Kids Room in a Closet

When we moved to Minnesota the only house we could find that we liked had 3 bedrooms. We thought we could easily just move when we had another baby, but that ends up being a lot more complicated than I’d thought especially when we have a great location, great landlords, a house that is really nice, and great neighbors. Even when we looked at the possibility nothing seemed to be right, even when we were pregnant with baby #3.
Cue discussions of how to successfully house and sleep 3 children ages 3 and under. We really love the idea of kids sharing rooms… when they are older! There’s no way our 3 year old and 21 month-old would be sleeping through the night sharing a bunk bed, so we got creative. With a newborn we just had to have our other kids sleeping well! Once we realized the closet had circulating air we went for it.
Here is the closet of our son’s room, made-over for our baby girl Genevieve.
The toddler bed fit perfectly (purchased at Target, similar here). I used the quilt I’d made for her crib (see here), added a couple touches from her baby nursery like the scalloped banner (see tutorial here), paper lantern, and some art, and voila – a closet room! She loves her space! The kids love to play in it too.

We added a G to the door, a “vous etes mon soleil” print, a stuffed elephant, and the scalloped banner. We think it’s pretty cute and very functional.

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Plum Street Prints: Shop Opening!

Our print shop opens today! Check us out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumStreetPrints

And if you spread the word about Plum Street Prints, we’ll give you half off your first order! That means you’ll get your first print for $5 if you create a blog post, Facebook post, or mass email—anything that supports our business to a large number of people and links to our shop. Comment on this, email me, or Facebook me if you post about us and I’ll send you a half off code.

And if you have a business site that you’re willing to promote us on, we will likely be happy to promote you on our site as well, once our blog is up and running.

Go tell your family and friends! Thanks for your help!

Shannon (and Lori)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlumStreetPrints

http://facebook.com/pages/Plum-Street-Prints/149950705061554

Here are some of our prints—all patterns are original as well as the prints of course.

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Gallery Wall

Last fall we did a gallery wall on our stairway. We taped out the measured area on our carpet first, with painting tape, organized the frames how we liked them, then hung them.

Best part of the project? Buying half the frames at a thrift store and spray painting them… Saves money and looks more unique.

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Easy Window Box Covering / Pelmet Box

I love online tutorials because they allow me to do a project in a way that I like, while still having some guidance. Here’s my latest project for our downstairs bathroom.
This is the perfect way to dress up a window without any drapes. I also like that it looks a lot more clean and simple than drapes. (And who wants drapes in their bathroom??)
None of the online tutorials provided a great way to mount it, so my handy-man husband attached it to the valence cap of our white blinds——now there are no holes in the walls. We really like it, and for a 20 minute project with foam core you can’t go wrong.

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Tutorial: Recovering a Lamp Shade

This is one of those projects that is really useful to spruce up a space. I purchased a lamp I loved… only problem was the stark white shade. I wanted the shade to go next to our office furniture, which is an off-white color. After assembling the lamp I realized the shade is custom fit to the base, so no other shade could fit. I had planned on buying a new shade, but that option was out.

So I found a couple tutorials online, merged some ideas together, and altered some of their suggestions to finish this project.

We love our lamp.

Here’s how you do it: start with your shade, a fabric of choice—only about 1/2 yard depending on your shade size (I recommend a thicker décor fabric), fabric glue, fabric scissors, tape, and a pencil. Pretty simple so far, right?

Lay your fabric out with your shade. Place the shade in the middle, then roll it to the right to trace it’s angle to one side, then roll back to the middle, then roll to the left to trace its angle for the other side. Trace both the top and bottom of the shade as you roll it. This will ensure the fabric follows the shade curve.

Next, add two inches to each side that you traced, and cut two inches away from this line. You’ll need to leave extra room on either side to fold. Then iron, iron, iron your fabric. Make sure all seams are out.

Then, take the fabric end and match it up to your shade’s seam. Before you glue it, hold it in place to make sure it is aligned to cover the shade evenly as it rolls around. Then run your fabric glue along the seam and secure the fabric end. If you have a thick fabric, you won’t have to worry about the glue showing through; if you have a thinner fabric, smear the glue with a paintbrush.

All other tutorials I read said to pull the shade around and tape it back at the original seam. I tried this and realized the shade wasn’t pulled nearly tight enough this way. I wanted it really really tight. So I began pulling the fabric as tight as I could, then gluing about every 6 inches around.

By the time I’d glued it all the way around, it was tight and easy for me to cut and fold the ends in without disturbing the body of the shade.

After it’s all glued, cut around each side, leaving about 1/2 inch of fabric to glue under.

Then fold the seam under all the way around to make sure it looks even.

And glue.

When you get to your final edge, glue it under so it follows the shade’s seam nicely.

That’s it! Very easy. Place your shade on and admire it.

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Kids Room Letters

Made these for my little nieces and nephews for the rooms in their new house. Love scrapbook paper in young/kiddish prints.

Buy wooden letters at a craft store. Buy appropriate paper and lots of mod podge. Trace letters, cut out, and epoxy.

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