updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 4

This is week four of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition.

The room is shaping up,
I painted the walls a nice blue color,
I made some retro/modern curtains.

And this is what I worked on this week:

a big armoire transformation.


I had wanted to update this large armoire
that we used to store alcohols and wine
into a cool bar for quite some time but never got around to it....



I would have loved to have one of this cool bar piece of furniture,
like those in the picture below:

Pics from PB and Pinterest,
neat right?!

But instead we had this large, old TV armoire (from 2002-2003),
one of our most expensive piece of furniture from Ethan Allen,
real wood and super heavy, so we are keeping it.
It had made it through all the moves,
and had changed rooms in this house a few times
(but no floor change!)

It had good bones:

I was inspired by this transformation by Shine Your Light,
and made this:



Much better right?
I still need to attach a back and some light,
and some extra details,
but it is already much more user friendly!

The shelf was built out of 1 x 12 (recovered from the tired down basement).
And like in my inspiration I used T molding from flooring transitions
to attach the glasses.

I also built 2 "trays" to hold the wine bottles in the cubbies below the main part:


very simply made, with 1/4 inch plywood, 1 x 2 and 3/4 inch square pieces of wood.
They slide nicely in the cubbies, keeping the bottles safe and sound.




It is nice to keep the doors opened instead of hiding everything inside,
but the doors can still be closed, especially nice when kids are over.

I am so glad this One Room Challenge is forcing me
to tackle projects that I have been wanting to work on for a long time.

Hopefully I can take on one of those project:
the fireplace!

Until next week,
Happy DIYing!

    

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 3

This is week three of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition, pretty much the half way point. And we have progress!

Last week there was new paint, this week, there are curtains!
Well they are almost finished, I still need to hem them but what a difference it makes in the room:

Do not pay attention to the pins, and they are still a little too long, because of their weight, they stretched a little!
The main fabric is from Fabric.com, a linen/cotton mix in indigo, with a cool retro vibe.
And now I remember why, 7 years ago, when we moved into this house I decided to not make curtains and instead use dropcloths, this was so much work, and so much fabric:
12 yards of prints, 3 yards of blue, 12 yards of lining fabric! 4 panels for 2 windows....many hours of sewing and ironing!
And I changed my mind halfway through the project, after making 1 full panel....so a fair amount of unstitching.

The addition of the blue made them perfect! And a little wider, as my windows are extra wide (8 feet wide) I cannot make double width curtains as the windows take the all space, there is basically no walls around them, no space for extra fabric storage.

I made them quite simply, just like in the kitchen, pillowcase style: I cut a 3 yard panel from my linen print,  I cut a 6.5 inch wide band (3 yard long)  out of the blue fabric, and stitched them together. Then I ironed that seam toward the blue, and topstitched it. 

Then I cut a 3 yard panel out of the lining fabric,

and stitched both sides to my previous panel.

I ironed everything, making sure there is a little bit of print fabric on the back side,

and keeping some blue fabric on the other side of the backside,

so there is no way to see the lining on the front.

Finally the lining and print/blue fabric are stitched at the top, wrong side together.

Everything is turned right side out, and once again ironed.

And it could be done right there if you want to use the pinching clip,

but I want it a little more refined and did not want to see the crocodile clip.

So I used a special band: Dritz clip ring tape,

that I sewed in the back, and attached the clip to it.

It also had some extra stability to the top of the curtains as they are quite heavy.
For the 2 other windows in this large L shaped room, I purchased some cotton velvet curtains from IKEA: Merete in beige, the color is a good match to the linen.

Lou says Hi!
Now I am debating adding a piece of blue to them, not sure. They look good with the fireplace.

That window is also smaller, so these curtains are wide enough, but they would be to small on the other windows.
Now I would love to do something to the fireplace, like installing a mantel, but it is going to have to wait for a while, as I am planning on making over an armoire!
Here is my original inspiration board:

Until next week,

Happy DIYing!

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 2

This is week 2 of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition, and like most people I started with paint:  

We went from Cricket green to Palladian blue and the room is so much brighter!

 This is going to be perfect later in the season

when all of the trees get their leaves and the house gets darker!

I decided to paint the under window the trim color (ivory ish) instead of the wall color. I also spend some time recaulking everything, the work was a little rough under the windows, (it is not original to the house),  I think some of the trims were painted for the first time!

The other side of the large L shaped room is also looking bright and fresh, and very naked! here is the reminder for my inspiration:
It is going to be time to put up some art and curtains .... Until next week,
Happy DIYing!

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 1

Once again, I decided to participate in the One Room Challenge.

It is a little crazy timewise,

but it is a great motivator to finish a room.

This time around I will be working on the living/dining room,

which has not been updated in 7 years.

Before we look at the before pictures,

I want to share my mood board, much prettier:

here are the resources for most of pieces:

Sideboard, curtain fabric, lamp base, basket, faux olive tree.  poster, and the chairs

Now let's look at the before pictures of the living room:

we eat dinner here every night.

The living/dining received a nice makeover shortly after we moved in,

but not much changed after that:

1/2: paint the living room 3: dropcloth curtains
We have a very open concept house, with the family room just right off the dining room

1:seating room  2: coffee table

and right off there is the office/fireplace:

It is a large L shaped, so everything needs to work together.

Let's look back at the mood board again

and see if we can make sense of it all:

It is quite eclectic but I like many things,

and I want to incorporate them all:

my love of Provence (olive tree), living in a modern 60's home (curtains)

a little country (sideboard) and DC (poster)!

Hopefully it will all work out....

This will be my fifth participation to the ORC: My alfresco patio:

My baking corner:

My teenager's bedroom:

My master suite:


So I am off waiting this large room.... it is going to take a while! Happy DIYing!