Polka-Dots

My friend's nine-year-old daughter got the chance to have a say in the re-decoration of her bedroom. The theme:

Polka-Dots!!

And, since she's a very good friend, I got my chance to help!

Her very talented husband was tasked with creating a daybed with a round back board. I got to help with upholstering the headboard, and covering it with dots. First he cut three different sizes of circles from some 1/4" board. He has lots of handy tools to do things like that (and yes, I'm jealous). The tool leaves two tiny holes in the middle of each circle, and we used those like buttonholes, stringing wire through each set.

Next we cut a circle of batting the size of the wood, and then a circle of fabric a couple of inches larger.

Using a handy-dandy staple gun, we then stapled the fabric to the back of the wood circle.

It helps to staple North/South/East/West first, and then fill in the rest.


Ta-da! A cute little padded dot.


Oooh, look! LOTS of cute padded dots!

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We laid the dots out on the headboard to get an idea of placement. Then we drilled holes in the headboard for each dot. The headboard was then covered with thick batting and white duck cloth.

Next we had to string all those wires from the dots through the front of the headboard, finding the holes in order to get out the other side! That step was lots of fun.

Here's what it looks like with all the wires sticking out the back side. Notice the neat and even pleating of the headboard fabric all the way around. We're very proud of that :-).


We use pliers to pull the wires straight, then bent them to the side and stapled them in.
Bent the wires in another direction, and stapled them one more time.
They ain't movin', baby!

C. (that's the daughter) got to help by pounding in the staples and any loose wire ends.


Naturally we had to get an idea of what it looked like half-way through...


But then, here it is, all completed! C. looks pleased!


Obviously we chose to use lots of different fabrics, incorporating C.'s chosen colors of pink, purple, with a little green and turquoise thrown in. Plus it helped us use up our respective stashes (but not by much).

It was several weeks later when the bed was completed and assembled, but....here it is!

See the cute polka-dot panels on the ends?

The ends of the bed are actually bookshelves (they face out), and the panels are the back side of the bookshelves, padded and polka-dotted like the headboard.

Yes, I know the bed's not made. If you have a nine-year-old in your house, you should understand!

I also helped with the painting. Two walls and the ceiling are purple. Reeaaallly purple. The other two walls are pink. Reaallly pink!

I covered the shades on the ceiling fan in some polka-dot material...


...and I painted two garage-sale lamps pink and covered the shades for those as well. Hmm... they're supposed to have multi-colored yo-yos on them too! I made them...I'll have to ask my friend what happened to them...


Fun room, don't you think? And I'm not really complaining about the color. You should see my daughter's room...it's NEON green, also with polka dots!

The real reason I never decorated for Halloween...

I... can't... stop....

Bunting courtesy of Moselle via Organize & Decorate Everything.

Bats courtesy of Country Living.


Mice courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Hand-me down table

My good friend and neighbor inherited a table when they moved in to their new home...probably because it was so beat up the previous owners didn't want it anymore! After a few years with three children under 3, it wasn't even looking as good as it did when they moved in.

Sadly, I did not take a true "before" picture of this table. It was this color, but the finish had worn away in several spots.
Would you believe I killed another sander on this table top? Again, thankfully it was within 90 days of purchase, and Lowe's took it back, no questions asked. Bless them!

My friend wanted a darker finish on the top, and she chose Minwax "English Chestnut." I had never used that color before, but it was gorgeous!


I have found that the Minwax Dark Walnut stain on pine turns out to be very dull and flat. This color is anything but. It has some reddish undertones, and it just glows.

The legs of the table were already dark, and I left them alone. They blend beautifully with the new top color.


The color has inspired me for another project, hopefully coming soon! Here's a sneak peak:

Who will this one be for, I wonder??

Sheet Music Wreath x 2

I have seen sheet music wreaths popping up all over blog-land, and, having been blessed with several books of piano music that NO ONE was ever going to play, I decided to make my own! I used the very fine instructions from {Primp}...except for the rolling part. That I had to discover by trial and error on my own to make it work!





It may be hard to tell the difference, but these are actually two different wreaths. The one on the top (left) went home with my sister last weekend (she actually has a "music room," so she needed one!).

I discovered that you can get different cones if you roll them the "long way" versus the "short way." My sister's wreath has a mix, but all the cones are rolled pretty tightly. It made for a large, but flatter wreath.

For the second wreath (the one on the bottom right), I rolled all the cones the "short way," and I tried to leave them a little fuller, so my wreath is a little fatter--not a lot. I am still toying with the idea of cutting some pages of music down by about a third, and then rolling cones from that...I think it would give another dimension.

The wreaths found a temporary home on the front of my china cabinet/bookshelf, but I need an opinion! I just finished repainting a set of red shutters; how do you think the wreath looks on them?



...or... I am in the midst of getting an old window ready to hang (it's painted, but STILL not clean!!)



I know it's hard to get an idea while everything is sitting on the floor, but maybe you have a gut instinct! Or another suggestion??

What do you think?