While Eben was away in St Thomas I was working on daily projects, decorating our house to make it fill more like a home. I also didn’t want to be spending a ton of money on decorations since we’re already spending enough on renos, so I got a little creative. I honed my inner interior decorator/artist/crafter, and used pinterest as a starting point for ideas.
Keep in mind that I do not consider this the finished product yet, but baby steps in the right direction, one project at a time.
My most used items were:
–wood crates (the ones grocery stores keep their fruit in), we found a bunch on the side of the road (free!) and then I bought 5 from the local fruit shop for 20pesos (5 for $1.11, I think that’s a great deal.)
-left over house paint (we repainted the entire inside of the house white, to freshen it up, and had some left in the bottom of the bucket)
-a glue gun (gifted to me from Arias’ teacher since they didn’t use their smaller one)
–twine and ribbon, bought by the meter at the local shop, somewhere around $1 a meter
–Cacti and clay pots (25 pesos=$1.38 a pot, 80 pesos=$4.40 a cactus!)
Ok, check it out!
The Master Bedroom
In the master bedroom, I made this hanging planter out of one of the sides of those wood crates, white house paint, and twine. Why is the pot broken on the backside? Because one night I was trying to sneak into our room (with the lights off) while Ellia slept in my bed. I walked straight into this shelf and sent the cactus planter rolling to the floor…rolling down my head and hand. I had a few cactus spikes to remove at that!
The Girls’ Room
Wood crates broken apart, white paint, and wood glue created these fun triangular decorations in the girls’ room. This is one of my favorite decorations in the house.
Arias has always wanted a dreamcatcher. As a birthday gift, I tried my hand at making her this black crescent moon dreamcatcher (I used 9″ wooden embroidery hoop, an array of ribbon, and embroidery thread). But I couldn’t have a decoration above her bed and nothing above Ellia’s. So I made her this falling star wall hanging (using black construction paper, white sewing thread to hang them, and a stick I found outside).
The girls’ room. They have their two beds and a daybed for reading (which is currently being used as Ellia’s bed while Aunty Nene is here). The girls also have the wooden crate at the foot of the daybed with all their homeschooling books in it. Their bedding is grey blankets from IKEA and rainbow throws from Henry & Bros.
The Toilet Room
The toilet that was in the house had a top that didn’t fit this toilet size. I replaced it with a slab of Parota wood (local wood. The woodshop charged me 200 pesos= $11.10 for the wood, to cut, sand and clean it, since I didn’t have any of the tools to do that!) The shells and woven basket are from our boat things, and then added candle holder and a mason jar with potpourri for color).
There were pipes for a sink water hookup in the toilet room, which we through weren’t necessary. But we didn’t want to remove them completely since the owner may want to install a sink in there someday. So I used a wooden crate, painted white, to hide them. It serves as a good cactus and toilet paper holder!
Since my dreamcatcher was a success I decided to try making a macrame wall hanging. (I used the other wooden hoop that came with the dreamcatcher one, and some cotton rope made here in Mexico.)
The Front Entrance
Pet peeves of mine are nowhere to put my bags when I walk into my house and having shoes scattered all over the place. Problem solved! The house had a bunch of busted wooden shutters out back. I took one, brought it to the woodshop and got them to chop it down. Then I painted it white and had the local welder make me coat hooks (because I could not find any in any store in town!)
As for shoe storage, I found these bricks out back, painted two wood crates white. I got this piece of scrap wood from the shop (free!), which they stained for me.
Living Room
This oversized couch definitely helped fill the large living room. I also picked up these two mini chairs for the girls, which they use for when doing homework, and snack time. On the right is our real Christmas tree. Then there’s a wreath I made from corn husks which I glued to a cardboard circle I made out of a cereal box. I painted the tips gold and added the burgundy ribbon to make it festive. And then there are more wooden crates! It’s a running theme throughout the house. These a merely decorative and hold an array of cacti.
A Little Christmas Cheer
To add a little Christmas decor to the house we strung up these white Christmas lights and the stockings that we bought at Kmart last year in St Thomas. I made the two stars out of sticks that I tied with sewing thread (and glue gunned one). I then painted them gold with the leftover paint from my corn husk wreath. Using the final pieces of broken up wood crates, I made this mason jar hanging decoration. (I used two wood pieces, one mason jar screwed to the wood with a hose clamp, and twine for the look.) We currently have potpourri in the mason jar, which is a beautiful dark red.
A Little Mexican Flair
No house in Mexico is complete without a couple of sombreros!
Arias’ teacher gave me this ridiculously oversized sombrero once he was done using it in the Mexican Revolution parade. It cost him 70 pesos= $3.88.
Hats make for nice and cheap decoration. Arias wore this one in her Mexican Revolution parade. Driftwood found on the beach also makes for cheap decor. As a kids crafting project, we got together with friends and made this mini driftwood Christmas trees. (All that is needed is driftwood, which you drill a hole down the center of each piece. String. And beads.)
That’s what I’ve done so far. There aren’t many pictures of our Master bedroom because, 1) it was messy, 2) I had a sick Ellia in my bed, and 3) I haven’t done many projects in there yet. But I am picturing a massive macrame wall hanging above my bed. We’ll see how that goes!
Well I have to say you did a great job! Decoration on a Peso at it’s finest!
Thank you. I really had a lot of fun doing it, and it kept me occupied while Eben was away.