How to line drapes (with what you have)

Hello to you all! I have a fun little project for you today – the afters aren’t anything earth-shattering, but it’s one of those to-do items I’ve had on the list (in my head) forever. And I did it without spending any money!

I mentioned earlier this week that I’m going room by room in the house decluttering (and cleaning). It’s taking me a long time. Eons. I don’t see an end in sight. Help. me. I have our bedroom and bathroom (and I’m ignoring our closet like usual) and then I’ll move on to the other floors. Working my way down sounded like a good idea when I was all gung ho about this idea weeks ago.

Anyway, part of the reason it’s taking so long is because I’m taking care of little (and huge) projects along the way. I try to ignore them but then I start twitching and I can’t concentrate and the annoying voice in my head goes “Oh it won’t take long, just do it!”

So I do. This is one of those. Our drapes in the loft/playroom/craft room have been hanging for a couple years, but they’ve really been pieces of fabric hanging, not drapes:

It’s what I do. ;) It’s not the first time I’ve done this. If you don’t mess with the drapes you can’t tell too much. It depends on how much light pours in the window. These are a linen-like fabric so very light and sheer and they were looking kind of awful not being lined. Did anyone ever notice it? I doubt it. But it’s something that was bugging me.

So I went to my fabric stash for some lining. I went through all of it a few weeks ago and knew I had some bigger pieces. Well…I had two that were about a foot too short and nothing else that worked. And at this point I’m ready to do this thing so I’m racking my brain trying to think of what I could use.

I was about to just save it for another day (a non no-spend month day) when a light bulb idea hit me. (LIGHT. BULB. Name that movie.) I knew we had an extra set of cream sheets for our king-sized bed that we haven’t used in a long time. We have two sets we rotate and this was a cheap extra set we never use.

So I threw the flat sheet on the floor and realized if I cut it down the middle it would totally work. SCORE! I’ve seen this done a million times so it’s certainly nothing new, but it worked for me since I’m not spending on decor/DIY this month.

I figured I’d give you a quick how-to-line-drapes tutorial – but keep in mind I’m not a GREAT sewer. (Seamstress?) I just do things they way they work for me and they’re not perfect.

The big thing here – you need to lay your fabric with the print side down. If you’re doing a pillow, both printed sides need to face each other. When you’re done you’ll pull it back inside out so the good sides are out. This hides your seam:

I don’t pin the whole thing to start – just the top. I get that where I want it and pin it, then sew that part first:

Speaking of sewing. Do not be afraid. This is your friend:

I promise, if I can sew, you can sew. I’m not good at sewing. Not a great sewer-of-straight-lines. But the thing is, no one will notice your lines aren’t straight. YOU won’t notice. (Unless you’re sewing something with vertical stripes and in that case good luck to you my friend.)

Half the battle is learning how to get the machine threaded and it’s not hard. It shows you how to do it right on the machine and takes about a minute.

Then you sew. Like a boss:

I love hemming tape, and for years I used just that. But we have animals and I found I needed to throw stuff in the washer occasionally. The hemming tape will actually hold up for a wash or two, but after that not so much. And honestly? Sewing may even be faster than hemming with tape and an iron. Once you get going it’s super fast.

You really want your lining to be slightly smaller than your fabric, so at the end you can iron the edges over so you can’t see the lining. Does that makes sense? You want the printed fabric to be seen from the side, not the lining. (I kind of help that along with the way I hang them too.)

The ironing afterwards took longer than sewing each panel, no lie:

Here’s an idea of the different the lining makes. It makes them less see through, yes (you can get black out lining from the fabric store) but it also makes them fuller and they hang prettier:

Wimpy on the right, lined on the left.

Since I was at it, I took care of another quick little project. You can see in the pic above that the bamboo shades were hanging inside the window. I’m obsessed with getting as much natural light in this house as I can so I moved them up.

They now hang on the wall above the window:

It’s a little thing but it all looks so much better to me!:

I use the little clips to hang my drapes but hate seeing them, so I use this trick to hide them from view. It gives your drapes the look of pleated ones (that are way over my head).

This room is way in between decor-wise, but at least for now it’s decrapified and clean. And the window looks nice. :)

The “create” is coming down next. I think I need a break from words on my walls. ;)

So do you know how to sew? Have you ever used sheets to line drapes? I use sheets from Goodwill for my spray paint “tarps” occasionally – but I may need to start looking for more to use as lining. After a good wash of course. :)        

**You can see more about my DIY craft table here.

**The fabric is called Spring Vine Opal from P. Kaufmann.

How to make a bench (and other stuff)

Well hello! OK – I’m finally back with the down low on the book nook closet. Sorry it took me awhile, but I wanted to make sure I got to all the details and plenty of pictures!

First of all – I was totally flying by the seat of my pants throughout this whole thing. If something didn’t work quite right I just figured out a way to fix it. It’s SO not perfect.

And secondly, and probably most important…I have to send out a big BOOYAH to my Stink Eye Sis.

Remember when we cleaned out the garage and she kept yelling at me every time I wanted to keep a piece of scrap wood? How she even spray painted the ones in the trash can so I couldn’t pull them out again?

Well…this WHOLE bench was made with scrap wood only – so I’m doing the BOOYAH dance. Serving up a slice of BOOYAH. Would you like a sip of BOOYAH with that?

Excuse me, I’m back. Anyway, I was really excited.  :)

I started with the base, and this part was all scrap mdf from this staircase project.

I’ll show you pics and then explain:

I did my measurements and laid everything out to make sure it would work. Then I started securing everything to the walls with long screws.

I did not take the baseboards off. Our baseboards are practically soldered onto our walls, so they stayed. And they gave me a good strong base to secure the mdf to.

I added the center support and screwed in in from the front (it split the mdf a bit, which is OK.) On the back part I just screwed it in from an angle.

Then I covered it with slats of scrap mdf:

I used a bead of wood glue first, then my nail gun to secure it along the frame.

You can see that I didn’t use one big piece of mdf – I was trying to use what I had, so I just cut them to the right length and made them work.

Then it was on to the bench! I used more scrap mdf for this one too:

I did this one very similar to the bottom base. The main difference was finding the studs – as many as possible! And our closet only had three – one on each wall.

I was a bit concerned that three wouldn’t hold up my booty, so I added screws in the corners (where I knew the closet was framed) to get some more support. I held up the center braces with brackets I had in my stash.

Then I took wood from our old DIY sofa table (I took it down a while ago) to make the seat. I installed them in that direction (coming out from the back of the closet) because five of those boards just happened to fit perfect that way.

If you don’t have scrap wood for a project like this, just have a piece of wood or plywood cut to the exact size of your bench. (Hardware stores will do this for you!)

Because I installed the wood that direction, and I was working around the door frame inside the closet, the wood didn’t match up just right at the front. I used a piece of scrap wood from our powder room across the front:

But there were still gaps. I thought I could cover that with the seat cushion, so I just cut the foam with a little bump out so it would cover all the gaps.

I made the cushion like I make headboards, like I showed you here.

I even used scrap foam (I scored a big roll at Goodwill a couple of years ago) for the seat cushion!

BOOYAH. ;)

Because I didn’t have a ton of studs to work with, I was a bit nervous about the stability of the bench. I sat on it over and over and it was fine, but wanted to add a little somethin’ to make it even more sturdy.

Dad suggested a couple more supports against the door frame:

And it did the trick! I have no doubt this will hold up to many sits for many years. :)

(And no, I didn’t fill the holes under there.)

The bench was DONE – so it was onto the shelves. I used a 1” x 2” piece of wood to build a bracket:

Then I used more scrap wood from the sofa table (hence the brown!) and nailed it into the “bracket.” I finished it off with a piece of mdf on the front, and then just painted it underneath so it melted in with the wall.

**If I was really good (and patient) I would have covered the bottom with another piece of wood…but I’m not. :)

There’s a few issues I hit as I went through the process, and I figured them out along the way. The first was covering where the hinges and the strike on the door frame were.

I got a couple of pieces of the thin lattice boards (like I used for the Bub’s “board and batten”) and nailed them over the frame:

The top piece was another scrap, so it’s a tiny bit thicker. I caulked the hinge part (picture on the left) and still need to do that a bit more up in the corners.

My cushion idea (cutting the foam to hang over a bit) worked pretty well, but then my (not good) cutting job on the foam was showing through and it was driving me crayyyyzay. (It was ragged and you could tell.)

I found more scrap wood, cut it to the exact right size, and then wedged it into the door frame right in front of the cushion:

I didn’t even nail it in. It stays put!

Usually I miter the corners of the mdf at 45 degree angles, but this time I just butt them up against each other and it worked great!:

You can see how they meet up from underneath:

I still need to caulk a few spots, but this gives you an idea.

I didn’t continue the mdf around the back of the bookshelves:

I knew it would take up valuable book space. And you can’t see back there with the books anyway. :)

Now…for the goodies – the sources for the cute stuff!

The light was from Menards for $12, but I was at Lowe’s today and found this cutie for about $18:

The basket was from TJ Maxx (already had it) and the “book” label was a cheap chalkboard from Joann’s that’s been in the basement:

The “NOOK” letters are cardboard, also from Joann’s, and spray painted in Pistachio spray paint (from Valspar I believe?)

The fabric is from Joann’s as well – I only need a bit so it was less than $10!

Oh, and the cutie pirate pillows were a HomeGoods find a few weeks ago, $10 each. I love how all of the colors came together!!

Throw all that together, and you get the cutest book nook I ever did see:

Whew!! :)

I am playing with the idea of a drape off to the side – hubby thinks it would be so cool. (For the Bub, of course.)

I hope that helps! It was NOT hard! I promise you. It just took time and patience. I’ve never built anything on my own, and this went so well for me.

And I had a blast doing it!

If you have any additional questions, please let me know and I’ll answer them in the comments!

Thanks again for all the love on this project!

Closet turned book nook

Hello all!! I’m SO EXCITED to show you the fun little project I’ve been working on over the past week or so. Well, the space is little, the work was not. ;)

The idea for this project came to me over time…the first idea was to just replace the wire shelving in a closet off the playroom with wood shelves and then paint the inside a fun color. I picked out the paint forever ago to do just that....and it sat. And sat. 

As time went on (and I avoided building those shelves week after week), another idea came to me that I liked SO much better. I mentioned before that we weren’t using this closet anymore (thank you decrapification!) – so it was just calling out for something FUN.

And fun it is. :)

I have this thing about nooks – I just think they are the coolest. I think kids are drawn to small spaces too. I know I was growing up – a space to read, play, dream, whatever. We don’t have many nooks in this open floor plan house, so when I got this idea I was in luuurve with it before I even started.  ;)

I began with the help of an electrician – which we were going to do anyway because we have no lights in our closets. (I’m hoping to add them here and there over time.)

I saw the end result in my head, and in my head there was an adorable lantern/outdoor-type light. When I found the light that was in my head at Menards a couple of months ago, well…it was meant to be:

The fact that it was only $12 made it even better. ;) WHOO!

(I did some research and asked a few electricians to make sure the outdoor light would be OK installed inside – all said it was fine.)

Once the lighting was taken care of, I started the building process. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I did what any good DIY gal does –  I called Dad.  ;)

He talked me through it and then left me to try it. All by my lonesome. Did I mention I’ve never built anything like this (on my own)?

I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but I went for it! I started with a bottom shelf:

And once that one was done, I did the next one, which was the actual bench:

I was totally winging it, but it was working! And I was using only scrap wood from other projects. About half way in, I was challenging myself to keep it up and see if I could do the whole bench without buying anything for it. And I did. :)

The top was a bunch of scrap pieces:

Which was OK, because I was going to cover it with a cushion, which I threw together with scrap particle board and foam:

And finally, I created some shelves:

And when I was done, the cutie patoot book nook was born!:

Shut the front door – I LOVE IT. I think it may be my new favorite room in the house!

Well, favorite nook in the house:

I had planned on closing off the bottom part, and making it look like a built-in bench, but then I realized it could be great extra storage. And it works perfectly for those big honkin’ books.

I considered a curtain of some sort, but I’m leaving it be. I love having it open…for now. We’ll see how if it stays this organized. ;)

And originally I planned on making the board go vertically, but because I’m lazy inventive OK, lazy…I made them horizontal to hide most of the holes from the wire shelves:

I covered most of the holes with those boards. SCORE!

The bookshelves fit perfectly in the little recess inside the closet:

It was that little recess that started my mind rolling on this project. ;) (The door used to open out to that side, and I’m guessing that’s why there’s extra space there.)

You might notice the light changes a bit throughout the pictures – I had the electrician install a dimmer (first one in this house I haven’t put in myself!) so we could keep it low as a nightlight (since the door is staying off) or up high for reading.

I painted the walls and ceiling above the molding with a beautiful deep blue/green color I found at Lowe’s:

I picked this color out months ago to work with the new drapes in the playroom, and it’s so so SO pretty.

I wanted to create a little space for the Bub to get away and dream, and I think I accomplished it:

The fact that it’s new storage for half of his books is just a bonus. :)

And I’ll admit it…I’m dreamin’ in it too:

BIG FAT SMILEY FACE.

:)

I’ll share the whole process of how I did everything in the closet later this week – the bench, shelves, paint, cushion, costs -- all of it. There were little things that tripped me up here and there and I’ll show you how I dealt with them.

We all love this little space so much. :) Hope you enjoyed the tour of our new favorite nook!

**To see the how-to go here.

**To see more kid space ideas, go here.

Accidental redo

OK Squeezies. Hang in there with me on this post. I’m going to try to make sense of the way my mind works and the stream of thoughts that go on. Aren’t you so excited to get a look into how my decorating ADD happens? My mind can be a very scary place.  ;)

As I mentioned last week, I’ve started a little redo of our playroom/loft. I can’t even pinpoint when it started, but it’s been in the works for months. I’m just finally getting the projects going.

I’ve told you before, I’m nothing if not efficient. :)

Let’s look back at how the playroom looked for a while:

There was a time when I didn’t care for our wall color (the one I had them paint half the house with) – and I thought I had to match everything to it. Hence the reason I used so much red. (I thought it was the only color that worked with the hue of the paint.)

I’ve grown to love the color, and realize it’s an excellent neutral paint. And it’s opened up my world people! I now know I can use more than red to decorate these rooms! ;)

Anyhoo, remember when I told you back here how I took a couple trips to IKEA in a couple weeks? (Gleee!) Well, the reason for my first trip was to pick out this beauty:

It’s the Hemnes dresser and I thought it was going to be perfect for the Bub’s room. I planned to paint it RED (OK, the red isn’t gone for good) to go with his room. Because of that, I got the navy blue version of this dresser, so it would be a good dark base for the red paint.

Well…the reason I loved this dresser was because it had so much storage. What I didn’t realize (even though I measured the space before I got it) was that it’s MASSIVE. I mean, seriously. It’s SO stinking big people.

So I put the MONGO dresser together, and moved it into the Bub’s room, knowing full well it wasn’t going to work. It was too tall and too deep.

Drats.

I was freaking out just a little. What in the world was I going to do with a gigantic navy blue dresser? We certainly don’t need anymore dressers in this house. (You know my dresser obsession.)

And then…it hit me. I could use it in the playroom. Ah HA!! (You can see how I resolved the Bub’s dresser issue here.)

We have had a cheapy laminate TV stand in their for years and years – and a while back I tried painting it. Most of it held up OK, but some parts were flaking off daily:

I’ve been wanting to toss that thing (it was literally falling apart) forever, so I knew this could work out perfectly. Oh yes, my evil plan always comes together…even when I didn’t have a plan to begin with. And it wasn’t evil.

So I crushed the laminate stand (it. was. AWESOME.) and put the new dresser in it’s spot. LOVE.

Even the insides are adorable:

I changed it up just a bit by adding some fun green knobs (half off!) from Hob Lob:

The blue and green color is so FUN – and will make even more sense in just a minute. :)

Because the dresser is ginormous, it works insanely well for toys and games. Between another purge and this dresser, all of it is hidden away. And there are even empty drawers:

Glorious.

Because the dresser was a lot wider than the old TV stand, it created a few more issues. I had to take down the mirror and the art pad off the walls to accommodate the width of this monster.

And doing so left lots of these:

But we don’t have matching paint to touch them up. And even if we did the wall is about ohhhh…20 feet tall? I’m not painting it, and I don’t know anyone who will. :)

I decided to hang the TV above the dresser, so the need to repaint continued when I went to take the vinyl off the wall:

NICE. What the ??

Good. Ness. See how these things happen? It’s just a tidal wave.

But tidal waves are good around here. They give me an excuse to get creative. And in my mind, creative usually equals putting wood on our walls. Or mdf, in this case. :)

I used about $40 of the good stuff and did another board and batten treatment on that wall:

Oh my, I never tire of how fresh and crisp and classic it is! Nevah!

The height has no rhyme or reason to it – I just wanted to cover the big holes that showed up when I took down the bottom shelves. ;)

I used this method to fill the other holes, painted a couple coats of primer on the wall, installed the mdf and then gave it a coat of primer. I covered everything one more time with glossy white paint.

It gives the large wall a base and grounds it – which is a very good thing in this space:

By the way, this whole room is still so in between – nothing has been accessorized, so many projects aren’t done. I just couldn’t wait to show ya. :)

Onto the final project (for now), which may have been the first project. I have no idea. It’s all jumbled in my head. Remember that beautiful fabric I used for the kitchen window treatment?

Well this is the space I got it for:

I wanted to inject some more fun, make it fresh -- but keep it an adult space too. This room has morphed from a playroom to a game room over the past year, and I’m going with it.

And the new fabric was the a beautiful change – still lighthearted, but more grown up at the same time.

I don’t know. All I know is I LOVE it.

A couple weeks ago I found a couple of pillows at HomeGoods that happened to have the exact same colors on them:

And the Bub loves them because the one side has pirates, and he’s ALL over pirates lately. They a little whimsy in the room.

So far I’m loving the changes – so fun and bright!:

That new coffee table is for another post – a Craigslist find a few months ago:

It’s Pottery Barn and it’s fantastic! And no, it’s not staying red. :)

I love looking back to see how our spaces have changed – here’s the playroom a couple of years ago:

And the new game room, as it is today:

There are so many things left to do – the chairs will be replaced with our family room sofa…when we get a new family room sofa. :) The lights will come down, and my plan is to put built ins on each side of the windows. (Dad? You there?) The gallery wall is coming soon, and I’m figuring out a couple of other changes as well.

For now, I’m so pleased with how it’s coming together! All of the voices in my head are making sense…finally. ;)

P.S. To see a few of my board and batten tricks, go here to watch a short video. :)