Hannahs Room

So I have been working on my daughters room.... pretty much forever. When we built the house I painted stripes in her bedroom. I had gotten the inspiration from an HGTV show I saw only I was pretty sick of painting when it came to her room and I didnt feel like taping the stripes so I free handed it. Well, my hand is shaky and it was more like squiggles than stripes. I had intended to put chair railing up for, oh, about 6 years, but never nagged my husband enough. Here is what it had pretty much looked like for the past 6 years, only usually much messier.

 The stripes were cute, but they were visually messy. Since my daughter is a pretty messy kid ( no matter how much I try to make her otherwise) her room was always an eyesore to me.
I covered up the stripes with paintable, bead board look wallpaper and we finally added some chair rail in the form of door casing molding. We got a contractors pack and covered her room, the dining room, the mirrors in the bathrooms, my jewelry holder, and still have 2 long boards and a bunch of scraps left. All for $50!
Here it is now.. ahhhh!

Oh and we got her a bed from IKEA. I really wanted an antique iron bed, and almost had one from Craigs List, but I couldn't get it that weekend and the guy really needed to get rid of it quickly. Oh well. This one from IKEA is pretty nice for a little girl and its much sturdier than it looks.

 Here is the lighting before and after:

Ugly builders light                                                  

  Lovely crystal chandelier I found for $80 and added some plastic colored dangly's to it. And one of those ceiling medallions to cover up the ugly unpainted spot on the ceiling.

Its still a work in progress. I made a bed skirt from tulle but it needs a backing so I will have to share that later. I also want to add some sheers around the headboard and put up a few pictures or something. Then there's the side table which just has a scrap of fabric on it, the messy bookshelves and desk.... sigh.

Dresser Makeover

I really wish I had a before, before pic to show you so you could see what this dresser looked like when I started. It was a really great dresser, sturdy and well made, but very retro. Not in a good way. I wouldn't say it was ugly, but it was just not pretty. My sister gave it to us though, so it was FREE! Which is always good.
Imagine it with me. It was all the same color as that darker brown in this picture.  That blank middle section was 3 drawers. The lattice pattern on the left drawer is from a plastic, wood look panel that was screwed on top. All 3 of the top drawers had this with no drawer pulls.

Well my daughter needed a desk. So one day I thought this dresser would make a good one. I could remove the middle 3 drawers and cut that bottom section off to make a place for a chair and her feet. I worked on it until I got to cutting off the bottom section. My hubby said that it couldn't be done. :(
So I had him cut some scrap bead board to fit inside and then I painted the whole thing white. I left the drawer handles because I liked them. I then removed the handle-less drawers and replaced them with 2 of the handled ones. It worked well enough as a desk for my little girl, but after a while I wanted to get a real desk for her.  I decided to use this in my sewing room to store crap in, and as a work surface. My original thought was to Mod Podge some pages from an old book onto it. You can see here on the left and side where I started to. I didn't care for it, so I scraped it off. (the old lattice drawer is just there for the before pic)

Then I came across an old dress pattern that I had. I am guessing from the picture on the front that it is from the 70's. Well I decided that it would look really cool Mod Podged to my dresser, and very appropriate for a sewing room. What do you think?

 

For the drawers I decided MP  a red ticking fabric onto the fronts. You can sort of see it in the picture above, on the bottom right corner. I added several layers of MP and did a light sanding between coats with a super fine steel wool.  This made it nice and smooth.

And here is the finished product!

 

I am on the lookout for the perfect basket(s) to put in that gaping, white hole in the middle. I have done some great organization in here too!  See all that messy fabric? I cant wait to show you what I did with it, but that will have to wait for another post.

And here are some before and after pics.

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Privacy Window Film

 I have had the hardest time trying to cover this big square window in my bathroom with something that I like.

 

This was my most recent window covering. A heavy brown fabric that I added some fabulous fabric to the bottom of.  I still hated the curtains. It was very dark in there, and I like the light, but being a bathroom and going in and out several times a day, we needed some privacy too. So keeping them open was not an option. I had thought of putting a Roman shade in there and told my husband so. He suggested frosting the window too so they could stay open.

 

I agreed that was a great idea, so I did some research and decided that etching it was not good, because this is not our forever house and etching being permanent, the next owners might not be so happy with it.

I had decided to get that mirrored film (mirror look on the outside) and make some Roman shades. That film is only good during the day when the sun is shining.
When I got to Lowes I changed my mind again. I found some 24 hour privacy film that is removable, but good enough to be permanent if we want. Plus it cost less and was a bigger size to fit my window without piecing it together. I decided that with this I could just do away with the shade and save money. I would just make a valance out of some fabric I already had. Here are the (poor picture quality) results. This is a night shot.

This is looking in from outside at night. The darker shape is my son standing next to the tub that is under the window. The light to the right is from the closet light with the door open.

 

This is his shadow leaning in next to the window. Since I never get naked that close to the tub I am not scared... not scared anyways. Anybody seeing this silhouette would not try looking again.

 

And here it is from the inside during the day. I just made a simple valance with one inverted box pleat in the middle. I had used this fabric before, so it already had 3 of the 4 hems in place (sweet!).

 And here it is with the flash on. The "stained glass" hanging in the window is a real piece of glass, but it is one of those Galary Glass, paint things.  The tealight lantern hanging from the ceiling was $5 at T.J. Max. Not sure if it will stay.

 I made a new valance for my shower too.
The bathroom is much brighter now. The first morning I walked into the bathroom with the privacy film up, I had to back up and shut the door. It was SO bright in there!

 I hate this 8-9 foot mirror. It mocks me every time I step out of the shower. Stupid mirror!
 I had a piece left over so I did the outside door to my garage.

The film was purchased at Lowes. It was about $19 for a big, 4foot wide by 6.5 feet long roll. It requires a spray solution for the installation process. Instead of paying $9 more for the kit, I used a spray bottle with water and a small bit (tsp) or so of liquid castile soap mixed in it. You could use baby shampoo which the manufacturers suggest. It was pretty easy to install.  I suggest having some help though.
I am really enjoying the bright airy feeling of the bathroom now. Only thing I don't like is you can see all the dirt that I thought I had been cleaning up before, but obviously hadn't. 

Burlap Pegboard, Ballard Knock-off

 I am so stinkin excited about this project!  So, I had my husband hang some pegboard for me in my laundry room because I wanted a place to hang my wrapping paper and supplies. Now, I HATE painting, but love what paint can do. Still, I soooo did not want to paint! Not wanting to have the ugly look of pegboard either I thought and thought of what I should do. I first thought of breakin' out the Mod Podge and fabric, then I came across this in my Ballard Designs Magazine.

 

 photo source

 I thought... YES! I can make my pegboard look like that! Its not a corkboard but its the same idea. Though I couldn't find anyone online that had done it, I knew it could be done. I have hot glue, an electric staple gun, and I know I can get those nail heads at Home Depot or Lowes.  Plus, everyone seems to be doing something in burlap and I want to join in on the fun. Burlap is cheap and sturdy and... I love it! The weave of burlap is so loose that I wouldn't have to cut holes for the pegs and I could sort of see through it so it was easy to find the peg holes. 

Here is what I came up with.

Here is what it would have looked like without the burlap and nail heads. Ooooh look! It matches the baskets on the shelf! But oh-so-ugly!

 And this is what it looks like with all the paper, bags, etc. all hung up. eeeeee! I LOVE it!

I just walk in there and stare at it. It makes me so happy!

                                Before                                                                    After

The chest freezer underneath makes a perfect place to wrap presents.

I will show you some more details and how-to's in another post.

Update : Here is my post about the details of making this.

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