Did I scare you? With the title I mean. Don’t leave, I really am not going to suggest that you actually jump into some dumpsters. I may be off my frugal rocker sometimes, but like I have said before, there is a line and mine is definitely drawn at dumpster diving. Unless I ever really needed to, then every line, at that point, would have to be erased and re-evaluated.

Today I would like to discuss a little bit of my decorating and home improvement ideas. Even writing those words make me giggle. If you ever saw my house, you would probably be giggling too, or at least wondering on what authority I thought I should share my decorating ideas with you. Yeeeahhh. Ok. Anyway. Enough laughing.

I guess instead of droning on about color palettes and fabrics, let’s get to my latest project. My lovely neighbor was going to dispose of her old chandelier. (See right) Yes, it looks old and dusty and actually had about one million tear dropped crystals hanging off it. I took them off before I thought to take a picture. The glass break (the center glass thingy) was broken and needed to be replaced. I begged her for the chandelier and she was sweet enough to oblige.

We had a so not beautiful 1970 old fake wood and brass fan hanging above our dining room table. Not really my style and let’s just say, a pain-in-the-you-know-what to clean. We have them all over the house so I didn’t think one less fan would really hurt the apparent need for effective air distribution in the house. I wanted it gone and this was my chance to replace it with something closer to my style.

I won’t bore you the details on every moment I spent with my little project. It did involve purchasing a new crystal break for $8.00 and paint for $1.99. It also took a lot of cleaning and pampering with hours of sweet nothings being whispered. Of course those were just to my hubby who I was trying to convince to help me hang the stupid thing when I was done. It worked. He did.

I am really pleased with how it came out. It even brought our family together for a heart warming Sunday afternoon in a thunderstorm when we were trying to hook the thing up electrically. My husband and I renewed our suspicions on how neither of us are really “handy” with stuff like this and a good laugh was had by all…

When my neighbor came over to inspect the results, she was like “you are so cool. Come redesign my house for me.” No? Ok, she did say she wishes she had thought of fixing it up instead of throwing down a couple of hundred on a new one. I don’t.

My point of this long drawn out post and ridiculous story of my dining room light fixture is this: before you buy new- look around. Shop freecycle, FreeSharing or Habitat for Humanity Restores. Even ebay, your neighbor’s trash, or craigslist may have the treasures you want. Of course, especially with things such as electrical, an ounce of caution must be had, but most likely you can find some good deals and make things your own- personal. Which is what your house should represent anyway, right? In the end, not only can you feel proud of the project you completed, but you can be proud of the money you saved and the space you saved in our overflowing landfills. I got all that for under $10.00, how could I not be happy?

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