Let There Be Light

My next upcycling project for my apartment was our lamps. Since I met him my boyfriend had always had these terrible looking lamps in his bedroom. The stand was tarnished gold and for some reason the shade always made me think of the inside of a genies lamp. Worst of all they were covered in dust that never seemed to disappear. 

Needless to say, there was no way I was going to have these lamps in my new appt looking like that. So I decided to transform them. 

We bought a can of black spray paint and sprayed the bases and I went out and bought new lamp shades. The bases turned out to be amazing - the black really brought out all of the intricate detail (a feature that I hated before, but is now one of my favourite things about the lamps). 

Ideally I would have loved to cover the old metal frame of the lamp shade with some sort of inexpensive material like burlap however the existing frames were in pretty rough shape so I decided against it. 

Here is the finished product! 

In the end I think we spent approximately $35 to complete both lamps (would have been much less if I could have salvaged the shade frames) and they look great! Who could ask for anything more. 

Upcycling My Apartment

For some time now I have been obsessed with the idea of upcycling - Taking something used or something that could be considered waste and turning it into something fantastic!  For me the most fascinating type of upcycling is anything involving skids - possibly due to my past in retail. Skids are just so versatile - tables, deck chairs, planters, you name it… you can do it.  I must admit Pinterest has only fed the fire, giving me more and more ideas for projects that I have no time to complete or no where to put. 

Luckily I recently moved out of my parents house and into my own apartment! I am now a grown up. Even more fortunate… I have a man friend who is handy with tools.  When we moved in we had very little furniture for our living room - we spent a few weeks with out a couch… repainted a terribly ugly bookshelf… inherited a TV stand and we are currently using another TV stand as a side table. The one piece I knew that I wanted my man friend to make was a coffee table out of… you guessed it… skids. So he worked his butt off and pulled together this amazing table!  

I love it! From what I am told our coffee table cost about $25 - essentially the cost of the stain and varnish.  Way better than the majority of coffee tables we saw while we were couch shopping with a similar style costing over $150. 

Not only was the table cheap … it is also something that is unique to our apartment - something that no one else has (those of you that know me know that that is probably my favourite part). 

Next, I'm hoping that eventually we can find time to pull together some side tables to match. 

Bring Your Own Mug and Save Money

After making the switch to reusable water bottles, making the switch to reusable coffee mugs for my morning coffee was easy. I use Contigo mugs with AutoSeal technology. They don't leak (unless they have been dropped) and they keep your coffee or tea warm for hours! I love them!

There is nothing worse than cold coffee and for someone who takes three hours to finish a mug of coffee - something that occurs far too often in my life - being able to return to it and find it still drinkable is amazing. 

When I worked in an office, I kept a regular household mug at my desk and used it for coffee, tea and water throughout the day.

If the waste isn't a concern of yours, money may be.  Did you know that most coffee spots (including Tim Horton's and Starbucks) offer a 10 cent discount if you bring a reusable mug. Add that up and you could save yourself $36.50 in one year if you buy a coffee everyday. If you avoid the coffee shop altogether the saving only go up from there.

What ever coffee option you choose, make sure that you pick an option that is easy and works best for you!