Plumbing pipe curtain rods

When deciding on curtain rods for Jaxson's room, I just couldn't find anything that really caught my eye.  I knew I wanted something different, but also didn't want to spend a fortune.  This is where Pinterest came in handy (yet again!) and I stumbled across how to make curtain rods out of plumbing pipe fittings.  Drew Babe thought my idea was a little crazy, but he said I could give it a try (he always puts up with all my crazy ideas!....best husband ever!).

I somewhat followed this tutorial with a few modifications.  Everything, except the floor flanges were found in the plumbing section at Home Depot.

Here are the supplies I used:

• 4- 1/2" floor flanges (I ordered these on Ebay for just over $3 a piece.  This was tons better than paying $9.95 per piece at Home Depot or Lowe's.)
• 4- 1/2" x 3 1/2" nipples
• 4- 1/2" 90 degree elbows
• 1- 1/2" 10 ft long galvanized pipe (Home Depot cut it in half for me for free.)
• 4 packs of curtain ring clips

This is definitely a two person job, because after all the pieces are together, the curtain rod is quite heavy.  

We put the entire rod together, along with the curtain ring clips, and then mounted it on the wall.  Because Drew is much more of a perfectionist than I am, he did all the measuring and leveling.  I think Drew used anchors with the screws, just to make sure there wasn't any chance of the rod falling out of the wall.

We like to hang our curtains and blinds "high and wide."  It definitely gives the illusion of a much larger window and taller ceilings.

The last time we went on our annual Ikea trip, we purchased these simple white curtains for the nursery.  After the rod was installed, we simply had to clip on the curtains.

This was definitely one of the easier projects (thank goodness!...if only every DIY home project could go exactly as planned) in the nursery, and we love the modern-industrial look of the curtain rod.

Pottery Barn Kids glider wannabe

When we first started planning the nursery, I knew I wanted to get a fully upholstered glider that we could one day use in another room of our house.  Unfortunately, the only place I found that had what I was looking for was Pottery Barn Kids.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love all things Pottery Barn, but I simply couldn't convince Drew Babe that nearly $1000 for a nursery chair was definitely in our budget.

Thankfully Pinterest and Ikea came to my rescue.  We saw other people had turned Ikea chairs into a rocker/glider and thought we would give it a try.

If we had an unlimited supply of funds, I simply would have purchased this chair from PB.

source

But we don't, so we picked up this chair during one of our yearly Ikea visits.  (I know a lot of people have used the Jennylund chair for a project like this, but we liked how the Ektorp felt more roomy and comfortable.)

source

Some of you may be thinking white is a risky color for a piece of furniture, but the fantastic thing is I can always wash it or simply buy a new one if it starts looking dingy.  I also used Scotchguard on the entire slipcover to hopefully somewhat protect it from spills, spit-up, blow-outs, etc.

I tried to show Drew Babe some of my pins on how people turned their Ikea chair into a rocker/glider.  His wheels immediately started turning, and he figured out how he was going to do this project without following a tutorial.

We purchased the rocker mechanism off Amazon.  I believe the only other things Drew needed for this project was a piece of plywood, some 2x4s, and a few screws.  We kept the legs off of the chair, and Drew screwed in a piece of plywood for the rocking mechanism to rest on.

Because we wanted it to be a tad higher and not have the slipcover skirt dragging on the floor, Drew added 2x4s.  The rocker mechanism was then installed.

Now, for a fraction of the cost, we have our own fully upholstered nursery glider.

Here is just a little comparison for you:

Pottery Barn glider:
$849 (on sale)
+$80 delivery surcharge
__________________
Total $929

Our Ikea chair turned glider:
$249 chair and slipcover
+$49.99 rocker mechanism
__________________
Total $298.99

(Drew already had the wood and hardware in the garage, so that wasn't an extra expense for this project)

Our nursery chair has already gotten lots of use, and is very comfy and sturdy.  The nursery is definitely coming along.

• re-paint all trim
• paint the stripes
• paint bedroom door and closet doors
• install new outlets and covers
• put together furniture (we will have the crib complete tomorrow)
• install blinds
• install curtain rods and hang curtains
• add some artwork to the walls
• re-do the entire closet
• decorate and organize

New additions

Baby Jax is not here yet.  We haven't adopted any new pets.  But we have added some new things to our living room.

Between childbirth classes, doctor's appointments, working full time, and trying to find time to eat, sleep, and maintain some kind of order at the Martin House, my blogging has been a bit sporadic.  I did want to show you a little update of the new additions in our living room.  Last year my parents blessed me for my graduation with a beautiful Pottery Barn rug.  I picked out something that looked classic with a touch of modern, so hopefully it will still be in style 10 years from now.

You may have noticed the layout looks a bit different too.  After having a few family gatherings at our home, we noticed there really wasn't much seating available.  During our latest trip to Ikea we picked up two wicker chairs and put them where the loveseat used to be.  The new arrangement added additional seating and feels more open when you walk in the front door.

Don't mind the pile of Ikea boxes in the background.  Those are all for Jaxson's nursery, and I promise we will get started on that sometime soon!

 Here is a better shot of our new Ikea chairs.  For the price, they are actually quite comfortable and sturdy.

Please pardon the subpar pictures.  I am definitely not a photographer (which you probably have already figured out) and recently (for convenience sake) have been using only my iPhone for all my picture taking.

Daily Double

You have pretty much hit the jackpot with this post, because it is actually 2 posts in 1!  The reason for this is because we didn't take any "after" pictures of our new family room curtains without capturing our newly finished family room accent tables as well....soooo we had to include it all in one :)
(we are still working on being sure to get all the "before" and "after" pictures.  Drew is much better about it than I am.)

Here is a true before picture of our family room.  No picture frames.  No wall shelf.  No curtains.  Pretty boring and kinda gloomy if you ask me.

(Make sure you notice the wood tables and naked bare window, because they will look completely different by the end of this post)

The loooonng window definitely needed something to make it look more finished.  To bring more white into the room, we decided simple white panel curtains would be the best for this window.

We scored a pair of white curtains for our family room on our Ikea adventure.  We purchased the Lenda style curtains for only $29.99 a pair!  They have a linen like texture and we were able to hem them to the exact length we needed (just skimming the floor) with Ikea's iron-on hem strip.  Super easy and super perfect!

(Please excuse the pillows.  I am normally pretty good about fluffing them:)

To tie in the darker accents in the room, we found an oil rubbed bronze curtain rod at Bed, Bath, & Beyond (where we still had wedding gift cards and coupons).  Drew Babe hung the rod close to the ceiling to make our ceilings appear taller and to lengthen the window.  I usually go with "high and wide" when hanging curtains (this blog has some great tips on hanging curtains).

Often it seems during some of our Martin House projects I am simply the one giving orders directions, and making sure things are straight or even, but with our curtain project I got to iron (and hem) the curtains all by myself.  Here is proof of me trying to be a good wifey:

Now....I have to switch gears a bit.

After purchasing the white curtains, we realized they were going to be the only white item in the family room.  There needed to be something else to tie them in.  We had talked about looking for new coffee and accent tables, but we actually really liked the style of ours, just not the color.  We tossed out the idea of staining them, but then I suggested painting them white to go with the curtains.  At first, Drew was a little unsure about the idea.

We certainly did not want them to stick out like a sore thumb, so we had to be sure to pick the perfect white.  That was no easy task.  After bringing home dozens of whites, looking at them in daylight and artificial light, and comparing them to various other "whites" in our house, we finally settled on Crumb Cookie from Lowe's in a semi-gloss.

We hauled the three tables out to the garage to begin the project.  Our first step was to remove all the legs to make it easier to get good paint cover.

The most tedious task was sanding them down.  To make this step of the project more exciting, we worked on this together (Drew Babe with his pro electric sander and me with my little square of sand paper).  We enjoyed laughing, chatting, and singing (sometimes to spice it up even more, I would break out into spontaneous dancing, and I am no dancer by any means).

To get all the dust off we wiped everything down with a warm damp rag.

On to the primer!  Fortunately we already had a gallon of primer and simply applied 1 (or 2...I can't remember) even coats of the primer.

The primer was super bright white, so we were hoping our Crumb Cookie would not come out looking like that.  We were going for a little bit warmer, but not yellowy, white.

Drew thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of the table with half primer and half Crumb Cookie to really show the color difference.  Fortunately we didn't have to make numerous trips to Lowe's to tweak our paint, because as you can see, the white color came out perfect!

After doing the final coat on all the tables, we let it dry for a day or two.  Drew Babe wanted to give the top of the tables a stronger finish and decided to apply a couple coats of spray enamel.  It turned out really well and they are super easy to clean.

Here is the finished room with the white curtains and the white tables.

 Having the white tables and the white curtains helps to brighten the whole room and make it feel lighter and fresh...if you know what I mean (Drew always says I have the most interesting adjectives when I describe decorating things).

We both love our new brighter and whiter family room.  I may even change up the pillows on the couch sometime to make them pop a bit more.  For a long time I was so afraid to decorate with white, because sometimes it can be so stark.  Now I am finding I love white more and more, and there are definitely ways to make it warm and cozy :)

The TV Wall

Deciding what to do with the open space around the TV has been a prolonged decorating struggle for me.  First, I thought a large round mirror would look great, but that still left the walls bare on either side of the TV.

While on our Ikea adventure, we found a wall bookshelf for a great price.  The color matched our entertainment stand almost perfectly, so we thought this would help take up some of the wall space around the TV.  Drew Babe soon suggested we also make use of the dozens of gallery frames we received from our wedding registry, but had not made use of yet.  Sounded like a great plan to me!

Here is what the TV wall originally looked like.  Bare.  Boring. And just plain blah.   The first step of redesigning the wall was to get rid of the dust collector ficus tree. 

Drew likes symmetry, so we decided to do two frames on either side of the TV.  We only used four and still have several left over which we could use elsewhere.

Drew installed the Ikea bookshelf and we filled it with some vintage books we already had in the attic.  I love how the colors of the books really pop and bring out the colors we already have in our living room.

See how closely the color matches the stand.  It's like they were made for each other!

Drew Babe is super precise, but it pays off in the end when everything looks even.

And there you have it.  The finished product!  (And a lovely picture of Bruce Willis.  Not sure what movie this is, but bonus points for you if you know:)

We still need to find pictures to put in the frames around the TV.  We were thinking of doing some wedding pictures, because even a whole year later, we still haven't order any wedding prints.  Do you think all black and white, color, or maybe a mix?  Eventually we will replace the monochromatic Target scene in the frames, and somehow find a way to disguise all the cords.  At least the TV wall is a bit more interesting now.