Dining room updates

Hello my friends! It’s a lovely rainy fall day here, and what I think will be the last warm day we have in quite some time. I’m actually excited about that. :) I’m tired of sweating – bring on the crisp air, yoga pants and boots!

I finally did something in another part of the house other than the family room…can you believe it?

A while back I took the drapes down that used to hang in the living room:

This was in the pink wall era, so glad that color is gone! (They weren’t really pink but sure photographed that way.)

Anyway, I took those drapes down after I added new trim to the windows up front:

I like them simple like that – so much so that I don’t have any plans to put new drapes up, at least for now.

I got to thinking that our dining room windows could really use something though. I do plan to trim them out the same way but in the meantime they were looking pretty bland:

This was my before picture as I started working – excuse the mess. :)

I took down the drapes that were the dining room years ago moved them to the family room:

When the wall came down those drapes did as well.

Anyway…I’ve had naked windows in the dining room for quite some time – I’ve been wanting to replace them but it hasn’t been a priority. Then I realized a couple weeks back I could use the drapes from the living room that I took down months ago. Are you with me?? ;) We’re coming full circle here. Kinda.

Of course it can never be as simple as just hanging drapes for me. There’s always all kinds of little things that pop up along the way. The first thing I did was move the roman shades back down to inside the window frame. Years ago I mounted them outside just for a little extra light. It’s felt messy looking to me lately though and it only gives a couple extra inches of extra light so back they went.

I had to patch where the shades were hanging:

When I took the brackets down they took chunks of drywall with them. Not sure why that happened – usually you’ll have problems with that if you put them up right after painting but I didn’t do that.

Anyway, I patched those up with spackling – this kind goes on pink and is white when it’s ready to paint/sand:

Love that!!

Hanging drapery hardware isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of hanging the brackets the exact same distance on either side of the window. I like to go out at least five inches from the window and usually at least a few above as well – I couldn’t go too high with these because I didn’t make them long enough.

I just trace where the holes go in the bracket and then drill a pilot hole:

I always drill a hole first before trying to get a screw in the wall – if I hit a stud then I’ll need to predrill anyway. If I don’t hit a stud I know I’ll need to use anchors, so it’s a time saver to just do that first.

I got the hardware up on both sides and then realized the middle piece was going to hit the small molding I had around the window. Sooooo that had to come down…more patching and then painting to cover up the original chocolate brown color underneath:

Remember those days??:

I don’t miss it. :)

So THEN I get the drapes hung up and realize I didn’t like the stripes I added as a leading edge years back. I was using two panels on each side of the windows so the stripes were on either side of each one and it looked circus-esque. Not what I was going for.

So I took them down, cut down the sides quite a bit and hemmed. I just left a bit of the stripes and I quite love the dark on the edges now:

I get asked about his fabric a lot – it’s a P. Kaufman fabric called retreat blue citrine. I’d like something a little simpler in this room eventually but until then these will do nicely. :)

I “trained” the drapes like I showed you here years ago:

Combined with my fake pleat method it makes them hang much prettier!

They add some warmth to the room and make it feel much more finished:

I’m so glad I took some of the stripes off – they look SO much better with just the simple color along the side:

These are two skinny panels together on each side – I cut the fabric down the middle for the other windows. I didn’t sew them together and you can’t tell. :)

I hung these along a full drapery rod so we can close them if needed:

I hear we’re going to get another nasty winter and I like being able to close drapes for some added insulation. It helps!

The colors are lovely – the blue edge matches the background on the built ins almost perfectly. Someday I will add the window trim in here but I will still probably keep drapes up even after that. They definitely add some coziness to a room!:

This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would, but it was free so I can’t complain. :) Another fall nesting project done!

Do you prefer drapes or none? Do you use yours if you have them? We use our bedroom drapes every weekend so the bedroom is crazy dark, love it. If you want your drapes to be full and pretty while closed you’ll want to add to your yardage to make them wider. I don’t spend money on that since they are usually only closed at night and it’s just us who sees them.

OH and we were waffling on keeping a table in this room but now that our kitchen table is plenty big I think we’re going to move ahead with our original idea of comfy chairs and a coffee table. Whoot! I think it will look lovely!

Warm fall touches

HELLO! First up, thanks to those of you who emailed about my header missing. I noticed it Friday but thought it was just a glitch…but it’s still down. I’m checking in with the designer to see what needs to happen. I have a new design coming soon (finally!!) but it would be nice to have something up there till then. ;)

So a few weeks ago I was itching to bring some warmer colors into the family room. This time of year has me wanting to use more reds, browns and oranges – which I used to use EVERYWHERE but don’t anymore. In the warmer months I don’t mind our more neutral pallet but fall calls for some color!

I picked up these pretty napkins at World Market to make some pillows:

I’ve told you of my obsession with using table linens for pillows many times…the love runs deep my friends. So cheap and easy! But then I noticed I already had a piece of this pretty fabric in my stash:

It’s called Kalita Spice and I picked up some from Calico Corners over a year ago. I think it must have been a remnant because I had less than a yard – only enough to make one pillow. I fell in love with it all over again and knew I wanted to use this instead!

I checked in with CC but they didn’t have anymore so I ended up ordering a yard through Amazon (from Fabric.com) -- with our prime membership I avoided the shipping fee from Fabric.com. Whoot!

I dusted off the sewing machine and got to work. Here's the thing – I used to be so intimidated by my sewing machine but I PROMISE you it’s not that hard. I think the hardest part of using one is getting it set up with the thread and bobbin and all that jazz – after that all you do is plug it in and do your best to sew a straight line.

I measured the size I needed (my pillow inserts are 20 inches square but I make my pillows a little less than that) and started cutting – if you are going to do any sewing or working with fabric a decent pair of fabric scissors will save you a lot of frustration:

My cutting is never perfect, so after I lay the two pieces of fabric (face to face) together I do my best to get the edges to match up. Because my cut lines aren’t always perfect I use chalk and mark a line down the fabric:

It gives me a line to try to follow as I sew which I need. ;) And if your edges don’t match up this helps to ensure that you don’t end up with any holes in your seam as well.

A few minutes and four (somewhat) straight lines later and you have a pillow. Don’t close that last side up all the way though. You’ll need to be able to reach in and turn it right side out:

I use a marker – anything that’s skinny – to push my corners out. You’ll want to only sew up maybe half of that last side so you can get your insert in too. When you’re done stuffing it you’ll need to hand stitch it closed. My stitching never looks pretty but I promise you no one ever notices. As you know those who do get a cookie…and no cookies have ever been given:

The day that I found that fabric and decided to use it I went to HomeGoods hoping I’d find some other pillows that might work with it…and I did. That day. That never happens. I LOVE their pillows because most of them already have the feather inserts that I like to use.

The brick colored pillows go so beautifully with the new fabric – and the new pillows go together well with the blue/gray pillows I’ve had for a while:

I would never have put the blue and the brick pillows together but they all tie together nicely – I quite love it actually:

I’m still trying to figure out a color for that mirror behind the sofa – a few of you suggested an orange tone and I love that idea – I almost did it but now I’m thinking more of a brick color? And I just a couple months ago I wasn’t using reds in this room anymore. :)

I made another pillow for my “office” chair as well:

The comfiest office around, I’ll tell you what. :)

I know many of you have wanted to see more of the family room so I wanted to share this view:

The kitchen table is now behind the sectional – we were able to move that over because of all the space we now have in here.

The sectional now floats in the middle of the room:

The fireplace is to the left. This area really isn’t any bigger that it was before – we actually have less space between the sofa and the TV. It’s a long and skinny room but overall there’s SO MUCH more space now. We love it!

Now I just want to find one more of those brick colored pillows – not sure that will happen. ;) But I’m loving the warmer tones and this gets me excited to finally get some fall decor going!

Do you sew? If you're intimidated by it please don’t be! Each one of these pillows took me about 15 minutes to make and only three of those minutes were actually sewing. :)

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?