Drab to Fab: Recovering a Lampshade with Fabric

Hello everyone! :) I should be doing edits to my thesis right now, but instead I've spent a lazy Sunday afternoon editing vacation photos on Picnik. J and I spent a lovely week at Masanutten resort in Virginia, and we just got back yesterday. Although we had an amazing week, we are glad to be back with the pups! 

Before I move onto the point of this post, check out this gorgeous view atop Bearfence Mountain:

Bearfence Mountain - Shenandoah National Park, VA

Breathtaking, isn't it? Okay, moving on...
Today I'm going to show you another lampshade makeover. (Perhaps you have seen my first lampshade recovering project here.) 

Here is the before:

It's just a plain white lampshade that I got from Target for, I think, $12-14. This lampbase has worn a lot of different shades in its day. If my memory serves me, I have switched out the lampshade with various ones around the house about 5 times in the last 2 years. Nothing was working, so that's why I decided to buy this one.

I have a recovering-a-lampshade-with-fabric tutorial here, in case you are interested. 

Here is the after!

I used home decor fabric from Joann's. I bought it over a year ago, so I don't recall the price. It only took maybe 1/4 yards of fabric. Not bad at all!

What do you think of the before and after?

I like it a lot more! I'm not 100% thrilled with the edges, however. I wasn't as careful as I was the first time I recovered a lampshade. Oh well...I still like it! I'm just happy that it adds a pop of color in the corner of the room where the walls are renter's white.  :)

Have you recovered a lampshade before? Any other lamp projects? 

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider liking 31 diy on Facebook.

Brass to Oil Rubbed Bronze Lamp

Hope everyone is having a good summer! Everything has been good here, but busy as usual. Today, I just have a quick before and after to show. When J and I got married and moved in together, he brought with him this brass lamp (picture on left). I must admit that I am to blame for this red lampshade (ick!). This lamp was part of my living and dining room decor for longer than I'd care to mention - I recently changed it, however, as the whole look was too traditional for my taste.

One quarter can of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint ($6/can), a lampshade I already owned, and 10 minutes later, and we have a whole new lamp!!! Check out the before and after below:

Has anyone else used ORB spray paint on a lamp base? What about any other projects? If so, please share - I'd love to see it! 

Did you like this post? If so, please consider joining me on Facebook.

Paper Wall Flowers

Have you seen the cool looking wall flowers that Young House Love put in their guest room? I loved them from the second I saw them, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to drop some dough for them.

Enter the d.i.y. solution:  Billie Monster, an amazing artist and designer, created this great template for paper wall flowers to add some dimension to the walls, and the best part is it is super inexpensive! No buying the flowers from some company - you can do it yourself! Billie Monster also has tons of other great stuff on her blog, so go check it out. You will not be disappointed. 

Using her template, I came up with this. It took less than 45 minutes from start to finish. I like a quick project. :)

Pretty, right? It's a great solution for dressing up a blank wall. For the double-sided scrapbook paper, I decided to go with Martha Stewart's 12x12 heirloom paper pad (LOVE!). I like that it is subtle and sort of blends in with the wall color, but also adds visual interest.

Billie Monster has great instructions for making these as well as the template she created. I used double-sided tape to attach mine to the wall. It's nice in case you want to move them around as you hang them.

I also have a tip about making the cutting process easier. I was trying to think of how to cut several flowers at once, and I wanted to do the equivalent of pinning layers of fabric together. Stack 3 pieces of scrapbook paper together, clip the binders to the sides to secure the paper together, trace the templates onto the paper, and then cut out the flowers. Boom! You have 3x the flowers. haha!

Thanks for looking! 

This is totally unrelated, but here is a pic of my fur children (just had to get it in because it has been a while since I've shared their sweet faces with you.) 

Yes, they were sitting on the hubs as he was lying on the couch (hehe). You would think they believe they own us, not the other way around. 

They'd be right.  ;)

Linking to...
Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrapup; Saturday Spotlight @ Craft Envy; Scrappy Saturdays @ Scrappy Gifts; Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors; Saturday is Crafty Day @ Along for the Ride; Scrapbook Sundays @ Born Again Crafter

Guest Bedroom: Before & After

I am finally getting around to posting my new and improved guest bedroom. It is by no means finished since I'm always wanting to change things, but it is much better than the ugly, mismatched look we had going on before.

It's actually an inviting and serene place now, where I can get stuff done (it's also our work space). In addition, I am no longer embarrassed to have guests stay in there. And we do get quite a few guests because J and I live in NC but we are from OK, so family and friends come to visit us, which we really appreciate!

Are you ready for it? Here are some BEFORE pictures:

Do you see the sweet little dog sleeping on her blanket? Love her

Now for some AFTER pictures. Sorry they are so dark! (It's weird how natural light makes a room look darker in pictures than it really is.)

Here are all the things I did to the guest bedroom:

1. Painted the room

2. Made a paper lampshade

3. Painted green desk white

4. Covered the file cabinet with woodgrain contact paper

5. Covered the lampshade on my desk with pretty fabric

6. Made a cork lamp base, but have since replaced it

7. Created a starburst mirror for $2

8. Sewed a pillow

9. Made-over a torch floor lamp

10. Spray painted and reupholstered the desk chair

11. Made no-sew curtains for $10

12. Made a wall decal out of contact paper

13. Sewed a dog bed for the girls

14. Changed the furniture pulls with spray paint

15. Made a fabric tissue box cover

16. Spray painted some dollar store birds

17. Made some easy & inexpensive wall art

What do you think? :) Thanks for looking!

Linking to Just A Girl's Show & Share Day, Funky Junk Interiors, & Remodelaholic.

How nice! Someone featured me!

I don't want to sound boastful or anything, but I just wanted to share that Jessica B. over at Sugar in My Grits featured my blog last week. I am so appreciative that she would take the time to - not only look through my projects - but to have nice things to say about my tutorials in a post. That means so much to me and totally made my day when I found out. 

I also want to mention that you should check out her blog because she has a lot of good stuff! Jessica B. is a military spouse and a mother to both human and canine children. I can definitely relate to her with regard to the furry little ones, but the non-furry ones? Not so much. hehe 

Anyway, I am so appreciative to Jessica B. Thank you!

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On an unrelated note, I picked up some cool-looking knobs at Pier1 for my wood TV stand. This project is not a DIY project at all, though I wish it was. I'm just showing it here because of my post yesterday about spray painting furniture pulls, and it's interesting how much of a difference this one small change can make.

I decided not to use spray paint in this case because I wasn't sure what color would work for my living room (it's full of rich, warm colors). I didn't really want to spray paint it a metallic gold color, any of the pale colors wouldn't work, and the brighter colors can look cheap, so my lil' DIY hands were tied. At least that's what I'm going with...

Before with an outdated pull

After with Pier1 knobs

I'm kind of liking the knobs! They were $4 a piece...not too bad, right?

Obviously, I still need to do something about the beaten up piece of furniture. Does anyone have any suggestions? Paint? If so, what color? Stain? Would I have to strip it first? Your advise is greatly appreciated.

Pretty Placemat Pillow

So, I haven't posted anything in a while, but thanks you guys for sticking with me! I am so pleased to see I have 82 followers!! What the what?! And many of you leave me lovely comments too. It brings so much joy to my little heart. <3

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean that I have not been gettin' busy with some projects, though I must admit I've slowed down. This project I'm going to share with you today is probably not even worth posting, but I am still kind of proud of it because I sewed something. That's right. I sewed something with a sewing machine! If you all are familiar with any of my projects from the past,  then you might have noticed that I tend to use stitch witchery or other iron-on tapes. Well, NO MORE because my amazing parents gave me a big girl sewing machine as a gift. It's the real deal, folks. I should have taken a pic just to prove it. But I digress...  

The project I am sharing today is a placemat pillow I sewed for the sofa. I have seen lots of these lovely pillows around blogland, so I had to try one myself. Here it is:

All you need is...

• 2 pretty placemats -- I bought mine from Target for $3 each.
• Stuffing -- I got this ingenious idea from This Thrifty House. You buy an inexpensive pillow (like mine was $2 from Walmart), and then you cut it open and use the stuffing. This is usually cheaper than buying stuffing on its own.
• Sewing supplies -- because the placemats are fairly thick, I would not recommend sewing this by hand.   

Because my placemat had pretty details on the sides, I sewed the 2 pillows together right side out, which is why the seams are visible. That may have been a mistake -- it looks sort of messy. 

Have you all made placemat pillows before? How did yours turn out?

I'm linking to...

Thrilling Thursdays @ Paisley Passions; Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths; Under $100 link party @ Beyond the Picket Fence

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All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.

Warm and Comfy Sweater Pillow!

I had quite a bit of leftover cable knit sweater from my sweater candle cozie project, so why not make a pillow cover? Sweater pillows have been popping up in home decor stores as well as all over the blog world lately. And I can see why because they give you a warm comfy feeling whether you are resting your head on one or just staring at your handmade sweater pillow in admiration. 

Here is how mine turned out:

It was soo easy to make, even without a sewing machine! I simply placed my pillow form inside the body of the sweater--luckily, it was a perfect fit--and then cut one side and hand sewed two of the sides. 

I didn't turn the sweater inside out while I sewed, so it has kind of a rough edge. I'd like to say I did that for some creative unique reason, but honestly, I just wasn't really thinking. It's not bad, though! 

P.S. The husband really liked this one! That's saying something because his enthusiasm for my projects has waned recently, probably because I tend to strew unfinished projects throughout the house, not wanting to put them away until they are completely finished. Haha...oops! At least he's a good sport about it. I can make this one of my many New Year's resolutions.  

P.S.S. My little Heidz approves! She is an expert on all things comfort-related, so I value her opinion highly. (I am not crazy, I promise...okay, maybe a little dog crazy.) 

She was wearing her Christmas sweater because we just got back from taking our family Christmas portrait. Some dogs may feel humiliated when their owners make them wear clothes, but Heidi LOVES a snug little tee or sweater.

I also need to throw in a pic of my other cutie patootie, Jini. Otherwise, I would feel like I was leaving her out .

Yes, that is a leopard print Snuggie and my fleece jacket that she is laying on. She is my other comfort expert, if you can't tell. ;)

Thanks for looking! Check out these awesome linky parties:

Sweater Candle Cozies {tutorial}

We got some lovely snow yesterday here in North Carolina. The snow came down in big soft flakes - it was beautiful! It was the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and do a winter project. I've been dying to try this sweater candle cozie project created by the ingenious Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming.

All it involves is recycling some old sweaters (or in my case, buying one from the thrift store) by covering the candle vase in a comfy sweater. Here is what mine turned out like:

Do you like it? I am in love with it! Small changes like this can really warm up a space, as well as turn generic candles into unique, stylish ones. I think it's the perfect project for these snow-filled days.

One thing I did differently than Stephanie Lynn is that I sewed my sweater into place rather than hot gluing it on. The reason being that I know I will want to change out the look of these candle vases later, so as usual, I only made a temporary change. I will be able to slip off the sweater covers and store them away as spring approaches, but I will be able to reuse them next winter. Perfect!

Sewing them was actually really easy. I only had to make around 3 rows of stitches.

Here is the original sweater. I picked it up at the thrift store. I was able to use it for two different projects and even had some left over. Not too shabby for $7.

First step was to slip a sleeve over the candle vase. Then I cut the piece to size, trimming the edges of the candle vase base as I went.

The only thing left to do was to sew this gap in the sleeve. That took about 30 seconds.

One down, two to go!

I did the same thing as before, but this time I made the sweater cozie for the candle rather than the vase. (Tip: If you do this, make sure the sweater won't catch on fire when you light the candle!)

For the round vase, I simply stretched the other sleeve over it. That way all I had to do was make the same few stitches to the top of the sleeve. I also had to make a few stitches to the bottom of the vase in order to wrap the sweater underneath the vase. If I had not done this, the bottom would have looked too frayed.

It turned out to be my favorite! :)

Here are the sweater candle cozies in my table centerpiece:

What do you think? Have you made any cool things with cable knit sweaters? Have you tried this project before? Please do share. :)

I'm linking to...