low price flights: Creating a Meaningful Home: DIY on the Cheap

Creating a Meaningful Home blog series featured on www.sasinteriors.net

Today?s guest post for the Creating a Meaningful Home Blog Series is Erin of DIY on the Cheap. Welcome Erin?

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Hello everyone! I?m Erin and I blog at DIY on the Cheap, where I share frugal decorating ideas, crafts and DIY projects for the home. I am honored to have been asked by Jenna to contribute to this series, especially since creating a meaningful home is something near and dear to my heart.

I am a very sentimental person in general, and that definitely carries over into our home. One of the ways I try to make our home more meaningful is by incorporating pieces that have sentimental value to us as a family.

Obviously nothing is more meaningful to me than my children. One of my favorite projects is my Quatrefoil Photo Wall Art which captures a sweet moment between my two sons.

At 3 ft x 3 ft, this photo (mounted on foam board) takes up a huge space on the wall, which I love. It was displayed in our office for a very long time, but now it has a new home above the dresser in my boys? newly made-over bedroom.

Another way I add meaning to our home is by creating things myself. The simple act of ?DIY? automatically adds meaning to any home, because you have put your heart into making something special for your family. This was the case when I redecorated my boys? bedroom. I challenged myself to do most of the work myself, so I built a toddler bed from scratch, designed and built headboards, refinished all of the furniture, added stripes to the curtains, created wall art, and more. I wanted to create a special space for them to enjoy.

I also love filling our home with items that have their own ?story.? To me, a piece of furniture with history or a story behind it is much more special than something I could go buy at a store. For example, one of my favorite things in our home is this library card catalog cabinet.

I love it because it?s a unique vintage piece and provides storage for my many craft supplies, but most of all I love it for the story. My grandmother has a similar one in her home, and I asked her to keep an eye out and if she ever saw another one, then I would pay her back for it if she snatched it up for me. (She often attends auctions and comes across fun things like this sometimes.) Well, as fate would have it, a family friend owns a vacant school building and she found out that this card catalog had been stored inside for years and was headed for the garbage. (Crazy, I know!) The friend told my grandparents they were welcome to have it ? for free! So they drove to the little town where the school was located, dismantled the card catalog and stored it at their house for me. With help from family, we schlepped it in pieces from their home in Indiana to our house in Georgia, where I reassembled and completely refinished it. It was a big project, but is very special to me and will always be one of my favorites.

While we have several pieces of furniture that I have rescued and/or refinished, some of the most special things in our home are the ?little things.? Souvenirs from vacations, photos from special events or family gatherings, and keepsakes that we?ve held onto for many years (some since childhood, even). I think our home feels meaningful because everywhere we look we see things that we have created especially for our family, or things that bring back fond memories and evoke a sense of nostalgia.

I recently attempted my first furniture build project and built this outdoor table for our back porch, so now we can enjoy the summer with family meals outdoors.

I enjoy making things that our whole family can enjoy, because to me, there is nothing more meaningful than my family.

I find meaning in the sentimental things in life. Whether the case is, ?My grandparents rescued this card catalog from a vacant school building,? or, ?My husband saved this autographed baseball from his childhood which is now displayed in our sons? bedroom.? ? the point is, the story is what makes it unique. To me, the history of things in your home contribute to the ?feeling? you get when you live there. Your house doesn?t have to look pretty and pristine all the time to be meaningful. (Mine certainly doesn?t!) Ultimately if you have created a space where your family can feel happy, comfortable and ?at home,? then it doesn?t get much more meaningful than that.

Thanks so much Erin for opening your home for all to see.? Erin?s style is so refreshing and clean. I love her thought that :the simple act of ?DIY? automatically adds meaning to any home, because you have put your heart into making something special for your family.??? By being a sentimental person, Erin incorporates sentimental elements that are valuable to her and her family.

Create a Meaningful Home: Erin of DIY on the Cheap gives us a tour of how she has thoughtfully created a meaningful home. See the entire series at www.sasinteriors.net

Erin?s home on the web, DIY on the Cheap, is filled with frugal decorating ideas, crafts, and creative projects for the home.? One of my favorite projects that Erin created was the stenciled rug for her dining room.? So elegant and super surprising they she used an inexpensive indoor/outdoor rug.

How-To Stenciled Rug