Quicky curtain tune-up

While most people seem to leave their master bedroom for last, we started working on it fairly early into our whole renovation of the Ugly Duckling, installing batten and board (here, here and here), giving it a fresh coat of paint and shortly after moving in, adding curtains for a more finished look (here).

That doesn't mean the room is done, but it was cute and cozy and we are still loving it.

There was just something about the curtains that needed fixing. You see, I like it when curtains puddle on the floor. Not a lot - not a heaping pile of a puddle - but a little puddle hinting at a just a bit more fabric than necessary.

Our bedroom curtains, however, were puddling just a bit too much which made them look messy and unfinished, not to mention having to squat down to tidy them up every time we opened and closed them. And we do that a lot, well, at least for the one window that is in direct line of sight with our backyard neighbors.

Two words:
Liiiight Shoooow. (Or Peep show - pick one)

With the husband having to work, Little Man busy creating fantastic Lego creations and the laundry battled successfully, I decided it was now or never to hem this unruly lot of curtains.

[Before: You see the puddly mess?]

I straightened them allowing the curtain fabric to fall flush against the floor before easing the fabric out along the floor and then snipped along the line which - with a half inch allowance for the seam tape - would make the curtain touch the floor.

[In-Progress: Not my fabric scissors but they are sharp!]

I then ironed on the hemming tape


peeled off the protective paper covering


folded over once and ironed it to bond the fabric to the hemming tape.


Done!

[In-Progress: Curtain on the right has been hemmed to its new length;
curtain on the left is still the original length. See how differently they drape?]

Rinse and repeat for two curtains each on three windows (well, two. One is a door disguising as a window. Remember?)


So much better. I can now open and close the curtains without spending any time arranging the train on the floor. Makes you wonder why I waited this long ...

Sure, I want to get blinds (match stick or bamboo or similar) if I can find the proper length at a decent. Our original windows are an odd size and rather tall and the standard sizes are usually about 10 inches too short. Then again, the cats would love the peekaboo feature by the window sill, I'm sure.

Going blind(s)

While Little Man has outgrown the stage where a dark room with light-blocking curtains guarantees long naps and sleeping in late in the mornings (no more naps and he's just as much of an early bird as his mom), it is still nice to have some window treatments. Privacy is a good reason although even our next door neighbor doesn't get much more of a glimpse of the ....err, creative chaos that reigns supreme in his room. Mom here simply likes the finished look that window treatments add to a room.

So after some debating and looking at options we decided on Roman shades like the ones we have in our kitchen. And just like our kitchen shades, I made Little Man's shades by hand. We found a fabric with navy and white stripes to match his accent wall and following the instructions from "The Little Green Notebook" whipped up a pair of one-of-a-kind roman shades.

The entry hall works great for projects like this: lots of open floor space to spread out. In the upper left corner of the photo you can spy my youngest assistant of the feline sort just waiting for the right moment to pounce into the midst of things!

And two hours later, Little Man was one step closer to a finished room! Weird how we sometimes end up procrastinating on projects that come together so quickly and, once done, make things look so much nicer.

Have you ever tried to make your own roman shades? Which instructions did you follow? I can't believe how easy it is and how quick you can whip up some custom roman shades in your favorite fabric!

No more peekabo

We are very fortunate to live in a neigbourhood with great neighbors in general (SPR's slogan could very well be "Come for the houses, stay for the people)" and especially lucky to live on a block with really darling neighbors.

So in order to quit shocking them with the sight of unmade bed hair, lumpy PJs and other unmentionable sights from the inhabitants and to add to the winterization of our house (not like we're really needing it this year; the winter has been incredibly mild so far) I decided to take this window in our vestibule looking out over our front porch and into the street from this

[Bare-naked ladies inside and out]

to this

[Shade in place]

by adding a simple thermal roman shade. During the day this baby rolls up and out of the way (without any cords to tease and tempt the feline members of the family to get into trouble) and in the evening it rolls down, keeping what's happening at the Ugly Duckling in the Ugly Duckling. I still may add actual curtains to the windows in the vestibule but this works fine for now.

So far, this has been our only ...ahem, foray into the world of winterization. Luckily, this winter has been very mild compared to past years. We hardly had any freezes and cold days have bounced back to warm sunny days in record time. It's kind of hard to keep up with what to wear: you go from shorts and t-shirts to woolen sweaters and coats within a matter of days.

By now the weather changes happen so fast that even my weather migraines can't keep up anymore. That is turning out to be the best thing because rather than feeling every change in weather I have managed to skip one or two without feeling so much as a twinge in my head. Woot!

Kitchen: In for a window treat(ment)

After all the major updates in our kitchen, followed by painting some baseboard and door frame (read about it here) and adding vintage style open shelving (described here and here and here), it was time to tackle another project on our to-do-list for this room in our home.

While I love having a backyard view from my sink, seeing the ratty old mini blinds every morning just didn't brighten my day, nor did it brighten our kitchen. It just had to go. And fast.

[Before: Meh ... miniblinds]

I'd been patiently waiting for another sale at Calico Corners to snatch up a piece of that adorable "Dahlia" fabric (I talked about my fabric shopping woes here) but again, no luck. They didn't have it in stock and ordering it would take another 7-10 business day.

I'm patient, but not that patient.

So I browsed beautiful fabrics for about an hour, petted some lovely Ikats here, fondled some delicious Matelasse there, and then came across this pretty little number:

[What lovely leaves - Robert Allen Collection]

White linen with a scattering of leaves featuring colors that would work well to pull my yellow and white kitchen and my turquoise and white dining room together. Sold!

At home I pulled up my favorite "Miniblind to Roman Shade" tutorial up from the "Little Green Notebook" and got cracking. It worked great so if you feel crafty and need some easy-breezy window treatments check it out here: Miniblind to Roman Shade Tutorial

Following the instructions I cut out the thin strings that allow the miniblinds to tilt, careful not to cut the main string for the up and down mechanism.

[In Progress: Chop Chop!]

Our house cat "Boots" took off with one of the strings, and after she was done playing catch with it for a while she returned to keep a watchful eye on me to see if I'd create another toy for her during my project.

[In Progress: Extra string removed and ready to tackle step 2]

After that, I removed all but 5 slats and re-attached the bottom slat again before laying the shade skeleton on my fabric.

[In Progress: Fabric cut to size and ready to be attached]

I trimmed my fabric - one yard turned out to be the exact amount of fabric I needed for this project and then started glueing the hems. I usually -never- use any of those hemming tapes and glues. Sewing a straight seam through a sewing machine is easy and comes with the guarantee that IT.WILL.STAY.PUT. Something I can't necessarily say about some tapes I have used in the past.

I consider this a test: if it stays, great. It would have been much more difficult to run this through the sewing machine (but not impossible - just quite pin-ful to make sure the fabric doesn't move). If it doesn't, oh well, then I'll have to sew it after all.

[In-Progress: Looking good!]

So far this project had been surprisingly easy and it progressed swimmingly. Hanging the miniblind turned Roman shade back up, turned out to be a bit tricky and required me to drill a new hole into ancient pine but after just a few more minutes my kitchen window looked much improved!

[After: What a "window" treat!]

What a change! Now I really need to take care of the window trim.
And just for kicks and giggles, here's my "Honey Do" list for the kitchen as of today:

Kitchen:
- rip out old cabinets
- rip out linoleum
- repair heart pine floors
- refinish heart pine floors
- re-plumb kitchen
- update electrical wiring
- hang new drywall
- finish new drywall
- prep, prime and paint walls
- repair base molding and add quarter rounds
- prep, prime and paint ceiling
- install ceiling fan
- install kitchen cabinets
- install appliances
- install cabinet hardware
- prep, prime and paint base molding
- prep, prime and paint trim around doorway to breezeway
- create open shelving with brackets and boards
- create/ add window treatment
- add a chalk board somewhere
- prep, prime and paint window trim
- finish trimming out the cabinet above the fridge

Optional/Possible future projects:
- update lighting*
- create built-in breakfast nook *
- add small round pedestal table*
- install back splash*
- add crown molding

Curtain Call at the Dinner Theater

While husband is doing all the hard physical labor when I can't help, I get to be useful in other areas of the house. As the dining room is in direct line of sight from the living room, it's one of the rooms that has been really on my mind and my to-do-list lately. The one thing that really makes a room look like an actual room and less of a construction zone are curtains.

Just finding the right curtains to go with our lovely "Lyndhurst Duchess Blue" turned out to be a bit more difficult than I'd expected.

[Before: Our reading nook in the dining room]

What? You don't have a reading nook in your dining room? Man, you should try it, it's really neat. Not like we'd planned one, its just where the rocking chair ended up when we dumped all of our belongings into the house and we really like it there. It also adds another function to our dining room and that's always a good thing, in my book at least.

After looking in all the usual places, it's Target to the rescue!

[Another lucky find: Dwell table cloth from Target]

Yes, it's a table cloth but the color scheme and design were just what I'd envisioned all along. I ordered two and since they measured 60x104 they were plenty long and just wide enough to be cut in half for a curtain panel on either side of each of the two windows. Score!

[Hemming the panels. Funny how the paint on my hands is a dead give-away that I tend to project-hop]

I rarely pin. I simply pinch and fold and run it through the machine. I have tried those no-sew iron on hem tapes before and frankly, they suck. Or maybe I've been using the wrong brand, who knows ...

[Folded over no-sew treatment]

Since the panels were longer than I needed, I decided to fold the top over for a little fun treatment at the top. That way it looks more like a curtain and less than a home-made concoction from a table cloth. Since no sewing and no cutting was involved I get to buy some time before deciding whether to use the excess fabric for pillow covers maybe.

Just like before I used curtain clip rings. You can find them at the blue box and places like Big Lots for just $5 for a pack of 14.

[Close-up of the folded top edge]

[Closed curtains]

Two panels are still wide enough to cover the entire window for privacy at night if we feel the need.

[After: All finished]

I'm tickled pink about these curtains. The fabric is simply perfect! The white keeps it fresh and the dabs of blue and yellow play off of the colors in the room beautifully without being overwhelming.

Notice something else?
The dresser formerly earmarked as vanity for our master bathroom moved into the dining room. How much better could it possibly get? Squeeeee!