Making Awesome out of Free

1:55 PM racheal 1 Comments

So we bought a house last year. And had a child. Who then stayed in the hospital for two months. And had two procedures after that. And had an ER visit for our other child.

What I'm trying to express to you is that we are poor. Like, the only money we spend all month on non-essentials is at the grocery store. For more essentials. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Conveniently, we are natural cheapskates, so it's not too painful.

However, new houses come with large spaces and empty walls that are just crying to be filled. So, for all of my fellow cheapskates, I thought I'd share some of my cheapo crafty-crafts over the next few weeks.

I'll start today with my favorite project. Mostly because it is FREE, super easy, and makes a statement.


Pow! I love the punch of color it adds to our oppressively beige walls.

Supplies needed: a large flat piece of cardboard (we had some leftover from the move), a lot of paint swatches (I recommend Glidden for all of their bright and fun colors, though scrapbook paper would work also), and tape. Awesome, right?

Pretty straightforward procedure. Start on one side, work a row at a time. I'm sure you could just start at a corner and fan outward too. Either way. Make sure you extend the swatches over the edges of the cardboard at least a 1/8 inch, just to make sure the cardboard is concealed. One day I might frame it, but today is not that day. The cardboard in the photo below is visible when you're looking from the side, like this. If I cared more, I'd fix it, tack it all down or something. But I don't, so I won't.


After some trial and error, I thought it looked better to randomly assign colors, rather than following a specific pattern. I also made sure I had some neutral colors in there as well, to ground it (Martha Stewart and Behr have great neutrals and softer colors). I cut cut the paint swatches to different lengths (instead of having major overlap) and taped them on, making sure to cover the other pieces of tape.


I hung the final piece by nailing half-inch nails into the wall wherever the cardboard was bowing out. In the photo above you can see a tiny nail above the brown paint swatch.

I cannot stress how easy this project is.


Or how cute my kid is.


In the 6 months since I completed this project, I realized that I don't feel totally square about taking so many paint samples from Home Depot. I have done penance buying multiple gallons of paint using my awesome home paint chip display. There is a great post on the ethics of paint chip crafts here that offers responsible ways of acquiring samples. Next time I decide to paint-chip craft, I will do so in a more legitimate manner. Today though, I would like to thank Glidden, Martha Stewart and Behr, along with my good friends at The Home Depot, and would recommend their products.


Whew! Is my conscience clean yet?

On a different note, I love it. I hope it gives someone else some awesome ideas, and I hope the feds don't show up at my door next week.