I’ve been thinking about replacing the table, but I decided to see how it would look covered. I used a tablecloth handed down from someone to cover the table, and instantly, it looks appropriate in the living room – a little more grown up. And it cost me $0!

So I’ve tried to make my corner of the office feel more glam. Last fall, I made two plant silhouette paintings that hang above my desk. They were an improvement. But I wanted more of a focal point, so I re-painted an old floating shelf using leftover paint from my kitchen makeover, and hunt it just below the paintings, so any items that sit on the shelf overlap slightly with the bottom of the paintings. I used little knick-knacks to fill the shelf, and suddenly items that had been in my throw-away pile have a home!

I bought the shelf a frosted-glass oil burner from The Body Shop and picked up fragrance oils at an after-Christmas sale.

My aunt had given me these flower candles a few years ago. I love them, but they had no place in any other room. Now I have them surrounding a little manatee statue someone gave me, intertwined with a string of fake pearls to reflect light.

Now I have something pretty to look at above my computers.

Now onto the rest of the room…

Before
I’ve had this horse pillow for years. My sister gave it to me when we were younger, and I’ve never had the heart to throw it out, even when the design started to crack with age. I stuck it high up in a closet where it would occasionally fall on my head when I opened the doors.

After!

Using iron-on patches, I created the design of two owls sitting on a branch, which I ironed onto a linen-look napkin (cotton/poly blend).

Instead of a traditional two-piece pillow cover with a slit up the back to fit the insert, I turned the insert on an angle and folded the four corners of the napkin together at the back. Pinning them in place, I hand stitched the two bottom seams to where they met in the center, then folded the top flap over like an envelope and fastened it with a string wound around a spare coat button.

Voila! Happy little owls for $0.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• 8 large garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
• 1 sprig chopped fresh rosemary (I picked from my garden)
• Zest of one lemon

Puree in food processor. Smother a top round steak in glass baking dish. Let marinade for several hours in the fridge. Broil to your liking! Let rest a good 10 minutes. Slice on a bias and serve with salad, potatoes – whatever!

Note: Make sure to properly season the steak with salt and pepper as well. This smelled amazing while it was cooking.

Halloween decorations don’t have to be expensive. I collect wine bottles and cover them with labels from the craft store, use battery-operated tea lights behind books and objects, and repaint hand-me-down decorations. Every year, I buy one or two new decorations, so that I slowly build a collection of pieces I really like (like last year’s finds, my glitter crackle ghost from Pier 1 and ghost tea light holders from a shop in Smithville, NJ). A final touch is stretching spiderwebs (re-used year to year) over everything.

So I went to the crafts store and picked up a 2-pack of canvases for about $7. I used inexpensive acrylic craft paint (under $2 a bottle) to create a washed-out cream background on each canvas, which I let completely dry. On the next sunny afternoon, I traced silhouettes cast by a red salvia and a peony in my garden in pencil. Then I mixed a custom gray with hints of turquoise, which I used to fill in the silhouettes. It took a few layers to fill in the silhouettes completely, about two hours per painting. The result? Inexpensive art featuring real plants in my own garden – definitely not something I’m going to find in a store!

Early October, I let my potted plants die and leave them in their pots for an element of neglect on the front porch.

I also let the chrysanthemums fall over and dry out. Grass plants do the same. We don’t bother blowing away the oak leaves that start covering the mulch. It makes the house look newly abandoned, and it’s eerie when the dying plants sway in the breeze.

If some leaves and dying plants don’t do it for you, it doesn’t hurt to stick skeletons in the ground, either.

Apple pie with acorn cutouts. I haven’t got the crust crimping down yet, but at least it looks homemade!

Panel and curtain rod

Since I had a few hours to kill, I got my drill out of storage and went about installing the curtain rod in the office. After a few mistakes and blisters, the rod was up and steady.

My home office before the makeover. This was the only room we hadn't painted; it became a catch-all.

Unfortunately, I ended up making some marks on the wall that I couldn’t get off, so I decided to spackle and paint the back wall with some leftover pale blue semi-gloss from the bathroom project.

After. The pale blue (which you can't even see in the photo, it's so light) brightened up the room since it subtly reflects, and it makes the cream in the curtains pop.

Now I just have to buy some plastic storage bins & haul the clutter up to the attic.