Thursday, March 29, 2012

Do you have 15 minutes?

So I LOVE me a quick and easy project. This one literally took 15 minutes and I feel packed a hefty punch in regards to spicing up my playroom.

We have been spending quite a bit of time up in the playroom so I have wanted to make some new throw pillows to cozy up the space.

Back in January I bought some cute chevron fabric from fabric.com that I thought would look good as an accent in the space. I had to exercise a lot of self control to not quickly whip up some pillow covers since, but I promised Shane no new projects until I finished the stupid bathroom! Unreal that I kept that promise, as I have some serious project ADD.

I found an online tutorial to make envelope pillow covers and I am so pleased with how simple it was. I will NEVER buy another pillow cover again!

I bought a yard of fabric and got 2 covers out of it. The fabric was less than 10 bucks a yard! Done and Done.(See Shane, that is why I have been hanging on to my old pillows- I am not a hoarder:)

So here they are...

and here they are in use...
(notice the gaunchies-yup were back trying the whole potty training thing again-WORST thing about parenting-I sooooo wish there was a camp or program I could send him to and he would just return potty trained)

 I just love that I can take these covers off and throw them in the wash. With the dirty hands and faces that reside here, that is a MUST!

Here are a couple shots of the playroom in progress.... It really is finally coming together. Sorry again for the weird photos, it is a small and weird shaped space.(note:I think it is so funny to take pictures with out people in them for blogging purposes-haha, but I have benefited many times from blogger pictures, so I will keep doing it in hopes that maybe I will help someone else:)
The only things left that I would like to do is get a proper frame for a world map picture that I have and possibly to a magnetic board wall out of sheet metal(we'll see if that happens, as I am not sure if I can get my sheet metal guy to cut a square in it for the plug in...)
Back to the pillow covers, here is the tutorial I used! Literally 2 true seams! So if your like me and like to switch things up, and you have access to a sewing machine and 15 minutes go whip some up!


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Powder Room

A while ago I saw this on Pinterest....

here is the link to the tutorial.

I decided that I wanted to do this to our main floor bathroom. I am truly not too sure what I was thinking(obviously I was not thinking too clearly).  I thought it looked like a clever idea, and as a bonus it was a VERY affordable alternative to wallpaper. I also thought-how awesome that you won't have to peel wall paper off when you want to change your decor.

So back in January, I embarked on hand stenciling my bathroom(powder room). I started out with quite a bit of gusto and managed to get the whole bathroom painted a very light grey color during the boys nap time.
I figured the rest of the job would take a week or two and I could get most of it done during naps and evenings. Holy smokes was I ever wrong! This dumb project took me three months.(note: I "quit" doing it many times.
A couple things to consider if you ever decide to stencil:
  • how many corners are in the space.
  • in my case, how to get the stencil around the toilet and pedestal sink.
  • the paint that you are working with-if it has any sort of a sheen to it, it will require  MULTIPLE coats before it looks even.
  • small spaces make it difficult to work in.
All of these things caused this small project to take FOREVER. Looking back I would just buy wallpaper. My time is way to valuable to be tied up in such a tedious task!(All of you out there are thinking-yeah!duh)

Now that the project is completed, I really like how it turned out. I had a GC for Winners and I picked up a mirror and towel rack from there.I think the small bathroom just has a lot more character.

So here is the reveal-hahaha....(looks like I deleted the before pic-oops:)