Monday, August 8, 2011

Tying up loose ends at the condo

This weekend we went to wrap a few of our outstanding tasks at my sister's condo. Mr. W was going to install a new light fixture in the bathroom and we also needed to add the spacer at the bottom of the upholstered headboard so it would hang vertically. The trouble with the light fixture, which we found in the closet at her condo, was that the mounting bracket was set so darn low and the standard set backs weren't long enough. We searched around a lot trying to find a place that carried a 4" threaded set back. Finally after much colorful language, Mr. W was able to hang the new light. It provides much more and better light than that stupid, dinky mood lighting fixture that was in there when she bought the place. I honestly don't know why anyone would want such terrible lighting when getting ready in the morning! I only put on mascara every day, but still would want better light. My sister isn't a hair and make-up person either, but she does wear contact lenses and needs proper lighting.
The rest of the bathroom is looking cute too. My mom talked her out of her Emily Strange shower curtain, since she had picked out the new bath mat and I based the paint color on that. The shell bath mat was Martha Stewart from Macy's so they bought a shower curtain from the same collection and blue towels. The framed sea shell prints I found at Home Goods and they have all the same colors.
Mr. W and I could have a bit better communication when putting the spacers on the headboard. I was thinking he'd pre-drill the holes for the screws and then I could have put the batting around the wood and poked it through the hole. Maybe he was concerned with trying to line up the pre-drilled holes? Anyway he asked me to wrap the spacers first and when he screwed into the wood the bit grabbed a hold of the batting and ripped a gigantic hole it. So we took the batting off, screwed the plywood spacers on, and then glued the batting on to the main board. It's not pretty, but no one will see it and the batting will still protect the wall from scratches if the headboard gets bumped.
My mom finished the bed skirt too so everything is coming together in this room. I think if it were my room I'd tuck the bedspread under the mattress so it looks a bit more tailored and more of the bed skirt is visible. But this works for my sister and she loves her new room so much she makes her bed every day! I'm impressed!
The curtains for this room had arrived also so we installed the curtain rod and hung one panel. The seamster wasn't sure how many pinch pleats he would eventually need and my mom didn't buy quite enough packets of drapery rings. Each panel needed 13 rings. We used Levelor rings with clips but since we were doing pinch pleats with drapery hooks sewn onto the curtains I had to remove the clips. This way the main ring can slide along the rod and the hooks can slide into the smaller ring. Pretty simple but those little effers were a pain to pull off.
The black out fabric for the backing since she likes to sleep in total darkness. It is so simply attached, I bet I could do this myself for simpler curtain projects in the future.
I don't love that black band at the bottom. I wish that we had been able to get all the yardage in the gray fabric, I worry that band draws too much attention to the drapes, which since they aren't floor length, I don't think they need it. But both my sister and my mom like it so that is what matters. (Next up for this room is recovering the chair)
My mom decided to have drapes made for the office rather than hemming ready made curtains. My sister selected this grape vine window my father made so we selected a fabric that pulls out the green from the grape leaves. (This is why I selected a neutral tan paint color for the walls when we were up in the air about the fabric for the shell chair.) Which consequently we will be reupholstering as well. I suggested my mom look for a textured tone on tone fabric for the chair. With the channel back and the asymmetrical shape we really don't want a busy fabric to fight with the chair. I also suggested a purple color to pull out the grapes from the window.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like lots of hard work went into renovating your sister's condo, but I'm sure you did great with it. I hope your sister is enjoying her sanctuary. Do you have pictures? I would love to see what you did with the place.

    Lakisha Zimmerer @ JoanneDavidOW.com

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