Spare Room Make-over: The Purge ~ Clothing Cast-a-ways!

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the struggles with an older home is the lack of suitable closet space. I never realized how disorganized my clothes were until my friend Robin began sharing with me some of what she learned by reading Marie Kondo’s book on how to organize your life. While we painted the spare room, she shared some of Marie’s thoughts on how to de-clutter and free yourself/life of the weight of all of those things you’ve collected, but don’t really need or even use. I must confess, I haven’t yet read the book. Never the less, I decided to take action and apply some of the tips I learned. I got up the next morning feeling inspired and began to tackle my clothing problem.

Clothing Cast-a-ways:

Step 1:

Collect all of your clothing and I mean all. Every stitch ~ from off-season to outerwear. Dump it all in the centre of a room on the floor. This is key – you must see it all together in order to be able to truly sort it. pile of clothes

I have never felt that I own many clothes. I hate shopping and seem to add only a few new items a year to what I already own. I don’t believe in waste and am not one to spoil myself. Having grown up with very little money, I learned at an early age how to stretch a dollar. (This is not always good, sometimes we need to learn to break free of the belief systems from our past as they can in fact hold us back in life ~ I’m still working on this.) I regularly donate clothes that we no longer wear and I honestly didn’t believe that this would be too big of a job for me. Wrong.

Step 2:

Sort the clothes into three piles: keep, donate and toss

Keep Donate Toss

The far pile is my “keep” pile, the one to the right for “donation” and the smallest was what I deemed garbage. (You can see the bottom two shelves of the armoire in the background ~ this is a mad mess of board games that now have a new home – yay!)

Step 3:

Toss the garbage and bag up the items to be donated.

Left over hangers

Here is a tub with the left over hangers.

I was astounded when I ended up with one black garbage bag of clothes to toss and three more to donate. How was it even possible that I had 4 black garbage bags of clothes that I didn’t really want or need? I felt like I had been through my clothes regularly, but the difference really was having it all in one place. One of the things that my friend shared that really helped me to part with items was to stop and ask myself how a particular item made me feel when I wore it. If I didn’t love it and feel great in it, then why keep it. I quickly realized that I had kept many items that I would try-on and end up hanging back-up because I really didn’t like the way it made me feel. Some of the items were virtually new and just never made me feel good about myself when I put them on. It was so freeing to finally just allow myself to be honest and discard what I really didn’t like without feeling guilty. After all, someone else might embrace that same item and be blessed by it.

Step 4:

Sort the “keep” pile ~ t-shirts, pants, scarves, underwear, socks, etc.

Step 5:

Fold and organize all of the clothing that you are planning to keep.

Traditionally, I have hung most of my clothes. I don’t know why I opted to hang, but I think I believed that it would save me having to press everything before wearing it. I’m a pretty low maintenance person and the thought of ironing all of my laundry was just not going to fly. I spend enough hours doing laundry as it is and my iron is used only on a “as necessary” basis. However, when your clothes are crammed onto hangers and squeezed into closets that are too small, they rarely escape without creases. The idea of folding everything seemed almost foreign to me, but I decided to do what Marie suggested and give it a try because what I was doing just wasn’t working. I even followed her suggestions on how to fold the items. I was already doing the vertical folding, but this took it all to a whole new level. She doesn’t believe in storing clothes and says you should be able to see every item of clothing you own.

My plan was to use the armoire which had previously housed a mish-mash of items including my pants, board games, linen, fabric, batteries and a few other odds and ends. This meant finding new homes for everything that didn’t fit into the category “Cindy’s Clothes”. The armoire has mesh wire doors and you can see into it. I know Marie suggests using containers/boxes you already own, but I wasn’t okay with this since they would be visible. I didn’t spend much, but did pick-up a few containers to add to what I already owned. I really just wanted them all to be white. I began the process of folding my clothes with the goal being to fit everything in one cabinet and one closet.

In the end, I was able to downsize considerably. I no longer store my off-season clothes in a huge tub in the basement and was able to give up the dresser I was using in the master bedroom. I now have almost everything in one place. The armoire is full, but completely organized and not cluttered at all. It contains both my summer and winter clothes. My main closet has the few items I chose to hang. All of those easily fit on the top bar in the closet. The bottom bar was completely empty, but I decided to move my hoodies from the hook on the back of the master bedroom door to the bottom bar in the closet. I do still have the closet in the master bedroom for longer items such as dresses. It isn’t very full, but the length doesn’t allow them to fit in my main closet in the spare room. My outerwear is still kept at the back door.

It feels so light and airy with all the extra clothes gone. So far I haven’t missed one item. Everything I own is at my fingertips and visible. The change is dramatic, but I will admit it took me a long time to complete this job. I was so busy that week that I honestly don’t remember exactly how many hours I worked on this from start to finish, but I think it was more than 10. It is a huge task, but the payoff is tremendous. I love how accessible everything is and find that I spend so much less time getting ready in the morning because I only kept items I like!

The time spent definitely took away from the time I had to work on transforming the spare room, but was completely necessary if the make-over was going to be successful in the end.

If you are interested in learning more about what Marie has to say in her book, but aren’t ready to buy it, check-out One Kings Lane for a post outlining 8 of Marie’s decluttering lessons. I for one can’t wait to read the book!

Spare Bedroom Make-Over: Chandelier Upcycle

Before and after chandelier

The bulbs look black, but I haven’t changed them because they are still working!

When we first moved into our house, we set-up our dining room in the large room next to our kitchen. This seemed logical since it was close to the kitchen and had a large chandelier in the (almost) center of the room. This always bugged me because it was mounted in a small square section of the ceiling created by the beams ~ so beautiful and yet, not centered! Not only did I not love the chandelier itself, but the fact that it was not properly centered drove me a bit crazy.

Eventually we realized that perhaps this space was better suited for our living room and so we switched the two rooms around. Although we had every intention of replacing the chandelier with a ceiling fan (we have no air conditioning), we didn’t really know what to do with the chandelier and felt a bit bad about getting rid of it as it was original to the home and almost a hundred years old.

I know I might get hate mail for this, but original or not, I hated the brass. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to upcycle the chandelier and make it into a really beautiful piece. One of the first mini-projects we did for my new space was to remove the chandelier from the living room. We carefully took all of the glass pieces off and put them through the dishwasher to make them sparkling clean. I gave the brass a good cleaning and then spray painted the entire thing white. I had the spray paint on hand, so this project cost me nothing! I suppose the can of paint was probably about $6 or so.  I absolutely love the transformation and it looks amazing in the spare room. (We will need to purchase a proper fixture for the living room as this looks hideous, but is preferable to the hanging wires from the chandelier. I don’t mind the expense of this because it is something we had planned to do anyway.)

One of the keys to decorating on a budget is to try to find things you already own and make them work in new way. Often paint or even just a fresh perspective can bring new life to an item you already have. For this room, we primarily used items we already had around the house. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on how we transformed other pieces for this space.

Spare Bedroom Make-Over

I find that my relationship with our house is a bit of a love/hate one. It was built in 1921 and exudes character. I love the high ceilings, oak beams, mouldings and built-ins, but in most rooms, the lay-out is a bit of a nightmare. Being such an old home, there is nothing “open” about the design. In our 2300 square feet, we have 2 bedrooms, a large landing and bathroom upstairs and the main floor has a total of 9 rooms (kitchen, mud room, bathroom, scrapbooking room, spare bedroom, master bedroom, dining room, living room and library). Obviously, each room has at least one door/entrance, but many have multiple. For example, our kitchen and living room both have three entry points. In addition to the doors/entrances, each room has a radiator and most have multiple windows. I know this may sound pretty normal, but trust me….it’s not. Almost every room, is tricky to make functional because there are literally no free walls to work with. On my entire main floor, there is exactly one wall that is a full wall without any obstructions! This makes furniture placement extremely difficult. Such is the case with our spare room. The room is 12′ X 8 1/2″ feet. It has a total of 3 doors (entrance, closet and former scrapbooking room entrance) as well as a window with a radiator below it.

Despite the fact that both of our kids have walk-in closets in their upstairs bedrooms, our master bedroom is limited to two very small closets. As a result, my clothes were dispersed as follows…..one closet in the master bedroom, one dresser in the master bedroom, one closet in the spare room, a portion of the armoire in the spare bedroom and a large tub of off-season clothes in the basement, as well as outdoor clothing in the basement, front closet and at the back door. Yikes!  On top of the chaos of my clothes literally being all over the house, the spare bedroom was anything but a spare bedroom. For starters, there is no bed! Because the room never really had a designated purpose it slowly became a dumping ground for anything and everything that didn’t really have a proper home. It was also the place I would often do small projects like furniture painting. It housed the vacuum, linen, board games, some books, my sewing machine and sewing paraphernalia, some of the kids old school work/projects, picture frames that were yet to be hung and let’s not forget the old piano that I had hopes of some day upcycling. It was a disaster and I absolutely hated it!  Life had been so busy and I just hadn’t had the blocks of time needed to attack this space, but on the first Saturday of spring break, my husband and I devised a plan…finally!

This was one of two rooms that we never bothered to paint when we moved in. Do you have any idea what it’s like to start everyday getting dressed in a room that is drab, ugly and cluttered. I’m not sure what the paint colour was, but it was a yucky brown that never appealed to me … even for a minute!

So, armed with a plan and some tools, I began step one which was taking care of the old piano that had become a thorn in my side. I had to look at that beast in the corner of the room every day.  Although I find upcycling super therapeutic, in this case my therapy came from destroying that piano and reducing it to a pile of rubble. I’m actually surprised I didn’t take any pictures of the process. I’m not sure if anyone has ever really tried to take a 100 year old piano apart, but let’s just say they sure don’t make glue like they used to. At first, I tried to salvage some of the wood, but I quickly realized that number one, it was all laminate and not solid good quality wood and number two – no amount of strength and elbow grease was going to take that thing apart. In the end, I called in the reinforcements and Tim attacked it with our saws-all. After about 3 hours of prying, sawing and unscrewing, we had it in small enough pieces that we could remove the rubble. Just having it out of the room felt totally amazing!

TidewaterWith the piano gone, I was off to the paint store to pick-out colours and get this project started. I patched, primed and painted the room a beautiful shade of light blue called Tidewater.  I found the colour in the Sherwin Williams paint store, but decided to stick with my trusty Benjamin Moore Regal paint. They took the colour swatch and made the colour up for me. I absolutely LOVE how the paint colour transformed the space!

With the walls painted, the list other projects seemed to grow daily. Our plans included changing the light fixture, creating storage for all (most) of my clothes and relocating my scrapbooking/project room to the spare room, so that we could eventually move our laundry from the basement to my former scrapbooking room. In addition to the above, there were some basic things that had to be addressed to make both the spare room and the new laundry room more functional. The first being changing the door swing. If you look at the first picture, you’ll notice that the door swings open in such a way that the light switch is hidden behind the door – this has been a “bee in my bonnet” since the day we moved in. Why? That’s all I have to say ~ Why? Why would you install the light switch behind the door? It makes absolutely no sense. Fortunately, my husband is super handy and can pretty much do anything. He changed the swing for me, so the door now opens the other way. I also wanted to get rid of the laundry room door. Again, the room is super small and the door swing is a huge pain in the butt. When it was my scrapbooking room, I always had to go in and close the door behind me as it was constantly in the way. This was especially annoying because the room is super hot in the summer with a wall full of windows and chilly in the winter because most of our house is insulated with air. Yes, seriously. Despite the fact that our house has stucco, we discovered during a former renovation that our exterior walls are actually two layers of brick with a small air gap between that is supposed to serve as an insulating barrier. (In choosing insulation, I would suggest picking something other than air. I think the R value is quite low on air!)  My solution, a barn door! So, Tim agreed to build and install a bar door so that we no longer have to deal with the cumbersome door in such a small space. Of course, this meant the light switch for the laundry room had to be moved from outside the room (where the barn door will slide) to inside the laundry room. Thank goodness Tim does electrical too!

So with plans in place, my week off turned into a week of 8 to 14 hour days of working like a dog.  Strangely, for me ploughing through my “to do list” equals a fantastic holiday, so all is good. I got so much accomplished and am totally loving my space despite the fact that it hasn’t been completed.

Watch for upcoming posts in which I’ll be sharing the various projects that went into transforming this space from drab to fab!

Hockey Wreath

So much to write about….so little time. I must admit I’m on a bit of a high right now. I’m just back to work following spring break and I had the most productive week ever. I honestly can’t even believe how much I got accomplished. Over the next few weeks, I promise to share some of my projects and hopefully our spare room make-over will be ready to reveal. So exciting!

Play Kitchen

For now, a quick post to share a wreath I just made for a fundraiser. A friend posted a picture of a similar wreath on her Facebook page and I absolutely loved it! I’d planned on making one for my own front door to put up in early fall and carry me through until closer to Christmas. I never got around to it, but when Eden’s volleyball team decided to do a fundraiser with Winnipeg Auction, I thought I’d make one as part of my submission. I thought others might like the idea as much as I did. I’m hoping the auction will also be a great forum to finally get rid of my upcycled play kitchen that is still in my basement! If anyone is interested in checking out our Vision Elite Volleyball auction follow the above link. Our auction runs from April 10th to 16th.

Here’s the wreath.

Hockey WreathCan’t get much easier than this. Wreath, gloves, cut down stick and puck. Used some wire and hot glue to put it together and voila! I look forward to making another one to put up this fall.

Banquette Face-Lift

Eden had this old banquette in her room as a craft/homework table. It was a great space for her and her friends to put on nail polish and do crafts, but had really taken a beating over the years. When we did her bedroom make-over, she wanted to replace it with something more comfy, so we decided to swap the futon that sat in the landing outside the kids’ rooms with the banquette. The space is rarely used, so it didn’t really make a difference to the rest of the family, but it was in serious need of a fresh coat of paint and some new upholstery on the cushions. (The BEFORE shot doesn’t really capture how run down it was looking as it’s an old picture. I had taken some pictures before and during the project, but we’ve had computer problems this fall and some how the pictures got lost in the process.)

I was actually pretty excited to do this job because it was long overdue and not a difficult one to get off the To Do list. We inherited this with a previous home we bought and I am pretty sure it was handmade by someone, so I can’t say the finishing details are anything to brag about. When we first moved it into Eden’s room 7 years ago, Tim added beadboard to the front base and it really gave it more of a finished look. I had originally put white vinyl on the seats as opposed to fabric. Although white may not have been the best colour choice, it matched her room nicely and was wipeable (is that even a word??).

For the updated version, I simply prepped the surface by filling holes/nicks, sanding, priming and painting. It was white on white, so it didn’t require much work. The back panels were screwed on and the bench seats just sit on the base with wood slats to keep them from moving. This also gives us plenty of storage inside the benches which is a nice bonus.  The re-upholstery took no more than an hour and a half. I basically used a screw driver to remove the staples that secured the vinyl. (I left the numerous other layers of fabric on and just added the new material over top.)  Four of the pieces were simple rectangles, so they were super easy to cover. The fifth piece is more of an L shape with an angled edge in the corner. Although a bit trickier, it still wasn’t very hard to do.  I used the old vinyl pieces as a template to cut the new pieces out. The new fabric has a geometric pattern, so I had to be carefull and ensure that the pattern was sitting “square” on the each of the pieces I was covering. The final step was to secure the fabric on with a staple gun.  I then screwed the backboards in place and replaced the bench seats.

The finished bench looks great, but of course, the table now looks a bit worse for ware. I might eventually paint the table top to freshed in up. I think plain black would look sharp. When we owned our restaurant, we painted our counters and table tops to match the decor. Of course we also added several coats of urethane for durability, but they stood up to the restaurant wear and tear with no problem, so painting would be a good option.

It has been a super busy fall with back to school and the kids heavy into sports, but it feels so great to get a project done.

Teen Room Project #6: Cityscape Mural

This mural was relatively simple, I didn’t do any pencil drawings at all, but rather went along the wall placing blue painter’s tape at random heights to get a varied height for the buildings I would later create. I basically just “guesstimated” the width of the finished buildings. We then stood back and adjusted the pieces of tape to make sure it didn’t look like “stairs” or too planned. Once we were happy with the random look of the building heights, we used a level to ensure that all of our vertical and horizontal lines were perfectly straight. I used the edge of the level as a guide to place my tape strips. Once the general shape of the buildings was complete (plain rectangles), I went back and began to add a bit more variability with roof styles, inconsistent widths and the odd white window. Eden really wanted to keep the look mostly “silhouette like”, so the addition of the windows was sparse. This suited me fine because I really wasn’t sure how the tape would peel up from under the 3 coats of paint. In the end, it peeled off really easily and I was left feeling like a few more windows would have been easy to do and perhaps have added to the finished look of the cityscape.

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6 Steps to Bleed Resistant Taping:

The key to any taping is always the dry brush sealing of the edge. Never skip this step or you will get bleeding and it is the fasted way to take the “Wow!” out of your project. Always remember:

    1. Tape
    2. Seal with a relatively dry brush using the SAME colour of paint as your background. For example, I was painting a black cityscape against a white wall, so I used the exact same white as that used on the wall and sealed the edge of the tape so that no black paint could bleed through onto my white wall.
    3. Let the paint dry completely and look it over to ensure you’ve seal the entire edge along your tape.
    4. Paint with the desired colour.
    5. Let dry completely.
    6. Carefully remove the tape.

 

Teen Room Project #5: Roman Blinds

DIY Roman BlindsThere are many on-line tutorials for making Roman Blinds. I’ve made them several times before so I just followed the same basic instructions I’ve always used. I don’t remember the original source, as I have  5 photocopied pages that are about 15 years old. The blinds are relatively easy to make, but time-consuming. You don’t need to be a great sewer to pull these off. I’m not going to give a full tutorial here, but this is basically what you need and how you do it.

Roman Blinds:

Materials Needed:

  • decor fabric cut to size of window opening + 2″ in width and about 3″ in length for seam allowances (if you want the same pattern/fabric facing outside, you will need to double that)
  • thread
  • drapery lining cut to size of opening (I’ve skipped the lining in the past and have been disappointed with the result – if the shade is only for decoration, it probably doesn’t matter as much)
  • drapery rings (little white plastic rings – number depends on the size of the finished blind – number of vertical rows X number of horizontal rows)
  • a mounting board 1″ X 2″ X width of opening
  • screw eyes (to go on mounting board)
  • shade cord (enough for each vertical row of rings plus the length along the top of the board, so that they all come out one side)
  • weight rod for bottom ~ You can use anything for this (dowelling, drapery rod, etc.) It just gives the blind stability and helps it to hang nicely.
  • staple gun
  • velcro (width of blind)
  • optional: light weight horizontal rods of some sort – dowelling, drapery rods, etc. (I ended up using the extra long wood skewers from the Dollar store. I’m hoping they’ll be durable enough as there really is no pressure on them, they are just meant to help the finished shade fall/fold more evenly. I’ve never done this before, so we’ll see.)
  • hooks for blind cord (cleats)

What to Do:

  1. Prepare your mounting board by cutting it to size and painting it, if necessary. Staple gun the velcro strip along the top edge. Add screw eyes along the bottom, placing them above where each of your vertical rows will sit.

    Roman Blinds

    This is one of the old blinds, but you can see the mounting board with the velcro and screw eyes.

  2. Cut the decor fabric making sure to allow for seam allowances. Measure and press folds for seams.
    Roman Blinds

    Decor fabric cut to size with extra fabric for seam allowances.

    (You can decide if you want to mount the shade inside the window frame or have it sit outside the frame and extend over the edge of the window:  measure according to how you want to mount them.) You will need to fold over a wider pocket (don’t sew the sides) at the bottom, so that you can slip in a weight rod. inside versus outside mount

  3. Cut the lining to the size of the finished shade.
  4. Lay the lining inside the folds of the seams and pin in place.

    Roman Blinds

    Lay lining inside and pin in place.

  5. Measure out and mark the spots where the rings will need to go. (Vertical rows will sit 1″ from each of the outside edges and the number of additional vertical rows depends on your width – space them about 8″ to 12″ apart). The horizontal rows should start just above the rod pocket at the bottom of the shade (about 2″ – measure carefully as you don’t want uneven horizontal rows) and then spaced 5″ to 8″ apart from the bottom up. ( My blinds are 17″ wide so I have three vertical rows and my horizontal rows are 7″ apart.) Measure carefully and mark the exact spot for each ring with an X.
  6. I hand stitched all of the rings on. This is easy, but time consuming….a great job to do while watching a movie.
  7. Once the rings were secured, I slid the skewers in and laid them along each horizontal row. I then ran my machine along each side to create a pocket for them. (I didn’t care what the back of my blinds looked like because Eden’s room is on the second floor and faces the back lane, so I used black thread for the entire project. You’ll notice my sewing isn’t even that straight – I just wanted them done and didn’t really care because the black on black really doesn’t show up.)
  8. I then sewed along the top, sides and bottoms  to finish the seams and sew in the rods. (Remember to leave an open pocket for the weight rod at the bottom.)
  9. Slide in the weight rod.

    Roman Blinds

    Slide weight rod in the open pocket along the bottom of the finished blind.

  10. Sew a velcro strip to the top of the blind on the back.

    Roman Blinds

    Wow…that’s some bad sewing…so obvious against the white.

  11. Mount your prepared board.
  12. Carefully pre-cut your cord. You will need enough length to travel from the bottom ring (where you will tie it) up the vertical row to the top, through the screw eye on the mounting board and then across the mounting board and through each screw eye along the board until all have been pulled through the screw eye on the far right of the board and secured together in one knot that will not pull through.) This sounds complicated, but basically all of the cords travel vertically up their row and then across the top until each of them meet outside the screw eye on the far right where they are knotted.

    Roman Blinds

    This is another shot of the old blinds, but it shows how the cord is laced up the vertical rows and along the top. You can see how they are knotted together on the left (right when hung).

  13. You will want to add cleats so the blind cords can be secured when the blinds are pulled up. I usually mount these about half way up the window frame on the right hand-side.

Disclaimer: If this sounds confusing, don’t follow my plan. I would suggest googling DIY Roman Blinds or Shades and finding a tutorial that suits your needs better. There are even some tutorials that show how to use old aluminum mini blinds as a “skeleton” for making your Roman Shades. Some show how to create them without sewing and others give excellent step by step visuals. I love the finished look of Roman Shades and as mentioned I believe anyone can do them, but you will need to find a tutorial that makes sense for you. Here is a video that seems very good although she makes hers a bit different from mine.

You know how I love to reuse/repurpose and these blinds are no exception. I hung onto some old Romans that I’d made years ago and was able to cut the mounting boards down to fit, reuse the velcro, drapery lining, cord and rings. I really only had to purchase my fabric and rods for this project, so the total was less than $20 for all three blinds. It made sense to reuse the materials from the old blinds and felt good to toss the meager remains once they’d been dismantled.

You might think that making your own blinds isn’t worth the trouble, but for me it is. It is truly an inexpensive way to get a custom look and fit. Living in a heritage home often means that the window sizes are anything but standard. It is difficult to find blinds of any sort that fit and whenever you go “custom” you are looking at mega bucks. With the DIY Romans, you are able to pick the perfect fabric and style for the space and make them custom to your window. I love the clean, contemporary look and the design on the fabric is a perfect fit for Eden’s new room.Roman Blinds

Teen Room Project #4: Floor Lamp Upcycle

A total decor change can mean lots of expense. To keep costs down, I try to be innovative and figure out ways to repurpose, reuse and upcycle items that we already own. Such was the case with this super simple upcycle project. We had bought this floor lamp for Eden in a bright blue to match her previous room decor. It seemed unfortunate that it would no longer work in her new space. The solution was simple…..a few coats of spray paint.

Floor Lamp Upcycle:

  1. Tape off all of the areas that you do not want to be painted. For this project that meant the inside of the lamp shade, the flexible silver portion of the pole and the cord. I simply taped the end of the cord near the lamp pole and then bagged the remaining cord and taped it to the silver portion that I had already taped off.
  2. Find a well ventilated area that is protected from spray off. (I used my hanging wardrobe paint tent in the basement.)
  3. Spray 2 to 3 thin coats of paint to avoid runs. (Let it dry between coats.)

The original blue worked well in her “old” room, but didn’t fit with the new colour scheme. This was a super simple and inexpensive fix ~ especially since I already had the black spray paint on hand.

The Magic of Spray Paint:

Spray paint is one of the staples that I like to keep on hand. This lamp is simply an example of how you can take something you already have on hand (or an item that you pick-up from a garage sale or thrift store for a couple of bucks) and transform it into a piece that really works for you.  My challenge for you is to look beyond the present condition or colour of an item and begin to look at the “bones”…..the size, the structure, the etching/carvings. Very often the ugliest pieces can be totally transformed with the simple shake of a can and press of a button. I have given so many items new life with a simple coat of spray paint!

If you wish to check out the full posts (with before and after shots) for any of the above projects, you can either browse the DIY and Upcyling section of my blog or do a search on my blog using specific key words.

Teen Room Project #3: Canopy

I think Eden has always had some form of a canopy in her room. For this room, she had her heart set on a simple tulle/white light canopy over her bed. Of course, she had no idea how we were going to pull this together, but a good idea of how she wanted it to look.

We were able to upcycle the former hoop style canopy she previously had and create our own version of the lighted canopy. Although this is mostly finished, it may need more tulle/bulk to get the desired look. We will also need to conceal the cord, but that will have to wait until her new mural is completed. She is happy with it, but I’m not quite sure this will be the finished look ~ once some of the other projects are complete we can assess if the current contraption looks substantial enough. To me it seems a bit small for the space.

Click on a picture to go to full screen and read the captions.

Teen Room Project 2: Ombré Vanity

Eden’s antique dresser and vanity set were purchased through Kijiji several years ago. I don’t remember what they cost, but I think the set was under $75. They were painted plain white in her previous room and would’ve matched perfectly in the new room as well. However, both pieces looked a bit “tired” and in need of a fresh coat of paint. Eden decided to move the dresser into her walk-in closet and bring the shelf from her closet out into her room ~ a switch-a-roo you might say!

I decided not to paint the dresser (for now), but give the vanity a whole new look. I’ve seen many DIY ombré projects and love the look. I thought this would be perfect for the vanity because the white was very hard for her to keep clean and I felt that it needed some colour against the new plain white walls.

I bought a gallon of Benjamin Moore grey paint. It was good quality paint and a really nice light grey. The best part was that it was a mistint and so I picked it up for $15! Can’t beat that! * Always check the mistints ~ you never know what you’ll find and there is such great savings when you find a colour that will work. To create the ombre look, I simply added black paint (that I had on hand) to the grey in varying degrees. You just want to be sure you are making enough to do multiple coats, as needed.

I love the finished look! We picked up a placemat from the dollar store to help preserve the top.

Of course, the stool had to be painted and reupholstered as well. I was so thankful that I had saved this leather seat cushion cover from an old sofa. It was still in good condition and I figured the leather would come in handy some day. (I’m a bit partial to prints, but Eden is not a big fan, so the leather suits her fine and will clean well if she gets make-up on it.) I did get her to agree to a printed fabric for the Roman blinds I will be making for her room ~ can’t wait to add some pattern!