to now having some friends.

I decided to upgrade this window a little.  The window was covered with this plain white roman shade.

This little shade has a new home.  I will post is new and updated location soon but just so you know, it’s moved around a ton.

1. The shade (with two other smaller ones) came home with me on my first trip to Ikea.
2. The larger shade (this one) moved to my kitchen sink window.
3. After a while I moved it to the laundry room.
4. Now, the shade is updated and in my kitchen.

I placed this shade in the laundry room because it needed shade but really, I didn’t know what to do with it.  I was in Wal-mart the other day and they were having a clearance sale on these Kenny Fabric Roman Shades.  The 27 inch-sized shade was $13.00.  It sounded good to me and I liked the mix in of the wood color.  It would blend in with my laundry area countertop and my bulletin board.  I hung it up and I liked it.  Do you see that I had a hard time centering it?  Yep, I am lazy.  I didn’t move it because I knew the curtains would cover it.

Source Wal-Mart

Now it was time to grab some curtains.  I was going for a navy, teal and green combo so I found these RE Style Full-sized sheets at Target.  This is not the first time I have used sheets for a project.  I used sheets for curtains in my bedroom, in my guest bedroom, in Asa’s room and Avery’s room.

I cut them in half, hemmed them with Heat-N-Bond hemming tape and they were ready to go.  Now, I needed a curtain rod.  Last year I picked up these upholstery rings at our local Restore.  They were from a large upholstered curtain track taken out of an old hotel.  I bought all of these for 50 cents.

The Hubs replaced our friend’s wooden closet rods with steel rods and brought home the wooden ones to throw away.  I quickly reminded him that we don’t throw away things like this in our house.

I ran to Home Depot and stared at the plumbing aisle for a long time.  I was looking for a way to hang this rod.  It was much thicker than a normal curtain rod bracket.  I must have been staring long enough because the Home Depot Employee came over.  Once I explained what I wanted he showed me these.  They are pipe clamps.  Being that they were .76¢ a pop, I thought I would give it a try.

Here are the supplies I gathered to make this curtain rod:

• Wooden Closet Rod – Free.  They are $8 at Lowes and really long so if you had a big window, this might be a cheap option.  Lowes can always cut them for you.
• Wall Mounted Pipe Clamps – $1.70 for both at Home Depot (couldn’t find them online)
• Dowel Screw – $1.18 for a pack of four,Home Depot
• Two Large Wooden Cabinet Knobs,  $1.57 for both; Gatehouse, Lowes
• Curtain Clips – Free (leftover from my first curtain rod in my home)  Ikea, Riktig Curtain hook
• Upholstery Hooks:  .50¢ at the MCH ReStore
• White Spray Paint - Free.  I bought a contractor pack a while back.

Here is how I made this curtain rod:

1.)  I cut the Closet Rod to size with my table saw and painted it white.

2.)  I painted the rings and wooden cabinet knobs white as well.

3.)  I painted the clamp and its part white

When I placed them on the wall to see how far off the wall the rod would hang, I realized that I needed a spacer to bring it off the wall.  I searched through my wood pile and found a piece of 1X2.

4.)  I chopped the 1X2 into two small pieces and painted them white.

5.)  When everything was dry I hung the clamps on the wall.  I made sure they were on a stud.

6.)  I drilled a pilot hole in the ends of the closet rod.

7.)  I inserted the dowel screw in the end of the rod and then screwed the knob on the other end.

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8.)  I kept twisting until the knob was completely tight on the rod.

9.)  I added the clips to the small hooks on the bottom of the ring.

10.)  I added the hooks with their clips.  It did help to use pliers to bend the hooks attached to the clips.  I did this so they would stay on the ring.

10.)  I hung the rod on the wall, figured out where the rings should go, and clamped the bolt down on the rod.

11.)  I added the curtains and this is what I got!

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I love how it turned out.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

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Here is the link to the article for those who need to read it to believe it.

Is there anyone else excited?

See ya tomorrow,

Jennifer

You can understand why I found myself sauntering over to them between visiting other booths.  I wanted this one.

I also didn’t have a reason to pay $60.  I had set a budget and I couldn’t get this and the vintage fan.  I needed the vintage fan more because of the new light fixture in my guest bedroom, so I picked the fan.  I also didn’t have a place for the large letter.

I walked away wanting but content.  Have you ever felt that before?  When you know you made the right decision even though the item still lingers in your head.  We came home and of course we started reorganizing the laundry room and I began wishing for the F to go above the wall that Lucy had claimed as her home.

Oh well, that steel F was in Nashville.  I got over it quick.  The Hubs and I had to go to the “big city” (which is actually a larger town 45 minutes away from where I live).  We were running errands and I ran into a quirky salvage store that I spied while we were driving.  I found this large letter F.  It was an old foam letter from an interior business sign.  My wallet was $5 lighter and it came home with me.  Thank goodness I waited.

It was a little beat up so I decided to paint it.  I read online where you can’t spray paint foam, but you can paint it with a brush.  I went to Lowes and bought at $3 can of Valspar sample paint in Night Scape.

I used craft wire and duck tape to make loops on the back.  To make them even I measured the same distance down from the top.

I must make it clear.  I am not an OSU fan.  The Hubs is an OSU fan. I am an OU (That is University of Oklahoma  not Ohio) Our neighbor bought us OSU and OU duck tape for christmas.  I figured use the OSU tape where no one can see it.

I used a piece of cardboard to make a template for marking the spot on the wall for the nails.  I don’t have a picture but take a piece of paper or cardboard and hold it up to the letter where the hooks are placed.  Mark where the hooks are on the cardboard.  Place the template on the wall using a level.  Mark on the wall where you made your marks on the cardboard template.  Now you can drill your holes with confidence.

I screwed two screw in the wall.  The screw head was better than a small nail head for keeping the wire on the wall), and hung the letter F on the wall.

I love it!  Simple, cheap and bold.

My next post will be how I made that curtain rod for $6.  The laundry room is coming together.

Sometimes I will read a blog that rehabs a great on-of-a-kind find and I feel defeated  I know that sometimes you read a blog post and you think “where am I going to find that?” More importantly, you know you don’t have time to search around town for that certain thing.  I realize this might be true for a foam letter.  My goal in this blog is to hopefully inspire you to do your own twist on my project.  If you liked this large typography idea and want to recreate it.  Here are some places to look.

• Architectural Salvage Store – These sometimes have old letters from signs.
• Vintage Decor Store
• online – if price isn’t a problem there are tons online.
• Frame a large letter you create on your computer.  Engineer prints are cheap at staples.
• Paint one on art canvas.  If you have a projector you can use it to trace it.
• Take a picture of a cool letter on a store sign.  Manipulate it in a word document or leave it as it.  Have it printed at a photo shop poster size.
• Flea Markets are better places to look than thrift stores.  People are reselling antiques at a flea market than donated items at a thrift.
• This cool website wholesalelettering.com allows you to create your own letter on wood or cardboard.  You get to choose the font! The great this is they ship it to you.

I love this old letter decor and this DIY version makes me swoon. I love all these letters/ prints too!  I hope this gives you some ideas!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

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Canyon’s room has this great entryway with a built-in bookshelf:

The only other storage is the closet and a cool place for storage above the closet:

This blank wall is shared with the entry way to the house on the other side.  The entryway is part of the living room.  It would seem the natural place to put a crib but all you mammas know that the most quiet place to put a crib trumps the best place design wise.

The room has wonderful windows.

The only furniture they had for Canyon’s room was this dresser.  I think it is the coolest dresser.  Especially for a little boy’s room.

The rocker and crib were going to be gifts from their family members.  The problem is that Canyon’s mom and dad had no idea which rocker or crib to suggest to their family members.  This is where my help could come in handy.

My goal:  Give Canyon’s mom and dad a workable moodboard for planning Canyon’s room.  My hope is that they could take this moodboard and use it to register and guide their baby purchases in the next coming months.

Canyon’s mama sent me the dimensions of the room and I mapped out this space plan on www.floorplanner.com.  Remember, floorplanner doesn’t have a ton of options for furniture and decor colors.  I just use this tool to map out the space.

The rocking chair and dresser ended up on the wall I was originally thinking for the crib.  The crib shares a wall with another bedroom in the house.

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The only thing that she had registered for was this cute changing table cover.  I used this as my inspiration because it was the only item she was confident she wanted when she has tried to register.

I liked the simplicity and modern whimsy of the polka dots so I cam up with this very bad sketch of my ideas.

This was the moodboard that went with the sketch and the floor plan.

Here is the document that I sent Canyon’s mom and dad on these items.  This document not only has sources but it has DIY options that I think could create the same look for a little cheaper.  For the sake of keeping the moodboard from being cluttered, I suggested some other items not pictured in this moodboard. The dad didn’t want clutter in the room so I didn’t want to present it that way either.   Here are examples of what you would find in the ideas document:

• Fun storage ideas for above the closet
•  baby mobile ideas
• baby blanket and other practical nursery registering items

(note: The dresser in the moodboard was just a stand in because I couldn’t get theirs to show up in the moodboard)

Here is the products source list for the above moodboard

• Crib:  Babyletto Modo 3, Target
• Pillows / Toy

• Land of Nod Transit Authority Pillow
• Etsy.com; Krsitin813
• Kohls:  Clifford the Big Red Dog
• Crib Sheet:  Circo, Target
• Toy Storage:  Target Home Hamper Water Hyacinth
• Dresser:  Potterybarn Valencia Extra Wide Dresser 
• Printables:  Designed by iloverehabs (I changed the color to fit Canyon’s room)
• Light Fixture:  Home Depot, Process Light Whiting Pendant
• Fan:  Hunter Fan, Target
• Large Baseball Print:  Flickr Photo – Malfalfa’s Photo Stream, Target Poster Frame 
• Changing cover:  Babies R Us
•  Large Letter C:  PB Teen
• Curtains:  Walmart, Belle Maison Grammercy
• Rocker:  Pottery Barn Tiburon Glider
• Ottoman Pouf:  Target Patch Teal Pouf
• Side Table:  Chloe Side Table, Target
• Lamp:  Target, Green Gourd Low Profile Lamp
• Rug:  Olin Gray Striped Rug, Crate and Barrel
• Paint Color:  Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams

This was a really fun moodboard to do.  I am so excited for Canyon’s mom to send me pictures of it when she is done.  I also loved her heart to have a plan when registering.  She knew that people wanted to help and had showers coming up.  She plan’s on taking the moodboard and using it to help guide her as she puts together Canyon’s room.

Thanks for reading!

Jennifer

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]]> http://iloverehabs.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/canyons-room/feed/ 0 reno Canyon's Room Canyon's Room Canyon's Room Canyon's Room Canyon's Dresser Canyon's Room 1 Canyon's Room 2 Canyon's Room 3 Canyon's Room 4 Canyon's Style Board Patty's Dining Room Moodboard Ashley's House Tiny Nursery Mood Board http://iloverehabs.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/canyons-room/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/Umje/~3/orC7uLvNbCo/ http://iloverehabs.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/watch-out-for-ads/#comments Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:55:55 +0000 Jennifer http://iloverehabs.com/?p=3261 Continue reading →]]> Today, when I opened up my blog to respond to a comment I noticed something right before I logged in…and inappropriate ad.  I am not an ad supported blog so I don’t have Google Ads or anything on my blog.  The Hubs and I have been researching this lately but we have not committed.  How did that get there?  I have no control over it and I can’t get it off.  Then, I read this blog:

http://jillianlark.com/2012/06/30/larks-eye-view-4/

I guess in the terms of service for a “free wordpress account” they can put ads on your site to help make your blog free.  If you have a free blog you have to purchase a No-Ad Upgrade.

So, I am so sorry if you have seen something inappropriate.  That just fires me up.   The crazy thing is that I am currently transitioning my blog over to be self-hosted.  ITs been quite the process moving a blog from one place to the next.  I have researched and found out that this problem will go away with a self hosted blog and I will have control.  This give me motivation to get that puppy fully transitioned and totally shut down this free account.

Please bear with me for the next few days and http://www.iloverehabs.com will be fully moved over.  Its the same web domain…different host.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

This weekend I will be hanging some new decor in my laundry room.

I am doing another little organizational project here.  What is it you ask?  You will soon find out!

Before my head hits the pillow tonight, (after a dinner out with family to eat sushi as stated by my new menu planner) I plan on finishing a mood board for the first person who emailed from this post. She is a reader so I can’t show you because she deserves to see it first, but here is a preview.   This is a huge piece of wall decor I am suggesting as an idea for the space.

source: Pottery Barn Teen

With help from her gift registry choice, this is my inspiration for the entire room.  Can you guess what type of room it is?

Source: I don’t know…I think Babies R Us

We are enjoying our new desk.  I hope to add some more function to this already functional office organizer I got at TJ max.

This project has been on my to-do-list for a long time.

Yes, this the front bed of my house.  So embarrassing.  Seriously, I am ashamed.  I am not lying when I tell you that every time I write it on my calender to get out there and clean it out, it has rained.  We ate dinner with friends who have never seen our home.  They (or I should say the husband) loves to landscape.  He couldn’t fathom how  bad we explained our yard to be. Yep, its out of control.  At least the grass is not overgrown…yet.  We have to fix this before we invite them over.

I am going over to my friend’s house on Sunday to her new light fixture in her dining room!

We are really enjoying Lucy as a family.  This is what the Hubs and Piper looked like one night while I was working on the moodboard mentioned above.

I smile every day because of this silly animal.  She is not usually allowed on the furniture but the laundry room is the exception.  She loves her bed more than Lucy so she usually doesn’t want up unless we are sitting there, but  when the Hubs brings his bike inside from the garage to work on it…she finds solace on Lucy. Look at the fear on her face. Unless it happened when we were not around, she has never had a bad encounter with a bicycle.  We are baffled by this one.  She is weird a and quirky, but then again…so am I.

My vintage fan from Nashville found a home in my guest bedroom Yippeeee!!!!

I went garage sale shopping a few weekends ago and found this ash tray.  I don’t smoke, never have, and no one smokes in my home.  Nevertheless, I couldn’t pass up this 10¢ cute little unused tin.  Oklahoma is my home state!   The funny thing was that I was gone over two hours and this was all I brought home.  I don’t think you understand the restraint that happened for that to happen.

Isn’t life a thousand times better when you are surrounded by great friends.?  My best friend gave me this journal.  She knows me so well.  This journal sums up how I “tick”.

The Hubs and I made a new step in our “stick it to the cable man” quest.  First, let me say that we have no problems with the cable man himself.  I have actually met him (when we had cable) and he is a great guy.  I am referencing how we pulled the plug on cable a few years ago and our attempts to still view the few things we like.  The only problem that we have had  is that we can’t watch a college football game on  television in the comforts of our living room.  Our computer is huge so we don’t mind watching our games on ESPN360 but its kind of  a deal breaker when we want to invite friends to come over and watch the game.  This one time purchase has changed our college football viewing life.  I can’t wait to share about it.

Finally, my weekend surrounds  a special event.  The Hubs is racing in a triathlon on Sunday!   He is doing a mile swim, a 24 mile bike and a 6 mile run.  He is crazy!    I am really proud of him though.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

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I was excited to see where these would find a home.  A few of my friends purchase gifts and store them in a closet for birthdays and showers that might pop up on their schedule.  I purchase home items, store them, and bring them out when I help a friend.  Weird, I know…but hey same thing right?  When my friend Debbie called me to help her with her new kitchen she sent me pictures.  She needed a new light fixture.  Well, she didn’t need one, but I had one.   I loaded up the circular fixture (seen above) and thought…maybe this will work.  I got to her house and all her light fixtures looked like this.

It was meant to be!  The style was the same.  So, up it went and here is how it turned out.

She was surprised and pumped.  I smiled yesterday when I jumped over to Katie’s blog over at Bower Power.  She found the same light fixture on clearance at Lowes.  I guess they were really wanting to get rid of this at my Lowes.  I wish they could have given her the $10 price.  As for the larger light fixture.  This one has found a new home with my best friend.  I showcased her home here.  I can’t wait to show you what it will look like in her kitchen.

This brings me to an important Piece of Info for ya…..

The Hubs found out from the people at Lowes that the end of September, many of their light fixtures will go on clearance.  October is when they will change out their products and add new.  Many of these light fixtures might come down to selling the display…which typically goes cheaper.  This might be just for the Lowes in my area but seeing Katie’s blog, who lives across the country, made me think that this  piece of information might be a little wide-spread.  If you are looking for a light fixture head to Lowes.  You may very will find the clearance “steal” that you have been looking for!

I hope this helps, spread the word to your friends that need are rehabbing light fixtures,  and go find some deals!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

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This is a little quick fix that has really helped me stay organized in the kitchen.  I am warning you, this is not revolutionary.  There are tons of versions of these on Pinterest, but this is my version.  The idea is not original but the printable is original.   I went to Wal-Mart and bought this 16X20 poster frame for $6.00.  Of course you could spray paint this but my kitchen is black…so I didn’t need to.

I made a document on word that looked like this.

I had it printed at Staples online.  At first, I was going to print a poster.  That was going to cost be $23.00.  I fully realize that this is not that expensive but I didn’t want to spend that much on this project so I selected the same size (18 X 24) in an engineer print, which can only be printed in Black and White.  The cost went for $23 to $1.79  I knew that I would cut down the 18 X 24 to 16 X 20 so I planned for that in my word document.  I saved it as a PDF and sent it off.  One hour later I got a phone call from Staples saying they were sorry, they messed up my print.  I asked what they did and they said, we accidentally printed it in color, do you still want it?  Yes.  Here it is.

I actually wanted less red so I didn’t like how it turned out, but because I had to cut it down it gave the exact amount of red that I wanted.  I used removable picture hanging tabs and stuck it on the side of my fridge.

aaa

Now you all know what is for dinner this week.  Do you see the frozen meals?  That is not what you think.  I am about to go to a meal swap.  I can’t wait to tell you about it.  I love them! They make my life easy!!!  Okay, I wanted to make this menu thing available for you so here you go.  I even gave you some variety.

Click Here to Download

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Click Here to Download

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Click Here to Download

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Click Here to Download

Here is how you do it.

1. Go online to Staples.com.  Choose the Copy and Print
2. Choose engineer print and upload your file.  (This only allows you black and white so download one of the darker colored printables)
3. Another option is to choose oversized print.  This will cost you $20 more.  It might be worth it to ya.
4. Select the 18 X 24 sized option (under the Media tab)
5. Add it to cart and check out.
6. Pick it up and Frame it!

Remember:  I formatted this for a 16 X 20 Poster.  You can print it 18 X 24 but know the actual dimensions of the PDF are 18 X 22.  So you will have to tell the people at Staples to stretch it across the entire page.

I hope this gets you organized too.  Sorry for the late post.  I am in the middle of transferring my blog over to a self hosted site.  I am excited but it takes some time to get the blog functional and still blog on this one!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

Here is the space cleared out.  We wanted the desk to go on the left-hand wall. (Please excuse the mess.  Scary things come out when you move furniture)

We were willing to spend enough for it to be done right, but we also didn’t want to spend a ton, so we of course I headed to Mountian Country Homes of Hope and got this sliding closet door for $5.

I chose an old sliding closet door for two reasons.

1.)  It didn’t have a huge hole where a door knob one was.  A hole from a knob could be useful for cords but we knew we were purchasing a glass top so it would be pointless.

2.)  There were not cut outs for where the hinges once were located.  The hinges are on the opposite side of the door from the door knob side.  We were trying to avoid breaking out the table saw.  A sliding door attaches to a track system so the only holes were the screw holes at the top which were easily puttied and sanded down.

Here is how we made this desk happen.

1.)  I used Valspar Bonding Primer to prime the door.  I did two coats on all sides.  Bonding Primer is a little trick I have in my back pocket.  You have to work fast in using it, but here is why bonding primer is my new best friend.  You don’t have to sand.  Did you hear me?  You don’t have to sand.

2.)  I waited 24 Hours to paint it.

3.)  I painted the door with three coats of High Gloss Paint leftover from this crazy paint project.

4.)  I let the paint dry for three days.  In the mean time….

5.)  I found this file cabinet for $9 at a thrift store.  I pulled out the drawers and primed it with metal primer.  I did two coats.  Of course, let the last coat dry for 24 hours.

6.)  I painted the file cabinet with two coats of Gloss Protective Enamel Rustoluem Spray Paint.

7.)   I attached the legs from the old table and had the basic bones of my desk.  The door is hollow core but the edges are solid wood.  I positioned the leg on the corners of the door so that most of the screws were screwed into the solid wood.  The legs are these legs from Ikea if you are trying to recreate this project.

8.)  I encountered a problem, I wanted the legs white.  Why do I do this?  I flipped over the desk onto a saw horse and used painters plastic to cover the desk and I primed and spray painted the legs.  Yes, I was lazy.

9.)  I bought this file cabinet caddy from Target.  It was the cheapest way to raise the file cabinet up to support the desk’s middle.  (There is nowhere to screw legs into this file cabinet.)

10.)  I used these caster cups from Lowes to level out the back of the file cabinet because our floor is sloped.  It used to be the garage so I always have to deal with a sloped floor.  It was super helpful to keep the file cabinet from rolling forward when we opened it as well.  I love “twofers” and these caster stoppers had two purposes!  I loved that they were clear too!

Source: Lowes

11.)  The Hubs attached the desk to the wall with small L-Brackets behind the file cabinet.  You probably don’t need to do this, but our sloped floor caused the desk to be wobbly.  This eliminated the wobble.

12.)  We went to our local glass store and ordered a piece of glass cut to the size of the desk.  If you do this, make sure they finish the edges for you.  No cut finders in out home!  The glass was $60 but it was worth it for the longevity of the desk.  We draw, write, drink coffee and sometimes eat on this surface.  Its so much easier to wipe down.

Here is our finished desk:

There was one little problem.  When we placed the glass on the top of the desk there were certain points of the desk where it looked like the paint was coming up.

I was so confused, How was the paint already coming up?  We lifted it back up and found that the paint was just fine.  We called the glass company and they told us that sometimes certain pressure points under the glass counter can cause distortion.  So, the Hubs went to Lowes and bought a few clear spacers.

It alleviated the pressure and it made the paint job look seemless again!  We hung our massive Bulletin board made out of drywall and burlap up behind the desk.  We are now figuring out what needs to go on the other side.

Here is the cost break down of our new desk

• Legs – Free ( we re-purpsed them from the desk we removed)  You can buy them at Ikea.
• Door – $5 from MCHH (ReStore)
• Paint – Free (all the paint was free.  I had primer and spray paint too.
• Primer – $17 from Lowes (Valspar Bonding Primer)
• File cabinet – $9.00 from Frisco Furniture in Hollister Mo
• L-Brakets – Free.  We used what we had.
• Glass – $60 from Binswanger Glass in my hometown.
• Caster frame – $10 Target
• Spacers – Lowes $2
• Caster Cups – Lowes $2

We sold our big desk in a garage sale for $30.  So the grand total for this desk rehab was $74.00.  That is not bad for a custom desk to fit your space!  We love it.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

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