Lamp Shade Re-Do

We're slowly but surely making over the guest room to be a room for Katie.  We've decided on paint and fabric, and have painted the walls.  The silver lamps we had in there were too grown up for a little girl.  And I removed one side table to make room for a small bookcase.

I didn't really want to purchase a new lamp, and we have several small lamps that we're not really using.  I may or may not have a thing for lamps. . .

I have had a small white lamp since we bought it for Jack's nursery.  I bought this shade last week when I went Goodwill Hunting.

It was the perfect size, and it was brand new.

And the perfect price, at $3.00.

And this is why it was there.

It was all dented in one spot.

Oh I can so work with that.

First, I measured the height of the shade.

Then the circumference.

Upside down, apparently.

Then I cut my handy drop cloth fabric.

Remember that?

It's the same fabric I used to make my dining room curtains, and to make the boys' monogram pillows at Christmas last year.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this drop cloth!

I added two inches to the height and width so I'd have some extra to fold over to finish the edges.

I used hot glue and glued one end to the shade.

I wrapped tightly around the shade and folded the raw edge over to finish it.

I glued that, then had Chris hold the shade so I could pull the fabric taut so it wasn't saggy.

I glued the finished edge over where I started.

To finished the top and bottom, I just folded the fabric over the shade, put a small strip of glue, and pressed.  I quickly worked my way around the top and bottom.  To get it to be finished over the arms of the shade, I notched out the material around the arms.

I love the finished product! 

I plan to make a window seat cover using the same material with navy blue piping.

I think I will do some sort of navy trim around at least the bottom, because when it is turned on you can see the notches for the wire.  I'm thinking maybe thick navy rickrack??

This entire project took me about 15 minutes from start to finish, and cost me $3.00!

Goodwill Hunting

Did you know the first Saturday of the month is 1/2 price day at Goodwill?  I don't know if this is every Goodwill or just Middle Tennessee?  As much as I can't stand going there when it's busy, I love, love, love 1/2 price day.  I got eight books for the boys, including some Flat Stanley books and some Magic Treehouse.  I also got four matching frames for $1.99 each.  I will paint them and hang the kids' school photos in them.  I got one large frame with a great mat.  I will paint the frame.  I got another chunkalicious frame with a great mat.  The color is awful on both, so I'll paint both.  I got a brand new, still in plastic, drum lampshade for Katie's room.  I got ten items of clothing for the kids, which were all name brands including Gymboree, Mini Boden, Hanna Andersson, Lands End, LL Bean, and Gap Kids.  My total?  $36.49.  Well worth putting up with some, um, different people and waiting in a loooooong line!

Lamp Before and After

My mother-in-law had this lamp in her basement.

I loved the honey pot shape.

I didn't love the 80s look.

Nothing a little spray paint can't fix.

I used the same shade she had and put it in our entry.

Pardon the iPhone pictures. . . 

I love it, and the color looks great in that room since we painted it khaki.

Go Hoosiers!

We have issues.  Storage issues.  We have four closets.  In the entire. house.  There is a small pantry-esque shelving area built into the hallway by our bathroom, but we have no linen closet.  I don't want to use that entire shelving area for towels and sheets, because I feel like it could be so much better utilized.  We bought this Hoosier style cabinet from craigslist last week and have it in our laundry room.  I'm using the top cabinets as a medicine cabinet, and will use the bottom for towels.  I want to put some shelf paper in first.  Normally I'm not a huge fan of shelf paper, but this puppy is straight out of the 1930s, and has some 1930s grit that I have tried to scrub off.  I just feel like I want a layer between our towels and the actual shelf in this beauty.  The finish is white with some blue faux-finish-gone-bad on top.  It's not terrible, and I have much bigger fish to fry at this minute, so it's staying the current color for a while.  I think eventually I'll freshen it up with some crisp white, but for now it's perfect.



First Projects of 2011

We've started our projects already this year!  We added some tie backs for the upstairs landing area window.  Previously they just hung straight, which was fine, but I wanted them to be opened up a bit more.  There are no blinds on this window, so we're still able to easily close them at night for some privacy.  I'm glad we did this, because it makes the whole upstairs hallway more bright.  And at $6.00 at TJ Maxx, they were a steal. 

Our second project was an all day project.  Henry has no dresser - he and David share.  Their clothes are just getting too big for this to work anymore, and they are wearing different sizes in pants, so it gets confusing for them when they're picking out their clothes.  I don't have an extra dresser, and don't have a lot of patience so I wanted to make something work now until we get another dresser.  (Because you know I'm too damn cheap thrifty to just go to the store and buy one. . . it will have to come from craigslist, Goodwill, etc. )  We had two of these cube organizers in the playroom.  And lots of crappy broken toys, McDonald's toys, things nobody plays with anymore, and just junk filling them.  Chris and I cleaned out allllllllll of those toys yesterday and condensed two organizers to one.

I moved one of the cubes to the boys' room to use as clothes storage for now.  It's worked really well!  And I like how it looks in the room, which basically looks like a dorm room at this point.

We've also added that solar system painting to their room recently.  We saw one just like it at Homegoods several months ago for $40.  I was tempted to buy it, but didn't.  I think at that point we were still in our old house and hadn't even considered buying this one.  I didn't really have anyplace to put it in their old room.  We got this one at Goodwill for $4.00.  FOUR DOLLARS!  I was so excited.  I know that David won't be into the solar system forever, so I'm much happier to pay $4 for something like this.  And it's really cute - it was definitely a steal.  This room will be one of the next to be painted.  I'm thinking khaki.  And I hate that the bedding doesn't match on all of the beds, but David really loves that solar system comforter.  I'm picking my battles here, people!

We rearranged the playroom to give them some more actual playing space.  You may note the two different curtains. . . They will eventually be the blue, but the other is hanging in the boys' room until I finish making the panels for the second window.  My mother made the plaid curtains 10ish years ago, and they've been in several rooms (and houses!) since then.  I have them hanging in our guest room as well, my mother has a set as a shower curtain in her house, and my sister has a set in her living room.  I love the fabric, and it's oddly still available in the store.  I may use a corresponding fabric in our guest room to make a cushion for the window seat.

We have hung some canvases that the kids have painted in their playroom, and hung a wire system we bought at IKEA ages ago and never used.  I get SO MUCH art, papers, etc. sent home from school, and D&H never want me to throw it away.  This gives us a good way to display their favorites.

We did a MAJOR toy purge yesterday and had to sneak two huge garbage bags of toys for Goodwill out of the room.  David was whining all day that he didn't want to give any of his toys away, but I promise he won't even notice what's gone.  We will do some sort of larger storage system in this room when we get to the playroom on our redecorating list.  Right now we have small things in the bin organizer, and I made round tags for each bin so they will know what's in them.  We have larger toys, train tracks, and costumes on the floor next to the cube.  One issue in this room is that the closet has no shelving.  It's a decent closet, but it's virtually unusable until we shelve it.  Chris is going to cut down some shelves this week and put them in so we can get some of that put out of sight.

The boys got this Lego table for Christmas.  We found it (where else?!) on Craigslist, and it was in excellent condition.  I was going to make them a Lego table, but this table cost less than the materials would have cost me to make one.  And it came with two chairs!  The same table new on Amazon.com retails for $289.99, so my slightly used table at $40.00 was a steal!  They have already gotten $40 worth of playing out of it.  I'm so, so happy we have this space for them - the boys love it, and I love that their toys aren't scattered all over the house.  I would love to paint this a cheery color - maybe yellow?  Chris and I can't really agree on a color (big surprise!), so this room is on hold until we do.  I also want to recover the little couch, but won't do that until we decide on paint. 



Top Projects of 2010

In keeping with some other blogs I've seen, I'm going to list my top 10 projects of 2010.

1.  My bench re-do. 

 We took a cheap craigslist bench that looked like it came from a hotel lobby and made it a cute bench for our (old) kitchen. 

Now that fabric matches nothing in our new house and the bench will be recovered again!

2.  Buying our new (old) house!

This was the project to start projects for the next thirty-ish years.

And it's a good thing I don't have buckets of money at my disposal.

I'd be buying houses every day. 



 3.  The packing project.

Moving with three children, two dogs, and a full-time job is a treat.

4.  My craigslist project!  

This is an ongoing project. 

I love me some craigslist.

We've gotten a ton of great, inexpensive things this year.

Like what?

Eight dining chairs for $80.

An enormous braided rug in like new condition for $40.

The bench in project number 1 for $20.

A desk for $20.

Three matching twin bed headboards for $40.

A hoosier cabinet for $150.

I know there's more, but those are the things I can remember off the top of my head.

 5.  Unpacking. 

6.  Our Fall front porch.

 7.  The Living room.

 8.  The picture project in the stairway.

9.  The dining room re-do.

10.  The island. 

This project is still in progress, but has already added a lot to our kitchen.

I know 2011 will bring us several more projects. . . the biggest will likely be to fence our backyard!

I'm linking to Rhonda's top projects post at Southern Hospitality.

And to A Little Knick Knack's Everything But the Kitchen Sink party. 

 And to Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

And to Dittle Dattle's: Amaze Me Monday