Laundry Room Curtain

OK,  I am pretty proud of this one.  I made the curtain in the laundry room for about $8.  Most of what I used were materials left over from other stuff.  The window is not big and I didn't need  anything fancy (it IS the laundry room...the place were only I go...no one else touches the laundry around here) but I sure was sick of looking at...nothing.  As much time as I spend in this tiny room, I would at least like for it to be...cute.  Cute? OK, just something other than blank.  So here is the window...

I had burlap leftover from another project (which I will be featuring in another blog post if I ever get it finished...).  I had the curtain rod left over from Lake's bedroom at the old house.  He had only one window in his old room and he has two windows in the new room so no use for one lone curtain rod...it was silver though.  A quick hit of spray paint, the same color as the light fixture in the laundry room, and it was good as new.

Light fixture, as a reminder...

Kinda fuzzy...sorry about that. 

So I spray painted the curtain rod, cut some leftover burlap, sewed a pocket across the top, and tied some ribbon on it.  And here it is!

How cute is that! I spent $8 on the ribbon (Walmart!) and that's it.  I can't wait to show the rest of the room, but I am still working on the cabinetry.  It is painted the red that is in the ribbon, but it has no countertop or sink yet...coming soon.  I also have some fun stuff to hang on the walls. 

Here are some more views of the curtain. 

I left the sides and bottom edges raw...I don't care if they unravel a bit.  It will give it character.

So yay! Another project bites the dust (yes, I was singing Queen as I typed that...). 

Entry Hall Dresser

I have had this old dresser/side table/whatever you want to call it since my mom handed it down to me when I moved out in college.  It was her grandfather's (I think..?) and she didn't want to get rid of it.  In my first apartment, the tv sat on it.  When I had Lake, it became his nightstand and I decoupaged some old Western magazine covers on the doors to match his cowboy themed room.  It was very cute.  Well, when we ditched the cowboy room and decided to redo it and get those magazines off the doors, I was disappointed to find out what a task that was.  Those suckers were stuck.  In the garage it went.  With cowboy doors.  For a long time. 

My father-in-law decided it would be a good project for him and he took it home with him after one of his visits.  A few years later...he sends it back, completely stripped and good as new.  His one request was that I didn't PAINT it, since it had been such a beast to get back to the original wood. 

I bought these really cute rose knobs at Anthropologie months and months ago intending to use them on a chest for the guest room.  That didn't happen and the knobs were still hanging around in a bag waiting on a purpose.

While the color wouldn't go with the entry hall, which is where I had in mind for the dresser, I figured I've spray painted everything else except the cat, so I might as well make these whatever color would work and use them rather than buying others.

I stained the dresser, spray painted the knobs with white but left a little red showing through and then put glaze on top, and brought it in.

And here it is.  In its new spot.  Cozy by the front door.

What do you think of the knobs?

What I have on top of the dresser is not permanent...I threw it on there for now, but I definitely need something lighter to offset the dark wood of the dresser and the floor.  If I come up with something creative, I will post it.   Maybe some white pottery?  I don't know...we'll see what comes to mind in the middle of the night; that's when I my best thinking!

Lilly's Chandelier

  I wanted Lilly to have a chandelier in her room and I was not going to pay full price for one...I knew if I could find an ugly cheap one on craigslist, I could work some magic on it and make it pretty.  I bought this ugly brass chandelier on craigslist for $30.

A little scrubbing and a can of spray paint and a new chandelier emerged...

We have her ceiling scraped and painted, and I hopefully can get her walls painted in the next week so the hardwood can go down. 

Here it is with the lights on:

That's kinda spooky looking,

Not bad for $30 and a can of spray paint.  If I had bought one at Lowe's I would have spent over $100 easily.  And SURELY it wouldn't be as shabby chic, RIGHT?

The Front Door

I painted the front door quite a while ago, but I am just now getting around to posting it.  It was not terrible in its original state, but certainly not my taste.  I hope to find some really cool double doors with huge windows on craigslist at some point, and when I do I will rip this sucker out in a heartbeat.  But for now, it stays.  Here's what it looked like:

Note the really ugly door knob and light fixture. 

Of course, my little model wanted to be in the pictures...

The light fixtures were the first thing we changed.

I painted the door a brick red color.  Then I put antiquing glaze on it and changed the door knob.

  Maybe I can live with it a little longer now...

What do you think?