Made it on Monday: August 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

Vintage Modern Crib Bumper

I quickly found the dust ruffle and sheets for Reese’s nursery, but the perfectly suited bumper just didn’t seem to be out there. (Side note about DIY vs. store bought for me: I think it’s great to make custom items for just about anything as long as they either save me money, time, or there just isn’t anything available in stores that suits what I want. In the case of the dust ruffle, I found the perfect ruffle in store, so it saved time. In the case of the sheets, the store bought ones were cheaper than what it would have cost to make them. So store bought was a win!)

I knew that my favorite fabrics in the Vintage Modern Line by Moda (I buy mine at Poppy Seed Fabrics) would make the perfect bumper. (The blanket hanging from the crib was crocheted for Reese by Nolan’s mom. I love the way it turned out!)

I ordered 1.5 yards each of Floral Vintage Cream and Floral Wish Melon, as well as some white piping from Joann’s and made a slip cover for the bumper I used in Jace’s nursery.

Ribbons were sewn on at the same spacing as the ties on the original bumper. I love how cute the bows look!

As with other projects where I’ve using piping, I think it’s my favorite element. Although I do LOVE the way these fabrics look—by themselves and with all the bedding. My mom bought me the sheets and dust ruffle as a gift of love, and I did the work as a labor of love. Hopefully Reese will sleep peacefully here.

I love the way the fabric brings all the elements of the room together! Next up I’ll be showing you some of the finishing touches and decorative details in the room, and then the final reveal!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

Hoo’s Got Talent, The Sunday Scoop, The Sunday Showcase Party, Made By You Monday, Making the World Cuter Monday, Weekend Wrap Up, Just Something I Whipped Up, Get Your Craft On, Real Momma, Real Style, Tutorials and Tips Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, I’m Crafty Party, Take a Look Tuesday, Simply Link Party, Whatever Goes Wednesday

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Dresser Makeover: A Coral Beauty

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love the way this project turned out. It may be my favorite element in Reese’s nursery. (But then I turn around and start thinking something else in the room is my favorite.) Hanging above the dresser are my Birdhouses and three of the Little Birdies hanging from clear thread.

I found this dresser at the ReStore about a year ago for $5, as is. The top drawers were broken and the bottom trim was pulled off, but all the pieces were there. I just couldn’t resist such a deal, figuring we could turn it into an entertainment center (like THIS ONE by Sausha from Sweet Pickins Furniture) and sell it. Well, it sat in our garage for about a year, and then I got pregnant. Suddenly it was perfect as the dresser/changing table for Reese’s nursery.

Despite all the pieces being there (or so I thought), it was in pretty bad shape. One of the top drawers was broken beyond repair, and one or two of the bottom drawers had broken tracks on them. Nolan got to work repairing the bottom drawers by ripping the still in tact tracks off the top drawers and reinforcing all the sides of the drawers with Gorilla Glue.

I wanted to use baseboard trim around the base for a chunky look instead of putting the original and dated trim back on. We picked up some 5” baseboard trim (exactly the size of the gap at the bottom that needed to be covered) and some decorative trim to go around the top cubbies.

We glued and nailed the baseboard around the base (and filled in any gaps with wood filler). Then Nolan used very thin (I think 1/8”) board to box out three sides each of the two top drawers. He found it to be a difficult process because while he was making straight cuts, the openings weren’t square. So we used a lot more wood filler.

We also filled in some holes where I’m guessing there were some decorative elements originally. He then glued the beaded decorative trim around the openings.

After a light sanding, my mom gave the whole thing a light coating with Kilz Spray Primer, followed by two coats of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic paint in Charisma. The lady at Sherwin Williams was very helpful and suggested this paint because it drys like normal paint, and then after about two weeks it cures into a very hard, almost laminate strength finish. You don’t need to use any sort of poly or top coat and the semi gloss is easy to clean up. She also recommended using a high quality brush to paint with. My mom started out using a roller, figuring it would be just as easy to start with. But this paint works a little differently and doesn’t move like normal paint. She switched to a Purdy brush and was much happier with how easy it was to paint with. The finish is beautiful! Just know that it’s a heavier paint, so you need to be careful not to overwork the paint as it starts to dry, and we did have a few drips because of some thicker spots moving as it dried. And no, Sherwin Williams did not compensate me for this. I just like the paint that much.

I love the way the trim turned out! It looks like it’s always been there. Nolan is very proud of how well the corners turned out, especially after having to use so much wood filler.

The pulls are Martha Stewart from Home Depot. I knew finding shallow enough baskets for the top cubbies would be pretty difficult, so I looked for kitchen trays instead. I originally hoped to find wooden ones at a craft store and then paint them the same green as the frame above the dresser, but I couldn’t find any large/deep enough. I finally found these plastic ones at Target and they were perfect. Some white scalloped vinyl trim softened them up enough so the pink/red wouldn’t look too valentine-ey together.

Love that beaded trim!

Painting the inside of the cubbies was going to be hard, as well as getting the wood filler sanded smoothly enough so it wasn’t ugly, so my mom and I thought it would be best to line the cubbies. I couldn’t find any shelf liner that I liked enough, so instead I bought this vintage-style fabric at Walmart and Mod Podged it on. I think it’s so sweet!

The dresser perfectly holds the changing pad and a basket for diapering supplies. The changing pad cover was bought for Jace’s nursery, and I love that it works in Reese’s too!

And one last look at its loveliness.

I was thinking this would be my last detailed project post before doing the final nursery reveal, but then I realized I have two more projects to share with you. I want the reveal post to be simple without all the project descriptions (just links to them), so I’ll be sharing it with you soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

Transformation Thursday, The Sunday Scoop, The Sunday Showcase Party, Made By You Monday, Making the World Cuter Monday, Weekend Wrap Up, Just Something I Whipped Up, Get Your Craft On, Real Momma, Real Style, Tutorials and Tips Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, I’m Crafty Party, Take a Look Tuesday, Simply Link Party, Whatever Goes Wednesday

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

DIY Roman Shade & Valance

**Believe it or not, I’m actually just about done showing you projects for the nursery! I’ll have the final reveal soon.**

For such a simple project, getting this one to picture-ready sure seemed to take a long time! One of my biggest frustrations with how I put together Jace’s nursery was the window coverings. I love the way it looks, but just don’t like the way it functions. We bought faux wood blinds and then I did decorative but not functional curtains. For as pretty as the blinds are, they do a very poor job of blocking out the light, so my son’s westward facing room gets bright nice and early, waking my boy up earlier than this momma likes. So we now have a fleece blanket hung over his window to keep things dark. When figuring out what I wanted for Reese’s nursery, black out material was a must.

I had seen and pinned Heather from Objective: Home’s tutorial for turning your basic mini blinds into a roman shade quite a while ago.

My window started very plane—cheapie aluminum mini blinds with nothing else decorative around them.

I used home décor fabric from Joann’s (the same as for recovering my glider) and backed it with blackout material (also from Joann’s). The blackout material is very effective in keeping out the light, so I love it! The only issue I had with mine is that I think the combination of heavy fabric and heavy blackout material and a wider blind (I had to cut the center ladder string that provided support to the aluminum blinds) meant that mine doesn’t pull up and lay as nicely as Heather’s. In fact, originally there was really bad sagging in the middle. I fixed that by sliding dowels in along with the blinds the fabric was glued to. But with some fiddling, I can get it to lay nicely enough.

The shade is edged in green fabric, and then I love the way my valance turned out. This way, all the colors from the room are brought in. The valance is also from home décor fabric, and then I added a strip at the hem of a light blue cotton. Then sewed down a red tassel and topped it with turquoise ribbon. I’m very happy with the final look, but even happier that the light will be kept out!

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Ribbon Flowers Art

As I was planning out what to do on the walls in Reese’s nursery I found myself playing around with lots of ideas that involved buttons. I love all the button monograms and flowers I’ve seen. But I wasn’t sure that I wanted to deal with that many buttons. So instead I went the minimalistic button route and involved ribbon. And I love how this project turned out! These flowers were so simple to make but make a great statement!

Ah. Just love looking at this!

I started with three drawer faces I had bought several months ago at the ReStore. They were having a sale where all cupboard/drawer faces were half off, so I got these for $1 each. I gave them a rough sanding and then several coats of red paint and then a couple coats of spray varnish/sealer.

Then cut stem, petal and leaf lengths out of grosgrain ribbon. The length you need for the petals and leaves just depend on how big you want your loops to be. I then glued each of the leaves and petals into individual loops.

The leaves were hot glued down first, followed by the stems, then then petals and finally the buttons.

I love how they have texture and aren’t just a flat piece of art.

Above them I hung a frame that I painted to match the green in the room and put scrapbook paper and letters in place of pictures in the openings. The letters are mounted on their backings with glue dots that set them off the paper a bit.

Grouped with my button-embellished letter, the wall makes a bold statement and brings all of the colors from the room together. I love it!

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Button Embellished Letter Art

Reese’s nursery is coming together! Last night we got almost everything hung up and then I just sat in there for an hour looking at it. One of my latest projects has been decorating a large “R” to hang in a collection on the wall. I saw and fell in love with the letters in THIS POST and wanted to just give it the look of being button dipped rather than button covered.

I picked up a 23.5” paper mache letter from Joann’s (it was my third Joann’s to visit that day!) and gave it two coats of white paint followed by a good spray with Mod Podge’s Pearlized Sealer. The sealer gives it a pretty iridescent sheen that I love.

I used a variety of buttons that worked with the colors in my room—blue, turquoise, pink, red and green and hot glued them down until I liked the coverage. There are some gaps between buttons and none of them are stacked. I really wasn’t worried about not being able to see the white through the buttons.

I then added some cute little flower embellishments in the bigger gaps.

Then I added a few buttons to the top left corner as well as made some ruffled flowers out of fabric from my pillow shams and ribbon.

Here’s a close up of the buttons. I love how bright and colorful they are!

The R is hanging with some fun flower art and a frame of Reese’s name (I’ll be sharing those with you soon!) and I love how much all of the colors stand out against the light blue wall, as well as how nice they all look together.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How to Dress Up a Basic Pillowcase

Last week I showed you the coordinated throw pillows I made for Reese’s Nursery. I also mentioned that the daybed seemed to be really lacking in something, but I couldn’t find the right shams to make things work. I picked up some euro pillows from Target and made covers out of matching light turquoise fabric and added a pop of color with red buttons. But Target’s euros are smaller than your standard size, and I needed a little something extra on either side of them. Enter a pack of pillowcases from Walmart costing a little over $5 for two…

I have seen some cute homemade pillowcases that included the ends being tied closed with ribbons. So I used that inspiration and gave my cheapie cases a sweet little handmade touch.

All it took was sewing two button holes on one side of the opening and two pieces of ribbon on the other.

Then strung the ribbons through the holes.

Pulled the two sides of the opening together.

And tied a pretty bow. I love how it dressed up the cases so they don’t look blah next to all my fun pillows, but didn’t require me to spend the money on enough fabric or take on a large sewing project.

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Monday, August 20, 2012

Little Birdies

Last week I had a sewing project scheduled for each day in order to finish up the decorations for Reese’s Nursery. One of my favorite projects was this collection of little birds.

They make me smile every time I look at them. I’m planning on hanging a few of them in front of the birdhouses and they can act as a mobile over her changing table. The rest will be in different spots around the room.

I used scraps of Moda’s Vintage Modern line and then added ribbon loops for the wings. These little birds are just four inches wide and so simple to make! I used THIS tutorial and pattern from Lavender’s Blue.

It’s quite possible I’ll keep coming back and looking at these pictures (even though the real things are sitting across the room) because I like them so much.

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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Coordinated Throw Pillows

The next item to check off my sewing list for the week was decorative throw pillows to go on the daybed in Reese’s nursery.

It’s fun to see an idea go from my mind to a bunch of little images (like above) and finally end up with a complete product. It’s even more fun when it turns out like I hoped it would!

Early on in this nursery planning process I fell in love with Moda’s Vintage Modern line. I ordered several pieces in half yard and fat quarter increments from Poppy Seed Fabrics. The pillow forms were all free because I reused decorative pillows from the daybed before.

I had fun looking around on Pinterest finding inspiration for pillows to make and love what I ended up with.

I think I need to make one more pillow, and then plan on dying the shams of the pillows behind to match the quilt. I just couldn’t justify paying $18/sham back when I bought the quilt, and now I can’t find anything that matches. So yay for cheap shams at Walmart and fabric dye!