Alex and I had a pretty productive weekend! Aside from working on my two chair reupholstery projects (mentioned here and here), we got around to another small project we've been thinking about for a while now- the Living Room!
Our Living Room has had severe case of the blahs lately. I know that isn't really a scientific word for what bugged me about the room but it just felt really blah whenever I looked at it. You know what I mean? Sure, I change up the fireplace mantel seasonally but the room has remained pretty much the same since our big original redo three years ago.... BLAH!
Alex and I agreed it was time to spruce it up a little bit. Nothing too crazy or expensive, just a few small updates, one being window treatments... finally! I admit, we are waaaaay overdue for adding in some nice window treatments. Anytime I looked at pictures of the Living Room I would think "Ugh, we need window curtains, the room looks unfinished". So, we finally tackled this long overdue Living Room need and in order to keep the cost down we did it DIY style of course!
Our Living Room has three windows- two smaller ones on each side of the fireplace and one large size at the far end of the room. We took measurements for curtain rods and needed two 60" long and one 111" long. When we checked the typical stores for these curtain rods we realized that the rods themselves were going to cost a lot, especially for the 111" long window. Prices for the 111" size ranged $40-$50 and then for the 60" size $25-$30.... $100 bucks just for the curtain rods, barf!
So we came up with our own DIY solution. Total cost for the curtain rod + brackets for all three windows = $33.77!!! About 1/3 of what we would have spent, love it! Alex's brainy idea was to cut wood dowels from Home Depot to size ($1.29/ft), paint them white, then hang on a bracket ($1.49ea). Sounded pretty simple to me.
For the curtains, all I wanted was something white/ light to brighten up the room against the darker gray paint. I thought about adding a pattern and in the end couldn't commit to one so I went with the solid white Lenda Ikea curtains. They have a nice little striped texture to them and you can't beat that $19.99 price for a set of two panels. We bought just two sets for a total of $39.99. Since the two smaller windows didn't have much room on either side to fit a lot of fabric, I figured I could cut a single panel in half down the middle and turn it into two panels.
Aside from turning the two panels into four, I sewed rod pockets on each panel since I didn't like the fabric 'tabs' on the top of the Lenda curtains (see curtain link above, shows the icky 'tabs') and hemmed the bottom of each panel. Then, Alex and I painted the wood dowels and Alex mounted the brackets.
We plopped the altered Lenda panels on our DIY curtain rods and watched the room begin to transform! I can't show the whole look just yet, the rest of the room is changing up too and I don't want to give it all away. As for Part One of our Minor Living Room redo- it was just a simple little update and I am glad it came with a simple price tag of $73.76... less than those curtain rods alone.
We'll be finishing it up tonight and taking some 'after' pictures! Can't wait to show you the difference!
Have you changed anything up in your house lately that had a case of the blahs?
Our Living Room has had severe case of the blahs lately. I know that isn't really a scientific word for what bugged me about the room but it just felt really blah whenever I looked at it. You know what I mean? Sure, I change up the fireplace mantel seasonally but the room has remained pretty much the same since our big original redo three years ago.... BLAH!
Our Living Room has three windows- two smaller ones on each side of the fireplace and one large size at the far end of the room. We took measurements for curtain rods and needed two 60" long and one 111" long. When we checked the typical stores for these curtain rods we realized that the rods themselves were going to cost a lot, especially for the 111" long window. Prices for the 111" size ranged $40-$50 and then for the 60" size $25-$30.... $100 bucks just for the curtain rods, barf!
So we came up with our own DIY solution. Total cost for the curtain rod + brackets for all three windows = $33.77!!! About 1/3 of what we would have spent, love it! Alex's brainy idea was to cut wood dowels from Home Depot to size ($1.29/ft), paint them white, then hang on a bracket ($1.49ea). Sounded pretty simple to me.
For the curtains, all I wanted was something white/ light to brighten up the room against the darker gray paint. I thought about adding a pattern and in the end couldn't commit to one so I went with the solid white Lenda Ikea curtains. They have a nice little striped texture to them and you can't beat that $19.99 price for a set of two panels. We bought just two sets for a total of $39.99. Since the two smaller windows didn't have much room on either side to fit a lot of fabric, I figured I could cut a single panel in half down the middle and turn it into two panels.
Aside from turning the two panels into four, I sewed rod pockets on each panel since I didn't like the fabric 'tabs' on the top of the Lenda curtains (see curtain link above, shows the icky 'tabs') and hemmed the bottom of each panel. Then, Alex and I painted the wood dowels and Alex mounted the brackets.
We'll be finishing it up tonight and taking some 'after' pictures! Can't wait to show you the difference!
Have you changed anything up in your house lately that had a case of the blahs?
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Shoot! I accidently hit delete instead of publish on 2 comments :( JoAnn & Felicia I'm sorry & I guess I can't undo that, grrrr!
ReplyDeleteYour living room rocks! I love the colors! We used similar colors in our kitchen and everyone comments on it. I bet you get a ton of compliments on your living room. So chic and comfy at the same time!
ReplyDelete