DIY Roman Shades: Part 4

Very easy project and looks great!

DIY Roman Shades: Part 3

Place you fabric underneath your curtain.

To make this look like a roman shade, you will need to remove most

of the slats.  To do this, you will need to remove to plugs that are

on the bottom bar.  They are easy to pop out with a butter knife.

Remember to keep these as they will need to be replaced after 

removing the slats.

Measure you fabric to decide how many folds you will want in your curtain.

Each fold will require a slat.  The photo above shows the slats glued in place with

heavy duty fabric glue. 

Replace the bottom bar with the string and plug.

Glue the 3" extra fabric to the top and bottom metal bars.

For our curtain, I needed to cut slots for the installation pieces.

Let it dry overnight.

DIY Roman Shades: Part 2

Lay out your plastic *cheap* shade on a large work space.

Here's the scary part….

...you will need to cut the "ladder" part of the strings that turn the slats up and down.

Make sure to only cut this part of the strings.  You will need to keep the main, heavier 

string that brings the entire shade up and down.

Remove this completely from the shade.  You do not need this anymore 

for this project.

DIY Roman Shades: Part 1

We picked out these two fabrics for our guest bedrooms.

We measured our window and then I cut the printed fabric.

You will need to add 6 total inches to the height and 2 total inches to the width.

(This will provide 3" at the top and 3" at the bottom.  It will also give you 1" to each side)

I also added a canvas backing to block out more light.  

The canvas is measured to the exact size of my window.

This is a no-sew project---can you believe it??? Yes, it's true!

I used stitch witchery tape for the 1" sides.  Fold the 1" extra fabric over the canvas.

Sandwich the tape between the fabrics and pin.

Now you are ready to iron which glues the fabrics together.

(You can also spray a light coat of aerosol glue on the canvas to attach it to the printed fabric.

I did do this on one curtain and not the other.  So far, I do not see any difference.)

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 8

We had a desk (top right) at the entry of our kitchen which we never used as a desk.

It ended up being a good place to throw shoes or bags.

After we removed the hanging cabinets from the kitchen, we

thought that we could reuse one of them here...

This worked out perfect and gives us more storage.

This will be a usable space now.  

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 7

For the counters, we over laid concrete on the existing countertops.

It works really great and dries quick.  It has two, thin coats of concrete.

We will also seal the concrete once it is dry.

We added concrete to the other side of our kitchen as well.

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 6

We added open, metal shelving in place of the cherry cabinets.

It makes the kitchen more open and contemporary. 

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 4

Here's the cabinet…..

now it's gone!

One cabinet down….and one to go!

All of our hanging cabinets are removed and now we just need some paint.

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 3

Our new, sparkling sink!  This looks much better and goes

great with our faucet.

Now on to the countertops soon.

Kitchen Re-Do: Part 2

   

We are giving our kitchen a new look.  Time to break something-grab a hammer

and start smashing.

*Note: Remember to wear gloves during this process.  Once the tiles

are broken, they can be really sharp.  I learned the hard way!

Winter Time Review

Our 2013 Christmas tree!  We went with a small tree this year as we were 

busy traveling.  We are loving our new floral chairs.

We loved our Christmas lights!

We did have some snow which looked beautiful!

New Year - New Projects

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

We are looking forward to 2014 as we have more projects

and ideas to share!!!

Bring in the New

Before:  Old, stained, green carpet in our guest bedrooms

After:  New, fresh, light tan carpeting in our guest bedrooms

Such a great change!  Looks and smells much better!  haha!

Small Changes - Big Impact Part 2

              

Here is another small improvement, but made such a difference!  Thanks Mom!

Yahoo! We Are Home Owners!!!

As most of you know, we have had quite a journey in our house search!  We were down to the wire and when we thought we would be living in our RV (so glad we had one), we finally found our HOME!  We knew it was ours when we drove up for the first time!

You wouldn't believe how many houses we have looked at this spring!  Mostly covered in mold, leaking roofs, no front doors, or dangerous to turn the electric on for inspection.....do you see a pattern!  We were not having any luck!  It was hard to hear from loved ones telling us, "It will all work out!  Keep positive!"

When we finally had a little light shine down on us and we thought we had finally found a house; the rain clouds came blowing in. (A little drama always helps a story- haha!)  We went from a house in a rough neighborhood, to a house that really was not for sale and a plenty of houses that had higher offers.

But at the end of the day, we found our home!  It came with even more of our home hopes- acreage, workshop, garage, office....the list goes on and on.  We are very excited for all of our future home improvements.  This is where this blog comes in....we wanted to share our home with you!
We hope you enjoy and share your thoughts!