PVC Pipe Curtain Rods

I have been facing a dilemma since we moved into our house. We have 6 windows in our living room, which I love! The amount of natural light is great. I'm fairly addicted to natural light. I cannot stand a dark house. Who cares if my energy bill would be a little less each month if I closed my blinds? I NEED LIGHT!

Back to my dilemma. The window walls are so long that it would cost a fortune to install drapery rods. Each wall is 10+ feet long. That = major money for drapery rods! I had to get creative....

Also, our windows meet in a corner, so that makes it more complicated. See the picture below.

I saw a show on HGTV that used PVC pipe for drapery rods in a room with a really long wall. That is what I would do!

Here is the price break down on PVC pipe versus regular curtain rods.
This price is what it would cost me to do 20+ feet of wall space.

1 3/8" Drapery Rods = $77.94 (from Lowes)
1 3/8" Drapery Rods = $150.00 (Bed Bath and Beyond)
1 3/8" Drapery Rods = $159.98 (Amazon.com)

or 1 1/4" PVC Pipe = $9.09

Holy Money Saver! So, PVC Pipe it was.

I went ahead and bought wood finials, brackets, and sconces to go with the PVC Pipe. I am in love with them. Wait....can you love something that won't love you back?? I then found some spray paint that would match the finials/sconces. I gave the PVC pipe a few coats of Valspar Velvet Brown. I realized that the PVC looked too 'matte' after the spray paint, so I also did a few coats of a clear Gloss. Can you see the difference? Wow. They are looking pretty niiiice. Would you guess they were PVC pipe? Now, the installation. What a pain. It wasn't hard, just took a while. First I installed the brackets and sconces. I then CAREFULLY slid in the PVC pipe. Your pvc pipe WILL scratch if you aren't careful. I did a few 'touch ups' on mine after installing it. See my scratch?? I then slid on my curtains....... I want to take a break from my 'PVC' post and talk about the curtains. I am in LOVE with the fabric! I looked everywhere for drapes, and couldn't find anything even close to what I wanted. So, I broke down and decided to make them myself. How to actually make them will be another post entirely. I did make them (it took 2 weeks!!!) and I think they turned out pretty sweet. I used a chocolate and cream damask, with a wide chocolate band at the bottom, and some cording in between the two fabrics. What I love the most about this fabric is the 'burlap' look them have. It makes the fabric way less formal looking. Now, back to our reguarly scheduled post..... I hot glued the finials onto the end. Here are some finished shots. I think it looks pretty fab!

Just to recap:

BEFORE (like, before we moved in....)

AFTER

I'm Linking up over at Room to Inspire and Shanty 2 Chic and Domestically Speaking

and Fingerprints on the Fridge

Thrift Store FINDS

It's impossible to predict if you will find anything 'good' when you go thrifting. There is always lots of junk to sort through, and usually, very few things that you would actually want. Like I've said in earlier posts, go with a shopping list of things you would like to find, or potential projects you have in mind. This will help you as you dig in!

Today, at my local Goodwill, I found some great stuff for a good price!

Some plates, and candlestcks. I have a project in mind for these, so stay tuned! The plates are real china, and were only .99 each. Not bad!
I thought the plates had interesting details.

I also found this cute melamine platter. I saw them at Target a few months back. It will be great for outdoor entertaining this summer. It was .79 cents. Also, a great deal.


I found this random metal Santa Clause sign for .99 cents. It's pretty big, and has a metal stake. It will look cute in my big flower pots outside next Christmas. AND, it still had the price tags attached. I love finding new, unused stuff for ridiculously cheap!

Remember how I said it's impossible to predict what you'll find? Well, I made an AWESOME find today. I was jittery I was so excited about it! Best of all, it was not something I was looking for, so that made it even more fun.

What is it you ask?

A brand new, still in the box, Monster Tent! (remember, my kiddos are 2.5 and 10 months....perfect for this!!!!!)


I was nervous....would all the pieces be there?? Surely this was too good to be true.....


Yep, it was as good as I thought. A never used monster tent. To say Miss J is thrilled out of her mind is an understatement. She is even talking about sleeping in it tonight. (great......)

What a find! I Googled the tent while at Goodwill (to make sure it was the killer deal I thought it was) and it retails for $35.99 at Target or $29.99 on Amazon. Awesomeness!

You never know what will be waiting for you at your local Thrift Store!

Frame Makeover

I love to find funky frames at thrift stores!
A few tips for finding a frame worthy of a re-do

• Look for a real wood frame. Plastic will still look like plastic, even when re-painted
• Make sure the price is right! More than $2-3 is probably too much
• Find a frame with real glass that is in good shape
• Look for a frame with a good backing on it, and a way to hang/display it. You don't want a cool frame with no backing. It will be pain. Trust me!

I found a great frame last week on my trip to goodwill. LOVE the details! (the artwork....is hideous!) I knew I wanted something....BLUE this time! I've been feeling a little overdosed on black lately. Is that possible?

I LOVE this color spray paint. It is Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze. It is FABulous.

So, I just gave my frame a few, LIGHT coats of spray paint. I let it dry completely (the hard part, I know....)The color is GREAT!

Next, I wanted to use a black glaze. I've been seeing them used a lot in blogland lately, but didn't have any on hand. I read a tip somewhere (don't remember where) that you can make your own glaze by watering down paint.

TIP: a glaze makes your frame look especially good if you have details you want to bring out. It doesn't do much if you just have a plain frame. I wanted a glaze for this frame b/c of the interesting lines it had.

To make my own glaze, I grabbed my black acrylic paint and added a little water. I made it pretty runny. I used a foam brush to apply it to the frame, making sure to get in all the cracks. I then wiped off the excess with a paper towel, until I got the amount of black on there I wanted.

I repeated the brush on/wipe off thing a few times.

Turned out pretty sweet!
I cleaned the glass before I added my final touches. EWWW!

I added some burlap for a background. Like in this post.

I printed off a cute black and white photo of Miss J, and called it good!


Here's BEFORE:

Here's AFTER:
Go find a frame to re-do! It's so fun to make something fabulous for cheap!

I'm linking up over at Domestically Speaking
and
A Soft Place to Land and Finding Fabulous and Craftaholics Anonymous!

Distressed Candlesticks

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I am a HUGE fan of thrift stores! If you ignore the weird, used clothes smell, and dig in (literally), you can find great stuff! A little paint, some time and effort, and you can make over so many things to decorate with. Frames are my favorite thing to look for.

Some tips for thrifting:

• Look for objects that are real-this means real wood frames, real china plates, real silver/gold, etc. Plastic and plastic composite stuff really doesn't look good made over.
• Look for things with nice lines and pretty details (these details will come out when you re-paint or re-finish)
• Go to thrift stores with a list of things you would like to find, to help you focus as you weed through a TON of junk
• If you see something you really like, but aren't sure about (a cool side table, a neat frame), realize that it will not be there if you come back in a few days. Stuff gets cycled out fast at thrift stores!

Now, moving on with this post....I found some great candlesticks this week....you guessed it! At Goodwill!

They had nice lines
interesting details
and were a really weird brown/red/gold color! (this is a before shot of them-the picture doesn't show off the odd color that well)

I gave them a quick coat of black spray paint, and used some sand paper to distress the edges. They still had quite a bit of that odd red paint showing, but it actually goes great with the red in my kitchen.
I am encouraging all my readers to go to a thrift shop! You will find treasures!