Faux Bois - Painted Grain Floor

Although I live with warm white oak floors throughout my house, I have always admired the fantastic effects of painted floors. If your floors aren't in great shape and their maintenance is an issue, an artful finish might be a beautiful solution. There are lots of successful examples of floors painted in soft and solid colors on porches or sunny rooms, or painted in two contrasting colors in a checkerboard pattern, and set on the diagonal in kitchens or entrance halls.

The bold white grain on the black painted floor above is one of the most visually exciting I have spied in an extensive personal history of admiring faux finishes. It brings a lot of fun into the room.

Faux Bois - imitation or fake wood, now refers mainly to the finished surface, but originally was used to describe the work of late 19th century French furniture makers starting with wire frames, building up a composite in the shape of the furniture piece and then painting it to resemble wood. More recently, it has become fashionable on decorative accessories as candles, tableware, paper goods and textiles.

Click here and here for more inspiration and instruction on faux finishes. Click here for DIY decorative staircase ideas.

Make Your Own Zig Zag Rug

Stylistas are going wild for zig zag rugs this season. There are many designs to inspire a clever and patient frugalista (or frugaliste) to make her/his own bold design underfoot.

Many thanks to Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking for sharing her zig zag rug tutorial.

Frugalista

frugalista (froog'gal-ees-ta) n. "person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc."

It may not have made the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2008 Word of the Year, but it is a deserving strong finalist. As we face the hard facts of the surround-sound economic crisis crumbling around us – frugalista appears to be a word with staying power. It is a power we’ll need to use as we tighten the belt once again, dust off the sewing machine and serve up dinner of rice and beans for hungry family and friends.

I'm not sure of the protocol regarding new words if they don't yet appear in a dictionary. But it’s such a good word I’m excited to add it to my vocabulary. I would also like to expand its definition. After all, it is such a recent addition to our language certainly the word is still evolving and malleable.

There are plenty of us all over the globe who have learned the art of stretching the wampum, by necessity and practicality. We (hereafter known as frugalistas) know how to make do, quite stylishly, with less. We are not only managing and discovering new ways to do it better, we are also eco-conscious in our choices. From time to time, we might even be a little eco-chic. We reduce, recycle and reuse to the limits of our imaginations.

Special thanks to William Safire for his article On Language - Frugalista in the New York Times Magazine, November 23, 2008 and Natalie McNeal for her blog, The Frugalista Files.

Good looking and sturdy market and tote bags made of earth-friendly materials each sell for under $1.50.