Tackle it Tuesday – Welcome home
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR RUBY TUESDAY / CATS ON TUESDAY
From earlier this summer.
This is the room, originally, together with an interloper.
What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time. With both the girls gone for two weeks at Summer Camp, I was confident that I could redecorate her bedroom with time to spare.
As they all get older I become bolder, but her choice of red, my own personal favourite, made me baulk. A bedroom should be a place of peaceful repose, not a fire filled incendiary.
We compromised. White walls with dashes of red decor.
What I hadn’t calculated, is the amount of help and assistance I would derive from other quarters.
But I digress.
This is the original room, as decorated for her older sister quite a few years ago. Alright, I admit it, a decade. After ten years in this room, it was time for a change.
White walls, a colour that was identified as Swiss Coffee, for some mystifying reason, coated the walls.
All the wooden furniture was painted red.
This only left the carpet.
The carpet, previously owned by the previous owners together with their pets, was a striking shade of pale grey. Pet deposits are difficult to eradicate, hence the pale grey effect was worsened by the splotchy additional patches, a great many of them. A new carpet, any carpet is the single most expensive outlay when it comes to redecoration.
But it was worth it.
It will have to last at least 10 years.
Since there are endless sites and books offering comprehensive advice on decorating projects I shall limit my advice to the following:-
When you make curtains and attach the curtain tape, take care. Oversew the outside edges several times.
Before you pull the gathering strings ensure that you double knot both ends, or you will be sure to unravel. When you pull the gathering strings, pick a point a few inches in from the outer seam because that way you will avoid having an annoying piece of visible dangley string on the edge of your curtain.
Oversewing the edges will ensure that when your children swing from the curtains, the edge will remain secure. It will not weaken. It will not rip. Instead the whole curtain track will crash down on top of your child.
I believe you have been duly warned.
Now I must attend to another lapsed campaign:- is there anything else that we might swing upon, as we surely need a cheaper form of vestibular regulation.?
If I decorate one room every decade then I’m probably not doing too badly.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:40 am
How many years have I been living with curtains? Several decades, at least, but it has never occurred to me to pull the gathering strings ‘in a bit’ from the edge. No, I’ve been living with annoying dangling bits of string.
I can’t believe I never thought of that. Thank you!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Ah, you’ve got Curtain Tarzans too, huh? We’ve actually had the curtain rod ripped clean out of the walls twice, and before that, the vertical blinds. If I would just get over my ridiculous need for privacy, this wouldn’t be a problem.
I’ve tagged you for a meme, dear! Have fun!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Ah, I should point out that I tagged you at My Autism Insights (not my other blog).
September 9th, 2008 at 5:14 am
We have avoided the issue by just not hanging curtains. Although this has more to do with the fact that we are severe underachievers in the area of home decorating.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:42 am
What a great tackle! I am in awe of people who make their own curtains. My MIL made all of ours. Awesome tips:-)
September 9th, 2008 at 5:57 am
lol, you are bringing back memories of my own wee son perched on the back of the sofa whilst wearing a batman cape and weilding a toy gold club as a sword, giving might jungle yells before trying to swing out on the drape.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:56 am
and you have a pretty manicure too!
smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
September 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Wow, color me impressed. You sew your own curtains too?! I had to stop at Halloween costume – I say costume because I only learned how to make one thing. It was a hat for a Tigger costume that I remade over and over as Pooh Bear, a skunk, an elephant, etc.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Thanks for the tip I don’t sew- I can call my mom though:)
September 9th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I’ll have to remember this one! Thanks!
September 9th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have also sewn curtains, though mostly I have done Roman shaes. I have only used the gathering tape for Austrian shades (the curtains are tab cafe curtains, not much gathering).
Though, the first time I made window coverings I used a no-sew iron-on kit that was on sale at the fabric store. I had no idea what I was doing, so I followed the instructions very carefully.
After I got them on the window, I realized I paid too much. It turns out the iron on gathering tape needed heat to set… then when you hang them in a south facing window they heat up again! I had to resew the stuff.
September 9th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
We’re allowed to have window coverings????
September 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I want to see “after” photos!
Oh, and that’s some manicure you’ve got. Wow. You’re a regular lady of leisure.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
You never cease to amaze me with all that you do!
Wow!
September 9th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Oh, and please don’t stop coming to my blog even though my “stupid” typepad doesn’t remember you. I’m writing an email to ask typepad people if that’s something I can fix. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Even though typepad is a bitch that way, I REMEMBER you.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Girl, you are hilarious. I love the way you write.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Too my funny! I just recently made the big step of pulling down the teddy bear border out of my 9 year old son’s nursery..I mean room. Now, if I could just get around to painting it a more respectable color and cover the dirt lines that had formed along the border!
Making one’s own curtains? That’s just not right! I can’t even thread a needle!
It’s Wednesday, I’m missing you on the Hub!
September 10th, 2008 at 7:46 am
One room for every decade! I could probably keep up with that goal!
September 10th, 2008 at 7:50 am
You are WAY more ambitious than I am.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am
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September 10th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Interior decorating went out the window at our house YEARS ago.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
We are getting an indoor hammock with stand. Great for vestibular regulation. Sadly it means we had to get rid of all our lounge room furniture to fit it inside. So I am now sitting on the floor with my laptop balanced on the mini trampoline – well until some child needs it.
Who wants a living room / lounge room when you can have a home gym instead.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
You are too funny!
October 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
[...] in the appearance of their tatty but homey, family room. They had coped well with their sister’s “bedroom transformation,” but the family room would be more [...]