Windows To My Soul

The windows to my soul, well not exactly. However, the windows to my bedroom are finally dressed, and ready to show themselves off, and I've officially closed the books on this project! In the past months I've: changed out the curtains twice; spackled the sills and painted them white; tore open the plaster on the sills, patched them back up, and painted them gray; hung and rehung the curtain rods at least 20 different times; added curtain tie backs, only to decide I preferred none; continually patched and re-patched all the holes I made, not to mention sanded and painted each of these patched holes; and traveled up and down the ladder one too many times. The windows now each have one set of blinds on them, and a floor length curtain... and I'm finally happy with them!

When I moved in I inherited the rather awkward "curtains" pictured on the left. They weren't really curtains, but they were pieces of ugly fish fabric, with holes cut in the top to fit a curtain rod. My first attempt at painting and patching up the uneven sills was a bust, and unfortunately required a second round of DIY fun!

I guess I should probably mention that attempt number two was probably required due to my tendency to poke and prod at chipping paint and bubbling plaster, but oh well. And now in an attempt to distract you from this fact... doesn't that bucket of plaster just look like so much fun to play in... kind of like marshmallow fluff... but not as tasty!

And finally the completed project! The blinds cover up the lumpiness of the quicky fix it job I did, and in the end I actually think that all the plaster I had to slap back up on the sills made them sturdy enough to hold the blinds in place (I am keeping my fingers crossed they don't fall out though, just in case!). 

MIA/DIY

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately. I haven't quite been able to get myself back into blogging mode since the holidays ended. It was so nice to be home for all those weeks, and now that I am back in Brooklyn I'm staring down a HUGE pile of projects that need to get finished (and some that need to get started too for that matter). I am notorious for starting a project, getting about half way done, and then calling it quits. Because of this, one of my New Year's resolutions is that I am not allowed to start a new DIY project until I have completed ALL the unfinished ones I currently have going. So instead of blogging these last few weeks I've been hopping about The Apartment, trying to finish many of my unsolved projects.

I finished painting the storage buckets that sit on top of our kitchen cabinets. Now you can't see what we're hiding in them (wink, wink). However, in all actuality, they are currently empty (except for a few paper napkins)!

I also jazzed up our front door with some chalkboard paint. Originally the door was a hideous shade of forest green, and for some time we actually thought we would just leave it like that. However, the more we stared at it the more we grew to hate it. A few coats of chalkboard paint later though, and we've gone from drab to fab (and we now have an awesome, and totally handy, place to leave notes)!

I'm now working on the windows in my bedroom (stay tuned for a future post on that one), but I also managed to finish painting the kitchen, fix a few other odds and ends, and have a fabulous day out with a few of my good friends (I totally regret though that I didn't bring my camera along, because some of the places we went were TOTALLY Swoonette worthy!). There is still so much to do, but one little step at a time!

IKEA Hacks

So... What's a girl to do on a tight budget, with an empty apartment, and a specific design vision? Why hack her way through the IKEA store of course! As this is my first apartment, I have SO much furniture that I need to buy, and that is where IKEA comes in handy. I love their stuff, but when buying it in mass quantity it can often leave one's home looking a bit IKEAtastic and like one of the pages from their catalog! Hence why I took it upon myself to hack several of the IKEA accessory items that I had purchased. This way I could have an item that matched the design style I was going for, but was still in my price range. Why none of my IKEA hacks are earth shattering, and I don't even technically consider them hacks (more like stylish embellishments!), I do think they show how you can customize a very ordinary IKEA item and make it something totally stylish and unique. 

The Lamp: I had been wanting a mercury glass lamp forever, but all of the ones I found were in the 100+ dollar price range (way out of my budget for a lamp!). Then I stumbled upon some DIY instructions over at Weddingbee Pro, and I started to get excited. Perhaps a mercury glass lamp wasn't out of the picture after all! Then I came across the Jonsbo Orod lamp at IKEA and my dream came true! The mirror glass spray paint proved a bit tricky to find (try looking in the glass painting section of your craft store though - NOT the spray paint section, which is where my "issues" stemmed from), but once I found it the lamp was super easy to make and it looks incredible in person!! 

The Boxes: I wanted some sort of stylish storage on the cheap, and something that looked a bit different than say a wicker basket, but also something that in a couple years if it fell apart or I needed to get rid of it I wouldn't necessarily be super upset. I love the look of the Kassett boxes, but none of the colors matched the look I wanted to achieve. Anyways, I snatched up several of the white ones and decided to think upon how to make them special. Then I remembered I had some great wrapping paper at home. So with my trusty glue stick in hand I went to work. I covered the boxes pre-assembly and then used an exacto knife to cut around the silver details. End result = AMAZING! 

The Curtains: We have really tall ceilings in our apartment. And really LARGE (which is totally awesome) but very BORING windows. We knew we wanted to dress up our space with splashes of hot pink, and IKEA was stocking products in just the shade we were looking for! We picked up a pair of the Felicia curtains in dark pink and a pair of the Aina curtains in the unbleached fabric (which totally fit our need to provide a bit of privacy in our front room but  still let in the natural light which is so amazing in our space). Since the Aina curtains weren't anywhere near long enough to fit our windows we chopped up the Felicia curtains and used them as fabric. By adding the hot pink on the bottom we created a curtain that looks extra special. It now pulls the room together by adding an extra pop of our accent color. The curtains are now long enough to puddle on the floor and with the added sparkle of the Felicia "fabric" we got the sophisticated somewhat casual glamourous look we wanted... and what girl doesn't want a little glamour in her life! 

The Pillow: I can't take credit for this one, as it is all the roommate's doing, but I will fill you in on what she did. It is simply the Felicia curtains again cut up and used as fabric and sewn into a pillow case, inside is a pillow form from IKEA (although I can't figure out which one it is from online... sorry). In order to make the pillow have that little something extra, my roommate cut up the tie back (it's the same hot pink as the curtains but it has this really incredible gold flowery swirl pattern all over it) and attached a strip of it to the front of the pillow. Voilà! 

So... Swoonette says:

• Don't judge an IKEA product by it's looks and function, instead think of IKEA as a place to purchase "materials"
• Don't be afraid to cut things up, paint things, or add on any embellishments that you may like
• The fact that IKEA products come disassembled makes it easier to be more creative 
• Since IKEA furniture is fairly inexpensive, and far from a family heirloom, there is no need to become distraught by hacking away at things  
• And if you need a little extra inspiration be sure to check out IKEA hacker