Sew Awesome | EASY INDUSTRIAL DRAPES

I recently discovered a deep love for Restoration Hardware. The store's aesthetic is strong, neutral, timeless, and enduring. I think I could decorate my entire home from there and it really wouldn't ever completely be "out" of style. To ice the cake, I've been leaning towards various decorating styles that are very feminine, but my manly husband is far more happy with this style than any of my other recent obsessions. Obviously, we don't quite have the budget ability to shop from RH just yet, but I'm a pretty decent copycat. First quick and easy RH copy: industrial drapes.

Not only are only two simple ingredients needed, but only two lines of stitching exist in each drape! My windows sit above the ground by seven feet, and I wanted my drapes to gather on the ground, so I cut 8' (for each drape) out of 36" wide muslin. (Muslin is amazingly cheap and by using a width that fits my window, I can leave the edges alone and save myself work.) I also found some clips at JoAnn's meant to hold curtains. They were kind of pricey (I believe $10 for each package) but considering how cheap the fabric was, I didn't feel too awful spending that money.

After the edges were cut, I finished the top and bottom of each curtain. I folded each edge over twice, and simply stitched right across, with a reverse at each end to secure the threads. 

When I placed my curtain hooks, I made sure to measure out even intervals for each hook. (7 hooks over 36" means one hook every 6" if you want to avoid doing that algebra.) There were already cheap-o curtain rods over our windows, so I simply hung the drapes and voila! I would love to change out the rods some day, but these were already in place and do the job for the current time.

(Please excuse the fact that I had to use my flash for both of these pictures. It's really difficult to take pictures of these drapes from inside on a beautiful sunny day!)

Renter's Plight | COVERING UGLY WALLS

Before we moved into our house, the landlord gave us permission to paint the walls as long as our colors were fairly neutral. I've had a similar option in the other rentals I've lived in, but I've always fought a battle in my head that goes a bit like this,

     Creative Me: "Wow! How fun to personalize my space.
                           I should go grab some paint chips."

     Logical Me: "Are you going to live there long enough to make the paint worthwhile?

                         Remember how much time and money you'll have to invest in this project."

     Creative Me: "I suppose if I might only live there a year
                           or so painting isn't very economical."

I then stare sadly at blank, bare walls and wish for what could never be.

Although this same scenario played out with our current home, I couldn't get over the dark wood paneling on the back side of our cabinets that greets every visitor to our house. We hung some pictures as soon as we moved in, which did quite a bit to hide the ugliness, but it was really still a bit of an eyesore. Since painting or staining the wood wasn't really an option, I searched for some neutral, cute wrapping paper in the post-Christmas clearance bins at Target. To my happy surprise, I found a few rolls of this silvery paper for $2.50 each. I attached the paper with masking tape underneath and I cut off the excess with an Xacto knife.

I think one of the reasons I love this solution so much is because it took about 15 minutes, although a few more minutes probably would have guaranteed a bit of a nicer edge on the paper I cut. Sometimes I just get into a rush and I can't help myself :).

That bottom right picture shows where I cut a bit too fast and ended up paying the price. But you can't tell from a few feet back, so I'm not going to sweat it!

Do you have any great ideas you'd love to share to battle "Renter's Plight?"

Renter's Plight | Call for Guest Posts

Some of the blogs I read are so fun because they document all sorts of quick/easy/brilliant home renovations. However, I have to dream away and wish I owned a home to change, because it's just not our time to own a home right now. I think there may be a decent handful of you readers that also don't own homes (or don't feel comfortable making drastic changes to your homes just yet), so I would like to begin a series called "Renter's Plight" about cheap and easy ways to alter rental homes. I would love it SO much if any fellow renters suggested ways to remodel and update homes a bit, so if you have ideas (however great or small) e-mail me and I would love to have you write a guest post! I have a few ideas in the works, so here are my previews to get you excited: