bedroom update – simplify the chaos

No-Sew Method for Hemming Curtains

For as much as I love DIY, sewing is one skill I haven’t grown to love that much. I do love the look of curtains though, and they rarely come in the correct length for what I need. When I bought the 96″ curtains for our primary bedroom, I knew I would need to hem them. I like a slight pool of fabric at the bottom, but these curtains were still a couple inches too long for my taste. Today I thought I’d share a little tutorial for my method for hemming curtains – no needle and thread in sight.

This no-hem method is a low-cost, quick, and simple project that is perfect for beginner DIYs!

Materials

–HeatnBond hem tape

-Iron

-Paper clips (or pin of your choice)

-Scissors

-Ironing Board (or other heat-safe surface)

Ideally you would use an ironing board but I didn’t have one so I improvised with two folding chairs and an old table protector pad. Before beginning, I recommend cutting off the curtain tag at the bottom (if there is one). I found that the hem tape did not adhere as well to the tag. Once the tags were removed, I folded the bottom of the curtain to create the new desired length.

For me, this was easy because the width of the existing hem was the amount that I wanted taken off overall length, so I could just fold the curtain over on the existing hem. I chose to secure them with paper clips because they’re easy for me to slip on and off and safer than sharp pins if I accidentally dropped or lost one and a child or pet found it.

Once I had secured the entire bottom of the curtain, I ran the iron lightly over of the new folded seam to create a nice crisp seam on the bottom.

Next came the hem tape. At first I accidentally bought super weight (it’s supposed to be for heavier fabrics) but it worked fine for my cotton curtains. I did run out and have to buy a second roll so I bought regular weight that time and honestly didn’t notice a difference in how they worked for my fabric.

I chose to work in smaller sections and ripped off roughly 8-10 inches of hem tape at a time. I placed it underneath the folded fabric and ran the iron across to activate the adhesive. (Note: the curtain edge is peeled back in the picture below to show you where I placed the tape, but make sure it is lying completely flat when you run the iron across)

I found that it worked best to hold the iron over each section for a good five seconds before moving it down the line, and I overlapped the iron each time for additional heat. If I spent less time on each section, the adhesive didn’t get hot enough to work. My iron was on the cotton heat setting since the curtains were cotton.

When I came to the end of the curtain, in addition to the hem tape running parallel to the old hem, I ran a small piece of hem tape along the outside edge to keep the fold secure.

To finish the seam, I flipped the curtain over and ran the iron once more over the hem tape from the other side, spending about 1-2 seconds on each small section.

That’s it! Once the fabric cools down, the glue dries and creates a nice new hem. This project cost less than $8 and took roughly 10 minutes per curtain. Quick, easy, and inexpensive! The perfect little DIY 🙂

Sources

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Foggy Day

Curtain Rods

Curtains (out of stock – similar here)

Basket

Vanity + Chair are vintage

ORC Week Eight: Primary Bedroom Reveal(ish)

After several weeks of work, our primary bedroom is . . . halfway done!

Yep, you read that right. I’m only finished with half of the room so far, but my oh my do I love this half!

Here’s a reminder of where the space started at the beginning of the One Room Challenge:

Throughout the past nine weeks, I painted the walls, baseboards, ceiling and windows. I also replaced the window casing with chunkier trim and updated the outlet and switch covers with wooden covers painted the same color as the wall. Justin and I hung new curtain rods and curtains, new smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, installed sconces, swapped our nightstands with the ones from our guest room, and of course, upgraded our bed, bedding, and rug.

I have realized something important about myself in this process. I understand the value of planning out a renovation ahead of time. The mood board I created at the beginning of the project was such a helpful guide for me in making decisions early on and to gather all my thoughts in one place. That being said, I realized that I also really like slow, thoughtful design decisions. I like to solidify a choice, see it in my space, and then finalize the next choice from there. This room started with the bed. I knew I wanted a platform bed in a deep, solid color. Once I had the bed in place, I could gather bedding ideas and a rug that would all coordinate well, and once I sat with those choices for a couple weeks, I found the curtains that worked perfectly to complete the look.

Looking back at my mood board, I stuck with a lot of materials and products that I first envisioned, but I’m glad I didn’t jump the gun and order everything at once in the beginning. Take the curtains for example – I originally envisioned a solid mustard color. As the renovation went on and everything came together, I realized with solid color walls (I did not do limewash as I originally planned), a solid color bedframe, and a solid color throw blanket, I needed more pattern! I wanted a subtle graphic pattern to balance out the bolder, more intricate pattern in the rug and I really wanted to stick with a mustard color. It was actually very hard to find affordable, in-stock, 96″ length curtains in a small, mustard-colored, graphic pattern that I actually liked, and I searched for weeks before finding these beauties (snagged on sale for under $50 a pair!)

I’m very glad I didn’t let the pressure of a “deadline” with the ORC rush my decision because I’m so so happy with the end result!

My goal when starting out with this space was to create a colorful, moody retreat. I wanted a place that felt relaxing for Justin and I – a little haven just for us away from the chaos of sharing a house with two toddlers and two dogs. The bedroom before was a functional, but boring blank slate. We are both so happy with how it feels now: a restful, soothing space just right for us.

Now that I’m finished with the “bed half,” I am ready to focus my energies on the other half of the room: the half that currently looks like this.

I have an Ikea dresser I plan to hack for this space, as well as add a little vanity table, more curtains, and possibly a different mirror. Again, I’m taking things a little slower and honing my vision one decision at a time! I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Sources

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Foggy Day

Ceiling Color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster

Floral Sheets + Throw, both from Target (no link available)

Elbow Connectors (used to make the rods work for a bay window)

Curtains (out of stock – similar here)

Dog Bed

Be sure to check out all the other One Room Challenge reveals here!

ORC Week Six: The Sconces are In!

We’re in the home stretch of the One Room Challenge!

Justin and I are on vacation this week and it has been amazing to take some time away together. Right before we left, I finished painting the walls and we tackled one more small project in our bedroom: putting up our sconces!

I love the look of sconces but didn’t want to hardwire them because a) it’s expensive to do and b) we will likely move where our bed sits when we remodel the en suite bathroom/move a wall in 3-5 years. At that time, we’ll hardwire them because it’ll be a more permanent spot for our bed. Until then, Justin just attached the sconces directly to the wall and I used these battery-powered, remote-controlled puck lights in place of lightbulbs. This solution works for now, but the puck lights aren’t super bright with the white globes so I’m on the lookout for a similar light with more lumens.

Side note…can we talk about how my library check out pile has officially gotten out of control!?

Also, if you’re wondering if the smoke alarm placement bothers me, the answer is YES but the previous owners hardwired it there and we’re not going to move it right now so I’m learning to deal with it. Win some, lose some!

Okay back to the sconces. They are from Illuminate Vintage, a small business out of Houston that I discovered and fell in love with. Made in the USA, conscious of sustainability, gorgeous styles and high quality – sign me up! I was immediately drawn to these Erie sconces which feel modern and fun and I chose a raw brass finish that will patina over time.

When we come back from vacation, I need to paint the ceiling, hang curtains, replace the baseboards, install window trim, and the big one: complete my Ikea dresser hack! It’s a tight timeline but I think we can pull it off!

Sources

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Foggy Day

Floral Sheets + Throw, both from Target (no link available)

Rug

Eucalyptus Stems

Wall Sconce

ORC Week Five: A Gorgeous Rug + Moody Paint Color

Another week of the One Room Challenge is complete and I’m very excited about the progress we’ve made!

Since last week, we’ve had a few elements added to the room that have made a big impact. First, our rug got delivered over the weekend and I am in LOVE.

This rug is from the new Chris Loves Julia x Loloi collection and I’m a big fan. The colors are amazing, the pattern is gorgeous, and the price cannot be beat (it’s pretty reasonable at full price but I managed to snag a 9 x 12 on sale for under $300 which was even better!)

Once I put the rug down, everything tied together instantly. The bedding and rug and bedframe just coordinate so well without feeling matchy-matchy. I love it so much!

The next big change was obviously the paint. I originally wanted to try out a limewash paint. Our bedroom is a very large room and I didn’t want to fill it with furniture and things on every wall, so the subtle interest that limewash brings to a space felt like the perfect way to create some movement throughout the room. I love this inspiration image!

I ordered some specialty paint chips and was narrowing down my color options when I realized that limewash is probably not going to be the right choice for right now. Justin and I plan to remodel the en suite bathroom in three years or so, and at that time we’ll be either expanding the bathroom or adding another closet which will cut into the bedroom. We’ll be adding a wall, which will change the shape of the room and likely lead to some shifting around of furniture. The problem with this is limewash doesn’t patch well. If we’re patching holes (likely moving sconces, etc) and adding walls, we’ll probably have to recoat the walls entirely. The paint is expensive and a little more labor-intensive so I’m going to wait until the room is reconfigured with the bathroom remodel and only limewash one time.

After debating and sampling nine different paint colors, I landed on Sherwin Williams Foggy Day in an eggshell finish. I love how it’s moody without making the room feel too dark and it gives a nice cozy let’s-stay-in-bed-all-day vibe. Perfect for a bedroom!

I also like that it plays off the colors in the bed frame, bedding, and rug. It feels like a monochromatic look with just enough contrast to stay interesting.

I will say it’s really hard to capture the color correctly on screen; the picture above makes it seem a little more vibrant blue with hints of teal where really it feels more like a blue gray in person. I’m going to play around with my camera settings to try to get a more accurate photo for next time.

I have a few more areas of the wall to paint and I also need to give the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint. Our sconces came in this past week so we need to hang them, and now that the paint is chosen I’m ready to pick curtains. Then it’ll be new baseboards and window trim and working on our dresser (if you’ve been following along in stories, you know I’m going to update an Ikea Hemnes dresser into my dream modern dresser). I’m not sure how much I’ll get done this next week because we’re actually leaving for vacation Sunday (looooooong-awaited!!!) but I still have three days left so hopefully we’ll make some more progress!

Be sure to check out all the other ORC participants here.

Sources

Wall Color:

Floral Sheets + Throw, both from Target (no link available)

Rug

Eucalyptus Stems

ORC Week Four: Cozy Layers on Our New Bed

It’s week four of the One Room Challenge and it’s hard to believe, but we’ve reached the halfway point. I feel like this past week was a productive one, but there is still SO much to do in the next four weeks!

This past week, my focus was on our bed. We’ve had our adjustable base for a couple weeks now, but both our bed frame and mattress finally got delivered so we could put everything together!

We’ve known we wanted to update our bed for a long time now, so I’ve been looking at beds and headboards for months. I really wanted an upholstered headboard in a dark moody color and I didn’t want it to have lots of detail. We also didn’t want a low profile bed or a short headboard – it doesn’t seem like this is a huge list but it was really hard to find something that fit my criteria! Finally I came across this one and it was love at first sight. The streamlined look was just perfect and while I originally thought I wanted green, I’m so happy with the navy color! It says online that it doesn’t work with an adjustable bed, but we just didn’t put the slats in the middle and our adjustable bed fit perfectly!

I love the look of crisp white bedding, but I knew that wouldn’t be a practical solution for us. Honestly, I don’t know how people keep white sheets and blankets so clean! Maybe Justin and I just have oily faces or something, but pillowcases always tend to discolor a bit over time? Plus, we have kids and dogs in and out of our room all day – white sheets just aren’t something we’re going to do. Since the headboard is a neutral backdrop, I wanted to have some fun with colors and patterns. It took playing around a big and trying some different arrangements, but I finally found a combination I really like!

I love the mix of graphic prints on the accent pillows mixed with the floral print on the sheets. It provides just the right amount of interest and contrast without seeming too busy for me.

We also did a little nightstand swap – our nightstands went down to the guest room and the guest room nightstands came up here. We’re definitely enjoying the increased drawer space and I think the larger nightstands (these are about 2 inches wider and 1.5 inches taller) feel like a better scale with the king bed.

This progress feels good and we’re loving the new bed, but we still have several things to tackle. My to-do list still includes: paint (a paint chip deck I’ve been waiting on has finally shipped and should be here soon!), baseboards, sconces, rug, curtains, and finding a new dresser and vanity table. I forsee some thrifting in my very near future . . .

Be sure to check out the other ORC participants here!

Bedroom Sources

Floral Sheets + Throw, both from Target (no link available)

Guest Bedroom Reveal

For the past 3+ months, we’ve been working on updating the guest space in our home and everything is finally finished! I could not be happier with the transformation and I’m so excited to finally share how the space looks now.

Welcome to our guest room!

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When we first moved in, I knew this area was the first major renovation I wanted to tackle. This basement bedroom was a natural choice for a guest room, but there were some pretty major things to address: no window, dark walls, odd outlet placements (why is there an outlet halfway up the left wall??), and of course, that wallpaper.

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The biggest change we made was to add a window to bring in natural light and make it a legal bedroom. Luckily, even though it is in the basement, only the bottom half of the wall is foundation/underground so our contractor could add it without much extra hassle to the exterior. The natural light is mostly indirect due to the angle of house and the fact that the window is behind our back deck, but it still makes a huge difference.

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I also knew from the very beginning that I wanted to nix the wallpaper, brighten up the walls, and add board and batten to make the half-wall into a feature, which ended up doubling as a headboard. I love how it turned out!

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Justin cut down, sanded, and stained a nice thick slab of white oak for the top of the wall, which provides not only a shelf for plants and simple decor, but also extra space for guests to place things if needed. And did you notice the artwork giving a little nod to the room’s original decor? Much more my style!

There wasn’t a way to fit a dresser in the room without it seeming crowded, so on the wall opposite the bed we converted the built-in TV cabinet to a linen closet for guest use and to hold extra towels, blankets, pillows, etc. You can read all about that full project in this blog post.

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We also swapped out all the old trim – I wanted a much thicker look and it actually made the room seem bigger and the ceiling higher! – and painted it in a soft contrasting color. I didn’t want too stark of a contrast, so at first we had it painted just a shade or two darker than the walls. but it didn’t end up providing quite enough contrast for me. I chose to lighten up my favorite shade of gray to 75% and repaint all the trim and doors and I’m so much happier with the contrast now.

Even though there isn’t room for a dresser, I still wanted a space for guests to sit and get ready. I had a narrow table from the entryway of my previous home and, when paired with a mirror and chair, it was just right to use as a small vanity. It also solved the problem of what to do with this awkward little angled wall – win win!

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A wider desk would have been too clunky in the space, but this is thin enough to work and still provide space for jewelry, make-up, etc.

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There is an en suite bathroom, but that bathroom is the only one in the basement so it is frequently used even when we don’t have guests. Because of this, the room sort of doubles as a hallway to the bathroom. I wrote all about the bathroom renovation here.

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When it came to furnishing the room, we did get some new things but I also tried to shop our home as much as possible. A lot of the frames, books, candles, tchotchkes are things I’ve collected over the years. It’s fun for me to find ways to mix new things with the old!

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I plan to share a post of all we learned from this experience at some point, but for now, I’m just going to enjoy soaking up this new space. 🙂

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Thanks so much for following along with this fun renovation!

Sources

(Note: I provided non-affiliate links to everything I could, but many things were either thrifted, bought from a store with ever-changing inventory like TJ Maxx, or bought years ago.)

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster

Trim/Door Color: Sherwin Williams Repose Gray (tinted at 75%)

Window Trim Color: Sherwin Williams Dot to Dot (this was the original trim color, which we painted over on all the trim but kept around the window)

Linen Closet Color: Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay

Linen Closet door handles: Rejuvenation

Linen Closet drawer pulls: Rejuvenation

Round Mirror: Home Goods

Vanity Table: World Market (similar)

Chair: Target

Bedding: Home Goods

Sheets: TJ Maxx

Nightstands: Wayfair

Lamps: Target

Lampshades: Target

Magnolia Candle: Target

Alarm Clock: Target

Window Roller Shade: Graber

Lily Prints: Juniper Print Shop here and here

Lily Print Frames: Ikea

Ballerina Print: Juniper Print Shop