Columns Archives - Frugalbits

Painted slingback chair by Brendan Power - Clinton Hussey

How To Paint A Canvas Slingback Patio Chair

June 17, 2013/9 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Transform this plain canvas beachside staple into a chair with style and presence.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | Being fashionably dressed is expensive enough, but imagine the financial damage you can do creating the “latest look” for your home—which is why most of us play it safe with our furniture by sticking to classics. The trouble with this approach is that sometimes safe can mean boring. Fortunately there are ways to be current without taking a vow of poverty.

I suggest using quick changing accent pieces to modify your décor. Here I put my DIY skills to work transforming a classic—and already attractive—slingback patio chair—into something more topical and unique. Read more

How To Make Designer Votive Holders (VIDEO)

December 3, 2012/0 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

These designer votive candle holders are surprisingly simple to make. Brendan Power shows you how. (VIDEO)

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | These decorative votive candleholders are an easy-to-make, inexpensive Christmas gift that is both beautiful and useful. Brendan Power, our D.I.Y. columnist, got the idea after he saw something similar in a high-end gift shop. “The patterns on the votive holders I saw were probably either applied as decals or printed directly onto the glass,” he says. “My adaptation is made with photocopy paper, but the look and the translucence is no different from the original.” Read more

How To Light Snowy Pathways With Candles

November 19, 2012/0 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, Design, DIY, Entertaining, GARDEN, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Garden Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Make light outdoors on a winter’s night by planting candles in the snow.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | Sometimes the most stunningly beautiful solution to a problem is also the most elementary one—like using candlelight rather than electricity to illuminate a snowy walkway.

Make A Lantern Plant & Mini-Light Display

October 24, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Harvest Chinese lantern plant pods to create the perfect, illuminated holiday display.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | I first spotted brilliant orange Chinese lanterns fitted over mini-lights on an organically decorated Christmas tree. This is one way to use them for sure, though I like them better when they are used to create an original Thanksgiving or Halloween display. I love them threaded through a tangle of branches on the front porch or on top of the mantel or on a dinner table. I also love mini-lanterns strung around doorways for a punch of spot-on seasonal colour. Read more

Make Bedazzling Window Screen Wrap

September 26, 2012/1 Comment/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Knock your present out of the park with pedestrian materials from ye olde hardware store.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | If you’re looking for an easy, dramatic and glamorous way to wrap a very special gift, nothing has the power to bedazzle like ordinary window screen and wire. Read more

Make These Window Screen Candleholders

August 29, 2012/6 Comments/in Columns, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Sure it’s great for keeping out bugs, but metal window screen also shines as a candleholder.

Regular hardware store metal window screening, with its nostalgic cottage connotations, has obvious uses—and some that are less apparent. Here I’ve folded it into holders for votive candles that are straightforward to make. Read more

The Ideal Way To Store Your Magazines

August 26, 2012/1 Comment/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Finally, a systematic way to keep magazines together yet separate in an attractive {and unobtrusive} arrangement.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | When you have large numbers of magazines, quick reference is not always easy. The standard way to keep periodicals organized is to store them in magazine file boxes, but these containers, which are often made of flimsy cardboard, hold only a minimal number of copies. As your magazine collection grows, so does your need for file boxes, which can end up looking like an unattractive, mashed-up mess when you can’t find more to match the style you started out with.

Faced with this very problem awhile back, I came up with a flexible yet consistent-looking way to sort and store my favourite mags. Read more

How To Preserve Leaves And Branches

August 1, 2012/7 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Who knew the garden could be an endless, free source of gorgeous bookmarks and gift tags.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | We’ve all seen dried or preserved foliage—tired, dusty, brittle arrangements begging to thrown out. Preserving leaves in glycerin not only keeps them supple but makes them as tough as leather. Keep a bunch on hand for ready bookmarks or, if you now read all your novels on an electronic device, label them with metallic ink to use as place cards or gift tags. Read more

Flower arrangement by Brendan Power-Martin Tessler

Decorate The Table For Summer Dinner Parties

July 25, 2012/2 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Fresh ideas from the garden set the table—and the scene for summer entertaining.

If you are planning a summer dinner party and want to decorate the table in a way that’s fresh and easy, here’s a spin on the current penchant for using formal table arrangements made of single flower variety in a single colour packed tightly into a vase. Read more

Make These Driftwood Tealight Candlesticks

July 16, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

With the proper size drill bit, you can turn pieces of driftwood and tealights into elemental candlesticks.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | When you think of craft projects involving driftwood, does your mind meander back to the mid-1970s and wall hangings made of macramé and driftwood? Where 70s-style craft projects tended to be hippie-like and folksy, the current spin is toward Zen-like minimalism. Materials are organic and weathered, but shapes are defined and graphic, together evoking a calm, spiritual quality. In a word: elemental. These candleholders are my nod to the return of organic. Read more