Welcome back to week three of the One Room Challenge.  I’m linking in on Thursdays with tons of talented designers and bloggers.  To check out everyone’s progress go to Calling It Home.  Also check out the original 20 ORC participants here.  And here are my Week 1 and Week 2  if you missed them.

As you may know, I’m am decorating a townhouse that we are buying to rent out as an executive/vacation rental.  We don’t own it yet, so my progress so far has been from afar.  So this week I focused on art.  It’s a three story place, so it has lots of walls to fill.  My daughter, Tabitha, and I did a couple of fun art projects to help with this problem.  The first project was inspired by her favorite book, The Fault in Our Stars.  The parents of one of the character’s has decorated their home with what they call “Encouragements”–cute sayings that should brighten your day when you read them.  Here are our Encouragements:

Encouragment #1

Tabitha’s Encouragement

Encouragement #3

This project was super easy and I think very successful.  Maybe too successful, because Tabitha decided to hang hers in her room and I hung the Bacon one in our Kitchen for my husband.  The townhouse will have one lonely Encouragement.  I’ll post the how-to this weekend.

Our second art project was to make marbled paper with nail polish.  For this project, we followed these directions from Pink Stripey Socks.  It was also a very easy and fun project.  Here’s the results:

Marbled Paper Art

Close-up

I did not plan to buy art for this project.  My hope was to work with what I have or to make the art.  However, I have been shopping everywhere for a bench for the Family Room in the townhouse, and while I haven’t found a single bench in my budget (almost free) that I like, I have found two pieces of art that I couldn’t pass up.

Deal #1

Deal #1 was found at Tuesday Morning and it was 90% off.  That’s about as close to free as it gets.  It was a little banged up, but nothing a little glue and craft paint couldn’t fix.

Needs a little love.

Glue to the rescue.

After a little paint, no one will know.

I love the colors and that it’s a landscape but very impressionistic.  I think it’ll be great in the space.  And is cost….$6!

Deal #2 was found at a local thrift store.  Why doesn’t anyone have a bench??

Deal #2

It’s a framed Audubon print.   I love drawings of birds, shells, insects. etc.  I have some pages from old books on shells and insects that I’m also framing for the townhouse.  So deal #2’s grand total: $7.50.  Slightly more expensive than deal #1, but hey, it was in perfect condition.

Well that is all for this week.  I still won’t be in the townhouse this coming week, so my plans are to paint furniture and accessories, and sew curtains, pillows, etc.  And maybe find a bench!

Have a happy week!

Rachel