Kitcheny Windows

Our rental kitchen needed some 'kitcheny' window treatments, so I came up with these. 

The white in the rental house felt a little stark to me at first. We are allowed to paint but most of ceilings in the house are very high so we have only done an accent wall in the playroom and in the girl's room. After living here for almost four months though I am starting to see the white walls as part of a really good challenge. Sometimes paint can seem like decorating and styling but it really isn't. 

The rocking chair and little Ikea table seem to be working there for now so I am leaving them alone even if they are a little odd. It is so nice to have a place for Ava to sit while I am cooking or a place to feed and rock Lilly while Ava has her afternoon snack. 

Sewing details: I ordered two yards of an Amy Butler fabric called 'Lotus Pond Tangerine' from and eBay seller. I even lined the back with some unbleached cotton I had that I pieced together, which made the valances so much nicer. They were so easy - well except that for some reason when I did the top seam I let it get all crazy and then I waited a week or so before ripping the top seams and re-stitching them (ugh). If you want more of a tutorial let me know - but really you can easily sew a rectangle!

We made a bed!

Alright well just a headboard - but a king sized headboard. 

We used this plan for the reclaimed wood look headboard from Ana-White and these dimension mods for a king. We used lots of tips from Create and Delegate who made the same headboard last year. You can click on the photos below to see it larger. The bed plans were inspired by the Mason Headboard from Pottery Barn. All of Ana's plans are super easy and many of them (including the one we used) require wood cuts that you could have done at the hardware store or in our case do at home with something simple like a compound miter saw. 

The Construction Details: The plans were perfect and we had no complaints there. The finish came out a tad bit darker than I had planned but it probably works better with the other furniture. It also looks a bit darker in the photos (especially in the one below) than it is in reality. We purchased the least expensive pine available at Lowe's. The only other materials were screws, finish nails, glue, wood filler, sand paper and two cans of stain. We didn't use pocket hole screws or a jig, instead we used a countersink bit and just filled the holes. Also we added some supports down the back using the scrap wood that aren't part of the plans.  After construction we filled the parts that didn't line up correctly because of the cheap wood we used. Then Ava and I used different tools and hammers to bang it up like crazy. My favorite tool was a textured hammer it made the edges look great. Next we sanded it like crazy with a power sander. Finally we finished it in three coats of stain applied with wide foam brushes. The first two coats were done with 'Minwax Wood Finish' in 'Dark Walnut' after each coat I used a rag to wipe the stain and wiped the most from the center of the boards. The final coat was 'Minwax Polyshades' in 'Antique Walnut Satin' and it was pretty stressful because is dries so fast and can get so gummy and drippy. In the end we found that one person applying it and one person following behind with another foam brush to make sure it was even worked best. If I was doing it again I might have used a Polyshade in 'Early American' to warm up the base 'Dark Walnut' with a little red. 

We haven't hung any art yet but there are some other fun details in this room. 

This table was an antique from my husband's parents that we re-finished before we got married. The knobs are from Anthropologie and I made a slipcover for the little stool below the table last year. 

The tall mirror in between the windows was an amazing find from American Signature Furniture. The edges are antiqued and it is 7ft tall. The curtains are shower curtains I found on clearance at Target same with the bedding. 

We have had all of the other furniture for five years or so. My mercury glass collection is on top of the armoire. 

New Cricut Banner for the Girl's Room - seriously cute!

I have a new love for my Cricut because of the 'Once Upon a Princess' Cartridge (which I purchased for $16 on eBay). It  cuts hundreds of things including dolls, desserts, lots of clothes for the dolls and pop-up castles. I have done several really cute things with it and here is the first to share! This is hanging in the girl's new room which I will post photos of asap because it is really darling and has the sweetest feeling I think. Ava and I had worked on this together (she stuck the pieces on and then I fixed them) so she really thinks it is neat.

 L - R : Cowgirl (Ava's fav), Princess, Girl Cooking

L - R: Mermaid, Fairy, Swimsuit / Birthday / Umbrella Girl (my fav)

Cricut Tips for the 'Once Upon a Princess Cartridge' - Use double sided paper so you can cut multiple expressions without changing paper. Don't get hung up on using all the pieces to each layer just mix and match - for example on the girl's here I only used the mouths that cut once the other's just have left over pieces. My girl's are 5 inches any smaller than that and I don't think that they would have worked. When making the dolls you can put a small piece of any color paper behind their eyes to make them the color you want because there isn't an option for cutting them out otherwise.

For some reason some of my most popular posts revolve around these non-traditional Cricut ideas and you can find more Cricut Ideas at this link.

Which dress-up girl is your fav ?

Gallery Wall Inspiration

First, the snow did cause a delay. Fingers crossed we'll be able to move in on Friday.

So I am using my copious amounts of hotel time to work on plans for perfecting my gallery wall. I blogged about the old space here before we replaced the TV and stand. Since we are renting I have a great opportunity to put time into things like framing our art collections and photos in a really great way. I hope to be blogging a lot this year about the projects I have planned for the rental house, which will all be things we can take with us. Here are some great photos of gallery walls I am using for inspiration.

(via pottery barn)

(via http://stylecourt.blogspot.com/ - this is what my dream house living room feels like)

Via http://thecreativemama.com

When I saved these from Google images it was for personal use and I didn't save all of the links - so if I have used your image please let me know and I will credit it properly!