A while back I saw this DIY lamp shade on Design*Sponge and decide to take a stab at making my own “capiz shell” lamp shade. In our dining room we had this plain but very 90′s feeling lamp shade that I really hated. Unfortunately the whole thing is like a single unit that I don’t think I can get apart without some electrician skills (which I have none of and don’t fancy electrocuting my self).

Here is the lamp before:

That metal piece at the bottom wasn’t connected at all so I was able to bend it and carefully wiggle it off the glass shade. Then I spent a few weeks cutting out paper circles with an exacto O_o

My Materials: Rives Lightweight paper, self healing cutting mat, ribbon, glue gun, exact-o, and different size bottles to use as templates for cutting.

I decided to just use a single sheet of lightweight paper and skip the gluing wax paper process the original design used. The wax paper is so beautiful but I was trying to really get some coverage over our old shade.

So, then the lamp shade stayed like this for a few weeks

I’m thinking of renaming my blog “The Procrastinators Projects”, what do you think?

But finally I finished!!! Mostly because we were going to have company and didn’t want to continue answering the question “what’s going on here…?” as they point with their confused, scrunched up face at my poor little scraggly lamp shade. *sigh*

Voila!

Oh, Hello again! It’s been a while I know, but I have been a busy little bee. I am making a move soon! I am very excited to be moving in with my boyfriend and our fabulous dog Bruce in just four short weeks, so I have been trying to get everything in order. Sifting through things, throwing things away, making donation piles. Moving, always such a chore… Gasp! I just realized that I haven’t lived in one home for more that two years since 2001! You would think I would have this moving thing down by now. But I don’t.

Anyway, i digress. This is supposed to be about the master bedroom not tangents on moving! I’ll save that for another time. For now look at my pretty photos of my lovely room which most likely currently looks like a tornado of boxes, clothes, black garbage bags and rogue knickknacks. Now what box should a Tai Chi practice sword go….?

Before

Depressing, right!? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. I actually lived with it looking like this for at least a month. It was pretty much like camping… except with bright glaring street lights to keep you awake because you don’t have any curtains.

After!

Ahhh, I can almost hear your sigh of relief. Fresh paint! refinished floors! And furniture!Look! I bought a real bed! And matching side table! My very first bedroom set! I feel so proud. But now you will be relegated to the guest bedroom in your new house. It’s ok, I still love you.

After- closet (hmm still original mirror doors, yuck) and dresser (my Grandfathers)

After- Dresser (ok technically a highboy) and wall arrangement

I have a tendency to make little arrangements like this. It’s pretty much the only way I know how to decorate. I always start out with a doily nailed to the wall so that I can see all my hanging earrings all together with their pairs. Last Christmas my friend made cork board frames for everyone so I decided to tack the doily to the cork board. I like the way it looks and it makes changing the arrangement around a lot easier.

After- Bedside table and creative storage

I still have not gotten around to making a lamp shade for my bedside lamp. But it’s still awesome! Thrift store find!  It has the main light but the orange glass base also has a light inside that you can have on by it’s self. Very pretty. And those two hat boxes, each one belonged to one of my Grandmothers. In the white one I have all of my crochet thread and the black one holds all of my different sized curlers and clips. And you wanna know something funny? I used to use the black one as my travel bag when I was a little girl! Even as seven year old I knew how to travel light.

After- pinstripe wall!

And just because I didn’t have enough projects I decided to paint pinstripes on my wall. As with many older homes the master bedroom had faux wood paneling. Yikes! But instead of just painting it over and be done with it I thought it would be fun to accent the um…trenches? as if they were pinstripes. I went with a kind of mint green color in high gloss and then the rest of the wall in matte Swiss Coffee; my favorite shade of white paint. I feel a little odd about saying that I have a favorite shade of white wall paint. But there you go, i said it.

Progress has been made on the basement bathroom! I sanded and patched… and sanded and patched some more and then I primed a couple times. Patching and priming walls and ceilings is no fun at all! Especially ceilings, such a pain! It could also be that I am very detail oriented and had to get everything perfect. But the walls are done for now, I will probably paint some “accent” walls and the trim or something… Um, when I have time. Ha!

Mud has been floated in the shower stall floor and a platform has been made under the toilet. Since this is a basement bathroom the plumbing has to be higher than normal for proper sewage drainage. But it will be tiled and hopefully blend in so you won’t even notice… till you sit down and your feet are dangling. In these old houses you have to kinda work with what you’ve got. Unless what you’ve got is boat loads of money!

The window is in a small nook and I would like to make a seat to put there since it’s kind of a dead area. I am thinking a seat with some storage underneath. And I am going to put some kind of frosting on the windows (after I thoroughly clean them!) and then put flat curtain panel over the bottom half so that you can lift the window but still have privacy. I know that window is so beautiful right now you are probably thinking why bother doing anything to it? sarcasm

And here are my tile selections! A little bland, i know. But I am thinking of potential renters in the future. I don’t want to do anything too crazy that will turn people away. The large tile will be the floor tiles (as well as the tile for the toilet platform), the small beige tiles are for the shower stall floor, the white subway tiles will be for the shower walls and the green will be an accent on the walls. I haven’t decided how to work in the green tiles. A boarder around the outside? A stripe around the shower, about two thirds of the way down the wall? I’m open to suggestions

BEFORE PHOTOS

Main Area

Bathroom

Weird Little Corner With Sink

Front Room

Laundry Room

I bought my house almost exactly a year ago and I am finally getting a move on remodeling the basement. Originally the basement was a “Mother-in-law” apartment. There was a main room with layers of carpeting and linoleum. A tiny awful bathroom and a weird kitchenette that had not been working in years. Our inspector forced the former owners to get rid of the old gas stove. There was a front room that served as a bedroom and was pretty cleared out from the start. And finally the laundry room.

We basically had to start from scratch because everything was just so gross and dirty down there. So we just ripped everything out, the ceiling tiles, carpeting, linoleum, and the walls around the boiler and the bathroom. Actually we just ripped the whole bathroom out. That thing was a disaster area! So for the past few months my cousin who owns his own tiling business has been coming over on his days off to help remodel the bathroom. The front room we turned into a bedroom. We replaced the ceiling tile with Ceilume ceiling tiles. They are super light weight and come in many different designs and colors. We also bought bamboo flooring that we installed our selves. It was pretty easy once I got the hang of it.

DURING PHOTOS

Bathroom

We decided to make the bathroom much bigger and encompass the weird corner that had the kitchen sink. So now you will be able to wash your hands while you are still in the bathroom! Craziness!

Main Area

Here is the main area looking towrds the laundry room. The front room and the stairs are behind me… maybe I should draw floor plans for my next post on this…

Mirror Grid

Did I forget to mention that they had a mirror grid on the wall? I think that was the very first thing I tore down!

Front Room

My roommate might get mad at me for showing his room while it’s messy but I just wanted to show the ceiling tiles and new flooring. So just pay attention to those ok? Thanks!

I am really excited that things are moving along! As soon as I get a chance I am going to sand and paint the bathroom so my cousin can come in and tile. Oh joy! I am thinking of going with white subway tiles in the shower with a light green border to kind of match the ceiling tiles in the main area. And for the floor I am going with a kind of white washed terracotta Mexican tile. I am trying to stay pretty neutral, I can always spice things up later if I need to.

I know, I’ve been a bad blogger. I had to take a little break because work was just too crazy. But I have still been able to get some things done around the house. Here is the Before and After of my built in bar. I think that this was originally a closet; one of only two in the entire house! One of the problems with old houses, they had wardrobes back then, not closets. Which is fine really, I like wardrobes! But I’m still trying to figure out where to store my vacuum cleaner…

 Before

After

It’s amazing what a little paint can do! This is just one part in a huge re-painting project. When I moved into my house one year ago I had grand plans for painting everything before unpacking. Oh how the best laid schemes of mice and men… well you know. So now after living with one spotty coat of primer on a few walls for one year I am back in the swing of things. Plowing ahead with my painting and decorating plans!