Sunday, April 29, 2012

No Sew Window Valance

Today I'm posting about another project from our laundry room makeover. We have a small window and needed a window treatment. I really didn't want to buy another valance, but I did remember I had some left over window panels from our previous house that we have not yet used in this home. I pulled them out to see if they were workable, and luckily they were! They were black floor length panels that I had bought from Target a while ago for about $10 per panel. For this particular project I only needed one panel. (I ended up using the other panel for a different project. There will be a post coming soon!)  I'm sometimes lazy when it comes to sewing, so I really didn't want to drag out my sewing machine for this project. Thankfully I figured out a way to make a no sew window valance with just a few easy steps. Here is my tutorial as best as I can explain it. Sorry for the black fabric - kind of hard to give a clear step by step with a dark fabric!




And here is the finished product!


So what do you think? Not too bad for a no sew project! It took me about an hour from start to finish and maybe not even that long. Luckily I already had the curtain panel, but Target carries panels similar to the one I used and they are still rather cheap. I also already had the curtain rod, but you can pick up those from Ross for around $5.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Besides my terrible allergies, I had a great weekend;) My best friend and her soon-to-be hubby visited from San Antonio. Amongst many fun things we did, we made it over to the Ft. Worth Flea Market and I found a great find - the 2 main wheels for our factory cart table!! You might have seen me mention it over in my post about our Project List.  I was so excited when we found a pair of these for only $50! I had been eying a few on eBay for around $70-100 for a pair, so I was very happy when I spotted them on Saturday for nearly half that. They are 12 inches in diameter and just the right size. I almost bought a 9in. pair from eBay, and now that I see these 12 inchers in person, I know the 9inch would have been too small. Here is a pic:


The hubs and I also just got back from Lowes and gathered up a few more supplies. Can't wait to start putting it together! Anyways, hope everyone had a fun weekend:) Peace out!




Friday, April 27, 2012

Happy Day!

 

I am still rather new to the blog world and learning new things everyday. Today I learned about a fun little award called the Leibster Award! Now embarassingly enough, I had not yet heard of this fun little award, so of course I looked it up! It's this neat award that bloggers can award to fellow bloggers. Typically given to those who have less than 200 followers and might be new to the game. For those of you that might be curious, the word leibster is actually German and translates to: dearest, beloved or favorite. Cute huh??


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A Never Ending Project List

So lately I've been blaming Pinterest for all of my excessive project ideas.  Well although it is partially to blame, I think the blogging world has added to the craziness as well. I have so many ideas and projects in the works that my brain is starting to hurt! 

My hubs keeps saying these crazy statements like "Why can't you just be satisfied with what you've got!" Or "Why do we need more furniture?? We have enough to fill a warehouse!" Humm... wha?? Whats that crazy man talking about?? He can't be talking to me! ... Ok so yeah, maybe he's a little bit right about all of those outlandish statements - I do always have a project going on AND we do have enough furniture to fill a warehouse. Dang. Sorry hubs. But it's really not that I'm not happy or thankful for everything I have (because I am very grateful for it all), it's just that I really enjoy the process of a project. I love the planning, I love sketching out the idea, I love trying to figure out how all the pieces will fit together, and I LOVE to see the finished product and know that I created it. It's my version of solving a problem. I've never been the best at math, but I can sure design and built a piece of furniture!  I'll share my top 3 projects at the moment since I have far too many to list. 


{ #1 - Building a replica Factory Cart Coffee Table }
Most of these go anywhere from $600 - $1600, but the hubs and I plan to keep it around $120 for all of our supplies and gadgets. Here is some eye candy for ya:







{ #2 - Revamping our Mantle }
Right now it looks like this... I mean I'm fine with it, but it could be better.


This is what I would like for it to look like:


And here is a great How-To:



{ #3 - DIY ladder }
I'm thinking I will be able to do this for around $10 or so. Here is some more eye candy for ya:

 





 Any DIY projects going on around your house? I would love to see!

Happy Wednesday:)


 

Monday, April 23, 2012

Industrial Pendant Face Lift

Ok so last week I let y'all in on my recent laundry room makeover.  One of the many changes I've made is our new industrial light fixture as you see here:


Well this little gem had actually been in our garage for many months just patiently waiting for it's perfect home. It had previously sat over the kitchen table like this when we moved in, but we KNEW there ain't no way it was going to stay there. This is the picture from when the previous owner lived there. We literally changed it out the day we moved in. Thanks Dad and hubs!


As you can see, it had a strange glass orb surrounding it. As soon as we took it down, I figured out a way to take the glass out. Which made a HUGE difference. Here is a better photo I found on the Lowes website:

 
I now had it looking more industrial once I took the glass off, but I still had no place for it. It literally sat in my garage for months all sad and lonely:(

 
After taking off the glass months ago, the size of the fixture was kind of awkward. It was too small for some spaces and too large for others, so we never found a place for it. Never even thought about using it in the laundry room until yesterday when I became completely desperate. The UFO light was coming down no matter what - even if we didn't have a replacement. And if you know me, I seriously hate unfinished projects. I'll stay up all night if I have to just to make sure I get the project done. Weird, I know. 

You might also notice there was a long pole that I had to disassemble if I wanted to use it in this space. Needless to say, after a few trial and errors, it worked perfectly!! And to think...I was literally about to drive to Lowes and buy a new fixture!! SO glad I didn't give in. I always like to think that I work best when I'm shoved into a corner. I knew I didn't want to spend any more money on the laundry room, so I HAD to work with what I already had. So what did I do? Wondered around my house and garage for about an hour until I figured something out. Thank goodness, because I found the perfect solution and didn't have to spend a dime:)

Here was our process:

{ Step 1 - take down Mr. UFO light }


You might notice that fixture look a bit... out of this world.  Can you imagine if there was more than one, and they were ALL over your house? Fixtures like these spread in every single room?? Could it be true???? Yes. It was true. When we moved in, fixtures like these were everywhere. We liked to call them our little space ships or UFO's that had taken over the house.  It took a few months to switch every one of them out throughout the house, but this little guy was the last to be changed. Can't really say I'm going to miss him much. Fly on home spaceship! Aka the trash...

{ Step 2 - take apart the pole to shorten the height }


{ Step 3 - Re-thread the wire through the shortened chain }


{ Step 4 - Hang it up, step back, & enjoy! }





So what do you think? Like I said before, this is just one of the many DIY's I had to create in order to make my laundry room complete. More posts on that particular makeover soon!

Make sure to check out The DIY Project Parade over at The DIY Showoff!

DIY Show Off
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend;)











Thursday, April 19, 2012

Our Foyer Fix-Up

Stripes stripes and more stripes! I just can't get enough of them right now. So what did I do? I put them right in our entryway. 


When we moved into the home a nearly 8 months ago, there had been wallpaper up on the wall that I thought I wouldn't want to take down. Here is how it looked before we moved in:


Normally I love black walls, but in this case I wasn't sure it worked with the furniture we had. I first painted the bottom half of the wall white (under the chair railing). Since the black paint had a pretty high sheen, it literally took about 4-5 coats of white to completely cover the black. In my opinion, it was totally worth every coat. It already brightened up the space so much. Here is how it looked about a week after we moved in:


After a few weeks of an unfinished entry way, I still wasn't sure what to do about the wallpaper. I had so many other projects going on at the time, I honestly didn't have much time to even worry about it. The entryway stayed like this for a while until one day my impulses jumped in. 

I had just come back from a jog around the neighborhood and was simply going to shower and start cooking dinner. Well I got a bit distracted when I walked by the entryway and noticed a small corner of the wallpaper had started to peel up. It bothered me that it was already peeling, so I thought this had to be a sign. I tested the strip that was peeling and I seriously peeled off the ENTIRE panel all in one try! One of the main reasons why I hadn't done this months before was because I didn't think I had time to peel off the paper inch by inch, but this time I got lucky. Well kinda... There were TWO layers of wallpaper. Luckily the second layer also came off rather easily, but remember folks, this is very rare. In past experiences I knew it was typical for a project like this to take hours and even days.

Here is the progress picture:


Lets just say when the hubby got home from work, he jokingly gave me the "are you kidding me?" look. I told him not to worry because I had a plan! The next night I began to paint over the new walls. Normally most people would texture over this type of wall because it's not meant to be painted on. It kind of felt like a hard clay surface and really absorbed the paint. I actually loved the way it worked with the paint, so I kept painting. I will say, it wasn't the easiest surface to work on, but I was very happy with the end product and the smooth texture it produced.

I also got rid of those small twin shelves and moved them to another room. Found a nice vintage cigarette cart at a local antique store to replace it with. I was SO excited when I found this piece. I had been eying it at the antique mall for months and it eventually went on sale, so I snatched it right up! I again got the "are you kidding me?" look when I bought it, but once I re-stained it and fixed it up a bit, the hubby loved it too:) I think the casters and those old advertising stickers are my favorite part.




 I also got those great rustic baskets thrown into the deal as well.



 So what do you think!? Are you loving stripes as much as I am? Some people might be nervous to paint horizontal stripes in their home because of the difficulty level of keeping the stripes perfectly even. It was actually pretty easy - you just need to measure twice before you paint. I used standard painters tape and it seemed to work really well. If you have any questions on how to paint these stripes, I will be happy to help!

Hope y'all are having a great week!

Who I'm linking up with this week:




Keeping It Simple








Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A project in the works...

So randomly last Sunday I got the urge to completely makeover our laundry room. It was like 3 in the afternoon and normally at this point I would be winding down from the weekend and preparing for the work week. What did I do instead? I drove to Lowes to buy some lumber. That's always a bad idea - or maybe a great idea? I think I've decided to blame it on Pinterest. It's really been inspiring me a bit too much lately. Regardless, I rounded up some supplies and came home. Over the past few days I've been a busy little bee and working every night. I'm a few steps away from the finish line, but with a full time job and more graphic design work on the side, it's hard to find the time!! Here are some of my Pinterest finds that led me to this project:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Dishes & Dining

So you might have taken a little tour of our home and seen a peak of our dining room. I'm always changing things up here and there, but I've finally settled on something I'm pretty happy with. The color scheme of yellow, green, grey and black came into play kind of by accident but I actually really love it. And hey, I'm kinda representing the good ole Baylor bears a bit too! Go green and gold! Ok getting a little distracted... Anyways! Here is a closer look at our dining room. Keep scrolling down for the before pics. 
















 So what do you think?? 

Here are some before pictures. This one in particular was taken when the previous owner was living there. I took this pic when we first walked through the home.


Here is a few weeks after we moved in. Hadn't had time to switch out the light fixtures or do much of anything really.


And once more, here is the after:

 
Much better, right!? There are a few DIY projects scattered throughout that I will be posting about soon. One of which are my painted chevron curtains:)

If you'd like to look at some other lovely dining rooms, visit Thrify Decor Chick! I found some great inspiration there today.