ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

If you’ve been following along, then you probably know that we’ve been working on our kitchen and I wanted to share a little update that has made a big impact on the space.

I love the look of Roman shades (especially this striped one from Dear Lillie) and knew that I wanted something similar in our kitchen instead of the horribly over sized mini-blinds that were there when we bought our home. Seriously, who hangs blinds above the window on the wall?

However, I didn’t have the patience to wait for similar fabric to be shipped to me, so I decided to use an old white curtain we had in storage and paint it with stripes. I started by removing the blinds and measuring the window dimensions. Then, I marked where the edges would be on the curtain and cut along the left side and top. leaving some seam allowance and room for a pocket along the top. (I used the existing finished edges on the bottom and right side.)

Next, I sewed the unfinished sides, leaving a pocket along the top for a tension rod to go through.

To paint the stripes, I kind of followed this tutorial from Perfectly Imperfect. The color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, which is the same as our wall color in the kitchen.

Once everything was dry and the tape removed, I hung the curtain up on the tension rod. Unfortunately, there were some places where the light was still visible through the paint and it looked pretty funky. See?

So, I used a paint brush to touch up those spots and everything in the world was good again.

Finally, it was time to make this simple, straight curtain into a Roman shade. I placed two more cheap tension rods in front of my fabric roughly 6 inches from the top rod and from each other.

Then, I pulled a section forward from behind the middle rod and draped it over the front. I did the same for the bottom tension rod too, which gives the look of a roman shade, minus the functionality. (If you are looking for a DIY Roman shade that works, check out Emily’s post, A Shady Project.)

I think this was the perfect item to add some interest to our kitchen!

If you want to see more of what we’ve accomplished in this room, check out the posts Shelf Obsessed and Revamping the Breakfast Nook.

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I shared earlier this week my thoughts and feelings on both of my little men attending preschool this year. In that post, I gave you a sneak peak of a DIY hanging snack basket I had created to make the transitions to and from school go a little smoother. This snack station will be kept near our front door to give myself easy access to snacks for the boys on the way out or in.

First, I cut three flaps off the top of the cardboard box. This left me with just one flap left to make the handle.

Next, I used a pen to sketch a handle on the remaining flap and cut it out with an X-Acto knife. I did this processes very carefully as X-Acto knives can be really sharp and I didn’t want to lose any fingers.

Okay, here is where the project went wacky.

I thought, hey it would be so awesome if I made this cardboard box look like it was made out of planks of wood, but not actually use wood for it. Well, once again, I was wrong. I used craft paper and used a tool to make wood grain on the paper and glued it to the box. It was an odd color, but I thought “hey I will move on with it anyways.” When I stained and polyurethaned the box, the paper started to bubble up and looked really bad and the color did not improve. Bummer!

It was time to scratch that idea and move on. My first attempt was a fail, but I was able to salvage the box to push forward to make something really cute. Plus it made the final project more sturdy.

I decided that covering the box with just about anything would be an improvement. After giving it some thought, I chose book pages.

First, I ripped out pages from an old book. This book had been well read and had lived a great life. It was time to give it a new purpose.

Next, using a solution of Elmer’s glue and water I brushed the glue on the pages and attached them to the box. To give the design interest I rotated the pages to where some were facing right-side up, upside down and sideways.

I continued applying book pages until the box was fully covered.

Finally, I added this really cute chalkboard tag I won in a giveaway from Little House Of Four. It was the perfect touch.

Leaving the house with my two preschoolers can sometimes be a fight, so this hanging snack basket will be extremely convenient to just grab a snack and go. Love how it turned out too!

We would love hear any tips and tricks you may have that make the school mornings go a little smoother.