Drapery Shopping Find!

January 17, 2012 by Leslie Bailey

I would like to share with you another shopping find. It is called Drapery King Toronto and here is the link. http://www.draperypanelstoronto.com/ They have all kinds of window treatments, custom and ready made draperies as well as blinds and drapery hardware. The website is very informative and easy to use.

Most people want a nice looking home but do not have an unlimited budget to achieve what they want. It is hard to find custom draperies that do not cost a fortune and ready made drapery panels are often just not suitable. Blinds and shades are ridiculously expensive, even at the big box stores. Therefore, I am always on the lookout for suitable window treatments and hardware at reasonable prices.

If you are within a reasonable drive to Toronto, it would be well worth your while to drop in and have a look.

Posted in Decor Tips, Drapery Panel Problems, Shopping with Leslie | Tagged Draperies, drapery shopping | Leave a Comment »

Cushions and Men

January 6, 2012 by Leslie Bailey

Why are my cushions always on the floor????

There is a real gender thing going on with the decor cushions! Try as I will, my carefully arranged ‘decorator’ cushions always end up on the back of the sofa, on the floor beside the sofa, UNDER the bed, piled in a corner, dropped behind the intended chair, etc. I have noticed that other people’s cushions can be found in places other than the intended ones too. Hmmmmm, do cushions have a secret society in which they rearrange themselves when they are alone? What is going on here anyway?

Guys seem to find cushions really annoying. They remove them as soon as they sit down. I, on the other hand, like a lot of women, am not comfortable without a cushion in the small of my back. I have come to the conclusion it is one of the many ways in which men and women are constructed differently. Men’s and women’s hips are built entirely differently so they sit entirely differently, it is the only explanation.

I guess this is why the decorator cushions always end up on the floor. Each to his own, it shouldn’t be a problem. But the next question is, why can’t guys put the cushions back where they came from, when they leave?

Posted in Comments/Opinions, Decor Tips, Misc | Tagged cushions, decorating humour, men and cushions, the cushion dilemma, why are my cushions always on the floor | Leave a Comment »

New kind of Wall covering!

January 5, 2012 by Leslie Bailey

Stop the presses! I just found a new kind of wallpaper that doesn’t use glue, it is a peel and stick that comes off as easy as pie without harming the paint. There is no glue, no mess and no damage to the wall. Every order is custom sized to fit your wall, so it is sure to fit properly. It comes in strips just like wallpaper and you hang it the same way, making sure it is perpendicular and the air bubbles are worked out. You still have to match the edges of the strips, but that is the end of the similarity. Removing it is a breeze too, just peel it off. There is no backing to stay firmly adhered to the wall and no glue to rip chunks of paint off, leaving you with a ghastly mess to fill and sand, or worse.

The company is Inkshuffle. You choose your wall covering design and order it online. You can also design your own wallpaper. Here is the link for you. http://www.inkshuffle.com

There are tons of designs to choose from and some really interesting Murals — not like those ‘grandma murals’ either. There are some fabulous graphics too. These won’t appeal to everyone, but the pictures of the murals in real settings that scroll continuously on the home page, will give you a much better idea of what they will look like in real life. This is such an improvement over having to picture it in your mind’s eye while staring at rolls of wallpaper in a store.

Needless to say, you would only do one wall, or they would be overwhelming but you can really make a statement!

You can even have your own photo or design made up into a design to fit your specific wall. The price is quite reasonable too.

They also do Canvas Wraps and Posters.

So go and have a look for yourself. You can even chat online with a staff member.

Posted in Comments/Opinions, Decor Tips, Make it Yourself Decor Ideas, Shopping with Leslie | Tagged design your own wallpaper, no stick wallpaper, wall decor, what is new in wallpaper | Leave a Comment »

Feature Wall

July 3, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

Summer Spruce Up!

If you want to add a little (or a lot) of punch to your room, create a feature wall! If your room does not have a real focal point, a feature wall will create one. You can do this quite easily and economically by painting or wallpapering one wall only in the room. The wall opposite the entry to the room is a classic choice. Or this could be the wall behind the headboard, in a bedroom or the wall behind the sofa, in the living/family room. Sometimes it is the wall surrounding the fireplace, that is treated as a feature wall.

To do this is quite easy. Wallpaper is back in style , but used on one wall only, as a feature wall. Pick a pattern that enhances the colour and style of the room. The paper can be simply a textured paper, like a grasscloth, or a printed version of a grasscloth, or it could be something bold in colour and design. That part is up to you!!

If you prefer quiet styles, stick to a textured pattern rather than a bold or graphic pattern. If the walls are light in colour, pick a darker shade of the same colour. You do not want it to stand out, you want it to add dimension and interest to your room.

If your room or home is quite modern in its decor, then go for a graphic paper or a bold paint colour.

The alternative to paper is (obviously) to paint, especially if you wish to update your decor a little without spending too much money. If you choose to make an accent wall with paint, pick a darker colour than the rest of the room. You could have a big, bold colour to make a big, bold change or simply pick a darker version of the main colour in your room for a quieter update.

Another trick is to have the N & S walls a lighter colour and the E & W walls a darker or different colour. An example would be a muted (brownish) yellow for the lighter walls and a middle taupe for the darker walls. This trick can be stunning. The trick with this one is to have the colours not so far apart in tone that it is immediately apparent that the colours are completely different (such as red on one and blue on the other). The effect can be quite stunning

Paint does not have to be expensive. For a feature wall especially, go for the low cost paint. Even the effort it takes to paint just one wall, is not onerous, so go for it! You will be surprised how this perks up a room!

Posted in Colour Wheel, Colour Schemes: A Series, Decor Tips, Decorating Dilemmas, Series:Choosing Paint Colour | Tagged Accent walls, Feature Wall, Paper just one wall | Leave a Comment »

Blinds for Your Porch

July 1, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

Easy DIY Blinds

for Your

Front Porch

These roll up blinds make your south or west facing porch a lot more comfortable to sit on on hot summer afternoons. They add shade to the front wall of your house too, which helps reduce the heat inside your home and your (scary) air conditioning electric bill!!

Here is what you need:

enough polyester fabric or outdoor decor fabric to make your blinds (cotton will fade and rot) (yarn died is better than printed on one side only)
1/2″ thick dowel for the top and bottom pockets
two eye hooks
4 m length of 1″ to 1-1/2″w twill tape for the top ties
4 m length of 1/2″ twill tape for the bottom ties
two cup hooks to put in the top dowel to hook the blind to the eye hooks in the upper framing of the porch.

It is pretty simple to make these blinds, cut the fabric to fit the space. Hem the side seams. Make a pocket top and bottom (with ties sewn in). Slip a 1/2″ dowel in each pocket. Add 2 cup hooks to the top dowel. Screw two eye hooks in the top of the porch frame to correspond with the cup hooks and hang. Roll the blind by hand and tie it to whatever height you want with the twill tape ties. When you lower it, tie the bottom of it to the porch railing with the twill ties sewn into the bottom seam, so that it does not blow all over the place in a breeze. Note: do not leave them down in a strong wind as you could ruin them. They are fine otherwise and will last for many years, especially if you have used polyester fabric which will not rot or fade and does not rip easily either.

Here are some more detailed instructions for the less confident DIYer!

To establish how much fabric, first decide how long you want them. The ones in the picture just go to just over the top railing. You could have them full length if you wish. Measure from the top to where you want them to end and add 13 cm (5″) — which is 6.5 cm (2-1/2 “) each to the top and bottom to make the pockets to hold the dowels.

Width. — This depends on your porch and how far apart the posts are. You do not want the blinds to be any wider than 6′ because that is the widest the dowels come in and also, the wider they are, they become really awkward to handle. Also, most fabric is 54″ wide, although you can find extra wide fabric. If your blinds are going to be any wider than 50″, you will have to buy two lengths of fabric for the blind and have french seams in the blind (seams that are finished on both sides) or hunt for extra wide drapery fabric. The fabric shown in the picture was double wide drapery fabric and so there was no problem with the width.Measure how wide it needs to be and then add 8 cm (3 “), that is 4cm or 1-1/2 inches for each side seam.

Construction:

Lay out the fabric on the floor and cut it to the desired length. Then measure how wide it needs to be and add the extra amount for the seam. Cut it out. Sew up the side seams with a full double fold over so it won’t fray in the wind. (Fold it 3/4″ and then fold it again) Press the seam in place before sewing, then sew. Now the sides are made. Measure and be sure that the width is right before your final sewing of the second side seam.

Top pocket:

Fold down the top edge .6cm (1/2″) press, then fold 3.7cm (1-1/2″) press. The next step is optional. Measure in along the second fold (which will be the top edge of your blind) about 30cm (1 ft) and make a small button hole on the fold. This is to make a place to screw in the eye hook to be screwed into the dowel which will be placed in this pocket for your top support. . Another way would be to place a small grommet there to make a hole for the eye hook. You can screw the eye hook right through the fabric if you don’t want to struggle with making a hole in the pocket, but you are risking creating a ‘pull’ in the fabric, if the screw catches a thread awkwardly.

After making the holes, fold the pocket down. Cut 2 m of the wide twill tape and fold in half. Place the fold inside the seam if the upper pocket, a little bit farther in than the hole for the hook is. Do this at either end. Stitch the fold down. Now you have the upper dowel pocket and the ties for the blind made,

To make the bottom dowel pocket, you do it exactly the same as the top pocket, minus the holes for hooks. The other difference is that you substitute the narrow twill tape for the wide twill tape to make the bottom ties.

Now hang your blind.

Roll it up by hand and tie it in place with the wide twill tape (flip one of the two parts of each tie over the top of the blind) Tuck the bottom ties in while you are rolling. You can let it part way down and retie the wide ties if there is no wind or let it all the way down for shade or privacy.

Enjoy

Posted in Curb Appeal and Gardens, Decor Tips, Drapery Panel Problems, Make it Yourself Decor Ideas | Tagged Blinds for your porch. DIY simple blinds, shade for your porch | Leave a Comment »

Shopping for Lighting Options

April 8, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

What ever

Happened to

Great Table Lamps?

Way back when, you could buy nice, big, decorative table lamps easily. Furniture stores were filled with them, there were lots of chain stores that specialized in lighting only, not just ones that are few and far between, even in densely packed urban areas. Now all you see is the same basic thing, place after place, too skinny, too short, lacking presence!

Here is one lamp that will go in any room and look great with modern, eclectic or a classic decor. It is nice and tall and has presence, yet it does not stand out and scream ‘look at my lamps’!! It is 30″h which is a really good height for reading and for balance & proportion. It is about 16″w which gives it some presence without being overwhelming. A plain white drum shade, completes the picture, with its straight sides offering a contrast to the curving base.

Check out EQ3 catalogue , eq3.com/cat, or any of their stores for interesting table lamps that, although modern in styling, will go well with many different decor styles!

EQ3 Solidity Lamp

Posted in Decor Tips, Decorating Dilemmas, Shopping with Leslie, Uncategorized | Tagged a great table lamp, Finding table lamps, table lamp shopping | Leave a Comment »

Bathroom Renovation Tip

March 20, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

To Move

or NOT

to Move

Bathroom renovations can be amazingly expensive! There can be $$$$ surprise, after $$$$ surprise!!! One thing that you can do to reduce the potential expense somewhat, is to leave the location of the toilet where it is! It is not too expensive to relocate the tub or the vanity, but moving the plumbing for the toilet is a whole different ballgame. It is an expensive proposition in most cases, and the end result may not be worth the expense, if it is not absolutely necessary. Try to work around it if at all possible and you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and money!!

Posted in About Renovations, Comments/Opinions | Tagged bathroom reno tip, moving the toilet location | 1 Comment »

Renovating Tip!

March 2, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

Do

Yourself

a Favour!!

There is one BIG tip that I give every one of my Do-It-Yourself Renovation Clients! This will save you many hours to weeks of frustration and living in Renovation Hades. Pay attention!!!!!!

Do NOT start the demolition phase of your renovation UNTIL you have collected everything that you are going to need to complete the renovation. Store everything in your basement, or garage, or rent a storage unit, but collect everything that you will need. Also, I do not mean ‘order’ everything you need, I mean actually have it delivered and checked to make sure that it is exactly what you ordered, is in good condition and will fit in the intended space, (or will go through the door or up the stairs, for that matter)

This way you will not be halted, mid renovation, for weeks or even MONTHS, because your granite hasn’t arrived from Italy or the vanity was the wrong one or the laminate you chose and was supposedly in stock, turns out to be on back order, etc, etc, and ad infinitum!!!

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING that you can do to make your renovation go both smoothly and quickly and on budget.

Posted in About Renovations, Comments/Opinions, Decor Tips | Tagged Important Renovation BIG TIP | Leave a Comment »

Answers

to Various

Drapery Questions

Everyone seems to want to know how to hang flat, store bought drapery panels so that they don’t look like flat, store bought drapery panels!!! I gave you some advice/instructions in previous articles (see category ” Drapery Panel Problems”) and here are some more!

Using Clip Rings on a Decorative Rod

You just bought a very attractive decorative rod and you want to hang the draperies so that the rod shows and the curtain is below the rod. You also want to be able to open and close the curtains and that is not practical with rod pocket panels. The absolutely simplest way is to use clip rings. If you check out the accessories in the curtain rod area, you will find rings in all different sizes and you will notice that most of them have a clip attached to them. Buy these! Buy big rings (2″) for a fat rod and smaller rings (1″ or 1-1/2″) for a narrow rod.You will need about 9 per panel to make them hang nicely. You can clip the rings to the top of pinch pleats or you can clip the rings along the top of a flat panel, either way, your drapes are now hung below the decorator rod, on rings, which will showcase the rod, like you see in decorating magazines. The only issue that I have with these, is that every so often the fabric pulls out of the clip when you are opening/closing the curtains.

These rings can be expensive, so shop around for the best price and get them on sale if possible. Best bet is at Fabricland (if you are in Canada) The drapery hardware is always 1/2 price if you have a ‘sewing club’ card and is often on sale at 1/2 price for everyone – if you watch the flyers.

You just lay out your curtain panel and attach the rings, evenly spaced, across the top of the panel. Make sure you have one about 2 cm or 1″ from each end. The way you space them is described fully in “Easy Drapery Project for Flat Panels” Then slip the rings on the rod and you are done.

Drapery Measurements

This one seems to confuse people so I will try to shed some light on the subject! This one requires a tape measure. Ready made panels come in 2 lengths to make full length drapes, 96″L and 84″L.

96″ is 8ft – these hang from ceiling to the floor if you have regular height ceilings and will hang nicely below a decorative rod if you have the 9′ceilings that builders are putting in so many of the new homes and condos being built in the last few years.

84″ is 7 ft and used to be the distance from the top of your standard window frame to the floor, but now the windows tend to be higher up the wall than they used to be, which makes this length hard to use. Measure from the floor to the top of the window frame. If it is around 84″, you can buy this panel length. Just install the rod about 1-1/2″ above the window frame and it will work for you (install 2″ above when using 2″ rings on your rod) You can put the rod across the top of the window frame itself when using grommet panels.

If the distance from the floor to the top of the window frame is around 90″, then buy the 95″ length and shorten them. If you don’t sew, shorten them using iron-on fuseable hemming tape. All you need is an iron and ironing board – or a friend that has one!!! You can let them ‘puddle’ but, unless you are good at it, and the fabric itself ’puddles’ nicely, they tend to just look like you couldn’t be bothered shortening them!!!!!

Grommet Draperies

I can see there is some confusion about grommet draperies. You feed the rod through the grommets, you do not hang the grommets from hooks!!! These kind of draperies need to be measured differently than if you were measuring for the kind that you hang below the rod! If your rod is across the top of the window frame, you measure from the floor to about 1″ above the rod, to get the right length. If your rod is 84″ from the floor, your 84″ curtains will hang about 1″ to 1-1/2″ above the floor! You would then need to let the hem down on the panels to get them to the correct length. Unfortunately, most grommet panels ARE 84″ not 96″.

In any case, with ready-made draperies, you will often find that they are too long or too short! You can let out the hem if they are less than 2″ too short or you can shorten them or let them puddle if they are too long. Another trick, if they are too short is to add a band of contrasting fabric to the bottom edge, wide enough to make them the right length.

Pinch Pleated Draperies

Pinch pleated double or triple full ready-made draperies are hard to find. Surf the net or have them custom made. If you shop for your own fabric, you can get it at a good price. Then look up “Drapers” or “Seamstresses” in your area, and you can have them made for a reasonable price! You can make them yourself too – the unlined ones are not hard at all! How to make a two fold pleat is described in “Turn Rod Pocket Panels into Real Pinch Pleates” . Also, using pleating tape is described in “More about Converting Rod Pocket Panels”

Posted in Decor Tips, Decorating Dilemmas, Drapery Panel Problems | Tagged length or size for draperies using clip rings, using grommets | 2 Comments »

KITCHEN RENOVATION TIPS

February 16, 2011 by Leslie Bailey

THINGS THAT

I bet you never

Thought OF

So you have joined the DIY kitchen renovation crowd! How hard can it be, you thought! OOOPS!

First of all you need a detailed plan, not a sketch on a napkin! That is the first major mistake and the one that is most often made. Get some graph paper and pencils and rulers and a tape measure. These are the most important tools in your renovation.

1. Make a detailed floor plan that shows where EVERYTHING goes, right down to the last light switch.

2. Measure once, twice, three times. If you make a mistake on the size of your cupboards, you can’t just exchange them!

3. Walls are never perfectly straight and corners are never completely square. Leave room in your plan for things to be adjusted on the fly! A space that is 30″w at the bottom, might only be 29″w farther up the wall. If your fridge or custom cabinet doesn’t fit the new space, this could cause a major problem and unexpected expense. You can’t anticipate every glitch, so leave room for glitches is the plan – that is what ‘filler strips’ were invented for!!!

4. Place your dishwasher so there is a cupboard for the dishes over top of it. Having the dishwasher in the island is popular but very inconvenient for putting away dishes every day! If you really want the sink in the island, then spring for the extra expense to put a second set of plumbing in for the dishwasher under the counter against the wall. – you will thank me for this tip!!!

5. Never place your stove in a corner if you can avoid it! Make sure that there is at least 9″ (25 cm) of counter space on either side of the stove. Having the stove against a side wall can be a fire hazard, crowds the cooking surface, spatters stain the wall and you just don’t have room to work comfortably. Putting a narrow base cabinet between the stove and the wall, dramatically increases your comfort and safety!

6. Don’t place the fridge and stove directly beside each other. It is crowded and energy inefficient. If you are severely limited in your space requirements, at least place a narrow base cabinet between them. This gives you room to work and cuts down on heat transfer which will make your fridge less efficient.

7. Lighting, and more lighting, You need several sources of lighting in a kitchen. You need general lighting in the form of overhead lighting and task lighting in the form of undermount lighting and spot lighting such as pot lights or pendant lights.

8. Have your lights on a LOT of separate switches, so that you can turn on ONLY the ones that you need to have on. This will save you a lot on your future electricity bills – and electricity is getting more and more expensive, with no end to it in sight!

9. Leave room to open your fridge, oven and dishwasher. If your fridge is 33″w with a single door, then you must have at least 34″ of floor space clear in front of the fridge, so that you can open the door. That is the minimum, it is better that there is enough room to get past the fridge or any other appliance, with the door open! This is the second biggest mistake people make. Yes, the fridge fits in the space that you allotted for it – BUT – you can’t open the door all the way!!

There are more considerations but these are some of the biggies!

Good luck with your project – and don’t forget – MAKE A PLAN

Posted in About Renovations, Decorating Dilemmas | Tagged Kitchen renovation tips | Leave a Comment »

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As You Like It: Interior Decorating

by Leslie Bailey