Curtain Call

Yay!!!  We have made quite a bit of progress in our laundry room/closet this past weekend.  After a little nagging pressure, I convinced Josh to go out and purchase our cabinetry and counter top.  I had also hoped Josh would purchase our extra refrigerator for the space, but his cheapness kicked in and he settled for a hand-me-down fridge from his parents (luckily, he too admits we need a full-size fridge for the space and has agreed to get one eventually...note: that could be eons away).
But all this buying and borrowing wasn't the most exciting news in the laundry room front.  Nope, we now have curtains hung to gloriously hide our junk.  These curtains were a complete DIY project, and the best part is I don't even sew (although I'm beginning to think that may be on my list of things to tackle).  Let me explain.
You may recall that I had been searching for a pink/white/yellow fabric for our curtains.  After countless internet searches came up empty, I was pretty excited to find this right down the street at my Joann's:

True, it was a little more pink than I had wanted and it didn't have any yellow (although I had a plan to remedy that...stay tuned!), but it was certainly the best option I had seen.  So, I promptly scooped up about 4 yards of the stuff for a grand total of $26 (it was 40% off...score!).  

Once home, I cut my fabric into 2 equal length panels and then got to work hemming about 2 inches on each side.  You may be asking how does one hem without having the faintest idea how to sew?  Well, my friends, it's only the greatest invention ever: Stitch Witchery

                                                                  

If you've never used this stuff, go out right now (well, you can finish reading this post first) and buy yourself some.  

Anyhow, with my curtains all hemmed up, it was time to add that yellow pizzazz.  Enter Stitch Witchery again...with a little satin yellow ribbon and some pins.  I pinned the ribbon on top of the Stitch Witchery along the edges (well in about 2-3 inches on all sides...I just eyeballed it):

Once it was pinned snugly in place, I ironed everything in place and now have some curtains that have that little dash of yellow pizzazz I was looking for.  See?

the ribbon trim is along the sides too, but unfortunately,  it's hard to capture the whole panel!

I was very worried going into this project that hanging the curtains (as was necessary to fully conceal our junk) from the ceiling would be impossible, but it turns out Home Depot (and I'm sure other home stores) sells universal rod hangers that can be used from the ceiling...woo hoo!  Once my lovely husband was kind enough to get those in place for me, I just used two Target shower rods (it was cheaper than the super long curtain rods I was going to need and nobody can really see the rods anyway) and some curtain clips to hang my curtains.  

And now before I show you our laundry room now, let's take a little look back at what we were dealing with just a couple of weeks ago:

See all that junk that needed to be hidden?  Well, look at it now:

And now this room is almost done.  With just a bit more accessorizing, it can officially be checked off the to-do list!  So, what do you all think?  Don't the curtains look much better than all that stuff?  Do you hide yours too or do you actually take the time to organize it?

Clothespin Art

I love my husband, but go-getter isn't necessarily an accurate description of him.  Maybe that's unfair, but when it comes to my honey-do list, he tends to put my things at the bottom of his to-do list!  Thus, for three weeks now (I feel like it would only be fair to explain that we do own a heating and air-conditioning company, so with temperatures approaching 100, he is pretty busy when he's at the office and does totally deserve his down-time once he comes home), I have been patiently waiting for several things to get finished up around here (some items to be hung in the playroom, cable to finally be installed in the playroom, a sofa to be secured for playroom, curtain rod to be hung in the laundry room, refrigerator/cabinetry to be purchased for laundry room in case you're interested).  I even tried myself, but I'm not exactly handy with a drill and let's just say there's currently a drill bit stuck in our ceiling as a result...oops!
Anyways, the point is, once he does tackle these things, I promise to have lots of good stuff to show you: my final playroom reveal and laundry room progress, including a fun DIY ribbon trimmed curtain tutorial.  But until then, my DIY bones were getting antsy, so I decided to conquer another much-needed project for the laundry room.  Check this out:

Not the basket (luckily that can and should be removed promptly!)...I'm talking about the ugly dryer hose sticking out above.  It had to be hidden, and luckily, I had a spare canvas waiting around.  I painted the canvas yellow and then whipped out some clothespins.  I used both regular sized ones and mini ones (that's what the package says, but I've seen smaller...the ones I used are 1 3/4 inches long).  To go with my color scheme for the room, I used pink, white, and the blue paint I had used to paint the laundry room.  I just used my clothespins like stamps...dabbed them in the paint and then placed them on the canvas.  I had no strategy when it went to stamping my clothespins, and while I am usually the type that loves me some order, I must admit I like the chaos of this guy.  Check it out:

And gloriously hiding the ugly dryer hose:

True...the room still needs a lot of work, but it's a start, right!  And it was such an easy (and cheap, as in $3 for some pink paint and mini clothespins...I already owned everything else) project...my favorite kind!  So, what do you all think?  Anybody else been up to fun, easy DIY stuff lately?

Roses are Red...

...Our laundry room is blue.  Er, more like our laundry closet is blue, but whatever, the point is I painted our evolving laundry room.  I had hoped to find a curtain fabric first, but am really struggling to locate one (you can read about my search here if you want).  But our refrigerator and and cabinetry are due to be purchased this weekend, so I wanted to go ahead and get the walls painted, especially since I knew I wanted the walls to be blue.
So, here's the befores of our hideous space:

And a slightly improved version:

 At first, I wasn't sure about the color (it's Tropical Breeze by Behr), but I think it's growing on me.  

Plus, Now that the walls are done, I actually think it will make it easier to find a fabric that will compliment the them, rather than trying to do it the other way around.  You may also notice that I was lazy efficient and didn't bother to paint the spaces that will soon be covered by furniture, appliances, or curtains.
So, there's step 1 (of what will probably be many) in our laundry room (er, closet) transformation.  What do you all think?  Like the color?  Do share please

On To the Next Room...

Well, my DIY playroom is pretty much complete.  In fact, I hope to be back later this week with the grand final reveal if I can get a sofa in place (I know you're holding your breath in anticipation...if you've missed any of the progress, you can catch up on it here).
With one room winding up, I was actually pretty content to tackle a few smaller projects for other, basically completed (in this house, no room is ever complete...I'm always looking to revise!) rooms.  But Josh had a major surprise in store for me Saturday morning...he suggested that we get to work tackling our laundry room!!! Gasp!!!  Usually I'm the one who jump starts these projects!!!
So, we spent our Saturday touring a few local (and not so local) home improvement stores in search of some cabinetry and a counter top to kick off our project.  We also would like to put an extra refrigerator down there to store some of our surplus (especially when we entertain), and that's when we realized the space was going to be a little tighter than we had originally thought.  Not wanting to purchase anything we would later regret, we decided to head home, clean out the space, remeasure, remeasure, and remeasure one more time just to be sure, and then make our purchases sometime this week.
So, here's what our room (which by the way is actually just a massive, glorified closet) looks like right now all ready for the new additions (be warned...it's not pretty, as in the definite eyesore of the house):

 And since the whole thing is a little hard to capture from our available angles, here are two separate shots of each half:

Usually, I would be bummed to have a project delayed, but not this time.  Because of the suddenness with which my lovely husband sprung this on me, I hadn't even figured out a color scheme or any other design elements for the space yet.  So, now I am racking my brain (and scouring Pinterest) for what to do!  Right now, I'm leaning towards a blue room with pink and yellow accents, kind of like this room but maybe a softer blue and more pink/less yellow:
                                             
Actually, I'm thinking a blue more like this one:
                                                    
Before I settle on a paint color, though, I would like to figure out a fabric choice.  I plan to make some short curtains to hide the hideousness that is the upper shelves and beautify the area.  I always see people finding awesome fabrics online, so I tried a search myself and am only ho-hum about my results.  Here's a couple possibilities:

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But because they were both a little more blue than I had wanted (considering the walls are going to be blue, I wanted the blue to be more of an accent color in the fabric), I started looking at shower curtains as well.  I found this one at Target that I'm kind of leaning towards, although I'm still not sold:

Hmmm...what do you all think?  I'm planning on hitting some fabric stores this week to see if I can find another option.  I'm hoping, though, that there are some online resources that I'm missing...anybody know of some good sites for fabric?  Any suggestions are completely appreciated!