My work-in-progress bedroom

Many of you know the DRAMA with buying our new house about a year and a half ago.

If you don’t, I’ll spare you. But the short version is this: between the time we got pre-approved for our loan and the time we actually tried to close on our house lending laws and regulations changes DRAMATICALLY.

Of course, we didn’t find out until AFTER we secured a renter for our condo (which we still own) and set a moving date and closing date and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, we didn’t close on time, we had to “rent” our house from its previous owner for a month so that we wouldn’t be homeless (yes, I cried “we are homeless!!!” to anyone who would listen) and we had to put down a BOATLOAD more money than we intended.

So… our grand plans of renovating before moving day (oh, the dreams of hardwood and painting every wall and buying new doors for every room… sigh) flew out the window.

But (and I mean this) I wouldn’t change it for the world. This is my dream house, and I’m slowing making it my dream home one little bit at a time.

And so you get this:

This room is about 50% done… but that’s because the easy stuff is done. I want to find a wingback chair with wooden arms and an ottoman and recover them for a nook that’s too far to the right so that it’s out of the picture.

Oh, and I want to use this amazing tutorial from Centsational Girl to make a custom headboard like this one. In the mean time, I’ve begged the hubs (puh-leese!) to let me paint this bed frame white. But, he won’t let me… sigh…(And just in case you’re curious, the hold up on the custom headboard is that my husband wants a new, king size bed. I even gave in and, over Christmas promised I wouldn’t complain about not wanting a king size bed ever again… but he’s way more careful with big purchases than I am and is waiting for the deal of a lifetime.)

And finally, I want to silk-screen or freezer paper stencil our duvet... but can't decide with what... another L?

Until the deal of a lifetime, I’m really looking forward to garage sale season again so I can got on that chair re-do.

Pillows... make 'em. You'll be glad you did.

Pillows are a great beginner sewing project with even greater pay offs. We're talking instant face lift.

You'll need a pillow (or pillow form), some fabric and the basic sewing supplies.

Today,this wacky pink pillow (a Goodwill/Target find) with meet this lovely gray striped fabric (an Old Time Pottery find)... can't you just see the possibilities?

First, measure the pillow. Now, nothing here is super exact. Trust me on this one. I am allergic to math. And Microsoft Excel. You can totally do this. 

I'm making a basic envelope pillow (read: no zipper, no button!) so the back of the pillow needs to overlap so we can tuck the pillow in. To figure out the length of fabric to cut, I just wrapped my tape around the pillow and thought to my self, "this seems like enough of an overlap" and cut the fabric about 46 inches long. 

Now, fold the short ends over twice and sew along the seam like so.

 

Do this on both short ends.

Next (and again you'll see this is VERY exact... um, not really) I just wrapped the fabric around the pillow (right sides facing in) so that the short ends overlapped and the pillow seemed nice and snug and pinned the two short ends together at the over lap.

Then I slipped the pillow out and proceeded to pin up both sides of the pillow like so.

Then I stitched up both open ends, turned the pillow cover inside out and stuffed that wacky pink pillow back inside.

Ah.. the finished product in its rightful home, my work in progress bedroom... More on that later...

Unleash your inner artist ... with your staple gun

Yes. I said staple gun.

There's not really a tutorial here.... just clip your JoAnn's coupon and head to the store. Like as SOON as you finish reading this.

Here's the how to:

• Sigh disgustedly at the blank walls in your bedroom. The walls you spent TWO nights painting whilst your toddler slept, only to wake a mere TWO hours after falling asleep in the fume-filled room. (You too? No? Ok, it was just me. Moving on...)
• Clip your JoAnn's coupon and head to the store.
• Go to arty/painting/framing area and pick out canvases. (I went with two 18 x 24 inch ones for our queen size bed, but you can get as many or few as you like.)
• Schlep those canvases over to the fabric area and pick one. I went with a home decorating fabric because it's a little sturdier.
• Schlep the canvases and fabric to the cutting table. To figure out how much you need, spread out the fabric and lay your frames on it. You need just enough to cover the front, sides and about 2 inches of the back of the canvas.
• Pay.
• Go home and have snack. (Again, just me? Well, whatever.)
• Set up your iron, ironing board and staple gun. Iron your fabric and cut it to size.
• Then just stretch it over your canvases and staple the fabric into the backside of the frame.
• Pay special attention to the corners so that you can make them tidy -- I folded them like you would a sheet. And be sure to take a sneak peek at the the front of the fabric before you beging stapling. That way you can be sure your fav parts of the pattern get prime real estate.
• Hang them. (I use pushpins. Seriously, who has time for drills, screws and hammers? Pushpins work just fine with light items.) And admire.

Lovely! Right? Now will someone convice Brian to let me paint this ancient, handed-down bed white? That would look soooo much better.

But the best thing about this project is it's cheap cheap cheap. Espcially with coupons and/or sale fabric. It's super fast -- we're talking instant gratification here. AND you can rip the fabric off the canvas and recover or paint the canvas any time your little decorating heart desires.