Master Bedroom Redo

For Christmas this year, we decided it was time to ditch the 25 year old mattress and get a new one.  A KING size.  Tom is loving the extra room and I am sleeping so much better! This did mean that we needed new bedding. And of course that snowballed into the start of a master bedroom redo.

First, let's take a walk down memory lane and giggle as we remember life before Pinterest and the DIY era.


Bedding from our wedding registry in our quaint first apartment. $600/month!!!


New house, means new bedding right!? (Didn't know a king was in the near future.  Oops.)

The latest!

 We painted and made the curtains awhile back. The tricky part of finding new bedding was that I refused to repaint or change the curtains leaving us with few options. The quilt, chevron blanket, sweater knit blanket and bedskirt are all from Target.

I made the euro shams out of a $16 twin quilt. That was pretty exciting after looking at some online for $30-50 each. I also sewed the throw pillows.  I don't love the fabric, but it only cost $9 for all three pillows...so those might change if I find something I like more. This project has taught me a lot about sewing! I wish we needed more pillows...haha!!

I painted both nightstands and added new hardware. The paint I picked out at Home Depot was definitely cream.  These look pretty white to me. Ha!! I still like them.  Lamps are from Home Goods, $30 each.

 

The headboard.  Isn't she beautiful? We were able to use the bed frame from our guest bedroom, so that was free, but meant a headboard was "needed." We bought 1"x 6" wood boards for $33 total and reused the stain from our floating shelves. That's it! We took an afternoon to sand, cut and stain the wood, and then a hour to drill directly into the wall the following day. Super easy. We could have saved some time by using one long board per row, but naturally I requested more work from my husband.  

That will be all for a while.  I want to do something with the dresser and lingerie chest, but I can't decide on paint color or refinishing.  And wouldn't a chair look great in that corner of Cole's toys? Also some wall art and a different lamp shade. Ahh the projects never end. It's so fun though!

 

Hello from Cole and "Elmommy" at the Super Bowl party.

 

 

 

House Projects: One Year Update

A whole year! It's been so fun.  I can't believe how many projects we've started (and mostly completed). We bought a "move in ready" home, and yet we are always working on something on the house. Tom's collection of tools in the garage has greatly increased.  Here is our post on the house projects from a year ago. We have a lot more on our list, and I can't wait to see what else we can accomplish during year two!

 Living Room:
- Painted
- Installed hardwoods
- Added love seat, moved ottoman upstairs
- Switched out TV stand
- Built some floating shelves
- Hung curtains, removed blinds

New Plans: None!

Dining Room:
- Painted
- Installed hardwoods
- Painting an old entry table to use as a buffet table
- Installed a dimmer

New Plans:
- Hang pictures


Kitchen:

- Painted
- Added hardware to cabinets
- Changed out faucet
- Got some fancy new Fiestaware!

New Plans:
- Update our $100 Ikea kitchen table from our tiny newlywed apartment


Half Bath:

- Replaced Mirror

 

New Plans:

- Paint using the left over gray from Cole's room

 

Master Bedroom:
- Painted
- Hung DIY curtains

New Plans: We just upgraded to a king size mattress, so we have new bedding, a DIY headboard and some painted furniture in the works! Stay tuned...!

Cole's Room:
- Painted
- Hung Curtains
- Added some wall art by Aunt Jean and Uncle Teddy
- We keep raising the owls.  Cole still loves them.  A lot. He likes to help them fly.

New Plans: None...although I am sure we will be graduating to a big boy bed at some point in 2014. Hopefully not anytime soon.

 

Exterior:

- Painted stairwell rail white (so long horrible orange!)

- Planted bushes along garage wall

- Added a gate on the right side of the fence

- Trimmed the crazy Dr. Seuss trees

- Removed some random stone work and garden beds left behind from previous owners

 

New Plans:

- Paint front door

- Extend bushes/flowers around the right side of the house (Isn't it weird that they don't even go around the whole bay window?? Must change this!)

- Add Patio furniture



 

WOW! What a year! The guest bedroom, playroom and bathrooms haven't had much work done. Playroom toy organization is definitely in the goals list for this year.  We are so thankful for this home and are excited for a new year of projects! Will end with a few of our favorite 2013 house memories.

 

 

New Hobbies Around Here

I am almost a year and a half into this stay-at-home-mom thing. And just recently some new hobbies have shown up around here. Besides crafting and DIY projects of course.  Which are about to explode.  More on that later.

The first random thing is helping some friends design their blogs! Which is only half a hobby, because I use other websites designs first, and then make it all fancy. I helped out Courtney and Kelsy's new crunchy blog, Going Granola and Matt and Rachel's blog too! It's so fun.  Whose can I do next?!!

 

 

Then there is this beautiful machine I received for Christmas. Which was $400 OFF its original price during Amazon's amazing sales in November.  I am in love.  It was pretty intimidating to thread the thing, but I had some materials given to me and passed down which helped get me started. I had no excuses! I am going to a baby shower this weekend and made a hooded towel and some burp cloths!! Tom is already asking me to turn some pants into shorts.  And I can always update our throw pillows. Make some curtains. So pumped!

 

Cole the Giraffe/Dino wanted to say hello.

DIY Chunky Floating Shelves

 

They are finished! We have been in our house almost one full year, staring at an awkward blank wall, not wanting to hang pictures or mount the TV.  Just. Not. Sure.  The TV has to be on that wall because of the wiring, the massive fireplace and the window.  We debated about not having a TV downstairs, but quickly decided that we need all the motivation we can get to clean up after dinner.  A good show always helps.

 

We finally decided on floating shelves.  Our inspiration came from here and here. Of course Tom wanted to do his own thing, so they look pretty different.

 

Look at that carpet! And tiny Wal-Mart TV stand. Ha!

 

 Our original plan.  It quickly changed when the first shelf was quite a bit larger than I anticipated. Also, the bottom shelves would have been a little tooooo tempting for Mr. Cole Henry.

 We bought the wood, cut it and then stained it.  The outer pieces were a higher quality wood and the stain looks so much better on them! I'm glad Tom considered that.  I had no idea there was a hierarchy of wood. We used Minwax "Provincial" to stain the wood, and Varathane matted finish polyurethane (applied at the very end, once the shelves were on the wall).

Tom used 2 inch finishing nails to assemble the shelf.  He drilled small holes first, then hammered in the nails to avoid splitting the wood.  Another reason Tom was in charge here.  Had no idea.

With a classy headlamp on, Tom drilled deck screws through the partially finished shelves into the studs.  To put the outer board on, we used the same finishing nails on the ends of the shelves and Liquid Nails on the inner support boards for some additional peace of mind.  

 

 

 

 We went out of town several weekends before the third shelf was hung, so the Christmas décor is out! Can't wait to decorate the shelves for the other 11 months of the year with more than just "things lying around." Home Goods...watch out!

Updated Decor:

 Cole has had a great time watching Tom and playing in the garage.

He is still obsessed with paint brushes and hammers.

No Sew, Lined Curtains with Grommets

We have lived in our house for almost 9 months and I looked for curtains and fabric pretty actively the entire time.  I am embarrassed to admit this, but I have purchased (and returned) 4 different types of panels and a roll of fabric before finally making a decision! Ha!! I even considered repainting.  Crazy.

I finally found a listing on Etsy for some beautiful panels, but they would have cost $550 for four lined, 96" panels. WHOA, and no thank you! So I jumped into DIY mode. The fabric wasn't cheap, but my total cost was under $175. Still pretty costly, but it could be done for a lot cheaper with less pricy fabric. 

I looked at a few sewing tutorials and started sweating.  I decided to go the "no sew" route.  I also wanted to line the curtains so that the fabric didn't fade over time.  We don't really sleep in around here with Mr. Cole Henry, but it will be nice for the occasional nap! The grommets were a last minute decision, but here is the list of materials I used for four 96" panels:

 

11 yards of fabric ($11.50/yd but I used a 20% off coupon code...total $121)

6 rolls "super weight" Stitch Witchery ($2.75 each)

4 flat twin sheets from Walmart ($4 each)

4 packs of grommets ($5 each, with 40% coupons at Hobby Lobby)

 

I read several blogs before starting the project. I combined a lot of their tips and then did my own thing.



• Clear directions, didn't like the bottom hem
• Basic, no liner
• In depth, ignore the sewing!

It was pretty overwhelming to start, but I caught on pretty quick.  My personal tips are below.

• Be sure to line up the fabric pattern before you start hemming.  

Pattern is consistent horizontally for all panels.



• Leave the liner unattached to the curtain fabric at the bottom hem, so that it doesn't look like a pillow case. I hemmed the fabric first, all the way around.  Then I hemmed the bottom a second time (without the liner), then both sides and the top with the liner.

Liner is pre-hemmed from being a flat sheet (yay!) and not attached at the bottom. More flow... :)



• The Math- I ordered 11 yards of fabric, but when I started cutting, I realized I had 12 yards to work with! Yippee and a big sigh of relief, because I didn't take into account the double-hemming that would need to happen. 

• The sides are all hemmed around 3/4".  It was just the natural fold to me.  Anything smaller would have been hard to iron with the hemming tape. 

• For the length, 12 yards, divided by 4 panels, meant 3 yards or 108 inches each.  I tried to hem the top and bottom consistent throughout the panels, but I was more concerned with the pattern lining up.  And who cares what the backside looks like! In general, I would have done a 2" hem for the top and a 3 inch hem for the bottom.  (Note: after choosing grommets, that was not a wise move.  You need a 4" header for grommets.  Oops.  You can't tell though!).  My panels ended up being 98" each, which is perfect because the grommets take some of that length higher up on the rod.

• The Grommets: TERRIFYING to cut into your beautifully hemmed panels!!! I do not like the ring clips to show (easiest option), and it looked funky with them clipped on the backside, so I went with grommets.  They were super cheap and all you do is line them up, space them out equally, trace the provided key and cut a circle. Then the grommets just click in.  They are actually plastic and lightweight, but you could never tell. I think it made them look instantly professional!

Super Easy! And the panels slide so easily... great for a short person.

Word to the wise... make the header bigger (at least 4") so that the grommets can be in one section of fabric. 
Thankfully, it didn't matter that I cut into the liner and you can't tell from the exterior! I think it just reinforced
my hemming tape.  :)

Ta Da! I am so excited that these were a success! Maybe I can keep sliding by without learning to sew...

Grocery List Creation!

Going to the grocery is definitely not my favorite thing.  To make it a little more tolerable, I found this cute list on pinterest the other day, tried it out and wanted to make some adjustments to match the HEB we normally shop at.

I matched the list categories to the way we normally walk through the store, and the categories are the ones I usually write out on paper.  Let me know if you want the Microsoft Word file to edit your own!

Printable File