Cool in the Shade

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

Have you found a great lamp base with an ugly shade at a thrift store?  I did, for ten bucks.  The base is great, but the shade has seen better days.

One support was broken, leaving the shade lopsided.  The bright teal, stained pleated fabric shade wasn’t doing it for me either.

So, I took the shade, er, matters into my own hands.  We had a small scrap of canvas left over from sewing a drop cloth curtain for our laundry room.  It was perfect.  Neutral and free!  I set to work on transforming the lampshade.  While my iron was heating up, I ripped all the teal fabric off.

I measured the circumference and height of my shade and cut a piece of canvas slighty larger, keeping one finished edge of the dropcloth.  Using iron on tape, I hemmed the edges to fit.

I clipped the extra fabric from the corners to cut bulk.

Now I was ready to start on the shade.  To cover the shade, first I taped my unfinished edge in place.

Wrap the fabric around the shade, smoothing out along the way.  Tape the finished end in place and in a few other places, just to prevent movement.  Hot glue the unfinished edge to the shade. 

Run a thin bead of hot glue between the edge of the lampshade and the fabric.  Press down to secure.

When you reach the finished edge, hot glue in place.  I was almost finished with my shade.  I still had to fix the broken support.  I dug a bamboo skewer out of the drawer and cut it to fit in the shade.  Then, I added a dollop of hot glue to the shade to secure the skewer.  Worked like a charm!

I popped the shade on the base and it looked like a million bucks.  And we finally have a lamp for the basement bedroom.

Of course, there are tons of options to update a lampshade, like dye, ribbon or coffee filters, to name a few.  Have you updated an old shade?  Maybe you’ve transformed a thrift store lamp or two?  We’d love to see your ideas, so share a link, too.

P.S.  I turn a quarter of a century old today, maybe I’ll have some b-day goodies to share with you…

Quick Coat Closet Update

Published on by Our Humble Abode9 Comments

When winter set in, I was itching to organize our entry and small coat closet.  Sadly, I didn’t get very far.  We bought a storage ottoman, which is great for seating and tucking away seldom used items, but fizzled out after that.

So, last weekend while wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby, I stopped in the hook and drawer pull section.  I found white double hooks for $2.99 each.  Usually, I only buy items on sale, which these weren’t, but I decided to buy two.  I know, I could have bought about 4 more at Home Depot for the same price, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.   After finding hooks, I headed toward the paper, but saw organizers along the way.  I looked at the assorted baskets and didn’t see anything I needed.  But, on the other side of the display were plastic hanging baskets for $1.49 each, so I took two home.

When I returned, I started working right away.

I decided to remove the large mirror on the back of the door to make room for the two new hooks.  Then, I simply screwed the hooks in.  One of our entry problems is a lack of kid accessible storage.  So, I placed the hooks low enough for Vincent (and Everett in a few years) to reach.

The height (and width) is perfect for small kids jackets.  Now, Vincent has a place to hang his jacket, not throw it on the floor.  Score!  One less thing to trip over or have to pick up.  See those blue baskets peeking around the corner?  Here’s a better look.

(No, in the three years since building the closet shelving, we still haven’t installed baseboard – or painted where they were.  Don’t judge me.)

Those are the hanging baskets I picked up, sized perfectly for little shoes (or flip-flops).  When I brought them home, I made another discovery about these handy guys.  Loops on the backs, so the baskets can hang in a string.  Which means, only one nail in the wall!  Now, the little shoes don’t get pushed to the back of the shoe racks, and again, Vincent has a designated place to find, and put away, his shoes.

Now, this dreary day seems like the perfect time to sort through the closet to find items to purge for Jen’s 30 in 30 challenge.  Wish me luck.

Do you have any coat closet organization tips for me?  Kid friendly tips?  Where do you store out-of-season gear?  Please share your secrets.

P.S.  We would appreciate your vote in the Designer in You challenge.  Head on over to give your opinion!

Musical Chairs

Published on by Our Humble Abode9 Comments

A little over a week ago, I shared that my baby turned one.  But, I didn’t tell you that my parents visited from Minnesota to celebrate.  They arrived on the 24th and stayed until this Saturday.  My dad has had a rocking chair since I was a baby.  He’s addicted to it.  So, he bought one for our house so he had one while visiting.  Well, I think it’s ugly, so when they’re not here, it stays in the large basement bedroom.

Yep, it’s buried under the sleeping blanket we use for our backyard picnics.  Well, we were a little slow to bring it up this visit.  I swear my dad became physically sick because he didn’t have his rocker.  Then, we realized what the problem was, hauled the chair up from the basement and he was completely fine from that point on.  So, for the past week, we’ve lived with our living room disassembled a bit.

The Dolce chair moved to the guest bedroom, the matching club chair took its place and the rocker took the club chair’s place.  Musical chairs, I tell ya.  You might have noticed something is missing, too.  If you haven’t, maybe this picture will help.

Yep, the child’s desk we’ve used for the past four years is gone.  My sister just bought a house, so she asked if we would send our small desk back for her.  Fortunately, that desk was a temporary solution from day one, so we loaded it up and said good riddance to it.  Even though I hated that desk with a passion, I’m sort of missing it.  Without the desk, I have no designated place to surf the web, which is fine because of the laptop, but the cords bug me.  Anywhere I sit, the cord follows.

And yes, our house is messy without my maid mom here.  Just kidding, mom.  Our house usually has this kind of mess.  Check out our living room.

On a really good day, (or really bad, depending if you prefer the mess) our house looks like this.

We always have my family haul things out from IKEA, like a Ribba frame for my new print from Little Brown Pen.

Occasionally, they return home with some goodies, too.  Other than the desk, we sent my parents home with a floor lamp that we were no longer using, a bag of books, and another bag of clothes.

Speaking of giving things away, I’m taking Jen’s 30 in 30 challenge to purge our home of thirty items in thirty days.  Technically, those four items we pawned off in April, so they count, right?  Or is that wishful thinking?  Maybe we’ll count them if we’re short at the end of the challenge…

Now you’ve seen our house strewn with toys and cords and in disarray with chair swapping.  Are feeling the itch to get some spring cleaning done?  Care to join me and Jen to shed our homes of 30 items?  Have you received furniture from a friend or family member recently?  Maybe you’re addicted to a rocking chair just like my dad?

Gimme a Giveaway: JamieMari

Published on by Our Humble Abode49 Comments

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries, Thank You!***

As you know, we love custom art in our home.  Whether it’s a DIY project or purchased from Etsy, it’s all great.  When we saw a set of umbrella paintings by Jamie Mari, we added a custom version to our abode.

If you liked our painting, we have good news.  Jamie has sweetly offered to give a reader a custom umbrella painting.

Want one for yourself?  Here’s the low down:

The Goods: One original, signed five-inch square umbrella painting in blue, red or yellow.

To Enter: Subscribe to follow Our Humble A{Bowe}d, if you’re not already.  To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.”  Once you’ve subscribed, leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Tell us a rainy place you’ve visited or would like to visit, and if you’re feeling talkative, why.

For additional entries:

1. Add Jamie Mari to your Etsy favs, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

2. Like Our Humble A{Bowe}d on Facebook, come back and leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Thursday, April 7th at 9:00 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, April 8th.  Good luck!!

All  images found via the featured Etsy seller’s listing as linked above.

Shadow Casting

Published on by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

It feels a like a modern disco in the boy’s room thanks to the new wood veneer pendant.  How about some Shadow Dancing to get you in the mood for the shadow casting?  Everyone needs a little disco, no?  Back to the light. 

First, Ben removed the ugly ceiling fan. 

I don’t know if IKEA had this in mind when designing the Lack side table, but it worked.

Ben is a trained professional DIYer operating on a closed circuit.  Do not try this at home.  With the fan out-of-the-way, Ben installed the new, disco-esque light. 

Such a fun element for the room. 

Finally, it started getting dark.  Get ready for some shadow casting. 

Fun, right?  It’s even more fun when completely dark. 

Aside from the shadows casted on the ceiling and wall, the light itself looks cool, too. 

The overlapped areas are darker.  I love the light, especially for the $10.00 it cost after factoring the otherwise wasted veneer. 

P.S.  Ben worried about lighting the house on fire when we turned on the light, so we used a 25 watt bulb.  Surprisingly, it’s plenty of light.  Very similar to the amount of light from the guest fixture, which has a 40 watt CFL bulb.