The Real Price of the Pinterest

Hi! My name is Chelsea and I'm addicted to Pinterest. I love the decor ideas, the DIYs, the recipes, the art and the fashion! As I say this, I'm sitting here fighting the urge to jump on my app to look through my collection of pins waiting for me. Believe me, after buying a new house which accommodates less than half of my furniture, I'm in the market for everything, but have a budget for nothing.

If I had to pick a favorite section of Pinterest, it would be hands down, the DIY section. I've even  completed a couple of these fabulous low cost, low effort projects myself. The pins that tempt me the most are the ones that include "for only $(insert low price)". The before and after pictures show these amazing transformations for less than what I would pay for a week's worth of groceries. As with most things that are too good to be true, there is a catch. What I've noticed is that these tutorials assume you already have the tools necessary for the job. For instance, the other day I was researching the price for a subway tile back splash. I, of course, went straight to Pinterest. As I expected, there were tons of tutorials and how to guides for the average Jane. $200.00 seemed to be the average price for the basics: tiles, grout, a trowel, and spacers. I thought, well heck, I can do that this weekend. Needless to say, I am still without a backsplash. The tutorial quoted $200.00 for the materials but not the tools. It's apparently really hard to tile a back splash without a tile saw and a grout mixer. And without the extra capital to buy these little extras, the back splash was a no go.

Now some of you might be wondering but how can you do all those amazing projects without buying the equipment? Well you can rent tools from your local hardware store for a "decent price". But really what scale is "decent" measured on? A $200.00 job can easily turn into your car payment for the month, especially if you only own the basics in tools like me: screw driver, hammer and a drill.

Please do not allow this post to make you avoid any future DIY endeavors. It's merely a warning to read the entire post prior to any demo work. Any tool you buy now will be an investment in future projects, but will cost you more upfront to complete that first project.

Until next time, I'm just keeping up with life.....