It's not exactly a traditional vacation purchase, but while we were in America we picked up a pair of bamboo roller shades for our bedroom. It's not that we couldn't have found something similar here, just that it was considerably cheaper in America. The blinds were surprisingly easy to install; I hung them in about 15 minutes while Adam and Hannah watched. Now we don't need to fuss with the curtains for privacy, which never really kept out enough light anyway. And the new blinds add a little something extra that makes the room feel more finished (Adam's just happy that it's easier to sleep later, if only we could get Hannah on board!).

I'm hoping to tackle a few small projects around the house this weekend, including painting our dining room table. It's going glossy!

Happy weekend!

My pelmet project took a little longer than I thought. All the steps are easy, but I wasn't sure about the painted stripe, so I waited until they were up to decide. I'm glad I went with the stripe. Oh, and sorry about the dead plant on my side of the bed - I didn't have time to "style" anything for the photos, except the curtains of course.

I followed Jenny's tutorial using foam board from the Dollar Store. I took her duct tape idea one step further, not only using it to hold the foam board together, but also to attach my batting and fabric (I think Jenny used staples for that part). To hang the finished pelmets, I hot glued corner brackets to the sides and attached them to the wall using screws. They feel pretty sturdy, but I'll let you know should one come crashing down on me in the night ;)

Once they were up, I decided to go ahead and paint a stripe. The colour is a metallic champagne and it matches the colour of the drapes perfectly. I didn't have any more of my drapery fabric, so the stripe helps tie it all together. For the actual ties, I just used white grosgrain ribbon. Super easy.

I  still have work to do in this room, but the pelmets are a definite improvement (you can see how the room looked without the pelmets here). They feel more "finished" and I think they work better with the iron headboard (which isn't my first choice for a headboard, but I like that it doesn't block light from the window).

What do you think of pelmets? Made anything primarily with duct tape lately? Any Canadians remember the The Red Green Show?

Last week I showed you the progress we've made in the kitchen so far, but I left out the new curtain I made for our kitchen window. I pinned this image of handkerchief-style curtains ages ago, thinking that I would like to make something similar for our kitchen someday. Well, someday is here and I love how it turned out.

It lets us soak up every last bit of sunlight during the day and gives us just enough privacy at night. Plus, such a simple, casual curtain will contrast nicely with some of the modern touches we have planned for the room - like new hardware for the lower cabinets and a new faucet.

To make your own handkerchief-style curtain, measure your window, then cut your fabric to size and sew a seam on all four sides. Add grommets for hanging. Install hooks in your window's trim (I drilled pilot holes to prevent the wood from cracking) and you're done!

I'd never used grommets before, but it turns out they're super easy to work with. Here's the how-to if you're interested:

1. Buy a package of grommets with tool. 
2. Each grommet consists of a longer eyelet and a shorter eyelet. Make sure you have one of each.
3. Mark the area where you want to attach your grommet to go and make a small hole (I used scissors). Place the longer eyelet under your fabric (right side down) and work it through the hole.
4. Place the shorter eyelet over the longer eyelet.
5. Place your tool over both eyelets and hammer.
6. Sit back and admire your handiwork.

Now to find another project involving grommets...

Over the holidays, I ordered nine yards of mini pom-pom trim from 32 Degrees North. I chose emerald green and I was happy that the colour was exactly what I expected when it arrived - a beautiful deep green.

After Hannah went to bed on Saturday (I know, Saturday nights are really rocking around here), I hot glued the trim to the bottom and inside edges of the curtains in Hannah's nursery.

It took maybe 20 minutes to do both panels (and they're really long). For the corners, I made a little fold in the trim and glued it in place. Super easy and inconspicuous, even up close.

I love it! It adds a cute detail to the curtains (which I sewed myself, then added more length to later) and the miniature size is just the right amount of pom-pom for me.

Did I mention it took less than 30 minutes and didn't involve a sewing machine? The best kind of DIY!

Fall is officially here, which means lots of rain in Halifax. I happen to love a good rainy day, except when I'm trying to photograph my latest DIY project :)

I was in the home section of my local Superstore last week (I think it's Loblaws in Ontario), when I spotted white cotton tablecloths on sale for less than $5 each. I scooped two up, thinking they'd be perfect as curtains in the guest room. Turning one into a "door" for the closet was easy. I opened up one of the seams to slide a tension rod through and, after a quick wash and dry, I lucked out and it was the perfect length for my opening - no sewing required.

{we still need to install baseboard and door plinths}

I'm thinking about adding a small piece of trim along the top of the opening to hide the tension rod, but we'll see.

Inside the closet, some inexpensive hangers from Winners hold my fabric, a plastic bin holds wrapping paper, and another stores gift bags, tissue paper and other gift wrapping supplies. On the shelf, there's room for a couple small boxes of craft supplies, my iron and a sewing machine. The table next to the closet doubles as my sewing table and the top drawer holds all my sewing supplies.

Here's what the table might look when we have guests (I threw a few things together for photos, but who knows how long it will stay this way). I got the glass lamp at a yard sale for $5 and the art is actually a framed postcard from a friend. The clock is from Winner's and the white bowl and plant are both from Superstore (the plant needs to be transplanted, so I haven't removed the care instructions yet).

I thought the bowl would be a convenient spot for guests to empty their pockets at the end of the day and every room needs a clock (just need to add batteries so it actually works haha).

But back to those cheapy tablecloths. The curtain for the window took a little more time and required actual sewing (although you could easily turn it into a no-sew project with hem tape). I basically hemmed a panel to fit my window and sewed a channel for my tension rod. Then I cut four lengths of grosgrain ribbon and sewed them to the top of my panel so the curtain can be tied up during the day and easily lowered at night by undoing the ribbons.

I love how it turned out! You could easily complete this project in 30-minutes, provided you're not trying to juggle DIY, caring for a newborn, feeding yourself and keeping your house halfway decent (yeah, it took me a lot longer).

Remember these curtains?


{pretty curtains, but not taking advantage of the room's tall ceilings}

They were the perfect length for the dining room in our old apartment, but too short for our new home's high ceilings. When we decided to turn this room into a nursery, I really wanted to keep the curtains, but I also wanted to take full advantage of the room's height. I decided to try adding some length to each panel with a coordinating fabric (after all, if it didn't work out I'd just be back where I started: shopping for a new pair of longer curtains).

I found the perfect fabric at Fabricville - on sale for $2/metre with my membership card. It comes across as plain white in photos, but it actually has a very subtle texture and barely-there, cream-coloured vertical stripes in real life. In person, it helps tie in the curtains' creamy background with the bright whites I'm using in other parts of the room.


{v2.0}

Since I was feeling thrifty with my $2 curtain update, I decided to forgo a new curtain rod and spraypainted the existing one black instead. Thinking about lengthening your own curtains? Read on for the how-to...

The trickiest part is figuring out where to insert your new fabric. I measured the distance from the ceiling to the floor (minus a couple of inches, since I planned to hang my curtain rod 2" from the ceiling), then subtracted the length of my existing panels to figure out how much length I needed to add. Instead of just adding fabric to the bottoms (which I worried would look like too obvious), I decided to insert new panels. I thought it would look best if my new panel was the same height as the section below it, leaving one longer section above:


{the plan}



I measured up 19" from the bottom of my existing panels (adding an extra half inch for my seam) and cut. No turning back now.


{step 1: cut your existing panels}

Next, I cut panels from my new fabric, adding a half inch all around for my seams (the dotted lines = seams).


{step 2: cut panels from your new fabric}

Now the easy - but also tedious - part: pinning and ironing your seams. I pinned and ironed the seams on each piece first, then pinned my pieces together. This way you can make sure all your edges line up and make adjustments if needed. Finally, sew it all together (I recommend sewing your vertical seams first, followed by your horizontal seams).


{steps 3&4: attach your panels and sew along seams}

{the finished product}

I love how they turned out and I especially love that for $2 and an hour of my time, I was able to reuse a perfectly good pair of curtains instead of buying new ones!

And in case you're wondering what's up next for the nursery, it involves this blank wall...

With our kitchen reno plans on hold until after the baby is born and I'm back at work, I've basically been ignoring that giant eyesore of a room. Then last week Adam reminded me that it still might be nice to have some curtains on the windows.

The back of our house faces the parking lot of a small, multi-unit building. We plan to build a privacy fence that will allow us to still view the trees and water beyond the parking lot, while also enjoying all the light that our windows let in. But until we get around to building said fence, curtains are a great temporary fix. One of the windows is part of a hideous old door, so as an added bonus, the new curtain helps disguise it until we get a pretty new door later this year.

You may remember the curtain panels I purchased at Ikea several weeks ago. I turned one into a door for our basement storage room and the second panel was easily transformed into two kitchen curtains (it's basically the gift that keeps on giving).

The panel was only wide enough to use its existing top for one of the curtains, so I decided to use it for the window in the door. Once I figured out my measurements (making sure to include extra height and width for my hems and some gathering), I made several pencil marks along my fabric and used a straight edge to draw a line for cutting (obviously I struggle with cutting straight lines).

After cutting my panel to size, I measured, pinned and ironed my hems. Since I was using an existing panel, I only needed to hem two edges (one side and the bottom) and I copied the width of the existing hem so that everything matched up.

Last step: sewing. For the window above the sink, I basically repeated the steps from the first curtain, but this time I sewed a channel for my rod along the top of the panel. Again, I made sure to include several extra inches of width to allow for some gathering.

{ugly door partially hidden by a pretty new curtain}

 It's hard to see the curtain panel with all the light coming into our kitchen (a good problem to have, I know), so here's a picture I snapped at night.

{I love how the sheer panels still let in lots of light}

{The cafe rod hides the view of the parking lot, but still lets in lots of light. Sadly, it doesn't hide the remnants of my tile backsplash-removing job. I need to do something about that.}

Sure, the door's still ugly and so is our kitchen, but a little extra privacy is always nice, right?

I picked up some trimmable faux wood blinds over the weekend and after hours (and hours) of measuring, cutting and hanging, finally...we have some privacy!

Here they are open...

and closed.

Open:

Closed:

Yeah, I've been playing this game all weekend haha. I love the new blinds (hence all the opening and closing), but man they were a lot of work! First I had to measure the windows and calculate how much to trim off each side of the blinds. Next, I measured and marked the blinds, and trimmed each slat individually with a pair of heavy-duty scissors. Finally, I removed the extra slats, installed the centre brackets and wall mounts, hung the blinds and installed the valances (with lots of measuring and re-measuring in between). The entire process took hours, but it was worth it. The blinds look like they were made for our oddly-sized windows and I have to admit I'm pretty proud of my handiwork.