Tag: DIY

Walmart’s Elegant Upholstery Solution: Drab Holiday Upholstery Begone!

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Walmart’s Elegant Upholstery SolutionTransform your drab, worn and stained kitchen/dining  upholstery with Walmart’s elegant upholstery solution.

Dilapidated dining chairs look worse than ever on the holidays especially when guests are coming. Walmart can offer you an inexpensive and amazing solution with a little DIY magic of your own. Cover a stool or chair in 4 easy steps for under $4 in less than 1 hour.

Our once expensive bar stools were old and stained! With a guest arriving in a matter of days Walmart offered a quick solution that looks great the first time you try it!

Gathering Materials: Fabric and protective material

Step #1 I looked in the Walmart craft section for vinyl fabric. I discovered a bolt of dark brown vinyl 56” wide selling for $6.97 a yard. One yard is enough fabric to cover 2 bar stools with round seats 18” in diameter. I have 3 stools, so I bought 2 yards which leaves extra in case of mistakes!

Step #2 I used Walmart’s 5.5” x 8.5” stick-on soft plastic sheets to cover staples. A huge pack of 50 costs only $5. These are also in the crafts department and are amazingly easy to work with.

Your Tools: Just heavy-duty stapler and scissors

Step #3 The only tools you’ll need are a heavy-duty staple gun and reasonably OK scissors. Walmart sells the Arrow electric staple gun for $27.84. That’s the one I have and it’s great for permanent or semi-permanent projects. Just make sure that all sharp edges are covered.

The Process: Cutting, Stapling, Covering

Step #4 Measure your target seat. Add enough to cover the length, width and edge leaving enough extra to pull underneath and staple.

When you are done stapling, cover the tops of each staple for a finished look.

It took me about 1 hour to reupholster the first stool.I think it will be much quicker to do the next 2.

If you are interested in some quick and inexpensive design advice, add copy, or Airbnb.com & other photo prep contact me at NYURhome@gmail.com. You can see some projects I’ve done at NYURhome.com.

Happy Holidays 😊

Linda Kaidan

Expert Google Guides Photographer Putting Central NY on the map with 875,000+ photo views

Walmart’s Thrilling Decorating Adventure: cost is negligible

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Some people spend huge sums of money decorating but you don’t need to. Walmart’s Thrilling Decorating Adventure means you have access to powerful inexpensive materials enabling you to create individualist looks on any budget.

Walmart’s Thrilling Decorating Adventure
plastic adhesive panels for quick coordinated window dressing

fun flexible and effective decorating tools

Take Walmart’s Thrilling Decorating Adventure and create innovative, personalized and coordinated designs. Walmart now sells some amazing and inexpensive decorating tools that are fun, flexible and effective to use. For example, 4’ x 1’ framed door mirrors at $5, 5” x 9” colored adhesive multi-pack panels at $5 and a line of inexpensive photo frames including 8” x 10” for $2 and 9” x 12” for $3 can transform even the gloomiest room in your home.

questions anyone? design replaces door knob
quick door redesign by Linda Kaidan

Spongy colorful stick on adhesive panels add drama

Stick-on adhesive panels are made from some sort of spongy plastic and are easy to cut with ordinary scissors. I used them to cover door holes that remained after I removed the nobs. The black and green designs go well with traditional black handles.

colorful plastic adhesive panels add to Walmart’s Thrilling Decorating Adventure
Make quick colorful designs. Stick to walls.

I also took some of my favorite colors from a hand made salvation army curtain to create a fun window header design which adds warmth and drama.

Mirror at the foot of stairs
Black framed mirror sends battle scarred wall to background.

Light weight wall or door mirrors hide flaws

One of the two mirrors that I purchased hangs in a small hallway at the foot of the stairs. The other is on the bathroom door. They are mounted with small clipboards making the total cost of each about $8. Both mirrors have black frames in stark contrast to white walls. Ancient flaws fade into the background when contrasted with bold bright colors.

Alexandra Kaidan-Berry digital art

Personalize your environment with framed prints

Mpix.com offers digital prints for about $3 each so you can have your own gallery of professional looking framed prints for just $5 each. Here is an original digital art print by Alexandra Kaidan-Berry which looks great in our emerging living area!

A simple recipe for success is color + contrast + light

Your theme can be based on a print, artwork or design you’ve seen somewhere. Follow your heart to a magical adventure of creative splendor! Walmart’s thrilling decorating adventure can be yours today.

Earn and Learn: Start your prolific kitchen window microgreen garden with $5

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Earn and Learn
Earn and Learn Start your indoor kitchen window microgreen garden for under $5

Micro-greens are nutritious and delicious.

You can grow 40 plants under your kitchen window using recycled containers year-round. The great thing about micro-greens is that when you cut off the tops for sandwich or salad and they will keep on growing.

Earn and Learn
150 mixed lettuce and 150 hot micro-green seeds for $5 at Walmart

My garden shelf is actually a small, 20 inch x 20 inch table well gnawed by a wayward dog.

I bought it at the Ilion Salvation Army for $4. My table top holds a rusted baking dish, Walmart donut container, Aldi’s juice bottle (with top sliced off) and a fried chicken container. The top has built in drainage holes and the bottom catches the runoff water.

When you share you can pay as little as $2.50 for a 50 plant garden.

Walmart is selling a variety of micro green seeds in packs of 150 for $2.46. A 12-quart bag of organic seed starting mix is $4.67. 1 pack of soil and 1 pack of seeds are enough for 4 tabletop gardens. If 3 people share, they can each have their own garden of 50 plants for only $2.50. Remember that if you have SNAP, you can use your food card to pay for the seeds 😊.

Indoor garden growing is fun for the whole family and an opportunity to learn firsthand how to be a gardener.

You can earn great nutrition and learn how to have your own independent food source. You might want to maintain a log of what you planted and when. The details you record can include things like plant height before and after harvest, amount of water and quality of taste. Many people who start indoor gardening go on to learn hydroponics and aquaponics. Your indoor window garden may become your own business not someday but in the near future.

Earn and learn is a great strategy for everyone.

Micro Home Affordable Survival

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Our planet has become very challenging to live on and yet it is still the best place to live. It’s upon us to provide food and shelter in these times of climate instability. Intelligent social and geoengineering will help us steer out of the dangerous waters we now live in.

For the past 70 years we have participated in a climate of consumerism and wastefulness. We have incurred ridiculous debts and become job slaves to feed mortgages and the cost of higher education. Many have already found healthy ways to avoid this horror – building their own inexpensive homes and growing their own food. Food and shelter for all are the key building blocks that will stabilize the economy and diminish the spread of disease. When we all work towards the goal of food and shelter success is well within our reach.

Thinking different

Millions of people are participating in the micro homes movement. Learning to build your own sustainable microhome is well within your reach. You can learn how to do this on youtube.com. When you build your own home, it means no rent and no mortgage.

Building is a joy for musician, cartoonist and micro home artist Derek Deek Diedricksen. Even stating with a simple set of skills, you can use your imagination and create wondrous living spaces.

Using salvaged and reclaimed materials including pallet wood you can build your own shelter on camping land or in someone’s back yard for as little as $300.

Using techniques such as companion planting and permaculture you can grow much of your own food including fish farming.

https://youtu.be/uiCIDaapAGQ

When you rent a home or have a mortgage – you are living precariously.

Think smart 😊! You can build a shelter and grow food this spring. Plan and scavenge now.  Learn to build, grow and share. Make room for a friend.

Linda Kaidan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recycle Paint and Save: Gain Style

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Herkimer home makeover that’s super greenHerkimer home makeover

 

In this photo, the wallpaper is paint, and the microwave counter used to be an IKEA bookcase door.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the local real estate ads, it’s easy to see how people keep it simple and boring. Ripping out antique kitchens is common. Panel and plaster walls are replaced with drywall. No old sinks need apply. Everything must look new.

Find opportunities to use what you have when updating your home

When we rip that old stuff out, we are adding more waste to an overburdened environment. We spend more money and cause needless energy loss by manufacturing and shipping unnecessary products. Taking a step back and rethinking design with more reuse can save us money while increasing style and charm.

My current home renovation has an extremely modest budget. I’ve recycled materials I  already have and  lowered labor costs by learning new skills on YouTube. Originally, I planned to rip out the stainless kitchen sink and put in a new one. But by banging out a dent with a hammer, I saved hundreds of dollars in labor and materials. 

 

 

In the upstairs bathroom I also reconsidered replacing the vanity. It was missing a drawer, and the area around the drain was stained and showed some wear. Paint, nail polish and a wood scrap did the trick and saved me from purchasing a vanity and hiring a plumber.

 

 

 

Many people see discolored or bumpy walls and think they need to repaint and re-plaster everything. But often it’s not at all necessary. The wallpaper you see in these photos has been painted on top of existing surfaces.

Some inexpensive materials can improve your project

        

Acrylic paints including metallic and iridescent colors add interest and conceal flawspersonalize your antique home

Gorilla glue is amazingly strong. It dries in 2 hours and works better if you use a clamp to hold materials in place. If part of your sink base is rotted, you can cut it out, and replace it with new wood.  Nail polish can be used for designs on wet areas like the bathroom sink. But it does need to be renewed once or twice a year. For flooring and stair treads, you might consider ¼ inch 4 x 10 recycled rubber gym mats. Walmart has a good selection of acrylic paints in their crafts section including iridescent and metallic colors. A small container can go a long way. Make it work :)!

by Linda Kaidan

Stunning Christmas Design Ideas Cost Less

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Because we have superior manufacturing technology Stunning Christmas Design Ideas Cost Less!

These inexpensive home furnishings are very affordable, versatile and portable. They range in cost from $7 to $160. If you want to energize your home and break out of the ho hum ordinary – it’s really easy.

Tapestry Available at Dressily for $15

DIY Platform Bed made of plywood from Lowes

LED fairy lighting 50 ft 7$ AMAZON

Add some magic !

Wayfair hall runner only $86.  Looks exquisite but the price is reasonable.

 

Make your showering experience special for only $30

I bought this and really love it. It can work as a bath or shower curtain as well as a drape.

Make a window seat from an old kitchen cabinet

Paint the cabinet if necessary and purchase legs. I made this cabinet seat below in 20 minutes by adding 4 stainless legs.

There’s a huge leg selection on Amazon.com.

 

 

Need extra sleeping and a new armchair in one? This space saving and versatile bed, armchair and chaise lounge is only $160. It’s on my wish list already 😊

 

Self-taught Inventors – You Can Be One!

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Important self-taught inventors who did not complete elementary school

Self Taught Inventors

In the left photo is Thomas Edison, whose formal education ended after 3 months, discouraged by his teacher who said he was not very smart. In the right photo is Pay Bok Sing, an innovative seafood farmer who has a fourth-grade education. Edison is most famous for his invention of the incandescent light bulb, the mainstay of lighting for over a century. He also invented the phonograph and made the very first movies.

Pay Bok Sing, like Edison is self-educated. His schooling ended in 4th grade. With the help of his own curiosity and YouTube, he taught himself how to create ocean water for inland seafood farming and feed for his fish crop. His inventions may become the foundation of sustainable, local based farming, providing secure food in the communities where we live.

Teaching ourselves we can all become inventors

In the US, public education often succeeds in creating endless crops of students who think they hate learning, demotivated by teachers who limit their intellectual exploration rather than encourage creative thought. But were students to partake of the enormous potential provided by free online learning through YouTube and other web channels, they could explore their own abilities, and be inventors and thought leaders. In fact, farming in our own homes and back yards can provide all of us with inexpensive laboratories for learning about food science–a science that can help feed people in times of climate uncertainty and economic instability.

There’s no need to take expensive courses. Just follow some basic instruction from YouTube and learn how to raise fish in your basement and tomatoes and lettuce in your own kitchen. The more you learn, the more you’ll be able to discover for yourself. Each and every one of us can be an inventor!

Use a tomato, soil and a pot to start😊

Linda Kaidan

Artsy Practical DIY Renovation Examples

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artsy kitchen bar by Linda Kaidan

High end DIY custom bar – Under $50

I would like to brag about my new DIY custom bar. It fits exactly in the spot I allocated and is 2 ft. wide, 4 feet long and 34 inches high. The top is a piece of ¾ inch oak plywood purchased at Lowes for $18. I stained it with red maple Johnson’s Mini wax purchased at ACE (next to Aldi’s) in Ilion for $7.50. I sealed it with 2 coats of polyurethane for about $2 (using less than ¼ pint). The single leg is hairpin midcentury style purchased on Amazon for $22. It took about 2 hours to construct including corrections for certain errors. The only tools required were an electric drill and bit, manual screw driver and a level. I used 4 #6 screws (best to use ¾ inch length).  The total cost for this artsy practical DIY renovation is $49.50.

Interior doorway – An artsy practical DIY Renovation for Free!

 

artsy entryway by Linda Kaidan

The interior open doorway was created through a subtractive rather than an additive process. I chipped away at plasterboard to reveal the underlying structure rather than covering the rough opening with wood. The festive doorway decoration was created using an old Guess skirt with really nice fabric that no one wanted to buy from me :0. The fish medallion was an old present from my daughters. During the process of plaster chipping, I was surprised by a flying bit which got stuck in my eye; so make sure you use safety glasses! The total cost of this delightful doorway was my favorite price – zero dollars.

Entryway coat rack – $3

artsy coat rack by Linda Kaidan

At the front door, I used a strip of 1 inch x ¾ inch x 4ft pine left over from another project. I added 6 very inexpensive hooks which can be purchased in quantity for $3 to $5 to create miscellaneous storage for coats and other random items. The total cost was $3. The art in this photo was created by Linda Kaidan and Alexandra Kaidan Berry and can be purchased at our 2Kaidans store on Etsy.com for $15 and under per print. We appreciate your business!

compete with robot furniture – Two rooms in one for less

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It’s easy to compete with robot furniture

Designers and engineers are working on user-friendly ways to live in smaller spaces. Robotic furniture that moves with gestures is now being created. We can see from this video that the results are impressive. Yet they are likely to be costly, at least in the beginning. For now, there are easier ways to create flexible, multiple purpose rooms that are simple to reconfigure at a very low price.

Living room and bedroom in one that you can take camping

Pretty soon, engineered mobile systems developed at MIT will bring this new furniture technolgy into our homes. But until then, we can benefit by the ideas of multi-use space saving flexibility. Here are my ideas on a simple way to achieve this goal and provide almost the same flexibility at MUCH LOWER PRICE.

Behold, this queen bed frame is so sturdy it can support us 🙂

It only costs $97 on Amazon Prime and can be deconstructed into 2 31 x 75 inch flat and lightweight pieces that are easy to store and to move through the narrowest hallways.

What’s better is – the queen frame can be separated into 2 cot sized beds or 2 backless sofa bases. Just add a nice foam mattress and cover and you can have:

  • an L shaped sofa
  • 2 narrow full length twin beds
  • a queen size bed
  • 2 backless chairs

That’s not all! With this mattress (which I have not yet tried) the folded mode allows you to create a backless seat. You can also take it on a camping trip for luxurious comfort.

AMAZING! Total price for bed frames, 2 mattresses and delivery on Amazon Prime is $300 (queen (2 31 ix 75 inch) frame + 2 33 x 75 inch fold up mattresses). The biggest bonus is that you can make one room into two with no construction what so ever.

BTW – I am not selling this furniture.

by Linda Kaidan

 

 

Start renovating now for next to nothing

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My goal is to create a private space within my home that can be used as an in-law apartment or guest suite with a private entrance. Starting with a home characterized by two front doors helped to make this transition easy. This space is about 250 square feet and consists of a kitchen sitting-room, a bed/bath room and a half bath with sink.

Renovation Design

The doorway on the kitchen fridge wall is new. It existed before and we reopened it. The bath tub replaces a closet area.

Before view of kitchen

The original kitchen looked nicely spacious. But I wanted to make it do double duty as a sitting area as well. So I moved the fridge to the wall opposite the front door and morphed its original location into a cozy arm chair nook.  The bed bath area and construction cleanup remain to be done, so please excuse the mess 🙂

After view of kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am nearing the end of my kitchen renovation which cost me about $43.

The price is low because I used materials I already had on hand. These included copper colored tin ceiling tiles which can be purchase for $2 per sf.  Stenciling with a microwave steamer food container (the one with the holes).  Sponge painting and furnishing incorporates free and inexpensive materials available on ebay.com, etsy.com, craigslist.com and stuff left on the curb for trash pickup. My kitchen rug 2 x 5 ft., is indoor outdoor carpet purchased for $35 at overstock.com. Frames were $2 and under at Salvation Army in Ilion. Habitat for Humanity in Syracuse is home to nearly free paint and used kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen back splash hanging units can be quite pricy. The white wooden trim above my backsplash is a 2 x 4 from a closet demolished in the adjacent bedroom.  It’s decorated with free form contact paper cutouts (Black and white)  and transformed for maximized storage usefulness with cup hangers from etsy.com that cost under 50 cents each.

If you would like to hire me for inexpensive design and shopping assistance, call or text Linda at 315-360-3910. Your Herkimer renovation design can be thrifty and fabululous!