living room redo take two...Klobo before and after...

We recently tackled a project that has been many years coming.  Four years ago, Kinsey purchased a loveseat from Ikea (Klobo is the name of the style and is how we also refer to it.) for a mere $99.  He was living in a small apartment and only had room for a loveseat, not a full sofa.  The shape was nice and modern, but the downside was of course, it was white.  We're not really white furniture people.  Case being, about a month ago Kinsey spilled a bottle of black india ink on the arm of the Klobo.  

This wasn't by any means the first stain.  Imagine a well used piece of furniture in a white color...that hasn't been washed for four years.

So the other week we purchased a dark brown fabric in hopes of finally making a cover for it.  We had just come home from Target with our new curtains, and suddenly the urge came to cover the Klobo.  I think the task of making a slipcover was a little overwhelming.  Neither of us had done this before and we weren't entirely sure about how to make everything fit.  

We decided that we didn't really need to make a slipcover that could be taken on and off.  We just needed to cover it, pronto.  So we moved the Klobo to the center of the room and began to deconstruct it.  The good thing about Ikea furniture is how easy it can be disassembled.  We were left with 4 pieces. 

We did a combination of of stapling and sewing.  We sewed the sides and back to give it a nice, firm fit.  The bottom edges we just stapled to the bottom, which is exactly how Ikea did it originally.  


Kinsey was the stapler guy and I was the sewing girl. 


Project breakdown: 

The whole project took about 2-2 1/2 hours roughly.  This includes a quick trip to Jo-Anns when we realized we were about 2 yards too short.  Luckily, the Klobo broke down into individual pieces which made not having enough fabric not turn into a disaster.  When we ran in the store we discovered they had exactly the amount we needed, no more and no less.   We used a total of about 6 1/2 yards of fabric which was $9.99 a yard.  We of course had a 40% off coupon the first time and a 50% off coupon the second time, so total cost was roughly $40 for the cost of all fabric.  

Paired with our new curtains, we love it.  A whole new loveseat for $40!  Our next step for the living room: Bamboo flooring.

living room redo take one

I've never really gave much thought to curtains.  I mean, I've thought about the color they should be, but that's about it.  I've always just sewed curtains for rooms out of really simple fabrics.  I remember sewing bright red curtains for my bedroom when I was 10 or 11.  I sewed these by hand, it took all night, and it was one of the first things I ever sewed.  

When Kinsey and I moved into our house (almost a year ago), we needed curtains fast because there were no blinds or such downstairs.  I headed to the fabric store and picked up some standard brown cotton and sewed them up fast.  I for some reason decided to add small red loops to the top instead of just sewing a straight line to slide the curtain rod through.  Anyhow, they served their purpose, but weren't anything fancy.  Here's an overall picture of the set-up.  

We've been wanting to get new curtains...maybe something to brighten things up a little.  Not that it's dark in our living room at all, two of our walls are orange.  So we were at the Target today and ended up in the curtain aisle.  First of all, we were a little surprise about the price.  $25+ for one panel, which means $50 for just one complete window.  Of course, compared to other places, this may seem like a bargain.  We couldn't really feel completely okay with spending $100+ just for curtains in our living room, so we were going to pass until we found a few packages with that pretty little red clearance tag.  The curtains we chose were sort of a satin finish and a light aqua color.  At first we weren't completely sure, but after comparing the hue with similar shades from on our walls, we realized it had the potential to look really, really good.  So we got four packs.


And we put them up.  No sewing.  Just slid them right through the rod like probably 95% of America does.  

Here I am sewing up a project that we'll show off tomorrow.



Now I will say, these do need ironed.  Badly.  But I couldn't wait to get them up and we only have a terribly small ironing board.  It's a tabletop one that's literally 18 inches long.  I wasn't quite feeling up to attempting that today.  So squint and pretend not to see the folded lines, and that's how the curtains look (or will look soon).

Total price for all window panels = $36

bedroom take 2...

So, Kinsey and I have been on the path to improving our bedroom. Gone are the cold, harsh, white walls.  Not too long ago, we made the room changing paint color (read about it here) and have been trying to find time to tackle a few more issues... (like hiding the hideous built in air conditioner).   Our window treatments were pretty basic.  No curtains (I've had a pack of really nice brown ones for months and months, but haven't actually put them up yet.  Why?  I really don't have a good answer.), just white apartment grade blinds.  They blinds were functional and served their purpose, but we longed for something a bit more exciting.  We've often looked at the blinds on our weekly home improvement store trips, but held off getting them because we kept measuring wrong.  (We were convinced our windows measured 26", but of course this isn't a standard size, so no blinds would fit.  Then one day, it just clicked....the windows were in fact 27", we somehow had constantly measured wrong.)  So we picked up two packs of dark brown bamboo shades for our coastal blue room.  
 

I'm not going to pretend that this pictures are good.  They're not.  However,  it does give off the overall feeling.  Things we learned in the process:

1- Read how to measure for blinds and actually measure that way.  It's quite simple.

2- Blinds really do make a huge difference.

3-Pull down and to the right on the cord to open, down and to the left on the cord to close.  Or is that backwards....Kinsey will be sure to tell me if it's wrong.  (Okay, well I was the only one who learned this step.  Kinsey is a blind expert.)

Total cost:
$25 per bamboo blind = $50