Hanging Curtains

Glad you came back to see how I hung the curtains in our bedroom. If you are just joining us, I hung some blinds the other day in a mini-makeover for our master bedroom.

Hanging Curtains

Hanging Curtains

Then I hung a curtain rod and flanked both windows with some billowy white cotton curtains. I still can’t believe what a difference this made in the room.

Here is the dark and drab before:

Hanging Curtains

So, you want to hang your own curtains? I’m here to help you along with that.

By the way, if you have a Tuesday Morning near you, check out their curtain rods! This extra wide one for spanning two windows was only $24.99!

Start out by holding up your curtain rod (preferably with a friend holding and you looking.) And mark the height of your rod on the wall.

Hanging Curtains

Take the time to check and see if there is a stud behind where your bracket will hang. If there is, check out my post HERE for hanging the bracket into a stud. All my brackets landed in locations without a stud behind them.

Hanging Curtains

So, I grabbed some Toggler anchors and used them instead of the screws that came with the curtain rod.

Hanging Curtains

Start by tracing the screw holes in your bracket.

Hanging Curtains

Next screw the two screws that come with the Toggler anchors partially into the wall. This creates starter holes for the anchors.

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Remove the screws.

Hanging Curtains

Use a philips head screwdriver and screw the anchors into the wall until they are flush with the wall. Be careful not to over-tighten.

Hanging Curtains

Line up your bracket on top of the anchors, and then insert the screws that come with the anchors into the wall.

Hanging Curtains

As you can see, the toggler screws are silver, but not for long! Grab a permanent black marker and color them black.

Hanging Curtains

Or if you are using white or brown brackets, you can simply paint them with acrylic craft paint, stain or primer. Your choice.

Next, using your level, rest it on top of the first bracket and make a mark on the wall where your next bracket will be mounted. This will insure that it is level with the first.

Hanging Curtains

Repeat the steps to install the second and third bracket (if you have a wide span of windows like I do.)

Hanging Curtains

Assemble the brackets per the instructions that came with them. And hang your curtains!

Hanging Curtains

You may have noticed how far the rod extends beyond the window. This is a design trick to make the windows appear bigger, plus it allows for the maximum amount of natural light to enter the room.
 Hanging Curtains

Okay, less you think that everything I do is perfect – remember how I said to have a friend hold the rod when you first decided how high to hang the rod. Well, I didn’t! I was too impatient. So, I ended up having to re-do the first bracket and was left with this.

Hanging Curtains

No biggie. I just patched the hole and applied some touch up paint. Good as new!

Except, I was too lazy to iron the curtains before I hung them. (Yup, I’m an instant gratification kind of gal, couldn’t you tell?!)

Hanging Curtains

So, I have for you a two-fer post. Two posts in one! Wow, your lucky day right?!

A No Iron Technique for Removing Wrinkles!

This is my favorite technique for removing wrinkles. I use it on everything! Slipcovers, curtains, sheets, and clothing I am already wearing.

You will need one of these:

Hanging Curtains

Just a squirt bottle with plain old H2O in it. Nothing fancy. Set the nozzle to mist.

Spread out your curtains.

Hanging Curtains

Then go to town spraying your wrinkled areas. When it dries the wrinkles are magically gone.

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Sometimes they might need another spray and some smoothing with your hands, but ultimately they usually come out.

Hanging Curtains

Only the stubborn wrinkles get to meet my iron.

As you can see below, most of the wrinkles came out, but we had party guests arriving in 15 minutes, so I left them as is and will iron them another day. Maybe.

Hanging Curtains

And one more look at my new curtains and blinds.

Hanging Curtains

Hey! Are you peeking at my new wall graphic I painted? You cheater, you’ll have to read my post where I will show you how to paint a wall graphic. In the meantime, I posted a picture of me working on it on my Facebook fan page.

Happy New Year! I love January 1st. It is a new beginning, with new goals, resolutions and a chance to start fresh.

We had an open house style party on New Year’s Day. I was talking with my friend Leslie about how little changes can really make a big difference in your home and attitude. It is better to make some small alterations to your home instead of waiting to make bigger changes. We all have many reasons for waiting:

  • Lacking Money
  • Lack the skills
  • Lacking a vision
  • Lacking time
  • Lacking motivation
  • Insert your own reason here!

When we first moved into our home I didn’t want to do anything to our master bathroom because I knew we would need to gut it one day.

But, I can’t tell you how awful I felt every morning as I stepped into that hideous bathroom.

Finally I stopped waiting and made a few changes. I didn’t rip out the tile, I just added some paint, stain and new fixtures. And it really made me happy! Sure I still have to step into a harvest gold tile coffin to shower. And I will have to wait until we have the funds to renovate the room one day. But, at least that room makes me happy for now.

So, in the spirit of a fresh start, I decided to give our Master Bedroom a little face lift this week.

Our bedroom was the first room we painted when we moved in, and I stopped loving the room last year. Especially when these showed up!

Yuck, I’m not sure how our roman shades got stained. I think it might have been from the vaporizer I run in our bedroom because I can’t find any other places where water could have penetrated the window.

I admit, I was in a holding pattern. I found myself stalling, thinking that I had to wait until we scraped our ceilings. Then we could re-do that room.

The truth is that I had all the supplies to give our room a mini-facelift. Back when Layla posted about her new window treatment in her master bedroom, I was all eyes!

Our bed is situated in the same location as her’s (in front of two windows.) I had struggled with what to do with our bed and those window until I read her post. Luckily, I was able to find these natural grass shades at Bed, Bath & Beyond on clearance. $9.99 per blind! SCORE!

Thank you Layla@TheLetteredCottage for sharing your window treatments!

But, I waited another 2 months to do anything with those blinds! Sheesh, I can’t believe it took me that long to pull on my big girl “go ahead and do it” panties?

I started by removing the old stained blinds. Sadly I sewed them myself only three years ago. Sniff, sniff.

Then, I held up the new blinds to the height I wanted them. I hung them higher than the window to give the illusion that the window was taller, and also to be sure not to block too much natural light from the room.

Made a mark on the wall with pencil.

Next, I used a level to mark a line across the whole window.

I measured the width of my blinds and held up the first bracket at one end. Lucky for me I had already located a stud near the one end of the blind. (Read about stud finding HERE.)

Here is the first trick you NEED TO KNOW about hanging any window treatments! Those screws that come with blinds will not hold up your window treatments over the long haul even if you are screwing them into a stud. Especially if you have small children that may try to play Tarzan on them one day.

The wimpy 1″ screws are not long enough to go through the drywall and into your studs. And DO NOT expect them to hold if they are simply screwed into drywall either.

Be sure to purchase some extra drywall or wood screws that are 2″ long.

Also have some of these wall anchors on hand at all times! They screw into the wall when a stud is not behind your bracket. I can’t tell you how much better these are than those cheap wall anchors that you get for free.

Next I drove the screws into the bracket using my cordless drill. (Finishing off at the end with a screwdriver.) I used two of the wimpy screws and two longer screws.

I repeated the process to hang the other bracket. Then followed the directions for hanging the blinds I bought.

I was able to hang the other side the same way and used my level line to make sure both blinds were hung at the same height.

Next I adjusted the cord stop and pulls to fit our windows. Because the blinds weren’t custom made for our windows, they hung down below the window sill. I started by closing the blinds to the bottom of our windows. Then moved the small stop bead to the top of the cord.

Next I moved the pull knobs to a location in the middle of the blinds, added new knots to hold them there and then cut off the excess.

Next up on Pretty Handy Girl. How to hang curtains and a no-iron way to iron your curtains!

Plus, I have some more frugal changes that cost me – ummm – nothing! I added a big graphic element to the side wall (Tutorial HERE.) I know, sorry to tease you like that, but if you follow me on Twitter, I gave away the secret there.

Until then, I encourage you to embrace the New Year by making a small change to a room you really don’t like.

  • Try hanging a new picture.
  • Try hanging new blinds or curtains.
  • Cover up something you don’t like with fabric.
  • Buy some new throw pillows.
  • Change around your accessories.
  • Or switch out your bedding.

If you have a little more time and energy, It really is amazing what a new coat of paint can do for a room!

So, please don’t wait. Make yourself happy! Change out something today! It doesn’t mean you have to buy something new.

I am planning on swinging by our local Goodwill this week. You should have seen the lines of people donating their items before the new year (myself included!) I bet there are some treasures to be found this week.

Addendum: Monique sent me an email asking if she would be at risk of electrocuting herself when using the longer screws. Good question Monique. Here is my answer:

When I used the 2″ screws I was screwing them into the studs. See THIS post to determine how to find a stud. It is about halfway down the post past the bench assembly. Electrical is not normally in a stud, occasionally it is run through a stud, but the 2″ screw is actually only penetrating the stud about 1/2″ to 3/4″. Sometimes electrical wires are fed through a hole in the stud, however, it is normally centered in a 2″ x 4″ stud, so about 2″ back. But, normally electrical is not run up near the ceiling through studs (where I was hanging the blinds). The electricity for your outlets is down near the outlets. The electrical for your ceiling light would run vertical from the switch and up through the ceiling. Most of those wires are either loose in the cavity between the studs or stapled to the middle of the stud (about 2″ back).

If you are mounting your bracket into the drywall cavity (not a stud) I wouldn’t use just the screw. That is where I would use the plastic toggler anchors that I showed above. The cavity in the drywall is 3 3/4″ deep (the width of a stud.) Should an anchor touch the electrical (which that would be rare, it is sheathed in thick plastic and would normally flex away from the anchor. Plus, because it is plastic it wouldn’t conduct electricity.)

In other words, long explanation short, you don’t need to worry about shocking yourself if you are using anchors in the hollow areas and 2″ screws into the studs.

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Sneak Peek at my Christmas Wreath

I am getting a lot of mileage out of my white base wreath I bought at Target several months ago. With it I’ve been able to make a Magnolia Leaf Wreath for the fall.

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I made a Feather Wreath for Thanksgiving.

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Now it was time to give the wreath an injection of Christmas spirit. I removed the feathers, but left the green nuts on it. I had a green fabric leaf wreath that I made out of some floral filler stalks. All I did was twist 4 of the stalks into a circle shape and secure with a few pieces of floral wire.

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I set my white base wreath inside the green leaf circle.

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To secure the two together, 1) I fed some of the base wreath twigs under the leaf wreath and 2) twisted them over to hug the green leaf wreath.

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That couldn’t be any easier! No glue, no mess.

I compared two different ribbons next to my wreath and ultimately chose the black and white one.

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Tied a pretty bow and stood back to admire.

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Hmmm, I like it, but it just wasn’t feeling Christmasy enough, so I quickly tucked some red floral sprigs with teeny bells on them into the wreath and gently curved them to match the shape of the wreath.

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Now that is more like it!
In less than 10 minutes I have my Christmas wreath! This base wreath has been the best $10 I’ve spent all year!

I’m going to try to use this wreath all year and will be sure to share the transformations with you.

“SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN!” Cover your ears because a very tone deaf woman (myself) was belting out the Christmas songs this weekend. With Thanksgiving behind us, I released the restraints and broke out the Christmas décor. The kids are loving it and counting down the days until old St. Nick comes down our chimney!
Christmas Morning 2009 – Magic North Pole Snow Footprints (Baking Soda y’all!)
As I told you the other day, I wanted to create a rustic country theme this year in our living room. So, without anymore restraints….here it is!
I spy with my own two eyes, a Pottery Barn Inspired Lantern from the Habitat ReStore!
I told you I had a plan for those old pool balls!
Do you think I achieved my goal? Rustic? Country?
Goal or not, I think I like it.
Although it took me four days of noodling to decide I have to let it be.
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been looking for an affordable cake stand.
Thieve’s market in Raleigh had THREE! Count them…1…2…3!
Of course I only bought one, so if you need one, head on over there.
Yeah, Baby! You know I couldn’t pass up those rusty sleigh bells at SuzAnna’s!
An old cheese grater (you can’t see it but it has a candle inside.)
An old sports stop clock and one of two large acorn decorations.
I couldn’t resist them, after all Raleigh IS the City of Oaks.
Another PB Inspired Lantern. Love these $5 finds!
Each year I try to think of a new and creative way to display all our holiday cards.
This year I put together two shutters to make a screen.
The tutorial is HERE!

That concludes the living room tour. If you aren’t bored to death,
I’ll show you a small vignette I have in our kitchen on top of the pie safe.
Isn’t she adorable? That little angel found her way into my shopping bag at SuzAnna’s.
I hope you all have a fabulous holiday season!

Now cover your ears again as I sing to Santa Baby (because I’m no Eartha Kitt!)

Pin for later!

rustic christmas home decor on mantel

 

 

I spent the weekend in Norfolk, VA with my two wonderful sisters (Alana and Caitlin) and Alana’s boyfriend, Eddie. We had fun kicking some DIY butt! Who knew you could have so much fun installing cabinet knobs!

Most of the projects were centered around Alana’s kitchen. The kitchen was remodeled a few years ago, but it was never really finished. Our mission this weekend was try to complete some of those unfinished projects.

One of the tasks we accomplished was installing cabinet knobs on the kitchen cabinets. Another was touching up paint on the walls (but that is another post for another day.)

 

Caitlin made a template out of cardboard that made it a snap to install the knobs.

First she measured the corner square on the cabinets. It was 1.5″ square.

Then she made a hole in a piece of cardboard 3/4″ from two edges of the template. So, this way we knew our hole would be centered in the square every time! And she marked the outside corner with a little arrow.

Making sure the arrow was pointed at the outside corner, I lined up the template at the corner of the cabinet. (We used the edge of the raised panel, instead of the actual corner of the cabinet.)

Then, I used my drill to make a mark where the hole would go.

After that, I removed the template and slipped a piece of scrap wood behind where the hole was being drilled.

Then I drilled into the cabinet until I felt it enter the scrap wood.

Can you name my facial expression? a) I just got a whiff of old yeasty bread. b) I’m really concentration on my drilling. c) I’m trying not to laugh at my sister taking my picture.

Then Caitlin threaded the bolt through and screwed on the knobs. Perfectly beautiful and those of us with fat fingers and short fingernails can get into the cupboards now. Who knew you could have so much fun installing cabinet knobs!

For your viewing pleasure, I thought you might get a laugh out of one of the outtakes of our  Charlie’s Angels inspired picture. We were doing our best at making a sexy face. Caitlin said  “sexy facial expressions” must not run in the family. Not sure what’s with that fish face I’m sporting. So much for my sexy look.