Category: Living Room

Ketchup and Mustard

Published on by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Going on in our living room.

See what I mean?  Of course it won’t stay like this forever.  Painting will happen, probably white for the sides with yellow for the backs.  While we’re liking more modern and industrial element for this house, I wouldn’t call this look industrial.  More like unfinished.  More trim work, framing out the cabinets, and building doors to cover the cabinets still to come.

Let’s not forget the drawers at the bottom for ample storage.

The shelves are stationary, support cleats holding each in place.

 

Ultimately, these cabinets will have a similar look to the kitchen cabinets we built.  Wrapped at the top with crown molding, shaker style trim on the sides, and shaker doors.  Instead of glass inside, we’ll use fabric to help cut down on dusty electronics while allowing heat and sound to escape.  Oh, and to hide the ugly speakers.

Speakers are ugly, but the cords are even uglier.  Fortunately, Ben is a cord ninja.  A one inch space at the back of the shelves makes tucking cords behind easy.

Drilling a hole just above the center shelf runs the cords along the back shelf (out of sight) through a hole, down the wall, to the TV.

Now I’ve got to go paint shelves so we can actually use them and get the bookshelf out of here.  You know, between caulking/filling holes/priming in the bathroom, scraping wallpaper in the kitchen, and taking care of two crazy kids.  No biggie.  Haha.

What do you think?  How do you store your electronics?  Or hide cords?

Simple Solution: Brokeback…

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Couch.  Betcha thought I was going to say mountain.  Well, I didn’t.  Oh wait, I did.  Gah.  Back to the point.  Probably a year or so ago, the supports of our sectional broke.  Only because we moved it to get the rug under did we decide to fix it.  It only took two pieces of scrap 2 by 4 and screws, too.  I don’t make it a habit to deconstruct furniture, so I was surprised to find this is all that held our butts up each night.

Seriously, that’s a few scraps of wood, some string, foam, and fabric.  But the real problem were the pieces of 1/2 inch plywood, which should be attached, thus keeping the springs against the seat.  Instead, these pieces that should be flush come apart.  Every time someone sat on the couch, these pieces sagged, making an uncomfortable Lost watching perch.

For a quick, durable fix, Ben measured the depth of the couch and cut a scrap of 2 by 4 (left over from the garage wall he had just torn out).  Then he screwed into the plywood and the 2 by 4 on the other side.  Now we shouldn’t have problems, and if we do, I think a new couch is in order.

What took us so long to, in the words of my favorite redneck, git ‘er done?  What have you done that’s been a problem for a while?  Fixed any couches?  Maybe you’re shocked at how little furniture is actually made of?

Musical Rugs

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

By now, a lot of companies  have decided to partner up with bloggers to offer products in exchange for a review to advertise.  It’s definitely a perk of blogging, but not the reason we do it.  While I get many offers, if they aren’t products I’d usually use, want to try, or home related, I decline.  Well, Mohawk rugs asked if I’d be willing to review a rug, and I got excited.  Ben and I looked at the options and had a hard time agreeing.  He wanted a soft, plush or shaggy rug while I wanted something with pattern and color, less concerned with the softness.  Eventually we agreed on the multi color Cambridge rug, available at a few other stores, so look here to find retailers.

Surprisingly, it shipped quickly and I got the rug less than a week later.  I quickly opened and unrolled the rug to let it smooth out and breathe.

Happily, the background wasn’t overly beige, and the other colors were beautiful.  Sunday morning, we did a little rug switcharoo, complete with Sam cleaning the couch.

Some fiddling and shifting later, we had the rug and sectional centered on the window, looking lovely.

I’m happy to add more pops of blues and yellow, which will eventually tie in with the entertainment center.

I’m sure we could get away with an even larger rug down the road, but the 8 by 11 foot size is the same as the other rug we had in here.

Doses of yellow, blues, and grays tie in nicely, but I’m really liking the large pattern.

I’ll admit, I was hesitant to buy another rug online because Ben cared more about the texture than the look.  What if it wasn’t plush enough?  Well, this is just as thick as the last rug we had.  And the olefin material is soft, too.  But, I do have one problem.  This somewhat noticeable bare spot.  It’s not terribly obvious from far away or when the fibers are matted from foot traffic, but after vacuuming, the strands perk up and it is more noticeable.  Maybe I can exchange it, because I really like the look and materials.

But let’s talk about a happy surprise.  Because we put the new rug in the living room, we decided the best place for the old rug would be in the family room.  For some reason, I always thought this rug was boring with the sectional.  However, in the family room, the pattern looks more luxurious and modern.

I’m digging the lighter look, and this rug is more proportioned to go with the furniture.

If you give a mouse a cookie Amanda a rug, she’ll want to swap all the rugs in the house.  Ben obliged, moving the striped Flor rug into the boys’ bedroom.

I’m not crazy about the abundance of stripes going on in here now, but it will work until we find something else.  Still haven’t found a place for the painted chevron rug though…  I suggested the covered part of the deck, but Ben thinks it will get too dirty.  I suppose he has a point.

What rug do you currently have your eye on?  Maybe you’re playing a little game of musical household items?

I Just Dyed in Your Arms Tonight

Published on by Our Humble Abode30 Comments

After hemming and ironing longer than I would have liked, I finished the curtains yesterday.  And I’m now convinced I need to invest in a higher quality iron.  Apparently, the ten-dollar one I have isn’t fit to iron curtains, hence the hours of ironing.  But let’s start at the beginning.  As I pointed out yesterday, we needed a way to take the curtains down without removing the rod.  Why?  This might explain it.

Rather than going the conventional rod route, Ben and I agreed it would look cool to use galvanized pipe for the living space.  Once attached to the wall, it will be difficult to remove just the rods.  The living room window is 125 inches wide, which means we need a looooong curtain rod and extra wide curtains.  When looking for 144 inch rods, its slim pickin’.  Target didn’t have anything longer than 120 inches.  Home Depot had 144 inch rods, but all are more traditional looking that we wanted, like this one that was $45.  However, our Home Depot doesn’t carry that same rod in a shorter length.

So I called Ben while shopping to see what he thought of pipes turned industrial curtain rod.  Luckily, he was down for it.  We discussed the sizes available and came up with three flanges, three 3 1/2 inch nipples (I can tell men named these parts), two 90 degree elbows, and one tee, all 1/2 inch diameter per window.  The larger living room window needed 72 inch long pipes, while the shorter dining window was fine with 60 inch pipes for the rods.

Using a flange, nipple, and tee in the center of each window gives an extra support and allowed us to use two shorter lengths of pipe.

Ben was apprehensive about using drop cloths for the fabric, but I told him it would be okay, so he trusted me.  I walked out of Home Depot $163.76 lighter (dang pipes are expensive) with curtain and rod material in hand.  Now the pressure was on.  I actually had to make these look good.  A quick stop at Joann fabric for three boxes of black fabric dye and I was ready to get to work.  The process of sewing wasn’t difficult, just time-consuming, including a ton of measuring.

With the top, sides, and snaps done, I decided to dye the panels before ironing and hemming the bottoms.  I really wanted a medium gray color, but Joann had light gray and black dye.  Black was my best bet to get a mid saturation, so I mixed one and a half boxes of powder dye with a huge bucket of hot water.  I’m not sure how many gallons, but trust me when I say it was huge.  Then I soaked each panel, one at a time until the colors seemed uniform.  Because I was alone with the boys, I didn’t time anything, just left each panel in a while until it seemed to reach maximum saturation.  Then into the washer for a short, cold wash and a toss in the dryer.  Quite pleasantly, all panels seemed to match and didn’t have uneven spotting.  Success!

And here are the washed, measured, sewn, tabbed, snapped, dyed, hemmed, and ironed curtains in place.  Looking lovely, if I might add.

Each panel barely grazes the floor.

Back tabs are the shiz.  Look how nicely the panels bunch and hang.

But there is one small downside.  Even though the drop cloths are marked 9 by 12 feet, they’re actually about 8 1/2 by 11 1/2 feet.  Straightening up the edges and adding about one foot of rod length makes the large window panels look short when closed.  Oh well, the window is covered and that’s what really matters, right?

The dining panels are perfect though.

You can kind of see that I didn’t make panels for the French doors out to the deck.  When we replace the windows (which will probably happen next summer), we’re changing things up.  No more door there.  Muhahahaha (that’s my evil villain laugh).

Now if we could just get a dining table.  And a light.  Ha.

Can you tell I’m excited about the new curtains?  I’m loving the warmth they add to the room.  Just makes it look lived in.

Mission accomplished.  We’ve got (pretty) curtains.

And here’s what it cost us:

For living room:  $33.90 for two 72 inch long pipes, $2.24 for one tee, $18.72 for three flanges, $3.12 for two elbows, $4.38 for three 3 1/2 inch nipples, $21.98 for a 9 by 12 foot drop cloth, and $2.29 for one box of fabric dye for a total of $86.63

For dining room:  $27.40 for two 60 inch long pipes, $2.24 for one tee, $18.72 for three flanges, $3.12 for two elbows, $4.38 for three 3 1/2 inch nipples, $21.98 for a 9 by 12 foot drop cloth, and $2.29 for one box of fabric dye for a total of $80.13

If I had bought two standard curtain rods, I would have spent 90 bucks on rods, so basically four curtain panels cost about 75 bucks.  Not too shabby.  But I’m not completely done yet.  I think I’ve decided what I want to do, so I’ll be back with more details when I actually get around to that.

Do you have odd sized windows to work with?  Have you used pipes for curtain rods?  Drop cloths for curtains?

Sewing Curtains is Sew Not Fun

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

I don’t know why, but I’m not a fan of sewing curtains.  No wait, I do.  Large pieces of fabric, lots of measuring, even more pinning, and ironing are all involved.  That’s not to say I don’t like the result, it’s just getting there that I don’t love.  We decided to leave the curtains with our first house, which means I’ve sewed curtains recently.  Until this weekend, we have been curtainless in the living and dining rooms, moving our heads to escape the glare of on the tv.  Nothing like a Lost marathon to light the fire to get these done.  Oh, and I finally formulated a plan to cover our ten and eight foot wide windows.

It all started with a trip to Home Depot, where I bought all the curtain supplies.  Ben and I decided on a less conventional rod system, which meant I had to figure out a way to hang the curtains without removing the rod.  More on that later.

Anyway, this started out with two 9 foot by 12 foot canvas drop cloths, washed with vinegar added to soften the fabric, and cut in half to make four 6 foot by 9 foot panels.  I always start by sewing the sides of curtains.  After doing that to all four panels, I got started on the tops.  Here’s a little trick I like to use to make sure things are as square as possible.  First, I line my hemmed edge along a rug.  Then, I pull the top over enough to fold it over. Starting at the center, I carefully fold the fabric over, keeping the edges of the fabric flush with the edge of the rug.

Then I cut off the excess fabric, including angling the corners to cut the bulky seams.

For a clean, finished edge, I fold the fabric over again, using a line in the rug to keep this even, too.  Of course a measuring tape would also work.  Haha.

Here’s where the easy removal without taking the rod off comes in.  I considered buying curtain clips, but decided not to because I didn’t want to buy five or more packages to work with the extra wide panels.  Instead, I started by sewing ribbon tabs, just like I did for the boys’ curtains.  Of course the tabs aren’t removable, so I sewed only the top of each.

Ben has heavy-duty snaps left over from his leather working days, so I used those on the bottom of each tab.  Each snap consists of four pieces;  two posts (on the left and right), a male, and a female piece (real names, by the way).

After punching a hole in the ribbon tab, I poked the post through, then set the female end on top.  Several taps with the setter and a hammer pushes the post down, clamping the female piece in place.

To mark the other piece, I folded the ribbon back and made a dot where the snap sat.

I found the easiest way to make the holes in the fabric was with an eye hook, screwing it through.

The post goes on the outside of the curtain, with the male piece on top.  Tap it in place and snap together.

I’m really impressed by how strong the snaps are.  Seven hold up the weight of the curtains just fine.

I actually like the ‘studded’ look the snaps have on the front of the panels, too.

Just a little dose of edge/industrial.

Now that we’ve got them hung, I need to measure and hem the bottoms.  I suppose I should iron the panels while I’m at it, then time for a full reveal.  Guess I know what I’m working on today.