My BFF has recently finished repairing her screened-in porch, and I surprised her with a little crapsmanship and redecorating. BFF is a rabid recycler and repurposer, so I knew she wouldn’t want sparkling new items in this room. (If you look closely at the furniture with the fabric, you can see the rips in the seat. BFF and I found these curbside the evening before trash day, and with her recycling spirit, BFF plans to replace the seats but save the frames.)

Though my picture doesn’t do the room justice, if you look closely, you can see some of the items I repurposed after “shopping” my house. The candlesticks to the left have been in a closet for years; I simply spray-painted them. On the right is a glass bowl in a yellow holder. This piece used to have a black base and hold corks on my patio table; now it is a terrarium with a yellow base. The credenza in the back houses a lamp that I’d recently replaced in my guest bedroom; it just needed a quick coat of bright green paint and some gilding. Finally, the floor cloth is an old tablecloth that my granddaughter and I crapped up with gelli prints, paint splatters, stamps, and fabric markers. Two coats of polyurethane should make it durable.

And do you see my lovely plant collages hanging over the credenza?!