No Sew Faux Roman Blinds

As promised here is a step by step guide to creating your own no-sew faux Roman blinds.

Mine are made with canvas dropcloth I had left over from my DIY Sink Skirt. I measure the window and cut the drop cloth 1" wider than I wanted the blinds to allow for "hemming" the sides, and left a lot of extra length so I could play with the folds of the blinds.  After I created the folding I trimmed it to allow for some extra length at the top to secure it to the window.

On the folds I glued both sides as well as the middle so it wasn't droopy.  My window is pretty narrow-if you are doing a wide window you may need to glue along the entire fold.  Be sure not to glue too close to the bottom of the fold as well-you want it to balloon slightly to give the impressions of real Roman Blinds.

Now I tried to take a short cut and cut my blind fabric from a corner of the already hemmed dropcloth.  This is a NO-NO! Don't do it! The drop cloth is not hemmed evenly, please learn from my mistake or you will get a crooked blind like mine!

Other than the crooked side I love the way it looks. I never need functioning blinds in the laundry room because as you can see we back up to a natural area but leaving the window "naked" just felt a little sad. I'll need to remake my blinds so they aren't crooked but that's about #20 on my mile-long to-do list! I hope you like the tutorial! Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and sign up for my RSS feed so you don't miss the fun!

Laundry Room Makeover and No Sew Sink Skirt

The other night I was talking with my husband after all the boys had gone to bed and I got to venting a little about the lack of girly areas of the house.  You see, my husband has a bit more of an opinion on home decor than I would prefer and often vetoes my "visions" for decoration.  In exasperation I finally asked him "What about the laundry room? Can I do whatever I want in there? I'm the only one that really uses that room anyways." The answer was a resounding "yes" so without further ado, here is the laundry room before (don't judge.)

And here is the after!!!

Don't you just LOVE the sink skirts I made to hide the litter box and cubbies?? And guess what? They are NO SEW!  Music to my ears!!

 Here's how I made them.  Please forgive me, as I am writing this blog post I realized I neglected to take pictures of part of the process....that is my single biggest hurdle as an aspiring DIY blogger-I get so manic into my projects I forget to take pictures.  I'm working on it!!!

For the skirt to hide the cubbies I used a canvas dropcloth from Lowes ($9.99 for 6'x9'-can't beat that!), a staple gun, and a piece of leftover wood from my DIY Headboard project.

I used the basic principle that Traci from Beneath My Heart used on her desk skirt tutorial except I did one large box pleat in the middle of my skirt instead of the gathered look.  I simply cut the dropcloth to the height of the cubbies plus about two inches and laid it out creating the box pleat in the middle.  Then I laid my wood on top and started stapling.  I didn't even hem the ends, I just folded them over. 

When I was finished I nailed the board to the cubbies just under the top edge.  Easy-Peasy.

Now here's where you are going to have to forgive me.  I seriously cannot believe I don't have pictures of the actual construction of the sink skirt.  Where was my head??

To make the sink skirt I did the same basic thing-I cut the drop cloth to the proper height plus an inch then I used my GLUE GUN to create a hem on the unfinished edges and secure the box pleat in the middle.  Worked like a charm.  I used regular ol' sticky backed velcro to attach the skirt to the sink. I didn't even have to use the glue gun to keep the velcro on, it stuck securely to the canvas drop cloth to my surprise!

Do you see my DIY Chevron Tray and the spray painted baby food container vases I wrote about yesterday?? They make me happy!

So what do you think so far?? I have two more projects in the laundry room to show you but one is not quite done...waiting on that Big Brown Truck to bring me the final ingredient! This weekend I'll show you my No Sew Faux Roman Blinds I made to complement the room!

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DIY Turqoise Chevron Tray

A few months ago I spray painted a wooden tray we had in an effort to lighten it up.  It was an improvement at the time but really ended up just B-O-R-I-N-G. It was time for a better spray paint makeover!

I started by removing the hardware and priming the tray with Valspar White Primer. 

I primed the handles as well and liked the grey tone they turned.

I waited just about five minutes and sprayed it with a coat of Gloss White Rustoleum that I had leftover from my DIY Ceramic Vase project.  Then came the hardest part-I used masking tape to mark out a chevron pattern on the bottom of the tray and covered the sides with paper.

I sprayed the tray bottom with Valspar Gloss Tropical Oasis and let it dry for two hours before attempting to remove the tape.

I had only two minor spots where the paint came off...I fixed those with a White Out pen! I'm sure I could have used acrylic craft paint too but a White Out Pen worked well enough for me! (Sorry for the blurry pic-my camera battery died on me mid-project so I had to use my phone!)

I love the way the chevron pattern turned out!!
 

 Oh, and those two little containers in the back...they came from baby food containers!

This tray is part of my big laundry room makeover that I cannot wait to share with you later this week! I have one more project I need to finish up before I can do the big reveal but come back tomorrow to see how I made a no-sew sink skirt to dress up my ugly utility sink!

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and sign up for my RSS feed so you don't miss the fun! Also-you have one more day to enter the Cabochon Jewelry Giveaway!

How to Keep Strawberries Fresh

The boys and I visited our local Farmers Market for the first time last week. It was small but I was pleasantly surprised by what the had to offer. I was excited to find cut hydrangeas but for the boys strawberries were the main attraction.

They really wanted to get the large basket but I was nervous about them going bad before we could eat them all. I remembered reading a tip on Pinterest about washing berries in a 1:10 mixture of white vinegar in water to kill mold spores. I figured it was worth a shot.

I filled the sink with enough cold water to cover the basket of berries, added about a cup of white vinegar and swished it around to be sure they were all rinsed well. I gave them a quick water rinse afterwards and that was it.

Over a week later and the strawberries are still going strong so it seems to have done the trick! I tried this on raspberries too and it was a definite improvement although they didn't last as long as the strawberries.

Do you have any tips for keeping produce fresher longer? I'd love to hear them-I hate throwing out food.

Did you enter the Cabochon Jewelry Giveaway? Hurry! It ends May 31st!

Upcycled Drawer to Kid's Nightstand

 

I have had an antique vanity in my family for quite some time that I had no place for.  It had sentimental value (it was my great-grandmother's) so I held on to it but repeated military moves had taken it's toll.  After clearing it with my family I decided it was time to stop feeling guilty and either make it into something useful or send it to the junk heap.  Part were not salvageable but one thing I was able to keep were the drawers.  

When we moved I needed nightstands for next to the boy's beds and I thought the drawers would be the perfect height.  The boys don't need lamps or tables so much as bedtime book storage so I did not bother trying to take the handles off the top of the drawers...I thought they would be a nice reminder to me of the drawer's origins.  

The wood color wasn't going to work for their room however so I pulled out the leftover gloss white spraypaint from my DIY ceramic vase project and gave them a quick makeover.

I had planned on distressing them after the paint was dry but luck was on my side as they were so beat up already the paint didn't stick in areas so they were distressed naturally-less work for me!  Here is the finished project, I think they fit perfectly and the entire thing was free (since my paint was leftover from another project) and took twenty minutes plus dry time!  

I have a few drawers left and I think I have the perfect project for them! If you like what you see please consider following me via Pinterest, Facebook, or RSS feed-I have some great projects coming up!

Also-don't forget to enter to win some great Cabochon jewelry-ends May 31st!

Fast Easy Flag Craft

Here is a fast flag craft the boys and I did together to talk about Memorial Day. You could also do this for Flag Day or 4th of July coming up.

To prep the "flags" I  hot glued some long and short Popsicle sticks together to make a base for them.I put the two short sticks in the middle so that I could add a magnet on the back after they painted their flags.

The boys painted their flags  and used star stickers to finish it off after it was dry. (Yes I helped the three year old-my five year old wanted to do it all by himself though, can you tell which is his?!)

As I said I added some adhesive magnets to the back after the paint was dry and the boys were very happy to hang them up on the fridge to show them off! Fast and easy!

Living Room Tour

Cassidy over at Remodelaholic is hosting a Living Room Link Up this week and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share the progress we've made on decorating our new home's living room.

As you may remember the old house living room was a sea of beige and it was bothering me so much.  I love our couch-its super comfy and high quality, so I knew that wasn't changing. I added a large cream shag rug gifted to me by a friend to lighten up the area and we ordered a new coffee table from Pottery Barn {on sale of course!}.  The curtains are from Target-super affordable and they really brighten up the room. 

The wooden screen in the corner was bought by my grandparents in Okinawa in the 60s when my grandpa was stationed there with the Air Force.  I love it so much.  The wooden file cabinets were custom built in Italy for my husband when he first moved there (just before we met). They are great for storage in the room.

My gallery wall is a work in progress.  I kind of haphazardly started hanging things (and you can see a few are crooked!) and I need to plan it out better.  I was just trying to get things off the floor when we first moved in so the baby would stop messing with everything!!

I'm still totally in love with these pillows I ordered from Woody Liana on Etsy.  Her shop is amazing. They are the perfect finishing touch to add some modern print to an otherwise pretty traditional room.

I'm linking up to Remodelaholic's Link Up.  I hope you'll go visit some of the other links-its so fun to see everyone's spaces!