Our dog Odin is getting to the age where he’s starting to grow up, behave better, and thus is gaining our trust. We used to have to follow him room to room to ensure he wasn’t stealing things out of trash cans or laundry hampers. Now that he’s getting a bit more responsible, we’ve let him roam the house alone without worrying that the whole house isn’t puppy proofed. This was all going well until…
Odin chilling on our bed
Last Saturday night I heard a ripping noise. I swiftly went to investigate and found this:
Yep, that’s a GIANT hole in my duvet cover
Odin had tried to “dig” in our bed. He often will paw at his dog bed to make it somehow more comfortable, apparently he tried to do the same thing to our bed, and ripped our duvet cover.
We’re not talking a little tear, this is a rip about a foot wide, by 6″ in a perfect little rectangle. In the MIDDLE of my beloved West Elm Organic Pintuck Duvet cover. I say beloved as I hemmed and hawed for months before settling on the West Elm Pintuck in slate. I wanted something that would hide wrinkles (I wrestle with the covers, and you can often find me holding half the duvet in a death grip when morning arrives.) As I hate the look of a wrinkled on one corner duvet, the Pintuck was the perfect arrangement. It was also the first time I spent more that $50 on a duvet cover, having limited ourselves to Ikea cheapies for all of our college & rental days. It was my first “big kid” bed, and my first foray at sheets that had a thread count higher than 50, and a duvet cover that wouldn’t fall apart in the wash.
I loved that duvet cover…
So now I’m back to square one. Do I put out the $150 and just replace my West Elm duvet cover? Or do I go for something new?
It needs to be:
Wrinkle resistant
Sturdy (able to stand up to our active pooch)
Wont show every dog hair
Not white (I am terrible with keeping white duvet covers looking perfect after the first few washes.)
Not too girly (this room is half El Granto’s and I already filled it with a purple headboard and damask wallpaper…)
Machine washable (really, people actually dry clean their duvet covers? Anthropologie seems to think s0.)
Here are some of my finds (although I don’t love any of them)
West Elm Arabesque $118Crate & Barrell Marimekko $190CB2 B R Z $109Ikea Vintranka $79Ikea Lyckoax $59.99Ikea Gaspa $69.99Ikea Nyponros $59.99Ikea Bjornloka $49.99
Any other suggestions? Or should I just replace it with another pintuck?
Glass half full: At least he didn’t eat my Louboutins…
I love wallpaper (let me clarify: I love GOOD wallpaper). I am not a fan of fruit borders in kitchens, faded laura ashley florals or anything with a sports motif. Good wallpaper can make quite an impact, even without being a bold colour. Continue reading “Wallpaper”
Girls come with a lot of accessories. We have purses, shoes, scarves, jewelry and a plethora of other crap things. This is often why we require so much closet space to store it all. Most of my rarely used handbags and shoes are packed away, but my often used purses, scarves and shoes need to be close at hand, and thus can be kind of a mess.
To get them out of the way, yet keep them accessible I decided to hang some knobs inside our new master closet to hang my favorite accessories.
The problem with knobs is that they are meant to be screwed into a cabinet. This means that they have what you call machine screws (screws without a pointy bit) to attach them to the cabinet. They screw through the back of the cabinet into the knob. This makes them impossible to attach to a wall without some DIY’ing.
Here’s what you need to do. Take your knob screws out to the garage and cut off the heads of the screws using a saw with a metal blade. This now makes them headless screws (which means they can be screwed into things on both ends. )
Knobs
Head back inside wielding drywall anchors and a drill. Attach your wall anchors into the wall where you want your knobs.
Drywall Anchors in Wall
Then simply thread your now double sided screws into your knobs and your wall anchors. Ta Da! Knobs on a wall.
Knobs Screwed into Wall
Now hang your accessories, and get your nagging husband off your back.
Wheres my white Coach Purse? Hung up of course!Knobs Holding Accessories
You can easily do this with all sorts of knobs, for holding towels in the bathroom, coats at the front door, or even the dog’s leash handy but out of the way.
SOURCE LIST:
Materials: Saata Knobs (6 pack $1.49) – Ikea
EZ Ancors – Home Depot
When we moved into our house, we bought our first big kid bed. By that, I mean one that had a boxspring, had an actual frame, and that was big enough that hubby & I didn’t need to sleep like sardines. The problem with owning a big kid bed is that we didn’t own a headboard. Our bed looked giant and sad sitting in the middle of our master bedroom.
We needed to do something about it, but we didn’t have tons of coin to drop on it, and I wanted something specific. At this point in time, I called the only person I knew who could help me; Mom. Mom you see is an expert at all things Home Ec related. Cooking? Shes a pro. Sewing? She could sew a life sized stuffed moose in her sleep. Crafting? She is the Danish Martha Stewart. So you can see why I called in the big guns.
Mom rolled into town, accompanied with upholstery foam, tacks, and a shopping list. The only thing I brought to the table was the purple ultrasuede I had purchased the week before. Mom scrutinized my choice of fabrics, and although it wouldn’t be her first choice, she conceded to give it a try. We quickly measured up how tall we thought the headboard should be, and headed to HD to get some supplies. We had ¾” plywood cut to the width and height of our headboard by the nice fellow in the wood department.
We also picked up some 2×4’s to brace the headboard, and to connect it to the frame. Some staples, spray glue and a new jig saw later, and we were off to the races.
Back at home, we got out some large pieces of newsprint and taped them together to make a big piece of paper the same size as half the headboard (it’s always easier to draw half of your design, then when its time to trace your pattern, just trace one side of the pattern, flip it over and do the other side. It will be a perfectly symmetrical design). We then drew out the design we wanted. We futzed a bit with it, used a pencil and some string to make the curves, and when we were happy with it, we cut out the design to use as a pattern.
The Headboard Pattern
We then traced the pattern onto the plywood, and cut it out with a jig saw. We attached 2×4’s to the back of the wood as legs and braces. * Note if you are going to attach it directly to the wall, at this point in time instead of adding legs, you would need to purchase a flush mount bracket set from a hardware store, and follow the instructions on how to install (or check out this tutorial on eHow)
After the wood was cut, we took the pattern and cut it down one inch smaller on the outsides. We then traced this new smaller pattern onto our 1” foam, and cut out the foam with a sharp knife. We sprayed the back of the foam with spray glue, and placed it centered on the plywood.
The Foam Cut to Size/ShapeFoam Attached to Headboard Wood
Then came covering the headboard with cotton batting, folding it over the back of the plywood and stapling using a staple gun. I have this great backwards staple gun, that allows you to push the trigger forward instead of backwards, it’s much easier on your hand muscles.
Wrapping the Headboard in Cotton BattingHeadboard Wrapped in Batting
Next up, we laid our fabric face down on a clean surface (we used our kitchen floor covered in a sheet.)
Headboard Laid on Fabric Ready for Upholstering
We then wrapped the fabric around the back of the headboard. This is where it gets tricky, and requires as many hands as you can recruit. Starting with the bottom of the headboard, fold the fabric around to the back, make taut (but don’t over pull and stretch it) and staple to the back of the board. Do this all along the bottom every 4” or so. Then move to the top of the headboard, and starting at the center do the same thing, making sure that the fabric is nice and smooth and flat on the front of the headboard. If your headboard is square, this will all be pretty easy. We of course made a fancy-dancy curved headboard, so it’s a bit trickier. With a curved design, you will have to make relief cuts to get the curves nice and smooth. You will be using a LOT more staples on the curves, making sure you get all the fabric pulled taut and smooth. You may find that cutting some of the excess fabric off helps, but make sure you leave yourself enough fabric to get a good grip.
Stapling Fabric to Headboard
Work your way around the whole top of the headboard, one side at a time then move to the sides of the headboard.
You will probably want to go over and add a few more staples in places that you may have missed, and cut off some of the flaps of fabric to tidy everything up. Now flip it over, and admire your handy work!
Headboard Upholstered
You still probably want to know why we cut the foam one inch smaller that the wood? We did this as we wanted to add a decorative nail head trim, and we didn’t want it to get buried in the foam. By cutting the foam short, it left us a nice space to lay the trim. We used nail head strips from Lee Valley Tools. They were much quicker and easier to lay straight than using individual nails. You only actually have a nail once every 6 nail heads or so. This was great for the straight parts, but around the curves I wished for more nails. The trim just isn’t as smooth as I would like it. Make your way around the headboard nailing in as you go, and curving the strips to meet the curve of your headboard. We used a small hammer and it didn’t damage the nail heads, but a rubber mallet is recommended.
Headboard With Nailhead TrimNailhead Trim Detail
Now quickly rush your headboard up to your bedroom and place it behind your bed and pat yourself on the back. The get out the drill and some bolts, and bolt it to your bed frame, or attach it to the wall.
Headboard Complete & Installed
SOURCE LIST:
Materials:
Plywood- 3/4″ 4×8 sheet cut to size at the store – Home Depot
1″ Foam – Len’s Mill Store
Cotton Batting – Len’s Mill Store
Purple Ultrasuede Fabric – Designer Fabrics
Nailhead Trim – Lee Valley Tools
Spray Glue – Home Depot
Staples – Home Depot
I love Pinterest. I have used it for organizing my wedding ideas, dreaming and planning our home renos, and even a recipe or two.
Most of all it inspires me. It’s like looking through magazine after magazine of gorgeous ideas. A few minutes of Pinteresting and my head is full of great ideas and projects, much to the chagrin of my husband!
So when Sherry @ Young House Love was discussing this years fall edition of their Pinterest Challenge, I decided to jump in with both feet.
I have been obsessed as of late with paintable wallpaper. I just love the texture and depth of it. Take for instance my inspiration shot from Emma @ The Marion House Book. Her use of the paintable wallpaper with a dark dramatic colour in her office is just stunning!
I already have a wallpapered wall in my Master Bedroom, but I have been thinking about adding some drama to my master closet. It’s not a walk-in closet, nor does it have room for a chandelier or an ottoman or any sort of art. Its just a standard double closet, but why should that stop it from being awesome?!
So I set out to add some drama to my closet by wallpapering & painting the insides of my closet doors! Yeah that’s right, the insides of my closet doors, so that when you open the doors they will scream TA-DA! It will be like having your own sexy magicians assistant hidden inside your closet.
Closet Before
So to put inspiration to fruition. We picked up a roll of (0n sale!) Martha Stewart paintable wallpaper in a pressed tin design, as well as a tester jar of dark purple paint.
We removed the doors from their hinges, then set them up on some saw horses in the guest room. The doors were a bit wider than the roll of wallpaper, and I could have taken the easy way out and just done a paneled insert for the door, but I decided to do it right and cover the entire door. So I laid out my first sheet of paper, wet & booked it, then applied it to the straight edge of the door. We smoothed out the bubbles and ensured the edges were well pressed down.
One Sheet of Wallpaper Applied to Door
We then lined up a second 1/2 sheet of paper (split lengthwise, so I could use the other half for the second door). Matched the pattern, wet & booked and applied the wallpaper. We then did the same thing on the other door.
Wallpaper Applied to Doors
I left the wallpaper overhanging the edges until it all dried. At that point I flipped the doors over. Placed a piece of scrap wood underneath to use as a cutting board. I then cut along the edges of the door with a sharp blade, cutting off the excess wallpaper and leaving a smooth edge.
We then gave the wallpaper two coats of purple paint with a brush. It was a pain to get the paint into all the little crevices! The second coat went much faster than the first.
Painting the WallpaperDoors Wallpapered & Painted
While the doors were drying, we gave a coat of dark grey paint to the closet, and prepped for new rods & organizers. We re-hung the doors, and this is what we have now! (sorry about the pic quality, we haven’t had an ounce of decent natural light in days with this storm!) I will take better pics once some sunshine decides to come out and play.
SOURCE LIST:
Materials:
Martha Stewart Paintable Wallpaper in Pressed Tin – Canadian Tire
Behr Sample paint – Home Depot
Our Master Bedroom was actually one of the first rooms we started work on. (in the sense that it got a mini makeover before we started filming our episode of Holmes Inspection.)
Here’s a run down of what we started with: Our 2nd floor Master bedroom is on the small side at 10×12 feet, but we decided to make it our Master rather than the guest room because it had a large double closet, was quiet and away from the busy street, and it had an amazing private second floor deck. The room has one window, a glass door heading out to the deck, and decent height ceilings.
We purchased a new mattress, box spring and standard bed frame when we moved into the house, and brought along with us two tall dressers that my Mom & I had refinished glossy black a few years ago. That’s it. No bedside tables, lamps, curtains or anything. For the first few months we used unpacked moving boxes as our bedside tables, and those temporary drapes that are made of folded paper. Then the ceiling started leaking in our bedroom, and we cut a giant hole and found ice in our ceiling. Thankfully the Holmes Group came in to help us, but that meant that our house was going to be on tv…with millions of people seeing it, and we had MOVING BOXES FOR BEDSIDE TABLES. Enter Kristen panic attack.
We needed to quickly get the room into a presentable shape before the Holmes Inspection crew came in to film our house, but without painting or doing anything to the actual room. So we did a few projects to get it up to a liveable state before construction. We built a headboard, got a few dressers as bedside tables, hung a mirror, got a couple lamps, curtains and threw in a vase of flowers…I know, its not much but at least we didn’t look like we were living in a shanty town when the camera crew came in.
Here are a few before (and in between) shots:
Master Bedroom Before We Moved InMaster Bedroom after mini makeover before Holmes Inspection RenoAnother View pre-reno
It still however had a long way to being complete!
