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personalize a basic bulletin board {fabric & ribbon}

February 6, 2013 in crafting, DIY, my kids, Nat and Macie's room

It’s Wednesday! I’m halfway through a week of sick kids, sick husband, and sick me. Cold and flu season is almost over, right? Right? I think my oldest keeps bringing home a slightly new virus mutation each week, then it runs through each family member just in time for the new strain the next week. I know I’m not the only one with this going on, though–I see chapped, red noses all over town. Poor kiddos.

So today I’m sharing a quick project I did to complete the wall in my younger daughters’ room where I hung their repurposed shutter coat hanger. Remember those extra Command Strip tabs in a few of the photos? They are for these!

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My little ladies like to collect their things and keep their creations, but my fridge is only so big. So having nice, large bulletin boards in their room for each of them gives them a space to display their proudest accomplishments and have a bit of say in their decorating. Littlest girl even snagged a Christmas card from a friend’s family to put on her board, since their youngest is one of her besties. Middle girl has her soccer and swimming buttons, her class photo from kindergarten, and a few swimming ribbons she earned last summer proudly displayed on hers. (I need to pick up a few more packs of push pins so she can spread her treasures out a bit.)

These bulletin boards are so, so simple to customize. I started with two bulletin boards my sister-in-law passed on to us a few summers back–they were basic brown cork boards like this or this, depending on the size you want.  Ours are just under 2×3′ in size, and as you can see there is plenty of space to hang many projects and notes. For this size, you’ll also need a yard of fabric per bulletin board, a hot glue gun, and coordinating ribbon or trim.

I recovered these bulletin boards about a year or so ago with different fabric and covered the frames with scraps and ribbon, to this result.

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I had also added a fabric-covered monogram for each girl, but after a year+ of each board falling off the wall repeatedly because I didn’t secure them very well, they looked a little worse for the wear.

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The old fabric also did not work as well in the new color scheme I’m going for, so starting fresh was the best way to go. Since I’d simply hot-glued the first type of fabric on, I simply yanked everything off and got back to this point.

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At that point, I realized that I’d painted the frames with the wall paint. Ooops, not what I wanted now. So I used some leftover white paint from my kitchen cabinets and freshened them up a bit. Then I measured the dimensions of the cork surface and cut my fabric to fit exactly in that space. Working from one corner all the way around, I hot glued the edges of the fabric right over the cork board. Then I repeated this step to cover the raw edges with the green grosgrain I selected to complement the floral.

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To finish off the bulletin boards and add a bit more depth, I also hot glued the same green ribbon around the perimeter of each bulletin board.

fabric and ribbon bulletin board impressions by jani

I have plans to use a similar treatment elsewhere in the room to tie the bed over to the bulletin board wall.

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Simple and easy to customize for any decor style, this is a fairly quick, 1-2 hour project. My girls love their boards and I love keeping their things in their room. We’re all happy, and with the command strips on the back, these bulletin boards are finally staying up. Whew.

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repurposing a shutter–adding bedroom storage

January 28, 2013 in DIY, indoor decor, my kids, Nat and Macie's room

Like nearly every house I’ve ever been in, seen on TV, or read about online, my house is always in need of more storage solutions. My girls (like I’m sure no other children ever) struggle a bit with putting things away. We’ve tried various solutions over the 3+ years we’ve been in this home with school-aged kids. Put your backpack in the cubby in the pass-through laundry/mudroom! Put your shoes in the basket by the front door! Hang your coat and backpack on the hooks in your closet! The one method that has stuck, though, seems to be the “drop your stuff in the middle of the kitchen and leave it there until mom nags twenty times asks you nicely to put it away.”

We simply don’t have a good space in the main part of our home for a mud room/drop zone. Our garage opens into the laundry room, which is itty-bitty, and kid stuff in my pantry, which is quite spacious and close by, drives me batty (but that’s another post). Hooks on the wall to collect all the bags/coats/sweaters/stuff that is hang-able is really the best option, so I got to work a few weeks ago to create an easy place for my youngest two girls to keep all their precious things. So far it’s working perfectly!

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With seven hooks between the two of them, they have plenty of room to hang their things; its hung at an easy height to access; and it’s cute enough to work with their room décor. Score for mom.

I started with a shutter I picked up at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore (LOVE that place!) that was pretty dingy and gross, like this.

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I gave it a good scrub-down with my favorite Magic Eraser and removed all the hinges and hardware from front and back. Then I simply painted it with some left-over turquoise I had from my entry desk project to pull some of the blues in the duvet fabric (seen here) over to the opposite wall.

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I love the turquoise with the pale pink walls. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby (always 50% off) and I decided on four along the bottom and three on top so they could be evenly spaced and staggered for easier hanging. My six-year-old is not a fan of the distressed look to the knobs, “Can you paint over the black spots with white paint?” but I love the slightly cottage-vibe they add to the piece.

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To place the knobs, I simply measured to the center of the top edge, than halfway between there and each corner and drilled a pilot hole at each point. Along the bottom edge, I measured in an inch from each side for the outer knobs, then divided the distance between those two knobs into thirds. I made all the holes slightly smaller than the screw on the back of the knobs so they would fit snuggly in the holes and not twist and twirl in little fingers.

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We affixed the shutter to the wall with Command Picture Hanging Strips–it was so simple! WHY have I not discovered these before??? You can see a few of the backing strips attached to the wall around the shutter—I’ve got another project in the works for that area.

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But for now, I am loving the ease with which my kids can put their stuff away. Ahhhhhh, mommy sigh of relief!

Linking up with Home Stories A to Z. Check out all the amazing projects over there!

 

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desk chair refresh {under $10 project}

January 25, 2013 in DIY, indoor decor, my kids, Nat and Macie's room

I have the best friends, I have to say. We moved to my husband’s home town a little over three years ago, and I have been blessed to grow a circle of girl friends that I can laugh and cry with. A few even share my obsession love for DIY and creating home décor on the cheap, So when Kathryn, one half of the sister duo behind Bee in Our Bonnet, offered me a little desk that her daughters had outgrown, I quickly reorganized my younger daughters’ room to find a place for it and brought it home.

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My girls are delighted with their new space to hoard all their treasures gathered from the park, random sidewalks, and their sister’s jewelry box, and I am THRILLED to have those seven new drawers for them to keep all their little things in. Win-win for all of us. I love the knobs Kathryn had on the drawers, as well. My girls were smitten with the zebra-patterned chair, as well, but since this fabric

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on their duvet is my jumping-off point for the room, I went in search of a better fit at Hobby Lobby. Half a yard of fabric and my trusty 40% off coupon later (you totally use that on stuff that already costs less than five dollars, right? It’s not just me?) and I was ready to dive right in.

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I also picked up a 24” square 2” thick piece of foam (already on sale for under $3) and had the thin batting and necessary tools on hand, so this project came in at around $6 or so. Proof-5776

The seat cushion itself popped right off, so it was a simple matter of building an upholstery-sandwich and going to town.

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The 24” square of foam did not quite fit the trapezoid-shaped seat, so I used four layers of the thin batting to keep everything even and smooth. Initially I started by stapling the batting to the cushion board, then I added the fabric. My technique was very simple:

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To finish the corners, I tried a few different things to get a clean edge, but ended up basically folding the fabric under like you would wrapping a present.

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(Let’s just pretend that I was able to hold the fabric down with my hand instead of my foot in that last shot, mkay?)

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Ta-dah! The bright coral geometric works perfectly with the more relaxed floral on the bed, and my girls love the extra cushiness on the seat.

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Thanks again, Kathryn! We’re loving our new-to-us desk.

Linking up with Miss Mustard Seed. Check out the amazing projects over there!

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swirling thoughts

January 4, 2012 in Bailey's room redo, DIY, indoor decor, Nat and Macie's room

I feel like the ultimate cliches are running through right now. After all, it’s a new year (where do you stand on the twenty-twelve/two thousand twelve debate?) and therefore, time to make resolutions. My two year old is potty training (oh, the joys!), the hubs and I have recommitted ourselves to eating less and moving more (and I ordered a nifty new book to help us), I’m working on implementing a new cleaning schedule at home so I can stay on top of things, and I have about a billion and one little projects I want to start and/or finish around my house (as usual). So basically, nothing’s changed.

And you know, with everyday life and the changes that come and go, I think of my Patrick every day. I mourn, I cry, I remember, I heal. It’s hard to believe is already been nearly four months since we said hello and goodbye in just a few short hours, but it also seems as though our family has lived a complete lifetime since then. Ryan and I were discussing how our life has truly been split into two parts–the carefree, take life for granted way we were living before September 18, and the heavier, more realistic way we’ve dealt with things since then.

But while life has changed, it’s also so important to us to not be jaded or lose the joy in the everyday we have in our girls.

IMG_1273 webthe girls on our Disneyland trip last May–and yes, I pack their clothes for vacation solely considering what will photograph well but not be too matchy-matchy.

So we talk of Patrick and dream about the future of our family simultaneously. These three sweet girlies will always need me. And I will always want to work on creating beautiful things for them in our home. I didn’t get to finish my dream nursery, but  I won’t stop crafting and painting and sewing and planning because of one tragic, horribly timed loss.

To that end, I want to have my house goals in one place, all typed up neatly and pretty so I can refer back often!

  • finish Bailey’s room–with the help of my parents and sisters, this is a lot closer to being finished than I’d ever have done completely on my own. They spend part of their Christmas break painting her room and helping me sand, prime, and paint her furniture. Whoohoo! So the remaining tasks are
  1. hang coat/backpack hooks
  2. make and hang book shelves
  3. window treatments!
  4. sew a quilt and decide on bedskirt/upholster box spring treatment
  5. some sort of DIY rug
  6. pillows!
  7. build a new end table/American Girl storage so all the clothes, shoes, and hair accessories don’t take over the room
  8. wall art
  • finish, paint, and organize my laundry room shelves (my dad built them in over a year ago and they are a mess!)
  • devise and implement a better towel hanging solution for the kids’/guest bathroom
  • do some cosmetic work in Natalie and Macie’s room–pillows, wall art, window treatments, and repaint their hideous dress-up trunk I painted pepto-bismol pink two years ago.
  • wall art for the rest of my house–I need to finally do my own gallery wall of the pictures I’ve taken. I put it off, waiting for Patrick to join our family so the family photos would be complete. Instead of waiting any longer, I’m going to accept that photographs of children are like electronics–out of date from the time they roll off the printer. That’s no reason NOT to enjoy them until I can get around to updating!
  • general freshening up around the house–especially the living room when our new couch arrives! (eeeek, I am so excited!)
  • start our kitchen garden in the spring–the hubster built us some raised gardening beds last fall, and we can’t wait to use them!
  • build a trellis and plant along the side of the house to protect us from some of the summer heat.

And now I’m off to work. I promised my oldest girl we’d get her room as close to done TODAY as we can, which means some elbow grease, powertools, and a trip to Lowes are on the agenda for today. Be back tomorrow with the results!

What project goals do you have for the year? Are they big, knock-down-a-wall and add more space type projects or more new-throw-pillow-and-we’re-good? I’d love to see and share!

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