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joining the drop cloth curtain revolution

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I’m finally joining the drop cloth curtain revolution that is making its way across Blogland, like here and here and quite a few other places.  Official name is the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR). Viva la revolucion!

With two 8-foot tall windows in our family room and not much more than an $8 budget, I thought drop cloth curtains would be a terrific option, plus I love the grey-beige color and believe it or not, they look like linen!

Of course I forgot to take a before pic, so let’s just jump right in…

Click on the photo to enlarge

These curtains are so simple, just about anyone could make them!

Step 1. Buy 6′ x 9′ canvas drop cloth.  I purchased 4 at $9.97 each from Home Depot.  Get out clearance curtain rods ($12.97 each) from garage, where they’ve been “curing” for a year.

Step 2. Wash & dry drop cloths.  Iron drop cloths.

Step 3. Hang curtain rods.

Step 4. Attach curtain clips to drop cloth panels.  If panel is too long, fold a length toward the front of the curtain to the desired length (see photo).  Slide rings on to curtain rods.

Step 5. Stand back and admire your handy work!

Did you notice?  No mention of a sewing machine anywhere.  This is a no-sew project!

Don’t they look fabulous?  Really dresses up the windows, giving them a touch of class. and really warms up the room!  No one would ever guess they weren’t linen!

Click on the photo to enlarge. And no, the left curtain rod is not uneven…that’s just the camera angle!

So, I added gorgeous window treatments to two 8-foot windows for less than $65. Plus, these curtains were so quick & easy, I might move on and use them on the sliding glass door in the kitchen!

Edited to add – This project is the first 2011 House Goal that I’ve completed.  One down, 11 to go!

lookie what i found

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A while back, I found this in the trash in my neighborhood…

It was a sweet gift from the decorating gods, because I had recently seen what Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors had done with a mattress spring, and I wanted to try my hand at decorating with one.

Well, don’t know if you know this about me yet, but usually I allow my finds to “cure” for a while.  The mattress spring was no different.  It sat in my garage awaiting inspiration for a solid 6 months!

Then this weekend, inspiration struck, when I found this fun piece at Bed, Bath & Beyond…

I love vintage advertising style and I have a standard poodle, so there was no walking away from this one.  Plus I had a $5 off coupon, so it was a done deal for about $15.

But before I bought it, I did ask myself where I would put it, because I don’t buy anything new for the house if I don’t think I have a place for it.

Then I remembered this section of the wall…

…that has been begging for something for a long time.  I had thought about putting the mattress spring there, but it needed a little something.

A little something like the poodle print.

So I hung the mattress spring, making sure it was level…

…with a couple of screws in anchors.

To make the shiny silver screws less obvious against the rusty mattress spring, I just colored them with a brown Sharpie marker.

Then I placed the canvas where I wanted it, hung it with a nail in the wall, through the open area in the spring, and voila!

The perfect frame for a fun print!

I just love it!  Isn’t it adorable?  Decorating with found objects is great fun!

Linking up here…

WhisperWood Cottage Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

Update…exciting news!  This project was featured on Whisperwood Cottage!

WhisperWood Cottage

house goals – 2011 edition

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, leaving me with limited time and energy, I thought that house goals would be perfect for me.

So here are my 2001 house goals…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  8. Buy a dishwasher
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  I probably could have listed 3 or 4 times the number of projects, but in the spirit of keeping it real, I decided to stick with 12, so that I could reasonably do 1 project per month.

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Repaint the stairway wall

So, the stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat. And apparently it’s taken me a while.

Last year at work, we had a holiday white elephant exchange and do you know what I got?  Paint!  Two gallons of slate gray paint!  The exact color that I was planning on painting the stairwell wall already.  Every now and then, fate sends a little gift of home decor love.  Now I’ve got to get on the stick and finish the job.

2. Paint the kids’ bathroom– COMPLETE!

No photos of this madness.  All I have to say is this about that…teenage hair dye explosion. Walls, door trim, baseboard. Splattered with dark brown hair dye.

Needless to say, all future hair dyeing has been banned.

I thought that I might get this project done when I was on vacation over the holidays, but it just didn’t happen.  However, paint has been purchased, so it can happen any time inspiration strikes.

3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!

I just can’t seem to get past the creepy feeling that people can look into the cracks between the blinds.  So curtains are in order.  Just need to find the right ones.

4. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college

The same teenage daughter who experienced the hair dye explosion has a room that could potentially be condemned by the health department.  And honestly, I’ve given up on getting her to keep it consistently clean.  Every now and then she has a flare-up of cleaning, but it gets out of hand more often than not.

So, when she goes off to school, I’ll be in there in my hazmat suit, ready to sanitize.

6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!

I’m planning to join the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR) and make curtains out of drop cloths.  ‘Nuff said.

7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

So, I happen to have a satellite dish dangling from my roof by a thread.  No, we don’t still use the satellite.  And yes, I’ve become that neighbor.

But who can I hire to get that damn thing off the roof?  I just don’t know who does that kind of thing.

8. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 4 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

9. Tile the kitchen back splash

OK, what I’d really like to do is an extreme kitchen makeover, because the layout of my kitchen is really dumb.  But since I don’t have an extra $10-20k hanging around, I’ve got to make due with what I have.  So I’ll at least add some cosmetic changes, the first being tiling the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall

Most people probably wouldn’t stop at just 1 kitchen wall, but with an open-concept floor plan, the walls go on forever, without a logical stopping point.  So I’ll start with a goal of 1 wall, and figure out where to go from there.

11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

Well, there’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my true confession house goals 2011 edition…what are your 2011 house goals?

it’s so fluffy!

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As you may know, I’ve been trying to update my place a bit by adding a touch of mod here and there.

Recently, I fell absolutely head over heels in love with this long, curly-haired wool pillow from Pier 1 Imports…

But at $39.99, I just couldn’t begin to justify buying it, let alone buying more than one.

Fortunately, fate intervened, in the form of my sister inviting me to go to Target on New Year’s Eve, where I was thrilled to find these fabulous cream-colored flokati knock-off pillows for a mere $12.99 each!  Of course I bought two of them to mod up my couch a bit.

Here’s what my couch looked like before…

Nothing wrong with it.   Just lacking punch.  In a word…dull.

And now…

Definitely increased the mod factor and the fun factor.  Plus, every time my 17-year-old daughter comes anywhere near the new pillows, she shouts the line from Despicable Me, “It’s so fluffy!”

The old green pillow covers are removable, so I will try to find some funky fabric to make new pillow covers to add to the fun.  Of course you’ll hear about that here when it happens.

And, I want to get new throws although I’m not quite sure what kind yet.  I’m thinking something nubby and textured, perhaps with yellows and oranges in it.

What kind of throw would you suggest?

touch of mod

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Recently, I’ve been trying to add a touch of mod to my vintage-pottery barn-shabby chic style.  Not a major makeover.  Just a hint, to mix things up a bit and add something unexpected to my decor.

So, I went shopping in my basement, where I found a totally fab brown acrylic lamp that was in my home staging supplies.  Bought it on clearance for a steal at Target – a mere $13 – and all I had to do was add a lamp shade. Bought a $15 shade, also from Target.

Here’s what it looked like before…

Nothing terrible.  OK, so the shade does still say “90’s,” but other than that not too bad.  At some point I’ll probably try to find a small drum shade for it and find another place for it.

(And in the keeping it real department, see if you can find the blue laundry basket that tried to hide for the photo…it’s like the decorating version of finding Goldbug in a Richard Scarry book!)

New and improved, with a touch of mod…

Ah, sweet decorating relief…welcome to 2011!

I’ll be adding more pops of mod throughout the house and will post them soon.

Be sure comment about how you’ve modernized your style.  And share some links too!

my mother’s dolls

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My mom has 3 older brothers, all of whom are quite a few years older than her, ranging from 7 years older to 16 years older.  When she was a girl, one by one, they all went into military service.

As they traveled throughout their service, they began to send my mom dolls from all over the world.  And so her doll collection began.

My grandfather created a cabinet with a glass door that was built into the wall in my mother’s room.  That is where all of the lovely dolls lived.

When I was a girl, we lived with my grandparents for several years, and my mom’s room became my room.  I would gaze at all of those lovely ladies every day, and even though I was only 5, I never dared to touch them.  Not even once.  Not even the beautiful Serbian doll with real gold earrings, just like the Serbian ladies at our church wore.

Eventually, the dolls moved to my mother’s home when my grandparents passed on.  Then when my folks moved from a house into a condo, my mom said it was time to divide up the dolls between me and my sister. While I thought we might have to duke it out over the dolls, my sister only wanted 2 of the dolls and let me have the rest of the collection.  I was amazed and grateful to have this collection that meant so much to me as a girl.  It was especially generous of her, since I lived in California at the time, and she lived in Ohio.

A couple of years later, I ended up moving home to Ohio, and now live 2 doors down from my sister.  She can visit me and the dolls, who now reside in my living room, whenever she wants to.

How’s that for provenance?

Showing off my doll collection at the Collections link party at Funky Junk Interiors.

thanksgiving table

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This Thanksgiving I hosted the Thanksgiving dinner and had a total of 11 guests.  Not a huge production, but certainly more than my usual 3 person deal.

As always, I wanted to create a special tablescape, but using things that I have around the house.  Plus, this year, in addition to making it budget friendly, I wanted it to reflect the more austere times that we and many families are experiencing.  Not too sparse, but nothing extravagant either.  So, I went with a combination that I frequently rely on…shabby chic with a touch of whimsical & mod.

As promised, I used the same tablecloth as last year and the year before.  And no, I didn’t iron it…I’m not that kind of girl!  Besides, that’s part of the “shabby”!

I mixed 2 sets of dishes and tied the dinner and salad plates in fun ribbons that I’ve had since forever…

The ribbon takes care of the whimsical…

…and the mod…

The delicate blue glasses are vintage – they were my mom’s from before I was born.

The “centerpiece” is comprised of repurposed Classico pasta sauce jars, filled with a tealight and topped with ribbon, further contributing to the shabby chicness…

But best of all were the family we were blessed to have joining us at this table…

Here’s wishing all of you a warm and wonderful holiday season, filled with the love and laughter of family and friends!

sign language

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Sometimes it’s just easier to post a sign than to try to explain everything.

That’s what I was thinking when I created this piece for my coat closet…

A coat closet sign.  Pretty ingenious, huh?  I thought it was important for my guests to be able to find their coats.

OK, who am I kidding?  I rarely have guests!

But irrespective of the number of guests I do or don’t have, I thought this coat plaque would be cute.

I took an unfinished wood plaque, painted a base coat of yummy midnight blue, followed by coats of light gray and a hint of taupey beige.  Then I cut out a coat graphic and decoupaged it on to the painted plaque.  Distressed the edges a bit with sandpaper, to reveal the yummy midnight blue, then topped it off with a layer of non-yellowing polyurethane, attached it to the door with non-damaging 3M picture-hanging velcro, and voila!

Now go hang up your coat!

Showing off this project at the link party over at Funky Junk Interiors.

easy art

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When I redecorated my teen daughter’s room almost 2 years ago, I placed 3 frames on one wall, because she really wanted to hang pictures of her & her friends.

Well, because after 2 years I got tired of waiting for her to add the pictures and looking at this…

…2 of the frames with the original picture that came with the frame and the 3rd frame on the floor collecting lots of dust and hair product overspray.

I finally took matters into my own hands and decided to remedy the problem, since it doesn’t look like the friend photos are happening any time soon.  So, I removed the picture frame girl photo and replaced with 3 different scrapbook papers that match the colors in her room, and that I already had on hand.

Here are the closeups…

Super cute & easy! And cheap, since I already had the paper on hand.  Plus, my daughter likes it!  Good stuff all the way around!

(If only I could show you pics of the rest of her cute room, but I’m afraid the Health Department will recognize it and condemn it!  Maybe after she goes off to college next fall…)

lights + birdcage = birdcage lamp

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I have a little birdcage that I decided to fill with mini-lights.  Mine is a decorative birdcage, but you could use a real birdcage as well.  However, the bird should probably not be still living in the cage.  And it’s just a recommendation, but if you’re using a real birdcage, you might want to remove the newspapers, bird seed, and of course the bird poop.  But you knew that!

So, I bought 2 boxes of white mini-lights – 100 lights per strand, for $2.49 each…

Because the plug on the mini-lights was too large to fit through the bars on the birdcage, I fed an extension cord through the bars.

To give the mini-lights a little height, I placed a glass jar (upside down) in the base of the birdcage, then messily placed the 2 connected strands of mini-lights into the cage around the jar and on top of the jar.  An alternative to using the jar would be to use an additional strand of mini-lights.

I put the cage back together and voila!

\

A quick and easy birdcage lamp!

Now for a couple of tips…

First, although you may be tempted to try LED mini-lights since they use less energy, I recommend using the traditional mini-lights.  The LED lights are super-bright, and not in a good way.  More like in a migraine-maker kind of way.  Ask me how I know…yup, I tried them, and the glare and color of the lights was way too harsh, then had to go back to the mini-lights.

Also, I have the birdcage lamp plugged into an outlet that turns on with a light switch on the wall, which is convenient, so I don’t have to be plugging in the lights.  Just flip the switch and the birdcage lamp is on.

If you don’t have the luxury of a plug controlled by a light switch, you can use an extension cord that has a foot switch.  No need to bend and plug!

Showing off this lamp at the White link party at Funky Junk Interiors.