It's Great To Be Home

Tutorial: Customizing Your Ikea Slipcovers

April 11, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 59 Comments

You guys have totally blown me away with your awesome feedback on our breakfast room chairs – thank you so much! I feel like I’ve had a perma-grin on my face for the last few days. :) (And a huge thanks to Centsational Girl for including my chairs in her “best of the blogosphere” feature!)

So now to the million dollar question – how the heck did I spiff up these slipcovers?

To be honest, I’m a little hesitant to tell you guys. I think some of you will be jumping for joy that it’s so darn easy, and others will be a little disappointed that it didn’t involve any sewing or new fabric.

Here’s all you need to try out this project for yourself:

- fabric that you want to make more awesome (in this case, I used the plain white slipcovers that came with my Ikea chairs)

- fabric paint in the color(s) of your choice (I mixed together 2 colors, and wound up using a total of 22 ounces of paint)

- 1 small artist brush

- 1 slightly larger brush

- a bowl for mixing/holding the paint

- a digital image of a pattern that appeals to you

- a few small pieces of cardboard (like the size of a matchbox)

- a washable fabric pen

Step 1: Create a paper stencil of your pattern. You may remember this fabric that I blogged about back in February when I was considering recovering the Ikea chairs:

Well, I’m kind of in love with it. And while I didn’t like that the pattern on the fabric ran horizontally, that was no problemo since I was making my own stencil. I just printed out a full-page photo of the fabric on typing paper and then cut out the pointed oval shapes with an exacto knife.

Now I had a stencil that I could use to create the pattern vertically on my chairs! (I made a few of these stencils since the process of tracing the stencil onto the fabric caused the edges of the stencil to get a little wonky over time.)

Step 2: Trace the stencil onto your fabric. Pick a starting point for your stencil that will act as a guide to keep the repeating pattern level – I chose the seam along the top of the chairs and it worked really well.

Tip: If your pattern will be wrapping around a corner, think about where you want the pattern to stop. As you can see in the photo below, I let the pattern wrap around the top of the chairs from the front to the back, and from the bottom seat cushion onto the lower sides of the chair – but I stopped the pattern at the vertical seam between the front and back of the chair (if that makes sense). Deciding where to break the pattern will help prevent the pattern from meeting up in an unattractive or weird way.

You don’t have to use a fabric pen to trace your pattern, but I highly recommend it – I’d never used a fabric pen before but now I’m a believer! All of the marks left behind on my slipcover from the great chevron incident came right out with a wet cloth, so it’s great for those “oops” moments.

By the way, this is also a good opportunity to entertain your cat.

Step 3: Mix your paints. Don’t fret if Michael’s doesn’t sell the exact color of fabric paint that you want – you can just mix it up yourself to create a custom color. I mixed 1 part Marine Blue with 2 parts Turquoise to create the deep teal color for my chairs. Tip: When storing my bowl full of paint between painting sessions, I like to cover the bowl with plastic wrap and press down the plastic wrap so that it is touching the paint and the sides of the bowl, and then stick it in the fridge. This helps keep the paint from hardening.

Step 4: Fill in the stencil with paint. This is the part that takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. Like for reals. Tip: Here’s what worked best for me – I used the small artists brush to do the outline of 2-3 ovals, then filled them in with the larger brush. Do only a few of them at a time or else the outline will get kind of thick and crusty and you’ll be able to see it even after the paint dries (I learned this trick after I took the photo below). Using a small brush was great for the outline because it lets you get really crisp lines. Also, when you reach creases in the fabric (like where the back rest meets the seat cushion) those small pieces of cardboard come in handy – just stick them in the crease to keep the paint from smudging.

And that’s it! Easy, right? And since all of this was done using fabric paint the slipcovers are 100% washable. I’m incredibly happy with the results – most people assume that the slipcovers were made out of new fabric, so it’s really fun when you get to say that you just painted it on there!!

All in all, this was a super gratifying project – it would be perfect for sprucing up pillow covers, blankets, curtains or even duvets (I’m kind of itching to try that one). Let me know if you give this project a try, I’d love to see it!

Psst! Check out this other project I did with slipcovers and fabric paint.

Reader Question: What To Do With These Windows?

April 1, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 7 Comments

Window treatments can be one of the most frustrating {i.e., annoying} design elements in a room – you have to think about light control, privacy, expenses, style of treatment, fabric choice . . . the list goes on and on! One of my lovely readers is struggling with choosing window treatments for her family room, and wrote in a for a little advice. Here’s her note:

So I have a window dilemma – I think I want to cover the long window in our family room, but with what? I HATE vertical blinds – and that’s the only thing I’ve seen on my neighbor’s houses who have windows like ours. The window isn’t centered in the room, so I think curtains are out – plus I wouldn’t want them to go to the floor since it’s the playroom too. I can’t imagine finding pull down shades that would work since it’s soooo big. And I have a feeling any custom pull down blinds would cost almost a grand. I just don’t want to spend more than a couple/few hundred dollars…. Do you have any suggestions? Should we just keep it open? Do you think your readers would want to chime in? If not, that’s totally fine…just thought I would check with you since you’ve been so helpful in the past! { . . . } ~ Christy

{ P.S. If you haven’t already checked out Christy’s post about her family room makeover, you totally should – it’s awesome! Just click here to scope it out. }

In some followup emails with Christy, I learned that she wanted any window treatments to be functional so that she can completely cover the windows when she wants to. Knowing all that, here are some affordable ideas I came up with to conquer her large {and gorgeous} windows:

1. DIY Roman Shades. I’ve been dying to try this idea ever since Britt made them for her bedroom.

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The basic idea is that Christy would use a length of fabric that extends from one side of the windows to the other, and from the ceiling to the window ledge beneath the windows (treating the 3 panels of the window like one big window). Screw a cup hook near the top of the window frame on each vertical section of the frame (so you’ll have 4 cup hooks in all). Then sew four little rings onto the back side of the fabric panel to line up with the cup hooks – these rings will be used to pull up the shades and let in some light, so think about how much window you’ll want to expose. That’s it! Check out Britt’s blog for even more details.

Drop cloths {like the ones Britt used} would be a great affordable fabric that can be gussied up with ribbon, and the neutral tones would work well with Christy’s furniture – another alternative would be to use one long length of a punchy, graphic fabric like the ones below to play off the beautiful blues and patterns in the space {and remember that you might want to line the shades for extra light control and so that they’re pretty when you see them from outside, as well}.

From left to right, top to bottom. 1. Waverly Sun N Shade Lenox Horizon, 2. Woodland Delight CD4085-Blue Fabric by Paula Prass, 3. Waverly Ellis Turquoise, 4. Premier Prints Giraffe Brown/French Blue, 5. Premier Prints Trellis French Blue/Kelso Brown, 6. P Kaufmann Loopy Lou Robin’s Egg, 7. Woodland Delight DC4084-Blue Fabric by Paula Prass, 8. Shangri-La 3883-22 Fabric by 3 Sisters, 9. Pavilion Indoor/Outdoor by Duralee, 10. Waverly Sun N Shade Outdoor Fabric-Lovely Lattice Lagoon Fabric, 11. Invidgodk in Confetti, 12. Waverly Cross Section Charcoal.

2. Alternate Version of DIY Roman Shades. This version will let you have two different fabrics, like a neutral on the front and a pattern on the back. Instead of the fabric folding underneath itself, you would “button up” the bottom of the shade to expose the patterned fabric on the back of the shade.

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You can check out a more detailed tutorial here.

3. Faux Custom Roman Blinds. Custom blinds are expensive, so why not fake it? The Youngsters do it, and so can you.

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Believe it or not, these custom-looking bamboo blinds {above and below} are just a series of inexpensive blinds hung together to look like a single unit. Can’t tell, can ya?

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Just be sure to keep any cords out of the reach of little ones. And for a more polished look, you can always add a pair of curtain panels or a valance.

So those are my ideas for Christy’s naked window – what about you guys? Chime on in, we want to hear about your solution!

P.S. I loved reading all of your guesses about yesterday’s post . . . you’ll have to stay tuned to find out for sure! :)

We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

May 20, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 11 Comments

Remember that lovely (sense the sarcasm), fuzzy, gold wallpaper that used to be in my entryway and dining room?

Yeah, I couldn’t wait to rip that stuff off the walls. Well, we’ve come a long way from the funky wallpaper of yesterday. Now there’s a whole new breed of wallpaper that is pretty funky, too – but in a good way.

Several wallpaper companies have developed paintable wallpaper – it comes in just about any pattern or texture imaginable, and can give your room an awesome look in no time. Take this beadboard wallpaper from Home Depot, for example:

Wouldn’t this look great in a bathroom or dining room with a chair rail on top? It would be so much easier and quicker to install than the real thing – no nailing or measuring, and it’s completely prepasted so you just have to get it wet and slap it on the wall. And a roll of this nifty stuff covers 56 square feet for just under $22 – quite the bargain, if you ask me. Here’s what it could look like in your home:

And if beadboard’s not your thing, don’t fret. This paintable wallpaper comes in just about any pattern that you can think of, from linen to stucco and everything in between. Here are a few of the patterns available from Graham & Brown to get you thinking:

Don’t like white? Just paint it! That’s the beauty of this unique wallpaper. Take a look at how Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick used metallic paint to highlight the gorgeous pattern of her painted wallpaper panels:

Awesome, right? And Sarah’s creative idea shows how you can use paintable wall paper to create unique (and affordable) wall art in no time.

So what do you think about paintable wallpaper? Not your thing, or right up your alley? What’s your favorite pattern? I think mine is that amazing leaf pattern from Graham & Brown . . .

Click here for some other fun wallpaper ideas.

Images courtesy of Thrifty Decor Chick, Graham & Brown, Home Depot, Better Homes & Gardens, Lynn Morgan Design and My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia. Graham & Brown paintable wallpaper is also available at Design Public.