No sew bench cushion

Hello everybody! Hope your weekend was great – I was SO sick most of it which was a bummer. I get a horrible cold every year this time of year and I think they’re getting worse as I get older. This one was a doozy. I felt a little better in the evenings and like a new person last night, so I got this project done during those times I wasn’t on the couch. :)

I’ve been working on our mud room a lot this year and I’m loving it. It’s different for me – lately I’m going for lighter, more subdued colors on the walls, but this room is FULL of color. I like to start with some sort of inspiration for each space and this one was based off a rug I found at HomeGoods:

I picked the blue color on the beadboard from this rug (Reflecting Pool by Ralph Lauren). I LOVE all of these colors and love them together.

These thin rugs come in so many fun designs (I’ve seen quite a few of them at HG) but I don’t actually use them as a rug just because of how thin they are. Even with a rug pad they don’t stay put for me and I end up tripping all over them.

So I had a plan all along to use this one in a different way – as an upholstered cushion for the bench. If you’re really good you know how to make a real cushion, but I do it the cheater way. :) I’ve done this a few times and it always works well.

I grabbed some scrap mdf from the garage and cut it down a little smaller than the rug – it was already about 19 inches wide and I cut it down to 42 inches. Instead of using expensive, thick foam from the craft store, I used my egg crate foam that you use on the bed:

I showed you how I use this on my upholstered headboards here too.

In the fall the twin foam pads will go on clearance and you can get them for super cheap. WAY cheaper than thick foam from the store. I used hot glue to secure it to the wood, then used an electric meat knife to trim it down:

I think I saw that idea like ten years ago on Trading Spaces and it works GREAT. Cuts like buttah.

I put another layer on top, this time with the textured part facing down:

You can see I had to piece it together – since the rug is so thick you don’t even see where they were put together when it’s all done.

To make it nice and smooth I wrapped the whole thing with scrap muslin that I had:

You don’t want to pull too tight because the edges won’t be even. If you pull it crazy tight you’ll have bumps in between where you stapled on the back.

I did the same with the rug and made sure to center it right on top:

I did the two short ends first, then the sides, then the corners last. I knew the corners would be tough with this because it’s so thick. I had to cut a lot of the corners down under there so it’s not pretty – but nobody will see it. :) It’s secure and staying put and that’s all that matters.

It turned out just as I saw it in my head all those months ago:

It doesn’t go the whole length of the bench and I knew that going in – I wanted some of the bench to be open so we can set stuff down if needed. I don’t know if we’ll keep the cushion off to the side or in the middle, but for now I’ve got it here:

No, the door trim is still not painted. I’m getting myself amped up to do it. :)

The aqua pillow was one I found at World Market a few months ago and the other one is an outdoor pillow that used to be up in the loft. That one probably won’t stay but the colors are perfect match too:

Now that I see this aqua with that blue I want the door to go more that direction. Now it’s just a light blue I had in my paint stash. I think a slightly more aqua color would be fun. Who knows – I’ll decide when I get the trim painted white.

I’ve mentioned before how AWESOME it has been to have this space finished now – it’s such a night and day difference from the mess that used to be here. The coats are not hanging now because I’ve hung them in the closet. We only need them for three more days this week and then I think spring will actually be here. (!!)

I refuse to look at them anymore so they’re out of sight:

I thought I knew what I wanted to do on that big wall above the bench but when we tried it out it looked goofy. So I’ve come up with a new plan for all that wall space that I hope to work on soon:

Stay tuned for more on that. Other than that and the door trim I still want to install a new light fixture (we have a long fluorescent light in there now), perhaps add some additional lights (I need to see if my idea will work) and install crown molding. And then figure out what to put on the walls to add more of “us” to this room.

I’m so happy with how it’s coming together so far! Have you ever used a rug for something unexpected like this? Can you sew a cushion or have you tried a DIY version like this?

Embracing the karate chop

So sometimes I fight things just because they are trendy, or because everybody is doing it. Sometimes it’s goofy, trivial things…like the pillow karate chop. You know the one – where you hi-yahhhh the middle of a pillow and it make each side poke up?

I was anti-chop until I discovered my love of the feather pillow. Then it was all over. Now I replace every insert with a feather one. I found some new pillows for the family room at HomeGoods (on our girls weekend in Chicago) and knew I wanted to replace the regular insert with a feather one.

If the pillow doesn’t have a zipper I just do what I do to make my placemat pillows – just open up a bit of the seam with a seam ripper:

And then you can stuff the new insert in and hand sew it up. It takes about five minutes.

I was all ready with my seam ripper to do the same to the new pillows until I turned it over and saw the buttons. Duh:

Honestly doing this is a bit of a splurge when you take all the pillows in the house into account – I mean I’m taking a completely fine pillow and changing it up. But I have found these inserts for pretty darn cheap at IKEA – only $6.99 each. I haven’t found them even close to that price anywhere else.

My feather insert obsession started about two years ago so I grabbed a bunch of inserts on one trip to IKEA back then and still have a couple left. They just give the pillow a little fluff:

Normal insert on the left, feather on the right. Tiny karate chop.

I’ve also found many of the pillows at HomeGoods and TJ Maxx have feather inserts, so you can find clearanced out pillows for pretty cheap and use the insert. :)

I think picking out pillows is hard. I like to mix patterns but it takes me forever to end up with a combo I love. This one I love:

It kind of feels springy to me too – I have hope it will arrive!! I will now have these pillows for the next five years so I don’t have to change them again. Stress.

I don’t do a full out chop – just a small one. And most of the time they don’t look like this, pretty much only when I take photos for the blog. The chop does help when the dog hops around on the pillows and back of the couch – he does it for me. :)

It’s just a little thing that makes pillows look really full and lush. They aren’t as comfy to lay your head on though – you’ll need two or three for every one with a regular insert. Your husband will remind you of this every. single. time.

There you go. I’ve embraced the chop, a little bit at least. Do you use feather inserts? Could you care less? It’s a little thing but I love the look of them!

Blocking the sun (new drapes)

Hello all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I had a great time out on Saturday with some friends and also got plenty of family time in too. It was a great one.

This week the posts will probably be up later like this one – it’s so cold here and will be all week so we’re expecting school delays most of this week. That means my kiddo doesn’t get off to school till almost 11 so it pushes my day back quite a bit.

Have I mentioned it’s cold? Yeah. I’m still doing OK with it – in another two weeks I’ll be about done.

So I’m thinking more about the master bedroom redo lately. I’ve made changes over the past six months or so – I started painting (and stopped, but now I know my direction and I’m going to start again), made a new headboard and made a couple other changes along the way.

I sold our old bed so I have $500 to spend on the redo and so far I’ve spent about $350 (including items from today’s post) to start the transformation. That includes bedding, the headboard, all new window treatments and some of the paint.

The only part of the redo that won’t be covered by that $500 are the new floors…which we decided we will go ahead with next month.

Lately my focus has been on the windows. Up till about Christmas they've been nekked (I took the old drapes down months ago) with only some wonky roman shades up:

The roman shades are about seven years old, maybe older. These are the shades I spray painted years ago. (Yes, spray painted.) The new color held up great – the shades themselves didn’t. You can see in that pic that the left one wouldn’t go higher than half way.

I got tired of the room being so dark during the day so I finally got some new ones over the holidays and hung them a few weeks back. This time I went higher above the window and did the outside mount instead of inside the actual window frame:

In this pic they are pulled all the way up to top of the window – LOVE it. It lets so much more light in the room and also makes the windows feel bigger. (More on that in a bit.)

That was a big change but I knew I wanted something else to soften them up. I’ve had my eye out for drapery fabric for months but wasn’t finding anything that worked that worked with the busy bedding. I wanted something really simple and it wasn’t till I was in IKEA a couple weeks ago that I realized a solid color would be perfect:

They are the Sanela curtains – they look like velvet and I got the dark gray. Because the roman shades are hung higher I needed to clear those so I went with the 118 inch drapes. ($70 for two panels.)

Turns out I had to cut about 17 inches off the bottom and hem them to make them work so I was thisclose to being able to get the cheaper (shorter) ones, but I’m glad I went with with these in the end.

Anyway. I had picked up a long drapery rod at HomeGoods a couple months back so I got that up yesterday. Hanging drapery rods is one of my least favorite jobs, really. It’s easy, just tedious. The hardest part is making sure you place the hardware in the exact same spot on both sides of the window. Once you get your measurements figured out, mark where you need to drill, then use a stud finder to see if you need to use anchors or not:

You know Mama went out when the nails are painted. :)

The stud finders are sometimes wrong, so I always use a drill bit to make my holes first. If I hit wood I know I don’t need an anchor there. The finder said there was no wood in this spot, but when I drilled the top one hit wood:

  

Now that I show you in photos it seems like the easiest project ever, gah. Like I said, it’s not hard…just time consuming to get all the parts level and secure in the wall.

So these drapes have grommets and I LOVE them. I’ve never used grommeted drapes before and the fact that they hang so nicely and you don’t need rings/hooks is awesome.

Our window is so close to one wall (shakes fists in air at home builders) that I don’t even put the decorative finial on that side:

You can’t even tell when it’s up. Also, if you’re going to use your drapes (we are in here) then I always recommend placing one drapery ring (or in this case one grommet) on the end, on the other side of the hanging hardware. Does that make sense? This keeps that end of the drapes from moving when you pull them shut.

I love the pretty glass finials on this rod:

I used to go big and chunky with our window rods and finials but over the past few years I’ve moved to lighter and thinner.

I waited to take pics this morning which was DUMB. This room is impossible to photograph, especially in the morning, but this gives you an idea of how it came together:

YES, the walls are still two different colors and YES I still haven’t finished painting the wall to the left, but I’m sure of what I’m doing now so I’m moving forward…finally. :)

Let’s just pretend the walls are all painted, OK?

I got them up and REALLY loved how they looked. They are sophisticated and a little sexy and I love them. When the walls are all the light gray they will stand out even more. I get a lot of questions about how well the bamboo shades filter light -- these are the shades I always get from Home Depot and they have a tighter weave then most:

Keep in mind all that sun across the floor is from the reflection in the mirror.

In general I think they are fine without liners (I’ve found bamboo shade liners at Lowe’s), although there is one point in the morning when the sun moves across a sliver in the shade and is like a laser beam into my face, which I’m so not cool with. I wanted to make sure the drapes would be thick enough to block it out and our room was so dark this morning, it was awesome.

Here’s the same shot, same time of day with the drapes closed:

All that light is coming from the other side of the house. The room stayed nice and dark.

So quickly, here’s my thought on hanging window treatments high above a window. I think most of the time it really can make a huge difference – it can make a smallish window look and feel much bigger. Hanging my bamboo shades higher really does let a lot more light in too. BUT – I think sometimes doing this can look really awkward too. I recommend hanging your blinds/shades higher if you plan to hang your drapes higher too. Otherwise the illusion is ruined, if that makes any sense. You can see the true height of the window if the shades are hung using the inside mount and if you hang the drapes a foot higher it still makes the window seem small, you know what I mean? I think when both are hung higher than the window it comes together nicely.

You know, the real issues in life…where to hang your drapes. :)

I decided a while back that I wanted our bedroom to be more sophisticated then it’s been in the past, but also soothing. I’m usually not one to use similar tones throughout a room like this, but I’m loving how it’s coming together.

Once this wall is painted and the floors are redone I think it’s going to be really pretty, I’m really excited about it:

And YES I still have a magazine problem.

Other than painting I have a wall treatment idea in mind, I’m planning on a redo for that floor length mirror and I hope to recover the bench at the end of our bed. Lots to do but I’m happy with how it’s coming together.

Do you love roman shades or are you a blinds girl? Do you hang your drapes high or like them low?

Fabric and pillow purge!

Hey hey! How’s your Friday the 13th going so far? Buwhahahaha.

As I’ve mentioned once or 50 times, I’m working my way around our house, decluttering one room at a time. I try to do this once a year but this time I’ve been crazy intense with it. I’m forcing myself to focus on one space at a time, which is really helping me to purge each space really well.

As I’ve made my way around the house I’ve gone through a LOT of my fabrics and pillows and decided what I’m keeping and what I’m not. I was going to take all of it that I’m not keeping to Goodwill, but I figured some of you might be interested? I kind of hate to give it away if one of you would use it.

So, I’m having a fabric sale today/this weekend. ;) I’ve measured every piece and I’ll show you how I’ve used them along the way as well. For the smaller pieces (that are really cute so I figured someone might be able to use them) I’m just asking for $1 for handling and then shipping.

If you see something you’d like just email me at simplehomeinteriordesign (at) gmail (dot) com and give me the exact name of the item and how many if there are multiples. I will only accept payment via PayPal for this little flash sale. :)

First up are a couple cute cotton fabrics I used in my basement craft room:

These are just smaller pieces leftover:

SOLD

These were going to be used as pillows for the book nook but I never got to it:

SOLD

I loved this cute fabric but never ended up using it (I’m totally spacing on what this design is called):

SOLD

It goes well with this polka dot print that I used to cover the back of the plastic shelves in the basement (prior to finishing it):

I have a few pieces of this left:

SOLD

I was going to use this green quilted fabric on the kitchen stools years ago but decided against it:

SOLD

I got this for a craft and didn’t use it – love it though:

SOLD

This green floral is SO pretty – I was going to use it for roman shades but only had them up for a short time:

This is a nice thick cotton fabric. These are VERY roughly lined – like I just laid the lining down on them and used hemming tape so it’s not anything perfect:

SOLD

I got this red tulle to use at Christmas but the red was wrong (it is a true red, doesn’t lean burgundy like our ornaments). I like to use tulle as a DIY tree skirt: 

SOLD

I used this blue print to make some pillows to go with my Pottery Barn placemat pillows:

It’s a thicker fabric, almost like an outdoor fabric, but slicker. It’s hard to describe. It’s VERY durable:

SOLD

I used this stripe fabric to make pillows for the family room years ago:

I just have a small piece left, but it’s enough to make a lumbar pillow perhaps?:

Stripe is 27x20, $1 plus shipping

And finally, one of my favorites – the P. Kaufmann fabric I used on the living room drapes:

I have a few pieces of this left:

SOLD

I also have a bunch of napkins and pillow covers, like this placemat I used to make pillows:

I only have one left and it’s rust/brown:

SOLD

I used these PB napkins to make the pillows I mentioned above:

I have three of these:

SOLD

And six of these PB napkins I was going to make pillows with too:

SOLD

Everything above has never been used by the way – the last few have but are clean and in good condition. This is a super soft PB pillow cover with zipper:

SOLD

It looks like a gray blue when you look at it alone, but with other blues it looks more aqua, just an FYI. :)

These button PB covers were in that pic in the family room above:

SOLD

I will iron these for you before I ship them. ;)

These are from wayyy back but are in great condition – they are red (they lean burgundy) zipper pillow covers that would be beautiful for Christmas:

SOLD

And finally, the rust shams we had on our master bed up till a few months ago:

These were barely used – and when I say used I mean they laid on the bed a few times. I NEVER make our bed. Ever. They were from Target and are still in great condition:

SOLD

So there you go! If you are interested, just email me and let me know. I will edit this post if an item is gone! We will figure out shipping when you email me. :) These will all be first to email, first dibs. I’ll work down the list as they come in.

I hope some of you will enjoy these as much as I have (or will do something with them if I didn’t). :)

Take care and have a lovely weekend!