Project withdrawal

After finishing up the master bedroom and bath, and girls' bathroom, my DIY productivity has taken a major downturn.  I haven't been completely lacking for inspiration, but there are no home projects that are terribly urgent at the moment.  To boot, things have been very busy at work - so, there hasn't been much time for blogging, let alone, projects.  But, after a break of a few months, I started to feel like I was going through withdrawal. 

A little desperate for a creative outlet, I decided to tackle a small and simple task over the weekend...

... hairbows! 

I used to make my own hairbows when I was a kid, having learned from my aunt who had a business making and selling hairbows.  Having two girls has allowed me to reignite those DIY skills :)  They were both born with lots of hair - and now, both have long wavy/curly locks.  Luckily, they are pretty good about letting us put it up (most of the time).  Though I have made dozens of hairbows over the past four years, the collection seems to dwindle as time goes by.  It was time to replenish.  These are the new additions:

If you're interested in a tutorial - check out this great post! 

Guest blogging at a la mode

If you missed my headboard tutorial - check it out today at a la mode

Shelli's blog is uber-stylish and she has such a fun personality.  I'm honored that she asked me to write up a post for her!  Make sure to have a look at her Home Tour.  Her office is a dream, and the nursery is fabulous!!

Ribbon-trim roller shades

I used curtains on the basement windows to bring warmth to the space and give the appearance of height.  For privacy, I wanted to keep things clean and simple - roller shades were the perfect solution, and fit nicely in my budget.  I found the basic white fabric roller shades at Ikea (unfortunately, I can't find them on their website now - I wonder if they're discontinued?).  To give them a bit of personality and counter-balance the line of the black curtain rod, I trimmed them with gray grosgrain ribbon.      

Here you can see the shade without ribbon...

It wasn't only about decorating the shade... the ribbon trim was actually essential on this door-shade, since the edges of the shade are unfinished.  By gluing a band of ribbon along the edge, it effectively prevents fraying along the edges and fingerprints.

To trim the vertical edges, I unrolled the shade most of the way, ran the trim up the edges to near the top (using hot glue), and then rolled it back down to the length of the window. 



All in all - a very simple and inexpensive way to spruce up basic shades.  The ribbon cost under $10 and the whole effort took less than an hour.

DIY art idea

Massucco Warner Miller

Massucco Warner Miller

I love the artwork in this classic-with-a-twist room designed by the amazing West Coast firm, Massucco Warner Miller.  To me, composition is the key element to creating an artistic and memorable photograph.  The same branch taken from another angle or from a different distance would be just a branch.  But, this makes such a bold impact.  It's always refreshing to see large contemporary photographs in traditional spaces.  I would love to do something like this.  Any recommendations for where to have a photo blown up?

p.s.  Those pink velvet chairs with the zebra rug... so chic.

Stencilled wall panels

Sorry for the delayed post - blogger was down last night and this morning. How frustrating!

Inspired by this photo that I posted a while back...

Savant Interior Design for Washington Design Center's Dream Home

my Mom suggested we think about doing something similar in her dining room.  We'll be spending next week visiting my family, and I'm hoping we'll be able to work on some design projects - maybe even this one.

Browsing for stencils, I came across Cutting Edge Stencils, which has some very stylish designs.  These are some of my favorites.

All images above via Cutting Edge Stencils.

Alternatively, we could use wallpaper... I'll post some pretty options tomorrow.

DIY Decoupaged Trash Can and Tissue Box Cover

When I was designing the girls' bathroom, I wanted to bring in some fun, colorful accessories.  I had seen images of cute, decoupaged tissue box holders and trash cans like these...


available here






available here

I figured this couldn't be too difficult of a DIY project and started to hunt for find the perfect containers and paper.  Finding the paper was pretty easy.  Having drooled over the gorgeous options at Paper Source before, I headed back there.  I ended up purchasing wrapping paper, which is less expensive than the art papers, and also lighter weight - which seemed like a good idea for decoupage.

available here

Locating inexpensive appropriate containers actually proved trickier than I expected. At first, I tried to use an old acrylic tissue box cover I had on hand, but it had curved edges, which were impossible to work with.  This is my sad first attempt.

Never mind the white electrical tape.  I was trying to see if I could do SOMETHING to hide the ugly!  No luck there.

So, armed with a stack of 20% off coupons, I headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and found just what I needed.

The curved edges on this trash can were ok, since it was otherewise square.  The paper wrapped the entire can  neatly without any fussing.

I have to report on one small problem, unfortunately.  I've noticed little rust spots on both of these pieces now that they're all done.  They're hardly noticeable - like little pin heads.  But, if you can find a plastic vessel for this project, I would recommend going that route.

The photos below show how I went about covering the 2 containers... I think the photos (along with my minor commentary) speak for themselves, but let me know if you have any questions.

I used just a thin layer of Mod Podge to affix the paper to the box.

On the top, I just glued down the edges, as I intended to cover the top with a square piece.



To fit the square piece on top, I traced the shape of the opening and drew cut lines.



Once it's glued down, I outlined the edges and cut off the excess paper.

I used a narrow strip of paper to cover the inside rim of the opening.

To seal it, I used the sponge paint brush to dab Mod Podge all over the outside (working one side at a time).

Then, I smoothed it out.

As you can see, there are some wrinkles and air bubbles.  I couldn't really avoid them, but tried to smooth them out wherever possible.  Now that it's all finished, it's hardly noticeable.  You'd have to pick up the item and inspect it to see them.  I think I did 2 or 3 thin coats of Mod Podge on the outside of the paper.  And, that was it for the tissue box cover! 

Making the trash can was virtually the same - other than a few variations in the shape of the container.  What I liked about this trash can is the metal lip at the top.  This allowed me to cover the sides with paper, and have a neat finished rim at the top.  If there is no such lip, I would probably go all the way to the top, but not fold over to the inside.  Then, you could consider painting the inside of the can.

Nothing's perfect... notice the little tear?  This, too, is hardly noticeable when all is said and done.

So, overall - it's pretty simple.  If you're a perfectionist, I think wrapping paper might not be your best choice, since the light weight of the paper is probably a contributor to the bubbles/wrinkles.  Wallpaper would probably work well - and fabric is another option.  But, if you're like me - and don't mind a few imperfections - this is an inexpensive and easy way to personalize your everyday tissue box cover and trash bin!

As a reminder, here they are in the girls' new bathroom.

I was thinking of adding a monogram in dark pink, and still have not gotten around to that.  Since this room is shared by both girls - it would probably be just a single lower case "g" for our last name.  What do you think?

DIY Roman Shades - A Few Variations

If you're not a DIYer... sorry for this lengthy/wordy post... please accept this eye candy as my apology!

Christopher Maya via House Beautiful

Following up on yesterday's DIY Roman Shades post, today, I'm sharing some details of how I made the shades in our bedroom (using existing roman shade hardward/cords) and in the girls' bathroom (using existing hardware/cords from mini-blinds).  I can't promise that these methods will save THAT much time or effort... but, they provide some alternatives... and could save you a few dollars on supplies.
 
Work with what you've got (i.e., repurpose your existing shades/blinds):

Master Bedroom Shades:

In our bedroom, we had white JC Penney roman shades on the windows before I launched the makeover. 

For a true short-cut, you could simply attach your new shade fabric on the front of the existing shade.  I've read that this is possible and works well... but, alas, I didn't try this.  First, because I chose a relatively heavy-weight fabric (Tala Bluemarine) and thought it might be too bulky with the existing shade.  Second, I did not want those dark horizontal lines (wooden dowels) to show through. 

So, instead of using the existing shade fabric, I simply un-knotted the lift cords from the lift rings, snipped off the shade fabric, and left the mounting board/bracket and lift cords intact.  Oops - forgot to photograph this step (bad blogger!).

Girls' Bathroom Shade:

In the girls' bathroom - we had white vinyl mini-blinds on the window pre-renovation.

The lift/lower mechanism on blinds is essentially the same as that on a roman shade.  So, rather than ditch the perfectly good mounting hardware... I decided to repurpose it. 

For a true short-cut - have a look at Jenny's ingenious tutorial on how to make roman shades from mini-blinds (gluing the fabric to the actual slats).  I opted for the traditional lift rings approach (something about spending a ridiculous sum on this single yard of fabric made me feel like I needed to be a purist of sorts and sew - rather than glue - the shade).  So, I pulled off all the slats and ladder strings...

and was left with this.  By the way, this is essentially what the JC Penney white roman shade looked like sans white fabric (except without the clear plastic stick used for opening/closing blinds - which is removed for this project). 

Note that the positioning of these cords (several inches in from the ends) is not ideal... it's better for the cords to be as close to the ends of the mounting board as possible (leaving room for the cord lock mechanism).

Making the fabric shade:

In yesterday's post, I showed how I sewed the front fabric to the liner - using a pillowcase-like design. 

Master Bedroom Shades:

For the bedroom shades, I followed a different approach.  My lovely Tala fabric has a very loose weave, and I was concerned that it would lose shape over time if it was not stabilized.

To attach the drapery lining to the Tala fabric, I fused them by ironing them together with No Sew HeatNBond (I bought it at my local fabric shop by the bolt).  This definitely stabilized the Tala fabric... in fact, it made it pretty stiff, which worked to my advantage, since I was not planning to use plastic battens. The stiffness of the fabric makes the folds very crisp (although they do require a little "training" to go up neatly). 

Rather than fusing all the way to the edges, I cut the HeatNBond and drapery lining to the width of the finished shade, and left about an inch of Tala on either side.  In the photo above, you can see the HeatNBond being ironed onto the Tala fabric first.  Next, I peeled off the paper backing, placed the white drapery lining over the ironed-on HeatNBond, and then ironed over that to fuse them together.

Next, I folded over the edges - ironed - folded again - and ironed again - to hem the sides. 

To secure the hems, I cut strips of HeatNBond - but - given the many layers of fabric - the "bond" was not very strong... so I just stitched a line up each side of the shade as reinforcement.

Sewing the top and bottom hems is basically the same process used for our master bathroom shade (yesterday's post).  Once the fabric shades were all stitched and ready for assembly, I laid the mounting boards with lift cords at the top of each shade to identify the distance from the edge for the lift rings.  Next, I performed my little eyeballing pinch method of creating the folds...

With pencil markings for the lift rings, I got to work on sewing them in place, and then laying the mounting boards with lift cords back on the shades - and putting it all together.





 And, eventually I hung them back up - on their existing brackets.

I like that these are more substantial and interesting than the white JC Penney shades, but that they also let in a good bit of light.

Girls' Bathroom Shade:

For the girls' bathroom shade, I followed the same general approach as above, but without fusing the front and liner fabrics together.

I measured the lining to be the same as the width of the finished shade, with just over an inch of front fabric on either side for hems.

This time I pinned, rather than fused the hems (which did not work well the first time around).

Once the shade was sewn, I played with the trim to see where/how it would look best.  I pinned the corners for mitering, and got to work...

But, unfortunatley, I must not have measured QUITE right... b/c I ended up with an imperfect rectangle.  I pulled and pulled, and forced that thing to fit (sewing in place, rather than gluing this time), but what it ended up doing was cause the fabric to pucker...



and, by that point - I was totally burned out - and had used up every last shred of the hot pink cotton webbing.  So, I gave myself a little pep talk (imperfections add character, right?)...

sewed on the lift rings, attached the lift cords and mounting hardware and put it up - flaws and all.

Oh well!  It's still cheerful and functional.  A little puckered window shade is certainly not going to bother these clients (my 2 and 4 year old girls)!

Note about placement of lift cords:  I mentioned above that the placement of the lift cords on the blinds was less than ideal (not close enough to the edges).  Since this is such a tiny shade (24" width), and because the cotton webbing trim gives it some stability... it didn't really matter here.  If it were a wider shade, or a flimsier fabric, it would likely have caused the sides of the shade to droop down when raised (opposite of my master bathroom shade, which droops in the middle).  You could try to counteract this by inserting a wooden dowel inside the bottom hem. 

Whew - that's a lot of words!  Hope this is helpful if you're tackling your own roman shade project.