How to Create Farmhouse Charm with Repurposed Junk

Old Headboards

One of my favorite items to grab at garage sales and thrift stores are old headboards. Lonely twin-sized headboards are a dime-a-dozen and the possibilites are endless.

Here is a 1970’s beauty *cough cough* that I nabbed at the thrift store for $8.

With a little bit of trimming, some chalkboard paint, knobs, and wooden embellishments, it turned into this:

I got this lonely little headboard at a yard sale for $1.

A fresh coat of paint, a free sheet of galvanized metal, a little distressing, and some knobs?

And I have a magnetic message board for my mudroom.

I made the alphabet magnets from a few supplies from the craft store: scrapbooking stickers, small wooden disks, and magnets.

Sticks

What better way to decorate a homestead house than to bring a bit of nature inside?

I love the simple elegance that a few twigs or sticks can bring to a room.

I filled this simple antique pitcher with twigs from our backyard.

This arrangement sits on our bathroom vanity. The milk glass vase was 69 cents at a thrift store, and the sticks and rock were free.

Glass Bottles and Jars

I have a thing about quirky little glass bottles and jars.

These bottles might look antique, but they’re not. I chose them for their unique shapes, but they are modern glass. I printed off these free “vintage” labels, stained them with some coffee, and glued them to the bottles. Voila! Instant “antiques” that fit the apothecary theme of my bathroom.

These are more thrift store bottles, filled with medicinal-type herbs (not cooking herbs) and displayed in my “apothecary” bathroom.

Thinking Outside of the Box

It doesn’t matter whether you are living in a small home, homesteading in a unusual location, or decorating on a dime. Being creative is THE key to success!

As you decorate your homestead, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and even bend the rules a little bit.

I was wanting new curtains for my kitchen, but I didn’t want to pay a lot for them (drapery panels aren’t cheap!) and I don’t sew.

So, I headed to the fabric store and purchased a couple yards of burlap. A little glue-gunning at the top and some fraying at the bottom gave me this:

Fresh new curtains with a homespun look.

(Did I mention that I have an obsession with burlap? I can’t get enough of the stuff…)

Another design dilemma I had was an odd-shaped wall in our bathroom.

The bathroom is situated under the stairs, which results in a weird slanted wall/ceiling thing.

The solution came in the form of frames. Lots of them. I somehow had accumulated a pile of cheap-o frames that I wasn’t using. I took off the backs, removed the glass, and spray painted them with a hammered bronze spray paint.

I was able to arrange them on my odd-shaped wall, and they look like they totally belong there.

I find that decorating like this is not only frugal, but also just plain fun. I’ve completely lost interest in shopping in regular stores for home decorations and much prefer to scour yard sales and thrift shops for my latest project. It’s borderline addicting, so consider yourself warned!

How to you like to decorate your home? Have any ideas to share?