Buh-Bye Blinds

Week of June 7 through 13

I hate mini-blinds. I believe them to be the second most awful window covering (I say covering because blinds do not qualify as a treatment) ever employed by home builders. Mini-blinds are inferior in their ability to induce horrible-decor-seizures only to the dreaded vertical blinds. My aversion to blinds is not without cause. Blinds are always filthy. Over time, even the most fastidiously cared for blinds will get bent, and will then forever more resemble troll doll hair. Some blinds are even plastic. They sag. And somehow, cats know that the best way to get their people out of bed on a Saturday morning is to climb ever so noisily through the individual blind slats.

I'm not completely anti-mini-blinds. While visiting Chicago last summer we saw a perfectly innovative use for the offensive window covering, one that didn't send me into a rant about creative-decorating. Two artists had cleverly re-purposed blinds into cute eco-friendly "dresses" along a landscape display walking tour.



Obviously, when we moved into our house and discovered not only bent and dirty mini-blinds but also horrible fabric covered vertical blinds, it didn't take me long to disassemble and pitch the blinds from every room in the house. Save for a select few. I wasn't about to let my aversion to blinds affect my beauty sleep (or that of our guests) so the blinds in the bedrooms stayed until I could find an appropriate alternative.

Through pure serendipity, I happened upon an auction on eBay for an entire bolt of decorator fabric in the colors of our bedroom. Twenty-three whole yards of fabric-y goodness for less than $100. Easy. Deciding on appropriate window treatments proved to be a bit more arduous. I knew that the treatments in the master bedroom and bathroom needed to be the same to tie the two rooms together. The five differently sized and configured windows in those two rooms made that conformity difficult. I finally settled on roman shades for their clean, classic look, and the ease with which we would be able to open and close them for privacy and, most importantly, sweet sweet sleep.

I found a great website that produces custom, made-to-order roman shade patterns and fabricates custom kits with cut-to-length mounting hardware and shade creation goods. Feeling lazy about all the "sewing math" and errand running that would be involved in making the patterns and gathering the supplies myself, I opted to leave the hard work to someone else and focus my energies on the actual sewing and construction of the shades.

And so, for three whole days I ventured from my craft room only for sustenance and sleep. It was awesome. I actually listened to my entire iTunes library twice. I'm sew happy with how the shades turned out. (It had to be said.)

Bathroom Before
(Notice the absence of blinds in the before picture? That's because I threw them away months ago.)

And After

The shades in our bedroom are lined with blackout material. The luxury of a completely darkened room on a Saturday morning is positively heavenly. The cats will have to find a new way to demand our attention. And I'm sure that they will.

Bedroom Before

And After

Of course, the fabric I bought on eBay was more than enough for the shades. I knew when I ordered it that I wanted to make coordinating accessories for our bed to bring the whole room together. We received all of our bedding as wonderfully generous wedding gifts. Knowing that we wanted an understated beach theme for our bedroom, to remind us of our wedding in Hawaii, we registered for taupe, brown and ocean blue linens and towels. I had been waiting to find the perfect striped fabric to bring the colors together when I came across my twenty-three yard bargain. After two years, I had finally found the uniting fabric for our mismatched bedding that I'd been picturing in my mind.

I made a bed skirt.

(What a beautiful quilt!)

And two euro shams.


And even used mother-of-pearl buttons for the sham closures. Because I'm just that dedicated to remembering our beach wedding. (And the buttons on our ready-made duvet are mother-of-pearl, and The Crazy in my head prefers for things to coordinate.)


If I'd had just a bit more moxie after all of this work, I would have turned our old, discarded mini-blinds into a cute dress. But The Husband said it just wouldn't work in our landscape.


Around Our House Next Week: The Husband says "Shelves!" I say, "I'll believe it when I see it!"

That Fresh Paint Smell

Week of May 3 through 9

Before I get to the whole paint thing, I have to apologize for the very poor quality of the pictures this week. I accidentally left the charger for my SLR at The Parent's house leaving me no way to recharge when poor Roxie's battery died. I was forced, against my will, to take pictures with a digital camera from 1998. A camera with such low resolution that my 1GB card will hold 1200 "high quality" pictures. This crisis could have been averted had The Husband been home. We could have used his point and shoot. Unfortunately, he is in the desert, taking 8 megapixel pictures of camels. My pictures look like camels, but that is just because they are fuzzy, grainy, poorly lit and unfocused. They very well could be of The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot doing the conga while UFOs fly overhead, and no one would know the difference.

Since The Husband is on a business trip in Oman, I decided that this week would be the perfect time to paint our bedroom. Mostly because The Husband hates to paint. I, on the other hand, love the smell of paint fumes in the morning. I find painting to be very satisfying. One minute the wall is one color, then shwoop-shwoop-shwoop and it is another. I like the careful preparation of taping and filling holes, and I love the efficient smoosh of the roller. I think The Crazy contributes to my enjoyment. What some would find tedious and dull, I find to be perfectly pleasant and relaxing. I like neat and orderly, and painting is nothing if not precise.

I started by patching three holes in the drywall. One hole was the size of a light switch and was left when we removed the old alarm system keypad. The other two holes were larger, each about the size of a sheet of paper, and were left by the plumber who fixed our bathtub before we moved in. Apparently, one gaping hole in the wall just wasn't enough for him. Instead of repairing the cuts he made, he covered the hole with a pop-in plastic cover. It was remarkably unattractive and an oh-so-lazy solution, much like the plumber himself.


First, I used screws to attach paint stir sticks to the inside of the drywall around the holes. Then, I cut patches of drywall to size, and used the stir sticks as braces to hold the drywall patches in place and to prevent them from falling into the wall cavity. Next, I filled the cracks with drywall plaster. I should have also used drywall tape. Sadly, the plumber's laziness seeped into my consciousness while I was working, and I felt little to no desire to make a trip to the store.

While the plaster dried, I taped the baseboards and crown moulding with painter's tape. Four hours later, when the plaster was finally dry, I sanded the whole area smooth with our random orbit sander. If you do not own an random orbit sander, I recommend that you immediately get in your car, drive to your nearest home improvement center, and purchase the first one that makes you weak in the knees. I have used ours to polish brass. Need I say more?

I chose the paint color to coordinate with the medium taupe tone in our duvet. The color is Sherwin Williams 6080 Utterly Beige. (The fourth color from the top). I debated for a few days between 6080 and the color one shade lighter on the paint chip card. I ultimately decided on Utterly Beige because it seemed a little more cozy, and because the word "utterly" cracks me up.

It certainly is not the most exciting or dramatic paint job in our house. In fact, it is hardly a change in color. We want our bedroom to be calm and relaxing, to contrast with the more energizing colors we have in our bathroom. I think this fresh paint achieves that, and leaves us plenty of leeway for bold accessories.

Before

After

Our bedroom is slowly but surely being transformed into the master retreat we've been wanting. The quilt that The Husband gave me for our anniversary is a beautiful addition to our room. In the next few weeks I will be making draperies to replace our horrible mini-blinds and a few coordinating bedding accents for our room, as well. I also have some artwork that I need to have framed so that our walls aren't so bare. It is a work in progress, but it is coming together, and the new paint brings us one step closer.


Around Our House Next Week: Sew crafty