Stair and Landing Before and After Makeover

Stairs and Upstairs Hallway
Let’s take a walk up my stairs beforehand. When we bought the house, it was covered in nasty dirty carpet. Mr. Handy ripped it all out.
After the carpet was torn out, here we go up the gouged staircase…

Not for the faint of heart:  After turning the corner and a few more stairs. Here is what it looked like before. Not so lovely, huh?

Then:

Also in this project is this little storage cube (before):

Not very appealing, is it?
Now, let’s take that same path after stairs were redone (see below – red walls no longer there!):

And this is the new landing. A little paint (Ralph Lauren mahogany) and new knobs give the dresser a cleaner and more modern look. I think it’s over 40 years old and needed a face lift.

Notice the storage cube – I sewed a cover and cushion. All covered and pretty.

I also sewed a table runner to help protect the top (Mr. Handy likes to toss a drill or other tools here.)

All of the doors here have glass knobs. I love them. I wish we had the old skeleton keys. The dresser also has locks on each drawer, but…again, no keys.

 

Stairwell landing before

after:

At Christmastime

stair landing Christmas time

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DIY Project Parade and DIY No Sew Script Drop Cloth Curtain Tutorial

No Sew Drop Cloth Script Curtain Panel Tutorial
 
no-sew-dropcloth-curtains
I wanted something different for our sitting room and the new DIY curtain rod. I love the idea of drop cloth curtains…affordable ($25 for a 9×12 drop cloth).
 
9×12 drop cloth for three 4′ panels
Sharpie Permanent Marker
 
 
I spread the drop cloth out on the dining room table.
 
I wanted 3 panels. My floor to ceiling height in the sitting room is 7 1/2 foot. I drew up a plan:
 
I made marks 18 inches (minus 1 1/2 feet) in from the bottom hem (laying out my drop cloth with 9 ft. being the height and 12 ft. being the length). The cut panels are the exact height from floor to ceiling (we’ll worry about exact correct length later…as long as they’re a little longer than needed, it’s all good.
 
*Tip:  The drop cloth will be larger than table (if you have floor space to spread out – that’s great). Otherwise, working from one end, hold up fabric overlapping edge, measure and mark.
 
I cut from mark to mark. I heard using pinking sheers helps eliminate unraveling (myth as shown below).
 
*Tip:  Large drop cloth is difficult to work with. Pull fabric towards you as you cut.
 
Next I cut 3 panels out of the 12 feet at 4 feet each.  However:  I don’t think the manufacturer thought anyone would actually measure a drop cloth, so I had two 48″ pieces and one 42″ piece. (Which is okay – these are decorative and it was okay for my middle curtain to be off a little…but take this into account if it matters for you!!!)
 
I did not hem  cut edges – I like the frayed edge.  Left curtain panel has an outer hem by manufacturer, inside is frayed. Middle has two frayed edges.  Right panel is reverse of left with an outer hem, inner frayed. Top hem is sewn by the manufacturer.
 
I washed the panels on the hand wash cycle and dried on low.
 
As you can see, pinking sheers did not make a difference with fraying…
 
Unless this is decreased fraying?!
 
I pulled or cut away the strings. I like the frayed look once the tangled mess was gone.
 
Next I ironed the panels, using a high temp and steam.
 
I laid each panel out on the floor and using a yard stick, I made LIGHT pencil lines every six inches starting from the top.
I chose Robert Frost poems. They’re mostly nature related and short. I selected poems that were around 12 lines long. (Panels have 14 pencil lines:  Poem title, poem and author’s name = 14 lines too! Perfect!)
 
Using a Sharpie, I just started copying and writing out the poems…judging/eyeballing whether I needed to write smaller or bigger or insert a symbol to make the lines fit on a line. Sometimes I went over and darkened certain words by tracing again with my Sharpie.)
 
I didn’t like the “B” at the beginning of one of my poems, so I made a patch of left over drop cloth and this is the only part I sewed – but I patched right over the ugly “B”.  You might call it imperfection but I call it character.  🙂
 
When finished, I hung the curtains using curtain clips.
 
For the bottom hem, with the curtain hanging, push the bottom fabric to where the floor meets the wall. Draw a pencil line in that corner.  Cut along the line with pinking sheers.
DIY script drop cloth drapes
 
All done. Custom. Affordable and I love the look!!!  How about you?
 
 
 
sitting-room
 
 
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I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.
 
 
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Dazed. And then some…an old window DIY project.

Meet:  Rachelle from

Dazed. And then some...  
who has recently turned some old windows into some amazing things.  Today she’s sharing one of her awesome window projects.  Here she is:



Yay!! I am SO excited to share this project with all of you!


I started with just the window frame (it came with the glass) and went from there.


Okay, so here’s how I did it!

Supplies:
  • Window Frame w/glass
  • Crackle Paint
  • Country White Acrylic Paint
  • Brown Acrylic Paint
  • Sandpaper
  • Raw wood shelf
  • (3)  Longer Nails/Hammer
  • Twine
  • (2) Screws
  • Screw Driver
  • Wall Decals (Optional)
  • Hot Glue Gun and glue


Instructions:
  1. If the frame you chose already has a dark stain or dark color paint, you do not need to paint it again. Just take your Crackle Paint and brush on a nice layer in one even direction. Let it get tacky. Do NOT let it dry.
  2. Using your Country White paint, brush on a nice thick layer. Within a minute or two you will start to see it crack! You can speed this process along using a hairdryer, as well.
  3. Using the same brush you used for the white paint, start painting your raw wood shelf brown. 
  4. Sand both the shelf and window frame along the edges and even more so on the corners.
  5. Flip your frame over and screw in your screws. (One on the top of each corner for hanging.) 
  6. Cut enough twine to fold over 4 times and tie a loop on each end. Apply to screws.
  7. On your shelf, hammer in 3 nails. Make sure they are long and sturdy enough for keys (or whatever you think you will be hanging from them).
  8. Now apply a nice thick layer of hot glue to the back of your shelf and press onto the bottom of the frame.
  9. Finally, apply your decals to the windows. I used Designer Wall Accents in “Swirly Branches”. 

Note: You do not have to apply the decals at all if you prefer not to. If you like the idea of branches but don’t want to buy decals, you can just paint them on the back of the windows. (That was my initial plan until I spotted the decals!)

HANG HER UP! 🙂

**I kind of forgot to take a before shot, so here is the back of the frame after I had already finished it.

Close up of the crackle effect… Cool, ri
ght?!





This is a shot of it without the decals. It looks great either way! 



Beautiful and so creative!  Great job, Rachelle!  This would be perfect in an entryway! Love it!


See more DIY and creativity from Rachelle at her blog…

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