CPR Anyone? - Family Room Resuscitation

Well, I gave you a sneak peak of some trim I was painting the other night. And I will tell you that it’s for our family room. That room is in need of resuscitation. It just feels dead and dingy to me. Here is a before pic of the room (try not to cringe).  It looks very bare because it’s cleaned up.  Usually it is covered with toys from the kids.  I don’t bother putting décor items out (they’d just destroy them).  The tables are usually covered with books and puzzles anyway.



The first stop in my family room revitalization is the sofa.



Actually the first stop was IKEA. Hubby and I made a pilgrimage to the huge store and picked up a few things including this slip-cover for their Hovas sofa.

I don’t actually have a Hovas sofa, but I have a sofa that is the same shape and just slightly smaller than IKEA’s sofa. And for a price of $49 I couldn’t resist buying this beautiful white canvas slipcover and doing a little of my own tailoring to make it fit. So with a little nip here and a little tuck there…



… I now have a new (did I mention easy) IKEA slipcover to fit my Lazy Boy sofa. Shhh.. don’t tell. ;)

Next I needed to recover my pillows. I pulled some colors out of my fabric stash.  I wanted some with texture and remembered a blog post by Censational Girl about using a bath rug to make a pillow cover. As it happens, hubby and I had JUST bought some great bath rugs at Home Goods. And every time I go in the bathroom, my two year old runs in to lie down on the new rug. It’s comfy looking! So I thought this would, indeed, make a good pillow cover. Oh, and hubby’s response? “Go ahead; I know where I can get another rug.” Isn’t he great?!!



I also found some inspiration for another pillow from a ruffled duvet cover at Urban Outfitters.  I’ve included a tutorial for you below.

~ Ruffled Pillow Tutorial ~

1. Cut out two squares of fabric the size of your pillow plus seam allowance.
 

2. Cut strips of fabric and make ruffles. Then, using a string attached to a fabric marker, draw an arc on the corner of the fabric as a guide for your first ruffle.


3. Place your ruffle on the line and pin to keep the gathers from moving as you sew.


4. Sew the ruffle on.


5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have as many ruffles as you like.


6. Sew the two pieces together (right sides facing). Either add a zipper as I did or sew the fourth side after inserting the pillow.





So after all that, here are the current updates to the room.  Still many more to go.











Hopefully I can get the trim up on the wall this week and show you. It’ll be a HUGE change for the room! Can’t wait!!

Rebecca


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Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s day.  Hubby and I celebrated on Saturday in a rather non-traditional way.  Instead of a dinner date, we got some discounted tickets from Groupon to our local Home and Garden Show this past weekend.  Right up my alley!  It was a lot of fun, especially since we put the kids in daycare and went by ourselves.

And since we went to the show on Saturday, I’ve been free all evening to work on one of my latest projects.  I’ll tell you more about it later, but here’s a sneak peak.





Who would have ever thought I’d be ecstatic to spend my Valentine’s day painting trim?!?  LOL!

Rebecca

Chalkboard and Corkboard Cabinet Door

I try to be organized.  I really do.  It just seems like I’m always taking one step forward and two steps back when it comes to keeping things neat and tidy.  One of our (my husband and me both) worst problems is making lists, misplacing them and making more lists.  Then of course we have ten lists all over the house with everything from honey-do’s to groceries to reminders.  And of course there’s overlap between the lists.  Yep it’s bad.

You might think that having a smart phone would help.  But dang it, it’s not smart enough to read my mind!!  I actually have to find the time to input appointments, reminders and such.  Well, today I am making an attempt to at least have ONE place to put lists, important reminders and such.  And best of all, it’s hidden away inside the cabinet.



Check out the before pic… now that’s keeping it real.  Papers, boxes, you name it, get shoved into any open space when company is coming.  (Oh don’t pretend, you know you do it too!)  Only Martha Stewart keeps the inside of her cabinets neat all the time.  And if you do, wow, I am in awe!!  You are my hero.  Wanna come to my house? 

So this actually turned out to be a pretty easy (as in during nap time) project.
You need:
* a cabinet door
* screw driver to take it off and put it back on
* chalkboard paint
* painter’s tape
* cork board tile
* fabric of choice
* glue

First I took the cabinet off it’s hinges and taped off the area I wanted to paint.  Then I applied the first coat of chalkboard paint (I used three total) and let it dry. 




Meanwhile, I cut a cork-board tile down to size to fit in the door and a scrap of fabric a few inches larger.



I glued the fabric onto the board with Elmer’s glue, cuz face it, it’s cardboard and fabric.  No need for fancy glue… yet.


Then I did two more coats of chalkboard paint.  Actually, the first two coats I painted on with a brush to get a good coverage without a lot of overspray.  The third coat I sprayed on so I wouldn’t have brush strokes. It worked marvelously. 



I used wood glue to attach the covered cork tile to the inside of the door.  You could use Liquid Nails or any other strong glue that’s good with wood.



And here it is with the door re-hung.  LUV IT!!!  Nope, I still haven’t cleaned that cabinet out.  The kids are up from their nap.  No time now.  LOL!


Little by little I WILL get more organized!
Rebecca

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