Five Fall Finds Under $15

Procrastinators, take heart; it's not too late to add a little fall flair to your home! Here are five fall finds under $15:
On sale for $12.49, the Pomegranate Serving Tureen With Ladle from World Market is neutral enough to play nicely with the other serving pieces on your Thanksgiving table.

Dress your chandelier--and tone down those interrogatory lights--with a set of 6 chandelier shades from JC Penney for $14.97. (Red is out of stock.)

A set of four of these fall leaf rust napkin rings is $12.99 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Remember to bring your BB&B coupon when you shop (admit it; you've got thousands of them in your glove compartment) .This fall berry garland is on sale at Pier One Imports for $12.48. Pair this with some candles in glass holders and you'll have a simple way to dress your table.
This woven log basket from Target is on sale for $13.98. What better way to welcome guests than with a roaring fire in the fireplace!

A DIY Staircase Story

I'm not a fan of wall-to-wall carpeting on stairs. Even if you don't have dogs, cats, or other shedding critters, carpeted stairs are a bear to keep clean. Who wants to vacuum stairs? (This is not just a rhetorical question; if you know someone who likes to vacuum stairs, please send them my way!) Yet, gleaming hardwood stair treads can pose a serious slip hazard--and not just for families with young kids.

When the carpeting on our stairs waved the white flag a few years ago, I was determined to find a solution that was both practical and attractive. As soon as I saw the photo above, I knew that I'd found my "inspiration photo". This sweeping staircase is far more dramatic than our home's staircase will ever be, but I knew that this "formula"--white treads+ white risers+ runner-- would work in our home. (Photo credit: Interior Stylist Lucyina Moodie)

Here's a photo of our staircase before we moved into our home (the artwork belonged to the previous owners).
Please note:
1. Pink-hued cut pile carpeting, which would soon die an untimely death at the hands of three merciless dogs.
2. Washed-out wall color which made the white woodwork disappear and made the handrails stand out in an unpleasantly stark contrast.
3. Dated brass handrail brackets
4. Absence of wall on left side of stairs (not a shortcoming, but something that we changed when we enclosed our formal dining room to create a home office).

Here's a photo taken while we were adding that wall. The stain color of the handrails, newel post, and exposed edges of the lower treads bothered me because they looked orange next to the color of the wood floors in our foyer. Plus, I knew that they wouldn't work with our new wall color.

Here are some after photos (discoloration in the second photo is just shadows):


To get this look, we took these steps:

1. Primed our walls with gray tinted primer (tinted primer is a must when you're painting walls red).

2. Painted our walls. Our wall color is Ralph Lauren's "Chimayo Red", which is quite possibly the world's most perfect red paint color--it's not too bright, not too orange, & not too burgundy. I love how the red looks with the white woodwork.3. Removed the wall-to-wall carpeting, carpet pad, and staples.

4. Used wood filler to fill the staple holes. Sanded everything. Repeated this process.

5. Primed all of the wood surfaces with an oil-based primer.

6. Painted all of the wood surfaces with several coats of crisp, white, oil-based paint. Before you gasp in horror, please note that the majority of our stair treads were not lovely stain grade wood but some kind of plywood impostor designed only to lurk under carpet. If you live in an older home with real hardwood stairs under your carpet, by all means, stain them instead! We were lucky that our stair treads--even the ones that had been hidden under carpet--all had nice rounded nosing (the part of the tread that protrudes over the riser). If you want to attempt this project, this is something to confirm about your staircase before you tear out all of your carpeting!

7. Replaced the brass handrail brackets with brushed nickel ones. (Is it just me, or do these guys look like little robots? I can't look at them without seeing their staring faces.)


8. Hired a carpet company to bind and install a stair runner. Although I love the look of sisal, we needed something washable (which sisal is not), so we opted for an indestructible Berber with a "Family Friendly" rating. Here's a close up of our runner. The color is off in the photo--it doesn't look quite so much like the pelt of Fozzie Bear in person! Waka Waka!
As I mentioned before, I wouldn't advise doing this if you have real hardwood floors under your carpet, but it's a great alternative to wall-to-wall carpeting for the average "Joe Shmoe" house.

I've been so pleased with this change. Our runner has held up beautifully, and I can clean the stairs (including the runner) in about three minutes with the Dust Buster. Life is good!

This post has been linked to other great DIY projects at Thrifty Decor Chick, Southern Hospitality, A Soft Place to Land and to other great staircase posts at the The Stories of A to Z.

Recycled Pumpkin Centerpiece

My friend Mary (whose historic former farmhouse I shared in this post) sent me this photo of a very creative, free DIY centerpiece that her sister-in-law made for Thanksgiving a few years ago using a pumpkin and leaves from Mary's backyard. This is a great idea that can be customized to the plants and flowers in your own yard. Best of all, it's perfect for procrastinators. Still have that uncarved Halloween pumpkin languishing on your front porch? In-laws bringing along Martha Stewart for Thanksgiving dinner in 3 hours? No sweat; you've got it covered! Simply hollow out a pumpkin, place a vase or a glass jar full of water inside the pumpkin, and add plants and flowers. Voila! Simple, green, and très autumnal.

This post has been linked to other great DIY ideas at A Soft Place to Land.

Make Your Own Meal Planning Magnets

The decorator in me knows that it's taboo to advocate the use of refrigerator magnets...but the organizer in me is convinced that these meal planning magnets will be a lifesaver for busy families. This time, the organizer wins! Like most of the DIY project tutorials that I post on my blog, I designed this project to be simple and affordable. I've even provided a free printable PDF for you. Best of all, you'll keep all of those junk mail magnets out of the landfill.



















Materials:

• Junk mail magnets (the best are those awful giant magnets from personal injury lawyers that are always glued to the back cover of the phone book, but any flat magnets will do: pizza delivery, dentists' offices, credit card solicitations, etc.)
• Wide packing tape (I used the glossy kind)
  
• Scissors
• Decorative paper (I used 6 x 6 scrapbook paper)
• Double-sided tape (optional--not pictured)
  
• Computer and Printer
  

Instructions:
1. Start by flipping through your recipe file and listing your favorite "old standby" recipes. This tutorial will teach you how to make 35 magnets, but you can make as few as you'd like; you can always add more later.

2. Open Microsoft Word and create a table that is 5 squares wide by 7 squares high (my "squares" were each 1.25" x 1.5"). Type the name of one meal in each of the squares. Keep it simple--just name the main dish. You might also want to make several magnets that say "Left-Overs", "Dinner Out", "Take Out" and/or "New Recipe". I used a 22 point French Script MT font, and I centered the meal names in the squares.




















3. Print your page, and cut out the meal names. My meal names were smaller than the outlined squares once I cut them out. This doesn't have to be perfect! And yes, if you look carefully, you'll notice that one of my meals is scrambled eggs. What can I say? I'm a lazy cook!

4. Using scissors, cut a magnet to roughly 1.5"(w) by 1.75"(h). Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to the same dimensions. If you really want to annoy your friends & family with your fastidiousness, you can color code your magnets. I used yellow for meals that are protein-based, and blue for "carby" meals such as pasta dinners; that way, I can tell at a glance if my week is balanced (I'm a vegetarian, so I need to be mindful about protein).

5. Using double-sided tape (or very good fine motor skills) to keep the layers in place, layer the magnet, scrapbook paper, and meal name.

6. "Laminate" the whole thing with packing tape. To do this, cut the tape a little bit longer than the magnet, cut off all four corners of the tape, and fold toward the back (see below). This step can be time-consuming, but it's mindless enough that it's a good while-you're-watching-a-movie project.



















7. If you'd like to use my days of the week and the "What's For Dinner" header, you can download a free PDF from my website here. I'm 99% sure that this PDF is working and is scaled properly, but please let me know if you discover a problem! To "laminate" shapes with rounded edges using packing tape, use "V" shaped notches to navigate the curves.

8. Arrange the current week's magnets on the front of your fridge--keep other meal magnets on the side of the fridge for planning future weeks' meals. To further streamline your meal planning, you can make your own customized, pre-printed grocery list with the instructions that I provided here.

This is a great project for families with kids...just be careful that small saboteurs don't constantly shift the magnets to make it look like every night is pizza night!

This project has been posted with other great DIY projects at A Soft Place to Land, Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch, Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog, and Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.