How to Organize a Craft Room!

Nicole Balch has some great and inexpensive ways to keep A LOT of things organized in her {studio}. I especially love her use of these inexpensive closet organizers!


Everything has a place, and it still looks so glamorous!

Finished Nursery Curtains

To see the origin of this post, click HERE.

They're done and I LOVE them! I could not be more proud. Funny how accomplishing a little project makes you so happy. :) So, here is what his crib bedding looks like. So this is what I was trying to match. I totally used the tutorial I found to get the measurements right. I made it almost twice as long as the window. I also followed the tutorial in stitching the bottom border - except I didn't do a blind hem stitch because the bedding has a top stitch, so I wanted it to match, and it's easier. :) The bumper has a little strip of pokadots at the top of it, so I decided to incorporate that into the valance I made. It's how I stitched the striped fabric to the liner - which was just some light blue fabric I had lying around. And then I made tabs and topstitched them so they'd have that cute white threaded border, and stitched them to the back of the pokadot strip at the top. I used that button idea I found to sew the tabs onto the front of the valance - using embroidery floss. They don't unbotton, but I figured I'd never want to do that anyway. Then I just got my hubby to mount this curtain rod, and up they went. They look cute, don't they? I think curtains bring so much charm into a room.

Toy Box

Love these {ideas} from Martha! I especially love the mirror! I have a piano in my nursery that doesn't have a bench. I'm thinking of getting a toy box to serve as a toy box and as a piano bench. I just need to make sure it's the right height - either buy one or have my sweetie make one and then just upholster the top to make it nice and cushy! The great thing is that Martha tells us how to make a toy box AND how to make it cute. What a gal. Really cute idea.

Wooden Toys

I think wooden toys are so cute for a little boys room. Right now, I just want them for decorations. But, hey they could be fun toys for later on. So, I got online and started looking for some wooden toys.  I just want something simple like these: {Northwest Toy Crafters} makes these little cuties and sells them for about $6 each. Bargain! They're small - about 6" long - but they're stinkin cute!! All the wheels turn, too. They also sell trains, cars, and building blocks for pretty good deals. This train is about $30. So, unless I can find a place around here with a comparable deal, this is my store! They're actually located in Spokane, Washington and they allow people to just pick up merchandice too...I may be making a call to my cousin... We'll see.

Laundry Room

Our laundry room is basically the back end of our garage walled in...cement floor, single pane windows, not much insulation...you get the picture. Even though it's a fairly good size for a house as small as mine, it's pretty yucky. Although I'm very grateful to have a laundry room, someday I hope it looks much more like this.
I LOVE front loader washers and dryers. For one thing, they wash your clothes better, for another they're more energy efficient = cost less to use, they also look so cute, don't you think? However, I like them most because, as shown in this picture, you can put a countertop above them! I totally want this someday. I love the idea of being able to fold laundry right there. I'd probably make the counter stretch a bit longer than this one does, actually I love the idea of having a counter go all the way around the room. I'd also put cubbie holes in the wall behind the counter with baskets in them for each person like my aunt does. Great idea! I also love how this room by Saucy Dragonfly has a hanging rod right there to hang wet clothes on. The painted wood paneling gives this room a beachy, summer feel - I love the soft yellow. It makes this laundry room seem like a place I would actually want to spend time in. Crazy! I love the sweetness of this laundry room. It's so cute!!
An island like this is also a great idea!!

And I'm loving how these laundry rooms have windows right above the washer and dryer. It just makes the space look so much more inviting. And those flowers add a lot too.

Why don't we make the room we spend so much time in as lovely as these!

Pokadot Party

This is such a cute idea from Inchmark! A {pokadot party}. It's a great idea for girls AND boys of all ages and I think it looks really easy to do. I love it. This is such a cute {cake} idea, too.
So cute!

Lamp

What a cute lamp! This one is made entirely out of ceramic so it's pretty pricey, but it looks like it would be easy to glue flowers to a normal lamp base in this spiral pattern.  I love how pretty it is and how the lamp shade is simple, so it really stands out.  Should probably use diamond glue or some other brand of embelishment glue, just so they stay on really well. I think it would make such a statement in a little girls room. Now, I just need a little girl... I've been trying to think of something that would be as cute for a boys room... Maybe buttons glued on in that same spiral pattern. I don't like it as much though... Someday a little girl and all girly things that come with her...

Fabric Memory Game

Wondering what to do with all those leftover fabric scraps? Inchmark has this great idea to make your own {memory game}. I think it's really cute. Look at all the colors! I think it would be extra fun to use scraps with different textures on them so kids can feel them, too.
To make this, I'd either buy some thick cardboard and decoupage the paper to it, then cover everything besides the fabric with decoupage to make the cards last longer.
OR I'd get wooden coasters and glue the fabric to the indented area where the cup usually sits. Then they'd last forever!!

Nursery Letters continued...

To see the origin of this post, click {here}.
Ok, so I ordered the letters in MDF because I knew I was going to paint them and MDF was the cheapest wood. They make you pay for all the letters in the size of the tallest letter - so like the J is taller than all the other ones in Jason's name. But I didn't want to pay for 4 tall letters when they were all the same shorter height so I ordered an 8" J and 5" everything else to save some money. I think I could have ordered them even smaller, but I just didn't know. I honestly went by what Potterybarn Kid's letter sizes are. I love the font I found : Clarendon Medium because I wanted the little balls on the edges of the letters. They're SO cute!! They got here and they looked like this. And then I just painted them white with trim paint for our house - yes I did - and a sponge brush trying to make as little brush strokes as possible. They look great! Now I just have to figure out how to hang them on the wall... I'm thinking velcro...or ribbons from hooks. Any ideas?
PS: yes, I got an upper AND lower case "J" and I still don't know which one I'm using. :)
To be continued again...

Rag Blanket

I don't know why I love this blanket so much, but there's a good chance it's just because that little girl is so cute! I love the bright colors - they totally remind me of summer time - and all the chic fabrics. I guess that's how it made it's way onto Chic Mommy Finds. I love her ideas. I wish she was still posting. I've seen many blankets like this, but I've never liked them as much as this one. Here's a boy version. For some reason the girl one just is so much cuter to me! But they're both really cute. I couldn't find Cowboys and Angels on Etsy...maybe it isn't there anymore. Future project: Make a rag blanket using "grown-up" fabrics and bright colors. Love it!

Bathrooms

Dionne! I'm glad your enjoying this. I sure am! :) It's fun to get a request. I feel so professional! haha. Until I realize I'm just copying other ideas that are already out there. I'm sure you have many ideas because of what you're doing right now. You should share them, too!

I haven't really been focusing on bathrooms because our tiny house only has one and it's tiny, so we can't do much with it. However, someday I hope to be able to use these ideas:

I think the most important thing in a bathroom is light. I love a lot of natural light especially when I get ready in the morning. I think it makes bathrooms feel cleaner, too. This Potterybarn room caught my eye. It just looks like summer! Of course, it is by a pool. But I love the windows and the natural feeling of the room. I also like the towel idea - hooks are better than rods when you have a lot of towels to hang up.
I also love this idea from Potterybarn of a skylight above the bathroom sink. What a great way to get more natural light in. The only thing I would change is to have sconces on the walls next to the mirrors instead of above them. Then you have lighting coming from above and around you, so you don't look like you're covered in shadows as you look in the mirror. Just something I learned in my design classes...put sconces beside the mirrors. My Dad's master bathroom has some of the best lighting I've seen, but it doesn't have lights next to the mirrors. It has windows directly behind the mirrors pouring light into the room, though and with all the mirrors, it's reflected all around the room. And then they have recessed lighting shining down. I also LOVE the dark wood floor for a bathroom. You don't see that very often and I think it looks really nice and cozy.

Niches are a great idea for bathrooms, too. I like the one in the picture above, and this bathroom pictured on Better Homes and Gardens has some good niche ideas too. These are great because they don't take up any floor space but offer so much storage space! And they look pretty easy to add. Just demo a wall between two support beams and frame it out with shelves inside.
I love this Potterybarn (yes, again) idea for a kids bathroom. I love the shelves running all around the room. I think seashells are so cute, but I think you could also put family pictures and souveneirs on them. Little furniture pieces instead of built-in vanities make a bathroom look really quaint. I like these in this bathroom. One for each kid, maybe. :) Not very practial, but cute. There are some furniture pieces in bathrooms above as well. I think they make bathrooms look more cozy.

This ladder towel rack idea from The Beach Cottage is a good one. This one is a bit rustic for my taste, but I like the idea. I think you'd have to anchor it to the floor or wall though, just to be safe. It seems like it could store a lot of towels.
And this one from Plushpod.com is probably too modern for me, but something inbetween would work really well.
This is probably my favorite bathroom - thank you PB...yet again. I love the colors. This is probably how I'd want my master bath to feel...someday. :) I think bead board belongs in a bathroom. It looks so good! And topping it with a ledge like this is a really good idea. Great storage and decoration - just built in! I like two sinks and also love the idea of having two separate "his and hers" mirrors instead of one big one. The separate ones make a great architectural design statement - framed mirrors in general look better than just mirrors on the wall. You can make a mirror on the wall look great by framing it with molding. So cheap and easy.

Other than that, I love storing things in baskets and clear and chrome canisters. Keeps things organized and still looking good. I also love storage cabinets like these from PB.

Master Bedroom Bedding Continued...

To get the origin of this post, click {here}

Martha had a great idea on her site to make a {duvet cover} by sewing together two flat sheets. What an easy idea! Now I just need to find some sheets I love. Then, I might add ribbon or other embelishes to fancy it up. To be continued again...

Nursery Curtains

I bought my crib set from Target when it was on clearance so not all of the collection were there. I got an extra crib skirt and sheet to make a curtain out of and maybe some other things later. Since then, I've been trying to decide how I want my curtain to look. Here are some cute ideas I've found.
WeeBabyStuff.com had this idea from Scrapbooks Ect. I think the buttons are so cute! I want to do just a valance, and I found a pretty good tutorial, HERE except I'll do the straps and buttons instead of a gathered casing at the top.
Ehow knows everything I love that website! The fabrics I have are one that's brown with white pokadots and one that's blue stripes. I think I'm going to do the straps and a strip at the top out of the pokadots, have the stripes in the middle, and then to a strip of pokadots at the bottom. Or just the opposite. What to do...

Necklace Rack

I've tried many things to store my necklaces. The problem is they always get so tangled up. A little while ago, I noticed my sister keeps all of her necklaces hanging on a belt rack in her closet. Inspiration!! I don't have space in my tiny closet, so I'm on the lookout for a nice looking hook rack I can hang on the wall in my bedroom. To be continued...

Master Bedroom Bedding

I'm a Potterybarn junkie. I love looking at their room designs. Lately, I've been entertaining the idea of getting some nice bedding for our bedroom. I've tried several color schemes out, but I'm coming to realize that I like a crisp, clean feeling in my bedroom where there aren't many colors involved. Here are a few of my inspirations for what I'd like to do.



Here is a lovely I saw on Marley and Lockyer. It's really pretty, and has that light bedding but with dark walls. I like it. I think it would feel comfortable in both warm and cool weather.
I also love this episode of Divine Design. Candice Olson does a great job redesigning this huge bedroom. Of course, mine would never look like this, but I really like the overall feeling of the room.

This one is from HGTV Canada's show Pure Design and I really like the bed. I like the colors used and that duvet cover is awesome! I guess I like a lot of texture in bedding.
And this one is just lovely!!

Lately, I've been thinking of just making my own duvet cover and pillow shams. They're just rectangles, right? So, I'm off to the Home Fabric store to see if they have what I'm envisioning. To be continued...as almost all of these posts are. :)

Nursery Letters

Potterybarn Kids sell these cute letters to use to put your child's name on the wall. I think they're really cute in lowercase as shown.
It's hard to find lowercase letters anywhere for a bargain so I began searching online. I found a golden website:

{Wholesalelettering.com}

They will make letters for you in almost any font, in many different sizes, three different thicknesses, out of many different woods. They make them for use indoor and outdoor, and they'll paint them for you if you want. It's all very inexpensive. It took me a while to find a font on their website that I liked, but I just got my son's name in the mail and could not be more pleased. I decided to paint them, so I'll need to do that, and then I just need to figure out how I'm going to hang them on the wall. To be continued...

Bookshelf

I found some bookshelves that stack the books so the cover is facing out and I think that's a great idea for little kids. Then, they can see what each book is and stacking doesn't have to be so precise. This put me on the lookout for bookshelves like these. I found this one at Land of Nod for a pretty reasonable price:
Walmart sells this taller one that I thought would be more practical because it would hold more books:

As I browsed the Walmart site, I found this one:

I love the idea of storing books in canvas! It got me thinking that I should make a bookshelf with canvas fabric and a wooden ladder. I'd use neutral canvas, and sew fabric to hang as swags between the ladder rungs. Easy to make, the books are front facing, and it's a soft and quiet solution for storing books. Future project!