Making it ours - a work in progress

Headboard facelift

2011-01-23T22:43:00.000-08:00

With the trunk project on hold until I get the tung oil + citrus solvent, I was itching to get something else done off my mental to do list. (Something relatively quick and easy) One of the ideas floating around in my head was to add some nailhead trim to our headboard, which I have been seeing everywhere lately.

In the stores:

West Elm's Nailhead Upholstered Headboard ($449)

Crate and Barrel's Colette Bed ($1699)

Around the blogs:

A lovely curvy version from Centsational Girl:

A great example of double rows of trim from Casa Sugar:

I already had the rectangular upholstered headboard I made a while back, so all I needed to do was add the nailheads. While I really like the double rows in the picture right above, our headboard is pretty small, so I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I figured I would start with the outside row and then evaluate if I wanted to do the inside row.

The hardest thing about this project was finding the trim. Centsational Girl recommended getting it online from Beacon Fabrics, which would have worked, but I was feeling impatient and didn't want to wait for something to get shipped to me. Ironically, the only place in town that I could find it was Rockler Woodworking, a specialty woodworking store that I had originally found when looking for tung oil stuff. I got two packs of their 6 ft nail strips for $15, and I was in business. Here I am part way through the first side, and already loving it:

These are not individual nailheads, but a strip where every 5th nailhead is a hole that you tap an actual nail into using a rubber mallet. Way easier than doing them one by one. I didn't even take the headboard down, just supported it with my other hand as I was banging into it. (Our headboard is attached to the bed, not the wall, as many are. If yours is attached to the wall, I would recommend taking it down) Here is the finished product:

Not perfect, but not half bad. Here is a comparison from before the nailheads:

(really old picture - notice the carpet?) And after:

It was really the touch I needed to define the headboard and make it feel finished. And as much as I love the double row look, I think our headboard is just too small for that. So there it is - quick, easy, cheap, and DONE. My favorite type of project!

Trunk rehab stage 1: Conquer the smell

2011-01-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Remove the old covering. This was pretty easy - it mostly came off in large pieces. Here it is about half way through:

And all done:

Good news here is that 90% of the smell was gone just by removing the fabric. But the wood still had remnants of that nasty glue as well as some stains.

Step 2: Start cleaning. I went to work with a spray bottle of Mrs. Meyers and a scrubbing sponge. That got things a lot better, but it still had some of the smell. Here we are after round 1 of cleaning:

Step 3: Clean some more. I did a little looking around online, and saw several recommendations for using distilled white vinegar to combat musty smells. So I did round two of scrubbing with some vinegar (in a spray bottle), and more Mrs. Meyers. And now the wood is looking fresh and clean.

Well, as clean as you can expect 100 year old unfinished wood with lots of nails in it to look. Here is a close-up of the progression:

And the smell? There is maybe 1% left. Which I think is going to disappear if I just leave the trunk open for a few days. (The outside smelled a bit when we first got it, but it dissipated rather quickly.)

So, what is the plan from here? A couple considerations I had in deciding what to do:

To make maximum use of space, I would like to have a tray to sit in the top of bars on the sides.
Now that I have cleaned up all that wood, I would like to leave some of it exposed, but need to finish it somehow
I do want to line it, since the bottom has cracks etc.
Lining with fabric shouldn't be that difficult, but I am worried about the areas around the hinge and the bars as being tough to do.
It would be great to incorporate aromatic cedar, since I will be using this to store linens.

What I ended up deciding on was lining it with the drop cloth around the bottom, up to the point of where the bars are, and then leaving the rest exposed wood. All of the wood will get a tung oil finish, which I am excited to try out, and was recommended by people that refinish trunks professionally. I will then build a tray to fit inside with a aromatic cedar bottom, which should help things stored in both parts of the trunk stay fresh. Sounds easy, right?

I am running into a snag with that plan right off the bat. All of the tung oil finishes that I have been able to find (Like this one that is at your average home improvement store) are tung oil thinned with mineral spirits. I am trying to use non-toxic, green products as much as possible, never mind the fact that I am doing all of this inside and wouldn't open mineral spirits inside the house no matter how many windows are open. I was able to find a place locally where I can buy 100% pure tung oil, but I would need to thin it myself using a non-toxic replacement for mineral spirits like a citrus solvent, since the oil is too thick to work with when it is pure. This being Seattle, you would think that I could find a place to here to buy either a tung oil finish made with non-toxic solvents, or at least the non-toxic solvent on it's own and do my own thinning, but that does not seem to be possible. So I had to order it off of the internet, and wait for it to arrive. I don't think I will get it by this weekend, which means this project is stalled for now. :(

My next victim

2011-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

I did have a hard time deciding what to work on next. Ultimately, my decision came down to function - most of the projects I am considering are pretty much cosmetic changes, which are really fun - but completing this one will give us more storage that we really need right now. So what did I chose?

This! I got this trunk off of Craigslist for $80 back in November. It is going to sit at the end of our bed:

It provides a place to sit while putting on your socks, as well as a ton of storage space on the inside, which is going to be primarily used for the new queen sized air mattress and bedding for it. (Recap - we got rid of the bed in the second bedroom back when we were doing the floors. The air mattress provides a place for guests when we need it without taking over that room 24/7, but even all packed up, that mattress needs a place to live!) On the design side of things, I think that the trunk is a nice little "something old" for our bedroom - it gives the room a little more character.

I really love this trunk. Here are a few shots of the awesome details on the outside:

At this point I haven't done anything to it but clean off the obvious dirt. Down the line I may look at trying to clean up the outside a little bit, but my project for now is the inside:

Not pretty. And what I can't convey through the internet is the SMELL. Seriously, the inside of this thing smells disgusting. After getting the trunk, I started some research on old trunks and what to do with them. This website had some helpful tips, and also gave me a hint as to why it smells so bad - back when they were making these things, the glue that was used to attach fabric/paper lining had ....um... animal components. That are now rotting 100 years later. Eww! In any case, I really can't use the inside for anything until I get the smell taken care of and have things generally fresh and clean in there. Updates coming soon....

Weekend progress

2011-01-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

The weekend was reasonably productive, and I did manage to (mostly) take care of my list of "unfinished" items. And I have the photographic evidence to prove it.

~~Wood filler in a few spots on the floor~~

Before:

After:

~~Touch up painting on some of the trim~~ - I didn't take photos of this, but I did it!
~~Paint the inside of the door to the bathroom~~

1. Looking all dirty (This picture does not do it justice - it looked gross. At one point in time previously I had cleaned it, and then touched it up with some not-quite-matching white paint I had on hand. And then it got dirty all over again):

2. Clean, but missing some paint:

3. All better:

~~Clean up the door frame on the laundry closet.~~ This requires a little bit of explaining. In most doors (well, maybe all) there is a little piece of wood that the door bumps up against as it shuts, I think it is called the door jamb.

Well, the door on the little closet where the washer and dryer live had one, until it became necessary (due to some washer leakage issues) to remove the washer and dryer from the closet. The people who re-finished our place must have put the door jamb on after the washer and dryer had been installed, because it was impossible to get those things out without removing it. To take it off, I had to remove some screws, and then cut along the caulk/paint that was covering the seam between the frame and the jamb. After that quick and dirty removal, we were left with this:

Not so pretty. But once we had it off, we decided to just leave it that way, just in case we ever want to get back there again. But the leftover caulk and holes annoyed me every time I opened up the door. A little caulk scraping, hole filling, sanding and painting, and here we are:

Much better. The door jamb also prevented opening the detergent loading tray on the washing machine, so now we have the added bonus of being able to use that as well!

The only thing I have left on this is that I need to get new transition molding cut and put in, since the current stuff has a notch for the door jamb, but I didn't have time to get to that this weekend.

~~Do some "touch-up" sewing on one of my pillow covers, as well as some patching/hemming I have to do on some clothes.~~

I only took photos of the pillow. This was from my first piping project. When you are doing piping, you have to overlap at the beginning/end of the strand, so that then ends are on the inside, not sticking out of, your pillow. It is by far the worst part of doing piping. Here is what the pillow looked like from the front (which is what it is supposed to look like):

Here is from the back, in that same spot:

Oops. Kinda missed that one end. At the time I was so excited that I had gotten through it that I didn't even notice what the back looked like, and once I did, it was already on the pillow and didn't feel like dealing with it. But it just took a few minutes (I did it on my first try!), to get the back looking like this:

Yay! It feels good to get all that crossed off the list, and it is time to get on to some new things. I might even start working on one of them tonight!

Unfinished business

2011-01-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Although I have to say - 5 days into the new year and it already feels like the holidays were forever ago. Christmas decorations are put away (tear sliding down my cheek) and now that the place is coming back together to it's normal state. So the question becomes, what to do next?

It's not like I don't have plenty of options. I have several things left from my list that I was supposedly going to do over the summer (that was created before I had any concept how long the floors were going to take), a coffee table that needs to be refinished, another little craigslist treasure that I haven't even shown you guys yet that needs some work, and some new ideas that have been popping up.

But before I get all up in new projects, I want to take a moment to clean up some of the "leftovers" Such as:

Wood filler in a few spots on the floor (in the edges around doorways and such)
Touch up painting on some of the trim
Paint the inside of the door to the bathroom. (It got all grimy from hands touching it, I tried to scrub away the grime, and in the process took off some of the paint. The doors are not painted with the nice, easy to clean semi-gloss trim paint that is on all of the moldings, so I think a coat of that should fix things up. Currently, it annoys me every time I am in the bathroom)
Clean up the door frame on the laundry closet. Sounds random, I know. It's a long story - I will explain later.
Do some "touch-up" sewing on one of my pillow covers, as well as some patching/hemming I have to do on some clothes.

It's really not a lot to do - maybe a day's work if I don't have anything else going on and I am motivated - which can be hard when what you are working on isn't the "fun stuff". But if I don't do this now, before I get into something else, I am sure that it is just going keep on nagging at me. I am not really one for New Year's resolutions, but I do think that getting a fresh start every now and then is important - all those little unfinished things weigh on you, whether you realize it or not. My goal this weekend is to lighten the load - wish me luck!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody! Just wanted to post one last bit of Christmas prettiness while I still can. (I would decorate like this all year long, if it was socially acceptable) These photos actually come from my office building, where they do a pretty darn good job decorating for Christmas - although I have to apologize for the picture quality - they were all taken on my phone. So this all looks much prettier in person. While my own Christmas decor is most definitely traditional, I can appreciate the modern version as well:

The strands of lights that go up the the ceiling are my favorite part. Relatively simple to do and inexpensive, but a really cool effect.

I also really like the ornaments they have hung in the tree branches. Those icicles are nothing like the super cheesy ones that we put on the tree when I was a little kid. (Not that they weren't awesome then, but it was the 80's)

And the wreaths are pretty cool too! I love the different textures in the ornaments, and the feathers are a fun, unexpected touch. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

More christmas-y-ness

2010-12-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is a word. I can't believe you even questioned it. So the Christmas cards are starting to pour in, right? The last few years I have been putting them up on the fridge, but I thought I would get a little more creative this year, using some things I had around the house:

clothespins (I used some in our wedding, and have kept the package of them around, knowing they would come in handy at some point in time)
craft paint
glitter
ribbon (technically this was purchased today, but for the purpose of wrapping presents, not any crafty projects)

I am sure you can already figure out how this is going to come together. Paint the front of the clothespins, and then really quickly, before the paint is dry, cover it in ample glitter, shake off excess glitter, and let dry. I did about 15 of them in 20 minutes, and that included getting everything out and putting it away again. Here they are:

(Yes they are drying on an opened envelope of one of the aforementioned Christmas cards. That is actually on purpose, it will come in handy for the next step.)

I would let them dry for at least 30 minutes to make sure they are really hardened. Then carefully with your finger wipe away any not-so-stuck-on glitter on to the piece of paper that they have been drying on. Dump excess glitter in the garbage. Glitter is going to get everywhere no matter what you do, but this does at least minimize things. Note: you should still have plenty of glitter on them. Here is what a few of mine looked like after the wiping away:

If you want to have the truly dripping with glitter look, I would recommend letting the paint dry for a few minutes sans glitter, and then adding some craft glue that will dry clear, and sprinkling the glitter over that. I was lazy, so I did not take that extra step, but I am sure they would look pretty if you did. Oh, and if you don't like the glitter look, just plain painted, or covered with some Christmas-y scrapbook paper, or even wrapping paper, would look cute too.

Anyways, you are pretty much done. Next you need something of the string/ribbon variety to hang it on. I used ribbon, partly because I couldn't find any string. You also need to decide what shape you want to hang the ribbon in. I did a couple of swags under the frames in the living room:

I used white thumbtacks to hang the ribbon, and then painted them silver so that they would blend in more. I did have a few other ideas for how you could hang the ribbon. If you want a more modern look, you could do straight vertical or horizontal stripes, or you could also zig zag it back and forth for a Christmas tree like shape, sort of like this:

And then all you have to do is hang up the cards. Oh - and a word on using the cheap "for wrapping presents" ribbon like I did - I reinforced the points where I put the thumbtacks through with clear packing tape, otherwise the thumbtack would have just shredded through the ribbon. Happy Christmas card hanging!

Oh, and just for fun, here is our mini Christmas trees that are in the second bedroom. They are very Charlie Brown-esque, but that is what I love about them. I forgot to include them when I posted our other Christmas decorations.

Christmas!

2010-12-13T23:17:00.000-08:00

We just got back from an awesome vacation, which is my excuse for not posting in a week or two. But I have my Christmas decorating for you now! Let me preface this by saying that if I had unlimited storage space (and a slightly larger budget) our entire apartment would be dripping in Christmas everything. I love decorating for Christmas. Go visit my mom's house, and you will understand where I get it from. She knows how to get things truly decked out. So with my limited storage space, here is what I have.

The living room:

I don't love this photo, but it gives you an idea of the overall layout of things. All of the pillows are covers that I made for the pillows that I already had on my couch. That is a great way to add a holiday touch without taking up a lot of storage space. Actually, I use them to wrap up my breakable Christmas stuff. Here is more of a close up:

Pillow breakdown:

Red solid: This and the one in the other corner are a re-worked version of pillow covers that I hand sewed last year out of red velvet, before I had the sewing machine. (Do not attempt that - hand sewing takes for-ev-er)

Stripy: I made this one a few weeks ago, from some left over red velvet, and I also had the white grosgrain ribbon that I also used here, which I sewed on the velvet in diagonal stripes for a candy cane effect. It is really cute in person.

Green: I got the green felt and white cotton fabrics for this pillow for $5 at Jo-Ann's, and then cut out a ornament shape on a white background with a green border for a simple, but fun design. Not a bad price for a cute little pillow, and I had enough of the white cotton left over for the back on the candy cane pillow and one other little project.

Here is the other side of the couch:

You can see that those red velvet pillows have a little bit of embellishment - this one has a little holly leaf that I embroidered using silver embroidery floss. (The other has some little silver stars, but you can't really see them in the photo. ) It is really easy, I swear. Way easier than sewing pillows by hand. This corner is really a tribute to my mom. She painted the little snowman on the table, and the two stockings on the wall are the ones that she made me when I was a kid. (I know it looks awful - two stockings for me and none for the husband - but they are for decoration only, we don't put anything in them)

Of course, I can't forget the Christmas tree:

This is the first time that I have had a real tree in years. The living room re-arrangement meant that we finally had space for it. It smells sooo good! I decided to refrain from buying any new ornaments, and just use what we already have. About 80% of the ornaments on there are ones that I have collected throughout my childhood, and a few more that I have bought over the last few years.

The other space that I decorated was the dining area:

The runner might look familiar - I made it out of more left over red velvet and a little of the leftover white cotton on the ends. Here is a little closer view:

The only thing I added besides the runner was the red and silver balls. These were actually free - a friend of mine had the supplies for them left over from a craft project, but what she had didn't work with her blue/silver Christmas decorating theme, so she passed the stuff on to me, and many hours of glue-gun action later, I had some adorable Christmas ornaments that are all I really needed to make this area Christmas-y. It is simple, but it works for me!

I hope all of your Christmas decorating efforts are going well! Only 12 more days till Christmas - can you believe it!

A little closer...

2010-11-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

The living room took another step forward - more throw pillows!

I took the color from the rug (it is in small doses, but it is in there), and I think they are going to be a great base for other accent colors in the room. (The fabric is dupioni silk. It is dry clean only, but I am using Scotchgard to keep the everyday spills and messes from staining them, and then I can dry clean occasionally to keep them fresh)

I used a cording that I bought at the fabric store, which I really love the look of, but it was a total pain to work with. Even though making my own piping is a little bit more work (like I did for the pillow in my last post), I found that so much easier to work with than this cording. To do piping, I followed the instructions from this post at design sponge

Left to do in this room? Refinish the coffee table, and possibly get a wall sconce instead of the lamp in the corner. Of course, all of that is going to happen after the holidays, because I have some Christmas decorating to do!

Have sewing machine (and other tools) will travel

2010-11-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

I think I have mentioned on here a time or two that I would be happy to help any of you folks in the Seattle area with any sewing/painting/general craftiness type projects at your home. I actually got my first opportunity to do that one day a few weeks ago. I stopped by my sister-in-law's in the morning, where they have been hard at work on their home, and I was able to offer some extra assistance. We started the day by targeting this chair:

They had picked it up at a garage sale for a song, and gotten a new cushion in a great textured green fabric, but something still wasn't right. Our original plan was to bring in some of the darker browns with a throw pillow, so we headed off to the fabric store, and found this cute fabric to make a throw pillow out of.

You might be asking where the frame to the chair went to. Rather than just adding a throw pillow, we decided to take it one step further and refinish the frame in a dark stain to coordinate with the rest of their furniture. So while the fabric was washing and drying, I grabbed my sander and other supplies, and we went to work on the base. Here it is after staining:

I used the same stain as is on my husband's dresser from this post. After a coat of poly the next day, we put her back together:

It works so much better with the rest of their living room now. I took on a little extra credit project, too. The small neck pillow that came with the new chair cushion really wasn't functional, so I decided to put that fabric to better use elsewhere. They have a large throw pillow that they haven't been using because they don't have a cover for it. Enter the green fabric from the chair pillow, some brown curtain tiebacks that weren't being used, and some of my leftover dropcloth, and I created this to go on their couch:

It was my first time trying to create a pattern out of different fabrics, and it is harder than it looks. I definitely made it up as I went along, and while I am happy with the end result, I am convinced there has got to be a better way to do that. But still, pretty good considering the only money spent was $1.00 for the cord that went inside the piping. Oh - and that photo was taken on our couch, which is much smaller in scale than theirs. So the pillow does not look ginormous in it's proper place, I promise. We have several more little projects over there that I think I will help out with, I am really excited with the direction they are going!

Craiglist, how I love you (even more than before)

2010-11-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

I have been on the hunt for a new coffee table. I really like our current one, but it is too big for our new couch set up. Standard length for a coffee table is 48 inches (which is what ours is), which really doesn't work for the the way that I would like to use the ottoman on an everyday basis - pushed up against the couch to make a chaise like arrangement. Maybe that didn't make sense, but the bottom line is- I was looking for something that was a maximum length of 36 inches.

I liked the Lucy coffee table from Pottery Barn:

But not $249 liking it. And I wasn't super excited about the black. It could work, but I would prefer something a little bit lighter. I also found this option from Ballard Designs:

A little bit better at $199, but still not crazy about the color options. And while I am always up for a little refinishing, none of this is solid wood (of course). And hours upon hours of internet searching later, those two were all I could find that was even close to my price range and the right size. (I also looked at using two small accent tables or cubes, but couldn't find anything that felt right in those categories.)

I was almost resigned to shelling out for the Ballard Designs one, when I realized I hadn't even looked on Craigslist - it was like I had forgot it had even existed. And Craigslist has gotten even better - because of my new best friend, Craigseasy. You have to try it. Basically, you do your search on Craigslist, but once you press the easy button, it shows your list of results WITH PICTURES. So you can scroll through a bunch of pictures, not words, and click on the full listing when you like what you see. With my new best friend, I found this baby:

The right size at 24in x 36in, and while the finish isn't exactly what I am looking for, it is solid wood, so I can fix that :) Even better - only $50. A trip out to Redmond later (which I made worth my while by stopping at Bell Square first to go power shopping with my mom), it came home with me and made it's way into the living room:

The ottoman is finally in it's proper place, and I am actually not disliking the color as much as I thought I would. I still think I am going to refinish it, but it is nice that the color isn't totally driving me nuts, because realistically, it probably isn't going to be refinished anytime soon. One, I need to decide exactly what color to use, and two, because the holidays are coming up and I have a lot of fun projects and decorating to do!

Skirted table...I mean bookshelf

2010-11-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

So I haven't actually showed you any pictures of our bedroom post-floors (I am getting there, I swear), but do you remember how we used to have a bookshelf at the end of our bed?

Well, we had the space in our living room bookshelf to move those books out there, and my plan was to use that bookshelf for other storage - like all my new tools and stuff. The kind of things that need to be hidden somehow. I was inspired by pictures of skirted console tables, like these ones below:

(All images from this post at Maggie Rose)

I figured this was a perfect use for all of that leftover dropcloth I have from the curtains. Here is what the bookshelf looked like to start:

Isn't it lovely? Exactly the sort of things you want on display, right? I started by doing some draping to see how it is going to fit:

In looking back at the inspiration photos, some of them had a ribbon trim that I thought finished things off nicely. And I just happen to have some white grosgrain ribbon on hand. (I didn't think of this until I had put the cover on the shelf and put the sewing machine away, so just I hot-glued the ribbon on. No one has to know. Except for that I just told you all...) Anyways, here it is done:

I made it so that the front was a flap. I wanted it to be very clean lined but still have easy access to what is inside. I think it is pretty good, especially considering it was free!

The silver frame shuffle

2010-11-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

I had mentioned that I wanted to move around mirror/frames that I had in the living room. Here is where I started:

The mirror made it's way to the dining area:

And then I had this:

I knew that I wanted to arrange the nine silver frames that I have on that wall - but not really sure exactly how. To help me figure it out, I used a tip I had seen around the blogs - cut out a piece of paper to size for each frame that you have, add a little masking tape to the back, and use those mock frames to figure out what looks good. I have no technique for doing this, just start putting them up there and playing around. Here what what my progression looked like:

None of it was really working for me. I finally figured out why - the frames that I had were originally bought for a symmetrical arrangement - one larger center one, and all the others were pairs. And they just didn't seem to want to go into an organic looking, gallery style arrangement. Rather than buying new frames, I decided to change my vision and create a symmetrical look:

I had also added little black dots to my mock frames where the nail was supposed to go. So getting the nails in the right spots was as easy as nailing through my little black dots and ripping off the paper.

And here we are now:

I like it. I think you could argue that it looked fine before, but I like change (duh), and I am really enjoying this now.

Bookcase love

2010-11-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

I posted the "after" shots our living room a few weeks ago. But I only showed you one view:

That is because when I took these pictures, there were still boxes of books waiting to be unpacked, for the bookcases on the other side of the room. (Those boxes are peeking into the lower right corner of the photo). I finally got around to doing that, and here is the other side of the living room now:

The most obvious change from the shot in my original house tour post is the floor, of course. But I actually did something else to those bookcases that you don't really see until you get a bit closer. Before:

See those lovely little holes running up the sides? This picture doesn't do them justice - they were so obvious. While I love the flexibility of adjustable shelves, I couldn't stand how noticeable those holes were. Since we were emptying and moving the furniture anyways, I thought this was the perfect time to do something about it - and I didn't spend any money, just a little time.

My solution? Black craft paint and a cheap small brush that I didn't mind ruining. (If you don't have those items on hand you could pick them both up for less than $3). Then it was just a matter of loading up the brush and jamming it in to all of those little holes. The paint adhered to the insides just fine, since that is bare wood (actually bare particle board would be more accurate), but it just wiped off the outside, meaning that I could do a really quick and messy job, and then just wipe off all the excess paint with a damp cloth. Approximately 500+ painted holes later, (It only took me an hour or two) we have this:

Much better. And just for fun, here is another view of this area:

As you can see in the picture above, this is where the scratching post for our little kitty ended up. It is by no means hidden, but at least you don't see it right when you walk in the room, so it annoys me less than it used to.

PS - in case you haven't recognized it by now, or you don't have the entire IKEA catalog memorized like I do, these are the Billy bookcases in black-brown.

Closet curtains

2010-10-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Normally I try to come up with a creative title for my posts. You know - to prove that I am creative and witty and all that. But it just wasn't happening on this one. So this is about exactly what you think it is - curtains for my closet.

The closet in our bedroom has always bothered me. Besides the fact that our hot water tank is in there taking up two feet of valuable hanging space, the sliding doors made it impossible to see everything at once, and the very center of the closet was always partially covered by a door, making that area not very user friendly. I had it in the back of my head that curtains would be a more useful closet covering, and it went on the list of "someday I might do that".

(If I had a picture of the closet with the doors, I would have inserted it here)

So when it was floor time in the bedroom, it was time to think about it. Because how I did the baseboards and quarter round in the area around the closet with different with doors vs. curtains. So I decided to add "remove closet doors and make curtains to replace them" to the list of things to do once the floors were done. Not surprisingly, our closet sat like this for a while:

I finally got around to working on these curtains! Instead of heading to the fabric store, I stopped by Fred Meyer and got a 9x12 painters's dropcloth for $19.99. Using drop cloths for curtains is by no means my idea, you can see it on other blogs, like this post from the Lettered Cottage here. You get a lot of fabric for not very much money, (about 83 cents a yard) and I like the rough texture/weave - it looks a little like linen. Other benefit: they come with hemmed edges, which if you use to your advantage, means that you have to do much less sewing. Before I could do any sewing, though, I needed to think about how I was going to hang them. Probably the easiest is a rod-pocket top. Which is exactly what it sounds like - you fold over the fabic, sew your seam far enough down to leave a little pocket to put the rod in, and voila, your curtain is hung. I didn't want to do this because I wanted to be able to open the curtains all the way, which is a little difficult on a rod pocket, especially with a heavier fabric that can get all bunched up. So I tried curtain rings with clips:

The worked fine, but you could see a gap at the top where you could see the clip. (I only have about 2.5 inches of room to work with where the hardware can be "hidden") This is what it looks like where the curtain rod is:

So back to Fred Meyer, and this time I found these little hooks that you can spike through the fabric, like this:

By the way, this is what was going on next to me while I was taking that photo:

Joie assumes that anything that is placed on the bed while she is on it is there for personal amusement (i.e. - needs to be attacked)

Ok, so I got the hanging situation figured out, and got to measuring and sewing, but I noticed that I wasn't crazy about the color of the dropcloth against the wall color, so I decided to bleach it, inspired by this post at Miss Mustard Seed.

I bleached, and then bleached some more. It didn't really seem to be getting any whiter...At one point I started to wonder if I had gotten the bleach that doesn't actually bleach things. So I quit bleaching, washed and dried the fabric, and compared it against some non-bleached leftover drop cloth:

There is a little bit of a difference, I swear there is. (The bleached one is on top, in case you can't tell) And that little bit of difference was all that I needed, the color worked much better with the wall color. Yay! So I get all excited, thinking I am done, hang up my curtains, and step back to take a look (and a photo):

Besides the fact that they need to be ironed, do you notice anything wrong? Yes, the one on the right is about 3 inches too short. Not really sure how that happened...Oops. So I started all over on that one. More bleaching, sewing, and ironing, and here we are now:

Pretty good, I think. And a lot more functional than those doors ever were.

Oh how times have changed... (and our living room)

2010-10-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Our living room went through quite the evolution this summer. Here we are, before I started messing with anything:

And as we prep for the floors, couches start to disappear:

Materials come in:

And then it gets pretty ugly:

On the road to recovery:

Almost there:

Done! (Well, mostly. Ignore the quarter round that is not installed.)

Really done. Except for now we are working on the main bedroom, so our bed is in the living room, functioning as a couch and a bed. It is classy.

By the way - look back and forth between the last two photos. I always turn off my flash and use natural light for photos on here. (Since I am lacking photography skills and equipment, it is the one thing I can do to make my photos look semi-ok.) But those two photos illustrate what a difference the quality of natural light makes in how color is portrayed in photos. The second photo is much closer to what it looks like in real life. Anyways, here we are currently:

A note on the couch change. I originally wanted a sleeper, but along the floor process we decided to get rid of the bed in the second bedroom, because it took up so much space and was not used very often, and add a nice blow-up mattress for in there when we have guests. Which made the sleeper couch kind of superfluous. So I decided to go with our original couch choice - leather. I have had personal experience in babysitting a one-year old in a home with leather couches, and I can attest that they are very wipeable and durable for all sorts of kid related messes. I had heard a few horror stories about cats and leather couches, but thankfully, Joie has shown no interest in destroying it with her claws or (even worse) peeing on it.

So, on the to-do list for this room:

Make some more throw pillows
Figure out a new coffee table situation. As much as I really like this one, it is way too big for our new set up
Re-arrange the mirror/frames on the striped wall to better fill the space
I am not a huge fan of the way the lamp looks on the white file cabinet/side table. I think a wall-mounted, swing arm lamp would look awesome in that corner...
Do something about the ridiculously obvious white outlet covers on the striped wall. They were behind a couch before, but now they just annoy me. Is is ok to just paint the covers with wall paint? Or is that a dumb idea?

I'm baack...

2010-10-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

I know that I am officially the worst blogger ever. But I am back! To answer a few burning questions:

Yes, the floors are done. They have been done for a few weeks. It took way longer than I expected it to, but we finally got it done.

No, I am not going to post pictures of the whole house in this post. The floors may be done, but the rest of the house isn't quite ready for it's closeup yet. We did a lot of changes in addition to the floors, so I am finishing up a few other (small) projects before I post a new house tour.

This post is about one of those little projects. Here was the side table situation after we had put the new couch into place:

Two of the Ikea lack tables that we already had. They aren't bad little tables, but the proportion was all kinds of off. I saw this picture months and months ago:

and was totally inspired by the metal file cabinet as a side table thing. (Sorry, don't have the source. I think I found it on Apartment Therapy). Tons of storage, and kind of has the industrial chic thing going on. I found this baby at Goodwill for $4.99:

Add two cans of this ($5 each):

And you have a $15 new side table that adds storage, has the right scale, and looks cute. (Or at least I think it does)

The actual spray painting was pretty painless. In looking around a little online, people said that spray paint sticks really well to metal, and you don't necessarily need to prime. So I didn't, and it seems to be holding up well. So all I really did to prep was clean it. I chose not to tape it off at all. The handles and everything come off, and I just spray painted it with the drawers in and everything. The inside is still black, but the lines are pretty clean, and taping takes forever, so I like to avoid it whenever possible. (If you are thinking about picking up the spray paint can, read this post from Centsational Girl - she answers all sorts of spray painting questions)

I have blankets in the top drawer - the not so cute ones that you want to keep out of sight when you are trying to make your living room pretty - like my Snuggie. And the bottom drawer is actually files. I tend to sit on the couch when I am going through the mail, so it actually make perfect sense to have our files out here.

And yes, that is our new couch. A little different that what was in my original plan, but more on that later.

I wish this was the after post...

2010-08-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

...but it is not. I wish we were done...but we're not. But we have made great progress, and while I don't have the after photos I want, there are definitely some things worth sharing. When I left off, we were down to a clean, level sub-floor in the 2nd bedroom. Next comes underlayment:

This stuff is pretty easy - roll it out, cut it to size, and duct tape the seams. Areas around closets and doors are a little trickier, but if flooring was as easy to lay as this stuff, we could have wrapped this up in one weekend. (A girl can dream, right?) Anyways, here we are part of the way through the room:

And here it is all done with laying floor (night time picture, bad light)

Daytime picture (on a grey day. Only slightly better light.):

I will say, I do love it. These pictures aren't conveying it, but it is a lovely warm tone that is exactly what I wanted. Aside from moving all the stuff out, the last step here is to install the quarter round against the baseboard to cover the expansion gap. I don't have a good "whole room" picture of this, put here is a corner that is officially "done":

Kinda anticlimactic when there are still boxes of flooring in the middle of the room, isn't it? As much as I would like to show you pictures of whole empty rooms, completely done and ready for furniture (and only the furniture that belongs there), that just isn't going to happen - there is too much stuff and no where to put it! But I will stop my whining. Living room is next....

In case you ever wondered...

2010-08-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

...what it is like to live in your home while you are replacing the flooring in 75% of it. (And you have no garage or storage space.) Well, it might look a little something like this:

or this:

but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel....

more soon!

Ripping out carpet

2010-08-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting here. The floor project hit a bit of a delay, but now that I feel like we are back on track (thank you, Handyman!), I wanted to share what we have been up to so far: ripping out carpet. When you have been wanting to do this for a very long time, there is something very satisfying about getting that stuff out. Here is how it went down.

First, you have to empty the room. So that it can look like this:

Unfortunately, if you are us, that means that your bedroom looks like this:

(Hoarders, anyone?)

And your living room looks like this:

All in the name of better floors, people. So once you have the floor clear, it is time to start pulling up carpet. Which is remarkably easy. I wedged a flathead screwdriver under the baseboard, pulled it back towards me, and that loosened things up enough that you can pull it back and get this:

Carpet pad. (And nasty strips of carpet tacks - be very careful, they are sharp!) It is worth mentioning that this is not a task to be doing with small children or pets running around - way too many sharp objects. Cut carpet in strips for easy disposal, you can just cut it with a utility knife. One strip down:

Rip up carpet pad, also into strips. It doesn't even really need to be cut, I was able to rip it in relatively straight lines. After which I was left with this:

A plywood sub-floor with the remnants of what holds down carpet - staples and carpet tacks. Those little black dots are actually bits of carpet pad that stuck to their staples when I was gleefully ripping it up. In order for this sub-floor to be ready for it's new covering, we need to get out all of this debris and get everything smooth and level. To get rid of the staples, I found that a flathead screwdriver works well:

Usually they come right out, and if one side sticks, you can always pull it out with pliers. Piece of cake. The strips of carpet tacks were a bit harder. I knew that I was supposed to use a pry bar to get them up. I had never used a pry bar before, but this is the method that I came up with. Wedge your trusty flathead screwdriver underneath the strip and lift a little bit:

Use that gap to insert your pry bar:

And now you can push down on the end of the pry bar closest to you, and it comes up like magic.

Note: When my husband came home he informed me that this was not in fact the correct way to use a pry bar. What you are supposed to do is hold the edge right where you would like to wedge it into, and then bang the other side with a mallet or hammer. Admittedly, this is more efficient than my method. However, it is also louder, and I was doing this at 11:00pm.

Anyways, all is going well, until we hit the spot underneath long window that comes almost to the ground. When they were putting down the tack strips in this spot they kind of forgot about putting it an inch or so away from the wall, so that the strip does not fall directly under the molding. This was the situation at the bottom of the window:

You can pry up the strip, but all you accomplish is pushing it up into the molding. And since the top of these things are covered with sharp little tacks, that means that if you push it up into the molding, it just stays there. Now originally we were planning on pulling up all of the baseboards, but once I figured out that wasn't actually necessary, we bagged that idea, and all the extra work that came along with it. So I really wanted to get this out without ripping things off the wall. The plan: divide and conquer. Which means cutting the strip right next to one of the nails that is holding it to the floor:

And then you twist and pull:

And it comes right out. The wood that these strips are made of is quite soft, so it is easy even for a wimp like me. Granted, that little section took me as long as two other walls of the room... So once you have gotten all of the nails and tacks and everything sharp out, you need to evaluate the floor for level Luckily, our floor was quite level, I just needed to sand a few spots. After your sanding, and cleaning it all up, you are left with this:

Done removing things, time to start adding materials back in! In case you were wondering, we are not just hauling all that carpet to the dump. There is a place to recycle carpet (among many other construction materials) down in Tacoma called Recovery 1. It is a bit of a drive for us, but I just can't stand the thought of throwing it into a garbage pile. If you are looking to recycle some old carpet, there is actually a national organization called CARE that can help you find a company in your area.

Progress...sort of

2010-07-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well, in case you were wondering why I wasn't posting about our hardwood floor adventure, that is because it hasn't really started yet. The floors were supposed to come in last Tuesday, and we had plans to do the install this past weekend, but - the floors weren't here. I did get a couple things done. (Warning - these are some ugly photos. Keeping it real, here.)

We sold the Ikea couch. After which the living room looked like this:

Even though it was a very temporary situation, I couldn't stand the way the room looked. So I moved the couch and now we have this:

Still wrong, but better. (And we still need to sell that other couch. It is in good condition - anyone know some one that needs a couch?) Anyways, do you see that white cable that is now exposed? That is another problem that we worked on a bit. Currently, our cable outlet is on the striped wall. In order to make the current furniture arrangement in the room work, we really need it on the other wall, where the TV is. For the last 6 months or so it has been running under the carpet (see that little bump in the carpet in the picture below?)

But now that we will not have carpet anymore, that is not an option (It was a temporary fix anyways). My brother-in-law came over to last weekend to help me rectify this situation. We thought is was going to be relatively easy to get the cable up the wall, over the hallway, and then out on the other side. We even cut one hole in the wall:

And then we started really thinking through our next move, and realized that this was going to involve cutting a lot more holes in the walls and ceiling then we originally thought. We spent a long time trying to come up with alternatives, and ultimately we got no where. I think I have an idea that might work, but it would be difficult to explain. If I actually do it I can explain it all in pictures!

The other thing I accomplished was priming and painting all of the quarter round. It was already white, but it needed to be the same color and finish of paint as the rest of our trim. So I used the primer and paint that I had from the desk project, and knocked that out over the weekend. And where did I paint - the alley, of course:

The more entertaining photo would have been one of me while that painting was going on. It was a hot day, and so my normal "painting" jeans that I wear were not an option. I ended up painting in a cut off denim mini skirt, tank top, singing along to my country playlist that was playing on my iPhone. In an alley. Next to a dumpster. It was one of my classier moments. (Our parking spot is close to the end of a dead end alley. Not a lot of traffic goes by, I swear)

In any case, I did what I could while I waited to see when those floors were coming in. And now, I have exciting news - they are here! I am going to pick them up tomorrow, and the plan is to start the install this weekend. Woo hoo!

Step 1: Purchase hardwood floor

2010-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

Honestly, that was the easy part - since we made the decision to install them ourselves. (Eek!) Which one did we pick? This one:

The engineered strand bamboo. We chose this one for a couple reasons. One, we decided to go engineered so that we could save money by installing it ourselves. Out of the two engineered options, we chose the bamboo because we thought it would fit into our home better overall. I do actually think that the brazilian koa (our other engineered option) looked better against the travertine, here it is to refresh your memory:

But... it was a pretty strong color, and I felt like overall it would clash with our furnishings a bit, or at least limit the directions that we could go with decorating. I also liked that the bamboo was closer overall in color to the travertine, which will make the visual transition from the kitchen/dining area to the living area a little smoother. Here is a picture of that bamboo installed (obviously not in our house)

I think it is going to work out well. The day we bought it, we brought this home:

Quarter round (to hide the expansion gap around the edge of the room), underlayment, and the T-moldings that will be used in the transitions between the wood and the tile. The flooring itself is supposed to arrive at the warehouse tomorrow, and as long as it does, we will pick it up and bring it home. Which will then start the following process (we are going to do it room by room over a few days):

Spread the flooring around the house and allow it to "acclimate" for 72 hours
Move all of the stuff out of the room
Rip out the carpet
Get rid of the carpet. I am looking into if we can have it recycled.
Measure the height of the baseboards and determine if we need to take them off, or if we can install the new floor with them in place
(Potentially) remove all of the baseboards
(Potentially) cut the door casings so the floor can fit underneath
Check our sub-floor for level. Sand down high spots and fill low spots as necessary. (I am really hoping it is pretty level)
Lay the underlayment
Lay the floor. It is a click style, so really the hardest part about this is going to be cutting boards to fit the length of the room and around doorways etc.
Prime and paint the quarter round
Install quarter round, caulk/plaint nail holes and seams
After it is all dry, move everything back into the room.
Repeat 2 times

I think I exhausted myself just writing that list. But - my husband has promised to help, and our wonderful family has also offered help and the borrowing of tools. I think we can do it. And if we get completely overwhelmed, or I feel like the end product is not going to look good, I will not hesitate to call in the professionals.

I promise to take lots of pictures and post all the gory details. Wish us luck!

Scraps

2010-07-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this fabric that I used to make a throw pillow a little while ago?

I had a little bit of scrap fabric left over, so I made a new cushion for my husband's desk chair.

The old one we had was fine, but it was boring beige, and this one is so much more fun. I am not a huge fan of the strings that you tie in a bow to keep the cushion on that that are usually on the back of chair cushions, so I did something a little cleaner looking:

In the seam in between the top half and bottom half of the cushion I sewed in two bands of fabric, and a little piece of velcro on the end of the band. There is also velcro on the underside of the cushion and I connected the two to keep things in place. It has been in use for a week or so, and so far so good. So here is what that side of the room looks like now:

Another little pop of color. Although now I am looking at those bookcases and thinking they look a little dark. Hmm...

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

I know that for all you Americans, the party is this weekend - but for Canadians, July 1st is the day. So at some point in time in the day, you should raise your glass in honour of your neighbours to the north. (Yes, I threw some Canadian spellings into that sentence. Blogger is telling me they are spelled wrong, but I know better.) Happy Canada Day!

Which wood would a woodchuck chuck?

2010-06-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

I took the first official step in getting hardwood floors last weekend - I went and got some samples! On the advice of several people, I headed to Lumber Liquidators. I found a few options that I think could work for us, but now I actually have to make a decision! So here are my choices:

Option # 1 - Strand bamboo hardwood

Option #2 - Strand bamboo engineered hardwood

Option #3 - Hickory hardwood

Option #4 - Brazilian Koa engineered hardwood

Option #5 - go back and get more samples!

I took pictures of all of them next to the travertine, since picking something that will work with the travertine is what I am most concerned about at this point. I think that they would all look good in the space and wear well, according to what the guy at the store told me. Although with the two darker ones I am worried that they might be a little too dark. Anyways -the real question here - what do you think?

I FINALLY finished the desk!

2010-06-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

In my defense, I did have a few very busy weekends that seriously hampered my project time, but in any case it is finally done. The last part was the most fun - making the drawers look pretty.

I had found this stencil that you could buy on the internet a little while ago. I love the quatrefoil pattern, it is such a classic.

But instead of buying that stencil, I took the image, flipped it into black and white in photoshop:

and then printed it on white cardstock and cut out the black parts to make my own stencil:

To paint on the stencil I used some of the craft paints I had on hand. I wanted to use a light aqua and a light green. I didn't actually have those colors, but I was able to mix a few paints to make what I wanted. Here is the stencil in action:

And before I show you the finished product, I just have to remind you of what I started with:

And now:

I am really pleased with how it turned out. The stenciling is far from perfect, and the paint didn't cover completely, but I like it that way. And I love the brightness that the little bit of yellow brings. Anyways, I hope you all like it too. If you want to see the whole process, you can look at my posts here about the inside of the desk and here about the stripping process. Stay tuned for more on my next project - it is a big one!

What am I going to do with this?

2010-06-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have recently had a breakthrough...not about home design or anything, but with our cat. Our poor kitty is the most high maintenance cat I have ever met. Yes, she is a cute little kitty:

In addition to her very delicate digestion and specific litter preferences, she has also been difficult in the scratching post department. I have bought 4 or 5 different scratching posts since we got her about a year ago, but she has not used any of them for their intended purpose. She did use the cardboard ones as a secondary litterbox, but other than that she has completely ignored them. Our couch however - she loves to scratch that. And the rug that my husband got in Istanbul is also a favorite of hers.

So the other day when buying pet food, I decided to get another one, just for the heck of it. And miracle of all miracles, she is using it! She is still scratching the couch a little bit, but I figure with some negative reinforcement when she scratches the couch and positive reinforcement when she scratches the post, hopefully her behavior will change. So that problem is mostly solved, which leaves me with a new problem. How am I going to work this into the living room decor:

Any brilliant ideas? (I know the lampshade is crooked too. That one never seems to want to stay straight!)

It's all about inner beauty...

2010-06-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

No, I have not completed the desk project. It really is taking me forever, but in my defense, I have been really busy, and sometimes you just need to take a break, you know? So while I am not completely done with this project, I have made some progress, and I did get the chance to finish one piece of it.

I left off at the point where the hard part was over - all the prep work!

The painting process started with this primer:

I ended up doing two coats of primer. I don't know that you are really supposed to do that, but I was not happy with the coverage of the first coat. I figured painting furniture is similar to painting your nails - two thin coats is better than one thick, gloopy one. And yes, I am still doing all this in our 2nd bedroom. Which was again a bit of a downside - I could have gotten this done quite a bit faster if I would have had space to paint it all at once. In any case, I finally got there.

After the two coats of primer, I only needed one coat of paint. The paint I used was Sherwin Williams Trim paint in a semi-gloss. I got a gallon of it in the same color as the trim in our house (Alabaster). I knew I could use it for this furniture project, as well as probably a few others, and have some on hand for trim touch-ups. Here we are after the primer and paint:

And here is a close-up of the inside of the desk:

I did a very bad thing to the back of the desk. It needed a hole for cords, since this is an old-school secretary's desk and doesn't have that sort of modern convenience. This is the drill bit that I should had used for this task:

It is called a hole saw. It's purpose is...you guessed it...making holes. Now, I didn't go to Home Depot to get this, and I am pretty sure that if I had, I would have discovered that it is not meant to be used with a puny drill like mine. So I used the largest drill bit we had and make several holes that somehow joined together to one big jagged hole. Totally ugly, and not at all what I would recommend doing. But...it is big enough for what I need, and I figured out a way to deal with the ugliness.

Which leads me to the other bit of ugliness that you may have noticed in the closeup photo. I discovered during the stripping process and confirmed during the painting process that the little dividers in the top of the desk are a complete pain in the butt to deal with. While I was painstakingly putting on the first coat of primer, I was thinking of ways to avoid doing anymore painting in that area. My solution - some scrapbook paper and ribbon to turn it into this:

And that ugly hole got covered up as well. Now I just need to finish the outside. Yes, it is all painted, but I want to add some color/pattern to the drawer fronts. I probably could have this done by now, but I can't decide exactly what to do. My ideas have ranged from just doing a fun color on the knobs, to doing stripes, to doing some sort of other pattern that I will probably have to make my own stencil for. The latter is what I am leaning towards....we'll see

Take it all off!

2010-06-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

Get your minds out of the gutter - obviously, I am talking about stripping furniture here! Here is my victim:

The plan is to strip this lady down, prime and paint her white, and then add some fun accents. I decided to use a chemical stripper on this piece, rather than just sand it, for a couple reasons. One, there is a bit more detailing in the drawers than the last furniture piece that I did, which means that I would have to do a lot of hand sanding. And hand sanding is no fun. Also, I wanted to try out using a stripper, since one of the other pieces that I want to refinish would be impossible to sand, so I knew I was going to have to use a stripper eventually. So this was a bit of a test. And a learning experience.

This is the stripper that I used:

I wanted to try out the less toxic, more "green" stripping product rather than a traditional one. In theory, it is a pretty simple process. Paint the stuff on:

let it sit, and then scrape it off.

Here is what I learned:

Just because you can use the "safe stripper" indoors, doesn't mean you should. This whole process would have been a million times easier and quicker if I didn't have to worry about making a mess, or at least had enough space to spread everything out. What I wouldn't give for a garage! That being said, it didn't smell or make me lightheaded or anything like that.
Be patient! The longer you let the stripper work, the better. (As long as it stays wet - dried out stripper is no good) I didn't have any problem with it drying out, but I only waited about 45 minutes after I applied it, and while it worked after that amount of time, I think it would have been so much easier to take off if I would have waited more like 2 hours.
Make sure that you have enough time to devote to completing the task. I totally underestimated the time that it would take to do the final cleaning off of the stripper. This meant that I didn't have time to do it all in one day, and had the fun of finishing it the next day after the little remnants had dried and hardened. Yay. And you really have to clean that sucker, because the paint will not adhere if you do not get all that stripper off.

So that is how not to strip furniture - or something like that. Once I was finally done with stripping debacle, it was time to give it a quick sand. Using stripper "raises" the grain of the wood, so you just need a quick sand with a fine sandpaper to get it feeling nice and smooth. Here we are after stripping and sanding:

And it's funny, after all that I did not get it down to bare wood completely. Since I am painting, that is not necessary, I just needed to get a nice smooth surface to start with. Yup, all that was just the prep work. And now for the priming and painting...

making pillows

2010-05-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have really been wanting to update some of the throw pillows I have, and add a little more color to our living room. I will be using this tutorial from the sewing 101 series at Design Sponge to get the job done. Here is the cute pillow that Brett made in the tutorial:

She makes it look so easy, here's hoping it really is! I decided to go with the fabric that I showed in the "master plan post" Here it is in person:

It is the perfect shade of orange - exactly what I was looking for. I decided to spare you step by step photos -since my photos would look just like the one's from the tutorial. So here is the finished product:

And the zipper:

Which really wasn't difficult at all. I am loving the shot of color this pillow is giving our living room. It is amazing what a difference one little bit of fabric makes! Without the pillow:

With the pillow:

I do want to make a couple more throw pillows, but I think I am going to wait until we buy the new couch, since that will probably influence what direction I go with colors. In the meantime...I do have a bit of this fabric left over, and I think I have just the place to use it :)

PS - I am loving sewing. If anyone is looking for new curtains, pillows, bedding etc. and not finding something that works for them in the stores - I would love to help you find the perfect fabric and sew it for you!

Media madness

2010-05-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I was going through one of my first posts here - the house tour - with my little sister, giving her the narrated version - and I noticed that I had neglected to include the other side of our living room - the one with the TV and all that junk on it. Not too long before I started this blog, this area got a serious upgrade.

Unfortunately, I don't have any real before pictures, so you are going to have to bear with me here.

When we moved in, we only had one of our two couches in the living room (the other was in the bedroom), and the TV was on the wall where the green couch currently is. Something like this:

While not my favorite furniture arrangement, I felt like it was the one that I was stuck with. The two limiting factors here were the baseboard heater in front of the window (which meant I couldn't put a couch up against that wall), and the fact that our cable outlet was in the upper right corner. I didn't like that it didn't seem to be the best use of space, and that when you walked in the door it was like you were walking right into the back of the couch.

After a while I realized that we almost never use that baseboard heater (and even when we do it does not get very hot) and that I couldn't let a silly thing like a cable outlet dictate my whole living room. After much playing around with a miniature version of our living room on graph paper, I came up with the arrangement we have now - which I love - it makes the room feel so much more open and provides more seating. Like this:

To get the cable over to where the tv is now, we had a runner that covered over where the cords went across the walkway. Not perfect, but the room overall was so much better that I was willing to take that one small annoyance. Again - without before pictures you are just going to have to take my word for it.

So I know I said I was going to talk about the "media area" - and I am getting there, I promise. So when we did the room rearrangement we had the same TV setup we had for a long time - the huge and old TV that my dad had given me in college, sitting on top of what used to be my coffee table with the broken but glued back together shelf. Very classy. So our Christmas present to ourselves was to get a new TV - one of those fancy flat-panel ones that everyone else has had for years. Along the way we ended up with a new sound system too, which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that sub-woofers are huge, and the fact that I had to now work one in was totally messing with my furniture plan. I was limited by a relatively short wall to work with, and the fact that I wanted to keep the furniture as shallow as possible to preserve the flow through the room. Here is what we ended up with:

The unit with doors is from the Ikea Effectiv line. The great thing is that the remote control works through the frosted glass doors, so it hides everything and is functional. It is not actually meant to house electronics, so I had my wonderful (and handy) brother-in-law cut a hole in the back panel for the wires to go in and out of. Speaking of wires....I had originally planned to have all of the components fit within this unit. (I measured the dimensions of everything and had it all worked out.) What I didn't take into account is how much space cords take up. This is what it really looks like in there:

Scary, I know. And that was as organized as we could get it. (Bless my poor husband - it took forever to get everything hooked up and working properly). We needed more storage space, and some way to somewhat disguise the sub. So I have the idea of taking a bookself, also from Ikea, and cutting it down to the right height (thank you again, brother-in-law), so that it would sit over top of (but not touch) the sub, and then using the shelving above for a little more storage space:

And it works! We also had my brother-in-law's help in running the cable underneath the carpet so that we didn't have to worry about using a runner or any tripping hazards. (Don't worry - it is not a long term solution - we will fix that problem more permanently when we rip up all the carpet and put in the hardwood floors) Here is an overall shot again:

So that is how I hacked some Ikea furniture into something that worked for our home. Oh, and if you like the idea of getting creative with Ikea furniture, the Ikea hacker website is lots of fun!

The master plan

2010-05-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so those of you that know me know that I am a serious planner - I generally like to plan things that are major changes years in advance - I am kinda crazy like that. Now I am somewhat sane in the fact that I understand that things change and can roll with the punches and adjust "the plan" accordingly - but I still just like having a plan. So with the caveat that "things change", here is everything that I am planning on accomplishing around the house this summer (in no particular order):

1 - make some new throw pillows for the living room. I could do this project right now - except I am having trouble deciding on a fabric. I know that I want one of them to be a dark orange/rust type color. Maybe something like this...

But what I don't know is what other color/pattern/fabric I want to go along with. I have two throw pillows that I want to re-cover, and I might buy a few more pillow forms. I am not so much a fan of the all matching look, so I want some contrasting but coordinating fabrics, but I am not sure what yet. My indecisiveness may have something to do with change number two...

2 - Replace our couches in the living room, with one larger couch + chaise. There are a few reasons for this. One - we tend to use just one couch on a daily basis, and it would be much more comfortable to have a larger couch + chaise so that we can both stretch out while sitting together. It would also make the room feel so much more open. And the other reason (and this reflects the crazy planner in me) - is that I would really like to get a couch that expands into a sofabed, because sometime in the next few years the current guest room will be converted into a nursery, and we need somewhere to sleep guests. Just to be clear - no, we are not pregnant, and we are not currently trying to get pregnant, but we know that we want to sometime in the near future. All that being said, this is the couch that I am thinking about getting:

I know that it is not a couch + chaise, but it is a sleeper, and I figure that we can get this ottoman:

and place it right up against the couch in order to get the couch + chaise comfyness and the sleeper sofa all in one. (Oh yeah - and since we are planning on having children, the other requirement for this couch was kid-friendly - ie - darker color fabric and machine washable slip cover. We have a cat with some serious digestive issues, and I think that has helped me think about what you need from furniture when you have kids.)

3 - Install hardwoods wherever there is carpet in our home - basically that means the living room and both bedrooms. This is a big one...and again there are a few reasons: First of all, we love hardwood. We contemplated putting it in before we even moved in, but with closing costs and everything, we decided that was not the smartest idea - but it has also always been our preference. Also, we have only been here two years, and the carpet was brand new when we moved in, but honestly it already looks like crap. I think that the owner who re-did our building did everything as cheaply as possible - and it is showing in our carpet. Also, from a re-sale perspective, hardwoods are a definite selling point. I am thinking about something in a lighter finish so that it does not contrast too much with the travertine floors in the kitchen/dining/bathroom that will be staying. Maybe like this:

4 - Refinish my desk (aka my husband's old dresser). This guy needs to be painted white - with some fun accents. I am hoping to do this soon!

5 - Refinish the oak chest of drawers with the same stain as my husband's dresser. This is a really cool piece, and it is heavy enough to make me think that it is made out of solid oak, but sadly, someone did something a little crazy with the finish:

See all those extra "flicks" of stain - what is with that?

6 - Refinish my dresser. It is from Ikea, but it works well and is actually real wood, so I have decided to work with it rather than replacing it. My dresser now:

7 - Build some cabinets to add to our storage space that will look something like the picture below. I know - who said I was qualified to build furniture. But this website gives me confidence that I can do it.

8 - Build a trunk/chest that will serve as the end of the bed sitting area in the master bedroom and some extra storage. Something like this, only I am going to build it myself.

9 - Sew a cushion for the chest mentioned above

So just to recap, my summer to-do list looks like this:

1- make throw pillows
2- buy a new couch
3- install hardwoods
4- re-finish and paint desk white
5- re-finish the oak chest of drawers
6- re-finish my dresser
7- build cabinets
8- build a storage chest
9- sew cushion for the chest

And that is just what I can think of off the top of my head. In a way, it sounds like a lot, but it also looks like a lot of fun! And in the middle of all this I would love to come over and help any of you with any projects you have in mind. And I should probable spend some time with my husband and find sometime for vacation. So what do you think - am I crazy?

One step closer...

2010-05-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

So after I had completed with the dresser, all I wanted to do was rearrange the furniture so I could get the dresser in place. When I get in a mood like this, I just want to get it done! And so there I was, after midnight on a weeknight rearranging furniture. (very quietly, of course.) You saw the dresser in place in the last post, and here is what the other side of the room looked like:

The folding chair is one that I have had around the house for when we have guests over, that I will now be using as my desk chair. Since I don't sit at my desk for long periods of time I don't need a heavy duty chair or anything.

Now, I did all that rearranging, but I hadn't yet sold the old desk and chair, along with a bunch of stuff that belongs in our storage unit (once I take the time to re-organize it!). So the other side of the room looks like this: (eeek!)

We are not having guests over anytime soon, so I have a little time to get all that under control. And even though when you look at the whole room, it really is a hot mess right now, but getting the furniture in place just makes me feel like I have accomplished something. I knew I had one other little thing that I wanted to do for this room - a fun cushion for my desk chair.

Here is what I started out with:

The fabric store didn't have the type of pillow form that I wanted, so I just used several layers of quilt batting, cut to the right size, and covered it with white fabric to hold it together. (I did the exact same thing with leftover quilt batting from our headboard to make a throw pillow for our bed.)

And now for the fun part - with cute fabric!

After I finished this I also looked at the overall arrangement of the furniture. I wasn't really digging it. I am still working on quite a few things in here, so it will be changing soon anyways, but I decided to move a few things anyways:

A little bit better - this is not an after, but an "in progress". The after is in my head, though, and it is going to be so cute!

Masculine dresser, all done!

2010-05-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to head to Target on a weekday, which means that I was able to finish off this project before the weekend. Yay! Here was what I picked up to finish things off:

these new knobs - and some contact paper to line the drawers.

I did my best to clean up the insides of the drawers, and while they are clean, and don't smell any more, some of the stains/discoloration would not go away. So even thought I am not a contact paper kind of gal, I thought it was the best way to finish things off. (If this was a dresser for me, I would have done some cute patterned paper for drawer liners, but since it is for my husband, I knew that he would appreciate simple, clean, white. Right, honey?)

Ok, I know, I am writing words when I should be showing you after pictures, right? Let's look at the before one more time (for dramatic effect):

And after:

It is by no means perfect, but unless you are really getting up close and personal with it, the flaws aren't that noticeable. I did do one thing that I wasn't originally planning on doing that made things a bit easier - not sanding into the small grooves on the sides (and the matching ones at the bottom front.) Being the sanding novice that I am, I had no idea how to get into those little grooves, so I just didn't touch them, and them staying the original color added a bit of interest and variation.

I really enjoyed doing it, and I learned a lot - I am totally excited for my next furniture refinishing project (There are at 4 pieces of furniture we have that I can think of right now that I want to refinish.) But I am not sure that the weather is going to cooperate for that type of activity this weekend, so I will just have to do something else to keep me busy. I already have some ideas...

Refinishing furniture is fun!

2010-05-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I had a pretty productive weekend. Here is where we started on Saturday morning:

Since it was my first time doing something like this, I turned to this how-to at one of my favorite blogs for some guidance. With instructions in hand, I felt a little more confident that I was going to be able to do this and not screw up too badly. First thing was to get it nice and clean inside and out. The inside of the drawers had a slightly musty smell, and were lined with some really old, gross, yellow contact paper:

Once things were all cleaned up, it was time for the part that I was a little nervous about - sanding off the old finish. I had gotten a little electric sander to use. (It was not expensive, and I have a few more furniture projects in the works that it will come in handy for.)

I had a little piece of plywood left-over from my headboard making project. I grabbed that and tested out the sander on it first, just in case my tiny little sander was too powerful and would jump right out of my hand or something. I mean, you never know what is going to happen when you turn on a new power tool for the first time. Luckily, the sander seemed relatively easy to control. In no time I was sanding away. It took about 3 hours, but I got the whole dresser sanded down to bare wood. And I forgot to take a picture! But I was just so excited, and I was in a bit of a time crunch, so I just got to staining right away. This is the stain that I chose:

While this dresser will live in the second bedroom for a short time, it will eventually move into our bedroom, where we have very dark wood tones. (Our nightstands are these ones from Ikea, in the black-brown finish).

I put on the stain using a cheap 2 inch wide brush. My how to guide said that staining generally ruins brushes anyways, so it is easier to just buy a cheap one for the project and throw it away when you are done. And here is what it looked like after one coat of stain - the color was perfect.

(this pic may answer one of the questions in the back of your head - where does someone who lives in a condo refinish furniture - the answer - our parking spot in the alley, of course!)

The instructions on that can said that I had to let it dry for at least 8 hours. Luckily, the Seattle weather gods were on my side - no rain in the forecast, so I could just leave it outside overnight. At that point my husband and I headed out for an amazing dinner to celebrate his birthday.

Sunday morning I had to head into the office, but by Sunday afternoon I was ready to get this project finished up. And that involved getting some sort of clearcoat overtop of the stain to add a little shine and durability to the finish. I stopped by the new Green Home store by my house, hoping to find some low or no-VOC clearcoat. It is a new place, and they are still getting set up, so one guy went looking in the back to see if they had what I needed, while I drooled over the hardwood floor samples in the showroom. It turned out they didn't have the product I needed in stock and ready to sell yet, but they did have a giant tub of it in the back, so he poured some off into a can for me. They wouldn't even charge me for it! Two coats of that gave it a soft sheen and really brought out the color of the wood:

Now I just need to let it finish drying and get some new hardware. But still - a pretty good weekend. I hope you all had a good weekend too!

And today's project is....

2010-05-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

...Refinishing this dresser that I got off of craigslist:

It will be for the husband when I am done with it. He is currently using an old secretary's desk as a dresser, which really does not have that much drawer space. And this man has a lot of t-shirts. The secretary's desk (which also needs to be refinished) will become my desk, and then we will sell the desk that I am currently using. Basically, I am playing furniture musical chairs that in the end will result in everyone having more storage space. Because you can never have too much storage.

Anyways - the plan today is to sand and stain this dresser a nice espresso finish. I have never refinished furniture before, but I have been doing a lot of reading, so hopefully it will all go ok. Wish me luck!

Cutting it up

2010-05-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that I promised you a photo of my next project, but I have not been home before dark this week, so you are just going to have to wait for the weekend for that. In the meantime, a little something that else:

Not that long ago, we had your usual knife block with a knife set in it sitting on the countertop. I decided to get my husband an awesome new chef's knife, and he bought the matching paring knife - and long story short, we needed a new solution for knife storage. I bought a new, larger, knife block, but it just didn't fit on the counter well. And to be honest, I was looking to get things off of the countertop, not add larger things So I took that back and got one of those magnetic knife strips, like this:

Now, our backsplash is granite tile (which I dislike and will be replacing eventually- but more on that another time). This did pose a problem for hanging things on the wall, since I do not possess a drill powerful enough to drill through granite - but I wasn't going to let that deter me. So I found some screws that would fit in the corners between the tiles. I then had to fill the existing holes in the knife bar, which weren't at the right width for what I needed, and very precisely drill new holes. I only messed up once (that hole also had to be filled), and my customized knife bar was up in no time:

(see the pretty new knives on the left with the hammered metal

finish - they cut like a dream, and are nice to look at!)

All my husband really uses is a chef's knife and a paring knife - so it actually work best for us to have two of each out and available for use. We did have a few other knives that needed a home too. I love the idea of an in-drawer organizer like this:

...But we really don't have the drawer space. So I got creative with something we already had:

I know, it's a little ghetto, but it get's the job done and I didn't have to spend any money, I am able to tore more knives in less space with this than one of the pretty knife blocks above. All I had to do was cut out a couple of the holes a little deeper to accommodate the wider knife blades.

The whole point of this post - just because what is available isn't exactly what you need doesn't mean you can't make it work for you - and don't overlook what you already have!

Spring table - complete!

2010-05-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

I am considering this my first real sewing project - since all I really did the last time was hem the fabric. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty well. Here is what I started with:

I had one yard of each fabric, and was looking to create a reversible table runner. The design was to have each side be primarily one fabric, with just a couple strips of the other. Something like this:

(Overall dimensions are 13in x 72in)

(I know the lines on that little drawing don't line up. It was my first time playing around in CorelPaint, and I did not feel like spending a ton of time to make it absolutely perfect. Very un-OCD of me, but sometimes it is just not worth it.) Anyways....this type of design, instead of one solid fabric on each side, allowed me to buy a lot less fabric. I would have had to buy 3 1/3 yards of each fabric to do it in solid, and would have had a whole lot of extra fabric left over.

First thing was sewing the pieces together:

At that point I had a tube of fabric with one unfinished edge. In order to finish it up, I wanted to do was some top-stitching. I did a test on some left over fabric:

In order to do that on my "tube" I needed to iron those edges down flat. I discovered when I pulled the ironing board out that it had gained some additional range of motion. It was kind of like ironing on a roller coaster

Here is what it looked like after round 1 of top stitching, at the very edge of the fabric:

And here we are after round 2 - finished!:

Now, the last thing that I would like to do is iron it again with some spray starch to get it nice and crisp looking, but since I didn't have time to get any today (and I need a new ironing board), I decided to just go ahead and shoot the "after" photos without that. Now, as soon as I laid this guy down I realized that some of the red accents that I had just weren't working anymore. So, I rearranged some things, and picked up a couple new accessories, and here we are:

(The green candle and vase set me back $1.84 at Goodwill.)

Some more pics, some with the blue and some with the green:

Yay! I declare myself all done with that area of the house, at least for now. And I can tell you, my next project is not going to be a sewing one. We picked something up today that I am really excited to get working on. Will post a pic soon!

Wrapping paper storage

2010-04-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

So I would love to share my newest project with you, but it's not done yet. Instead, here is something I did a little while back:

I was inspired by this post at Young House Love to get creative with how we store our wrapping paper. Wrapping paper is one of those things that is a bit of a pain to store for those of us in small spaces. Here is their solution:

While I love the way that they did this, but we don't have the inside of a door suitable for this solution. But it did get me thinking about creative ways to deal with wrapping paper that would work for our space. I thought maybe you could make a little "sling" to hang it below the shelf in a closet. I already had the supplies on hand for this little project:

- craft felt (you could use any fabric, this is just what I had on hand - and it is easy to work with because you don't have to hem the sides.)
- hooks
- iron-on hem tape
- hot glue gun

I didn't really measure, just kind of eyeballed it. You want your fabric to be about 8 inches wide, and about 4 inches longer than the depth of the shelf. All you need to do is poke holes for your hooks, and then use the hem tape to secure things. You can also add a little dab from the hot glue gun around each of the hooks, just to make sure they don't fall out. And then you have this:

And then all you need to do is hang it up!

If you are someone that uses their wrapping paper frequently, and the closet you are using has a lot of clothing in it, this may not be the solution for you, as you will need to remove some clothing to get the wrapping paper out. For me, I don't use it terribly often, so it works perfectly. Oh - and here is another example of me not following my own instructions - I made my "slings" a little too long, but they are up, and they work, so for now they stay.

And here is the fabric for my next project. Hope to be done and sharing photos soon!

I'm baack...

2010-04-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

Whew - that was a lot of flying! But both my trips went well. The DR was amazing; beautiful beaches, warm sun and great people to share it with. It was my first time at an all-inclusive resort, and while I don't know that I will travel that way often, I will say that the endless free drinks were definitely a plus. I am currently in Pina Colada withdrawal.

While I was there I was definitely inspired by the beautiful colors and textures, and think that our place may see a little injection of some Dominican-inspired style.

The lobby of our hotel. The open air concept is lovely, although may not translate to Seattle well :( I do love the varying textures, from smooth stone floors to carved poles with wrought-iron accents. The colors here all stay pretty neutral, but the texture keeps it from being boring.

This is really all you need - a little shade to keep you out of the heat and somewhere to sit...

While we didn't get to spend a lot of time off of the resort, I really enjoyed the vibrancy of the colors that we did see. My other favorite thing, from a design standpoint, was the beautiful limestone that the island is made of. Where ocean meets island, it has, of course, become the soft white sand you see above. Many of the buildings, however, incorporated this local material. I love this stone in it's more natural form:

Although it is also lovely when it has been turned into a more conventional building material as well:

Well, that is it from the DR for now. For those of you interested in pics with people in them, I will post some on facebook very soon. I wish that my camera battery wasn't dead right now - I could give you a sneak peak of the fabrics that I am using for my next project. The colors are definitely inspired by the ones you see here.

And I'm off...

2010-04-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog, my goal was to post at least twice a week. I think I have been doing pretty good on that so far, but....I probably won't post for the next two weeks. I take off for Boston tomorrow for 5 days (work), am back home for a couple days, and then to the Dominican Republic for a little vacation. Yay vacation! So just because you don't see me here for a few weeks, don't think I have given up on this whole blogging thing - I'll be back! And because every post needs a photo, here is our adorable little kitty, modeling our duvet cover for you:

(Love the pintuck stripes on the duvet. I need to get good enough at sewing to do something like that!)

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful day, whatever it is that you might be doing. Yesterday I had the chance to get together with one of my girlfriends and revive an Easter family tradition from when I was a kid - making Ukrainian Easter eggs (also known as Pysanky). I am not going to post a how-to on this - seeing as how this was the first time I had done it in over 10 years, I don't know that I am qualified to be giving instructions. But I found this website very helpful for getting myself reacquainted with the process - it would also be great for beginners just starting out.

Traditional pysanky designs are very beautiful, but they take quite a bit of skill and time to create:

We decided to go a little more fun and modern (and easier), inspired by these:

Design Sponge

Martha Stewart

It was my friend's very first time decorating pysanky, but she was easily able to make these adorable eggs:

I did a few different designs, all around a general simple flowers/vines theme. I dyed a few eggs solid colors to fill out the dishes I wanted to display them in:

I think they turned out really cute. In a perfect world, I would have gotten on this several weeks ago and already had them out on display, but since I just made them, they will be hanging out on the dining room table well past Easter. :)

All patterned up

2010-04-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Wondering what I was going to use that brown and cream damask print for? I am going to give you a hint:

From Making it Lovely

From Design Sponge

From Apartment Therapy

You guessed it - I used it to line the back of our hutch. About the easiest sewing project ever, which I thought would be a good place for me to get in some practice on my new sewing machine. If you don't have a sewing machine, and want to try this look, don't worry - it would work perfectly well using iron-on hem tape. Here is how do get it done. (Some of these points may come naturally if you have some experience with this stuff, but if you don't, these instructions are for you):

Measure the area you want to cover. And then measure it again. You really want this to be right.
Subtract 1/2 inch from each measurement - this will be the finished size of your covering. You want a little breathing room on each side so that it doesn't get squished or bunched up. Then add 1 inch on each side for seam allowance. Example: You measure the back of your hutch. Each panel is 15in wide x 30in tall. You subtract 1/2in from each of those. So the finished size will be 14.5in x 29.5in. Once you add in the seam allowance, it will be 16.5in x 31.5in. That is how much fabric you need.
Write these numbers down, and bring it with you when you go shopping!
Buy the appropriate amount of fabric. If you are going to use a print, make sure that you think about which direction you want the print to go when you are figuring out how much fabric you need. The width of the fabric will be listed on the end of the bolt - don't forget to check that and factor it into your calculations. Don't be afraid to whip out the calculator on your phone while you are in the store to make sure that you get it right. And always buy at least 1/2 yard more than you think you need.
Iron out any wrinkles in the fabric. Normally, if you are working with a washable fabric you always want to wash it before working with it. Since I don't anticipate having to wash these in the future, I skipped the washing.
Measure, and re-measure, and double-check your measurement - don't forget about the seam allowance! Mark your cut lines on the underside of the fabric. (I just used pencil - I know there are some fancy fabric markers you are supposed to use for this, but I don't have one)
Cut your fabric to size.
Fold over 1 inch of fabric on each side and iron for a crisp fold. (If you get done with cutting and discover that you are a little short on one side, don't worry. 1 inch is quite a large seam allowance, you can easily get away with using a 1/2in or 3/4in instead to make up for your small cutting error. And if you made a large cutting error - well - that is why you always buy extra fabric.)
If you are going to sew it, pin the folded over fabric in place and start sewing!
If you are going to use the iron-on hemming tape, place the tape inside your fold and iron according to the instructions. I know that it may seem like a waste of time to iron it twice, but it really makes it much easier to use the tape, and ensures that you won't make a mistake.
Now all you need to do is hang it up. I didn't want to damage the hutch at all, and I wanted it to be removable, so I actually just used masking tape. The fabric is a really light cotton, so there is almost no weight. I wasn't sure if it was going to hold. but it has been up for several days and it doesn't seem to be moving at all. Here it is:

I love it! It would have went a little smoother had I followed my own carefully laid out instructions, above. When I bought this fabric, I was looking for a sewing machine, not fabric for the hutch - so I didn't have the measurements with me. I thought that I remembered what they were, and thought I had gotten more than enough - but that was not the case. So in order to finish this project without having to go back to the fabric store, I cobbled together the last panel from 3 separate pieces, which took a while, since I tried to match up the pattern as best I could. Here is how it looks from the front (look at the bottom right corner - that is where it gets all wonky):

and from the back:

And that is why you buy enough fabric and cut it carefully - that last panel took way longer than it should have! Luckily, the messed up part is hiding behind the liquor bottles, so you can't even see it. Here is the overall look of the dining room now:

I love the extra depth that this adds to the space. Now I just need to update that table runner for spring...

I'm sew excited!

2010-03-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, that is a really cheesy post title, but it's true. (And I am a bit of a dork.) I just bought a sewing machine, and I am really excited about all of the projects I am going to use it for!

I have to say that the process of shopping for a sewing machine was an interesting one. I went to several stores, and at each one I explained that I was buying my first machine, interested in doing some light sewing around the house (curtains, pillow-covers, etc.), and that I didn't really have much in the way of experience, aside from hand-sewing and doing some sewing on my mom's machine when I was a kid. I might as well have put a sign on my forehead that said "I am an idiot, please treat me as such." Almost every saleswoman talked down to me, and in general was borderline rude. I wonder if that is how they treat all of their customers... In any case, I had the opposite experience at Bernina Northwest - pleasant staff who were excited to be helping a new sewer get started. This is the machine I bought:

Bernette 56

It is a basic machine, but that is all I need for what I am planning to do. They had someone available to give me a quick lesson on how to use it right when I bought it, so I came home and started working on my first project. Here is a sneak peek of the fabric I am using:

I will show you the results as soon as I get it finished. I have got one part done so far, and I think it is going to look great!

The dining area - the saga completed

2010-03-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

I know all you really want to see is the after pictures, but getting there was such a process, I feel like I have to share it - but don't worry, I won't be offended if you scroll down to the bottom first...

...And now that you're back, I will pick up where I left off. Which was basically a dining area that was cleaned out of all of the extra stuff, ready to be beautified.

Getting a new light was pretty central to my vision for this space. I sold our old light on craigslist. Took it down myself in less than 15 minutes. At the time I had sold it, I had already ordered this light. I had seen it used several places, loved the look, and you can't beat the price. Here is an example of that light from one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love:

I was excited to get the new one up in as little time as it took to get the other one down. The light arrived, and although I really liked it, there were two problems. One, it was a plug-in style, not hard wired (although I figured out that problem was easily fixed). Problem two - the shade was too big for our space. So back it went.

And thus started a ridiculously long search for a similar fixture that wasn't quite so large. Two things I discovered: lighting is really expensive, even if what you are looking for is simple, and in your mind should not be expensive, and also that there are a ridiculous amount of choices out there. But I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, at least at a price that I was willing to pay. So here is what I ended up getting from Shades of Light:

It is a pendant light kit where you can attach your own shade. Any lamp shade that is made to work with a harp should work. So now all I had to do was find the shade. Because I am impatient (and just not smart sometimes) I chose to go get this shade before the light kit had actually arrived:

And because I am just lucky, I picked up the one shade in the store where the hole where you attach the shade was not machined properly, and was too small. So when the light kit came in, and I excitedly tried to put the two together...it didn't fit. (I am convinced that the garbage can people and lighting people conspired to make this project as difficult as possible) . So I ended up a Harold's, a local lighting store, where I found the perfect shade that fit, although I ended up paying more than I would have liked. On the up side, Harold's makes their shades on site, so I did feel good about supporting a local business.

And now to install new light, since I finally had both a light source and a shade. I tried to do it, with a little of my husband's help, and was most of the way there, until I discovered that the hole in the lightbox that you are supposed to attached the fixture to did not fit the given screw - on one side only. With that and the fact that the lightbox itself was hanging down from the ceiling a little wonky...I called in some help. My brother-in-law (we are just going to call him The Handyman from here on out) was generous enough to come over, take a look at it, and hang the thing up in no time at all. (It helped that he had dealt with a similar lightbox in their own home before) And now...we have this:

For those that want the details, it is a 10in x20in oval drum shade, in a cream linen. It is not a size that they normally make, it was a custom shade made for another fixture.

And now for the last piece, breaking up all that dark wood. Getting a few accessories for the tabletop was the easy part, but the hutch took a little more work. I experimented with several different ways to lighten it up. I tried creating a frosted look on the glass doors, both with a glass frosting spray and a window film, but neither one worked all that well. I also tried lining the back of the hutch with a cream colored fabric that I had on hand - but that just didn't end up looking quite right. What I ended up doing was switching out the glassware that we had in there for some of our white stoneware, plus a white platter for $4 from goodwill, to go from this:

to this:

And now to the part that you probably scrolled down to 5 minutes ago.

Before:

and after:

If I can find the right fabric, I may still line the back of the hutch with fabric. And I will also probably change the runner out pretty soon. I really like that one, but it feels very fall/winter to me. (I did buy it back in early February) I would like to find something a little brighter and more springy. So what do you think - do you like it?

The dining area - the saga

2010-03-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

I can't call it a dining room, since it is really just a part of the kitchen. But I set my sights on prettying this area up a little while ago. Here is the before:

It could be worse, but it could also be a lot better. Here are the things that I was wanting to address:

Get rid of the garbage can, since it doesn't really fit where it is, and it blocks access to the buffet (and you have to squeeze around it to get to that side of the table.)
Get rid of the two pieces of dorm room style furniture. (The white shelf on the left side and the birch veneer cabinet that is just visible at the bottom of the photo)
Replace the light fixture. It was something the builder put in, and I never liked it.
Break up all that dark wood. I like dark wood, but that is just too much of a solid block of it. It was sucking the light out of the space!

That doesn't sound like too much of to accomplish, right? A little shopping, some reorganization/purging of unneeded items, and a quick switch out of the pendant light, which I had been reading about how to do, and seemed pretty straightforward. Wrong. This was so much harder than it should have been.

Replacing the trash can.

This step took three tries. I had seen pull-out trashcans that you could install under your cabinet, so I planned on installing one of those under our sink. I did my measuring, looked at Home Depot's website, and based on the dimensions that they had posted online, went into the store and bought this one. Brought it home. Didn't fit. The dimensions on the box (which I hadn't really looked at, since I had worked it all out before going into the store) listed the required depth as 2 inches deeper than the dimensions listed online. 2 inches I didn't have. OK, a least partially my fault for not checking in store. So I took that one back.

Tried again, this time paying careful attention to the dimensions listed on the box. Got it home, and I confirmed that it would fit in the cabinet. I then attempted to assemble it. The great thing about this one - and I am not kidding - the trash can provided did not fit into the caddy. I couldn't even force it in, and our other smaller trash can, which we use for recycling, didn't fit either. I couldn't believe it. So that got returned as well. I got basically the exact same thing from Storables, and it worked. Finally. Yay for trash being nicely put away.

The next step was getting rid of those little pieces of particle board "furniture". This part was kinda fun - I pulled everything out of the cabinets, and then only put back in the stuff that we actually use - with plenty of room for the extra stuff that had lost their homes. (I then reorganized the cabinets several times. I love organizing) This left me with a pile of stuff on the table that I put on craigslist. Some of it sold, some of it went to Goodwill - and I ended up with $160 in cash. Which definitely contributed to new things I got to make this whole thing work!

If you haven't re-organized/purged your kitchen lately, I really recommend it. It is amazing how much junk you can accumulate, and it feels so good to have that extra cabinet space when you are done. This post over at Hello Kitchen is a great guideline to follow.

I know this post didn't have much in the way of pretty pictures, but now that I have shared the dirty work, the next post will have all the fun stuff!

Hold the cheese, please

2010-03-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

I love the sentimental stuff - I am always keeping little things that remind me of an event or a person. As I am slowly trying to change my pack-rat ways, I am looking for ways to bring in that sentimental/personal side of me, without just keeping stuff in a box, and without it being super cheesy. So I was totally delighted when I saw a blog entry with this photo:

From This Home Sweet Home

I love typography as art/decoration. This is a print that you can buy, but it is also something that you can totally make yourself - and make something truly personal in the process. So I found the lyrics to Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" - which was our first dance song at our wedding (and just one of our favorite songs in general). Printed it out on a piece of white card stock (I used courier font), popped it in a $14 frame from Ross, and viola! My own art that is sentimental without being overly cheesy.

In case you didn't memorize all of the photos that I just posted in our house tour, here is what it looks like in our bedroom.

I see it everyday, and every time I look at it, it makes me smile! And even though he was skeptical as I was making it, my husband likes it too. Well, I am going to get out and enjoying the sunshine (and possibly do some fabric shopping). I hope you all have a good weekend!

Our house

2010-03-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the lowdown on our place, as it is now:

It is a 718 square foot condo, 2 bedroom, 1 bath. We purchased it in February 2007. The building we are in has a total of nine units, which is a nice size. It was originally an apartment building, and was remodeled and turned into condos by the people that sold it to us. So if you have never actually been to our house (and I am guessing the only people reading this are people that have actually been here, but just in case), and you are looking at these pictures thinking, wow, they have done a lot of work - no we haven't.

Current occupants are my husband, myself, and our adorable high-maintenance cat, Joie. (Her name is pronounced Joey. I don't know why we went with a weird spelling/pronunciation combo for our cat's name. Maybe we knew subliminally that she was going to be high-maintenance, and thought it appropriate. Mental note: do not do this to any future children. )

Anyways...I found this awesome website, floorplanner, that allows you to make your own floor plans. Since I am also obsessed with anything planning/organizing etc. - this made me very excited. This is the floorplan for our house:

It is actually a really well laid-out place. When you are working with minimal square footage, a good layout is incredibly important. And here is what it looks like in real life:

Dining area:

I have to admit - this is not a current photo - because this area just underwent a "project". And I can't show you the after without showing you the before first! But this is what it looked like before I started messing with it.

And if you turn slightly to the right, the kitchen:

Travertine on the floors, granite tile on the counters/backsplash. It looks nice, but I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with our kitchen. Pointing out all of it's flaws (and which ones I probably will and probably won't fix) will likely be a subject of an upcoming post.

Living room:

Looking from the kitchen from the dining area

This is what you see right when you come in the door.

I actually quite like this room right now. It has undergone several changes since we first moved in, but since I don't have any before pictures, you will just have to trust me that it is much improved. Of course, that doesn't mean that I am not going to be changing it more down the road...

From the living room, you go to the back of the apartment, where there are three doors that lead to the bathroom and two bedrooms

Joie is beckoning you...

Behind Door #1 - the bathroom:

More beautiful travertine. Really the only thing that I have added to this room is the two glass shelves on the wall.

2nd bedroom/office:

Just in case you were wondering where we hide the kitty litter box, it is behind the bed. We do move it out of there when guests actually stay in that room.

Our bedroom:

A couple DIY projects that I did a little while ago are in here. The curtains, which I hemmed and lined with blackout fabric, and the upholstered headboard. Both were super easy - you can find tutorials online if you are interested in doing something like it. By the way - I would have much preferred to have the curtains behind the bed be floor length, but there is a baseboard heater back there. We don't use it very often, but still...

And that's it!

Umm...hi

2010-03-13T04:06:00.000-08:00

Hi there. So those of you that know me know that I recently developed an obsession for all things home design. Once I discovered that design blogs existed, I was hooked. And naturally, that made me look around our home and start thinking about what I could do to make it more beautiful, more functional, and more "us". So I started embarking on some little projects, and at some point in time I started writing blog posts in my head to go along with those projects...

And so here we are. I am excited to start sharing and documenting what I am doing. Stay tuned for a "house tour" post soon.