A Beach Cottage Thrifted Curtain & a Free Bamboo Curtain Pole

Last weekend when we spent the only weekend in about 2 months where there was any rain, camping in a field of palm trees, me and my lovely friend ended up at the local thrift store, while in the only bit of sun there was that weekend, the men and kids hit the beach…

nothing better than thrifting in a new town dontchya think?  

We spied a large-ish, rough-ish Salvation Army store, better known, in Australia, as Salvos, took a hearty deep breath, expecting general icki-ness but of course, treasure and delved on in. 

Well, I have to say I was disappointed, some of it was downright ridiculously priced…we spotted an old English china vegetable dish, Meakin, for $40…c'mon, I ask you, would you spend $40 on a vegetable dish in a tatty old Salvos in a tatty old town?  Resounding no.   I just would not think of parting with $40 for one piece of china in a thrift store.  Even if I knew it was actually worth more.  Because for me spending in thrift is the thrill of the chase, not the thrill of what-it-could-be-worth-if-I-decide-to-open-an-antique-shop.

Anyway, I came out with a pair of white tab top curtains for $8.  Bargain?  Not really the best bargain of the year, but while I was deliberating them I decided both that firstly they were what I was looking for for the Sitting Room doorway, secondly, buying them now would save me a trip to IKEA, and thirdly worth to me was high as it would make me get around to getting a solution to the Sitting Room doorway problemo. 

The problem being, no door and just a leetle bit too much noise after dark from the Family Room for my liking. You can see, here how the doorway looked before.

Sooo, arriving home after that camping trip I wanted, nothing more, than to get going on the doorway. 

I have rather an obsession of late though, with thinking outside of the box (and outside of Bunnings) and using-what-I-have.  Soooo, after spending that huge eight dollars on the curtains, divided by half for this one doorway concealing, so that would be four bucks, I decided to set myself for the whole thing a budget of four dollars in total & see what I could come up with to dress it up.  So, that would mean, I had blown the budget in Salvos on the one curtain….who you gonna call…? 

Teenage-Cottage-Busters! 

I asked Mr Teenage BC his advice…what did we have out there in the boys' world of wood, nuts and bolts that we could use as a curtain pole so we did not have to spend a cent???  Well, of course, he said, we have a piece of bamboo that little Mr BC picked up on a walk that would do just fine.  Just don't tell him, for goodness's sake, he  is seriously, seriously territorial about those sticks he gathers…and brings home…

So, the bamboo got the treatment.  A slap of beachy white.  A few screws into the wall.  And yep, a curtain pole for free.  

It looked like this before…

and after 

After that had been worked out, I wanted a tie-back with a bit of rustic-ness for n o t h i n g.  So I asked those boys to find me a big ole' rusty nail to just slap on in there into the door frame.  They told me it would rip the wood frame.  It did.  I don't care. 

But the rust mighta marked the curtain.  So I ripped up some white fabric scaps, plaited them into a braid and wrapped them around the rusty old nail…

And now tonight we sit here, with a curtained doorway, oblivious to the world around us in the Beach Cottage…

do you think this is good for four dollars?  

or do you think I am a cheapskate? 

c'mon hit that comment button people…

c u tmr kiddos 

xo

blogged for Met Monday, thanks so much Susan!

and for the fabulous DIY extravaganza over at Kimba's…enjoy…