Repurposing a vintage tablecloth into a window treatment!

Since my last post I sat down and got to work to complete the window treatment for our brand new kitchen!
OLD KITCHEN
NEW KITCHEN
I loved the old tablecloth pieces I found, very vintage, and HANDMADE-can you believe it...It's a great heavy weight, ivory with time, and in perfect condition...The hours someone would have spent creating it...It had already been hacked up and was for sale in two pieces, but it needed some reinforcement for a curtain rod pocket. This is one piece, I still have a smaller piece to use somewhere else! I hate seeing such a treasure go to waste, it needed a new life and purpose! How perfect to make into a window treatment with very minimal sewing...The window really needed more than boring old blinds...
TADA!!!!

I love how my kitchen looks tidy...I jammed the dish rack and other assorted stuff on the other counter to take the picture. ;-)

For the curtain rod to go through smoothly, and to make it easier to sew the pocket for the rod I had to add some fabric. I wanted the light to shine through the piece, so I just wanted fabric for the rod pocket, not to back the whole piece.

I started by serging a piece of white cotton muslin-type fabric to the back...An old sheet was perfect for this. Now I have extra white cotton on hand, too. :-)

I serged the sides and bottom for a nice finished edge.

Then I ironed the bottom muslin serged hem up, so there was a nice crease to follow, and folded the top serged edges once over so no edges were showing and pinned it together.

Fed it through the sewing machine fairly slowly so it didn't catch. That was it! I gathered it on two sides to give it some pizzaz. I tried it without, and it was just too long and plain. All I did was gather 5 of the circle "centers" together and a couple stitches, done. The stitches had to go on the "finished" side so it "fell" into a nice swag.

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Hello, new kitchen!!!!

Here we go! Keep in mind, there are still painters and new lighting to come, plus more personalisation and a window treatment. I found a cool handmade vintage table cloth that I'm going to make into a valance. My windows are filthy, sawdust and other assorted goodies...Sorry. LOL!!! Check the last post here for the "before" pic's.

At the end of Day One it looked like this!New sink with pull-out faucet. And some flowers from my son. He had to have them when we went grocery shopping, he ran right over, picked them up and carried them around the store. They were dropped once and a leaf or two went missing, as to be expected...LOL

Light maple cabinets with satin nickel handles. Gross walls now, don't look...Do you like the little old salt box? I do...It's all grungy and adorable...(good grungy, not yucky grungy...lol) It has little worn spots where the lid had been lifted over the years. I have no idea how old it is, I would think at least 70 years judging by the construction...1940's...Somewhere around there?

I love how the fridge is framed in, the cupboard above even has room for my turkey platter!!! It had to sit on top of the cupboards before.

Finally a dishwasher after almost a year of not having one...HEAVEN...It was a freecycle goody!!! It works great, thank you freecycler! The window will be much happier with some dressing. The blinds are great for privacy, but I think a little window treatment adds so much more personality. I need a little rod. The old coffee grinder on the wall was a gift from my Dad a few years ago, it's a West German antique, and it now has a little Delft mold to accompany it. My sister brought back a cool black and white print of row houses from Amsterdam that will go above them. Darn, that's what I forgot...Something to mat around it, the frame is a bit big.

This area had a tall pantry, and a very low, small, useless counter top. I now have TRIPLE the counter space, I love it...I'm still getting used to the drawers on the bottom, there's one lazy susan on the other side.

So there it is! Any thoughts on paint colours? I have those delft blue accents, lots of taupe, the dining room has an aqua green/blue so I don't want it to clash when you look from one room to the other. Maybe a blue/grey...Yellowy cream...I have no idea!!!! Definitely something more exciting than white. LOL

This is a picture from the Olympic torch parade yesterday, a local ran with the official torch back in October and brought it to the elementary school, were they had a parade with it to the town square. My little and big Mounties are pretty cute! I love the way Cole is standing with his hands behind his back, just like Dad. Too cute. He had to run over and stand with him, everyone thought it was pretty funny...He grabbed onto Dad's leg when I went to go get him. Turkey!!!!

Until next time!

Rainy Day Kitchen

With the exception of some new paint, and light fixtures, which are coming at some future date unbeknownst to us, this gloomy kitchen is history! Yep, it was straight up 1989. Grey cabinets, burgundy handles and counter tops. Who had the bright idea to put grey cabinets in the rainiest place on earth??? Hey, we were fine with it, the rest of the house is great, rent is dirt cheap, no complaints from us. However, when a phone call comes offering us a new kitchen, and we know we will be posted here at least 4 years, HECK YES! We'd love a new kitchen! The cabinet man will be back tomorrow for some final touches, and then the reveal....I can tell you, it is a million times brighter in there! Don't mind the messy kitchen, it was right after we had moved in. Stay tuned, for some AFTER pic's!

Other than spending 2 1/2 entire days last week keeping the troops fed, out of the kitchen, and entertained, not much happened last week...I've been watching the Olympics like a mad person, right from that last torch day through Vancouver, we're having a great time, and getting the kiddo's to practice their "GO CANADA GO" cheers...We must be ready for those double gold medal hockey games.... ;-)

Freestyle Moguls have been added to my "must watch" list-they don't take all day, they're highly entertaining and Canada finished very well! Silver in Women's, and our first Gold in Men's! The hard work of all the athletes and some of their incredible journeys are so moving. They are super-humans in so many ways, not just their sport.

I discovered a little "junk-tique" store in town last time we were in, about 2 weeks ago. Lots of browsing for now, but I love seeing all those vintage displays and getting inspiration...There's a cool mix of the more traditional antiques, furniture, silverware, and retro finds, with a bit of west coast fishing lodge thrown in...

I've been rather unmotivated of late, but now that the kitchen is no longer inhabiting my china cabinet I can start on that soon. All the supplies are ready, just waiting on me...

A $10 dining room makeover! (this project, anyway!!)

Hooray for mist-tints, a $10 makeover to the dining room! And enough left over for the back of the china cabinet and a million other projects. I also made those curtains a few months ago now, (that's why I didn't count them) for about $14, the fabric was $3.50/m. They have a really cool textured diamond pattern. I found the little scone curtain brackets at the thrift store for $2 and with some dowel we had already, we are trying out a new look. It will need some white paint and finials at some point, but it will work for now...I haven't properly introduced them so here they are...New window treatments by MOI. LOL

Yep, the dowel definitely needs paint and finials! Don't look... :-P

In the light of day before the curtains went back up. The long picture was sort of what we were working around colour-wise, so we're pretty happy with it!
The chandelier is straight up uggggg, we know...There are rumours all the out dated lighting is being replaced, fingers crossed!!!! Since they are putting in a new kitchen starting Monday I don't think I'll jump on that bus quite yet. (Can't wait to see what they are putting in-apparently they're maple cabinets, nickle hardware, and a taupe countertop-easy to work with that palette!) The cabinet installers will be here Monday-Wednesday so I'll post the before and afters as soon as it's decent again. We started packing up the cupboards tonight, so the kitchen has exploded into our bedroom to keep the kidlets out. Locks are a great invention. :-)

The taupe wall to the right of the window will be dressed up, it's on the list, don't worry...Since I can only work at night it takes me awhile to get it all done!
Just to prove I HAVE actually accomplished something...

The first pic is right when we first moved in. It looks so bare and lonely!

Before I started the "new to us" dining set transformation, and new curtains up...(the old metal curtain rod and hold backs seem to "light" for the look, but I have a new home for the hardware elsewhere.
Today! See, it's coming along...The furniture takes the longest, of course, but once it's done all the little finishing details will all come together for my shabby/beachy look.

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How can the little monkey sleep like this???? Crazy!

First coat is up!

Hopefully I'll get some pictures up tomorrow. The first coat is up in the dining room! Yay! Once I finally got around to filling the little curtain rod holes and taping it was really fast...It's looking a little dark though, eeek! Once the curtains are back up it will tone it down though I'm sure...
Nothing exciting to share tonight, so off I go...I'm going to go check on all the "parties" and see what you all have been up to though! I've been seeing some beautiful Valentine's decorations around Blogland-we usually don't decorate for the little holidays, but now that the kids are getting older it might be fun...Next year. LOL
Have a great night!