Blog Archives
Our House: Family Room Changes, Starting with Re-Doing Window Treatment
A little bit ago I shared with you, over several posts, how I had ‘lightened up’ the living room on our main level. Well, now it’s the lower level’s turn for some lightening up and neutralizing!
In case you missed it, I started with the hallway that leads to this family room by making this fun faux zinc lettered sign for it.
Now, moving into the family room, I’ll show you how the valance was…
Cute and colorful, but I’m ready for a little more neutral in my life…
For the past several years the family room has been very colorfully decorated with bright cottage colors, but as we’re preparing to sell our house, I’m trying to tone down anything that may appear a little too specialized and open it up for ‘the masses’. Ha!
Part of the family room walls are papered with a yellow background paisley print, it is a very nice paper, and I’m thinking that with everything else now being changed to mostly neutrals, that the wallpaper with just a tiny pop of color on the other side of the family room will be a fun accent.
This window treatment is one of the first changes to the family room, it’s an upholstered board valance above the 8’ sliding door that leads out to the screen porch and beyond to the patio, grill etc.
Here’s a before and after pic: click here to read the rest of the story
DIY Shower Curtain From Leftovers!
In the bathroom downstairs at ‘Our House’, we have a large shower. The bathroom has shades of blues, greens and browns with white accents. I wanted a new shower curtain for it, but I really didn’t want to spend any money on it. So… what else? Go to the craft closet and pull out fabric possibilities. There is a large stack of leftovers from old projects. (If you really want to see a picture of that closet, click here. It kinda looks like a mess, but I do know where everything is… well mostly)
Now back to the lower level bathroom, here’s a quick peek at the before and after.
Before: (boring. Although I will re-use this vinyl curtain liner to line the new fabric one.)
And here’s the after: (fun!! Colorful, ties the room together, and totally free!) Read More…
Toile… What’s Not to Love About it?
Nothing! I absolutely love toile, I have since I remember first seeing it when I was a little girl, and even though it’s been so over-done to some regard the past few years… I still love it.
So what exactly is toile? READ ON…
Someone Else’s House… Kitchen Valance Window Treatment
I’ve been able to share with you some of my friend’s beautiful home,
like her sun-filled sunroom that started with a very unique sofa for the inspirational piece, her entry with the great DIY painted wood floors, her dining room with the mixed seating at her wonderful old plank topped harvest table, and the repurposed window treatments from the living room at ‘Our House’ to her office windows…
there are many more wonderful things to share from her gorgeous home…
Here’s a peek into the kitchen, by way of the window treatments I made for her. READ ON…
Someone Else’s House… Re-purposing Window Treatments from Our House
Even though this is about ‘Someone Else’s House’, I am going to start with ‘Our House’, because that’s where the window treatments started.
Several years ago, I had made these window treatments for our living room. This year though, I have been incorporating more blues and tans, and less black and green in the color scheme in the living room. READ ON…
Our House… DIY Rug to Fit
In the kitchen at ‘Our House’ I had a rug that went from the sink to the stove, but awkwardly didn’t go the rest of the way to the fridge. So I DIY-ed a new rug, here’s the story, and a quick before and after:
This is the old rug, and it’s a very good quality, durable wool rug. I’ve had it for over 10 years, and lots of spills etc. but they’ve shampooed right out of it, no problem. I am tired of the rust and darker colors though, and the size has always bugged me. Read on…
Antique Windows Re-purposed into Headboards
The other day I went out into the shed and was visually reminded of the old windows we took out of the ‘Little Brick Cottage’, mostly because when I was in the shed, I practically tripped over the 4 top halves we were able to save for ‘repurposing’, (I know, I have a lot of ‘stuff’ out there right now, I need to have a sale).
Anyway… This is what they looked like when they were in the cottage:
Well sort of… unfortunately in this picture you are actually looking at the aluminum storm windows. I guess I don’t really have a good picture of the old windows showing the arch detail when they were still attached to the cottage.
But seeing the 4 upper halves in the shed, made me think of a way to use 2 of them, being inspired by my daughter-in-law’s re-purposed window project. I just showed you the other day how a few years ago she re-purposed some windows and they turned out so lovely, I filed it in my brain to pull out someday, and today was that lucky day. Read on…
Monday’s Simple Cleverness…Fabric Covered Buttons
As I’ve been working through the living room lightening it up, I designed and sewed new window treatments. These valances I made had a fabric covered button detail on them and in case you don’t know how to do that, it’s so simple but clever, I thought I’d share it today, on Monday’s Simple Cleverness!
These are the buttons I detailed the valances with. Read on…
Tutorial: Living Room Window Treatments…
In “Our House” I’ve been working on lightening up the living room color scheme. I showed you how I changed the covering on the Pottery Barn bench ottoman and now it’s time to show you how I made the window treatments.
I purchased the fabric from Ballard Designs, it’s a printed linen type, (not sure if it’s actually linen, or just looks and feels like it).
For the style, I wanted a playful, sort of French styled window treatment.
So the valances I designed to make, have pleats with a fabric covered button detail, as well as two coordinating types of trim. The trim detail worked out to be a good way to bring just a hint of darker color up on the windows. Even though I’m ‘lightening’ it up in the living room, dark elements will remain, so I must meld the light with dark accents to make it look like a plan.
Here are the steps I did in making these valances: Read on…
Lightening up in the Living Room
In my quest to lighten it up a bit in the living room at “Our House”, I’ve needed to decide what I want to change and what I want to keep. This is the living room before I started. (And obviously before the Valentines mantel was completed, or the cord covers were up!)
My notes on the pictures tell the story of what I considered and decided on in order to bring a lighter feel into the space. Read on…
