What I Made From a Bed Sheet

The curtains that I have envisioned for about a year now finally came to be and found a home.  I am in love with the new curtains in the boys' shared room.  They turned out better than I thought they would and I had great expectations for them. :)

You may have guessed from the title of this post that I made the curtains from a king-sized flat bed sheet.  I bought the marimekko kivet sheet set on clearance from Crate and Barrel last winter and knew that I wanted to make something out of the flat sheet.  At first I thought I would turn it into a duvet cover and then the idea of curtains came to me.  I actually draped the sheet over the curtain rod in our bedroom and left it there for a few weeks to see if I liked it.  Now fast forward nearly a year later and my bed sheet curtains are finally done! 

image via crate and barrel

Since the curtains are made from a sheet (cut in half), I had to line them with a good weight cotton lining fabric.  This really helped them hang well and not look like I just hung up some sheets.  I took these photos on a really sunny day with direct sunlight shining through the curtains.  They let some light through, but are not sheer at all.

Another change that I added was to switch from a traditional drapery rod and rings to a super simple i-beam drapery track mounted to the ceiling.  It made all the difference in creating a more modern and simple look.  It also allowed me to extend each panel right to the ceiling making our 8 foot ceilings look taller.  To get the curtain tops as close to the ceiling as possible I sewed the drapery header tape about an inch down from the top of the fabric allowing the fabric to extend past the i-beam track.

Using the top edge of the sheet (the one you typically fold over to make your bed) as the hem saved me some time hemming.  I also am so happy with how the curtains just skim the floor.  I took a little extra effort to measure the length really well.  This is also one of the only pictures that I got without Co-pilot in it.  He came in the room while I was taking pictures and was so excited to sit on the Moomin Artek chair that he stayed there for a good 15-20 minutes while I snapped away. :)

The Marimekko kivet pattern is one of my favourites (I even have it in the living room).  I'm so glad that after a year of humming and hawing about these bed sheet curtains, I finally made them.  I have also painted the boys room (bye-bye stripes).  You may have also spied that I got some new storage for the room too.  Once I get some of the art back on the walls I'll take the photos and show you some more of the updates.  What do you think so far?  Moomin, Artek and Marimekko, my boys are getting a good dose of classic Finnish design. :)

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March Printable Calendar

Just a quick post today to share the March 2014 printable calendar.  I added a bit of mint green in honour of St Patty's day.  In case you missed it, you can find the DIY wood veneer calendar here.

In other news, the boys' room is coming along really well.  I finished their curtains yesterday and can't wait to show you all.  I'm so happy with them!  Hopefully, today will be a good day to take photos.

To see the rest of the monthly calendars click here.

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Happy weekend!  This week's photos of the boys in their room right before I decided to paint out the stripes.  I love the new white paint colour I chose, but the six coats of primer/paint sure took a lot of time/naptimes.  I'll be sure to share some of the progress later this week.  There's a sneak peek of the wall colour on instagram.  

The boys love to play in the crib together.  It can get pretty wild at times. :)  They also love to make a little fort/house by draping a blanket over the top.  They were moving around so much that most of my photos were out of focus like the last one (shutter speed/camera shake on my part).  Nonetheless, sometimes the not so perfect shots tell the story best.

"a photo of my children, every week, once a week, in 2014"

part of the 52 week project.

Storage Solutions for Kids Rooms

Over the weekend I decided to paint the boys' room, but, of course, I forgot that it was Family Day weekend here in Ontario and the paint store was closed both Sunday and Monday.  I'm hoping to hit the paint store today to try a new shade of white that I think will be the perfect white for our entire house. I'm starting in the boys' room first.  

If you follow me on instagram, you may have caught this video of Little Pilot helping me peel the paint off a door.  It's peeling off several doors and much of the trim in our house.  We hired pros to paint our house before we moved in almost 3 years ago, but either the paint failed or they didn't use the right primer paint combo and now I have a lot of paint to fix. NOT, fun!  So changing up the paint, quite naturally, has led into a whole room spruce up. 

One of the main things that I would like to achieve for their room is some smart storage solutions.  The challenge that I face are having two little boys worth of things in one tiny bedroom.  So today I have gathered a few inspirational images of storage solutions for children's rooms.  These are all Ikea products.  Ikea just seems to make sense.  They have so many customizable options at a really great price point.

First off is the Stuva.  This is the modular toy/clothes storage system and there are so many door options now that I'm really leaning towards including some in the boys' room.

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 Stuva unit made into a dollhouse:  via

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I really like the idea of using Ikea shelves for toy/clothing storage.  Here two Ekby Jarpen shelves have been used stacked to maximize the vertical space.

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These look like Lack shelves with a rod mounted to the bottom for clothes storage.

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This is a clever way to use Ikea kitchen cabinets for storage in a child's room.  I love the use of different door sizes to create interest.

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Another option is to use Pax wardrobes.  Love that the doors are painted with chalkboard paint.

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I like the simple white doors too and that Marimekko teepee. I die! I think my boys need another tent, ASAP.

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Now to paint the room and sew some new curtains.  I've had the material for the curtains for some time now and have had them envisioned since the summer.  Maybe now I'll get around to making them. :)  

Have a happy Tuesday!

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Continuing with my 52 week project:

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014"

Those of you who follow me on instagram already saw this photo of my future Olympian. <3.

This is what I see quite often from my baby these days:  hands raised and sort of waving (kind of like packman mouths) at me to be picked up. <3  He's also growing out of his snowsuit and it's too late to find another.  Hopefully, spring will come soon?

Here's my furry baby.  Sitting in the wagon so nicely with his brother.  The world's calmest and most kid-friendly dog ever.

Happy Valentine's Day

The collage above highlights some of my Valentine's projects for this year:  DIY geometric heart, instagram wall, february calendar and airplane valentine.  You can also check out some of my other Valentine's projects from previous years here.  There is also a picture of my boys at Pappa's birthday.  Pappa celebrates two birthdays in February the one where he increases in age and another on Valentine's day where he increases his years in Christ (he became a Christian on Valentine's day).  It seems very fitting to accept the ultimate gift of love on Valentine's day, doesn't it?

I hope you have a very happy Valentine's Day!  Thank you for taking the time to visit this little blog.  Your support is very appreciated.

DIY Geometric Hooks

Today I'm sharing a super simple DIY project:  geometric hooks.  I made these hooks for my bedroom to organize/display accessories.  There is one small closet that both the hubs and I share and I really need to use every square inch I can find to store all of our things.  I think these hooks will be perfect for necklaces, scarves, etc.

The hooks are made from a square dowel that I turned on its side to give the look of diamonds.  I love the geometric feel of them and the monochrome colour scheme of black, white and blonde wood.

If you would like to make these hooks too, here is what I did:

First, I cut 2" long pieces from a poplar square dowel.  I sanded them and then added a couple of coats of craft paint to two of them and the third one was left unfinished.  To be able to screw the dowel pieces into the wall, I used double ended screws.  You will need to pre drill a hole into one end of each dowel piece and then screw one end of the screw into your pre drilled hole (pliers will help here).  To mount the hooks on the wall, I predrilled holes again and then just twisted the hooks in place.

I'm really pleased with the hooks, but there are so many other things in this room that I'd love to update.  One of the main things would be to figure out how to get a cleaner look for our bed.  I really don't like bedskirts.  I never had them growing up and I just can't seem to get used to the skirted look.  I would love to figure out a solution to create a frameless bed.  Maybe add legs to our box spring or something.  If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.  I'm not sure when I'll have time to tackle the bed though with all the renos going on around here! :)  We're getting closer to finalizing our kitchen design and I'll be sure to share it when it's ready.

Happy Thursday!  I'm off to make last minute valentines with my boys - how did valentine's day creep up so fast?!

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Basement Reno Update: How We Ditched Our Furnace

It's been awhile since I've written an update on our basement.  It' been a big undertaking for us since we have had to waterproof the foundation and have changed our heating system from forced air to hydronic radiant in floor heating.  The basement is still not looking pretty, but some major changes have been made which have kept our feet nice and toasty all winter long.  Before, I go on I have to warn you that this post is not going to have the prettiest pictures for you to look at since our basement gets very little natural light right now and the lighting is terrible.  So read on if you don't mind ugly photos and might be slightly interested in how we ditched our furnace, removed a post, got shiny concrete floors, etc.

Here is a picture of our basement with the old furnace and the huge return air duct that made the ceiling height super low under it.  All these mechanics really limited what we could do with the basement floor plan and the access to natural light (all the windows are on the left side).

This is what the space looked like after we had the furnace removed and radiant floor heating installed before the concrete floors were poured.  We actually removed a support post that was in the old furnace area so that we could have more openness from one side to the other.  To do this a couple of c-beams were bolted to either side of the main i-beam to carry the load.  Tech Guy was lucky enough to know a builder who helped get this beam engineered for us and over the Christmas break my brother-in-law helped bring these huge 24 foot c-beams to our house with his truck.

We now have all our home's mechanics either under the stairs to the basement or right adjacent to it which is a much better than the middle of the main rec room.  In the picture below on the left are our new boiler for the radiant heat and our old hot water tank.  We chose to keep our hot water tank rather than switch to instant hot water or use the boiler for domestic hot water for a few reasons.  First, we didn't go with an instant hot water heater because we live in Canada and have very cold temperatures in the winter which can cause the venting in this type of system to freeze and therefore cause problems.  Secondly, we thought it would be nice to have the two water heating systems separate in case one ever failed, at least we would have the other source of hot water.  Thirdly, a very nice thing about keeping our hot water tank is that it is the source of heat for the sauna/bathroom we are putting in the basement.  This means that if we want we can still have heated floors in that area even if we are not heating the rest of the house (e.g., during the spring/summer).

On the right is our water treatment systems that tucked in nicely under the landing of the stairs.

I forgot to mention, that we did hire a professional to install the boiler and the new manifolds for the radiant heating system.  In the photos below are the shutoffs that our pro installed for the various mechanics that require natural gas such as the boiler, stove, etc. as well as the radiant heat manifolds.  Both of these are nicely hidden under the landing as well.

I'll quickly show you what Tech Guy and my brother-in-law did themselves which was lay all the tubing for the radiant heat.  For the upstairs the tubes were hung to the underside of the subfloor using aluminum heat transfer plates.  The tubes were layer in long continuous loops in four sections for the whole main floor.

We still need to add this foil to all the joist spaces to help reflect the heat upwards.  We're planning to add some insulation as well.  We are also planning to only drywall the spaces between the joists to create a beamed ceiling effect.

In order to attach the tubing to the basement floor,  a metal grid was attached to the concrete.  The tubes themselves were attached to the grid using zip ties.  This was all important to keep the tubes from floating up when the concrete was poured over them.

We hired another pro to do our concrete pour.  Our concrete is a special mix of portland, sand and gypsum that is self-leveling and it is designed to transfer the heat well.  To finish the floors to look like polished concrete, they were first sanded and then a densifier was applied followed by several coats of a satin acrylic sealer.  The whole basement now has these lovely shiny floors.  The colour is a little off right now since the pink insulation is casting a weird tone on them.  I think with the final white walls the floors will be a light grey colour.

Phew!  That was a pretty technical post.  Hopefully, I didn't bore you to tears.  Overall, we're super happy with our new heating system and concrete floors.  The boys have been down there testing them out quite a bit.  They're great for running and not slippery at all (something I was a little worried about).     Now, I'm super excited to see some drywall on those walls (hint, hint, Tech Guy!).

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This week's photos of the boys might be a glimpse at their individual talents?  

Little Pilot loves taking photos and he's really started to get better at it.  Here he's taking a picture of some pot lights that were taken down (to be removed) in the basement.  We had the floors sealed this week and you can see the reflection of our new glossy concrete.  I'll have a post about the basement progress soon.  

Co-pilot loves music and often plays a "tune" on his little piano.  We might have to invest in a real one if this keeps up. :)  This is the look he gives after he's played a song for you.

"a photo of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014"

linking to practising simplicity

DIY Wooden Bead Trivet

Since I've had kitchen's on the brain lately, I think it's a good time to share a kitchen-related DIY. I have been meaning to make this wooden bead trivet for quite some time.  It reminds me of all the Finnish kitchens I've been to growing up.  They always seem to have trivets made of some kind of natural material.  There's a handy leather loop that makes it easy to hang as well.

To make a trivet you will need wooden beads and leather cord.  My "beads" were 1 1/4" in diameter.  The beads were actually wooden doll heads that I drilled holes into, but you can easily find predrilled beads as well.

Step 1:  Thread your beads onto a leather cord leaving about 3" of cord at either end.  You can have your pre-schooler help you (we did this just before bedtime which was a nice wind down activity).

Step 2:  Tie the ends together to make a circular shape.  Then tie the leftover leather cord again at the top to make a loop for easy storage when you're not using it. 

*you may want to rub a little salad bowl wax on your beads to seal and protect them.

As you may have noticed by now black, white and natural wood tend to be my base colour palette lately and I'm hoping my new kitchen will reflect those colours/materials - if we ever get to that reno.  We've had a bit of a setback with our roof ice jamming this weekend.  We'll see the extent of the damage to our attic and ceilings this week which may change/delay the reno schedule.  I have my fingers crossed that the kitchen will still be a go once we sort out this ice jam.  Ahh, it's been a fun winter!

p.s., in case you were wondering the teapot and cups are from David's Tea.  They were a gift from my sister.

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