Spraypainting Curtain Rods and DIY Tablecloth into Curtains

I looked and looked all over the blogisphere for something to do with my 3 HUGE windows in our living, dining and kitchen. I did find a lovely tablecloth at Target that I was going to split in half for each curtain. I didn't want them too full and I didn't want to close them as we just pull our blinds down each night instead.

I was able to purchase 3 tableclothes at $19.99 each and split them down the middle. I then sewed a very basic seem down the side I cut and hung them with clips purchased from Wal-Mart.I purchased 4 bags at $7 each so those were quite costly.
I was able to get 3 curtain rods for $7 each at The Christmas Tree Store and sprayed them with ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint which was $6 at Lowes.

The total project cost was:
Curtains: $60.00
Clips: $28.00
Curtain Rods: $21.00
Spray Paint: $6.00

Total: $115.00 for three HUGE windows that run the length of my house.

Pink and Yellow Ikea Klippan Dyed Couch Slipcovers + a Tutorial

We have two Ikea couches and absolutely LOVE our Klippans. We have the 4 seater Klippan sofa and absolutely adore it. We also love it and that the natural covers are pretty cheap at times to purchase. You can see the pink cover we dyed lying on the chair behind the 4 seater couch.

We also have the Klippan loveseat 2 seater.  We originally purchased one and dyed it pink for my daughter's birthday. This is truer to the color than the picture above of our pink cover. This was using 2 bottles of Fuchsia on the 2 seat loveseat cover.

We also wanted to dye a cover dark gray but didn't/couldn't find any black in liquid form at the time and used the powdered gray. It totally didn't work out well. You can see in the picture from this post HERE from last time we talked about dying that it looked too blue.

Well, we bleached that one with a gallon of bleach and lots of rinse water in the bath tub.

We rinsed and rinsed the cover and even did a quick wash in the washing machine to make sure there was no residue of bleach left to mess with our new color.
Then we put two bottles of golden yellow and 1/2 a bottle of sunshine orange into the water.

We then put our freshly washed cover into the water and let it soak. We constantly came back and moved the fabric around to ensure it was all covered with dye.

This picture doesn't do it true justice but we LOVE it with our new curtains and curtain rods.

So now we have a dark gray couch and a yellow loveseat and we just LOVE them both!

It's Been a While and a FALL Plate Craft

While I haven't posted much on the blog since July... alright, not at all. You caught me! I have been doing things around our house. In fact, we have totally refinished our kitchen cabinets. More on that later.

For now, I wanted to share a fall plate craft idea I stole borrowed from Michael's Craft Stores. I was there this weekend, with coupon in hand for their Labor Day sale and snagged this great orange fall plate for only $0.99! Yup! The other supplies I used were:

a letter "G" for our last name: $2.29
orange glitter glue $0.99
Basic Grey paper (had at home)
scrapbook adhesive (had on hand at home)

So... for a total cost of $4.27+ tax I had a custom fall plate for my fall mantle.

Here are the steps.

Step 1: buy materials :o)

Step 2: trace and cut paper to fit inside plate and adhere with your favorite adhesive.

Step 3: using the glitter glue, cover the letter in glitter glue and smear around with finger for semi-even coverage.

Step 4: using glitter glue, make dots as a border around paper about every 1/4 inch.

Step 5: when dry, adhere letter to center of plate ( I used dots so my letter would be even more 3 dimensional)

Step 6: put on plate hanger or stand and enjoy!

Adventures in Dying... An Ikea Klippan Loveseat VS. ME

We purchased an IKEA Klippan loveseat with no cover on Craigslist last month. I did not or was not able to see the legs in the original Craigslist post so I was more than a little shocked to see hideous wooden legs put on the sleek, modern sofa. As you can imagine, they were removed.

Ikea is over an hour and 1/2 away from us so it took us two weeks to head to my favorite store (in competition with Target).  I unknowingly, thought I could purchase Klippan metal legs at the store and an extra cover. My idea was to buy an off-white cover (for $19) and dye it gray.  I had seen a dye job to die for at IKEA Hackers and knew I could do it.

I was unable to find metal legs at IKEA for the sofa but we did purchase these bookcase legs that are super similar in size, form and color so we thought... for $10 sure... we'll try it.

I realized after pulling the wooden legs off that the original owners put them on because one place where the metal legs screw in was crooked. They took a new screw and screwed in the wooden legs just to the outside of the original leg position.

We unscrewed the extra screws and I fixed the crooked spot by inserting a screwdriver inside it and pulling in the right direction. DUH! Super easy!

 

The couch was also a very old version. The date on the bottom said 1999.  We had to cut off a white gauzy cover to put the slip cover on but no worries.. It turned out fine! The kitten even got into the DIY spirit.

The wooden legs made the couch too high and therefore oddly uncomfortable. It wasn't until we put these legs on and the couch sat lower that we realized that was the problem the whole time. 

Next came the dye job. I found on the RIT website where you can dye items in your washer. We purchased 2 Royal Blue and 1 Sunshine Orange liquid dyes to mix together to get a blue/gray. We pre-washed the off-white cover and then mixed our colors together. 

You can actually pick out over 500 colors at the Color Formula Guide .

We picked out #193 and followed the directions. 

 

The directions state to only leave it in the dye for 30 minutes max and use super hot water. You are also to add 1 cup of salt into the tub. I stopped the washer at 30 minutes and then rinsed a second time.

 

After round 1 it came out WAY too blue!

I'm not sure the orange did anything at all. I re-read the directions for machine washing and the only thing I can think of that went wrong is that we have an HE front loader so it uses less water. 

We purchased a black RIT dye and poured the entire bottle in the load and tried to darken it thinking any gray/black would be better than denim blue.

It didn't do anything. When I have time I will use two bottles of black and hope it darkens it. For now, we have a denim blue couch. We go back to IKEA on Saturday to purchase the Klippan 4 seater in black and a few extra off-white covers for me to dye.  With my daughter's birthday party on Sunday I will be purchasing a pink cover for the 2 seater.

New living room/ kitchen makeover pictures to follow. Next time I try to color match and dye a cover I will use 1/2 of the recipe and use a large Rubbermaid container and boiling water instead of our washer. It was a super easy method but lack of extra water darkened the color drastically.

Organizing Day 9: The Toys!

Luckily we organized most of the toys for the girls in each of their rooms a long time ago.

Some of the baskets are even labeled.

BUT.... we do have a kitchen in the middle of our living room that looks absolutely horrible

I found an adorable little red basket to put the fake food in and wiped down the whole thing with my Basic H

and started purging random things the girls had thrown in there.

I put the basket to the left of the little kitchen so when you first walk into my entry you don't see it. Also, there is a little more room on that side under the little counter top so it fits a little better.

Remember Monday, January 17th is the last day to get FREE shipping on your 1st member order. Also spend $70MN (member price) and get the Shaklee Cinch Sample Kit for FREE

Click HERE to start shopping!

Household DIY Goals for 2011

My husband and I do not make New Year's Resolutions but we do sit down and make goals (when I can get him to sit down).  I We have come up with some projects to do this year to improve our home as we save up the money. We also have a list of financial goals as well so some of these tie in.

#1: Remove all TOXIC CLEANERS from our home entirely!

I have used 7th Generation and some Method cleaners for years. I tried the vinegar and water and making our own laundry detergent (that didn't go well). I even did a basket for our Valentine's exchange of "Green Cleaners" with directions and materials for all the girls to make their own. Since all of that I have discovered Shaklee.  I still have a little bit of 7th Generation cleaner left but the smell of it is so off-putting I hate using it. I still do have some actual TOXIC cleaners in the house and am in the process of purging them all! My husband and I have devoted our home to Shaklee and are loving it!

#2: Get rid of our ugly KITCHEN FLOOR!

Our house was built in the mid 90's which means that most things should have been pretty updated. Well, let me tell you whoever picked out the kitchen floor wasn't thinking 90's. This ugly linoleum combination is enough to make anyone grab a hammer and crowbar! Also, the person who put down our Pergo (before we purchased the house) put it down wrong. They matched all the seems so it looks like a bunch of plywood. It doesn't help that it is light wood either. I'd love for both floors to match but that means replacing our kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallway floors all at once. We'll have to save up for that chunk of change.

#3: Buy a New KITCHEN STOVE!

Our kitchen stove is original to our house which makes it about 16 years old. It has really seen better days! One of our burners doesn't want to always work and our oven is now finicky (it is just so temperamental) HA!

#4: New CARPET in the bedrooms!

Our bedroom carpet is also original to our home and was originally a light gray (from what I can tell).  It is now a disgusting gray even after we steam cleaned it to death. The only carpet in our house is the 3 bedrooms and there is none in the new bedroom we are currently creating a room.

#5: Finish the 4th BEDROOM MAKEOVER!

We tore apart a wall between a HUGE walk-in closet and our laundry room to double the room size and hopefully move the washer and dryer to the other side of the wall (the garage) and make this room the 4th bedroom the original house plan called for. We're working on it but not a lot right now.  It looks much better than this picture. There is no mess left on the floor. The wall is still open like that for now until I cut drywall. :o)

#6:  Figuring Out What to do with our KITCHEN BACKSPLASH

We put up this crazy stainless steel tile squares up as our back splash but I am SO reconsidering it. I just haven't decided what to change it too. We have also discussed painting the kitchen cabinets. My husband says no but as I reminded him he wouldn't be the one doing it, it would be me. So.... we'll see.  You can see the lovely back splash behind my Shaklee Basic H2. If you look really closely you can see we didn't finish the edge of it either. I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I'm fickle like that sometimes.

#7: Whatever else I can find to do :o)

I am SURE I will find something else to do this year. I'm just like that!








One of our financial goals for the year was to produce more income without losing time with our children. My husband and I have taken the plunge and are now Shaklee Distributors! Take a moment and check out our site: Pembroke Lane Shaklee

 

The Winter Mantle Plus a New Mirror. Finally!

I have been looking for a mirror for months as we redid our living room. I saw two potentials today at Target and then my mother called. She said Kirklands at the Prime Outlets was having a sale and I hopped in the car and picked her up. Once there I found all sorts of great things! I went a little crazy but I was able to purchase my mirror for only $39.99! I also found some great picks for the vase on the floor and 3 great matching picture frames to be hung in the living room later.

It took some measuring, remeasuring and then calling my step-dad but finally we got the mirror hung up and straight.

Then I put up some Christmas white lights and covered them with a white gauze scarf. Then came our word for the year WISH.  Dream will be next if I can find one. I love word art but it has to be just so and this word was just beautiful.

Then came some glass jars, a few Longaberger baskets just cuz, a blue and brown vase, some of my grandmother's books and a topiary. I will spray paint the bottom of the topiary silver but for now it adds dimension and height.

Yes I am aware that our heat vent is not back in place at the top right hand side of the picture. It will be done tomorrow. I promise. I am ashamed to say it has been out for a month! I forgot to put it back in for our Christmas eve party after painting that wall and then doing the picture molding and it has sat in the corner of our room ever since. I guess I just don't notice it. But it will be fixed.

Stay tuned for a our new Project Pembroke Linky where each Saturday we feature projects done by YOU! 

TatertotsandJello