Old Curtains Become New Again

When we bought the house I was overwhelmed by how many windows we had!!! In our one bedroom apartment we had lived in for three years, we had one window in the bedroom I had children's curtains for, and a sliding glass door in the living room, which I had never bought curtains for... It was time to make some smart investments in the curtain department!!!

My son has the master bedroom at our house with two large windows. We had the curtain set from our apartment which was a nice light blocking fabric, very popular in sunny places like Florida. I loved it, but we only had two long panels, enough for one window. The store I originally bought it from didn't carry the item anymore. It had been three years, their inventory had changed.

It was time to do some cutting and sewing. My son and furchildren helped. First I made sure the length would work if I cut the curtains in half. It did, but I had to lower the curtain rods. Cue me getting on a ladder. Then we got to the fun part!

My oldest furchild Inuka helped hold the fabric down when I was pinning the hem. Pro-tip: If you dont have a large table, or measuring board you can use a tile surface to help you measure the length and line up the hems.

I bought this great sewing machine off Craigslist. It worked so fast I ended up doing the hem by hand. lol It's currently for sale on Craigslist again if you're in the area. ;)

A few needle pokes later and we have the final product. The curtains made such a huge difference!!! My little boys bedroom finally feels complete. Here's the before and after.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Power of Craigslist

My house is a little different than everyone else's... we dont have tv. Well, we dont have cable anyway, we do have tv's. They're the large clunky older ones and they date the space. When moving in to our house I knew the wobbly old wooden bench I had the tv on wasn't doing it for me anymore. I didn't have extra money to spend on furniture, but I kept my eyes peeled and a television hutch in the free section of Craigslist appealed to me. 

You have to have a little vision when seeing it for the first time. 

I bought a can of chalk board paint and got to it.

Cue my friends making fun of me for the Diet Coke cases used for edging material.

Spraying on the chalk board paint. It needs a few layers sometimes.

Pro tip - put something down in front of where you'll be spraying.

Mom tip - give your kid the camera. 

He gets some really good photos.

The finished piece. 

In it's final destination! What an upgrade! 

This was such a win. I paid less then 10 dollars for the paint, and nothing but my time and talent to transform an old tv hutch in to something a little more modern and useful again. Inside is a behemoth television, and underneath the tv shelf is storage space we use for toys and things. It's great to be able to shut the tv off and put it away. One day I'll upgrade to a flat screen, but for now I'm keeping what works and making the most of what we already have.