Sunday, September 30, 2012

Aug Thrift Decorating: Beach Theme

Finally getting around to posting about the thrifty decorating I did for the month of August 2012.

The theme was Beach.

I shopped my house, moved things around, got out my stash of seashells, and painted some old cupboard doors with chalkboard paint to come up with a few things.

Then of course I forgot to take pictures, and I took a few on the day I started putting all the stuff away from the Beach theme.


Not beach related, per se. But its an old pantry door I painted, and I use chalk to make some sort of sign for the theme of the month. It was beach themed, then I erased it and added this for Labor Day weekend:



Painted a piece of spare wood in the garage, and made a beach sign. I can change it up whenever I feel like it, or move the sign to somewhere else in the house:



I buy a lot of old jars from the thrift store, and I add different stuff in them every month. For the beach theme in August, I had a lot of them full of seashells:


More seashells in jars. Some in vintage blue bell jars. The turquoise ones are a rare find. The ones with the zinc lids are even harder and are more expensive to buy now. I have about 6 to 8 of the blue bell jars with zinc lids. They are so fun to decorate with things inside them:



I shopped my house for the bookcase mantel. I put an old window frame up, painted an old cupboard door with chalkboard paint, and made a beach sign, (and able to change and move it around throughout the year). The cheese cloch has some seashells in it:



This chalkboard has been there for months. I change it every month. I put up a birthday menu, party menu, cafe themes etc depending on my themed decorating for the month. Here is the beach one:


This was an old cupboard door painted white, and a blue star painted for the 4th of July month. I don't know where to put or store it right now, so I just covered it with  a beach theme scrap paper:


I collect white milkglass. I love to find them in pairs. I change them around and pair them up in fun ways often. The two compote dishes had seashells in them, forgot to do the picture before I put the shells away. I love the compote dishes here. I have two small and two medium ones. I thought it was fun to stack them like a tiered stand:


This scrolled frame used to be brown and its from the 70's. My mom had some oval frames and butterflies in this style (I found some vintage butterfly ones, more on that later for the Sept decorating) I change this frame color often and move it around. For Aug, I stapled together some spare thin pieces of wood to make the background, and modpodged on some vintage patterns paper, then glued on sea glass and seashells. I taped the artwork to the back of the frame so it can be removed and the frame used for other later projects:


Here is the apothecary I had up for years. I change it every month. The jars now have a few seashells and driftwood. Some of the jars just has crinkled paper cut up from old paper bags. The vintage thingie holds a scrap paper with the month of Aug in it. I love going through my stash of scrapbook embellishments, then I just put them back when I am done using it (or scrapped with it for another project):

Finally my song paper wreath thats above my piano. I change center of it every month. I have a magnet in the center, so it makes it easy for me to create a new center whenever I feel like it and glue a magnet on the back of it. The top piano mantel had cheese cloches with seashells, (which had been removed before pictures) The month of August of beach theme on my wreath:


A closer look:


A much closer look. Three seashells are glued onto brown coffee filters and the vintage patterns paper that I cut into a few circles:


That's pretty much it for Aug decorating. Sept decorating is all ready up. And of course its Oct 1st tomorrow, and its already time for Halloween decorating.

What themes do you use to decorate your house with in the summertime?










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