Looking for a little simple elegance? Look no further than your kitchen sink.

Recently, I decided to finally take the liquid hand soap and dish soap out of their plastic bottles and put them in glass bottles – olive oil bottles, to be exact. The plastic had been cluttering my the counters around my kitchen sink, and I wanted something more.

Combined with a classic white dish and a bud vase of fresh roses, my kitchen necessities have become less about function and more about fun.

You can easily bring this look to your kitchen, too.

1. Find two empty olive oil bottles at a home discount store, a thrift store, or maybe even your local grocery store.
2. Add liquid hand soap to the first bottle. You will likely need to dilute it with water so that it’s thin enough to be poured from the dispenser.
3. Add dish soap to the second bottle. It should be regular strength dish soap, not concentrated (unless, you choose to dilute it as well, because the concentrated variations have a thicker consistency).
4. Add fresh flowers to a petite bud vase. I cut my fresh blooms from the plentiful rose bushes in the common areas around my neighborhood (Hey, I pay HOA dues, so I “own” them, right?), but you are a probably a much better gardener than myself and have some in your very own yard.
5. Set all three on a plain white dish, and you will have a delightful way to display your kitchen necessities.

Take the time to add some simple elegance to your home. Why not find an easy way to enjoy the little things in life?

One morning last week, I woke up and decided that something felt heavy. It wasn’t my down comforter or the fleece plants that I insist on wearing to bed even when it’s 100 degrees outside. Actually, it was the plate display above my head.

I love this display, but all of a sudden it was just too heavy feeling for this time of year. Does that ever happen to you? You look at something that you’ve always loved and then just suddenly decide that it needed to go? I do that kind of thing all the time. Please tell me that I’m not alone.

Anyway, I plopped Zack on my bed, turned on Little Einsteins on the Disney Channel, and while still in my PJ’s, got to work on rearranging my plate display. I stepped off the bed 30 minutes later and was happy with the result. And hey, look! My photography has gotten better, too!

I had all of these plates elsewhere around my house, and I just decided that a display of classic white and off-white plates would bring a crisp and cool feel to the hot Texas summer days.

A plate display like this is so easy! White plates are readily available at yard sales, thrift stores, dollar stores, and even grocery stores. Most of mine were purchased on clearance at Ross for about 50 cents each.

When possible, I like to buy at least two of the same pattern so that I can make a cohesive display.

Do you have anything you can change up for little or no cost to lighten up your decor? Think about it, because I bet you do.

And while we’re at it, I’ve had a lot of requests (especially following my guest post at the Nesting Place) to see my DIY toile headboard. Well, here it is!

I need to put together a tutorial because it was so easy to make, but I made this before my blogging days and didn’t take photos of the process. I’m planning on recreating it on a smaller scale to show you how to do it, but it’ll be a few weeks before I can get to it.