budget decor - wall paper on the cheap

I'm getting that urge to change around our house again. Do you ever get that way? I know, stupid question. We all get that way at times. I've mentioned before that my house is really small. It's very cute, but small is not without it's challenges. The least little thing can quickly go from charming to clutter. Because of that, I'm really feeling the need to purge and open up spaces right now. It's a little-by-little process. What amazes me, though, is how one little change can make such a huge difference. It doesn't have to cost a lot to make big changes, either.

As I've been contemplating the changes I want to make, I realized that I never shared one of the cheapest things I did to this house when we moved in. It also happens to be my favorite thing in our little love nest. 

Just so you'll know what we had to work with...When we moved to Indiana from Florida we rented a house while we were looking for someplace more permanent. After a year and a half of looking at literally several hundred homes that were either completely over-priced or should have been condemned, we decided that we would just stop looking and be content to rent for a while longer. Then, we got a call from the land-lady saying that the place we rented had been sold and we had 30 days to be out. Needless to say, we panicked.  We knew what was out there. Nothing.

But, God had a home and a miracle in store for us. He led us to a cute little repo with great bones and all paperwork was expedited, so we would make our deadline. Although the house had great bones, it had been severely neglected. The furnace went out right away, among other things, so everything we did had to be on a shoestring budget. This was bathroom when we bought the house.

Notice the broken mirror, nasty carpet and lots of mildew on the falling down wallpaper.

The first thing we did was clean, disinfect and paint everything white. The bathroom is so tiny that you can close the door while sitting on the toilet at the far end of the room. That's why I wanted to keep it light and clean. But, it needed something to give it personality.

I am a music lover and had several old hymnals with my books. They became my medium.  

I ripped the pages out of one of the hymnals and then tore off all of the straight edges to give a more jagged, organic feel. That part cost me nothing but time. I then bought a $5 bucket of wall paper paste and started laying the pages on the walls in a random fashion. I used a straight razor at the ceiling and chair rail to trim off the excess. After the paper had dried, I coated it with polyurethane that we already had to protect it and seal out moisture.  That was 4 years ago and it is still going strong.  We have had no issues with it.  And, when we need to wipe the wall down because of the soot burning candles leave, the PU makes it so easy.

Here are a couple of after shots.

Using an old hymnal to paper my bathroom cost me a $5 bucket of paste, of which I only used half. And, it reflects who I am. That's the best part.

What I love about this idea is that is isn't exclusive to sheet music. It's funny because shortly after I did this it seemed that everywhere I turned I started reading where other people were using the same idea with different mediums. I read about someone even using old newspapers. If you're a book lover you could totally go that route. How cool would pages from an old cookbook be in the kitchen? Or, a beautiful old children's book in a nursery? The pictures would be a sweet addition that could set your color scheme. You could use pages from an atlas in a school room or study. Other books that could be used are; a dictionary, a book of poetry or the Bible. Really, you'd only be limited by your imagination. I even saw bathroom done just the opposite of how I did mine at a quaint little market. Instead of papering the walls, they used book pages and covered all the accessories like light switch covers, mirror frames and the body and arms of a chandelier. It was really cool. You could also cover old or thrifted furniture in book pages.  

So, share today...what's the most creative thing you've put on your walls in order to save money?


P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for Jacinda Vandenberg's new e-book, "Blog Design on a Dime".  


I'm linking this post to Homestead Barn Hop and Teach Me Tuesday.