Quick & Dirty Cushion Recover

Last night I had a burst of energy and inspiration to do a little project while the kids were with Steve outside. I grabbed a piece of scrap fabric and my staple gun and got to work! I have two ottomans/benchs in our family room for people to prop their feet on. Our room is very wide, so you can't reach the "coffee table" to put your legs on, so I like to have these available. Who likes to relax on the couch without a foot rest?? I recovered one already with a bright yellow chevron fabric, but this one was just plain white and I really wanted to update it a bit. I had a minute so off I went!

Here it is before. We actually recovered this about seven years ago. It was Steve's grandparent's old stool and it used to be floral.

All you need is a piece of fabric (I am using leftovers from the roman shades in the kitchen, which was actually a tablecloth from Target), a staple gun, and staples.

Step 1) Remove the cushion from the stool. Mine was not attached this time because there is a little storage area underneath, but the last one I did was screwed in.

Step 2) Lay your fabric out and place the cushion on top. (Don't mind the old gross vents. When we redo the kitchen they will be getting replaced.)

Step 3) Cut. I know. This is all very complicated. Thank GOODNESS you have the photos. ;)

Find a baby to park it on the corner of the cushion. PHEW! Glad I have one just hangin' around.

Kidding. I couldn't get him to move his tush.

Step 4) Start stapling it nice and tight. Make sure your pattern is right where you want it by flipping it over and checking the placement first. I do the two long edges first, then corners, then short edges. I'm not an expert on corners, I just fiddle with them until I like the way they look and do lots of stapling.

Step 5) Replace the cushion on the bench, screwing it on if you need to. VOILA!

Now. I am planning (I think) on painting the wood either white or gray. But I want to wait until we paint the family room because I'll just do it at the same time. Also, I always have a hard time taking the plunge when it comes to painting hardwood furniture. I am always afraid of ruining it! So, I mull it over awhile just to be sure. For now, both ottomans are wood toned and when I decide, I'll do them both. Or not. We'll see.

Here it is in it's home. Ready to be pulled out as needed or have a drink or magazine plopped on it. Whatev.

Oh shoot, I should have taken a better photo. See at the top of the mail sorter? I put the West Elm spheres that I made up there. Perfect spot! The stain matches 100% and it adds a bit of height to the piece which, in my opinion, was just a teeny bit short before. Someday I'll take a real photo to show you better.

So there you have it folks. That took me 5 minutes. Quick and dirty (notice I didn't show you the underside once it was stapled? That is where the dirty comes in. Who cares! No one can see it). Now it looks like it was purposely chosen for the room. YAY!

DIY Pillow Cover. To Sew or Not To Sew.

Anyone else been hit with a bad case of Spring fever this week? Man, all it takes is one day in the 60s to get me all revved up for summer. Yesterday we spent the day cleaning out and organizing the garage (woohoo for getting it done early in the season!) and getting started on some landscaping. Since we closed on the house in November, we have yet to do anything on the outside of the property (oh wait, we did cut down two pine trees). We have a busy summer ahead of us! Painting, building a deck, weeding, mulching, those sorts of things. We removed all of the scalloped brick edging from the front yard yesterday and I started replacing it with stones from the back yard. We live on old farm land and clearly we have the corner of a hedgerow in our backyard, so we have a large pile of perfect landscaping stones. Free! I filled up the wheelbarrow a couple of times and got to work. We finished about half of it and it already looks so much nicer than that old lady edging. Can't wait to see the finished product after this week!

Today I thought I would show you a quick tutorial on how I make my pillow covers. I have tried a couple different methods, and for me, this one has always been the most simple.

Pillow covers are a fabulous way to spruce up your room and you can use any old pillow as the form.

You can choose to SEW these covers or you can choose to NOT sew and rather use hem tape. As long as you purchase the heavy duty tape, it will last very well. Here is the hem tape I have used (although I choose to sew my covers since I have a machine). Some people use stitch witch (or something along those lines, but it is the same stuff).

This stuff is really super easy to work with. All it involves is ironing it on both sides of the fabric for a few seconds. The directions are right on the back, but it is really very simple. I used it about five years ago on a curtain for my bathroom vanity, and in five years it never once dreamt of falling apart. You can even wash and dry it!  

So, once you have decided whether you are going to sew (it only takes 4 straight lines) or hem tape it, here is what you need:

This was not a well prepared photo, because I didn't need the chalk and I forgot to add in pins and the pillow. Oh and I didn't measure anything. HAHA! What can I say, sometimes I don't have everything all together.

You need fabric (I usually always buy my fabric from fabric.com. They have a HUGE selection of designer fabric, always have coupon codes and also shipping is free over $35 before coupons!), scissors, a measuring tape, pins, a pillow, and either a machine or hem tape.

Let's go peeps!

Step 1) Lay your pillow onto your fabric.

Step 2) Cut your fabric so that it is about 3 inches taller than your pillow and about 1.5 times wider than your pillow. It doesn't have to be exact. You just want it to completely cover your pillow and overlap a bit. I don't like my covers loose at all. You don't want it to look like a pillow case, so make sure you don't make it too large. Plus, your pillow form will inevitably smoosh and compress down a bit, so making it a smidge too tight will be fine in the end.



Step 3) Pin your two vertical edges. I double hem (fold over) mine, but you don't really have to. I am a "quick & dirty" sew-er and I tend to NOT iron my seams and I don't always pin. Frankly, I don't have a lot of time on my hands and I am not looking for these to last forever. This time I did pin, but I didn't iron. Now, if you are using hem tape, you don't need to pin, but obviously you do have to iron.

I don't know why I pinned them vertically and not horizontally. I fixed them for the other side.

Step 4) Sew or hem tape the two edges (sorry, it was evening when I took these).

You can see my stitch line right up next to the left edge.

Step 5) Lay your pillow out on the fabric again with the right side of the fabric UP. Fold one side over the pillow.

Step 6) Fold the other side of the fabric over the pillow, overlapping the two edges.

See how it is overlapped?

Step 7) Put a couple of pins in the overlapped edges so you can remember where you want them to be. I like mine to be overlapped at least 4 inches so that it doesn't gap open when it's done. Make sure the fabric is nice and fitted around the pillow, remember, you don't want it to look baggy. If you don't have pins, you can just pay attention to where you like the overlap.

Step 8) Carefully slide your pillow out and straighten the fabric a bit.

Step 9) Sew your two open edges now about an inch in or so. Hem tape if you aren't sewing, making sure to not have the tape TOO close to the edge. You need to make sure you use the hem tape on both pieces of fabric, where they overlap, using the tape to stick them together. Also, make sure to let the tape cool a minute or two after you iron it so that it is well set.

Step 10) Remove pins and turn inside out!

VOILA! Now stuff your pillow in and you are DONE!

(the purple pillow I did NOT make, it's a Target find)

Easy, no? All it is is cutting and sewing or taping 4 lines. I would definitely call that simple. It was actually one of my very first sewing projects back when I started. It usually takes me 30 minutes to make two pillow covers. For about $7, this is a GREAT way to add some color to your space and freshen things up a bit. Give it a go yourself!

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Table To Bench DIY

Today I worked on the entryway a bit. I wanted to make our old Ikea end table into a little bench for the kids to put their shoes on and off from. It is one of the very few things we have left from when we first got married eight years ago. It was previously living in the playroom in between the leather chairs. Before that it was in our bathroom for five years. It has experienced the variety of life and is ready for it's next adventure!

Here it is before:

Tired and ready for a change, no?

I finally found something to use as pad yesterday. I was trying to think out of the box a bit, since I didn't want to have to buy foam. I knew there HAD to be something I could use. I took a tour of the house, in hopes that something I hadn't thought of would jump out at me. Well, something did. In the linen closet. Honestly, it is irritating that I didn't think of this earlier because I specifically bought this to use as padding a couple of years ago:

Yes sirree, a mattress pad. I bought this for $4 on clearance from the college section during back to school time. I don't remember that, but, it still had the clearance sticker on it. Perfect!

Let's get started. Oh and let me just say this. This "tutorial" of sorts, it is not coming from the mouth (fingers?) of a pro. I have recovered a couple of chair pads in my past, and every time I think to myself that I should have looked up a YouTube video on how to do it even better. That said, it worked for me! I am not a craftsman, and when I do a project, I don't like to over invest in something. I don't want to spend more time on something than it is worth to me. It doesn't have to be PERFECT to be nice enough. Onward we march!

Supplies:

Stapler ($13 at Lowes), Staples, Measuring tape, Scissors

You also need a table of some sort, fabric, and a pad of course.

Step 1) Measure your table top and cut the foam to size.

Step 2) Cut your fabric, allowing room for it to be stapled under the top of the table.

Step 3) Turn the table over, with the fabric and foam underneath it.

Step 4) Pulling your fabric tight and taut, start stapling. I do the short edges first, then corners, & then long edges.

For my corners, this is what I did. First I folded in the short side and held it there.

Then I folded up the long side, trying to make the seam right on the corner.

I think they came out pretty decent!

Keep stapling around the fabric. I made them pretty close because I didn't want too much puckering or bunching. Speaking of fabric, I used Premier Prints, Chipper Twill, in Storm. It was $7.48 a yard and I used less than 1/2 a yard. You can buy it HERE.

After this, I painted mine white, to match the frames and mirror and trim in the entry. I also bought silver nail heads to add all around, but I haven't quite decided if I want to use them.

Here it is in the entry. Notice, we also decided to go with the coat hooks. For guests. I really like what they added to the space! All we did is pick up some primed MDF from Lowes, as well as some hooks. Then we screwed the boards to the wall and added the hooks. We still need to paint the MDF, but you get the gist.

Nice! It is the perfect height for the kids, yet still usable for adults. It also isn't too high, so as to interfere with things hanging on the hooks. Just what I was looking for!

In other happenings, I am working on the roman shades for the master bedroom. Here is a peek at the fabric I am using, it looks great with the gray walls. Which, Steve painted last night. Trim tonight!

Tomorrow I will be featuring a tutorial for a West Elm reproduction. Come back to see what it is!

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Easy, NO Sew Roman Shades (for $4.50!)

*Welcome to all my Pinterest visitors! I've been blogging less than a month, but if you want to see what I still have up my sleeve, follow me!*

The title says it all folks. Do you love roman shades? Do you love the price of roman shades (at least ones with cute fabric)? Do you love how HARD and time consuming and expensive it is to make your own roman shades? Yeah. Me neither.

I have been on the lookout for patterned, cheerful roman shades that won't cost me half my paycheck, for my kitchen for a couple of months now. These ones from West Elm are great, but geez louise, the price!

So one day I was browsing around Target and I found a lovely DwellStudio tablecloth. It was $9 and I KNEW there was a way I could make it into a window treatment. If nothing else, I could use it to make some throw pillows or something.

Fast forward a month and I am browsing on Pinterest. Lo and behold..........a fabulous idea from The Little Green Notebook. No sew roman shades made from CHEAPO MINI BLINDS. YES!

Now, I have a sewing machine, and I like to sew, but like Angela from 365 Days to Simplicity says, "Each and every one has the devil in them". They just are irritating sometimes and like to jam or run out of thread or the bobbin runs out or the needle breaks, or WHATEVER. They like to torment you while you are trying to do a QUICK project. Grrrr! So, I welcome any no-sew project these days. Seeing as I have five kids running around here during the day and I don't like to get angry and yell at my sewing machine in front of them.

Ahhem. Yes. No sew all the way.

Here is the kitchen window before we moved in (not ours yet):

Here is the window this morning (scallop will go when we do the cabinets):

Annnnnd here it is NOW:

I am SHOCKED at how nicely they came out. They look professional! They even look nice from the back too. I really can't believe they didn't involve sewing. Our house was full of cheapo mini blinds when we moved in and these two were originally in the first floor bath and laundry room. So those were free. I had the glue and hem tape. AND I have half of the $9 tablecloth fabric left still! So really, they cost me $4.50 for two custom roman shades. Doesn't get much better than that!

Here is the tutorial on how to do it. It may seem like a lot, but they are all simple, short steps. It took me 1.5 hours while watching five children under age 5 for the first one, and 30 minutes for the second one since I knew what I was doing, half the kiddos were sleeping, and I wasn't taking photos.

Sit back, grab something tasty, and follow along!

Here is a shot of everything I used:

Glue (tacky or fabric glue)
Hem Tape
Pen
Scissors
Screwdrivers (for hanging it)
Tape Measure (or ruler)
Butter Knife
Foam Brush










You also need a set of mini blinds and fabric of some sort.

1) Measure your window. I wanted my blinds to be above the molding, not inset into the window frame, since I didn't want to have to cut the blinds I had. I measured the length of the window and added a couple of inches so it would be a bit longer than the window. So 42" long.

2) Open your blinds up all the way:

3) Remove the ladder cord. As you can see here, blinds have a thicker cord to pull it up and down, and then a thinner, "ladder" cord that holds the slats. You want to remove the ladder. The thick cord in the holes you want to keep, so be sure not to cut that one.

What I did is snip it at the top of the blind, then hold it up and snip snip snip above each slat. It takes all of 2 minutes to do both. Once you cut it, pull it out from the bottom. (Don't mind the dirty slats. I wiped them once I was done).

See, I held it tight as I cut it and just snipped the little piece between each slat.

Here is what it looks like now, all wonky because now the slats move freely:

3) Figure out how many slats you need. I wanted my slats to be 6" apart so that my pleats were fairly small. Divide your length, by the inches apart you want them. For me it was 42/6=7. So I need 7, but that includes the top bar and the bottom bar. So really I only need to keep 5 slats.

4) Pry off the round caps on the bottom of the bottom bar. I used a butter knife.

5) Cut or untie the knot and pull it out of the bar. Remove all slats except for the ones you are keeping (so, 5 for mine). Retie the cord into the bar and put the plugs back in. Here is what it looks like now. I just put the slats approx where I wanted them, they are not stuck there or anything.

6) Lay the open blind on your fabric and cut around it. You need enough room on each side for a hem (and room to glue the top and bottom). So add an extra inch or two to each of the four sides.

7) I used the blind to make sure the hems were lined up all the way down, nice and straight, ironing the hem down as I go to make sure the hem is nice and crisp.

8) Now that the hem is ironed down, slip the hem tape into the folded hem and iron according to the package. You want the hem tape to be IN the "pocket" that you ironed. Here it is before I closed it back down:

9) Now that you are all hemmed, lay the blind back on top of the fabric. Lay the top bar down so that the lifting mechanism is face down, touching the fabric.

10) Grab your glue and smear it all over the face of the bar and attach the fabric, overlapping it a bit over the top.

11) Measure out where your slats are going to go. I did mine all 6 inches apart, so I measured and marked with a pen where the top of each slat goes. I measured from the bottom of one slat to the top of the next. I measured and marked on each side of the blind to be sure they line up.

12) Start gluing the slats to the fabric. Glue on the rounded side of the slat and be sure to match up the slats on each side of the fabric. Make sure you don't glue the cord at all, it needs to be able to move.

13) Glue the bottom bar to the fabric, wrapping the fabric around the entire bottom. Sorry I forgot a photo of this step I guess.

14) Let dry. I would like to say I waited overnight for it all to dry, but....I didn't. I waited an hour or so and then hung them up because I was too excited to see the results! They attach to the wall with the original brackets and they go up and down perfectly smooth.

There you have it. My $4.50 set of roman blinds. I really REALLY like them. They are exactly what I was looking for, in a budget I couldn't even have hoped for! After such a successful first attempt, I'll be making ones for our master bath and all the bedrooms in the future. You could also very easily line these if you wanted to. Use the hem tape to attach a liner to the back of the shade, being sure to leave a slit at the top for the cords. I don't need mine to be lined though since I want as much sunlight as possible in my kitchen.

Also, I ran to Target last night, and mini blinds were $3.99! So even if you don't already have some, they are definitely cheap enough that you could buy them brand new and it would still be a very inexpensive project.

Don't be intimidated, it was all VERY simple and pretty easy to put together if you are at all crafty. You know you want to try it. "Pin it" if you love it and "Follow" me for more great ideas to come!

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