1/30/2012

first things first


Remember that light box that I mentioned a few weeks ago? Yeah - I still haven't built that.

I took a good long look around my office and realized that before I could do anything else, I needed to organize, organize, organizeI have already decided to get rid of the couch (which has yet to be moved out), but there is much more to be done beyond that.

My office has been a complete disaster since November. There were boxes blocking one of the doors, piles and more piles of just everything lying around - it was a wreck. I made it my project this weekend to finally start clearing some of this stuff out of there. 

Like any small-space apartment dwellers, we take what we can get in the way of storage. We're lucky to have three closets and a small storage space (which is another disaster - I'm not yet ready to talk about my chair-hoarding tendencies), but with two adults and a small business those spaces fill up pretty quickly. I'm going to eventually move a bunch of things into my studio (more on that later), but I decided to capitalize on our under-the-bed storage this weekend, to utilize that space better.

My Mom and Stepdad brought up our beautiful old bed frame for us last summer, and the extra height is a storage godsend. Because this is an antique frame, we have our box spring sitting on wood planks that run the width of the frame.

Sexy, right? I've been staring at this mess for months now, lucky me. As you can see, we now have a ton of stuff under there. Summer clothes, books, CDs, a display for coucou salut, our laundry drying rack... It's kind of a catch-all for anything that we don't need ready access to. 

The next step was to HIDE this mess with a bed skirt-type situation. I knew the concept and sewing would be simple, but was unsure about the amount of fabric and time this would actually take me. I have a stash of vintage fabrics, so was hoping I could use something I had on hand. Enter this tutorial. Pinning instead of sewing? Straight instead of ruffled? Right up my alley. Mine didn't even need to be that fancy!

I found a piece of fabric at my studio that was pretty much exactly the right length of the bed, and went to work. We only have one side of the bed that's visible (the other side is against a wall), so instead of a making a full bedskirt, I essentially made a bed curtain to conceal the visible side.

I measured and cut the fabric (it's true - measure twice, cut once - the first time I did this I ended up with twice as much fabric as I needed, somehow...), and then finished it on the two short sides, with a quick once-over hem. I did the same along one of the long sides, and left the other long edge raw. You could totally finish the top as well, but I knew it would be hidden by the mattress, and wasn't too fussed about it. I found some velcro at a local shop, and purchased the male side without an adhesive backing, and the female side with. It ran me about $9.00 for 2 meters. 



I stitched the velcro to the un-hemmed long side of the fabric, with just one stitch down the middle. Again, I wasn't concerned with appearances because it would be hidden. 



I then took the female side of the velcro and stuck the adhesive along the top of our box spring, at the very edge. The last step was to stick the two pieces fabric together, matching up the velcro, and voila! Bed curtain! 



So much better. I'm not totally in love with that tan striped comforter/pink floral combo (although it doesn't look this clash-tastic in person), but baby steps...

Sometimes I'm amazed at how the simplest solutions are the best ones. This whole project took me about 40 minutes, and makes me endlessly happy. And it even gave me the energy to finally hang some artwork:


 

Which looks great with our light fixture and pale grey walls:


Again, SO much better. 

What did you do accomplish this weekend?

3 comments:

Sandy said...

haha! I'm glad my office isn't the only one looking the way it does. I've scheduled 3pm today for my cleanup. Not looking forward to it.

See you soon lady!

Michelle said...

So the lightbox didn't get done but it looks like you accomplished something equally important! btw, if you saw my workspace you would feel much better!

shanny said...

Haha - it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who started off 2012 with a messy work area!