New Shades for the French Country Bedroom

It has been quite some time since I mentioned that I was going to remake and reuse some draperies in the French Country Bedroom, see the earlier post.  Well I am finally making that happen.  The repainting is all done.  There is no excuse now.

 

Really love the white window trim but we need
some draperies.

I had black and white toile draperies that had been in my bathroom.  I had purchased them at Target and still loved them.  They were perfect to reuse in the French Country Bedroom.  However, the draperies indicated dry clean only but, guess what....



Washing them in the washer on gentle, cold water, with Woolite worked just fine. 


         
I didn't put them in the dryer, just laid them flat to make sure they didn't shrink.  Then
I cut the two panels in half, making four panels with valances to fill the center.

      This just entailed cutting and hemming.

Loved them but it left a lot of wide open views for any guest who might be undressing at bedtime!

 
The draperies were on the "skimpy" side, since this was a make-do, make-over project, so I knew I had to fill in with additional curtains or something.  I had somewhat of a plan that I wanted to make shades out of black and white pillow ticking.  Years ago, I had purchased some of the ticking at Wal-Mart to cover the seat of this little stool. 

I had quite a time finding more of this ticking fabric.

I finally found the fabric like this online.  My plan on how to make the shades wasn't really concrete.  I had ordered yardage based on the size of my windows but I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing.  I bet nobody else does that!!

Here are my ponderings...

I had the pillow ticking fabric, curtain tiebacks that came with the toile draperies and available curtain rods.

 I sewed a pocket on both top and bottom and hemmed the sides.

The ticking fabric was 54" wide.  The small window was 47 1/2" wide, so I made that shade first.  I cut some of the fabric off to save for the big window which measures 65" wide.  Did I mention that I always pray when I make things without a concrete plan?  I definitely appreciate a little divine intervention!

I used the simple (cheap) valance curtain rod on the top and put the black metal rod on the bottom.  Having the round rod on the bottom of the shade allows me to roll it up .  Then I just had to figure out how to hold it in place after rolling it up!!!!

 I tried to reuse the curtain tiebacks but,
which way do I attach them and how?

The shades will probably be up most of the time and only lowered when we have company that would like some privacy or don't want to awaken at first light.  I decided reusing the tiebacks just wasn't going to work.  I made new tie-ups, flat ribbons of fabric, finished 3 inches wide.  I sewed Velcro strips on them to hold the shades at the desired height.  I also added a decorative black button.

This was Plan B.

The ribbon tie-ups, (or whatever you want to call them) are not fastened on so they can be moved or easily adjusted.

The big window.

The small window with the shade rolled up.

The small window with the shade down.

I even had enough fabric left-over to make a new pillowcase.

The French Country Bedroom is now ready for guests.  They can undress in privacy or sleep late if that is their desire.  But, they must remember.......

Glad this project is completed and I'm moving on to the next!
Kandy

Displaying Found Junk On A Patio Wall

You may remember in an earlier post the damage that was done to the roof of our garden shed when Dwight and I took down part of an aspen tree......well the weather has now improved so we decided to repair the damage that we caused.  We replaced a board and the roof shingles.  Fixing all of that meant that we needed to get to the inside walls of the shed, locating nails.  Needless to say, we found it necessary to empty the shed to get to those walls.

As we sorted through 30 years of stuff, I found some "junk" I had forgotten that I had.
It is all "family stuff" that I had hauled back from Oklahoma, knowing some day I would find a place for it.  Here is the saved stuff we uncovered in the shed.....


These are old cistern cups, used to bring water up out of a cistern or well. These were my Grandpa Ray's and had been used on the farm in Okla.

 

A rusty old saw blade and a gear.

                                     

These are a pair of rusty old hames, part of a harness which would have been used with horse drawn farm implements. These were Grandpa's too.

           

This is an old drawer front I found who knows where....... You can not see it but it has the letter "F" stamped on the front.
It will be great to hang BBQ stuff off of the handles, or not!!!

I hung all of this assorted "found junk" on the wall outside on the deck.  I already had the grapevine wreath hanging there, so I just incorporated it all for a unique display.

I bet I can truly say that no one else has a wall quite like ours!

           
I would love to add a pillow to the chair, but the squirrels have been known to destroy things on our deck.  I also need to re-stain the deck later when it gets a little warmer, but decorating this wall inspired me to look forward to spending time out here this summer. 

I want to try planting in the cistern cups, too......I think they would be great for succulent plants, like hens and chicks.  I have one more set of these that I'm saving for Karli.....she might want to do the same thing.  If nothing else, they are great conversation pieces!  Did you know what they were?

Happy Deck Time, Kandy

Exterior Trim Replacement and Paint Colors

While preparing to paint the exterior of our house, in addition to removing trees, we determined that most of the cedar trim was in total disrepair. Completely rotted and disintegrating. Awesome.

So we got a few estimates and the work to replace all the trim (including the four column posts on the front porch) begins tomorrow. I'm so excited. Almost as excited as I am for the day the painting will start.

We continue to apologize to neighbors as we see them. One was nice enough to say, "I like the new chairs you have on the front porch. Are you going to replace the shutters?" This makes me laugh a little bit. Thankfully it is almost over.

We decided on SW Pewter Tankard as the field color, SW Extra White as our trim color and we're purchasing black vinyl shutters from Home Depot (so we don't have to paint those). And the front door will likely be SW LeapFrog. You can see the original color dilemma post here.

We had a limey green front door at our old house (until the silly HOA decided they didn't like the color). I can't WAIT to have one again! Source



Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard

And just to add to the fun, we're getting a new sidewalk on Saturday. I'll be sure to take before and after pictures.

Ahh, once that paint is done, I'll be so close to completing one of my New Year's Style Resolutions.

~Karli