.

I decided to start with our dark and gloomy hallway that looked like this…

And after two coats of paint it turned into this!

I still have to paint the trim, but look how much brighter it looks already! We love it. When you have a long hallway without any windows, it’s important to use a light color to perk up the space. Light = bright.

Well I’m off to paint trim and get started on the master bedroom. I have a LONG day of painting ahead of me. Like the guy from P90x says, “I hate it, but I love it”.

P.S. Don’t forget you still have all week to enter the giveaway on my Facebook page { here }. It’s the easiest way to get $25!

Since Spring is right around the corner, it seems every store had moved outdoor furniture and gardening supplies front and center. In the past patio furniture was pretty basic, a few metal chairs and a glass table. Maybe a couple plain throw pillows thrown in for good measure.

Not anymore!

I’m loving all the warm woods and bright patterns I’m seeing this year for outdoor furniture. A couple days ago I was in Lowe’s (a slight obsession as of late), and snapped a few pics of my favorite finds.

First up, this table below. I bet if I didn’t tell you, you would have assumed it was a normal dining room table. Isn’t it pretty? This would be an easy way to add class to any outdoor space.

And forget boring pillows. Lowe’s, Target, Home Depot…they all have great colors and patterns to pick from. Here’s a few I found at Lowe’s.

And lastly, I loved these barrels. As in, we’ll probably buy a few in the coming weeks. They’re the perfect pot to plant an herb garden. These barrels will pay for themselves after a few weeks of using fresh herbs instead of having to buy them. That’s one of my number one tip for saving money in the kitchen- grow your own herbs. You’ll have flavorful food without the $2+ price tag each week at the store.

All these finds have me excited about starting to furnish our own deck and patio. Luckily for you guys, you can still enter to win a $25 gift-card to jump start your Spring redesign!

For all the details go { here } or to my Facebook page { here }. If you’ve already entered, remember that when someone “Likes” your comment, they also need to “Like” the page.

The giveaway is open until the end of next week so there’s still lots of time to enter. Happy “Liking”!

It’s Wednesday. That day in the week where you realize one of two things, either your week has flown by and you can’t believe it’s the middle of the week, or the more popular it’s going so slow Friday seems like it’ll never get here.

This week I fall into the “holy cow I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday” camp. I mean where did this week go?

If you’re the opposite and it feels like Friday will never get here, I have a fun little treat to help you get through today…a giveaway!

With Spring just around the corner it’s the perfect time to give your home a fresh, new look. Since TJ Maxx is one of my all-time favorite places to shop, I’m giving away a $25 gift-card to jump start your new design! Here’s how you enter.

(1) Like Something Like That Designs on Facebook { here }

(2) Comment on Facebook under the Giveaway post by telling me what you would use the $25 gift-card to buy. A new throw pillow? A mirror? Decisions, decisions!

(3) Spread the word. Use Facebook/Twitter/Email/etc. to get your friends to “Like” Something Like That Designs on Facebook and then “Like” your comment on Facebook. The comment that has the most “Likes” wins the gift-card!

Even if you enter yourself, you can still vote for other people so give the old “you vote for me, I vote for you” method a try. Or bribe a couple friends to vote for you. Alls fair in love and gift-cards.

The giveaway is open until Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 12:00am EST and is open to anyone in the United States. The winner will be announced the following Monday.

Now get to “Liking”!

P.S. TJ Maxx didn’t perk me in any way to give away a gift-card. I’m just a big fan.

 **This giveaway is now officially closed.***

Today I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

You can turn a “sale” item into a “clearance” item with one simple trick. Just ask.

Say you’re in Lowe’s and you find a rug you like. It’s the last rug like that in the store. Rather than settle for the normal price, or even the sale price, you take the item up to customer service and ask the magic question, “can you do any better on this price?”.

When they reply, “how about 50% off”, you squeal in excitement and slap your debit card on the counter before they can change their mind.

This was, in fact, a true story. It’s how I found a rug to completely cover my closet floor for $20. YEP, $20!

For $20 bucks, I went from stained beige carpet to a gorgeous gray and black statement rug. It really makes this space feel like it has been completely redone. A little carpet tape underneath and that rug is here to stay!

I try my price trick with everything. If a purse has a small scratch that isn’t really noticeable, I ask. Bam, 10% off. If I find an item I want but it’s a floor model, I ask. Easy, 20% off. I’ve found that stores like TJ Maxx will only do 10% off, but places like Home Depot and Lowe’s are a thrifty shopper’s dream. Almost every time I’ve asked at either of those stores they’ve taken 50% off the item in question. I’ve only asked on items that were already on clearance or were the last one in stock, but I bet they would still work with you on any item in the store.

A friend of mine even tried my “trick” at World Market last week and snagged a wall clock for an extra 10% off. I mean really, what’s the worst someone can say? No?

In my experience, it always pays to try. Next time you go shopping, make sure the Customer Service desk is your last stop. Who knows, it could pay for a fantastic lunch.

If you thought yesterday’s project was easy, just wait until you see what I made with just three items. Yep, THREE!

You’ll need a long dowel (the white rod in the photo below), a couple of screw in hooks and a few plastic anchors. I have to say, the dowel was actually pretty expensive. It was $0.97 at Home Depot AND they cut it to size for me. I had enough to do the entire project with just one $0.97 dowel. The hooks were only a couple bucks as were the plastic anchors. This entire project costs under $10.

Interested yet?

Use the plastic anchors to attach the hooks to the wall (so you don’t have to hit studs) and you have the perfect custom sized rod to display all of your jewelry! I painted my rod white, but you could do any color of the rainbow.

I LOVE that I can see everything I own in one quick glance. It also looks so dang pretty! If I want to grab something, I simply unclasp a necklace or lift up the bar for a bracelet. Easy as pie.

I also made room for a few pieces that wouldn’t work well on the wall, like my stud earrings and perfume. That’s where the shelf came in handy.

I can’t tell you how fun it is to have such an organized (and girly!) closet. In fact, I think I’ll start calling it a dressing room. Put a box of Thin Mints and a chair in there and I’d be happy for weeks!

So there you have it, my wall of jewelry. The entire project–shelf, earring frame and jewelry rods came in at around $30. Not bad for a completely custom wall!

I still have a few more details to share, like how to easily paint stripes and how to turn an item from sale to clearance, so check back this week for more easy ideas!

{ The Shabby Creek Cottage Link Up }

It’s Monday! Normally I’m not too excited about Monday morning, but today I get to continue sharing all of my fun closet projects so that makes me one happy girl. I’m seriously having so much fun sharing ideas and hearing all of your positive feedback. You guys are too kind!

In case you missed anything from last week, check out the {closet reveal}, {$15 organization tip} and {how to build a closet shelf} at each of those links.

As promised last week, today kicks off a series on how to build a wall of jewelry. Every time I type wall of jewelry I pretend it’s being said in a loud booming announcer’s voice. It’s much more fun that way. Or every time you read that phrase in this post, take a sip of coffee. Wall of jewelry, wall of jewelry, wall of jewelry. See? More fun.

For this project all you’ll need is a picture frame (any size) with the glass removed, and a piece of chicken wire. I looked high and low for the best place to buy chicken wire (err, I checked at Home Depot where they only sold large sheets) and on my second stop found that Ace Hardware sells it off the roll. You can have them cut it to size for you and it only cost around $2 for the sheet below.

Take the chicken wire and simply pop it into the back of the frame where you would normally put the glass. If you cut it the correct size, which is just slightly larger than the opening, you can bend the prongs to grip the back edges of the frame. Once it’s popped in, it’s not going anywhere!

Flip it around and start adding earrings! This whole project takes less than 5 minutes. Even my thinks-she’s-craft-challenged-but-she’s-not mother could do it. (Hi mom!)

When I first saw this idea floating around on Pinterest, I had no clue just how easy and in-expensive this project would be. Aren’t those the best kind of projects though?

So that’s where the wall of jewelry started. If you think this part was easy, check back tomorrow. I have a project for under $10 that will rock your world. Seriously.

What about you guys? Tackle any projects of your own this weekend?

Somewhere along the line of planning out my closet, and in a desire to put my husband’s carpentry skills test, I decided I wanted to build a shelf. The shelf was a smaller part of what you’ll later see turns into a wall of jewelry.

That’s right, a wall of jewelry.

Before I get to any of that, here’s how we built a shelf for the corner of my closet. I wanted something strong enough for me to put a few trays for earrings, as well as give me lots of room underneath for added storage. Luckily, Justin was on board so we got to building!

We started with a piece of plywood that they cut to size for us at Home Depot and a couple of 1×6 boards.

The first step was finding the studs and nailing the first board into the wall. The top of the board was going to hold the shelf, so we made sure to measure the height to exactly where we wanted it. Next, we did the same thing with the remaining board.

Once both boards were up on the wall, we double-checked that our brackets would fit snugly underneath the shelf. One bracket got screwed on the right side of the shelf and one in the middle. The picture below shows the bracket after it was screwed into the back board, but before we screwed it into the front of the shelf.

Meanwhile, I prepped the plywood and trim pieces. They each got a coat of glossy white paint. There’s nothing a coat of glossy white paint can’t fix. Amen.

Here it is after the brackets have been affixed and the trim has been nailed in place. For some reason the right side looks like it wasn’t painted, but it’s actually just a shadow. We chose trim that would create a lip around the edge of the shelf in case I knocked over a bowl of jewelry. It’s not like I’m clumsy or anything *cough,cough*.

Once everything was up on the wall, I took some white caulk and filled in any seams like you can see in the picture below. A friend told me to tape either side of the crack before you caulk and pull it up right after. It worked perfectly!

The last step for making this shelf was to create a fabric skirt to add a little more closed storage. I laid the fabric on the table and cut it to the correct length.

Next, I broke out one of my favorite inventions ever, no-sew tape. This stuff is great! It gave me crisp, clean edges without ever having to break out the thread.

And finally, the finished product! You can even see a sneak peak of the rest of the jewelry wall. I love the bright white paired with the dark fabric. It has such a fun texture, but since it’s black it doesn’t compete with the rest of the colors and patterns in the room.

Not too shabby for two people with very limited building experience. What about you guys? Build anything lately?

When I was brainstorming ideas for this closet, I wanted to make sure that everything had a place. I’ve learned from experience that,

1) If you don’t see it, you won’t use it.

2) If it doesn’t have a home, it tends to roam.

Yes, I actually made that last one rhyme. It’s true though! How many times have you walked around picking up your home only to find a few miscellaneous items that you then toss into a nearby drawer or basket? How long was it before those items saw the light of day again? If you’re anything like us, the answer is pretty embarrassing.

Given that tendency, I was determined to make sure every last item had a home. When it came to my purses, I was a bit stumped. Usually, I kept them all stacked in a clear tote on a closet shelf. Technically they were organized, but I ended up forgetting what I owned and sticking to the same 2 purse rotation. When I came up with the solution, I was shocked I had never though of it before.

Purse Collection, I’d like you to meet a curtain rod.

YEP! A curtain rod. What a perfectly simple way to easily display all of my purses! (Yes, I’m aware I have quite a few. I’m an organized hoarder.)

Now I can see what I have and easily lift the rod to gain access to any purse my heart desires. I also love the pops of color it adds against the dark gray wall. Who says purses can’t be decor?

Here’s a bit further back. You can even catch a glimpse of the “secret” project for later this week. I can’t wait to share that one with you!

The great thing about using a curtain rod to organize purses is that it’s incredibly adaptable. You can easily find one as narrow or as wide as you need and it would also mount easily to the back of a closet door if you’re short on space. Just make sure to use the correct screws!

And finally, the best part of this project was the price. It was only $6 for each curtain rod! For under $15 I got a customized storage solution. Gotta love that.

What about you? Is there a need for purse storage in your life? I’m all about the pressing issues here.

Obviously.