Re-covered Bulletin Board

Things don't stay the same in our house for long. 

After re-painting my son's room, I realized I didn't like his burlap bulletin board anymore. 

The burlap trend is alive and kicking but I can't say I have taken to it. Burlap is a crotchety sort, tickling my nose, making me sneeze.

 So bye-bye burlap. 

Hello black and white stripes.

 If you have been following along you will notice my obsession with black and white stripes. I have recovered this, that, and made this with the same fabric. 

Yes, I love stripes.

Come back to see how I made this, just in case you are dying to know how.

XO Barbara

Roman Blind: Finished!

The Roman blind saga has now come to an end.

 I am finished. 

My dilemma was trying to find dowels long enough, which was a challenge. But one reader and fellow Canadian blogger, Mel from Junkin Junky, suggested bamboo.  I tried drapery supplies stores but custom cut dowels were $5 each. The bamboo was $0.39 each. Not hard to figure out which I chose. The plant nursery must of thought I was crazy, as I was  going through all their bamboo trying to find the straightest pieces. 

Since I have never sewn a working Roman blind before, this was quite an experience.  In retrospect it wasn't too bad, I am now going to sew two more. I found online tutorials were few and missing details I had to figure on my own, so you won't be surprised that I plan on photographing all the steps for the next blind to share the nitty gritty details.

Piece of cake!

Voila!

My son's room is going to get new paint and bedding. The blind was needed as the sun sets later and the other blind wasn't blocking the light. I made this blind with blackout lining. It works so well, so much in fact, that last night he was complaining it was too dark!

Off to cut more fabric for blind #2.

XO Barbara


Linking to:
Air your Laundry @ Freckled Laundry

{the great switch}

With New Year's still fresh in our minds, the organization bug has hit our home. We decided to bite the bullet yesterday and finally move and switch 3 rooms on our upper floor. Living in a 5 bedroom home has its advantages, it allows for flexibility in room arrangement, or in our situation, re-arrangement.

Our dilemma:

With the kids getting older {2 teens and a tween}, they need a place to "hang out" with their friends. Conflicts were arising when our kids wanted to watch a movie with their friends while their dad felt it was necessary to watch a hockey game in our family room on the main floor. 

We needed a solution.

{My daughter putting her drafting skills to work}

The solution:

Move the younger daughter {she was technically in the games room} into her brother's room, whereas he move into the room that was the computer room. The computer and bookcases move into the daughter's former {technically a games room} room that would become a multi-purpose room: a room for the kids to "hang-out", to house the computer and second TV.

Current situation:

Furniture has been moved but walls need to be painted in 2 of the rooms, which is what I am doing today.

 I will make sure to keep you posted as I move forward with the re-design of the 3 rooms.

~Map Mod-Podged Monogram ~

I have been feeling particularily crafty these past weeks. It must be an avoidance tactic, avoiding finishing real projects around the house.

So....

Here is another simple (and cheap) project that is seen everywhere... 

but I like it. 

One of my favourite bloggers and friend, Alissa at 33 Shades of Green, made some decorative letters for her home and I decided to try it for my son's room.

Are you dying to make one? Here's how....

First you will need a wooden letter. I bought mine at Michaels.

Next, paint the edges using a colour of your choice and method of your choice. I used black craft paint but you could use spray paint, leftover wall paint, etc.

After a few coats of paint have dried, lay the letter on an old map, trace and cut it out. 

*Make sure you lay it right side up. I laid it wrong side down, and then when I wanted to glue the traced piece out and it was backwards - sheesh!

Using mod podge glue the paper piece onto the wooden letter, smoothing out bubbles. Then paint a thin coat of mod podge over the entire piece and let dry. Oops  - forgot to take photos of that step!

And then...

Voila!

One more week and the kids are back at school. Hopefully I can get into a routine again and finally finish my daughter's room (I have really procrastinated on that one!)

Also....

Thanks to Jen at Tatertots and Jello for featuring my subway/eyechart art that I made for my son's room!

Linking to:

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

~Subway/Eyechart Art ~

My daughter and I had fun one evening with some plain canvasses I had laying around. While she worked on an art piece for her room, I created a piece for my son's room. 


Since subway and typography art is all the rage I thought I would jump on the bandwagon but add a little twist. I love the look of eye charts as well and mixed the two to create something unique. Using the quote" May the force be with you," I created an one-of-a-kind original for my Star Wars fan.

How-to:

Start with a canvas and paint it black (or leave it white to create a classic eye chart). 


Using the computer print up your quote, playing with the font size and arrangement. Classic Snellen eyecharts use the "Courrier" font, which is what I chose to use as well. You can create your own Snellen eyechart here or just play around on the computer until you achieve the look you want.

Next would be to arrange the lettering on your canvas.

Originally I was going to trace the outline of the letters and paint them in but wasn't confident in my detailing-with-paint skills so I highlighted the font with the computer to make the letters white.

Using scissors I cut out each letter and adhered it to the canvas using Mod Podge. I then gave the whole piece a thin coat of Mod Podge.

(hodge:podge does Mod Podge - has a nice rhyme :)

Source: Plaid Products

(This is where it was late, hence bad lighting, and I forgot to take more photos - sorry)

Voila!

I added the subway/eyechart art to a gallery wall I arranged in his room. My son is a collector of sorts and loves to hold onto things that are special, why not display them for all to see?

See the monogram "A"? Come back next week and I'll share how I made it!


I am slowy getting back into a more regular schedule as our summer holidays are winding down, 2 weeks left! My hope is to bring you more projects as I finish them. We are possibly re-arranging 3 bedrooms in our house, moving kids from one space into another to create a games/office room for the kids to hang out. 


Do you know what that means? More rooms to paint and re-design! Just when I thought my to-do list was getting smaller....

DON'T forget to enter my giveaway for a $40 gift certificate from CSN stores. You have until Wednesday, August 25th!

Click here to enter




Sharing at:

Frugal Friday@ Shabby Nest

Power of Paint @ Domestically Speaking

SNS @ Funky Junk

Weekend Wrap Up@Tater Tots and Jello
Frugalicious Friday@Finding Fabulous
Making Monday Marvelous@ C.R.A.F.T.

~Check This Out: Vintage Superhero Posters~

Odeedoh by Apartment Therapy is one of my favourite reads full of inspirational photos and products geared towards families with children. While the website focusses on the younger set, I can take ideas and tweak them for my growing-taller-by-the-day teens' and tween's bedrooms. I am trying to re-design my son's room and am avoiding the typical blue/red (something I started but want a change) or theme room. I want some personality injected into the room and as much as he would love to hang posters all over the place, because of my controlling design obsession I absolutely abhor posters hung up with sticky tac all over the room. He wants some cool posters and this weekend Odeedoh featured these amazing vintage-style superhero posters by Michael Myers. Framed and artfully arranged these would be perfect for his room, something both he and I could be pleased with.

How cool are these?

source: Odeedoh

I think I am going to track down at least one for my son's room (if they are reasonably priced)

~Burlap Bulletin Board~

I have officially jumped on the burlap bandwagon. 

I have seen many posts where burlap is used as the cheap, chic and rustic fabric of choice. So I had a desire to recover something with burlap and having a project in mind I set off for the fabric store. While searching for the chiang mai fabric I so want, I asked the clerk if they sell burlap. 

 The clerk informed me that yes they did but the fabric needed to stay in its plastic wrap and had to be cut at a specific table.

Hmmm... 

I guess people are allergic to the stuff. Once cut it was to stay enclosed in the bag, I felt like I was carrying hazardous waste. Not ever possessing burlap I wasn't sure what she was talking about. No one ever mentions that on their blogs. 

 I soon found out as I brought home the burlap that I began to sneeze and itch. It smelled like a garden shed and I felt like I was duped. After prowling several blogs where the authors use it for various projects I finally had the guts to ask "How to you get rid of that dusty garden shed smell?" Jen from Tatertots and Jello was so kind to answer me. She washes it on the gentle cycle and then air dries it. 

Tried it and the dustiness and smell are not that noticeable anymore.

Yay - my project was not doomed.

So without further adieu here it is....

I recovered my son's bulletin board but never really liked it so I wanted to give it a more rustic manly appeal. Using burlap, black upholstery tacks and my trusty staple gun the bulletin board went from this:

to this:

This is how I did it:

1. Cut a piece of burlap larger than the bulletin board.

2. Staple the burlap to the back of the frame.

3. Turn the board over and press upholstery tacks just where the frame meets the board. I eyeballed the placement of the tacks.

4. Hang up and enjoy.

I am wanting to re-paint my son's room. When I mentioned that to him, he said "finally!" 

Apparently he has never like the colour I chose. I don't either. When I suggested a light khaki colour he was adamant that he did not want a colour on the wall that would remind him of diarrhea.

OK....

I guess not. He is a tween and has his own ideas about what is acceptable on the walls but that will be another post on another day AFTER I finish my other to-do projects.

Linking to:

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous

SNS @ Funky Junk Interiors

Make it Monday @ Cottage Instincts

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Transformation Thursday@ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Show and Tell @ The Romantic Home
Show and Share @ Just a Girl
I Made It Without My Hubby @ Shanty2Chic
Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP

Beneath My Heart: Best April DIY

Once upon a time....

One of my faithful readers, Alissa from 33 Shades of Green, (you have to check out her site - I love her sewing projects, recipes and photographs) asked if there was a story behind the license plate that is hanging on the wall above my laundry room sink. As a matter of fact there is. 

(my husband made me blur the license plate in case there was some identity thief reading my blog)

Our family had the most amazing experience living in the state of Virginia for a few years. Being Canadian we were skeptical about living among the Americans. We have lived in Canada both on the west coast and on the prairies but moving to the east and another country was a scary concept. We would be far from family and familiar surroundings. To convince the kids we declared this was our adventure and we would come to Virginia not expecting anything but to just embrace what comes our way. My husband and my kids have rich American ancestry, family that settled the Plymouth colony to an American Revolutionary war hero great (a few times over) grandfather, Colonel Timothy Bigelow. (You can read about him here) We used that to our advantage embracing American and Virginian history, realizing that it was our children's history. This enriched our experience.

We fell in love. 

Virginia was a wonderful place to live.

 The people were so amazing and welcoming. Our neighbours were our extended family. It was incredibly heartbreaking to move back to the west and Canada. We miss Virginia daily and would move back in a flash. So instead of handing back the license plates to the DMV we kept them. I mounted them into shadow boxes and wrote about it here. One is hanging in my son's room and the other in the laundry room to remind us of our most amazing time livin' down south with y'all.

~Boy's Bedroom~

I have finally put together my son's room. You can check out some of the painting projects here, here, and here.

This was the before - we live in a rental that had horrible paint colours in the bedrooms. This room was a really dark snot green. I painted the walls a very pale yellow beige. It is a bit too yellow for my liking and will try something different in the next house.

After

I made do with what I had except for the purchase of the frame for the map. I painted the hand-me-down furniture to give it a more cohesive look except for the bed. The bed was mine from when I was young made by my dad.

My goal is to find him a new bed, hopefully can score one from Craigslist. I also want to get a taller bookcase -Craigslist again. Since we live in earthquake country my hubby doesn't like me to hang things above the kids beds. I do want to find a large letter "A" for his room though - maybe I can find one that is lightweight and won't knock you out if it falls off the wall! The duvet cover I made from bed sheets. They were a close match to some Serena and Lily fabric I *loved*

I will be sharing this at:
Furniture Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
and
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design
and
Metamorphosis Monday at Naps Between the Porch

and DIY Day at a Soft Place to Land
and Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage
*edited Dec. 12: Joining Funky Junk Interior's Saturday Nite Special!

~Bulletin Board~

Last week I hit Michael's Black Friday sale armed with my 50% off coupon to purchase a bulletin board for my son's room - bought it for $12.00! He had a small board and I wanted to get a nice large one.

I painted the trim, hot glued some white linen I had in the scrap bin and then hot glued some red grosgrain ribbon around. (I wish I had some light blue chambray fabric it would of looked better - but the fabric store said that was a spring fabric!)

Ta-da!

This post is visiting the Shabby Chic Cottage's Transformation Thursday!