Interior Design Kitchen Minimalist

New Favorites at Target

New Favorites at Target

I think I'm not alone in my love for every line in the Target home section ! (Sometimes I feel like half of my instagrams are #targetdo...

7:00 AM

DIY Yellow Curtains for the Playroom

There are only two bedrooms on the main floor of our house, the master bedroom and a large-ish room at the front of the house. For the first few months that we lived here, I used it as <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2014/01/diy-white-board-wall.html" target="_blank">my office space</a>, but it just didn't really work for some reason. Then I had the idea to move my office to <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-studio-tour-and-huge-give-away-from.html" target="_blank">the big space above our garage</a> on the other side of the house and make the old office our playroom.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 16.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/16.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />I had been a little worried that toys would end up migrating all over the house with this set up, where the playroom is right by the living spaces, but really, it's been so great. I love both the studio space and this playroom, which we only very recently decided to quickly decorate in time for the Domino shoot. We had been planning on doing Evie's room as the kid's space in the spread, but the playroom ended up being the easier space to photograph in the end, so we threw this room together in about seven crazy days! These yellow curtains were our jumping off point.<br /><a name="more"></a><br />I wanted this room to feel girly and playful, and I thought pretty curtains were a great place to start. We had no time and really no budget to make fancy curtains though, so IKEA came to the rescue. I had actually picked up three packs of these white cotton Ritva panel pairs a couple months before (when the room was still an office) and I just hadn't got around to hanging them yet.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_5541.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/IMG_5541.jpg" /></div><br />I almost didn't use them because I wanted the walls to be white, and I wanted the curtains to be a fun color to pop off the white. This image kept coming to mind when I was brainstorming colors. I only wish I had the budget to recreate these exactly!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><center></center></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo PaulCostello1.png" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/PaulCostello1.png" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://paulcostello.net/archive.php" target="_blank">image</a></i></div><br />I figured it wouldn't really be a wasted effort to try and dye the IKEA panels because I wasn't able to return them at that point. So I picked up four bottles of RIT dye - two each of Golden Yellow and Lemon Yellow. It's not for everyone, or for every tub, but I felt comfortable with dying the panels in my bathtub. I tested the dye beforehand and there was no staining on the fiberglass, so I felt good about moving forward using my tub. It made the project and clean up about a million times easier than using a big tupperware tub (and I have a front-loading washing machine, so that wasn't an option).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_5550copy.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/IMG_5550copy.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>I got three of the panels wet in the shower first (which helps the dye soak up more evenly) while I filled the tub with about six or seven inches of the hottest water I could get out of the tap. I added one bottle of each of the two yellow colors and about half a cup of salt. Once that was all mixed, I put in the three panels and while wearing long gloves, moved the fabric around in the dye bath for a good 20-30 minutes until the color looked bright and even. I turned on the faucet again, to cold this time, and let the dye bath drain and the cold water run on the panels until the water was close to clear. I moved the panels to a laundry basket and took them to the washing machine for a cold water wash on the delicate cycle.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_5548.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/IMG_5548.jpg" /></div><br />I made a hanging station and let the panels air dry over night. And then I started again with the second batch of three panels and two more bottles of dye.<br /><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_5601.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/IMG_5601.jpg" /></div></div><br />Then we ironed each panel well before hanging them over white fabric shades from Lowes (which were less than $20 for the 48" size!) and white wooden rings and rods, also from Lowes.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 18.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/18.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />I love, love, love how these curtains turned out. Because I had bought the IKEA panels so many months before, it practically felt like a $12 project, where I just had to buy the dye. :) And I think the color combo of the lemon and golden yellow colors really worked out perfectly, which was sort of a lucky break.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 17.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/17.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />I think when I have some extra time I'll add a thick or even black out lining to these to add some weight and a clean white backside view from the front of the house (though the white roman shades help a bit with that for now).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 15.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda014/15.jpg" /></div><br />Have you had any successes with dying big projects like this? Have you used your tub or a tupperware container?

DIY Yellow Curtains for the Playroom

There are only two bedrooms on the main floor of our house, the master bedroom and a large-ish room at the front of the house. For the first...

7:47 AM

On LED Bulbs (and a Home Depot Give Away!)

<center></center>Thank you to the locals that stopped by the lighting <a href="http://workshops.homedepot.com/workshops/do-it-yourself-workshops?cm_mmc=socialmedia-_-Blogger-_-DIY-_-DIY-Workshops-Registration-Link" target="_blank">DIY Workshop</a> that I partnered with the Home Deport on last weekend! I LOVED meeting you and it was great to get tips from the on-site lighting expert about how to increase lighting energy efficiency. It's a topic I've been sadly pretty ignorant about until recently. We have a lot of CFLs in our house, but the Home Depot guy encouraged me to look at their LED offerings while I was at the store on Saturday.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo HD3.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda012/HD3.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />I think it sort of stinks to have to drop $8-16 on just a single bulb, but how crazy is it that LED bulbs last for literally 20 years and they use a fraction of the wattage that an incandescent bulb uses?!<br /><br />I picked up a pretty expensive (almost $16!) Cree bulb that has a new technology that's supposed to help colors read more correctly, which has been my main complaint about LED in the past. I also bought this Ecosmart two-pack as a cheaper comparison that brought the price-per-bulb down to about $8. And I threw in to the test group an incandescent I already owned for good measure, just because I was curious. All of the bulbs were Soft White in tone and 60 watts or equivalent.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo HD5.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda012/HD5.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I'm sure there are some in-between option too. I just picked up what jumped out to me. (What have you tried and liked?)</div><br /><img alt=" photo vIMG_5847.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda012/vIMG_5847.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />Well, here are the results of my extremely technical and super scientific light test results! ;)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo HD4text.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda012/HD4text.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />I actually really liked the tone of the most expensive LED bulb (surprise, surprise), but really the Ecosmart brand wasn't bad at all. I'd probably use it in bedrooms or for fixtures we use a little less. And actually I've read that it's a good idea to switch over to the more expensive bulbs over time to help spread out the initial expense, but that you should put the new bulbs in your most frequently used fixtures so you can start the energy savings right away.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo HD1.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/jkomenda012/HD1.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />As a part of the workshop last weekend, Home Depot gave me a $100 gift card to give away today! Maybe you'll want to spend the gift card on a dozen or so new LEDs? :) To enter, leave a comment here on this post. I'd love to hear about what bulbs you're using and loving.<br /><br /><i>Contest ends next Thursday at midnight. Winner will be emailed. Good luck!</i><br /><br />PS Home Depot has lots of great (free!) DIY workshops coming up! To see what your local store has to offer, <a href="http://workshops.homedepot.com/workshops/do-it-yourself-workshops?cm_mmc=socialmedia-_-Blogger-_-DIY-_-DIY-Workshops-Registration-Link" target="_blank">check out the registration page here</a>!

On LED Bulbs (and a Home Depot Give Away!)

Thank you to the locals that stopped by the lighting DIY Workshop that I partnered with the Home Deport on last weekend! I LOVED meeting yo...

4:40 PM

Interior Design Kitchen Minimalist

New Favorites at Target

DIY Yellow Curtains for the Playroom

On LED Bulbs (and a Home Depot Give Away!)

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