Ikat Curtains

Custom Ikat Curtains  

How gorgeous is this living/dining room!? I just finished these custom curtains for a good friend of mine and they give the perfect finishing touch to the space! 

If you have been following me for a while now, you would know that my very first suggestion as a decorator is always CURTAINS! To me, it is the fastest, least expensive way to add color and warmth to a space. 

My clients knew they wanted a printed fabric with a little color, so when I came across this Ikat fabric, I knew it was the one!

In order to save us money, I chose to do a store bought curtain panel in a cream linen and just add in the decorative fabric along the top. I do this version of custom curtains A LOT! Actually my close friends, family, and clients call them the 'Jennifer' curtain lol. It is the best way to save money, but you get a custom look in the end that no one else has!!

I decided to do the same panels in the breakfast nook and living room to tie the two spaces together. 

Since the store bought panels had these gorgeous grommets at the top, I just cut the grommet top off and spliced in the decorative fabric. This way you don't loose any of the original hardware!

My favorite part of this project is this custom door roman shade. I did this entirely in the Ikat fabric to pull a little more color and pattern into the room. I am just so pleased with the way it turned out!

With the left over fabric I did a few throw pillows to place on the couch. This again just helps to tie the spaces together and draw your eye around the room. 

What do you think? Could you use this style curtain in your home? 

Check out these other blog posts with the 'Jennifer' curtain!

Master Bedroom Retreat

Shabby Chic Living Room

Girly Nature Inspired Bedroom

DIY Mirror Makeover!

 DIY Mirror Makeover! 

I bought this solid black framed round mirror from Ikea over 8 years ago. It was under $20 and it has gone through many transformations over the years. I am such a huge believer that you can pretty much turn anything into what you want it to be, or at least try before you sell it or trash it!

The very first time I changed the mirror was back in 2009. We had just moved into our first home and I wanted something dramatic in our formal dining room. Of course I didn't think to take photos of our home back then, so this is an image of a mirror that I took my inspiration from... 

I bought a ton of tiny wooden dowels from the craft store, hot glued them around the edges, and then spray painted the entire thing gold. It was beautiful!

Then my style changed a little...I wanted a lot more white in my home, so a few years later I changed it to this!

I pulled all of the dowels off and gave it a coat of white spray paint. I then bought dryer hose clamps in multiple sizes and hot glued them around the mirror in an odd pattern. It was finished off with a coat of glossy white spray paint!

A year or so later, I decided to turn my dining room into my office. I removed the circles and left just a clean white surface. 

So, now we are caught up to date! We recently moved into a little farm house in the country and my style is much more vintage, shabby chic, and rustic. To say I love burlap is an understatement! After starring at my little round mirror in the garage for 7 months, trying to figure out what I would do with her next, it finally hit me! 

I began with a roll of burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby ($5). 

Pick a starting point and hot glue it down. From there you just weave the ribbon back and forth in a zig zag type pattern, gluing each edge down as you go. This part probably took me about 30min. 

I noticed that the closer I got the ribbon to each edge, the more it looked like the ribbon was actually wrapped around the entire mirror!

And here is the final product! I am just obsessed with how easy this was and how gorgeous it turned out!

What do you own that could use a DIY makeover? I would love to see your projects, so please share them below! 

Want more?

Check out these other easy DIY projects that I have done in the past to up-cycle items in my home!

Just click the photo to see more!

           

Build a Nursery with Me! Part 4!

Build A Nursery With Me! Part 4!

I am getting very close to having our baby boy's Woodland Nursery complete...check out what I have been up to lately!

So this is the fabric I had originally ordered for the curtain panels, but when I held it up against the window in the room, the orange detail completely disappeared and it looked like a big brown blob. Brown blob is definitely not the look I was going for lol. So it was back to the drawing board for curtain inspiration(which you will see below), but it was such a cute fabric and a very soft flannel, so I thought it would make the perfect changing pad cover!!

I purchased the fabric on fabric.com, but it is now discontinued. 

**Tip: Use rubber shelf liner cut to size under your changing pad to prevent slipping!

I really love how the tiny bit of orange in the changing pad cover ties in so well with the deer print above. The vintage style table lamp is also a new addition. I am also in love with how well the bronze metal on the lamp ties in with the hardware on the dresser!

This shows that you can use just about anything to make a changing table. All this took was a thrift store dresser, some stain, a changing pad, and a table lamp! I found the ladder basket shelf at Home Goods in the bathroom organization section for only $40!

How perfect is this to store diapers, wipes, lotions, blankets, etc?!

This little guy was a Christmas clearance find! Who knew you could find so many woodland animal décor items in the Christmas section!? And at 66% off, I paid only $5 at Hobby Lobby!

My biggest accomplishment thus far has been the nursery curtains! I found this fabric at JoAnn fabrics and added an orange burlap ribbon banding down the inside middle!

I decided to hang them with curtain ring clips to give them a more masculine feel.

And how cute are these antler curtain tie backs?? I ordered them online from Urban Outfitters for only $20/pair!

They add the perfect rustic woodland touch to these curtains!

Last, but not least, I used the left over orange burlap ribbon to add a banding detail around these baskets.

I printed the labels on my home printer and used a mini clothespin to attach them!

Only a few more items needed to finish this Woodland themed nursery! I will probably do one more update post and then the final reveal!

If you missed the previous 3 updates, click on the links below so you can see all of the great projects you missed!

Build A Nursery With Me! Part 1!

Build A Nursery With Me! Part 2!

Build A Nursery With Me! Part 3!

 

$30 Garage Door Makeover!

My favorite posts are always the ones where I can share how to achieve such a huge transformation for very little money!! This is one of those posts!

About 6 months ago, we bought an older home in the country that needed a lot, and I mean A LOT, of love! Of course there were so many projects to choose from, it was hard to know where to start, but this forest green eye sore seemed like a pretty good place...

I know this photo is a little blury...I had to steal it from the real estate listing lol! You can see that the garage is your basic, builder grade style, only this one has a fabulous shade dark forest green! Which honestly wouldn't be too horrible if there were some other accents painted in the same color on the exterior of the house...but there aren't! We had a green garage, brown siding, purple shutters...you get my drift.

So, I decided to paint it! I used an exterior paint (Sherwin Williams, Roman Column). It is a shade of white, but with a warm, cream undertone. Don't you just love my little helper in this pic? 

It only took 2 coats to cover and this is how it turned out! The final touch was adding some decorative garage door hardware. All for looks of course, but this entire kit at Lowes was under $20!! With the help of a drill, I installed it all myself in less than 10 minutes! Isn't the transformation just amazing!?

People who have seen it in person have asked me if the handles in the middle hit the top of the garage when it is opening, but they don't at all. They are made to fit just perfectly!

If you have been wanting to make a change on the exterior of your home, this is such a great way to start. You can be the least handy person you know and still accomplish this! Think about all of the color possibilities too! Shades of Brown, Gray, White, Khaki, would all look fantastic on a garage door!

Please leave your questions, comments, and makeover stories below! I would love to help you get started! And remember, the best compliment I can receive, is knowing that I inspired you in some way!

Now go buy some paint!!