picking out paint and saving some dough

We hope you all had a wonderful celebration with family or friends and you were able to take a look back at 2013 while looking forward to 2014 and a whole new year of opportunities! From Rob and I (and Oswin and Harlee) to you and yours, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Over the summer, before we even bought the house, my aunt told me (when discussing home renovation and painting) to "never settle or get your heart set on a color until you see what the local paint stores have in stock as "mis-tints."" I'm so glad she told us about this option because it has already saved us hundreds on paint!

Listening to her advice is how we first settled on Benjamin Moore "White Water" for the dining room. I went into a local paint shop before we even moved into the house for some inspiration. I remembered to ask if they had any mistints and just like magic by asking this question I was able to get two gallons of a color that I immediately loved for $10/each. It wasn't the color I was looking for but because I hadn't spent too much time committing to a specific color, we only spent $20 where we should have probably spent $130 or more!

Now that the dining room is all painted and looking lovely, we are in full paint mode to complete the other rooms that we have goals to paint. For most of the rooms we didn't even have an idea of what color we wanted when we set those goals; we wanted to get all the furniture and art we liked in place before picking a color. It's much easier for us to work backwards and finish with paint than to paint a room and try and match everything to that scheme.

On New Years Eve, on my way home from work, I stopped at another local paint shop right as they were closing. They were nice enough to stay open for a couple extra minutes to allow me to get what I needed. My first stop was - yes, you guessed it - the mistint section. I dug through gallons of paint with help from one of their associates and found a color that would look perfect in the living room. The best part? It was only $5/gallon down from $65!!! Success, another room painted for under $10!! After looking through all the colors in the mistint area, I didn't find anything else that I liked and resolved to paying full price for a nice rich color for the ceiling in the hallway, after all I had already secured quite a bargain. I picked my color and told the associate that I only needed a quart, his partner quickly turned and said "why don't you give her one of the gallons that are on sale in the front, it will only cost $10." Again, CHA CHING! Even the paint that I was willing and expecting to pay full price for only came in at $10/gallon down from $65!!

I scored two gallons of their highest quality paints for a grand total of $15.90 and saved over $115.00!! Talk about a great price!

For a general look at our color scheme I found these swatches online. Winter White is our dining room color, Phantom Mist is for the hallway ceiling, and I would say that the mistint for the living room is somewhere between Arabian Sands and Covered Wagon.

New house paint savings so far:

Dining Room - Winter White: $130 $20
Living Room - Mistint Tan: $65 $5
Hallway Ceiling - Phantom Mist: $65 $10
Kitchen - Mermaid Green: $11 (the only paint we've paid full price for yet!)

GRAND TOTAL: $271 $46

Not only has buying high quality paint for cheap become a very fun game to us, we are so happy to save we've saved hundreds doing it!

Happy New Year once again and happy paint hunting to those of you in the market!

Until next time, Lindsey

*** Do any of you have success stories when it comes to bargain hunting for home renovation materials!? We'd love to hear from you!

it's the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas is one of the most charming times of the year. It was so fun decorating our new home to make it reflect the holiday cheer that we love being a part of. We put the tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the earliest we've ever decorated, but we were so eager we just couldn't wait! It was fun to find a full sized tree this year, we've never had one before - it was cold and we weren't prepared for the wait outside but we had fun while we waited!

We picked a Frasier Fur, a type of tree we have grown up with, and while they were trimming our tree to fit into the stand I was able to get some extra branches for our front porch pot. If your Christmas tree spot lets you take the extras it's a great way to save about 30$ on front porch decorations! 

After we rearranged the furniture a bit to make room for the tree, we were able to light her up and decorate with our eclectic bunch of ornaments that remind us of very fun memories of the past! For fillers on the tree I always shop the after Christmas sales, that way we can have a fully decorated tree without paying an exorbitant amount of money for the ornaments, garlands and lights (Target is usually my go-to for Christmas sales!)

I found a nice looking fake wreath for only 8$ and was able to decorate it for "nothing" with purchases I had made in the past (woo hoo sales!) I didn't have to use anything to secure the garland (it is just tucked between pieces of the wreath) and the two "love birds" are just sitting atop with their toes for balance. 

We don't have any type of a mantel so we hang our stockings with care on the buffet we use as a tv stand! The stockings are cute pottery barn stockings that we received as a christmas present the year we were engaged - thank you New Jersey Brands! 

I was able to change the table scape just by adjusting the arrangement and adding a filler to some of the vases. Everything was either purchased at salvation army or was at a huge discount (I think I got the two candle sticks for $12 each from Anthropologie!) I always just try and move things around with my dining room table so that I don't have to find storage for the pieces I'm not using and so I don't have to buy more decorations! The pheasant feathers are actually from pheasants when we went out hunting a while back! 

The dogs don't mind the tree one bit and haven't tried to eat any of the ornaments - thank goodness! They even have their own stockings that hang over their food bowls! Maybe they will wake up on Christmas morning to find a special treat! 

The littlest things can add to the holiday cheer around a home. We don't have the ability or space in our pocketbooks to change our whole home decor when Christmas comes around, so I make little additions and changes that can easily be manipulated into the scheme of our home! The little Santa was a housewarming present (thank you Aunt Mary!), the bells were $2 last year at Target's after Christmas sale, and the metal trees were a hand me down from Rob's mom (thank you Kristin!) Decorating for the Holidays doesn't have to break the bank, you just have to think ahead in order to save some green!! 

Well that's all for now! Merry Christmas everyone! 

Until next time, Lindsey