Category Archives: Design Diversions

Now that the bedroom makeover is coming along, I need to face the drapery head on.  I’m embarrassed to even post a picture of what is there now, but I’m hoping the shame of this image will be a strong incentive to get something above and beyond to put in its place.  Here we go . . .

Gah.  It’s bad.  So bad.  They don’t touch the floor, they don’t start at the ceiling, the rod is so puny . . .  I could go on and on.   Now that we’ve put together the new bed with the nice new gray geometric sheets, the tan and white paisley is starting to feel a little out of place . . .

In an effort to save money, I am considering working with what I have (or some of it at least.)  After my pleasant run-in with iDye earlier this year, I’m thinking I might dye the panels to match more of the color scheme that I have going on in the room.  Then I want to mount the curtain rod higher, let out the bottom seam and add a color band to the bottom of the curtain to make it a proper size to address this wall.

The question is where to put the band . . .

On top, like this West Elm curtain?
Or . . .

On the bottom like this image from the Shade Store?  The Shade Store website actually has a nice tool to let you visualize different color combinations.  I like how the bottom panel lines up with the sill in the Shade Store image . . . I think that might be more my cup of tea (if I liked tea, which I do not!  That is definitely an acquired taste). 

 I think it might be time for another trip down to the Loop for a visit to my iDye supplier, Dick Blick.  Any votes on how to do the banding?  What about colors?  I’m thinking after all this time with white bedroom walls, it might be time for some color . . .

Um, so lame post title aside, I did some pillow magic over the weekend.   Thanks to much love from the dogs and JT and myself, our sofa pillows were starting to look a little dull.  I originally made these pillows from an old slipcover and some crazy “stitch art” (similar to the ones I posted about here) and the warm grey suited my winter mood. 

Now that we’ve gone through the hottest summer in ages and seem headed into a nice-ish fall, I’ve been wanting a quick and easy update.  Thanks to an iDye packet from Dick Blick, I transformed the pillows (and stained the inside of my washing machine) into a nice turquoise blue.  It matches the new front door color I painted the other day and makes me happy.

Any $4.00 and under makeover that adds this much cheeriness to a room is okay in my book. 

The next day the cb2 catalog appeared in the mailbox and what did I see but lovely little drops of turquoise everywhere.  So gorgeous. 

I’ve already informed JT that the table runner is coming to our house, soon to replace the Plynyl one for a while.  See that corner of the house here.  Changes are happening people.  Not big ones to be sure but something.  After living rather complacently in this house for the last few years I’m glad to be getting the motivation to start tackling some of these little things.  I think this little ol’ blog has been helping said motivation, so thanks for reading!  (Jessica!).