Master Bedroom Completion

 I have finally completed my master bedroom project.  The walls were painted over a year ago.  The upper part of the walls is a tea green color and the lower part of the wall is a olive green dark dark color.  Back in September we got new carpet.  In November I made some awesome new art for the walls.  So the final touches happened when we got some snazzy new night stands from IKEA.  They mount to the wall and I can vacuum all the way under them....so basically that rocks. 

I also painted some lamps that I got at a garage sale.  It was an awful wood and gold color and I spray painted it a dark chocolate brown color.  I also got new lamp shades for these beautiful new lamps.  They remind me of an old Victorian style shade minus the fringe.  They give some soft lines to the otherwise very linear room.  The final touches added to the room were pictures of Aaron and I in the new large frames that I got for the long wall in the room.  I chose to use pictures from different vacations that we had been on.  From left to right it is a picture of the ocean on our trip to San Fransisco in October, a picture in Arches National Monument earlier this year, and a Colorado mountain picture from one of our many 4wheeling adventures near Rollins Pass.  And finally over the desk I hung a frame that I already had and put in it Sepia prints of our engagement photos.  Some of the photos really turned out great.

See my "Linky Party" page to see where I am going to link up this week.

Guest Pillows

This is my first attempt at pillows.  I know that pillows aren't very hard but they are harder for someone who really doesn't know what she is doing. 

I used the leftover fabric from the headboard and the sewing machine stool to make the pillows.  They turned out a little lopsided but I tried really hard.

I didn't have very much of the blue fabric left so I let this pillow look a little more ragged.  I created a flower by gathering strips of fabric and spiraling them.  I think if I add buttons to the back of the pillows they might keep their form a little better.  These pillows are all just covers.  I used the pattern in Kara's blog.

I think that maybe my next pillows will turn out better.  I will be making new pillows to go in my new living room soon.  We are doing a total remodel.  I will be posting pictures soon.

Take care everyone and have a great week.

Kara

Bedroom Wall Art

Sick of looking at plain walls, I was not sure what exactly I wanted to do in our master bedroom, but I knew that something had to be done.  I had a 50% off coupon for Micheal's.  I went in not knowing what to buy, since I really did not need anymore beads and I could not think of any type of storage thing that I needed either. I wanted to make the most out of my 50% off and not buy something too cheap that I would have paid full price for anyway. So  I found a 7 pack of artist canvases that was already on sale for $19.99.  Hellooooooo...50% off that...only $10.  I am sure that I can do a lot with these things. So I bought them with the master bedroom in mind.  I got them home and painted them with some leftover paint that I had from when we painted the bedroom. Then I found some cute stencils at Walmart for only $2.50.  I again used some leftover paint from another room that we painted in the house to make three unique pictures to hang on the wall.  I love them.  I think that it warms up the room and brings out some of the other great elements in the room like the bedspread and wall colors.  Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks I will be sharing the rest of the decorating that I have done in the master.

Have a great day!!!

Kara

Headboard for the Guest Bedroom

I have had this idea for a while but have lacked the dedication and drive to complete the headboard for my guest bedroom.  Over this past weekend I finally took the 30 minutes that it needed my attention and finished it up.

The first thing that I did was measure the space and have Aaron cut the plywood for me.  Next I painted it on one side (the one facing out into the room) with the same paint that I used for the dresser.

I added some 1.5" thick padding, gluing it down with my glue gun.  Then I added a little batting just to try and smooth down the edges of the foam.  I had some woven wool fabric in a grey color that I wanted to use for the headboard unfortunately I did not have enough so I had to improvise.  I used some of the leftover fabric that I had from the stool makeover that I did to make stripes at the sides of the headboard.  I also used the blue fabric to make a ribbon around the bottom of the padded portion so that it would look a little more finished if anyone got a chance to peek down at it.  As I went along each fabric got pulled tight around the back of the plywood and stapled using a staple gun (make sure that you have the right size staples because you do not want to have them poking through to the other side).  Here are some pictures during the progress.  I hope that you enjoy.  In the final picture I have some pink pillows on the bed, but I must say that those are going to have to go.  Maybe I will make some pillow covers and add some throw pillows to the bed instead using the tutorial over at Creations by Kara.

Overall I think that I like the look of it.  There are some more things in the room that need to change before I can call the room complete and love it for what it is.

Have a great day and a great week everyone.

Kara

Jewelry Desk

I have way too many interests for my own good.  Until last week my jewelry making stuff was all spread out on our coffee table in our TV room.  It was insane.  There were beads and tools and wire everywhere.  It was very stressful to walk down there and do anything, let alone try to create something.  I have been brain storming about a solution for weeks and finally I came up with it.  We live in a town house and we do not have a ton of room.  It seems like we live in such a small space sometimes due to my many interests and it seems that all of those interests need to have their own private space.  So the idea that I came up with was to transform the shelf that I have holding all of my craft baskets into a table/desk area for me to work.  This shelf is located in our back storage room in the basement.  It has a concrete floor, which is perfect for doing my torch work.  I haven't had the space to try that yet so I am pretty excited about this new space and all the new possibilities.  Plus all I have to do is close the door and it all is put away.

 Here is the room prior to my desk addition.  The shelf has all of these dividers and then a trim piece on the front.  I first had to create a flat surface for me to attach the cantilever support beams to.  The front finish piece was 1.5" wide and the divider pieces were .75" thick.  This meant that I needed (4) 3/8" thick pieces of wood on both the interior supports (one each side) and (2) .75" thick pieces on exterior supports.  I measured the depth of the cabinet and went to work cutting the pieces that I needed using a circular saw.

 I then attached these pieces to the inside of each of the supports directly below the shelf.  Make sure that you stagger the screws on each side so that they all go in smoothly.  Also make sure that you are using a screw that will not poke through on the other side of the divider.

Next I cut the cantilevered elements that will support the desk surface.  I determined that I needed about 20" under the desk and then I needed the length to attach it to the shelf, so I cut (2) 2x4 that were 36" in length, (4) 1x4 that were 36" in length.  Using a jig saw I rounded the edges of the wood members.  I used the first one as a template for the rest.

 I already told you that the finish pieces on the shelf were 1.5" wide.  It just to happens that a 2x4 is also 1.5" wide so I cut an additional short 2x4 piece that I placed between the 1x members that are going to go at the center supports.  I contoured this with the adjacent members so that it would look nicer and make the pieces work together.  At this point it is probably a good idea to tell you that I am a structural engineer, so if I am getting too detailed it is not my fault just my nature....Back to the project.  I sandwiched the short 2x between the 1x's and screwed them together making sure that the tops of them were aligned.

Next I attached the cantilevered wood pieces to the shelf unit.  I used (6) 2" long screws to attach all the members making sure to mark where the other screws were going to be located so that they would not run into one another.

 In the next picture you can see how the center cantilevered wood members sandwich the center supports on the shelf.  There are screws attaching it on both sides.

 And finally I put on the table topper that we has laying around the house.  You can use a smooth finish wood door.  I think that this was a table top thing that Aaron got a long time ago from Ikea.  I screwed it into the supports below and called it good.  If your door or table topper is hallow like this one is try to keep any screws that you are using within 1.5" of the edge.  There is a solid piece there that you can screw through, but be gentle regardless.

I hope that you enjoyed my project and even if you do not have something to repeat this exactly I hope that you can learn something from the idea.  And if you have any questions about doing this to a piece of furniture in your house I would be happy to try and brainstorm with you so that we can come up with a solution.

Take care.

Kara

DIY custom lampshade

I wasn't quite sure what type of lamp shade that I wanted in the spare bedroom when I bought this lamp shade, but I knew that I did not want to spend a lot of money on it.  So here is my $11 lamp shade.  I went to IKEA and bought this lamp shade that comes flat and then you attach the puzzle piece ends together and then it becomes this perfectly cylindrical thing ($6).  Ignore the arm fat in the picture above.  I am thinking that I am going to be posting a weight loss "bridal bootcamp" soon to take care of that.  LOL.

So I took this piece of plastic shade and decided that I was going to decoupage some fabric on it.  I wanted it to still transmit light so I bought a shear fabric from the clearance rack at Joann's.  It was still $5/yd, but I only needed a half yard so I figured what the heck.

Step 1 - Lay lamp plastic flat, right side up.  Apply mod pod glue to the whole thing.  Then attach the fabric.  You need to be kind of quick about this so that your glue is still tacky.


Step 2 - Pull the fabric gently and smooth it so that there are no wrinkles.

Step 3 - cover the top of the fabric with glue and coat it until the fabric is fully saturated.  Smooth the glue in one direction making sure that there aren't any drips of clumps.  Let sit over night

Step 4 - After allowing the front side glue to dry you can flip over the piece.  Trim the edges neatly, leaving about an inch to wrap around to the back side.

Step 5 - Apply glue on the plastic and wrap the fabric around the back.  Apply more glue on the top making sure to smooth out all the wrinkles as you go.  Let the glue dry over night again.

Step 6 - Neatly cut the remaining fabric from the ends so that you can make the cylinder shape out of the plastic shade.

Step 7 - Assemble the shade

Step 8 - Cut ribbon for the top and bottom of the shade.  You can apply this on the inside or the outside of the shade depending on the effect that you want, but I wanted to cover up my frayed edges on the inside of the shade.  Apply a layer of glue to the plastic shade.  Use paper clips to secure the ribbon at approximately 4" on center and then apply glue over the top of the ribbon.  Make sure that you do not paint over the paper clips otherwise you will end up with globs of glue like I did.  Oh well you live, you learn.  Apply the ribbon at both the top and bottom of the shade and allow the glue to dry.

Step 9 -  Remove the paper clips and apply one more coat of glue to the ribbons.  Allow this to dry.

Step 10 - Assemble the lamp with the metal hardware that it comes with and viola you have a new custom lampshade.

Upcycled Lamp Shade

I come to you today with a fun craft that I did over the weekend and some sad news because I lost my job today.  Boo hoo, whaa whaaa whaaa.  Ok so now that I am done crying it out I am ready to get on with my life.   I have been really sick of my job for a while now and maybe this is the blessing that I have been looking for.  I am still waiting for the silver lining to appear, but I know that only good things will happen in my future.

On to the fun craft.  As you know I am redecorating my spare bedroom.  I have painted the built in dresser and stool for the sewing machine a nice gray/blue color.  As I was putting all the stuff back in the room that normally belongs there I noticed that I had this candle holder that looked like a light house.  I can't remember now where I got it from, but I always liked it and thought that it was pretty.  I kept it but never used it for its intended purpose of being a candle holder.  Sure it had a candle in it but it has never been lit.

Here is the candle holder prior to my complete destruction of it.  I ripped off the top and the handle that was used to hang it up.  I took out the candle thing from the bottom.  I turned the holder upside down and tried to attach it to the IKEA light.  It turned out that the holder hole was too big for the light attachment thing so I had to modify it to make it a little smaller.  I used regular masking tape to make the hole smaller.  The screw attachment for the light now fit perfectly in the hole, so I put the light back together and assembled.  The following pictures are how my creation turned out.

The light cord that I used was a prewired thing that i picked up from IKEA.  I used the plastic piece and screw hook that came in the package to hang the light and then plugged it into the wall outlet that is attached to my switch on the wall.  Now with a flip of a switch I have a beautiful new light in my sewing room.

Stool Makeover

I have this great memory growing up and sewing things with my grandma.  She has this old Singer sewing machine that is in a table.  When the sewing machine is closed it looks like a plain looking table.  She usually has a lamp and a doily on it.  But then magic happens when you lift up the lid you reveal a sewing machine that is ancient.  It smells old and reminds me of good times.  The best part about this machine is that it always works.  It is simple and can only do the most basic of stitches, but it is perfect and still in great working order after all these years.  Some of you might think that this is morbid but I always say to my grandma this is the one thing that I want when she dies.  We have such great memories making stuff with this machine, it will always be something that I want to hold on to.

A few years ago when I bought my own house my mom decided that I needed a sewing machine.  I don't really know what for.  It had been many years  since I had made anything, but I guess that every time that I did I had to haul all the stuff over to Grandma's house.  Anyway since I had a such a strong bond with my Grandma and her machine, my mom found an old Singer machine for me that was mounted in a table.  It was beautiful and you can tell that the woman that owned it before me loved to sew and really took care of what she had.  The wood is still in perfect condition and the machine and all its accessories where there and in their original boxes with all the instructions.  She also had this old wooden bench that reminds me of a piano seat.  The top lifts off revealing a storage area in the top of the stool.  I feel like I get to open up presents now each time that I sew.  A few weeks ago when I decided that I was going to remodel my spare bedroom I also decide that I wanted to move my sewing machine into this room.  However the bench for the sewing machine was old and in need of a little spruce to make it "go" with the new room.  Here is an idea for a quick makeover on an old piece that you might have laying around.

First I  painted the wood part of the stool the same color that I painted the dresser that I painted in the new room.  Once again I had to do a few coats with a fine paintbrush.  I went with the grain of the wood to try and minimize the appearance of the brush strokes.

Next I recovered the cushion for the stool.  I added an additional layer of batting first.  I placed the batting over the top and then used a staple gun to attach it to the bottom in a few places (don't go over board with the staples on the batting otherwise they will get in the way when you try and attach the cover).

Place the fabric that you want to use over the top of the cushion now.  You do not have to cut the fabric to size but just start in the corner of the fabric and make sure that it is oriented the right way.  If you are using a fabric with a geometric pattern make sure that you center the design on the cushion top.

 

Starting on one edge ensure that the fabric is straight and start stapling it to the base.  Next go to the opposite side of the square pulling the fabric tight over the top and stapling from one end to the other.  Then do the sides of the square.  Last you will have the corners.  Fold the layers of fabric neatly inward and then pull tight to staple.  If you did not cut your fabric before hand it will look like you have a complete mess on the bottom of the piece at this point.  Use some sharp fabric scissors to cut away the fabric close to the location where you stapled it.

Now put the newly covered cushion on top of your freshly painted stool and you have a new masterpiece.  I am debating about adding bows to the corners of this piece.  I want to see how the rest of the room turns out and then I will decide what I want to do.  If I do attach ribbons to the corners I will pre-tie a bow with some pretty ribbon.  Cut the tails of the bows in some type of decorative shape (either a diagonal or V-notch).  Then use your hot glue gun to attach the bows to the wood, NOT the cushion.  If you attach to the cushion you will have to fight with the bows getting in the way every time that you take off the lid.

This would be a perfect garage sale find.  I think a lot of old vanity tables were made this way as well as piano or organ stools.  Having this extra storage is great.  It is perfect for thin books and anything small that you want to keep next to where you are sitting.  Happy crafting.

Kara