High & Wide Baby.

Today I wanted to talk about a tip that has helped me quite a bit as I decorate our new home. If you're anything like I was/am, you are challenged in the drapery department. My mother in law worked for JcPenney Custom Decorating for something like 20 years, and I am sure she was appauled at my choice in curtains in our last house. I really had no idea what to do with windows. I suppose I didn't do THAT bad, I went with all white sheers and white romans. No biggie. Except for one big thing. I hung them low and narrow. GASP. As in, basically just covering my windows. Yikes.

So then, as I navigated the decor world over the years, I noticed a big trend that I was NOT a part of. Hanging your window treatments HIGH up on your wall and WIDE on your windows. Why was it not obvious to me before?? What a ginormous impact this single tip has on a room.

Want to make your windows seem twice as large? Make your ceilings feel higher? Room feel more grand? Make a statement instead of just being "there"? Well then my friend, here is your solution. Easy as easy can be too.

Here is an illustration, just so you can get the idea. When I saw this earlier last week, I just knew I was going to have to share it. Because as much as I know the difference, it was crazy to see it drawn out so simply.

This is from Elements of Style.

Now wontcha look at that! BAM. Can you believe that is even the same window???  Drastic improvement.

Along those lines, here are some of my tricks when dressing a window.

-Curtains should be either puddled on the ground a bit, or just touching the ground.

-Hang them within about 3-6 inches from the ceiling.

-That means, no more 84" inch panels. 95" all the way.

-Hang your rod wide enough so that the entire panel hangs just on the outside of the window frame. What I do, is have the panel approximately one inch over the window trim. So JUST covering the molding.

-You can either leave them as is, or if you want more privacy, hang roman shades. I hang  mine directly behind the curtain rod. Waaaaay up high on the wall. By doing this, you'll increase the height of the window and it will appear as though the window continues all the way up.

-With the romans, when they are open, open them so that they are JUST covering the top window molding.

-White panels ALWAYS work in a room. Always. If you have a dark space especially. I almost always go with white. I like to use white panels and patterned or bamboo romans (see HERE for my no-sew roman shade tutorial that has something over 18k Pinterest pins). White just brightens the space and again, makes the window seem much larger. Plus they are just so versatile and timeless. I like grommet top (if you plan on opening and closing them a lot especially) or back tab, which give you a nice pleated look. I steer away from tab top.

-If you want to add color or pattern and don't want to use a roman, you can use white panels and then cut one patterned panel down the middle and add them to the outside of the white panels. Giving you just a splash of color.

-For sliding glass doors, I do the same thing. Our deck slider has the rod hung right under the ceiling, with bamboo shades hung directly behind the rod. I used white grommet top panels so that they can be flung open and closed easily. The door looks WAAAAAAY bigger than when we moved in and vertical blinds were in place. YIKES. Stay away from verticals if you can at all help it. Talk about the '90s!

-For rods, I like large brushed nickel. As in, not the skinny skinny rods. I also like round finials. Classic, traditional, timeless. Honestly though, go with what suits your taste. Oil rubbed bronze and black are also nice.

Here are some examples of the window treatments hung in our house so far. We have only done the family room, master bedroom, kitchen, and partially the play room. I say partially because my plan is to make patterned fabric roller shades or romans. I just haven't gotten on that yet. I am working it around in my head, in terms of what color/pattern I want in there.

Playroom

This is the closest shot I have to a before. Before this though, the previous owner had frilly lace curtains hung directly over and on the window.

I would hang the curtains even wider than this if you can. I didn't because I was trying to use the rod I already had, which was stretched out as far as it would go. If I ever feel like it, I'll buy another rod and pull the panels out 6 more inches or so. Notice how I left the space between the rod and the window bare here. Works just fine. Shades to come eventually.

Master Bedroom

Again, closest I have to a before. This was the previous owners. Waaaaay too low. Too shiny. Mini blinds. Brass tiny rod.

Here is the other window.

After. BAM!!!! Can you even believe this is the same window???

Now I realize this is not the same window as the first photo. But, I haven't finished the other window and this one was dressed the exact same way as the other one was, before I took it all down for the photo above.

Notice the high bar, romans hung directly behind it and opened up right to the edge of the window. White panels hung completely on the outside of the window. This looks like a completely different window. Craziness.

Family Room

Before.
Previous Owners. So much wrong with this.

After

This was before we painted and moved the bookcase out of the room.

The room how it is now, from another angle. I don't know why I don't have a straight on shot. Whatev.

Here are some of my suggestions for inexpensive, versatile, white panels.

TARGET Grommet Top 95" FOR $35 (I have these in my family room and kitchen)

IKEA Back Tab 98.5" (comes with hem tape) for $10 a PAIR (these are the ones I have in my bedroom and playroom)

I think I've illustrated my point here. High and wide baby. Any other window treatment questions??

Quick & Dirty Cushion Recover

Last night I had a burst of energy and inspiration to do a little project while the kids were with Steve outside. I grabbed a piece of scrap fabric and my staple gun and got to work! I have two ottomans/benchs in our family room for people to prop their feet on. Our room is very wide, so you can't reach the "coffee table" to put your legs on, so I like to have these available. Who likes to relax on the couch without a foot rest?? I recovered one already with a bright yellow chevron fabric, but this one was just plain white and I really wanted to update it a bit. I had a minute so off I went!

Here it is before. We actually recovered this about seven years ago. It was Steve's grandparent's old stool and it used to be floral.

All you need is a piece of fabric (I am using leftovers from the roman shades in the kitchen, which was actually a tablecloth from Target), a staple gun, and staples.

Step 1) Remove the cushion from the stool. Mine was not attached this time because there is a little storage area underneath, but the last one I did was screwed in.

Step 2) Lay your fabric out and place the cushion on top. (Don't mind the old gross vents. When we redo the kitchen they will be getting replaced.)

Step 3) Cut. I know. This is all very complicated. Thank GOODNESS you have the photos. ;)

Find a baby to park it on the corner of the cushion. PHEW! Glad I have one just hangin' around.

Kidding. I couldn't get him to move his tush.

Step 4) Start stapling it nice and tight. Make sure your pattern is right where you want it by flipping it over and checking the placement first. I do the two long edges first, then corners, then short edges. I'm not an expert on corners, I just fiddle with them until I like the way they look and do lots of stapling.

Step 5) Replace the cushion on the bench, screwing it on if you need to. VOILA!

Now. I am planning (I think) on painting the wood either white or gray. But I want to wait until we paint the family room because I'll just do it at the same time. Also, I always have a hard time taking the plunge when it comes to painting hardwood furniture. I am always afraid of ruining it! So, I mull it over awhile just to be sure. For now, both ottomans are wood toned and when I decide, I'll do them both. Or not. We'll see.

Here it is in it's home. Ready to be pulled out as needed or have a drink or magazine plopped on it. Whatev.

Oh shoot, I should have taken a better photo. See at the top of the mail sorter? I put the West Elm spheres that I made up there. Perfect spot! The stain matches 100% and it adds a bit of height to the piece which, in my opinion, was just a teeny bit short before. Someday I'll take a real photo to show you better.

So there you have it folks. That took me 5 minutes. Quick and dirty (notice I didn't show you the underside once it was stapled? That is where the dirty comes in. Who cares! No one can see it). Now it looks like it was purposely chosen for the room. YAY!

DIY Gallery Wall

I debated posting this or not. I couldn't decide if I wanted to wait until it was completely finished, or if I should just go ahead and do a mini-reveal now. Clearly I went with the latter! Here is our gallery wall in our (still unpainted) family room as of today:

Woohoo! Progress is progress right? Honestly I decided to post now, because I have no idea when I will finish it. I think I have decided to have a family photo session done this Spring/Summer and sort of coordinate the wardrobe a bit for the space. I went back and forth about just putting all sorts of random family photos in it now and doing the fresh session and have all the photos be coordinating. I think that I would like it better if I went with the new session. Then I can plan it out, colorwise, the way I want it. I am also planning on intermixing some swatches of fabric in some of the frames too. So, you'll just have to be patient and wait for the final product sometime this summer.

Why, do you ask, did I decide to put the frames up now then?? Well. At the time I had assumed I would just fill them with photos we already had. Also, this wall was SO blank and empty, I really just wanted to put something up there. Plus, I figured hanging it BEFORE we painted might be a good idea. In case I needed to make a bunch of extra holes or something (which I didn't).

Let's take a peek at how the wall evolved, shall we?

First off. I went to Michaels and browsed around for all white frames. I lucked out in that they had JUST (as in, that week), come out with a new line of white gallery frames on the cheap. They were significantly less expensive than the frames I had found at Target and Ikea. Well, assuming I could use a coupon, that is. Actually, even without a coupon they are a great price.

Here is the photo I snapped on my phone of the display:

As a frame of reference (ha), the largest frame on the bottom is $19.99 regular price, and the smallest one is $5.99. Very reasonable. Of course, I used a 25% off your entire purchase coupon. It ended up costing me just about $100 for all of them.

While I was there, I really had no idea what frames I needed. What else was I supposed to do to figure it out? So I started just laying them all out on the floor. I knew I wanted it to be a certain width (just about 10 inches wider in total than our sofa), I also knew I wanted them to be in one large frame. For all the frames to combine to form one large rectangle. So I just fiddled with them all until I was happy with the result.

Then I snapped a pic to remind myself of how to set it up at home.

After a couple of weeks I decided to tackle the hanging. Steve was working on another project, and I wanted to see if I could do the entire thing by myself!

Step1) Lay wrapping paper out on the floor. I taped two pieces together to get the right height.

Step2) Start laying your frames onto the paper, copying the layout you previously decided on (ie me looking at the pic on my phone).

If you haven't already done your layout, cut your paper to the size you want the gallery wall to be. Then use that as the parameters for where to place your frames.

Step 3)Outline all the frames on the paper. I used a pencil to trace each frame. Then I cut the wrapping paper around the frames.

Step 4) Take all the frames off the paper and mark on the paper, with a writing utensil, where each frame needs to hang. I just turned each frame over, noticed where the hanging bracket was and marked it with a cross. So, I would see that it was 2 inches down from the edge in the middle, then mark that spot on the paper.

Step5) Hang the wrapping paper on the wall exactly where you want the mural to be. I used tape. This is the only spot I actually needed another set of hands. Steve held one side while I taped the other up.

Here is one with the flash so you can see a little bit better all the outlined frames. Sorry, you still can't really see them since I used a purple highlighter.

Step6) Pound a nail into each spot that you marked for hanging. Right through the paper.

You can see I also marked the size of each frame. Just in case I needed it.

Here is me, hard at work. (Not really, it took only about 30 seconds to do them all!)

Step7) After all the nails are in, carefully rip the paper off the wall.

YAY!! Nails are all in and I didn't have to make ANY extra holes!

Step8) Now, using the paper as your guide for placement, hang all the frames into their position.

Step9) Enjoy your DIY gallery wall!

Here it is in the sunlight.

Oh I would love to replace those lamps....

You would be surprised at how simple it really was! The work at home took 30 minutes max and I didn't have to fix any nail holes. I am definitely loving the look, so much better than the big empty space before.

Now I just have to book a session for some family photos to fill those babies up! I also can't wait to paint the room so that we can see how they look on the light gray walls.

This weekend hopefully we'll put a dent in a pretty big project we've begun- the shelving unit on the wall with the tv. YAY! I'll talk a bit about it as we go along. See you soon!

Old Lady Junk Turned Narnia Portal

Steve thinks this mirror looks like a portal to another world. To Narnia. He thinks it is funky because the frame of this LARGE mirror is so thin. SO it looks like a portal. Well, better to be a Narnia portal than the gaudy old gold thing it was before!

This past October I was at the Ronald McDonald House Sale and from across the room I spotted this baby. The very moment I saw it, I said, "GAH! I must have that! In turquoise!". I scooted my little booty over to it and beamed at the $20 tag. NICE. It was crazy gold and very old lady-esque, but I saw past all that and only saw the fabulous curvy lines. Unique and purrrrrrdy! Have I mentioned how much I love the RMH Sale??? Why oh why is it only once a year??!! I have gotten the best finds from that place.

Well, it sat in storage (we were living with my father in law while we waited to close on the house) for awhile, and then sat in the dining room (currently our staging room for projects) for a couple of months. I needed some warm weather before I could work on it, and finally last week's weather fit the bill.

Here it is before:

Look at that finish. OK, so I realize some people may well really like this gold/bronze hideousness. You might be cursing my name for not sharing your fondness. Well, I'm sorry. It had to go.

First things first, I had to grab my arsenal. Spray primer in white, and glossy jade. I primed it first because a)I didn't want to have to prep the surface at all (sand, clean etc) because of all the curves, and b)Steve said the jade would cover better and more vividly over white. When it comes to paint, I listen to him. Usually.

The primer we had already, and the jade I picked up at ACMoore with a 50% off coupon for something like $3.

Step 1) Thoroughly cover the mirror. I used wax paper to shove underneath the frame (which took forever since there were so many curves) and a piece of plastic wrap once the wax paper ran out.

Step 2) Find your spraying location outside (I would never suggest spraying anything inside your house, fumes and over spray would be wicked) and cover your painting area. I sprayed in our garage because it was SUPER windy out that day. I used an old white fitted sheet. It doesn't have to be fancy schmancy stuff here peeps.

Step 3) Spray with primer. You want to hold the can about 8 inches away from the item. Also, good rule 'o thumb, "if your paints a sprayin', your arms a swayin'". Basically, when spray painting, never stop moving your arm. Never hold the can stationary in one position. Also, you want multiple, VERY thin coats. Thick coats of paint will a)take FOREVER to dry (multiple thin coats will dry much quicker than one thick coat) and b)drip drip drip all over the place. No one likes paint drips on their work.





At this point I was like, "Wow! This looks really good white. Maybe I should nix the turquoise and go with white instead!". But, I talked myself out of it because this is supposed to be a statement piece. So I begrudgingly pushed away my white addiction and trudged on.

Step 4) Spray with several thin coats of glossy jade. I think I did 4 coats or so. I sprayed it real thinly and then let it dry about 15 minutes before coming back and doing another quick spray. I had to really maneuver my way around this thing because of all the curves and hiding places where spray didn't want to go.

At THIS point I was thinking, "GAH!!!! I ruined it!!! I should have stopped at white!! What was I THINKING??!!!" LOL. I just kept going since there was no turning back now and figured I'd wait to judge it until after all the paper and such was removed. But I was already planning out how I was going to cover it in white.

Step 5) Let dry (I waited overnight) and then pull off all the paper. You might have to use a flat edge razor blade to scrape some paint off the mirror. I had a bunch of over spray, how that happened, I have no idea since every square inch was covered. Oh well. I got the mirror wet and then scraped (well, Steve did).

VOILA!

So I love it!! I think it was turquoise over-kill with all the paper and such. Once I peeled it all away, it was EXACTLY what I was hoping for. PHEW!! (I seem to say that phrase every single time I play with color)

It adds an unexpected swipe of color to the room and it definitely makes a statement. Everyone who has walked in the room since we put it up, raves about it!

I love how it reflects so much sunlight from the window, since they are directly across from each other.

It also perfectly matches the lamp on the other side of the room.

So there you have it. Bright & playful & something to talk about for sure. For $23 or so, it is definitely worth the price!

GPS Coordinate Welcome Printable

Up today is a quick how-to on making your own GPS coordinate welcome sign for your humble abode. I'm sure you've seen them all over Pinterest, but it only takes a few minutes if you have a Photoshop program of some type. If you don't, you could feel free to email me (via the CONTACT tab) your coords and I could whip you up one real quick & email it back to you. I'm feeling generous today, what can I say.

Here is the one I made for our entry way:

I changed the numbers up a bit, seeing as I didn't think it was a super wise idea to put our exact location on the internets. But you get the idea.

Want to make one? Well then, let's get crackin!

Step 1) Determine your GPS coordinates. I used THIS website. All you do is put your address in at the top and then it spits out your coords at the bottom of the page.

Here is where you put your address (in the slot marked address, go figure!):

Here is where it comes out (the 6 slots on the bottom):

Step 2) Find a background. To get the chevron pattern, I googled "free chevron background", then clicked on IMAGES. You can get the same one HERE.

Step 3) In Photoshop, use the background you just found, and then add a text box for your coordinates. I also lowered the opacity of the background and the text so it wasn't as dark/bright.

VOILA! Here is an example of another one I made.

I printed it out 8x10 then stuck it in a matted frame. Art for under $10. Right up my alley!
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