Family Room Reveal

The kids are napping.  I am wandering around the house wondering what to pack next.  I think I'll write a blog post instead.  Yes, that sounds nice.

I'm finally going to show you what happened in our  family room.  I painted it way back in April, and was trying to get it done all summer.  There was still one more fun idea I wanted to do, but it will have to wait for the next house.  When we moved in the room looked like this...

Yes, a lovely basket of apple border....oh wait, make that TWO layers of different apple borders on top of each other.  But I finally got them off...

And then I started doing something like this...

And then you pour some paint and this happens...

And you thank the Lord OUT LOUD that you remembered to put down plastic drop cloth.  Yikes.

All in all, it turned out something like this...

 

I now realize I don't even have pictures of the entire room because I never took my "final" pictures.  These snippets will have to do, as the room is now entirely packed away.  You can see more pictures of the tv wall in this post about the family art.

So there isn't anything too special about this room, but a few little things to share with you in the near future, such as the ruffle lampshade, refinished dresser, and how to steam drapes.  I moved that little rocking chair to the other side of the room beside the tv (the kids kept rocking it INTO the dresser....a big "no-no" after I just finished painting it).  We also installed a ceiling fan, because Simon would apparently burn up during the summer without some moving air to keep him cool.  He's so hot (oh yes!).

The best part about this room is when these 3 (apparently I can't count, maybe I think of the girls as one unit?) 4 people are in it with me...

Children's Nook

I hope I made you super curious to see what became of the little hole under the stairs...
(and just to add to your concept of the space, an adult has to bend over to get in.  It's small and cozy.  A nook).

My parents just finished their basement, and I told her to leave this little nook open so we could make a little storage area for her grandkids toys.  It obviously needed a more fun paint color, and she happened to have some left over from her orange laundry room (it was already orange when they moved in, and it's the ONLY room in the house that has color.  I guess the previous owner loved doing her laundry).

Anyway, South Bend has this awesome store called the ReStore--- a place where people take old doors, cabinets, lighting, any and everything that might've been taken out of an older home.  This was the first place I went, just looking for a small bookshelf or other inspiration.  And I found it (inspiration, that is)!
Old stair spindles for $1.50 each.  I knew instantly I wanted to slice them in half and stick them on the wall with trim to top it off.  THEN I found some awesome dentil trim and even though I didn't have enough for the entire space, I got it.  I also bought a bedrest pillow that added some fun color.
TJ Maxx came to the rescue with a perfect rug.
After scouring all the thrift and used furniture stores, I stumbled upon a new antique store (if that's not an oxymoron....).  Behold, I found the PERFECT small bookshelf.  It was already cream, but I added 2 coats of paint to match the trim in my parent's house.
Picked up some spray paint and got to work!
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are you ready to see it?!??!
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Ta Da!

And when you peek inside...

The actual toy basket sits just outside the nook...

(That basket was a $6 find at a garage sale drive by the day before I left!

And then a few days later, when looking through a Pottery Barn catalog, my mom saw these:

Score!

Now a few details:
Stair Spindles!  I requested the help of my parent's builder and had him use a table saw to slice them in half.  I then got to expand my own abilities: using an air compressor and nail gun to nail 'em in place.  Oh yes.  I like nail guns.
When I bought the spindles, they looked awesomely aged and worn, and the more I looked at them, I knew I wanted to keep them that way.  I think my parents were slightly grimacing at the thought of dirty old spindles hanging on their walls, but too bad, designer's call. hee hee.

Trim: I used my favorite Krylon green spray paint for the dentil trim, and capped it with basic trim used in the rest of the house.

Circle Wall Art: a woven piece given to my parents when we visited Africa to see where my dad grew up.  My grandparents were missionaries in Zimbabwe, and if I have my story straight, the little old woman who made this lived in a village close to where my grandparents served, and she remembered my grandparents fondly.  I doubt that it would have ever been hung anywhere else in the house, but in this space, it's actually fun!
See how I made the Nature Wall Art.  You can totally make this too.  And also see more about lining the Bookshelf with fabric!

I also spray painted the navy blue wicker basket on the bookshelf, and found that great green "tea" tin at Goodwill.
This was one of those projects that just fell into place.  I spent a few hours shopping and just happened to find things that were what I had in mind.  I loved it.  It was also fun to create without the normal limits and distractions.  I think getting out of my house and routine was helpful.

I only finished it the day before we left, so the kids didn't get too much time to use it.  But from the short time using it, they seemed to love it.

Thanks, Mom, for letting my ideas go wild!  If you miss the kids too badly, you can go sit in here and think of them.  But for now, it's all put away and tidy!...

What do you think?

Kitchen Reveal

Our dining room and kitchen are connected (makes sense, huh?).  So naturally, I continued the color scheme through both spaces, but with a few tweaks.  I LOOVE the color of baby food peas.  So let's just say I kid-proofed the kitchen by putting that color on our walls so you won't see the pea-smears from little fingers (eww, gross!).  And again, sorry for the messy before shots...

Kitchen, before:

 

 :and after:

 Before:

Before:

After:

Before (hi little kiddos!):

 After (mmm, kiddos are sleeping):

It is like a breath of fresh air!  Ready for details?

First, lets talk about the paint.  Originally, we painted the lower half blue, and I was going to use green as an accent on top, but it was WAAAY too much blue and I felt like I was in a nursing home.  Repainting it green was a 110% improvement.  On top, I had planned on just painting very thin stripes, but once I drew it out on paper, it wasn't going to be enough.  I started doodling some swirls on the stripes and really liked it, so decided to go for it on the walls.  I hand-drew the design with a blue colored pencil, then used watered down paint and a teensy-weensy brush.  This took HOURS, but it was worth every minute!

I have several (well, more than several) favorite spots:

The wall behind the refrigerator was painted green, and I did a swirl 'wallpaper' also in blue:

Next, the coat hooks and bench area.  We come into our house through the kitchen door, so we knew we needed a place to put coats and a few shoes, as well as a place to set the munchkins to put their shoes on.  We use this space to the max!  These hooks have traveled with us through 4 houses now, but before this, they were white!

See how I did that?  Painters tape + seran wrap + black spray paint + spray lacquer.  I think I actually would have preferred them white, but that would've required repainting the mirror and bench, which was out of the question.  We also hung the 2nd coat hook low on purpose so that the kids can hang up their own coats (well, just Christian for now--- and he does hang it up!).

My only dilemma now is possibly hanging anything on the walls.  If I do, do I center it to the wall or to the stripes?  At this point, it seems like adding anything would look silly, but in time I might find something that would work.

Well I love how all this looks in the pictures.  I did a major clean up before taking these, and it makes me giggle to think of the things you can't see just outside the frame of the pictures (like the bottle-drying rack, toy basket, stack of library books, etc).  So I may have to look at these from time to time and do my best to keep clutter at bay.  I'm also kind of excited about the idea of painting patterns, designs, or anything on walls.... my next room makeover will probably fall prey to my obsession.

Don't know if you took notice from the pictures above, but the window got a face-lift as well.  I made my own roman shades, but not in the traditional manner.  Next post: how to make roman shades out of mini-blinds, no sewing required! 

Drapery Details

Are you ready for a lot of pictures?  Once again, this was what I was starting with:

I had made floor length drapes before, but they were with a basic rod-pocket, like the next picture (see the white drapes to the right?  The top is just a "pocket" and the rod slides through):

But I wanted a more sophisticated look that had lovely folds, either like grommet-top drapes or like pleated drapes that are hung with rings.  

Thrifty Decor Chick

 The problem with those is that I either had to put in my own grommets or buy rings and hooks and sew pleats, both of which cost money and take more time.  So I did my own thing.  I am nearly certain that I have seen this somewhere on a blog before, but after looking through them, I can't seem to find it.  So if you can tell me the source, please help me out. 

For the skeleton of the drape, I hemmed all 4 sides, then doubled over the top hem to make a pocket for a rod.  (If I was making a rod-pocket drape, I could have stopped here).

The day of sewing (and loving an open floor space to lay this out on):

I made the top pocket about 4" deep to make sure I had enough room for my rod.  For my "trick" I then measured (on the BACK of the drape) 2" sections with 4" in between each section.  Le me show you what I mean:

Measuring:

Then I used my seam-ripper to cut each slit and create a slot for the rod to pass through:

 Keep reading, this will all make sense soon...

I now had lots of little openings in the top of my drape (NOTE: only cute through the BACK layer of fabric, not through the entire drape).

Then I tested the rod to make sure I had cut the slits long enough.  The rod goes into the 2" sections of fabric, not the 4" section:

And we were good to go!

It was time to see them on the real rods:

 I put 'em on and hung 'em up:

Pretty nice, except for the fact that they puffed out as they hung and looked rather unkempt!  What to do??!!  

More tricks.... time to train your drapes.  (I first saw this idea here).  I wanted to make uniform folds that went from top to bottom.  It was time for these drapes to learn who was boss:

 I used clothespins and followed the top fold all the way down the length of the drape (it REALLY helped that my fabric had a pattern that was geometric and I could follow the same line of squares all the way down).  

After I got the folds pinned, I used ribbons to pull in the entire drape and train it to stay together.

I wasn't really sure if the clothespins were a good idea or not, I thought they might leave a permanent crease.  So after one night, I took the clothespins off but left the ribbons around them:

Yes, there were some creases from the clothespins, but they have pretty much disappeared by now.
I only left the ribbons on for 2 days.  In afterthought, I probably should have left them on for a few more days to have the most impact, but we had company coming and I got antsy.  Here's what they looked like after I took them off:

 (see those clothespin marks?  eek! but they are gone now)

 Isn't that so much better?!?!  

Okay, this next picture is really good at showing the end result of cutting all those slots in the back of the drape.  You get the nice folds without having any grommets or rings!  But beware, if you ever plan to do this, make sure its a drape you won't be sliding back and forth.  It won't slide! (unless maybe you used super-high-gloss spray paint and some slippery light-weight fabric?).

I was so happy with how these turned out.  The most amazing part was how much bigger the entire room felt after they were up!  That wall seemed to expand and visually widened the room.  I will be curious to see if my trained folds slowly expand. If so, a retraining may be required.

Also of note: the roman shades were purchased from a bargain store called Ollie's.  They were originally from Home Depot.  I got the wide one for $20, the small ones for $14.  Can't find them cheaper than that!

If you have any other questions that I need to clarify, send them my way, I'd love to help you get the perfect drapes for your windows too!