Beautiful Bedroom...Finally

September 13, 2010.

That is the last time I wrote a post on here. Holy cow. Again, my apologies for being a blogging slacker. I know, I know. I'm terrible.

 To be completely honest, I haven't been doing a whole lot of decorating lately, so there hasn't been much to post. I have decided to jump on the workout and eat healthy wagon. You know how people say "If only I could have my high school metabolism back?" Yeah, definitely not me. Never once have I said that. I have never had a "high school metabolism" - thank you Reece family. In fact, I weight less now than I did in high school. I finally started to figure out a few years back that healthy didn't mean just not super sizing my drive through order. So here I am as a 24 year old learning how to be healthy and jumping on the workout wagon. This isn't the first time I've jumped on this wagon. In fact, at the beginning of the year, I was working out 6 days a week doing Farrell's Extreme Body Shaping. The problem was, I wasn't watching what I ate because I figured by working out 6 days a week, I could eat whatever I wanted to. Wrong. So now I am focusing on the diet as well as the gym. I must say, it's been pretty great too. I used to despise the gym, but now, I can spend 2 hours there and not even realize that that amount of time has gone by. I'm hoping by developing this habit now, it will stick through the winter when it's cold and dreary outside and there's nothing better to do. But I digress. You aren't really here to read about my healthy life plan. You're here to see some decorating. So I present to you...my bedroom.

That's right. I FINALLY did something to my bedroom. Remember back here when I was begging for some color inspiration for my bedroom. Well, it ended up as a light brown. Not at all what I was envisioning, but this was my second can of paint that I bought for this room, and I was tired of trying to find the "perfect" color. And when I took it back to Lowe's to have them lighten it up, Miss Sassy Pants Paint Mixer told me that she couldn't lighten it like I wanted because my can didn't have enough room to hold all of the paint. And if anyone knows me, they know these two things about me: I hate being sassed, and I am one of the most impatient people you will ever meet. So I gave her a very fake grin, thanked her for nothing, and went home and painted with my darker than I wanted paint. I must say though, I do like how it turned out. So take that Miss Sassy Pants Paint Mixer. I like it. Ha! It's just not at all how I had envisioned it. But that's ok, because it's done :).

So I painted my room a light brown, rearranged all my furniture, and decided it was time to get something up on the wall. When I saw this post over at Impatiently Praying for Patience, I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do. So I started hunting frames down at thrift stores, and this is what I came up with.

SO easy, and I think it makes such a statement. Plus, it was incredibly cheap. I bought every frame at a thrift store and didn't pay over $1.99 for any of them. Most were $.99, and my bottle of craft paint was also $.99. Definitely an under $20 project, and if I had to guess, I would say it cost me $12 - $13. Hello gorgeous, cheap decor. LOVE it! 

To give a quick explanation of how I did this (although I don't really think it's necessary), I ended up taking all of the backs, pictures, mirrors, etc. out of the frames so it I was left with what you see above. I then sprayed them all with Kilz primer and painted them with a bottle of craft paint that matched my bedding. The trickiest part was arranging them how I thought they would look best. I did this on the floor by my bed and then just hung one at a time so I wouldn't forget how they were placed. Here is a better view of my bedroom with them hanging up. 

I am so thrilled with how it turned out. I am continuing to work on some decor for my bedroom, and will post them as soon as I finish them (or at least in a timely matter - let's be real - I'm not exactly Johnny on the spot when it comes to blogging right away).

"You're seriously going to spray paint your pillows??"

That's the question my oh so understanding boyfriend asked me last night as I was plugging away on my latest project. And that's exactly what I did. I spray painted some throw pillow covers. Have I mentioned lately how much I love spray paint? It's seriously a small love affair. I was a little hesitant when spray paint and fabric were involved, but if I do say so myself, they turned out AWESOME! Here they are in all their glory.

I got this idea over at V and Co. where she gives a tutorial here. I am going to go ahead and give you my version of the process (although it was almost exactly like V and Co's). There were a few things I would have done differently, so this is the story of the lovely painted pillows...

You will need:

Muslin
Freezer Paper
Pencil
Spray Paint
Scissors
Iron
Sewing machine or some mad hand sewing skills
Like colored thread
Pillow insert

I first started off with some muslin (you can get it at any fabric store - I got mine at JoAnn's Fabrics for $2.99/yd - CHEAP!). I cut two 19"x19" squares (that is the size of my pillow inserts) and four 19"x12" rectangles (these will be used for the backside of your pillow cover).

These are two of the four 19"x13" pieces. 

I then downloaded the "wheat" stencil pdf at V and Co. found here and traced it onto my freezer paper (you will need long, skinny strips of freezer paper for your "stems" - those are really easy to free hand). Not sure if it's necessary to mention or not, but you could use whatever design you wanted. I still want to find a really pretty floral pattern and try it on my other two pillows.

After tracing all the "wheat leaves" I thought I would need, I then cut them out and ironed them onto my 19"x19" piece of muslin SHINY SIDE DOWN (trust me, if you miss this step, it will stick to the bottom of your iron - not that I'm speaking from personal experience or anything...).

After you have ironed your wheat onto the large piece of muslin, then it is time to bust out the spray paint. I ended up using Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in Warm Yellow and Valspar in Petrol Blue (although I had a Krylon brown pictured above - I changed my mind. Also, as a side note, I was much more pleased with how the Rust-Oleum turned out on the fabric. The Valspar is a little sticky and more stiff. Not sure if that's because I used more paint, or just the nature of the brand). Spray very light coats onto your fabric until it is nearly covered. Mine ended up still having a big of white show through, but I chose to leave it. I thought it gave it a more interesting look, and it is harder to notice when it is right up against a pillow.

Yes, that is carpet you see in that picture. Please ignore the fact that I spray painted inside in my little one bedroom apartment. I am VERY impatient and it was super windy yesterday so inside it was. I did have both doors open (both on the east and west end) so it created a nice draft for ventilation :). 

Once that has fully dried (I waited over night for the yellow one to dry, and about 2 hours for the turquoise one), then peel the wheat off of the piece of muslin.

Once you have done this, it is now time to get sewing. I created what is called an "envelope" slip cover. You can find a tutorial for that here. 

Once your pillows are sewn, turn them right side out, insert your pillow inserts, and enjoy. An easy, cheap, and cute way to update your throw pillows to match any decor change you wish to make. 

A few things to be mindful about when making your pillow covers. First, make sure there is no "overhang" when you're putting your leaves on the stems. This becomes very apparent when you pull the wheat off the muslin like shown below.

Also, I used green throw pillows with brown polka dots for my pillow inserts for the turquoise pillow. I realized as I was constructing these pillows that you would be able to see the insert through the white muslin on the back, so I spray painted the 19"x12" pieces as well. I would not recommend this. While it wasn't terrible, it's much easier when one side is spray paint-less fabric so it's not so stiff and easier to work with. I would just buy a different color fabric for the back, or use a white insert (although it won't be as cheap that way if you don't have one laying around). Also, for the first pillow, I used two 19"x11" pieces of fabric instead of 19"x12" for the back. You can't really tell in the picture, but the pillow is popping through on the one with the white back. That's when I changed the measurements so I wouldn't have that problem with the other one.

All in all though, it was a GREAT project and I am really really happy with the results. 

I am on vacation all week long, so I'm hoping to keep posting projects as they get finished. Until the next time, happy Monday!

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