DIY: Curtains for Super Cheap

When my mother and I went on our first road-trip to IKEA, I had decided I wanted all the window treatments on the ground floor to match. We bought 7 sets of LENDA drapes because they were inexpensive and they had a slight, but not overpowering, striped detail. Each set was $20. That is a lot of fabric for $20!
I have since decided that I do NOT want all the draperies to match, so I have lots of extra fabric.
We have a bay window in our Dining Room. It is an awkward size. (Has anyone ever noticed that the word awkward LOOKS awkward? Like aardvark. Strange.) I tried many things to cover these windows, including this ridiculous non-solution:

The Umbra Solutions Bayview Nickel Window Set. It's nickel. Check. It's fully adjustable. Check. It looks classy and is not at all cheap and looks like something someone would put up in a trailer home. Um... NO CHECK. That little adjustable part? Rubber. And as you can see in the photo, not at all the same color as the rest of the fixture. Ridiculous. I waited for that stupid thing to re-stock for a month. And then it's totally cheap and gross looking. Grrr...

I wanted roman shades, but unfortunately for me the windows are 20" on the sides and 30" in the center. No one makes shades in these sizes. And I didn't want to spend $600 on window treatments for custom.

Eventually I was inspired by a set of balloon shades I saw somewhere... Surely, it can't be too difficult to make these, right? Well, it's not. It's just time consuming. And I am lazy. So this is what our window looked like for... ohh... about 2 months.. eh, maybe 3.

Classy, I know. But remember, my kitchen "curtains" looked like this for 4 months:

And now it looks like this:

I knew it could be done.

Well, here it is:

I used one set of drapes. So all in all it cost me $20 and about 6 hours of my time.
I am going to have to rethink the ties in the fairly near future. They are simply the hems from the sides of the drapes cut off. They were already hemmed, already the right size and pliability, I thought "Why not?" Well, here's why not. They are already starting to fray. Hmm... Anyone have any ideas for ties that does not involve me sewing a 100 inch long tube of fabric?

Monkey Love

"I wanna help measure the windows..."

Mary Kay Andrew: Fixer Upper

I just finished reading Mary Kay Andrews book Fixer Upper. It's brilliant. I'm not great with fancy words, so the best anybody usually gets out of me is "It was funny" or "I enjoyed it" or "It's good, you'd like it". However, I LOVE Mary Kay Andrews as a writer. I wish she had 10 more books I hadn't read yet, except that then I would get absolutely nothing done.
I purchased the book yesterday at lunch at Borders. I cracked it open when I got home from work, then had to stop to cook dinner. I started reading again around 10 and stayed up until 2 reading. Mister had to work overtime this weekend, so he left early this morning and I have done nothing since but read. And I am telling you "You HAVE to read this book". If you look at Mrs. Andrews website, you'll see that she loves Interior Design and that really shines through in her writing. The descriptions are so spot-on you can actually see the room around you, you experience the work Dempsey is doing on her "fixer upper" house, and feel the contentment and appreciation for the hard work she has put in.
The book is wonderfully exhilarating; it gives you a ridiculously mixed feeling of benign guilt - the book sucks you in and makes unable to stop reading, while also making you feel so inspired by the transformation that you want to get up and redecorate your entire home! Read it, you'll thank me.

Broken Dreams: Urban Outfitters

When my mother and I went to Chicago way back in November we went to Urban Outfitters in Schaumberg. The girl in front of me was buying a neon pink lamp that looked like a deer. I desperately coveted this lamp, but alas it was the last.
The Urban Outfitters in StL never got them and they never appeared online. Then low-and-behold in February, Design Sponge features Cassidi's table makeover and THERE IS MY LAMP!

 (Design*Sponge)

I immediately got on UrbanOutfitters.com and sure enough, there it was. Yummy! I love a bit of kitch mixed into my home. I waited for a Free Shipping event and then I ordered him.
He came last week, I got him out, and look at this:

And part of the shade was crushed/dented. I was furious and immediately packed him up to send back... But then I look at this picture:

And I can't help but think how cute he is!

What do you think? Send him back? Call them and ask them to send me a replacement shade? Or do I just spray paint it a glossy white and turn the slightly crumpled side to the wall?

Monkey Love

"rawr"

DIY: New/Old Gilt Mirror

My grandparents are cleaning out their basement. When they sent the media cabinet home, they also sent a bunch of odds and ends with us. One of the items is an old gilt mirror they had hanging in their entryway back when they lived in their old house. It's been living in their basement for about 15 years now.

It was dirty and yucky and dated, so I decided to paint it a fun color. I thought about white, but I was planning to hang it on a white wall and we are not all about the white. I showed Mister a pic from Life in the Fun Lane (one of my favorite reads and a major inspiration for me) and he said he couldn't understand why anyone would want their house all white. So color it is! 

I decided on Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze in Gloss because I thought it would coordinate well with the "Wild Aster" walls in the LR and the "Pale moon" walls in the DR, since it is visible from both. 

I set up all of my supplies and got to work.

I started by taping the whole thing off, which is a step I feel now I could have skipped. When I pulled off the tape after I was done, a small chunk of paint came off. I resprayed that part and used a razor blade to scrape the paint off the mirror face and it worked like a charm, so now I know for next time. No need to waste all that time, paper, and tape. 

After a few coats of the Krylon, it was apparent that a few spots were not going to cooperate. Luckily I had some water-based Kilz which was slightly dried out due to a bad seal on the lid. The goopiness of the primer helped me to keep it just where I needed it and also allowed me to fill in some cracks in the frame.

Here is the finished project! It took me longer than I expected to finish, but everything does. You'd think I would factor that in by now. I would like to find a narrow dresser, commode, or console table to place under it. The hallway is wide enough for something to stick out about 22" and the space is 34" wide. 

As you can see (behind Gidget's tush), we still have to anchor the bookcase to that wall, also.

Flora and Fauna

I never shop at Home Depot; I prefer Lowes. That said, I ventured to Home Depot today to purchase some Freshaire paint that Lowe's does not carry. While I was there, I spied a pretty little white orchid beckoning to me. Here she is in her new home:

Hopefully I don't kill her too quickly...