DIY | Operation Home

You guys.

It’s Monthly DIY Challenge time and, boy, do I have an easy project that packs a punch in the impact department. And it’s cheap. Can you tell I’m enamored? Swooning? In LUVVV?? I haven’t spelled “love” with a U since grade school. That says something. Right there.

Anyways, first of all, for anyone new to our Monthly DIY Challenge, this is a challenge that I participate in with some of my bloggy friends. Basically, we’re assigned an item or theme and must make something with it. Period. Super simple and the sky’s the limit. My personal goal in these challenges is to also keep my projects pertinent to our home. Stuff that we need, or that can improve on form or function. Sometimes it takes a little creativity, but it always keeps the wheels turning which is a very awesome thing.

This month, our challenge item was fabric.

I had a few ideas for this month’s challenge and after several failed attempts at other fabric-oriented projects, I ended up with a super simple tapestry wall hanging of sorts out of burlap. See, I’d found some old burlap sacks at a thrift store a while back and I took them home with the intention of doing SOMETHING with them. And then finally, ONE day before our pics were due for this month’s challenge, I had a lightbulb moment that put an idea to the notorious “something”.

A while back, I’d picked up the following stuff from Home Depot…

Copper pipe, brackets, and a pipe cutter.

My original plan with these items was to hang three burlap sacks side by side on one pipe, but I couldn’t find an appropriate place in our house to hang a piece that large without it making the space feel super dark (I’d initially wanted this for our hallway, but yeah, WAY dark). So, the project kind of died. I had this stuff on hand, just never used it. The funny part about it was that I’d purchased a 10 foot piece of copper pipe for this very purpose. I’m barely over 5′ tall, so here I was steering my way around HD with a pipe that was literally double my size. You all should be proud of me. I did not impale a single person, nor did I destroy any displays. I did, however, collect a crowd of well-meaning passersby in the parking lot where I got many tips about how to fit the pipe into my car (through the car diagonally and out the front window for the win). So, when I finally realized that I could still make the project happen, just with one sack instead of three, I slapped my forehead as I realized that my Home-Depot-Lancelot-Adventure was all for naught. I totally could’ve purchased the shorter length of pipe. Or maybe not… now I have plenty of pipe left for another project. And another story to tell. Glass half full, ya’ll. 😉

So, anyways, I hung my burlap sack with thumb tacks to figure out where I preferred it. And it ended up being here…

In our guest room. As you can see, I once again switched around the space and relocated my $7 Target-inspired bench to this wall. It works much better here than the previous arrangement that I discussed in this post. Same story for my small dresser that was subsequently moved to the adjacent wall (ie: back to where it started).

I measured my burlap sack, which was 28″ wide. So, I decided to cut my pipe 34″ to allow 3 inches of overhang on each side of the sack…

But, like any of my projects, there are always teeny hiccups. Like when I went to open my pipe cutter package with a knife and apparently was feeling a little stabby…

PSA: Don’t play with knives. I’m now on my 6th band-aid and it’s nearly bled through as I type this. #justusescissors

Anyways, to cut my pipe, I used a hand-held pipe cutter. You simply clamp it down on your pipe by tightening the little knob…

And twist it around the pipe a bunch of times…

As you spin the cutter around the pipe, it will begin to spin easier. At this point, you’ll wanna tighten the knob more. And repeat… twist, tighten, twist, tighten, etc. until the pipe comes apart in two clean pieces…

Gaw-gee-ous. (triple-syllable Fran Drescher “gorgeous” = goodness around these parts)

Now, to deal with my burlap….

The back of my burlap sack had been cut open when the sack was emptied of its coffee bean contents, so I simply hand-stitched it up loosely with tan thread so that it wouldn’t sag once hung.

Then, I sewed the sack to my pipe with large stitches about an inch apart…

And I hung it on the wall with brackets and a few drywall anchors…

Which left this…

I thought about steaming the burlap to rid it of its wrinkles or possibly depositing a bit of pipe inside the sack to weigh it down and allow it to hang flat and smooth against the wall, but I decided against both options. I love how wrinkled it is. Everything else in the room right now is so smooth and neat that it’s a nice contrast to have something that looks a bit aged and imperfect. I especially love it against the bold, bright fabric of the bench. Me-Ow. And now I’m one step closer to a finished room. Or is it really EVER finished?? THAT is the question… 😉

So, anyways, that’s one more Monthly DIY Challenge in the ~~sack~~ bag!! Now, check out the projects that my awesome buddies came up with…

InLinkz.com

So, remember how one small thing can lead to a bunch of other changes without even trying??

Allow me to introduce you to ~~one~~ two small things…

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh…. I decided that there was no way to get a decent close-up shot without being in the mirror’s reflection (or getting my tripod which seemed like entirely too much work at the time). So, I chose to maximize the opportunity with a cheesy thumbs up victory pose. I’ll bet you’re thanking your lucky stars to be reading this right now, aren’t ya?? 😉

Anyways, I had a total score of a trip to my local thrift shop. It was one of those magical trips where I found these things immediately, paid, and left all within about 5 minutes. And these items would be a sweet ceramic planter that I got for $4.50 and a vintage shoe mirror which I scored for $8. Honestly, I had no idea what to do with the shoe mirror when I purchased it, but I thought it was awesome so I had to adopt it.

Once I got them home, I simply washed the planter, and shined up the shoe mirror with a bit of Restore-A-Finish and Feed n Wax. I dropped a plant I already had into the planter and stuck both items into the corner of our breakfast nook…

Which I loved, but unfortunately, the planter TOTALLY clashed with my bird chairs. Which were last seen here…

FYI: That orchid has since bit the Big One.

Back when I refinished our Craigslist kitchen table, I mentioned that the chairs needed to go. They just didn’t mesh with the table and were too busy for the space. I REALLY wanted to purchase new chairs since these are getting pretty worn (I originally purchased them for $8 from Craigslist and then refinished them), but with the unexpected expense of fixing our rotting wall, that option was (and still is) delayed. So, my pretty blue and white planter was really the straw that got the motivation flowing as far as making cheap changes. Or something like that. 😉

I knew that I had some leftover sagey grey fabric laying around, and while it wouldn’t have necessarily been my first choice for this space, it was free and neutral…

Which meant that it definitely had a leg up on the bird fabric. So, I got going on recovering the seats. I won’t go through a detailed tutorial on seat recovering since I posted one back when I initially recovered my bird chairs. But, if you want more precise information on this process, check out that post. I will say this, though. I generally consider myself to be in okay shape. I try to work out regularly and really enjoy it for the most part. But recovering seats makes me feel like I’m getting a full-on workout. Every.Time.Not.Joking. I was literally sweating and breathing hard as I was completing this project. Something about the strength needed to wield a staple gun while pulling fabric taut is just too much for me for some reason. So, I’ve found that the easiest way to get ‘er done is like this…

Now, if I weren’t holding a camera with my opposite hand, I would’ve been pulling the fabric tightly directly in front of the staple gun. So, imagine that. Basically, you wanna rest the top of the staple gun on your surface, and the bottom of the staple gun on the floor and then use your body weight to compress the staple gun rather than your grip. This should work as long as your surface is relatively flat to the ground. It becomes worlds easier. Trust me. Now granted, this requires you to rotate your surface much more frequently (or move around your object if it’s larger), but it’s worth it in the end.

Once the seats were recovered, I made a point to Scotchguard them. Since this is a solid-colored fabric, stains will be much more apparent, so I felt that this was important in making the seats last more attractively until we purchase our new chairs.

As a refresher, remember when we first moved in??

And now our breakfast nook looks like this…

And our chairs no longer clash with my new planter…

I’m really pleased with how the space is starting to come together. It definitely feels more grown-up since I recovered the chairs. Now I’m REALLY excited to replace them. In the meantime, though, they’ll do. 🙂

My plan with the shoe mirror is actually to use it as a dry erase board for messages. I just need to get some decent dry erase markers that show up better. You can barely see the ones that we have currently.

Eventually, I’ll add something to the other side of the French doors to balance out the space, but I’m not sure what yet. Functionality-wise one of the most welcome additions to the nook is this striped runner by the door…

I found it at Target and love the pop of pattern it adds. Plus, it goes a long way to preventing dirt and wet feet from muddying up the kitchen. My goal was to find a dirt-colored rug that was still cute. Mission accomplished.

Now, since we’re in the kitchen anyways, how about an update on the other side of the room?? Now, let me preface this by saying that I realize that a dressed-up turd is still a turd. And well, our kitchen right now is definitely a turd (what with its mismatched appliances, nose-cabinets adorned with chipping/drip-ridden paint, chipped Formica countertops, etc.). But, I figure that I may as well style it cutely to better to help us live with it until the renovation starts (which will hopefully be late summer/early fall depending on when we find decent reasonably-prices appliances).

Just as a reminder, last I showed you, the kitchen looked like this…

And this is the current status…

Minor changes, but they all work much better in the space and seem less cluttered than before. I’m constantly changing things around in here. Even as I was taking these pictures, I was altering things actually. So, now for a few countertop cameos. First, our coffee area (and yup! This picture prompted me to refill the sugar)…

Next… Anybody remember Larry the Table Guy?? He was my very first project on the blog almost 2 years ago…

Aaaand… Just like in our last house, chunky cutting boards are a mainstay on the countertop (and see how the teapot is tilting??? Our stove is dangerously uneven. One more reason why it needs to go.)…

Then, I added a stack of coffee cups opposite the coffee bar for easy access. Plus, I think it looks kinda cool (and you can catch a small glimpse of our dining room in this shot)…

And one more shot. Simply because Lucas gifted me the rock….

Right now, I’m okay with this space (sortof), but I’m not gonna lie… I cannot wait to get started on this baby. It has so much potential that it isn’t living up to right now. I’ll have a planning post on what we’re thinking soon. But until then, that’s what I got!

So have any of y’all had small changes that add up to many more? Kind of like a snowball effect??