From Bed to Window

This weekend my mom helped me make curtains from an Ikea duvet set for my dining room. I can't find the name of the set online. It was queen size and I got it on sale for $19.99. The set included one duvet and two pillowcases. My job was to iron while my mom did the more complex measuring, cutting, and sewing.  

We used the pillowcases to give the duvet a little more length since I like my curtains to reach the floor. My mom had an old sheet that we used to line the backs of the pillowcases to better match the rest of the duvet (it had a front and a back due to the nature of it being a duvet - you have to have somewhere to put the comforter!).

Here's my mom's sewing setup. Fancy!

This is what the finished product looked like. We ended up putting the pillowcase fabric horizontal against the vertical pattern of the main duvet fabric. I was really happy to find this fabric (even though it was in duvet format originally). I couldn't find any affordable fabric or pre-made curtains that I wanted in the dining room (which is connected to the kitchen). But when I saw this set, I knew it was perfect.

My job, once I got the curtains home, was to figure out how to put the curtain rod in the wall. Easier said than done! I found these Pop-Toggle screws at Home Depot that did the trick:

I drilled three holds (for the three curtain rod brackets), pushed the toggles into the holes, and then screwed in the screws by hand with a screwdriver. Not bad. I don't think I'll have to struggle anymore with putting anything into my plaster & lathe walls. That's good news.

As you can see, with the finials, it was a bit of a tight squeeze. 

And the finished results! I ended up putting the horizontal "pillowcase" part at the bottom. It looks better that way, I promise.

I also used clip rings from Lowe's instead of a rod pocket. I like the look. The clip rings were $5.97 per pack with seven rings/pack. I had to buy two.

Style Selections 7-Pack Metal Clip Rings 

It's such a relief to be done with this project. Thanks to my mom for all her help!

Indoor Furniture

I promised a long, long time ago (last month) to post my dining room update. Here it is at last!

I had been using outdoor furniture to sit on in the dining room. I didn't get a picture of the benches at the new dining room table, but they were some wooden benches that my boyfriend made earlier this year when he was still in grad school. This is what they looked like:

So, yea, not exactly suitable for indoor use. Or at least not for my taste. I looked around for chairs, and I found plenty of affordable options at Ikea. Here's the Ingolf chair at $59.99 each:

I found a lot of chairs that were very modern, some with metal legs, like the Scoop-back chairs from West Elm:

But I knew they wouldn't really work with the old farm dining table that we bought at a vintage store. And my unprofessional observation is that modern is very in-style right now. So it was difficult to find what I was looking for. (But it didn't help that I didn't know what I was looking for, either.) Suddenly, I had an epiphany. I could buy cheap Ikea chairs, but then I would have to gussy them up with cushions which could potentially be a total pain so that the chairs themselves wouldn't be totally uncomfortable. Where would I find the cushions? How would I pick the fabric? So I started looking at upholstered chairs. Not the best choice for a dining room where food is often spilled, granted, but very, very comfortable. THen I realized that cushy chairs are expensive. Like these Grid-tufted dining chairs at $199 each from West Elm:

So I basically gave up all hope and enjoyed my lovely handmade wooden benches. However, this story does have a happy ending! While my dad was in town last month, we decided to look for chairs. We ended up going to World Market, whose chairs I had looked at before, and found that they had the perfect cushy upholstered chairs on sale! The only catch was that one store had one on display that was broken and dirty, another store had only one, and a third store had three. So we figured it out and ended up going to three stores. My dad was a wonderfully good sport throughout the entire process. As far as I can tell, they discontinued the chairs and that's why they were such a good deal. World Market currently has other sort-of similar styles in stock (Anna Slipcover collection at $99/chair + $30/slipcover = $129/each and the Sand Tufted Chair at $130/each). So, without further ado, here is the new dining room:

And yes, one chair is missing from this picture (although I do have four, and they fit just fine, thank you). And yes, again, it is a bit of a squeeze for these chairs in this space. But I couldn't be happier. They are so comfy, and the white of the chairs goes well with the white painted legs of the table. (Notice the lovely light fixture! And the walls still haven't been painted. I'm having a bit of a chicken or the egg problem with the backsplash tile colors in the kitchen versus the wall colors. In short, I want to retile the kitchen backsplash, but I don't know which color to choose.)

Here's the dining room table from the 'window' opening in the living room:

And, I couldn't resist, here is the table actually being used while I studied for my midterms:

That thing sticking out of the floor is where one of the previous owners removed a radiator. Good thing too. Or else I would definitely not be able to use my awesome dining room chairs. Soooo now the dining room is fully functional. Awesome!

More Anthropologie Love and Midterms

I have been super busy because my dad is visiting, I have a difficult statistics midterm on Monday (I'm in my first semester of an MBA program), and of course work work work. But I hate to not keep my blog updated with my condo progress, so I thought I would post a super quick update!

Anthropologie has tons of housewares in addition to their beautiful clothing (for women). They also happen to carry a great selection of hardware in their stores and online. I knew I would want to use their selection of knobs for something. I decided against trying to use them in the kitchen because I think their pretty-but-very-detailed knobs would look too kitschy and busy on kitchen cabinets. But I did think that one knob from Anthrpologie would be a great replacement for this closet/laundry room door knob that came with the condo:

I considered painting it, I mean spraypainting it, a pretty color or even trying to hand paint it a pretty design. But it was just too big and ugly. Sorry, knob! So I tried out a few from Anthropologie, planning on returning the ones I wouldn't use:

This is the Finishing Touch knob in dark gray. It popped a bit too much against the white of the closet door.

This knob is the Sussex Rose in ivory. It blended in too much against the white of the closet door.

And this beauty is the Edwardian in aqua. And it was jusssssssssssst right (like Goldilocks!). At $10 it was not exactly a bargain (ok, definitely not even close), but I like it and it looks great.

Ta-da! (And I do realize that the closet door needs some freshening up. Paint or cleaning or something. And that picture is old, our hallway is now purple. Haha. Saying that never gets old.)

By the way, a little trick about Anthropologie: if you want to see all of the knobs they have in stock, you can't just go to their knobs section. If you want to see the knobs that are on sale, you'll have to go to their sale section to see that selection! Their knobs run from about $8-$12 each full price, but they sell for as little as $3 on sale. And I did return the knobs I didn't use with no problem. Anthropologie has great customer service.

Speaking of Anthropologie, I went in this week with my dad and left with these beauties:

The Ihrin Shirtdress in green by Lili's Closet. I've never purchased a dress by that line before, and I like the quality (good buttons, good side zipper, excellent seam work, etc), however the one downfall that is so common in dresses these days is that there is no lining. The material is very substantial and it doesn't technically require a lining, but linings add a sense of luxury that must far outweigh the cost of a cheap layer of lining fabric, in my opinion. It also needs some sort of gathering in the chest because it was made for a woman built a bit differently than me (Ha Ha Ha) but I solved that by pairing it with a wide belt. (And I even wore it last night to test it out and it worked well.) I also love the sleeve length on this dress. I really do not care to show my arms and as a result I do not care for sleeveless dresses and cap sleeve dresses. I just feel much more comfortable with my arms covered, for some reason.

Yes, yes, those are bugs on that shirt. This is the printed boy tee with bug print by Pilcro. I own one other shirt by Pilcro and I like the quality fine, but their designs are really what win me over. However, their shirts are full price at $40 and I would never pay that much, but that's just me. I always buy them on sale.

In other news, there will be a HUGE dining room update coming soon. And it's not paint. And it may have to do with furniture. Hellllo!!!!! I can't wait to share that with you.

$25 Dining Room Light Upgrade

Take a peek at my dining room (ceiling):

Hooray for 1980s light fixtures! (Full disclosure: I have no idea if this light fixture is from the 1980s. A Google search for '1980s ceiling light' yielded a lot of neon.) Anyway, I'm only kidding. I hate this light fixture (sorry, light fixture).

Of course, being the girl with expensive tastes that I am, I trolled the internet for (inappropriately priced) inspiration.  Here is a little Jonathan Adler number for a measly $600:

Robert Abbey Jonathan Adler Meurice Pendant in Polished Nickel

And a much more affordable Laura Ashley piece ringing in at $200:

Laura Ashley Cooper Pendant Kit

Although that guy is referred to as a 'pendant' so who the heck knows what size it is.

Soooo, to give my poor credit card a break (and to lower my chances of being electrocuted) with a quick and cheap and not-so-dirty fix, I purchased this Barrel lamp shade in Cream (size large) for $25 at Target.

I've admired it ever since I helped my boyfriend's mom pick it out along with this surveyor light base (currently sold out online) for her condo:

Well, in the interest of not leaving out any juicy detail, first I bought a lamp shade similar to this one (but without the squiggly embroidery) from Target on clearance for $10.39. However, it was a few inches too small and wouldn't fit over what was left of the light fixture after I removed the original large flat chrome and white (chrome on the top, white on the bottom) metal 'lamp shade.' About $15 later and I arrived at the correct size.

My first step in this process was to remove the original metal lamp shade, which just involved a few turns of some bolts with my hand and a bit of help from a wrench. This is what was leftover:

After that, my next step was to simply attach the new lamp shade with picture hanging wire (mine was silver and it is simply very easily bended/thin wire in a large coil that you unravel).

I wrapped the wire around the metal frame inside of the lamp shade (check out a lamp shade to see what I'm talking about) and then looped the same wire through the holes leftover from where I removed the bolts on the old metal lamp shade. Then I adjusted and readjusted about 500 times. Stand on the table. Adjust. Climb off the table. Look. Turn the light on and off. Look again. Repeat.

So here's the big reveal! Again, 1980s:

And, TA-DA! 2011!

A brand new light that completely changes the look of the dining area for $25 and about 1/2 hour of effort (not including buying the wrong size lamp shade at first!). My take-away from this project is that transformations do not have to be expensive or a struggle. Sometimes you can totally work with what ya got! When I first did a walk through of the condo, I immediately thought, "Oh man, gotta replace it." So, give your Stuff a second look and you might find that there's hope for it yet.

Next time on 650 square feet, I will be discussing the circle of hell that is devoted to choosing paint colors.