DIY No-Sew Crib Bumpers

I have a few important facts to share regarding the crib bedding for my kids.
 
1)  I LOVE the crib bedding from Carousel Designs.
 
2)  I can't afford, nor justify spending hundreds of dollars on crib bedding.
 
3)  I can make my own for a fraction of the cost.

4)  But I don't sew!

If you recall, I fell in love with the navy chevron crib bedding from Carousel Designs for my twins, but refused to pay close to $500 for two sets.  And so I attempted no-sew bumpers and crib skirts, and to my surprise they worked!  My boys were in cribs till 22 months of age, and the no-sew crib bedding held up just fine.

I made Charlotte's bumper exactly like I made the boys' bumpers.  I'm not going to rewrite the tutorial, but you can find it here.  Please check it out for a detailed description of no-sew crib bumpers, as well as why I chose to use bumpers when they are somewhat controversial these days. 

The only thing different for my girl bumper is where I bought fabric and supplies.  I bought everything from Hobby Lobby this time. 

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome of my DIY crib bedding for both of my boys and now for our little girl.

DIY Ribbon/Paper Mobile and Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

We are nearing the end of this series on Baby Girl's nursery.  Today, I want to share with you two easy DIY projects I made to hang in this space.  Tissue paper pom-poms and a ribbon/paper mobile were two of the easiest projects I made for her room.

Tissue paper pom-poms are very easy to make.  I've made them for all sorts of festivities.  Anyone can find numerous step by step tutorials of how to make them online.  I'm going to talk ~ or in this case, type ~ my way through of how I made these two pom-poms, but if you need something more visual, here is any easy tutorial with step-by-step pictures.  Nonetheless, here's how I made mine to hang in the nursery.

1)  Buy supplies.  I bought a pack of gold tissue paper and a pack of gold polka dotted tissue paper while I was at Hobby Lobby

2)  Fold several pieces of tissue paper (I used the entire pack) long ways like an accordian, making each fold about an inch.

3) Take the long bunch of accordion-folded tissue paper and fold it in half, as if you were folding a book or a card.

4)  Secure the fold using floral wire or a large paper clip.

5) Using scissors, trim the ends of the folded tissue paper into "v" or "u" shapes.  I used a "u" shape to give my puffs a rounded look.

6) Begin to fan out the tissue paper to make a ball.  Puff or scrunch the paper with your hands as needed.

7)  Attach a piece of fishing line or clear string to the floral wire or paper clip and hang from the ceiling.

This mobile is a somewhat primitive construction!  I've seen a few DIY mobiles using these wooden hoops on Pinterest, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It's not fancy, but I think it works in this room.  Here's how I made mine.

1)  Buy a small wooden cross-stitch hoop from the craft store.

2)  Cut three strips of leftover ribbon from the DIY Bow Frame, about 12in each, and hot glued the pieces symmetrically to the hoop

3)  Cut three strips of leftover lace from the crib skirt, about 12in each, and tied the pieces symmetrically to the hoop

4)  On a piece of cardstock, I sketched a basic bird template, then cut out the template.  You could find a free template online and print it.

6)  On the back of a piece of scrapbook paper, I traced my bird three times, then folded that piece of paper in half before cutting the birds out.  What I ended up with was six birds that could be glued together as three birds. 

7) Cut out wings for the birds and glue them to the birds.

8) Using fishing line or clear string, hang the birds from the hoop.

9) Take three pieces of fishing line or clear string, the length that you want hanging from the ceiling, and tie those pieces together on one end.  That end will hang from the ceiling.  The three loose ends will be tied symmetrically to the hoop.

The hardest part was figuring out where to hang these projects in the room.  I ended up choosing a place near the crib and rocking chair.  It was one of the few places that worked to maintain a visual balance in room, but it also ended up being functional to hang them in a place where the baby can spot them from the crib or rocking chair.

And there you have it, two easy projects that can be completed with out much time, money or effort.

Gold Stars and Chair Rail 3/4 the Way up a Wall

Two of the best tools we ever invested in is a miter saw and a nail gun.  We purchased those when we ripped out all of the carpet in our home and installed laminate throughout the house.  Those two investment tools have been used in numerous projects ever since. 

The floors were our first BIG DIY project.  Since then, we've figured out how to install chair railing, wainscoting, bead board and all sorts of trim throughout the house to help add character to our home.  And when I say "we", I mean my husband.  I've said it before, but if it involves power tools, I'm usually the brains and he's the muscles. 

For Charlottes room, I decided on a trim that would draw the eye up, and went with chair railing 3/4 the way up the wall.  Our second floor has 8ft ceilings, so we painted the bottom 6ft. pink and the top 2ft. white.

To make this room look a little more whimsical, I bought these gold star decals from Amazon for $30.  They were very easy to apply.  I eyeballed the spacing of the them, but they could measured if someone wanted to be exact.

There are basic rules when making cuts for trim. 
1)  cut pieces at 45 degrees
2)  unless a piece is against a door/window or end of a wall, then make a straight 90 degree cut

I'm going to attempt to explain how we put up chair rail, but just incase I'm not clear, this is a fairly easy link for a tutorial.  The only thing we don't do that they say to do is use wood glue before nailing.  Our reason for that is incase we decide we want to take it down someday.

Here is how we did this project:

Step one:  Measure the room to see how much trim is needed.  Go to Lowes, or another lumber yard, and buy an interior chair rail of choice and any other supplies needed.  We always buy 8ft pieces, so they can fit in our vehicle.
 
Step two: Measure 2ft from the ceiling.  With tape or pencil, mark off a line across the wall. 
 
Step three:  Paint the top 2ft. white and the bottom 6ft. pink.
 
Step four:  Using a miter saw, make appropriate cuts on the first piece of trim.
 
Step five:  Using a stud finder, find studs in the wall.
 
Step six:  Using a nail gun, nail the piece of trim 2ft. below the ceiling. 
 
Step seven:  Repeat steps 4-6 until room is complete.
 
Step eight:  Fill in nail holes with nail filler.
 
Step ten:  Sand down the nail filler.
 
Step eleven:  Touch up trim with white paint if necessary.
 
Step Twelve:  Apply gold star decals to the wall once paint is completely dry.

I'm very happy with the character that the 3/4 chair rail gives this room.  I love it even more with the gold stars!  This really is another one of those posts that I wish I had some real photography skills to capture everything about this room!

DIY Planked/Shiplap Feature Wall

Good morning, and happy Monday to you!  I'm continuing nursery projects on the blog this week, and chose to start Monday off by sharing the feature wall for this room.  It's posts like this one that make me wish I had some photography skills.  It seems like I couldn't get a clear image of the boards and spaces that shiplap creates, no matter which setting on my camera I used. 

I debated doing a planked wall as a feature wall in this room.  I love the look of shiplap, but it is such a personal taste that I hesitated.  With a wall like this, you are looking at a bazillian nail holes, and I immediately thought, "What if we want to sell, and a buyer doesn't like the look of shiplap?" or "What happens when this look is outdated?"  Taking these boards off of the wall would be a pain.  None the less, I decided that since it was such a small wall, it wouldn't be a big deal and decided to move forward with the project.

To be completely honest, I didn't do any of the work on this wall.  This was all my hubby's labor.

Here's the thing about my husband.  He hates doing these kind of projects.  But do you know how many times he's picked up power tools to help make our house a home?  Too many to count.  And do you know why he does it?  It's not because he loves doing it. It's because he loves me.  And I love him for loving me enough to do something he doesn't love, just because he loves me.  Now that's true love!  Seriously though, if I ask him to help me with a project, he always comes though for me.

When it comes to miter saws and nail guns, he usually does most of the work anyway, but in the past, I've helped along side him.  Not this time.  This time, I did all of the smaller DIY projects, and he tackled all of the walls on his own.

The reason for this is because this was the first full room we've completed since we've had kids.  Let me tell ya what I learned this time around.  Having kids makes everything 10x slower!!!  This wall alone was a stop and start project for weeks. 

If you decide to shiplap a wall...or two...or a whole area of your home, you can find DIY tutorials for shiplap/planked walls all over the internet.  I had no problem doing a google search and finding easy tutorials.  Here are the basic steps for creating a planked accent wall.

Fair warning, the pictures of the process, are not the best.  I wasn't exactly thinking about taking pictures for the blog at the time, so they are just grainy cell phone pictures. I also did not think to take pictures of each step.

Step 1:  For an accent wall this size, go to Home Depot, or another lumber yard, and buy two sheets of 1/4 inch thick plywood underlayment.  Home Depot will cut the boards into six inch strips for you, or you can cut them yourself if you have a table saw.

Step 2: Starting at the top corner of the wall, begin nailing the boards from left to right with a nail gun.  Always nail on the studs.  Use a stud finder to find studs.

Step 3:  As you come to the end of the first row of boards, you will need to measure the space for the last board and cut the board to fit the space using a miter saw.

Step 4.  To begin the next row, use the leftover piece from the last row.  Do this process with all of the following rows.

Step 5:  Using pennies, space all of the rows.  Literally place pennies in between the boards of rows before you secure the boards to the wall.  The space from the pennies is what will make it look like shiplap or a planked wall once you've painted.

Step 6:  Fill all of the nail holes and sand down once dry.

Step 7:  Paint the completed wall white.  It will probably take two coats of paint.

WALLS WITH WINDOWS:  Because we had a window and did not have a table saw, Matt started around the window.  His reason for this was that he would have a clean line to continue to work above the window.  Then as he ended the project, he only needed to take the last few boards back to Home Depot and have them cut it at the appropriate measurement to fit the top row and bottom row.  If he started at the top, he would have only gotten a couple of rows finished before needing to use a table saw to work around the window.

UNEVEN WALLS:  As he finished the last row at the top of the wall, he discovered we had a bit of an uneven wall.  He make the boards fit, but he couldn't fit a penny in between the boards of the top left corner.  It is what it is.  I'm ok with it.  We didn't have a table saw to correct the problem, so we just went with it.  It's a minor flaw, but it's not that noticeable.





Originally, I was just going to do the trim at the top of all four walls and paint the bottom of all four walls pink.  Once I saw my pink paint color against the curtains, I changed my mind and decided I needed a feature wall to balance out all of the pink.  And that's how I came up with doing this wall in Charlotte's room. 

This wall truly is my favorite part of the room.  I'm glad I decided to go with it.  Even though it wasn't part of the original plan.

No-Sew Pink Ruffle and Bow Curtain Panels

Let's talk curtains!  If you've been around my blog for very long, you know I do a lot of things, but sewing is not one of them.  You'll also know I've done a lot of DIY curtains ~ all of them being No-Sew curtains. 

For me, curtains are strictly décor.  We have blinds for privacy, and I see no need for blackout curtains in every room of the house, as I need sunlight in my home.  The boys' room is the only room that needs to have some form of blackout to help them sleep during naps.  To solve that problem, I custom-ordered them a navy blue blackout pull-shade that can not be seen underneath the no-sew navy chevron valence I made them.  The shade gets pulled down at naps and bedtime, but the rest of the time is hidden. I say all of that to say that when it came to curtains in the nursery, I was strictly thinking looks and cost, not function.

Ok, so now I need to address how I no-sew.  I use a product called Heat-N-Bond.  You can find it in any store that sells fabric.  Directions will be on the box, but basically, if you can iron, you can use Heat-N-Bond. 

Sometimes, for fabrics that do not take well to ironing, I'll even use.....

....wait for it....

....hot glue.

I know, I know.  Say it ain't so!  I can see all the faces of real seamstresses now, giving looks of displeasure!

Here's the thing though, if you do sew, then you can make these curtains just as easily as my no-sew version.  Instead of using an iron, you would use a sewing machine.  But if you're like me, a person who has yet to invest in a sewing machine or the time to learn how to work one, then this no-sew version will work just fine for you too.

I have done no-sew panels or valences in just about every room of our home, and when it comes time to do my seasonal cleaning, I have had no issues tossing them in the dryer on tumble low to get the dust off of them.

Now let's talk fabric.  All of the fabrics that I chose for the curtains were on sale from Hobby Lobby.

As far as the amount of fabric I bought, I can't remember exactly.  I can tell you that to determine how much I would need, I measured from the floor to six inches above the window, where my curtain rod would hang.

For each sheer panel, I needed that amount plus a one inch hem at top and bottom, and a two inch space for the curtain rod.

For the other panels, I was able to divide my pieces of fabric into two pieces and get two panels out of each piece of fabric.  For the pattern fabric, I measured six inches above the window down to the bottom of the window seal, plus a one inch hem at the top and a two inch space for a curtain rod (although I didn't end up needing it, as I tied ribbon to the rods). For the ruffle fabric, I measured from the bottom of the window seal to the floor.

When I purchased the fabric, I rounded up to the closest yard, to make sure I had more than enough fabric.

Now let's talk assembling the curtains.

The sheers were really easy.   I gave a one inch hem on top and bottom.  Then I fold the top over two inches to make a gap for a curtain rod.  Because each panel is a complete piece of fabric, I did not need to hem the sides. 

For the other panels, I tore my fabric into two pieces.  A one inch hem at the top, bottom and inner side was all that was needed, as the outer side was already hemmed.

To add the ruffle fabric, I carefully cut it in half, making sure to have clean even cuts.  Then I hot glued the fabric to the front part of the panel, before I hot glued a piece of ribbon on the top of that.

Lastly, I decided  dress it up a little by tying bows to the curtain rod.  To do this, I carefully cut one inch slits at the top of the panels.  Then I inserted strips of ribbon and tied bows to the curtain rod.

If you were wanting to block out more light, you could always add liner to the back of the fabric.  You could also use an entire piece of fabric for each panel, instead of cutting the fabric in half.

Like I said though, my goal was looks and cost.  So for me, I achieved my goal.  I was able to give this room beautiful curtains without breaking the bank.

I'm pretty happy how they turned out, considering the fact that I'm not a girl who sews:)

Refinished Pink and White Dresser

This dresser has been around for awhile.  I've had it for at least ten years, and it has served many purposes in my places of living.

It was given to me by a friend when I had my very first apartment, and given to her before that.  I painted it black, distressed it, added hardware and used it in my living room of that first apartment that I made my home for two years.

The dresser came with me to my second apartment and was used in the tiny breakfast area to display my coffee maker and coffee cups. 

When I married my husband, it came with me to his bachelor pad, and was used in our bedroom ,as I attempted to turn the barren spaces of his first house into our starter home.

When we bought our first home together, the one we live in now and have fixed up on our own, this dresser was given glass knobs and used in the dining room once again to display dishes.

And now, as we've grown the family by three kids, it's getting a makeover and being used in Baby Girl's ro.

My point ~ free can go a long way!  A good solid piece of furniture has a lot of life to give!

I decided to paint this dresser pink and white.  I have a lot of pink in the room and was careful not to overdo bold pink pallets.  With the other dresser in the room being pink, I felt like just having pink drawers on this piece was the right touch.

I refinished this piece the way I refinished the dresser I shared yesterday, and the way I refinish most pieces, with no sanding required……

1)    I started by cleaning the dresser with TSP cleaner. It can be found at most hardware stores.  I buy mine in a powder and mix it in a spray bottle. 

2)    Using a foam roller I primed the dresser with Zinsser Cover Stain primer.  It took two coats to fully cover this piece of furniture.  I keep this paint on hand for when I find furniture to refinish. The white on this dresser is the primer

3)    For the drawers, I chose the color "Jaipur pink" from Sherwin Williams.  I've used Sherwin Williams paint on several pieces.  I like that I can buy a sample of paint for a decent price, and it gives me more than enough paint for two coats on a piece of furniture.

4)    I kept the glass knobs I found at Hobby Lobby several years ago.  Sometimes I replace the hardware, but for this dresser I liked the look of the glass.

5)    Tip:  Always take out the drawers when painting and let paint dry completely before applying a new coat.  The primer and the sponge roller are key to getting a streak-free finish without needing to sand, so don't skip those steps.  

6)   Note:  This method is only recommended for solid wood pieces.  The paint will peel on laminate pieces.

To accessorize the dresser I displayed my DIY headband holder, a gold giraffe and gold polka dot jar for pacifiers (both found at Hobby Lobby), a Dollar Tree teddy bear, a piggy bank that was a gift and a Goodwill lamp and garage sale lampshade. 

The mirror above the dresser was a garage sale find and was used above this dresser in the dining room.  It came upstairs with the dresser to be used in the nursery.

I'm happy with the new look of this dresser.  I think the white and pink of both dressers go together nicely and work perfect in this room!

Upcycled Goodwill Dresser Repurposed into Nursery Changing Table

If you've been around my blog for very long, you'll know I love a good furniture makeover.  You'll find everything from dressers to tables in my home that have been upcycled and given a new life.

 

I've upcyled garage sale pieces....

 

....thrift shop pieces....

 

....and yes, even curb alert pieces!

 

This particular piece used in Charlotte's room was a Craigslist find.



I knew I was going to upcycle a dresser for the nursery and use it as a changing station.  I found myself searching FB garage sale sites for weeks.  I was wanting something specific and wasn't having much luck.

In the past, when I would look for a furniture project to complete a certain room, I would search online daily and scout out my local Goodwill's several times a week on my way home from work.  I'd often leave Goodwill empty-handed, but if I was patient enough, the right piece of furniture would stand out to me as if it was saying, "BUY ME!  I'm here just for you!"

Now that I'm a SAHM to twin toddlers, there was no way I dragging them to Goodwill several times a week.  My goodness, getting them in and out of the van is a task all in itself, let alone doing all of that work just to spend less than five minutes in thrift store!

I finally found something on Craigslist that I thought could work.  With only a couple months before the baby was due, I arrange to pick it up as soon as I realized it met all of my requirements:  perfect size, solid wood, plenty of storage, $50 or less and could fit in the back of my van.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the fact that it had a cabinet door on it.  It ended up being my favorite part when I finished with it.  Once I decided to take off the door and display baskets for both cloth and disposable diapers, I was in love!

As soon as I found someone to help Matt carry it upstairs, I began the process of giving this beauty a facelift!  I refinished this piece the way I refinish most pieces, with no sanding required……

1)    I started by cleaning the dresser with TSP cleaner. It can be found at most hardware stores.  I buy mine in a powder and mix it in a spray bottle. 

2)    Using a foam roller I primed the dresser with Zinsser Cover Stain primer.  It took two coats to fully cover this piece of furniture.  I keep this paint on hand for when I find furniture to refinish.

3)    I chose the color "Jaipur pink" from Sherwin Williams.  I've used Sherwin Williams paint on several pieces.  I like that I can buy a sample of paint for a decent price, and it gives me more than enough paint for two coats on a piece of furniture.

4)    I updated the hardware by spray-painting it white.  Sometimes I replace the hardware, but for this dresser I liked the look of the original hardware and painting it white contrasted nicely with the pink.

5)    Tip:  Always take out the drawers when painting and let paint dry completely before applying a new coat.  The primer and the sponge roller are key to getting a streak-free finish without needing to sand, so don't skip those steps.  

6)   Note:  This method is only recommended for solid wood pieces.  The paint will peel on laminate pieces.

I'm very happy with how this piece turned out!  By adding a lamp, some baskets (found at Hobby Lobby), a changing pad (cover found on Amazon) and a few accessories, I had a beautiful dresser/changing table for a baby girl's nursery!  An original piece, upcycled with love, I prefer this to an expensive bedroom set from a big-box store.