DIY Day

My latest DIY projects have been geared toward to making my middle son's room a bit more inviting.
Here's a photo of me and my son.


I love this picture because you get an idea of what a cutie he is--and just how huge he is. I am also shamelessly loving this photo I look so cute and tiny, but that's mostly because my son is 6'8". Anyway, my vanity aside: those of you who have little boys, take note. Some day--a day which will come soon--you'll be smaller than they are.

Back when my boys were small, I found decorating their rooms so much easier. For instance, when they were really into fishing, I hung cafe curtains at the bottom of their windows and bamboo fishing poles across the tops of their windows. It looked cute (which pleased me) and it reflected their interests (which pleased them). Now that my guys are older, most of the decorating of their rooms is up to them.
Recently, though, my 16-year-old asked that we pay some special attention to his room. He has a large bedroom down on the "terrace" (aka walk-out basement) level of our home. The first decision was a color to paint his walls, which were previously a very dirty version of the neutral used throughout the non-colored parts of our house. We chose to paint the walls the color of the bags from Restoration Hardware. Very scientific, huh? Actually, I've learned since then that Restoration Hardware carries a paint called "Silver Sage" that's pretty much this color. At the time we did the job, I was in a bit of rush at the paint store and ended up just choosing a color from the Benjamin Moore fandeck, and we were happy with the result. We went with HC-144, Palladian Blue.

He was using an old headboard from a Swedish furniture store--blond wood slats, stainless steel frame.


A good quality bed, but not the traditional look he wanted. So I stapled foam and then leather-looking vinyl to the frame to create an upholstered headboard. Nothing special, but better than the slats.

While I was at my discount fabric store shopping for vinyl for the headboard, I spotted some wonderful striped fabric in the remnants section. Now, my fabric store charges just $7.99/yard for decorator fabrics--and that's the REGULAR price. Remnants are discounted to $3.99/yard. So I bought 3 1/2 yards of striped fabric for just $14.00. Here's what I made:


Large Euro shams for his bed (using the elementary sewing skills I posted about here) and valances for his windows.

Here's a closer look at the valances. They're very simple: I folded up and hot-glued a hem onto a length of fabric, then just folded in a simple box pleat. The only sewing involved was to sew a rod pocket for the curtain rod.




Some of my favorite bloggers, including Nester and Sarah, have stressed the importance of hanging window treatments ABOVE the windows, thereby not blocking the natural light. Why, they have asked, do people place their window treatments where the natural light from the window is blocked? Well, while doing this project, I discovered one reason why. Because the curtain rods say that you should mount the rods to the casing around the windows. After all, you can't just hang curtain rods on drywall, can you? So I dutifully hung these valances right on the window casing. . . and I discovered that Nester and Sarah are right! You do lose some of the priceless natural light! Solution? Use drywall anchors to mount your curtain rods, and put them wherever you want them.

I'm tickled with these fun little touches that I've added to my son's room. And I think that he was pleased that I spent my time working on this project just for him.

Check out all the fun projects at DIY Day!