Monthly Archives: April 2012

Apr26

One Year Anniversary

Posted on April 26, 2012 by the rescued home

April 17th marked the one year anniversary of The Rescued Home blog. I have so enjoyed sharing my passion for home remodeling and decorating with all of you. The first time I was ever exposed to a blog was Christmas 2010. My sister-in-law, Misty showed me a tutorial by Emily from Jones Design Company. My world was rocked as I scrolled through all her pretty pictures and tutorials. I was so inspired to start creating! Then a few months later I stumbled onto Marion Parson’s blog, Miss Mustard Seed and I was wrecked! She was the first woman I had ever seen making a living doing the things I pursued as a hobby. For the first time in my life I thought just maybe there was a small chance I could make a living doing what I really loved. These new possibilities were met with great resistance as I wrestled with disappointment from previous failed dreams. I longed to be free to be me. I felt like a butterfly that had stayed in its cocoon one season too long. I believed the lie that everyone around me had learned to fly and my chance had passed. As I brought my frustrations to Jesus and let Him show me who he created me to be, I came alive! I felt so beautiful. My whole perspective changed and I looked at days to come with great hope. In April 2011, I wrote my first blog post and really loved sharing mine and Joel’s home remodeling experience with our friends and family. Then in May, before we left for Northern Africa, we decided I would leave teaching and take a huge step of faith, to pursue my dream as an interior decorator. I launched Rescued Home Interiors and I feel like I have been soaring ever since. This past year has been marked with amazing memories and is the best yet! I am so excited to see the good things in store for me. If I could describe exactly how I feel right now I would say I’m completely at rest and am so confident that I am loved beyond what my heart and mind can comprehend. We leave for Eastern Europe in less than three weeks and I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning. So I will spend the next few weeks wrapping up projects and packing.
Life is good!

Some of you may be reading this and be in the same place I was. You may feel stuck. You may feel your situation is hopeless. You may be thinking you will never see your dreams come to pass. I encourage you to press on, don’t give up. Take your dreams to God, he is faithful.

With love,
Lauren

Apr20

Spring Topiary Tutorial

Posted on April 20, 2012 by the rescued home

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Reblogged from the rescued home:

I often find myself saying "I can do that" when I see something I like. I saw this cute little topiary while shopping at Wimberley Market Day and decided I wanted to make it!

You will need:

A garland with small leaves

A wire hanger

A pot (you can use any kind)

Florist foam

Pliers

Florist wire (optional)

Scissors (I forgot to put them in the picture)

Tea-dying Tutorial

Posted on April 16, 2012 by the rescued home

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We had a good weekend here at The Rescued Home. I was able to work in our new flowerbeds a little more. I told Joel I feel like I have discovered a whole new part of our house that I can ”decorate.” I have been rearranging the plants how I rearrange the interior. I will plant a plant, look at it for a few days then dig it up and replant it somewhere else and I will keep moving it until I find the perfect spot for it. Ahh I love it, it is therapy for me! I love getting my hands dirty. I love mud under my nails.

Today I’m going to share a tutorial with you. Tea-dying is something that I do with almost all the white fabric I have in my house.
I recently tea- dyed the curtains in my guest room and love how they turned out.

I don’t like stark white or grey-whites in my house. I like the whites in my house to have a little grunge to them. I like warm whites or candlelight whites or whites with a brown undertone rather than grey. To accomplish an aged white look I tea-dye my fabric. It is super easy and free if you have tea bags in your pantry!

You will need:
fabric
3-5 tea bags
a kettle or small pot
a large pot

1. Heat water in a kettle or small pot.

2. Put the tea bags in your large pot.

3. Pour boiling water over tea bags in large pot. CAUTION: Do not burn yourself with hot water!

4. Let the tea steep for 20 minutes.
5. Pour in a kettle full of cold water.
6. Immerse your fabric in the tea.

7. Once your fabric is in the tea push the fabric all the way under the liquid, moving it around to make sure all of it is wet.

8. Let sit. The darker you want it the longer you should let it sit. I usually let mine sit for about an hour.
Every 15 minutes I will check the color and move it around to make sure all of the fabric is staying wet.

9. Once it is the color you want, lightly rinse it and hang to dry. If it is not as dark as you like, let it dry completely then repeat the dying process to darken.

If you want to iron the fabric make sure it is not set on steam or it will leave water spots.

Here is the finished product. I especially love this look on these ruffle pillows. It looks like an antique baby dress.

With love,
Lauren

Apr12

A Touch Of Copper

Posted on April 12, 2012 by the rescued home

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I broke down and did it! And even worse I drug Joel into it… Yep, I went to Wimberley Market Days last Saturday with my left-over birthday money and husband in hand. I found a few goodies, I wasn’t really looking for anything so I showed restraint. One thing we have been keeping our eyes open for is a reasonably priced queen size iron headboard for our bedroom. It is easy to find a full size antique iron headboard but queen is pretty impossible. I found this one at Restoration Hardware that I really like

but am not going to pay Restoration Hardware prices.

There is a booth at Market Days I go into every time that has super inexpensive wrought iron items. Well, this time we found a queen size iron footboard for $28!!! It’s a little short so were going to add some length to the legs but for $28 it was definitely worth it.

I want to share with you a project I worked on for a customer. The customer’s house has a fabulous Spanish, Hacienda style with warm colors, worn leather furniture and wonderful artwork. They had two bed side tables in the master bedroom that looked like this.

They love the pieces but the french, folk art look did not go with their bedroom.

In the master bedroom the walls are painted dark brown with a bright green accent wall. Above their bed is an amazing painting of an agave plant with shades of green and turquoise. Next to the bed is a large copper mirror.

I painted the body of the pieces a kelly green shade and faux painted the fronts to look like aged copper.
I love the way they turned out and they look AMAZING in the space.

I will post pictures of them in the space once I get a chance.

Hope you all have a great ending to your week. Take care!

With love,
Lauren

Apr7

A Little More Home Improving

Posted on April 7, 2012 by the rescued home

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Hi friends! I hope y’all had a great week. Mine went by really fast. Today is Wimberley Market Days and I’m sitting here trying to decide if I should go. It is one of my most favorite places but I don’t really need anything and I know if I go I will buy something wonderful and amazing and it would probably look fabulous in my house. OH I don’t know self-control….or no self-control??? I guess we will just have to see.

Ok, onto more home improving. The weather last weekend was so awesome so we wanted to do a bit of yard work. We planted a few trees in the backyard 3 years ago when we moved in and haven’t put our green thumb to work since. About a month ago our decision to landscape was set in motion after a quick search in the plant clearance section at Lowes. We found shrubs that were on sale for $1.75! We bought all 7 and figured we could find a place for them. Our goal was to create 2 flower beds in the front yard and spend the least amount of money as possible. This is how we saved money.

Instead of buying a truck load of dirt to create the beds we transferred a pile of dirt from the backyard.
We dug up a few plants that were already in the yard and used them in the beds.
USED PLANTS! Instead of buying all new plants, I dug up some from my neighbors and parents yards and bought a couple at an estate sale.

Sharing and transferring plants is the way my grandparents and parents gardened. Growing up this is how my mom taught me to garden. I planted a part of a plant, we call it a Maybelle plant, that came from my parent’s yard, that came from my aunt’s yard, that came from my grandparent’s yard, that came from my great-grandmother’s yard, that came from Maybelle’s yard, a family friend who my great-grandmother and grandmother lived with during the Great Depression. I love having a story behind the things in and around my home!

Here is what the house looked like when we moved in.

Here is what it looks like today!

I bought two mature ferns at an estate sale for $3.50 each. Next time you’re at a garage sale or estate sale look for plants. Even if they look bad you can prune them and with a little bit of fertilizer and water you can give them life again.

These plants are transfer plants I had in pots.

I also did a little improving in our guest room.

Here is what it originally looked like.

Here it is after we put up the wall to enclose the extension on the guest bathroom.

Here it is today.

I also made window coverings. You can see the blue tape that is still on the outside of the windows, oops:)
You can read my post about the inspiration I had for window coverings here.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money so I used what I had. This is how I saved money

I tea-dyed white curtains I already had from Ikea.
I cut up an old table-cloth my neighbor gave me and made the two 1/2 curtains and bought 2 tension rods.
I saved over $30 by making the curtain rod. I bought the rod and finials unfinished at Lowes and the brackets unfinished at Hobby Lobby. Then painted all of it in the trim color, Summer White by Sherwin Williams.

I took this piece down and put it over our couch.

And moved this piece from the living room into the guest room.

With love,
Lauren

Apr3

Home Improving

Posted on April 3, 2012 by the rescued home

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Hi everyone! Wow its been a while since I last wrote, I miss it. Everyday for the past week I intended to sit down and share something with you but my to-do list seemed to roll over day after day and writing was put on hold. I am super excited to share with you what we have done around here. This post today is a post about patience. Patience doesn’t come naturally to me! But I see when I am patient good things come my way.

Decorating our Rescued Home on a thrift store budget has produced deep wells of patience in me! We remodeled our dark, dingy living room almost 2 years ago and it is just now really coming together. A lot of the room is anchored around a hunter green leather couch we bought from Craigslist for $75. It is exactly the style we wanted but not the color we would have chosen. I haven’t liked the green against our yellow walls, the space had a lemon, lime feel to it! Since a new couch is not an option I have had to make it work. I taught myself how to do upholstery and make pillows so I upholstered a few thrift store/Craigslist chairs and made some pillows for our couch with fabric I bought on clearance. I like it but there was something about the light colors in the fabric that didn’t work with the couch. We also have an 11 foot wall behind our couch and we have had the hardest time trying to figure out what to put up there. Originally, I wanted large artwork, like antique oil paintings, but had to resolve to the reality that we couldn’t afford large antique oil paintings so we bought an amazing metal art piece from the Pottery Barn outlet. I love it but the couch still felt disjointed. Then a few weeks I ago it clicked, after 2 years of living in the space, rearranging furniture, hanging artwork, taking down artwork and patiently wrestling with what was needed to make the space feel connected and cozy I realized I needed darker pillows and large artwork on my walls. I was fighting the color of the couch instead of finding colors that worked with it. Then the pieces started falling into place. I bought new fabric for the pillows, bought a piece from Goodwill that I
re-framed (with a frame I already had) and re-matted, framed (with a frame I bought for a $1 at an estate sale) and matted a piece I have had for 10 years, moved some pieces from other parts of the house and tada it finally feels like the space I dreamed of.

Ok that was a long-winded explanation. Sorry! Here it is, our improved living room.

This is what the space looked like right after we moved in.