It seems that the last two Tuesdays my sister and I have gone shopping. Not mall shopping but home decor shopping, my favourite thing to do. My sister is slowly fixing up her 80's townhouse (which has gorgeous vaulted ceilings and a yard almost bigger than mine) on a limited budget.
Enter sister (me).
I find that when there are budget limitations my creative juices start flowing. I LOVE creating an esthetically pleasing home but when limited funds are an issue it almost becomes an obsession. Sometimes I wonder if I am crazy as I lay awake at night with the ideas flowing through my brain.
My sister is trying to spruce up her master bedroom and her girls' bedroom. I have introduced Odeedoh to my sister for inspiration. I love that they feature rooms that are creative, simple, budget-friendly and not pretentious.
I can't help myself but get involved when someone else is re-designing a room or their house. I must have a disease. So I wanted to add a bit of style to my nieces' room. For Christmas I ordered a personalized print from Penny People Designs (another cool Canadian who not only runs a successful card/print business but has amazing design sense which she demonstrates in her home renovation). You can read about that post here.
Photo: Penny People Design
I also got the ball rolling by making my oldest niece baby bedding with Amy Butler fabric. I then suggested my sister take her wobbly Ikea bookcase, paint it white and add beadboard to the back to give it support, which she did.
Did I mention it was a brilliant sister's idea?
She is now looking at bedding and drapes for the room to coordinate with the Amy Butler fabrics I used to make the bedding.
Did I mention it was a brilliant sister's idea?
She is now looking at bedding and drapes for the room to coordinate with the Amy Butler fabrics I used to make the bedding.
Photo: Amy Butler Design
For her master we had fun at Homesense, Ikea and Fabricana (a Vancouver area fabric store). She had purchased a super king duvet (my brother -in-law and my sister are quite tall) and thus needed a super king cover. In order to save some $$ I suggested she buy 2 king sheet sets. She can make a duvet out of the 2 flat sheets and then have 2 fitted sheets and 4 pillow cases. We bought 2 sets of 600 thread count in a white cotton for $120!
If the flat sheets aren't big enough for a duvet I suggested that she can insert some grosgrain ribbon to make it wider or longer.
Another brilliant idea from a brilliant sister.
We also bought some Amy Butler fabric to make throw pillows (using down pillow inserts from Ikea - $6 each) for her bed. We only needed 60 cm of each fabric plus 1.2 meters of a coordinating blue cotton. Cost: $28- not bad for 2 throw pillows and extra for some wall "art". She knows her husband will have a comment about the pillows though. He finds pillows fussy and in the way, I shake my head in disbelief, he and my husband are cut from the same cloth. Mine has learned just to shove them over to my side of the bed.
If the flat sheets aren't big enough for a duvet I suggested that she can insert some grosgrain ribbon to make it wider or longer.
Another brilliant idea from a brilliant sister.
We also bought some Amy Butler fabric to make throw pillows (using down pillow inserts from Ikea - $6 each) for her bed. We only needed 60 cm of each fabric plus 1.2 meters of a coordinating blue cotton. Cost: $28- not bad for 2 throw pillows and extra for some wall "art". She knows her husband will have a comment about the pillows though. He finds pillows fussy and in the way, I shake my head in disbelief, he and my husband are cut from the same cloth. Mine has learned just to shove them over to my side of the bed.
Now my sister can head over to our parent's place to escape Vancouver during the Olympics armed with sewing projects. Our mom is the queen of sewing. She taught me all I know.
Our Her plan is to make a headboard for the master, curtains for the girls' room, find some cool thrift store lamps like mine and hang up prints on the walls. She wants to frame the Amy Butler fabric with a large frame and mat. We She already did that for the girls' room.
Can't wait to see how it all turns out.
