$5 DIY Cow Hide Rug

Soooo how many of you drool every time you see a cow hide rug? I know I do! I've wanted a big beautiful cow hide to mix in with my fun bright colors for as long as I've been able to "dream decorate". Now I want one even more, I mean how perfect would a cow hide blend mine and Reeds style... mmm soo good just thinking about it :)

Basically, you can tell I want one real bad. Sadly we don't have the budget for me to buy a rug just because I want one. And yes I know that SAMs club sells them for about $100 and yes I know most people would consider that cheap but for us if it is over $30 its too much :)  I had to get creative and come up with a way to get the look I wanted without spending the money. 

I figured painters  drop cloth is my favorite thing so why not use it as a rug! All I had to buy was a $5 4x5 painters drop cloth from Lowe's find an image of a cow hide that I liked and copy it! And y'all know me, I didn't just want a normal cow hide rug so I went with my favorite blue that is all over our house. Drop cloth soaks up a LOT of paint so it took about 3 layers for me to get the vibrancy of the color I wanted.

Once I started I realized I didn't really have a place for this beauty. Luckily I still had to figure out my front porch! I knew I wanted it to be a vibrant eclectic mix of new and old. The porch still isn't finished but adding a rug sure did make it feel more of a finished space.

What are some of your favorite drop cloth projects and would you be bold enough to go beyond the typical black and brown cow hide prints? I'm certainly so glad I did!! 

Rit Dye Papasan Cushion

Do y'all remember my post back around Christmas time when I made my own Papasan Chair Cushion (click here to see the full tutorial)? Well with the cold winter weather it basically was used as a massive dog bed for Tepe, which means it got real muddy and covered with paw prints.

So I decided to take it off, wash it, and dye it so maybe the color wouldn't be so obvious. But sadly  my last tutorial didn't include a way to take the cushion off to wash. So I kinda redid a few things. First off, I used Rit liquid dye sunshine orange and followed the directions on the bottle. 

When dying drop cloth be sure to wash it before hand, they can be pretty dirty even right out of the package. It also helps to have your cloth totally wet when adding the dye. Just fill up your washer with warm water and add the dye. I used the entire bottle because I had a large amount of cloth. And I wish I had more because it didn't turn out as vibrant as I was hoping for. But I will just re-dye it the next time I go to wash it :) 

So, ya know that last time I didn't include a way to get the pillows out for washing. So this time I added in snaps along the edge and used them to do a bit of tufting too. I  thought I was going to kill myself trying to figure these out. Thennnnn this beautiful little blue tool snuck in to my life and it was AWESOME! All you do is snap the two pieces in place of the tool and pinch the fabric in between. 

Once you pinch the top and bottom pieces in to the fabric you will be able to use the snaps like normal! So all you gotta do is have enough snaps to leave an opening wide enough to pull out your cushioning when ready for washing :) 

Then all that is left to do is enjoy it! I was staging a photo shoot to get some good shots of the newly dyed cushion but Reed took over and had a little midday nap. I guess thats a good sign :) 

No Sew Drop Cloth Table Runner

Wasssuppp peeps! Y'all are so sweet and encouraging when I share my life with y'all :) I feel like I get on and talk so much about problems that I'm learning from and I hope it doesn't seem to be whinny, but God teaches me so much when I just sit and write down what He's teaching me. Lets just say y'all teach me a lot too and I greatly encourage the community y'all give me! mwah!!

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted a DIY or tutorial so I'm changing things up this week! Here is a super quick and easy way for you to make your own no sew table runner!! I'm not even joking when I say super quick and easy, plus CHEEEAAAPPP :) 

I started the project off with a 9ft x 12ft canvas drop cloth, yes the kind you can buy at Lowes for $21. Just give it a quick run through the wash to soften it up, and clean it up. ( I mean you would think something new would be clean, but trust me it needs to be washed with lots of detergent!)

As you can see from above I've used my drop cloth for another project first. I will be sharing a bit on that later. So what I did was measure out the size of the table runner I wanted. Then cut a strip of drop cloth. 

I knew I didn't want to have to sew anything and that I would be painting it so once the edges where cut I started to peel away some threads to create a fringed edge. And no they are not even, yes if you are a perfectionist cut a straight line and take all the time in the world when peeling your fringe. But I am not so I just eyeballed it and that is totally fine by me! 

Then I just used masking tape to lay out a pattern. I didn't have true masking tape so I used my washi-tape and painters tape to give it some different thicknesses. Once you have your pattern all set you can now simply paint it!
I was a bit nervous about this part cause I've tried painting drop cloth before and it bleads through bad. This time I tried spray paint and it worked wonders! It took about 3 layers for me to get the color I wanted and it is still a bit washed out in spots. But once you have the color the way you like peel the tape off and WA LA you have a lovely patterned table runner :)

I like the washed out look, I think it goes well with the course-ness of the material and the frayed edges. Makes it look "antique". And yes this table runner is pretty long for my table, but it isn't meant for my table soooo hopefully it wont drag the ground for it's rightful owner :) But I do love it with my red chairs soooo I may have to make myself one too!!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Drop cloths are the bomb.com. I mean where else can you get 9x12 ft of fabric for $21!!?? Basically I use them for everything, table cloth, table runner, recovering furniture, papasan chair cushion, drapes, and soooo many more ideas :)

What are some of your favorite uses for drop cloth??

Double Papasan Chair Cushion Tutorial

This is one of my Black Friday deals. Yep I got a double papasan chair on black friday for a STEAL! Sadly, it didn't come with a cushion and a new cushion cost more than I paid for the chair. So, obviously my frugal self said heck no I will make one before I pay that price tag!

I looked up tutorials and didn't really find any on any papasan cushion but found absolutely zero for a double papasan! I made mine up as I went and it isn't perfect but next time I make one I've got it all figured out! 

Here goes the tutorial!

Supplies:
1 9x12 drop cloth
6 $3 pillows from Wal-Mart 

STEP 1: Lay out your drop cloth so it is folded in half and draw out the oval shape of the chair. To get a good estimate on how large your oval should be measure loosely the chair seat with a tape measure. 

STEP 2: Once I had my oval drawn out (I used chalk) I tried a few different ideas for fitting in the pillows but ended up with 3 columns of 3 pillows. 

STEP 3: Cut the oval out. don't forget to do both layers!! 

STEP 4: Sew up the two pieces like a pillow case. Remember to leave a big enough opening for you to fit the pillows in and you probably will need to fit some of your upper body in too! 

STEP 5: Once I had the pillows where I wanted I just tufted the cushion. So basically I did a real easy stitch through both sides of fabric to keep the pillows in place and to give the cushion a bit more "oomph". 

My cushion doesn't fit to perfect, but for about $40 it works just fine! 

Tepe has turned this in to her dog bed. We've had it for about 4 days and it is already stained from her dirty paws, but hey if my baby is comfy for $40 I'm not complaining! Plus I am just so in love with how cushy and comfy it turned out to be. I know I'm gonna have to do it again when I get some outdoor fabric but again FORTY DOLLARS TOTAL. yep, I'm good with it for now:)

I LOVE MY PPPOOOOORRRCHHHHH :) This is such a dreamy spot. I wish I would have been as motivated to do it in the summer because I really wanna use it but I do not do cold weather! So I just check it out every night when walking in the house and dream of the day I can curl up with a good book :)

PS> I'm doing a house tour for the holidays and will be sharing more of our rad porch then!

Lamp Shade Recovering with a Drop Cloth Scrap

Well well well! The bedroom has gotten lots of attention this week!
Not only have I made the bed every day this week but I've put away all of my fall/winter clothes, sorta unpacked my shoes (hid the boxes), refinished 2 side tables, built a lamp, and now recovered the mismatched lamp shade!
It sounds like a lot but really the cleaning and bed making was solely because I had to clean up for the photos of the new projects :)

So Wednesday I shared our bedside table makeovers. Super simple paint job but really did help in making the room feel a little more finished!
And today I not only wrote a post about the fabulous lampshade I just recovered but also wrote a guest post on how I built this custom lamp!! I'm not 100% sure when the post will be live (I'll let y'all know fo sho) but go check out Confessions of a Northern Belle and I promise her little blog will not disappoint :)

Until then here is the "tutorial" of how I fixed our mismatched lampshade.
I shared this photo in the post about the lamp so sorry if you are disappointed with the doubling up. The projects go hand in hand so I just recycled :)
The barrel shade I picked up at Lowes on clearance for $7! I should have gotten another one, but thought I would try out my recovering skills first. I don't think the shade looks bad, it just doesn't really go with the other patterns in the room.

First things first, I had to pick out what I was going to recover the shade with. I was originally planning on using the drop cloth, in fact I bought drop cloth forever ago with making a lampshade in mind but am just now using it for that. But I also found an old pillow case that I thought might look good. So I held them against the wall and the bed spread and the drop cloth won out. I liked the pillow case, but felt like that was a lot of gray between the walls, table, and shade. 

Once I decided on the fabric I measured and cut. Sadly I mis measured. But instead of getting rid of the scrap I just cut another piece and tacked it in place where the short coming was. 

Because the shade was an angled barrel it wasn't so much a "mis measure" but that I couldn't cover lamp the fabric and keep it taught against the shade with out some kind of odd lines. I felt this was an easy solution. And I can just put the weird seam at the back where no one sees it :) 

After hot glueing the end pieces in place and making sure they were tight I started around the rim. I did the bottom of the shade first and just glued a few spots being sure to pull it tight so that there were no wrinkles. 

Then when I got to the top part with the rungs I had to cut slits in the fabric in order to make it sit smoothly along the top of the shade. I then glued around the rim, again pulling tight and watching for wrinkles.

And that was it! Simple and took under 20 minutes! But once I put it back on the lamp and turned the bulb on I noticed that you can still see the pattern and the remaining fabric on the inside. This will probably end up bugging me more than I think but really no one is gonna see the lamp shade, much less when its on! It is in the bedroom and we don't have many visitors so as long as I like it thats all that matters :) And I think when the light is off it couldn't be more perfect! 

So there it is! My refinished bedside table, my custom built lamp, and a recovered lampshade! Man the past few days have been productive! Now I feel like next week I can tackle the rest of the room and will be ready to reveal the boondocks bedroom tour sooner than I expected! Maybe the house will get done before the Holidays after all!! Woooo Hoo! 

*I will be sure to update this posts with links once the guest post on the lamp build goes live!

**Also, don't forget if you wanna see where I link up and party go check the side bar Party tab! >>> 

Foam Core Cornice Board

I showed y'all our living room tour a couple weeks ago. (If you missed it check it out here.) 

Now that we have lived in the house for a little while I realized its not really as "finished" as I thought. There are a few things that still need to be done; 1. cover our plaid chair!! (I would LOVE to make a slip cover but I'm a little nervous, any suggestions?!) 2. figure out the wires behind the TV 3. how to make our AC unit less huge and ugly and finally add some window treatments.
I added some sheer curtains to the large window and want to get some more for the single window but just haven't gotten around to it. But it still didn't look as finished as I had hoped.
Check out this before and after shot and you'll understand :)

So I added the cornice! I've never lived any where with a cornice, my mom just didn't need them. She always had nicer treatments that finished the window well. But the cheap curtains and rods that I was able to get on our budget just didn't look good. So I needed a cheap fix.

Annnd after searching the web I found this post on how to build a cornice out of nothing but fabric and FOAM CORE BOARD! 

Yes. you read that right. FOAM CORE BOARD! 

The lovely ladies over at Creating a Beautiful Life shared their version of this project a few weeks ago on my Making Monday link party (A weekly link party to help inspire you on those rough Monday Mornings, Please join us any time!!). I saved it to my computer and knew this was the solution to my window issue.
This week I finally had the time to go buy the supplies and sit down to make my own foam core cornice board! 

If you know me at all I don't really follow directions. Not that I don't listen, but I am queen of reading a tutorial, recipe, or directions over once or twice and then putting it away while I make it for myself. Reed thinks it's weird but I say it just helps me keep my creative juices flowing :)
So the tutorial from the ladies at Creating a Beautiful Life was great, I didn't really follow it to a T.

So lets get started!
Materials:

-2 elmers foam core boards
-packaging tape

- 4x10 drop cloth (it was the cheaper paper style drop cloth)

Step 1:
I decided I wanted my cornice board to be 10in tall and it needed to be 54 inches to cover the window width. So I measured out the board and it worked out perfect that I could use 1 board split in half.

Step 2:

Now break out your tape, I used packaging tape because I have loads of it on hand. But I think you could get away with almost any type of tape. I found that taping across the seam first helped sturdy it up and then wrapped the seam completely once or twice (sorry forgot to photograph that part!)

Step 3:

cut the sides for your cornice. I didn't really know how far I wanted the cornice to stick off from the wall so I just chose to do 5 inches. I think it works really well and it left just enough room for me to add a curtain rod if I want to later.

Step 4: 

To attach your side panels you can do a few different things. Pictured below I hot glued and taped the panels together. Using a thin bead of glue to secure the board and then tape to round off the edges.
However, I took a different approach for the second board, simply because I was to lazy to get out the glue gun :) So what I did this time was just use lots more tape!  I used the same technique across the seam as I did when taping the two larger halves. Basically I just taped and taped until it didn't wiggle to much :) 

Step 5: 

Adding the fabric! This is the point where my tutorial differs the most from the tutorial from Creating a Beautiful Life. So what I did was take the drop cloth and cut it large enough to fold around the cornice board. Then I took a stapler and got going!  Yep thats it. An office stapler that I just took around the edge of the board rotating from one side to the other to keep from pulling the fabric one way over the other. 

Step 6: 

When I got to the edges I folded it like you would wrap a present.  I don't think I'm gonna be able to explain it in words so here are some pictures to explain better than me :) 

Step 7: 

HANG IT!

Yep thats it you are done building the cornice board!

Now I didn't take pictures of how I hung it mostly because I forgot. But also because there are lots of ways to do it. You could use D hooks and simply hang on a nail, or even just use velcro to attach directly to your curtain rod/wall. What I did was a cheap version with just what  I had on hand. I used some thick waxed thread that  I threaded through the side panel and tide in a knot and hung on nails. With how light weight the board is it doesn't seem to really matter how you hang it :) 

I really like it a lot! SO simple to make and I'm pretty sure it took maybe an hour at the most. Great way to finish up a room with out spending much money at all! Now I just need some help figuring out how to clean up that window unit and nest of wires!! 

Check out HERE for where I link up