Project Gallery

It has been said that there is a fine line between love and nausea. With this said, there is also fine line between loving to accent your home with unique finds and being featured on a Hoarders episode. Just as one may see the same old crap at chain stores, one may add one too many one-of-a-kind additions to the homestead. We can't preach too much...we are indeed guilty of such a crime. Luckily and with cautious care, we haven't allowed ourselves to cross in the Steel Magnolias version of collecting an entire town's worth of baby Jesus mangers. Therefore we have a two-part/two-dumpster diva operation going on by doing our "damndest" to integrate the shabby with the chic (and the chic with the online cheap). Although your style may not be our style, the ideas behind the style is at the crux of the standard protocol with the Texas Dumpster Divas.

Keep in mind that the entirety of the pictures are an assortment of our different projects for different people and their personal styles and themes. One diva is primarily behind the construction and craft (purchase and paint) and the other is behind the thematic assembly (e.g. Great Gatsby meets contemporary Americana). Feel free to browse, comment, and/or inquire about the following gallery:

Cost: 10.00.
Location: Goodwill.
Letters: Online@craftcuts.com, vinyl, midnight blue.
Phrase: Lyrics from a country favorite: George Strait/I Cross My Heart.
Tools: Spray paint, sandpaper, and an old towel.
Note: Kids ravioli stain during design phase.

Basic theme: Old West saloon.
Desk= Modern element.
Chair: Antique/25.00.
Globe: Resale/6.00.

Basic theme: Francois.
Lamp: 2 for 10.00 (must be identical glass).
Lamp locale: Goodwill.
Tool: 1 can silver spray paint (to cover all brass).
Lampshades: Approx. 17.00 each/Tuesday Morning (think same color scheme, French theme, different blueprint).
Dresser=modern element.

Key element: Sage wall paint and khaki fireplace (due to color, keeping art black and white).
Fireplace stokers (to scale): 15.00/resale shop.
Framed art (to scale): 35.00 for both/resale shop.

Distressed dresser instead of the typical entertainment center.
Dresser knobs replaced with seashell-gold knobs by Anthroplogie.
Cost: 16.00 for both knobs.
         125.00 for dresser/antique store.
Note: Bouncer attachments left behind by toddler.

Plates: Cannot see, but 18th century Americana, romantic scenario (same scenario on each plate).
Cost: 15.00 for all 7 plates/resale shop.
Distressed frame (to scale): 39.00/antique shop.

Vintage silver mirror, reminiscent of the 1920s.
Cost: 50.00/resale shop.

Combo: antique chairs (green in chair brings out sage wall paint), modern bookcases, and chandelier lamp.
Cost: 50.00 for matching chairs/resale shop.
Entire lamp: Overstock.com (2 total)/150.00 each.
Distressed magazine holder: 12.00/antique store.

Chandelier lamp close up atop vintage-esque (i.e. new) record player/cd/radio.
A pairing of opposite concepts...

Handcrafted wooden horse atop modern bookshelf.
Cost: 150.00/antique store.
Sometimes you do have to spend a little to avoid the aforementioned Hoarders fine line.

Originally clear glass candle holders.
Tool: 1 can of silver/"antique" spray paint.
Perfect for a small, yet open space in a bookshelf.
Cost: Approx. 9.00 for all 3/resale shop.

Dumpster Divas Digital Grand Opening! Mission Statement: Build it, not Buy it.

Dumpster Divas Digital Grand Opening!

Mission Statement: Build it, not Buy it.

Two quotes: Chris Rock once asked, “How many of us work two jobs…just to be broke?”  Audrey Hepburn, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, essentially said “No matter what I do, I only seem to have 250.00 in the bank.”  These are a couple phrases in which the Dumpster Divas can identify in their daily lives.  We have asked the question of what does one do with caviar dreams on a Sprite (or Shasta) budget?  Our answer: Build it, no buy it.

Our goal is to share with others and maintain the American ideology that we were born to build and invent, not born to shop what may be deemed “manufactured cool.” With kids and formula in the car, the husbands (or game wardens) not in sight, the 2 Texas ladies of the Dumpster Divas are on a mission to partake in the family juggling act of attempting to make a beautiful, Southern Living-esque home while reading the Penny Saver and using the creative portion of our frontal lobes. Simply said, we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got!

How do we do it?  We have developed a strict standard of operation: avoid the scammers who sell overpriced junk.  We have a strict policy of intersecting creative and practical home décor ideas and not spending more than 20.00 on a pair of accent chairs.  Read our future Dumpster Diva posts for quick and cheap ideas, opinions of where to go and what to avoid (especially when toting kiddos), how to assemble projects from the store to the living room, and our embarrassing yet hilarious misadventures!

Goodwill, quaint antique malls, and resale shops are a much-needed staples-feel free to browse our posted projects!  Let us know your ideas and thoughts!  See you on the digital road to “creative cool” and aid us in adhering to the following sentiments:

“She was a triumph over ugliness, so often more beguiling than real beauty, if only because it contains a paradox.  In this case, as opposed to the scrupulous method of plain good taste and scientific grooming, the trick had been worked by exaggerating defects; she made them ornamental by admitting them boldly.”

-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Signing off,

The Texas Dumpster Divas