Home Decor

Knock Off West Elm Curtains

I’m excited to kick of “A Week of Curtains” by sharing my most recent Knock Off! I love West Elm… I mean I probably browse through their site at least twice a week and I’ve been drooling over these curtains. My living room is being transformed piece by piece and the next step really needed to be window treatments. Last week we had our first snow so it was the perfect day to get to work on my DIY version. It’s really AMAZING how your entire room feels complete once you add curtains to it. Just take a look……

{new curtains}

Mine turned out a little more shabby chic than the West Elm version but I think they fit well in the room.

{before curtains}

Do ya wanna make your own? Here is the break down……

The List

Paint drop cloth from hardware store – this is what I used for my fabric to achieve more of the shabby chic look

I used an off white latex paint – the same paint I put on my ceiling.

high density foam roller

paint tray

Stencil – I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby

durable paper/cardboard to put under your curtains

Start at the very top left corner of your fabric. I had my stencil off the fabric just a bit so it doesn’t look too perfect.Lightly coat your foam roller with paint. Start at the top/middle part of the stencil and go down only. If you feel like it needs more coverage do it again but don’t add more paint to your roller. Do each side of the stencil the same way. It’s really ok if each stencil is different. I had some that were heavily coated and others that were slightly coated.

I don’t measure….that’s all ;) lol No really I hate wasting time trying to figure out measurements. They generally don’t work out right for me anyway. This is how I made sure my stencils were in the right place every time. I used the tip of the painted portion and aligned it with the tip of the cut out stencil. My spacing was done by placing the top of my stencil right under the one I just painted.

I went down a few rows and then started going across. On the 2nd row over I placed my stencil half way lower than the one painted on the 1st row to offset things a little. Again, it wasn’t measured and I’m sure its not spot on perfect but I like imperfection!

Once you reach the other side of your fabric just align your stencil and finish it off. You want your stencil to look like its running off the fabric i.e. it was printed from a store not perfectly placed there by hand.

The fully stenciled fabric. You will need to let it dry for a few hours. Make sure it’s not wet before you move the fabric around.

Once your fabric is dry fold it in half and cut down the fold. I didn’t take pictures of every sewing step. Sorry! Sew a 1/4 inch seam down each cut side. Fold the top of each panel down to create the opening for your rod. I did about 2 1/2 inches. Sew a 1/4 inch seam to create the opening for your rod. Now go HANG THOSE CURTAINS!

Make sure you stop by tomorrow! I’ll be sharing some awesome curtain hanging tips from Kirsten Krason at 6th Street Design School.

Another picture…. just for fun ;)

linking up with these great bloggers

Author name:: Erin
Discussion:: 28 Comments

Living Room Curtains

I hope you had a fantastic Halloween night! Ours was perfect for trick or treating with temperatures in the 50′s! Don’t be too jealous…. we woke up to snow here in Utah this morning :/ Since it’s freezing ,we are all stuck inside today, so I may or may not be working on my knock off version of these beauties right now!

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Next week will be a week full of curtains! I will share my Knock Off West Elm Curtains with you then! I will also share other awesome curtain ideas and some great hanging tips!

Author name:: Erin
Discussion:: 3 Comments

Basket Chandelier

I’ve been dying to change out all of the standard builder lights in my home. I’ve been slowly working on my living room one piece at a time and the next step was the hideous light. That flush mount light was just down right horrid and I was really getting sick of staring at it. I found an awesome tutorial for this hanging basket chandelier over at Vintage Revivals. Mandi is one talented woman I tell ya! You should see what she just did to her neighbors living room.

Here is the “before” picture of the lovely flush mount light.

Here is the “after” with the hanging basket chandelier. Much better!

I covered my chain and cord with a cord cover. I think it warmed it up a little more.

My favorite thing about my new chandelier is the awesome shadows it casts onto the ceiling. It adds a little more detail when you flip on the switch! The other awesome thing about this light is the cost…. $25 bucks! I bought my old chandelier light from the DI thrift store and my two baskets from Lowe’s were about $20. You cant beat that! I now have a new problem…. I want to make one of these for every single room in my house! If you want to make one yourself head on over to Mandi’s site and check out her tutorial! Happy Friday!

Next up on the list…curtains!

linking up with these great bloggers

Author name:: Erin
Discussion:: 31 Comments

Anthropology Lamp Shade Tutorial

My promise to re-create this amazing lamp shade at a MUCH smaller price tag has happened! This lovely shade is available for $98 through Anthropology. EEEK a little to steep for just the shade don’t ya think! I’ve been searching for a lamp shade with good color and texture for a clients entry table; this was the perfect fix but not the perfect price tag.
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Introducing the knock off version…..

Here is what you need:

lamp shade
fabric (amount depends on size of shade, I used about 3/4 yd)
spray adhesive
hot glue gun
scissors
marker

1. remove all piping on the shade. 2. remove lamp shade (keeping it in tact) and trace (about an inch away) around shade onto fabric. 3. spray your lamp shade with a good amount of spray adhesive. cover about 3-4 inches at a time and fold fabric over it, pressing it to the shade to prevent bubbling and to help it stick. 4. cut the top of your fabric when necessary to allow it to fold properly.

5. cut excess fabric so you have about 1/2 inch strip left. 6. tuck your fabric under to create a clean crisp seam 7. Hot glue a line all the way up your lamp from top to bottom and press that seam down. 8. cut excess fabric from the top and bottom of the lamp so you have about 1/2 inch strip left. 9. leave a strip of glue where the rim of the shade is and press your seam down. you might have to roll your fabric on top of itself in some spots. 10. you should have a recovered shade
11. cut a leaf out of card stock. you want your leaf to be slightly smaller than half of your lamp shade. 12. start tracing your leaf onto your fabric. you will need quite a few leafs. I used about 30. 12.5 (refer to step 17 for picture) FRAY your leafs before gluing them on! 13. place a strip of hot glue all the way around the middle of your leaf and begin placing them on your shade. you want them to slightly touch in the middle and on the sides but not glued together. 14. you want to alternate where you place your flowers around the shade. at the open spots on the bottom and top place one to two leafs to fill in the gap. 15. there will be a few open spots but not many. here is what the first layer looks like complete.

16. cut down your card stock leaf so it will fit inside the first leaf you cut out. trace the same amount of smaller leafs as you did bigger. 17. FRAY your leafs again before gluing them. 18. place your smaller leaf inside each big leaf on your shade. you want them to be almost centered on each big leaf.
YOUR DONE! If you want your shade to be more messy and frayed just rub your finger tips roughly around the edges of each leaf (be careful not to pull them off). The entire lamp shade cost me $6.40. I made this for my client and she already had the shade and the lamp base. The lamp base was spray painted with Krylons Ivory in satin finish. The hot glue and spray adhesive were both already on hand. So what do you think about my 1st Anthro knock off?