Floral {Lamp} Shade Makeover

I have seen a lot of lampshade makeovers and thought they were such a great idea so I decided to make my own.  I used a lamp shade that I already had and purchased a yard of designer's fabric from Jo-Ann for $7. 

Here is my lamp shade before the makeover:

I thought this was going to be an easy project because of one reason; I thought the lampshade was "Drum" shaped but it turns out that it is slightly "Bell" shaped.  I discovered this after I already cut the fabric so needless to say I did not make a template as I should have.  The result of this is that the line where the fabric meets in the back is slightly diagonal and the fabric doesn't lie flat against the lampshade in some areas.  What should have taken me about a half hour to do took one and half hours.  Ultimately the shade ended up looking pretty good and I was able to hide the bad spots because the lamp is in the corner of our living room.  I do have enough fabric leftover to perfect my shade cover but I am going to hold off until I find a good deal on new shade. 

The only supplies I used were a hot glue gun, scissors, measuring tape and iron.  First I measured the height and length of my lampshade and cut my fabric so that the length was two inches longer and the height was one inch longer.  Next, I folded the raw edges of the fabric by half an inch and ironed them down then I hot glued the seams together.  

When I was done with this step my fabric looked like this:

Lastly, I matched the fabric up to the top and bottom of the shade and hot glued it around the edges.  Like I said, this would have been super-EASY if the shade was perfectly drum shaped but since it had a slight taper and was a bit bell shaped I should have created a pattern first.

To see what this lamp base looked like before my makeover click here.

***LINKY PARTIES***Today's Creative Blog***

Tropical Floor Pillow Slipcover {Tutorial}

I used the remaining fabric from a tropical shower curtain to make a slipcover for a large floor pillow. It matches the other two slipcovers I made for the throw pillows on my couch. I really liked the silver grommets at the top of the shower curtain so I decided to use them on the pillow for a little embellishment!

Using a shower curtain is the easiest way to make pillow slipcovers because you can use the finished edges so you only have one sewing step in the entire process. Not to mention that shower curtains are generally inexpensive (I bought this one on clearance at Target for $7.50), they are usually made out of very soft cotton which is important since you are going to be laying on them and you can make a lot of slipcovers out of them because they are big!

Here is my tutorial for these E-A-S-Y pillow slipcovers made from a shower curtain:

1. Measure your pillow insert from end to end.

2. Cut one large square that is the size of your pillow insert plus 1.5" (add an additional inch to this if your pillow is 24" or larger). Also, cut two rectangles that are the same length as the square but half as wide plus 3". For example, if your pillow insert is 24" (this is the size of my floor pillow) then your square should be 26.5" and the two rectangles should be 16.25" each.

3. Place your square down with the right side up and place the rectangles on top of it with the right side down (so it is inside out). Line up all sides of the square and the rectangles; you'll have an overlap of the rectangles as pictured below. This is where you'll insert your pillow into the slipcover!

4. Pin every 4 inches on all sides.

5. Sew a quarter inch seam around the edges.

6. Flip your slipcover so it is no longer inside out and try it on!

Enjoy your new pillows!

All linked up:

DIY Day with Color Incorporated...A Soft Place to Land

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Master Bathroom Improvement

I was so happy with how our framed bathroom mirrors turned out that I have been looking for more ways to improve the look of our bathrooms. I finally got tired of looking at the side of our ugly plastic tub in the master bathroom so we decided to update it with beadboard siding and trim. It was actually quite easy and relatively inexpensive to do. Zak used "pre-made" wainscoting boxes sold at Home Depot which cost a fair amount more than buying the beadboard and trim seperately, however, for as little space as we needed to cover it was worth the cost difference. Plus, we used these packages to do our two other small bathrooms in the house and knew the time saving was worth the extra money.

Here is the {ugly} before of our master bathroom tub:

And here is the {beautiful} after:

The first step was to build a frame out of 2"x3" wood {in retrospect we would have used 2"x4" so the beadboard had more surface to adhere to but fortunately it wasn't an issue for us}. Once your frame is put together you adhere the newly built frame to as many surfaces as you can {floor, wall, tub, etc..} with liquid nails.

Once the frame is secured in place, you attach the beadboarding and trim to the frame using liquid nails and a nail gun. Fill in cracks and nails with quick dry putty and sand down for a smooth finish. Now you are ready to paint! Since the "pre-made" boxes that we purchased are already white, we only had to do two coats of paint.

Let the paint dry then attach edging tiles along the top of the frame using liquid nails. Another option is to use cut marble tiles that overhang the edge but we picked the easier and less inexpensive option. We found white matte corner tiles on clearance at Lowe's for twenty-four cents each so that reinforced our decision. We had to take two of the tiles to Home Depot to be cut {free of charge}. To determine the cuts, start placing tiles in the center and work your way out. The two end tiles are the ones that should be cut exactly the same size. This looks better than just cutting one tile and it's definitely worth the trip back out to the store!

Lastly, you can use "Grout Caulk" to fill in the gaps of the tile. This is so much easier and a lot more affordable to do than regular grout which also requires sealer. Use regular silicone caulk to fill in all of the seams on the beadboard and trim so that water does not seep through and turn moldy. We still haven't applied any water-sealer to the siding yet but we'll do that soon because we know the side of the tub is going to get wet and this will prevent it from warping and mildewing.

Total spent on this project was about $45 give or take a few dollars. I love the new look of our tub and can't wait to see what other improvements we can do soon!

All linked up:

A Soft Place to Land...DIY Day with The Pleated Poppy

Just A Girl...Show and Share Day

The Shabby Nest...Frugal Friday

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~