shelf with a twist

I'm inspired by my sister to put up a blog entry on home decorating ideas. If there's such a thing as "home decorating within the budget", I'd call our (I and my family of creatives) method "home decorating UNDER the budget." It's not just about the money (although it does come in as a big factor), but we get excited about re-creating things from stuff thrifted, handed down, abandoned, picked from the salvation army drop-off points and so on. You get the idea.

Since we moved in to our new apartment, we had to make do with do super minimal furnishings offered by the housing. Example, there was only one wardrobe in the whole apt and it fit only Lakay and my little one's clothes. Squeeze my clothes in? You can't be serious. "WARDROBE!" I then wrote on top of the buy list in IKEA.

But after all the fixing and sorting, I had one bookshelf left from the old apartment which suddenly became useless here. Just when I was about to get rid of it, I came across a pile of fabrics that I've been collecting from the thrift shop. And then think...think...think...ting! I got a new wardrobe out of virtually nothing!

See results below:
All my clothes, except my jeans, fit into this small shelf (my other sister says it's unbelievable!)


This was once a curtain made of canvass. It's tailor-cut in the middle so I can just simply fold one fly up whenever I'd get clothes. Lakay stapled the fabric behind the shelf so it won't fall off. I topped this with my son's old toy boxes for my socks and underwear. Then there I have it! A wardrobe for only 0 €.

the masterpiece

I've always been proud of Lakay's shots and have always wanted to show it off to the world. I once considered having one printed out in a large frame size, but was stopped short upon learning the price. Good thing is I have a geeky sister who is master of cyberspace. She knows the right website for your own needs. When I told her about my problem, she directed me to www.blockposters.com. Although this site doesn't offer the kind of poster printing that I really wanted, it helped me find more creative ways to display Lakay's works.

Here's one that we did last night.

Lakay took this shot on our vacation in Bicol last year. It really marked his development in his craft. It's been one of my favorites ever since.

I uploaded this picture to blockposters and the software in that site arranged it in such a way that I can print the whole thing into separate A4 photo paper prints. Now instead of going to the photo printing shop, I went to an ordinary photocopier shop and had this printed through their colored copier. (As advised by a Filipino neighbor).

I am very happy with the results. Especially that I got it at 7% of the price of the poster printing.

When we posted them on the wall last night, Lakay suggested that it would be better to put some gaps between the parts rather than stick them all together like parts of a puzzle. I found his idea better than forcing to conceal its "brokenness.

Now we have hanging on our living room wall a masterpiece (both the work and the artist belonging to our home).

The little one's part in this whole project: pose like a sleepy tot in the very homey corner.