a la mode hits the road: part 2

Do you recall M's impromptu kitchen re-do from a couple of days ago? Well, I left M with some suggestions regarding how to mistreat her living room windows after I left, along with some repurposing of art work and such. Much to my alarm, M sent me an e-mail a day later entitled, "Decorating Disaster." Apparently, the living room mistreatments were easier said than done. 

So Friday, The Scooper scooped up all her sweeties and headed over to M's house. I felt like a decorating super hero. I wore giant dangly earrings just for the occasion. (They sound like wind chimes when I fly...I like that.) 

We already had the necessary supplies. Here's what we did. (BTW, I completely ripped off The Nester and her fabulous "mistreatment" ideas for all of this.) 

Voila! The finished product...

First, we made a valance using chocolate-colored burlap. We upholstery-tacked the burlap (way up high to make the room seem taller) the length of the window. Then we hot-glued cream ball-fringe to the valance. Mmmm....Chocolate. Cream. Cafe Mocha anyone?

M already had pre-made tab-top curtains that coordinated with the furniture. I suggested that we turn them upside down and drapery-clip them. And instead of clipping the panels to a rod, we put more tacks into the wall and just hung the panels on the tacks. No rods, ya'll! Do you know how much a rod would have cost for this big ol' non-standard-size window? Well, I don't know either but I bet it's a lot.

(Tacks and clips...that's it!)

(Way up high, to make the room seem taller...)

Lest you think I left M with upside-down, high-water panels, think again. More burlap. More ball fringe. More hot glue. Mission completion (shout out to Little Einsteins.) 

(See the upside-down tab-top panels? See how we ran out of trim and fringe? No worries. It will mostly be hidden behind the sofa.)

I cannot stress how cheap and easy this project was!

Also, M was sad about her craft area. It sits in her dining room and it was just a utility table with a table cloth on it. Once again, I recalled an idea I'd scene at Nesting Place. A mistreated craft table. We had a problem though. No more hot glue sticks! You must never run out of glue sticks people. It's like the milk or bread of hack-job decorating (which is the only kind I do.) But, where's there's a will there's a way. Did you know that with enough force, you can get an upholstery tack in a heavy-duty plastic utility table? (I would only try it if you're a super hero and wearing dangly earrings though.)

(Pardon the wrinkles...I was too lazy to drag out the iron.)

And there you have it. Mistreated windows. Mistreated tables. Mistreated children. (How else do two mommies with 4 young children get all this decorating done?) 

Just doing my job in this part of the planet to help out humanity...all in a day's work.

Stay tuned for what I did to my house on Saturday...