Cameron’s Room (Deployment Projects #177-178)

OK - - just a quick post tonight - -probably with lots of pictures!  I have finally finished Cameron’s room.  I think boys rooms are tough.  Not so much when they are babies, or even toddlers, it’s that 9 year old, going on 10 that I have found tough.  I had lots of ideas of what I wanted to do, but Cameron is now developing his own creative ideas and opinions.  That’s hard for me.  One, it tells me he is growing up, and I really don’t like the thought of that and two, it means I need to allow him to express his ideas and not just do what I want to do!

I learned that Cameron is a very neutral guy.  We must have gone shopping 10 times looking for a comforter.  I would point out something I liked - - he would hate it every time.  You know what he wanted?  Plain brown - - he let me choose between a lighter or a darker brown!  I learned that he doesn’t like color - -except blue.  He doesn’t like patterns.  And he doesn’t like my idea of organization.  He is a no nonsense, either it’s right or it’s wrong, no frills kind of guy!

He wanted an adventure room.  I’m still not sure exactly what an adventure room entails, because every time I would suggest something he would, in his sweetest, most kind manner tell me, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings Mom, but that’s not what I was thinking of having in my room.”  He was so concerned about hurting my decorating feelings - - it was so sweet!  Finally I told him to just start pointing out things he liked and we would make it all work.

I don’t know if it all really works together, but it was a process and really, it was more of a process of a mom letting her son grow up and express himself, and a son learning how to voice his opinions and not worry about disappointing his mother.   Does the room have things I would change if I were just decorating it myself?  Yes, of course.  It’s hard working a frog habitat, legos, rock rugs, and all brown into a room.  But he loves it and really, that is what it is all about.  A room for my little man to love hanging out in, a room to bring his friends to, a room to feel comfortable in!

 

See these mini cloches?  They were Christmas bell ornaments that I bought on clearance after Christmas.  I took the bells out and they turned into perfect small cloches to “highlight” the bug collection.  The picture on the right is what is under the cloche on the right!

Nothing helps set the theme of the room like an Adventure pillow with the definition of adventure embroidered on it!  I used zipper edging to trim it out and a pieced together back to give it a very “adventurous” feel!

 

If you look closely, you can see his two fire belly frogs hanging out in their habitat!

The wall next to Cameron’s bed it like an ever growing bulletin board.  We put up “invention” pictures and shelves to hold treasures.   And of course pictures of him with his favorite people!!

 

*In non decorating news, we are so close to Handsome Hubby coming home for R&R -- - I think I will only have one more post before he gets here, we’ll see!!  I have been super busy finishing up orders - - in fact, in the past two days I have made 18 pillows and I have 11 more to finish up by tomorrow night.  I still have our bedroom to finish, and in a perfect world, I would have a whole week of posts showcasing the bedroom all pre-written and ready to post while Handsome Hubby is home.  But who am I kidding?  That would be a perfect world! - - I certainly don’t live in one of those!!

Dining room slipcovers (Deployment projects #163-170)

They’re Finished!!!

I’ve finished all my dining room chair slipcovers!!  Eight big chairs – what was I thinking?

They look soooo much better now! 

 

Look at these before pictures.

They weren’t bad in our last house where we had orange in every room, but here, they just clashed!!  It was too much in that room!!

Now, with all the new neutral slips, this room now fits with the rest of the house.  Calm, peaceful, light and bright!!

 

If you are wondering about the walls in this room, (remembering that we are renters!) you can read all about them here. 

So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of the simplest slipcovers ever made!

 

All of these steps will be done with the right side of the fabric next to the chair.  The fabric I used was a hopscloth linen look fabric from JoAnne's.  I prewashed it in hot water and dried it on high so that all possible shrinkage had taken place!

1.  Lay the fabric over the front of the chair from the top to the bottom.  Allowing about 4” extra on both the top and the bottom, cut off your length of fabric.

2.  Lay your fabric on the floor folding it in half lengthwise.  Split (cut) your fabric along the fold.  These two pieces will become the front and the back of your slipcover.

 

3.  Pin your front piece of fabric so that it lays over the entire front of your chair and over the top back.  (You are just pinning it so that it doesn’t fall as you work with your fabric.

  

4.  Lay your second piece of fabric down the back of your chair and start pinning around the shape of your chair.  I like to use my pins as if I was drawing a line with them.

5.  Continue pinning all the way around the entire top of your chair.

6.  Once the entire top is pinned, it is time to move to the two side panels.   Cut two squares of fabric long enough to cover the side panel. 

7.  Pin around the top three sides of the square, curving it around the corners of the seat, and matching it into the back “seam” of the chair.  Repeat this for the other side.

 

8.  Step back and take a look and make sure that it looks just like you want it to look when it is finished.  Carefully pull it off your chair and take it to your sewing machine!!  I used my serger for this so that it would cut and seal all my edges at the same time.  This fabric frayed really easily and I know that these are going to get washed a lot!

 

9.  Starting with the seat portion, follow the pin line (taking the pins out as you get to them) and sew/serge all the way around the seat sides.

 

10.  Next, you just have to sew/serge all the way around the back sides and top.  Remember, just keep following your pin line.

11.  I forgot to take pictures of this last step…  put  the slipcover back on your chair (right side out this time),  mark your hem-line by pinning it.  Take you slip back off and finish the hem of your slip, the same way you would for a skirt.

 

11.  Put your slip back on your chair and enjoy the beautiful new easy to achieve look of your simple slipcover!

12.  Repeat steps #1-11 seven more times so that your entire dining room set is slip covered!!

 

Charise’s Bedroom Reveal (Deployment Project #161)

 

Are you ready for the big reveal of Charise’s room?  Lots of pictures today!!  Originally I was going to do a pink and white, ruffley, vintage, little girls room…BUT, it just wasn’t working for me.  That’s not Charise.  She is so full of energy, so vibrant and brings so much joy to everyone around her, I had to change directions and go vibrant!

 

I put the white quilt, the gingham balloon shades and pillows, and all the frills back on the shelf and pulled out this fabulous orange comforter set that we used three houses ago (it’s actually been in two garage sales since then, but never sold - - guess I know why now!)

 

I still need to add something more to the wall next to the bed, but I’m not quite sure yet - - -remember, I’m only using what I have or can re-do into something else!  So, perhaps that will be another deployment project!!

I took the door off the closet and hung a curtain instead.   The door couldn’t actually close with the bed where it is,  and it blocked her cute hooks that I showed you yesterday!  It is amazing that such a small change can make such a huge difference, the room seems so much bigger without that door in there!

 

I picked up this vinyl clock on clearance at Target a few months back - - this is also what the leftover vinyl birds were from.  Look above the doors and wall art for those!

Remember these chairs from Re-upholstery 101?  I have been trying and trying to find a place for them in my house.  I love them sooooo much, but I just did not have a place that they worked.  So, what’s a girl to do, but plan a room around them!  I used the same fabric for the top of the curtains.  (These curtains hung in our living room in CA, they just had different fabric on the top - - I simply clipped the new fabric to the top and tucked the bottom edge of the fabric into the braided cording edge - - -I’m telling you, make it easy, make it simple - - there was no need to make new curtains, I just needed to repurpose what I already had)

Speaking of repurposing… I just spray painted her old pink chandelier turquoise.

 

I hung a sweet little mirror right at Charise’s height so she can primp and fix and beautify herself all she wants!

The two chairs that have finally found a home!

  

A sweet room for a very sweet girl!!

*thanks Laura Kay Photography for all the awesome pictures of  my beautiful baby girl!!

Guest Room Re-do (Deployment Projects #148-153)

So…. How was your weekend?  Mine?  So glad you asked!  It was CRAZY!!!!  Not crazy like we were running all around town to this and that - - nope, never even left the house the entire weekend except to go to church this morning.  Not crazy like my kids were driving me nuts and I was inches away from disowning them - - nope, they got along great this weekend!

NOPE, it was CRAZY exciting!  Now, granted, not as exciting as it will be when my beloved comes home, but exciting none the less!   It started Friday night when I decided that our guestroom needed a make-over.  I’m like that, I get random ideas, and then just act on them – sometimes not even thinking the whole idea through before hand.  For example, I probably should have thought ahead to the fact that I am still in the middle of re-doing my kids rooms.  Yes, that would be two rooms completely in upheaval and I decided to add a third room to the mess!

Of course, it was also exciting on Saturday morning when I got up and checked email and had blog comments galore!  I had to go and see what this was all about.  Nester - - - that’s what it was all about!!!  I jumped over to her site and what was greeting me?  A picture of me and my beautiful children!  I was on her Saturday Bird Watching!  How exciting - - and welcome to all my new followers!!!!

 

So, after I got over my huge shock from Nesting Place and came back down from cloud 9, it was back to the guestroom re-do.

It was such a random idea, that I didn’t even stop to take before pictures - - -which is a real shame now because it would be so much fun to show you the before pictures at this point!  But, I guess if I was going to be completely honest it wasn’t decorated before….at all.  I had hung curtains (but they had fallen out of the wall three times   - lack of anchors and kids playing hide and seek in them will do that!) so there were no curtains any more and I had just thrown and orange quilt on the bed.  There was a Mickey Mouse TV gracing the dresser and all the furniture was in the wrong place making the room feel even smaller than it is.

So I got the gumption and just started moving furniture around (with the help of my very strong 9 year old!), got rid of the old curtain rods that wouldn’t stay in the wall anyway, added anchors and hung new curtains, made some pillows for the bed, shopped the house for accessories, made some art for the wall and improvised where needed!

I decided that I wasn’t going to leave the house to do this room.  I decided everything needed to come from the house - - re-use, re-purpose, borrowed from another room or taken from my stash.

So, without any before shots to share with you, here are the after!

I started by moving the bed in front of the window.  Originally it was coming out from the wall where the beach sign is.  It made the room so tight, you could barely walk through the room.  So much roomier now!

 

Next, I changed out the bedding.  I went all white.   I have  a long standing policy with Hubby - - if the hotel doesn’t have white bedding, I’m not staying there.  It just makes me feel like the room is clean and fresh.  So I did the same for our guest room.

Next I hung up some new curtains.  I used rotating cafe rods.  Two reasons I went with these:  1.  these windows are super wide and getting a rod that is long enough requires taking out a loan and 2.  I happened to have these rods on hand!  I had bought them on clearance years ago knowing that I would need them “one day.” 

 

I also squeezed in a small corner cabinet next to the bed, making sure the clock is visible from the bed and that you can turn the lamp off from the bed.  It is a stretch, but there is nothing worse than being in a house you don’t know and you have to walk from the light switch to the bed in complete darkness!

I was able to fit in a small antique dresser, the perfect place to store the guest towels, sheets and extra blankets.  I like to put dryer sheets in the drawers to keep everything smelling fresh!   I also had room to put a small reading chair in the corner with a floor lamp.  The chair is from my Grandma.  I was originally going to re-do the chair.  Painting it and re-upholstering it, but it is in fabulous condition and it has so much sentimental value to me, I just couldn’t do it.  Now that I have it in this room and the color works perfectly, I am so glad I didn’t touch the chair!!

Speaking of sentimental things - - the bed was our wedding gift from Handsome Hubby’s parents.  Would it give it a more beachy, cottage feel if I painted it white?  Yes, but again, sometimes the sentimental side wins! 

Well, now that I have shown you the complete “after” pictures, you will have to come back tomorrow to see some of the projects I did for this room.  I’m so excited about them, here are some sneak peeks!