Projects Archives - Page 208 of 215

A Decorated Laundry Room

November 18, 2009 jennifer Decorating

I really love my laundry room.

When we built our home, I did a few things right. Four of them involve the laundry room:
1. We put it upstairs where the bedrooms are instead of on the main floor where the original plans placed it 2. I had the cabinets painted red!

I LOVE these cabinets. They make me smile every time I see them. Funny how something so simple can make such a big difference.

Because I needed so few of them, I splurged on a special order starfish knob for the doors and drawers. I love them!

The third thing I did right was have the room built to hold two sets of washers and dryers, one stackable set and one set side by side.

These machines are my friends. Every time I start some laundry, I pause in the doorway when I turn off the light. I love to look back into the dark room and see the digital lights on all four of them, assuring me that they will do their job while I do other parts of my job.

You see, these friends are the only things in my house (next to my dishwashers) that I can count on to work even when I’m not watching. I have 8 children, and the real workers are the machines! (I know, I know, I must be doing something wrong but please tell me that when you look away your children start playing too!)

You can think I’m weird, but I give thanks for those machines EVERY TIME I turn them on. I don’t ever want to know what life would be like without them! I’m so grateful for the 847 loads of laundry that they help me to do each week.

True story (except the part about 847 loads. It’s not really that much, but it sure feels like it sometimes).

Well, when I placed my new runner made from placemats on the dryer this week, I suddenly had NO DESIRE to fold those 847 loads of laundry that were sitting in baskets in my bedroom. All I wanted to do was play in my laundry room!

I liked the flag and vintage chairs that I have sitting atop the washing machine, but wanted to do more. A little trip around the house yielded this:

A silver mirror with lead between a set of old shutters. Both were just waiting for me to do something with them. (Yes! I love it when I finally put something to good use!) I like the way it helps the room feel a little bit more open since it’s long and narrow.

Notice the laundry sign at the end of the room? It says: Laundry Expertly and Neatly Washed & Folded under personal supervision. Sometimes that’s my accomplishment; sometimes it’s my goal. And sometimes it’s my joke. Either way I like the sign.

The fourth great thing I did in my laundry room was to add a door between the laundry room and my closet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been thankful for that thought! I decided to add something to that door to help the room feel more pretty.

I am a collector of old linens, but generally I don’t collect items of clothing. A couple of years ago, however, I stumbled upon this vintage slip. It is nothing short of incredible. To me, It’s awe inspiring. It’s hand embroidered, and I can’t begin to describe how beautiful it is to me. I bought it.

I’d like to meet the woman who spent dozens of hours working on this piece of art.
I ironed it and hung it with an old wood hanger. I then tied some ribbons and a lavender sachet made from old embroidered linens to the hanger. I added some millinery flowers, and hung it on the door.

On the laundry room counter I keep a few things:

A bucket of lavender laundry detergent for my vintage linens, fabric softener for them as well, and a basket holding lavender sachets made from lavender I grew and some pretty ribbons to tie around my favorite pieces. On the other end I keep:

Soap, hand sanitizer and my favorite lotion in a cast iron tray with some towels for hand drying. I also keep a wooden spoon which I use when I’m soaking linens in the nearby sink.

And that’s my laundry room. I felt so happy when I finished decorating it!
Which brings me to the fifth thing I did right in my laundry room (Yes, I said four, but now I have five). I filled it with things I love. Making my laundry room a place I like to be sure helps motivate me to do the laundry! Hey, if you’re gonna do the work, why not do it in an inspiring atmosphere?

2 comments blue, Decorating, Linens, vintage, white

Book Page Wreath DIY (Part I)

November 17, 2009 jennifer Decorating, Paper

Last week I saw a post on The Inspired Room about a wreath made from the pages of a book.

I popped over to Living With Lindsay and read her tutorial, then watched her video on how to make one. She shows you how to roll the paper and how to avoid burning your fingers to death, which is a good tip. Now, I had a lot to do, but all of a sudden the only urgent thing in my life was to get to the nearest dollar store and make one of my own. As in, tonight, before I go to bed.

Lindsay was right. It really costs only $2.00. Now that’s my kind of project!

Lindsay’s video and tutorial are far better than what follows, but for what it’s worth here’s how I did it.

At my dollar store they only had 2 kinds of books: dictionaries and Bibles.   The idea of tearing up a Bible didn’t sit well with me, so a dictionary was what I came home with, along with a foam wreath.

I didn’t have any craft paint that wasn’t all dried up, so I used a dark brown ink pad to rub the edges of the pages. After I’d finished, though, I wished I’d had paint. I think it would have been a little more noticeable.

I also found that tearing pages out of the book didn’t work too well. My binding was too good, I guess. I ended up using an exacto knife to cut my pages out of the book.    It was 11:30 pm when I finally started this project. I plugged in my glue gun, took a deep breath and started.

Soon I’d gone all the way around.

I turned the wreath over (again, check out Lindsay’s blog) and kept going. After a while, I had a wreath! Hooray!

I pinned a piece of ribbon to the back and rushed to the wall to hang it up. It is so light that I just used a thumb tack to pin the ribbon to the wall.

What do you think? I like it!

I hung it in my family room, between two pieces of furniture. I’ve been planning to hang something circular there for a long time. Well, here it is, I guess. (And yes, I know there’s one piece on the top that is sticking out too far. Beginner’s lesson learned: stick that paper down in deep more quickly or it dries where it paused.) That’s okay. I’m not into perfect. (I might be lying here, just a little, because I’m really a perfectionist, but I’m overcoming it. Having 8 kids sort of forces me to do that.)

I realized a few things after doing this. Mine is more gray. That’s because the dictionary I used had newsprint pages.

It got me wondering: what about a book with gilded pages? Or a vintage book with red edges to the pages? or what about an old book with yellowed pages? Or a book with crisp white pages?   Changing the kind of book you use could change the whole look! Kind of fun. I think I’m going to make another one after I go scan the thrift store for old books.

Editorial note: To see part II, which shows how the wreath looks using 4 different books, click here .
Meanwhile, I decided to try an experiment with my wreath:

I got a long piece of orange ribbon and very loosely tied it in a knot around it.

And that’s how it stayed.   You want one of these, I promise. They’re fast, cheap, simple and fun. Try it!

5 comments crafts & activities, DIY, thrifty

Placemats turned Tablerunner DIY

November 17, 2009 jennifer Decorating, Quilting and Sewing

I was at the dollar store with my friend when I ran across these placemats.

I liked their crisp blue and white color and the stripes. But I really didn’t need placemats, and remember: at my house things like that have to come in sets of ten! Then I remembered my laundry room. I’ve been looking for a super simple runner to put on top of one of my dryers…….. you know how those moments go, when inspiration strikes. I put four of them in my cart and brought them home!

I decided to rip open the seam on the short ends so that I could stitch the entire length of the runner closed at the end, and have it look like one long, tidy seam.

I left the long sides as they were and decided not to unstitch them. I could handle a thick seam if I ironed well, I thought. Since this cotton weave frays easily, I also didn’t want any raw edges underneath. I placed right sides together and stitched the four placemats together lengthwise. Notice I’m not sewing the sides with the open seams.

Next I pressed the seams open on the back and flipped the runner over to press it once more.

Finally I folded the long sides back under and stitched them up! This is what the back side of the runner now looks like, with the thick seams connecting the placemats together pressed open, and the hem down the side folded over the seam and stitched up.

The top side of the runner looks like this. I like how tidy the seam looks.

Ta-da! Only about 30 minutes in all.

Excitedly I took it to my laundry room to see how it would look…..

Perfect! I wanted something to protect the top of my dryer from being scratched by my vintage metal basket, and I wanted it to fit the style of the room.

Just what I pictured. I really like how it’s so simple looking. The placemats are 100% cotton, but not a quality weave. Still, they work great and have the look of linen toweling. The perfect fit for my space.

Simple, inexpensive, and done in 30 minutes. I like it!
You could do this same thing with lots of materials instead of placemats. You could use kitchen towels, linen napkins, vintage handkerchiefs, etc. The sky is the limit (that’s the way creativity works!).