New Projects in the Kitchen

I am itching for a project, so I think I am ready to start sprucing up my kitchen with a few small and inexpensive projects. Here is what is looks like now,

And here are a few things I want to do:

I want to make a fun chalkboard. Mine won't be as big as this one, but isn't this one so cute?!

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I plan on finding some cute fabric to make a roman shade for the window above the sink.

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I also want to find a pendant light for above the sink.

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I have seen painted rugs all over Pinterest, and I want to try and tackle one. I love this chevron painted rug. I'm not sure what pattern I want to do yet, but chevron could definitely be an option.

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So, those are my plans. I can 't wait to get started!!

Risky Design Choice

Today, I'm over at The Story of Home talking about a risky design choice I made, so go check it out!

New Look!

I'm trying out a new look. I don't know how long it will stay, but so far I am really liking it.
I can't post with out a little eye candy though. Saw this on Pinterest today:

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Those green ghost chairs are fabulous!!

Free Halloween Decor

I am not much of a holiday decorator. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't afford it. When you're on a tight budget it isn't easy to justify spending money on decor that you only have up for a few weeks out of the year. This year for Halloween I decided to get a little creative. I love finding free printables on Pinterest, so that's exactly what I did. I turned my entry gallery wall into a spooky Halloween display for FREE.

I love how it turned out! I will definitely be switching up my pictures for other holidays too from now on. Here's what I did and where I got it:
The bat idea I found here.

I used black cardstock and stuck them on the wall with tape. So far they have stayed on pretty well. I made the silhouette of my daughter using photoshop. Here are the rest of the printables I used.
The "Keep Calm" came from here.
The Halloween Subway Art is from here, and also comes in three different colors!

The bat can be found here.
The vintage skull image is here.
I found these great labels, like this one,  here.

Dining Chair Slipcover

I have been wanting to attempt to make some slipcovers for my dining chairs for a few months. Now that my daughter is walking around, I worry about her scratching up my chairs with her toys. I also love the look an upholstered dining chair. Well, I finally did it and it wasn't as easy as I thought. The process consisted of  A LOT of guessing and trial and error. I am really surprised with the outcome though.

I had originally bought the fabric for my bedroom about a year ago, but when I got home from the fabric store it was definitely not going to work in my bedroom. So, I needed to use it for something.

The ruffle detail at the bottom was actually the result of me cutting the fabric too short. I had to come up with a solution. I really like it though. It gives the square lines of the chair a bit of a feminine touch.

It took my so long to make just one slipcover that I am not ready to make three more. I might decided to tackle it another day. It's not perfect, and I not going to even begin to describe how I did it because honestly I don't know how it came together at all.

DIY Striped Curtains

I have been seeing striped curtains everywhere lately, like these lovely ones in this fabulous dining room.

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I love the bold yet sophisticated statement they make. I knew I wanted to do them somewhere in the model home. I didn't even look into purchasing them, because I knew they would be pricey, so I decided to make them. I have had several people interested in how I did it, but I didn't take any pictures of the process, so I am going to attempt to just tell you how I did it. First of all, I decided how long I wanted my drapes. The ceiling in the room is a standard 8', so I decided to try and get close to 96" so I could make the curtains floor to ceiling. I wanted 7 stripes, 4 orange and 3 white. I figured out that I needed to make each stripe 13" wide. With 7 stripes this would give me a 91" long curtain panel. I cut all three of the white stripes and 2 of the 4 orange stripes 14" wide to give me 1/2" seam allowance on either side. For the top and bottom orange stripe I added an extra 3" so I could make a large 3-1/2" seam at the bottom and top. I think drapes just look better with a large seam at the bottom and top. I used drapery rings to hang mine, but if you are not going to do that then you will want to make sure you have that large seam at the top to slide the panel directly onto the curtain rod. After all the fabric was cut I started sewing. If you can sew a straight line the rest is super easy. After all the stripes were sewed together I hemmed the bottom and the edges. Then I started all over again and did the second panel the exact same way. I didn't line the curtains, which you might want to do to protect them from the sun. The entire process probably only took me around 3 hours. Here is a graphic I quickly put together to hopefully explain the cutting process better.

I hope my math is right but total you would need 3.5 yards of one fabric and 2.5 yards of the other color of fabric. But, if you are like me and not completely confident that you won't make any mistakes, then I would get 4 yards of one color and 3 yards of the other just to be safe. Anyway, hope that all made sense. I love the way mine turned out in the nursery. They were a great focal point in the room and definitely gave it the look I wanted.

Involving Color Feature!

A few rooms in my house are being featured over at Involving Color. It's a great blog all about paint colors! Check it out by clicking on the button.