Dream plans for 2015

Hello and welcome to my second favorite time of the year! The start of a new year is always so refreshing and exciting for me – I love decrapifying and organizing and dreaming up new plans for the house.

And as much as I love the Christmas decor I absolutely LOVE taking it down and rediscovering our house. It’s a fresh new space!

I always share plans I hope to accomplish for each year here on the blog, partly cause it’s fun to share but also because it kind of keeps me accountable. Early this year I did just that – and I’d say I accomplished about half of what I planned. But what I did accomplish was BIG (the family room renovation).

I had planned to get the rest of our interior doors painted black and I only got two more done…whomp whooomp. But they are beauties!:

 

I still have six doors upstairs I’d like to paint but the main floor is done. LOVE how they look.

I hoped to get a lot done in the mud room in 2014 and I did – I shared that progress with you earlier this week.

There are two rooms I really wanted to change up this year and I basically did nothing in both of them. Ha! This is how our living room looked late last year:

That rug was a total, epic fail (it literally fell apart with wear and tear from the dog), so we won’t be doing that again.

This room is a wide open one with high ceilings but those are the things that stump me. I decided this would be the year that we’d get a new sofa in there because I hate the one we have. I guess hate is a strong word…strongly dislike. It’s been there forever and was one of those I-need-to-fill-this-space-so-I’ll-buy-something purchases years and years ago. You can’t clean it without shadows appearing all over the upholstery and it’s HUGE. It is comfy…it’s got that going for it.

Well other stuff became priority so the new sofa didn’t happen. Which is fine because I’m still not sure how I want this room to look. It’s hard to work with because there’s only one usable wall and it’s like 20 feet tall. I laugh that these are my “problems.” Nice ones to have.

I did go add the craftsman trim to the windows which I lurrrve:

Those drapes were moved to the library and I love them in their new spot!

Another space I’ve been wanting to work on for YEARS is our loft:

It’s been many “rooms” over the years – before the kiddo it was a lounging space for us. Then it was a playroom. Now a craft room. Someday (hopefully no time soon) when we move we’ll probably make it into a bedroom so we can sell as a four bedroom.

It’s a large room but I still don’t feel like we’re using the space well. I finally came up with a plan and I’m SO excited to get started!! Here’s the layout as I see it:

Disregard the colors – it will not have a purple rug and pink pillows. ;)

I use an app for the Ipad called Living Room to create these by the way. I bought it years ago and have used it many times. I planned the both the basement and family room renovations with this app – it’s awesome:

Anyway – my plan is to add mega storage. Wonderful, glorious storage. Do you hear the singing?? I hope to add a line of drawers along the long wall to the left. And built ins on each side of the window seat have always been the plan, like this:

Because the line of lower cabinets will run along the one wall I’ll have to figure out how to butt them up to the built ins around the window on the left side:

This photo shows how I could make it work:

(source)

I want build a table out into the middle of the room from the line of cabinets so we have a big spot to sit and craft, wrap presents, draw and color, whatever.

Something like this:

(source)

Although I want mine to have storage under the end of the table.

We currently use my DIY craft table but I think I’d like something shorter at table height. I think it’s just more comfortable to sit down at that level.

I’m really excited about how functional this room could be! We will keep a TV up there so we’ll still have a spot to sit and lounge as well.

This is one of those rooms we really don’t need – but we do end up spending a decent amount of time in there. I just hate that it’s not as functional and pretty as it could be. Hopefully I’ll fix that this year. ;) First up though – we want to put hardwoods down in the room. The carpet is truly gross but we’ll have to save up for that and I won’t start up anything much else till we get those done.

The final project I had hoped to start/finish this year was the kitchen…and I’ve barely touched it! This redo will be one of my biggest yet. Or the biggest. I’ve had a good idea of what I want to do for years now but I’m glad I waited to tackle it because now I’m feeling really good about the direction. I’ll share that plan soon too – it needs it’s own post!

Of course not all of this will get done this year. I try to do as much as I can myself and I tend to take my time. ;) Plus finances will determine how much I can get done too – but I’m SO excited to tackle both of these spaces and finish up some others as well!

Do you have any fun plans in your house for 2015? It’s such a fun time of the year to dream of what’s to come!

Hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve and a great start to 2015!! Thanks for joining me for 2014 – I am truly grateful!!

How to line drapes (with what you have)

Hello to you all! I have a fun little project for you today – the afters aren’t anything earth-shattering, but it’s one of those to-do items I’ve had on the list (in my head) forever. And I did it without spending any money!

I mentioned earlier this week that I’m going room by room in the house decluttering (and cleaning). It’s taking me a long time. Eons. I don’t see an end in sight. Help. me. I have our bedroom and bathroom (and I’m ignoring our closet like usual) and then I’ll move on to the other floors. Working my way down sounded like a good idea when I was all gung ho about this idea weeks ago.

Anyway, part of the reason it’s taking so long is because I’m taking care of little (and huge) projects along the way. I try to ignore them but then I start twitching and I can’t concentrate and the annoying voice in my head goes “Oh it won’t take long, just do it!”

So I do. This is one of those. Our drapes in the loft/playroom/craft room have been hanging for a couple years, but they’ve really been pieces of fabric hanging, not drapes:

It’s what I do. ;) It’s not the first time I’ve done this. If you don’t mess with the drapes you can’t tell too much. It depends on how much light pours in the window. These are a linen-like fabric so very light and sheer and they were looking kind of awful not being lined. Did anyone ever notice it? I doubt it. But it’s something that was bugging me.

So I went to my fabric stash for some lining. I went through all of it a few weeks ago and knew I had some bigger pieces. Well…I had two that were about a foot too short and nothing else that worked. And at this point I’m ready to do this thing so I’m racking my brain trying to think of what I could use.

I was about to just save it for another day (a non no-spend month day) when a light bulb idea hit me. (LIGHT. BULB. Name that movie.) I knew we had an extra set of cream sheets for our king-sized bed that we haven’t used in a long time. We have two sets we rotate and this was a cheap extra set we never use.

So I threw the flat sheet on the floor and realized if I cut it down the middle it would totally work. SCORE! I’ve seen this done a million times so it’s certainly nothing new, but it worked for me since I’m not spending on decor/DIY this month.

I figured I’d give you a quick how-to-line-drapes tutorial – but keep in mind I’m not a GREAT sewer. (Seamstress?) I just do things they way they work for me and they’re not perfect.

The big thing here – you need to lay your fabric with the print side down. If you’re doing a pillow, both printed sides need to face each other. When you’re done you’ll pull it back inside out so the good sides are out. This hides your seam:

I don’t pin the whole thing to start – just the top. I get that where I want it and pin it, then sew that part first:

Speaking of sewing. Do not be afraid. This is your friend:

I promise, if I can sew, you can sew. I’m not good at sewing. Not a great sewer-of-straight-lines. But the thing is, no one will notice your lines aren’t straight. YOU won’t notice. (Unless you’re sewing something with vertical stripes and in that case good luck to you my friend.)

Half the battle is learning how to get the machine threaded and it’s not hard. It shows you how to do it right on the machine and takes about a minute.

Then you sew. Like a boss:

I love hemming tape, and for years I used just that. But we have animals and I found I needed to throw stuff in the washer occasionally. The hemming tape will actually hold up for a wash or two, but after that not so much. And honestly? Sewing may even be faster than hemming with tape and an iron. Once you get going it’s super fast.

You really want your lining to be slightly smaller than your fabric, so at the end you can iron the edges over so you can’t see the lining. Does that makes sense? You want the printed fabric to be seen from the side, not the lining. (I kind of help that along with the way I hang them too.)

The ironing afterwards took longer than sewing each panel, no lie:

Here’s an idea of the different the lining makes. It makes them less see through, yes (you can get black out lining from the fabric store) but it also makes them fuller and they hang prettier:

Wimpy on the right, lined on the left.

Since I was at it, I took care of another quick little project. You can see in the pic above that the bamboo shades were hanging inside the window. I’m obsessed with getting as much natural light in this house as I can so I moved them up.

They now hang on the wall above the window:

It’s a little thing but it all looks so much better to me!:

I use the little clips to hang my drapes but hate seeing them, so I use this trick to hide them from view. It gives your drapes the look of pleated ones (that are way over my head).

This room is way in between decor-wise, but at least for now it’s decrapified and clean. And the window looks nice. :)

The “create” is coming down next. I think I need a break from words on my walls. ;)

So do you know how to sew? Have you ever used sheets to line drapes? I use sheets from Goodwill for my spray paint “tarps” occasionally – but I may need to start looking for more to use as lining. After a good wash of course. :)        

**You can see more about my DIY craft table here.

**The fabric is called Spring Vine Opal from P. Kaufmann.