Dual Purpose Holiday Decor – A Guest Post from Final Clothes-Out

Today I have a special guest for you! Paige from Final Clothes-Out is visiting and she’s here to help us re-purpose ordinary items into festive holiday decor! Hooray for reusing!

Nice to virtually meet you! I’m Paige from Final Clothes-Out, a blog focused on saving money while still finding (or making!) everything you need. A big thanks to Brittany for inviting me to post here today!

My husband and I live in a tiny little condo–two people and a business in 840 square feet–which means we don’t have a ton of space for seasonal decorations. I use small-ish everyday items a lot when I pretty up the house for Christmas, and I’m here with a few ideas to help you do the same.

Putting red and green items together brings out an understated holiday vibe, even if they’re just a teacup and a sugar bowl:

Or a stack of books in my office:

Another easy idea is to put Christmas-y things into functional items. This iron stand usually holds my longer necklaces, but right now it’s cradling some extra ornaments:

And this is part of my mixing bowl set, but I think it looks pretty darn cute filled with pine cones on the end table:

I do sprinkle in a few “real” decorations every year. My new babies for 2011 are some miniature picture frames (from the dollar section at Michael’s, if you’re interested) filled with reversible Christmas images. I put them together with stickers and leftover scrapbook paper:

Once the holidays are over, I can use the frames with different art for little pops of year-round color.

Are you a fan of re-working everyday stuff this time of year? Maybe you’re a fellow small house dweller with decorating tips of your own? Anybody else score those picture frames from Michael’s? (Love them.)

Thanks Paige! If you have a chance, go check out Final Clothes-Out where you can learn all kinds of frugal tips:

Like turning this Dynasty-esque dress into a cute summery wrap dress (without a sewing machine!)

Or this DIY Kindle Sleeve.

Do you want to be a guest on Pretty Handy Girl? Visit this page to learn about submitting a guest post idea.

See y’all back here real soon!