Ikea LÄTT makeover

The laughter of a child is the light of the home.

Fall has been crazy busy! I'm in the process of co-hosting a kids Halloween party with one of my besties. I'm also coordinating a surprise party for my father that will take place in early November. Then there are church obligations and my desire to have ALL my Christmas shopping done by the end of October and...well...

It's more than a little hectic.

We're still working on our home office. The paint is finally done and now we're installing shelves and adding wall art. I need to make a window treatment for the window, too. I'll be glad when the office is done because I am so ready to move on to our master bedroom!

When we went to Ikea to pick up the shelving, we also purchased the Ikea LÄTT children's table and chair set for $19.99. I'd come across so many gorgeous makeovers of this set on Pinterest and I was inspired to do my own. Baby J is 16 months old (today!) and I thought this would be a perfect little set for him. After some tweaking, of course.

This is the obligatory "before" shot from the Ikea site.

I'd bought a yard of some fun and colorful argyle fabric from Hobby Lobby a week or two before this project. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it - only that I had to do SOMETHING with it. Since it matches the color scheme of our living room, I thought it was perfect for the seats.

While my husband was busy covering the table and chairs with primer, I went to work on the chair seats. I used some foam that I bought from Joann's to pad the seats and give them some cushion for Baby J's tush. I used some double sided tape to keep the foam in place as I stapled the fabric to the seat. I used a regular stapler and after many tries, realized that I could use it as if the seat was a piece of paper. The fabric was pulled taut and stayed in place and there were no sharp or pointy things that could cause injury.

After two coats of spray primer and two coats of Rust Oleum dark walnut spray paint, my husband had the fun task of placing the covered seats into the chair. It was a bit of a struggle but in the end, Husband prevailed.

He then took the chairs outside to seal them. We even sprayed the fabric with sealant. Here is the end result:

Ta-Da!

We're so tickled with our little project! I haven't decided whether or not I'll be adding something to the tabletop. I saw some red vinyl at Joann's that would look great on top and would add some durability, too. I'm also considering chalkboard paint or Con-Tact paper.

I'll be putting up some sort of racks for books the left at some point. This is the corner where we place our Christmas tree, so everything we do here has to be removable. Thank goodness for Command hangers!

Extra Kitchen Storage

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”  -- Confucius

I've been on a tear to de-clutter our home. We have a garage that has been converted into...extra space. It's not a completely finished room, so we use it for storage. We moved into our house in October of 2005 and since that time, the converted garage has become our cluttered little secret.  Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag now. 

Anyway, the garage/conversion is my husband's pet project. In the meantime, I'm doing my annual spring cleaning in the fall. Now that we have a child, I'm on a mission to really de-clutter each room. There's something about all those toys and toy pieces that we've accumulated in just a year that has me a bit frazzled. When my house gets too much stuff, I get overwhelmed and feel almost smothered. I'm sure I get this trait from my mother. She's the kind of woman who wakes up at 6am every day to vacuum her house. 

She cleans EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 

I'm a stay at home mom and I just can't clean every OTHER day, let alone every day. 

Anyway! 

I mentioned this canned food cabinet tutorial at Classy Clutter to  my dear husband and he really liked the idea. We have a very tiny kitchen - some might say a "one butt" kitchen. We don't have a pantry and we have very few cupboards. This cabinet would fit perfectly in the empty space right next to our fridge and utilize all that vertical real estate. 

So, when my husband's parents came to visit, I suggested this little project for he and his step-father to do together. Bonding and de-cluttering - win/win, right?

Here's some pictures of the completed project:

My son, Baby J, and our cat, Eddie, inspect the merchandise.

Exterior view.

What would we do differently? Not much. My husband stayed pretty true to the tutorial. The only thing he would like to change is the casters. Right now, they are free rolling casters that seem to have a mind of their own. He'd like to try and find static casters to keep them rolling in one direction as it can be a little tough to wrangle the cabinet back into it's cubby hole.

This was another great Pinterest find. Big props to the ladies of Classy Clutter for this awesome idea and detailed tutorial. 

No-Sew Drapes

"A clean house is the sign of a broken computer. "

Okay, my computer isn't broken. But our home office has been neglected for FAR too long. We recently had new floors installed and that set that wheels in motion to get the rest of the house all spiffy-fied.

Our office closet

Our office closet is an eyesore. The doors were removed for reasons I do not recall. I think it had only one door? Anyway, the shelf is sagging and the two litter boxes are placed on the floor of the closet since we have no other place to put them. As you can see, we're in the process of painting the walls (finally). So, I needed an easy way to hide the ugliness within the closet and still keep it functional for our three cats.

Hey! Drapes! That'll work!

Mind you - I do not sew. I never learned. I don't know how. I'm intimated by needles, thread, patterns, and sewing machines. Someday, I may brave a sewing class or two. For now, though, I need a no sew kind of project. Enter Pinterest.

I found this awesome step by step at Kathie's blog, Krafty Kat.

The supplies are pretty simple: fabric, scissors, fuse tape, measuring tape, pins, iron, and ironing board.

I won't write up a step by step as Kathie did a great job. I will say that my husband and I used Stitch Witchery instead of the Heat n' Bond that Kathie used with her drapes. We had to use a damp cloth when ironing the drapes to get the tape to work.

My sweet husband, J, helps by ironing the fuse tape to hem the drapes.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd definitely use the Heat n' Bond. That is why I've since purchased some and have stowed it away with my other crafting supplies.

Here are the finished drapes. Please keep in mind that the room is far from finished. We still have painting left to do, shelves, a window cornice, paint the wicker shelf (where our cats dine), and other decor for the room. To be continued...