Kit Davey, Interior Designer
18 Years in business - Over 2,600 homes transformed!
Tips From Kit - November 2001
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Creative, Yet Frugal, Holiday Gifts for the Home
By Kit Davey
While flipping through a catalog the other day, scanning the pages for holiday gift ideas, I was at once charmed and repelled by what the pages revealed. Page after page displayed clever products for the home, but a glance at the prices brought surprise and dismay. The big whine: "How can I afford to give a considerate, creative gift on a budget?"
The answer is to practice creative thriftiness. Try my three-pronged approach to frugal gifting:
1) Adapt ideas from catalogs or stores and make your own gifts
2) Shop at all the local flea markets and
3) Recycle presents. Your family will appreciate your handmade gifts and your antique-hound friends will love the additions to their collections.
Catalog Copying
Catalog companies have many imaginative offerings, but their prices can be steep. So, I copy an idea, scrounge for materials, adapt the design to my own style and abilities and make it myself for big savings. My favorite catalogs from which to pilfer ideas are: Gardener's Eden, Smith and Hawkins, Sundance, Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn. Here are a few stolen gift ideas you can easily make for pennies.
One-of-a-kind flower pots. Sort through your potting shed for clay flowerpots in good condition. Scrub clean and allow to dry. (The pots must be completely dry before decorating). Using acrylic paints, paint on the design of your choosing. Or, spray paint the pot in gold and tie a fancy ribbon around it. Another option is to decoupage images from magazines or postcards onto the pot using Jolly Glaze or Elmer's Glue. If you use glue, it's best to spray the pot with a clear acrylic coating after the glue has dried to waterproof it. Once dry, plant an herb or flowering perennial in your pot.
Make your own topiary. Purchase a vining ivy with long tendrils from your local nursery. Plant it in one of your hand-decorated pots. Disassemble a wire hanger and, using pliers, shape it into a heart or circle on a lollipop-like stick. Poke the end of the hanger into the soil. Wind the ivy tendrils around the circle or the heart's stem, using bread ties to hold them in place. Leave a few loose tendrils at the base of the topiary.
Stuffed baskets. I buy baskets at the flea market for between 25 cents and $1.00. I fill them with whatever my giftee enjoys: Christmas tree ornaments (which I bought for 50% off the day after Christmas last year), flower bulbs, pine cones sprayed gold, mystery novels (bought for 25 cents each at garage sales), a bundle of dried lavender from my garden, sachets made with antique hankies and filled with homemade potpourri, greeting cards (sent to me by non-profits wanting donations), several back copies of Sunset magazine along with a note giving the recipient a year's subscription, a collection of garden tools, etc.
Spruce up the basket by spray painting it gold or adding a bow and lining it with bright colored tissue paper, or new kitchen towels from Target, Pier 1 or Cost Plus.
Arty Clocks. Most craft stores sell clockworks ($4 to $7) which are easy to install. Cut up a section of board, drill a hole in the middle, paint it with a whimsical design, add the clockworks and, voila, a one-of-a-kind timepiece.
Flea Market Gifts
Most of my friends have collections of one kind or another. I keep my eyes open for salt shakers, pig things and Indian memorabilia every time I visit the flea market. Start looking in June and by Christmas you'll have a closet full of antiques and collectibles for your friends.
Other thrifty gifts you can make with flea market finds:
- Decorate an old frame with buttons, stamps, leaves or shells. Insert a photograph or old print
- Gather antique glass bottles of various sizes and colors. Place a flower or mini-bouquet in each one and present the collection on a tray.
- Find a pair of unusual wine glasses and tie a bow around the stems. Place with a bottle of sparkling cider in a basket.
- Create a shadow box in a deep frame by arranging old memorabilia.
- There are many venders who sell new items at a fraction of the retail price.
Look for: coffee table books, framed art, silk, dried or live plants, glass and porcelain vases and area rugs.
Gift Recycling
I hate to fess up to this one, but I know I'm in good company here (Even Elaine St. James, author of Simplify Your Life, recommends this technique)! When I declutter or get tired of something in my home I put it in my gift closet and save it to give away to the right person. I sometimes receive a well-intentioned gift that really isn't me, or is a duplicate of something I already have---another recycling opportunity. To avoid an embarrassing scene, label the gift with the name of the giver so you don't accidentally give it back.
(c) 2001
Kit Davey is a Redwood City-based interior designer specializing in redecorating using what you already have. You can reach her by calling (650)367-7370 or by writing her at KitDavey@aol.com. Visit her website at www.AFreshLook.net.
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