A Fabulous Foyer

When you walk into a home you want to feel like ..."I have arrived!"  Well, for years our foyer was more like "yeap your here."   No excitement, no glitz... Just brown walls, the stairs, some furniture that didn't go anywhere else and a seriously old out dated brass light fixture hanging on a chain.  It was time for a change.  Initially I was going to paint the room back a lighter shade of khaki but honestly, every room in this house at some point was khaki and we are just burned out on khaki. We decided to go with a nice green and I'm so glad we did.  It's bright, it's cheerful and it looks fab.  Lesson learned:  Don't be afraid of color, embrace it. We also replaced the light fixture that hung down with a crystal one that is against the ceiling.  It makes the foyer seem much larger and the light is so much brighter.  We love it.    Here are a few photos so you can see the transformation. 

Dining Room DIY

The dining room project has been a long time coming.  While we love our home, we have never loved the interior paint colors.  The dining room was this orange red from ceiling to the floor.  It had all brass fixtures.   It had no molding below the chair rail and it seemed so cramped.   This project took approximately 1 month from beginning to end. It's important to note, Kevin and I both have real 8-5:30pm jobs, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a rabbit and a gaga in our charge.  Needless to say, this project was not done non-stop.  We had to take breaks for real life and work.  Thankfully the ceiling in this room did not have popcorn on it so it did not have to be removed.  We did have to kiltz the walls to kill the red and keep it from bleeding through.  We painted the trim and below the chair rail a creamy white.  Above the chair rail we went with Sky Blue.  Kevin built the boxes below the chair rail.  This was a rather complicated process but he says the smartest thing he did was purchase a nail gun and borrow a miter saw from a friend.  Eventually, I want to replace the light fixture in the room with an antique crystal one but since I have not found one I like yet, my friend Josh Summerford came over and helped me take the brass light fixture down.  I took it outside and spray painted it with looking glass spray paint.  It looks beautiful.    I also spray painted the curtain rods and a mirror I was using in the room.   The most drastic thing we did was turn the room around.  We moved all of the furnishings and the rugs over 1 wall.   This simple change makes the room seem bigger and more spacious. We are loving our new dining room! 

DIY Easy No Sew Roman Shades

If your house is like ours, you have a house full of ugly old blinds.  Today I decided to do an up cycle and create an updated set of roman shades from some of my old blinds.  I was surprised to find it was a simple and easy project that even a person who can not sew could accomplish.  This project took 4 hours from start to finish. 

Step 1- Gather your supplies. 

Fabric

Fabric glue

Slide ruler

Paint brush

Hem ruler

Blind(can be large or mini)

Hot glue gun 

Hot glue

Craft scissors

Fabric scissors

Pen

Scrap paper

Iron

Step 2- Determine fabric needs.

Measure the inside of your window (where the blind would hang). 

Formula for calculating fabric-

Measure the length and width of the inside of the window.  Subtract 1/4 inch from both of those measurements.  Take the answers and add 2 inches to both.  That is how much fabric you need for one window.  

Step 3-  Prepare your blinds.  Remove all of the cage ropes that control if the blinds are open or closed and hold the slats in a specific location.  Do not cut the rope that runs through the center of the blinds that pulls them up and down.  You need these cords to move the shade up and down.  Remove all but 6 or 7 slats. Keep the thick bottom of the blind.

Step 4-  Fold down a 1 inch hem all the way around the fabric.  Use the iron to press it down.  

Step 5- With a brush use fabric glue to glue down the 1 inch hem.  The fabric will now be the exact measurement you  got when you measured the window. 

Step 6-  At the corner, clip a triangle off to keep the corner from being too bulky. 

Step 7- Lay the fabric pattern down (make sure if your fabric has a correct direction that it is going the right way).  Place the blinds on the fabric.  Glue the top of the fabric to the top of the blind.  Use the hot glue for this.  Then glue the bottom of the fabric to the bottom block of the blind.  

Step 8- Space the slats evenly down the fabric.   To assure the shade lays correctly,  make sure the cord comes from behind of the blind slat and through to the front in the middle then goes back under the next slat.   Then take fabric glue and glue the slats to the fabric.  Do not glue the cord down, you need the cord to move so that the blind will move up and down.  

Step 9- Let it all sit for 15-20 minutes to dry.  Add hot glue to any edges that seem loose.  

Step 10- Test the shade and make any corrections you need to make.  

Step 11- Install the shade and enjoy.  Once you get your measurements these blinds take approximately 1 hour each to make.