A Shabby Chic Bedroom Redo by Hilary

A few weeks ago my mom decided to redo her entire bedroom. Of course I was involved in this! We took out every piece of furniture in her room and decided to revamp her old pieces and give it a shabby chic feel. We started with her 30 year old sleigh bed. We threw a coat of satin ivory paint and this time used a new method other than sand paper. We used paint thinner and an old towel. This worked perfectly.

Using the paint thinner made it easier to get your distressing down to the bottom layer without much hard work.

We finally got our finished result and I was very pleased!! So our lesson learned today was that not only can you buy old items and fix them up but you can redo your old furniture you already have!

As you can see in this picture we used an old milk crate as a side table!! Also an old iron lamp that we painted a darker shade of ivory that was my great grandmothers!
Everything used in this room was either an old family piece or something that my mother has had for years. I think that everything looks so great together. There are other mirrors and stained glass in the room but that's another blog post all together!! :)

Homemade Bubble Shade by Taylor

Finding window treatments for every window in your house can be really expensive!  When decorating our living room, I decided to solve that problem by using curtains that I had from my old apartment. The only problem was that I had one curtain that had been hemmed to fit a small window in my apartment, and it was way too short for the window in our house!  I decided to get creative and used ribbon from our Pottery Barn wedding gifts to tie back the curtain and make it into a bubble shade.  It was SO easy and also adds some interest, rather than have all the curtains look exactly the same.  Total cost for this project? $0! Can't beat that!

We have such bright light coming through these windows that it was hard to get a good picture!

Tied with the Pottery Barn gift bows :)

View from the door

View from the dining room- yet again, kind of dark but the best I could do!

Lighten Up Your Lighting by Taylor

Hi everyone!  I hope you've had a great weekend! We really appreciate all the support that you've been giving us- we've had lots of positive feedback and we love hearing about what you are doing to "shabby chic" your own homes.   If you've done something you are proud of, please let us know- we would love to feature it on our blog one day!  And don't forget to follow us (if you don't have a google or gmail account it is SUPER quick and easy to sign up and follow our blog- you won't regret it:))
  
I wanted to share with you an easy way to update the lighting in your home.  As many of you know, good lighting can help your room go from cold and dark to warm and inviting.  You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for lamps either.  I found this lamp at Goodwill for around $10.00.  It was a newer lamp, so I knew it was a good price.

The shape of the base of the lamp looked like it had good potential and I could already picture what it would look like if I painted it ivory!  At home, I took the shade off and spray painted the base.  I then took my sandpaper and sanded the paint off of some areas to create a scruffed up shabby chic look (of course!).  

I didn't really like the old burgundy lampshade, so I swapped it for a floral lampshade from a lamp I had bought at Marshalls.  By the way, most home stores sell shades (I like Marshalls and TJ Maxx's Homegoods stores and Target).  I even ended up selling the old shade for 5 dollars at our yard sale, so I got half my money back!  This is the finished product:

 

 I hope you like it!  I'm gearing up for a new school year, so I'm sure I'll be grading lots of papers by the light of this lamp!

Repurposing every day items by Hilary

Okay, life has been crazy since I accepted my new 6th grade science teacher position. Now not only are Taylor and I shabby chic fans but both 6th grade teachers!! I wanted to do a quick blog on a simple decoration I have made in my classroom, but this can also be used for an office or dorm room!! I have been saving my tin cans from my can foods and washing them out to use for crayons and pens etc. I decided the cans look very simple and cheap on their own so I decoupaged them with magazine clippings! All you do is mod- podge the outside of the can and then place strips of news paper or magazine clippings onto the glue. You can also take Elmer's glue and mix with water if you don't have mod- podge. After placing the paper on with the glue, wait a few minutes to allow it to dry. Then, take your sponge brush and use it to put mod-podge over the paper to give it a finished look.

Here is an example of the transformation:
All in all this takes five minutes! You can also use fabric scraps or colored tissue paper! These look great on a desk or in a craft room! Good luck on your DIY projects!

The Friendship Quilt by Taylor

As you all know, I recently got married, and through all the stress and craziness of wedding planning I had many friends who helped me along the way.  I feel very blessed in my friendships and I don't know what I would do without them.

One friend in particular, Lauren, has chosen to take a brave new step and move to Honduras to teach.  My aunt and uncle's family have an orphanage and school there and somehow God just kept opening the doors for Lauren to go there and become a missionary.  

Lauren caught the bouquet at my wedding!  Hmmmm... maybe she'll bring back someone tall, dark, and handsome?

She is leaving this coming Tuesday and her parents threw her a beautiful going away party for her last weekend in their home town.  I knew that I wanted to do something special for her that she could take with her to Honduras, but the question was- what could we do that would show her how much she is loved and  supported while she is there? I thought of the idea to make a friendship quilt for her.  I messaged all of our friends and was excited to get an overwhelmingly positive reaction.  Before I knew it, quilt squares were being mailed to me from all over North Carolina.  There was a piece of her high school cheerleading sweatshirt and baby blanket, special quotes and bible verses, pictures of great times together and much more.

After gathering all the quilt squares I sewed them together into a quilt.  My mom came over and helped me put it together (by the way- making a quilt is no easy task!).  

Trying to decide on the layout

Sewing away!

Final result!

In the end, we were really happy with the result, and even happier when we gave it to Lauren and saw her reaction to it.  We are all so excited for Lauren's new journey and I hope that you will follow her blog at http://offthebeatenpathahonduranjourney.blogspot.com

Opening the quilt

Some of the contributors to the quilt with Lauren

The Easiest Wall Decor You Will Ever Make by Taylor

Lately I have been seeing a lot of wall art in magazines that was made using embroidery hoops.  I decided to use some of my scrap fabric to create some embroidery art.  It was really easy, and I LOVE how whimsical and eclectic it turned out. 
First, I purchased wooden embroidery hoops at Hobby Lobby.  The large hoop was $2.99 and the small hoops were $0.99 a piece.  I started out by picking out fabric scraps that would coordinate together. To visualize how my project would look, I laid out fabric and laid the hoops on top first (just to make sure my choices coordinated).

To attach the hoops to the fabric, I simply loosened them using the screw on the hoop and separated the two pieces.  Then, I laid the part of the hoop that adjusts flat on the floor.  I placed my fabric over the hoop, making sure I centered the fabric so it would display the patterns on the patterns that I wanted when framed.

Next, I slid the outside part of the hoop over top of the fabric and inside hoop.  I tightened the screw to make sure my work was tightly secured.

Paisley helped!

 
Then, I turned the hoops over and carefully trimmed the edges of the fabric all the way around the edge of the hoops.

Last but not least, I found a place to hang my project!  I decided to hang them on either sides of the antique mirror above my couch.  They brighten up the room and the circles introduce a new shape into the room.  Let me know if you try this at home!  I would love to post pictures!

Ruffle Chic by Hilary

The motivation for this idea came from the latest issue of Romantic Homes magazine. 

In my two bedroom townhouse my guest room doubles as my craft room and office. I had a beautiful floral bedspread but once my pictures were up and books on my bookshelf the room immediately became too busy.

On a trip to the goodwill with my mom, I found a beautiful quilt. Yes it was floral, but the inside was ivory with a cute decorative stitch. I decided to clean this up and use the solid and make my own shams.

I also bought two cream shams that were king size. I made a cross stitch down one side of the sham to fit a standard pillow and snipped the ends off.


I wanted a ruffled effect and decided to use my new ruffler foot ( around $10.00 and readers if you are like me and love ruffles and pleats it's well worth the investment ).  I also had a few left over scrap pieces of fabric from my curtain scarfs I decided to use.

First I cut strips around five feet long and about three inches wide and ruffled the fabric.

Then I hot glued (yes this is lazy but super fast and because it is just on the shams I felt it would work because they are usually just for decoration) six strips on each pillow starting at the top.


This is the finished product!! I am happy with the result because the solid bed spread gave the room a bigger look since it is used for many different things! It's hard living in small spaces!!!!


Also another decorative ruffled pillow I made just for fun!! The ruffler foot can be addictive :/




Hope you guys enjoy!!!! Please comment if you have any ideas to put ruffles on :)