DIY - Fabric and Silver Nailhead Photo Board

With the extra materials from making our linen window cornices we made a little photo board for the wall.  All it took was selecting the right size of plywood and then stapling batting and fabric around it.

We attached a metal line to be able to hang it on the wall.

 You can purchase the metal line at any craft or home improvement store.  We stapled that on the back of the board.

Then we turned it over and nailed in a board of silver nailhead trim.  Click here for instructions on an easy method for hammering in tacks.

After installing the border, we hung it on the wall and used silver tacks to hang up photos of family and friends.  It was a quick, fun project where we can now switch out photos and appreciate for a while!

Finished fabric photo board

Silver Nailhead Trim on White Linen Cornices

This post is the second phase of our massive window cornices project.  Click here to view the post where we made the cornices.

They looked pretty great with just white, but I decided they would be fun to make a bit more of a statement.  Which started our silver nailhead education.  First, I got the trim instead of individual tacks.  That way you can have a long strip and only have to nail in every fifth one.

But, let's just say that choosing to do a super long strip of these that are pin straight on crisp white linen is tough. It definitely challenged by OCD husband, Aaron. 

There were a LOT of nails to worry about!

Fishing line became our friend to help keep our sanity on those straight lines.

Through a lot of trying, we finally ending up with a method for keeping the straight lines.  We nailed in two nails.  One at either end of our long row.  Then we wound fishing wire around one nail and brought it all the way over to other one and made it taut.  That became our straight line to follow and we could just snip it off when we were done.  You just put the nail right over that line until it touches the actual nail portion of the tack.  And then hammer it down pulling out the line before it smashes all the way down.  It worked like a charm!

But, the actual hammering was tough too.

My job was to keep the lines generally straight to keep the set-up moving.  You can see the little fishing wire.

Needlenose pliers were an essential to hold the nail in place and then pound in with a rubber mallet.

It can be a one person job, but we found it fastest ultimately for one person to position the tack while the other hammers it in (this pic is from a different project of ours).

So, you've probably noticed that weird blue circle in the middle of everything.  That's our high tech guide for a our center circle.  Otherwise known as the top of a commercial sized paint bucket.  We could have cut something out of cardboard or paper to help but this ended up being the right size so we went with it.  We finished up all the straight parts and then went for the center circle.

We added another fishing line across to make sure we were centered.

We bent the nailhead trim into the general shape we wanted around the paint lid.

To make the hammering portion easier, I'd pull away the paint lid each time we had one in the right place.  That's why the fishing line sure came in handy to move right back to the correct spot.

Then we just measured out an equal distance from the circle and did the final rounded edge.  And we were complete!

Aaron said it was his personal longboard.

Before Pic of the master bedroom

After - White Linen Cornices with silver nailhead trim

Now, if you remember, I said I had not one window but FOUR.  We made two of these for the master bedroom and then my husband went on strike.  I was told to find a different design for downstairs.  One that didn't involve any straight lines. Soo...I looked around on the internet and saw this:

Sorry, I don't have the source.  Please let me know if you have a link I can use.

I thought the base of the banquette was really fun and similar to what I'd already picked for my house.  So, we replicated that for downstairs.  This time we pre-made the circles.

It took about 2 football games to shape all the different circles.

 Then I played around a bit with the sizes and order. 

Finding the perfect combo of the circles

 We had the nailing part of this project down, but we had to use our stairs at one point just for the ceiling height.  We needed to nail down the circles to the smaller part of the cornice.

But finally, we were complete!  Two master bedroom windows and two downstairs in the living/dining area were now covered and complete!  Here's the final result for the dining/living area.

Before Pic - of the Living/Dining Room

After - Living/ Dining Room

Before - Dining Room

Dining Room - After

White Linen cornices with silver nailhead Trip

DIY - Project Window Cornices

So, we had these huge, beautiful windows.  We went hunting for blinds, shutters and all kinds of options and found out that huge windows are crazy expensive to cover.  So, instead we decided on buying some white linen drapes and make some white linen cornices for the top.  Or rather, I decided that my husband Aaron would make cornices! 

Here were some of the basic materials.

This made me laugh. We rented a table saw and it didn't have a guide.  So my hubbie decided to create one himself.

Our garage became the guide!

 So, again, we have some huge windows.  And two of them has these side windows.  So, we decided to make one solid piece to cover both.  My structural engineer of a husband decided the safest way to make these massive pieces was to attach a long wood strip to the wall and put another long strip on the back of the cornice that fits in like a puzzle piece.  One very cool part of this is that we are able to just lift it on and off as needed. 

See...massive right?!

After getting the wood base, the next step was to staple on batting and then fabric.  I didn't want that super puffy '80's look so we chose a 1 inch batting

I ironed the fabric before putting on to not stress about wrinkles afterwards

The corners were tricky!  On the 2nd one we  figured out that it was easier to staple fabric on the first long side before attaching the second wood piece.

So, finally we had the construction phase complete.  Here's the results!

Dining Room - Before

After

Before - Master Bedroom

I really liked the look of the plain white linen cornices but decided that I wanted some design for them as well.  Click here to see the final FINAL project with silver nailhead trim.

DIY Entry Window Film

You can see why the entry needed some privacy!

Entry Window Film

So, after some serious searching and saving, we bought a home in the Bay Area.  Despite being in all its 1980's glory, the house somehow came with zero window coverings.  So, upon moving in that was project # 1.  I really liked the look of etched glass but it was way too expensive and our HOA wouldn't have allowed it anyways.

So, I decided on window film. We bought two at Home Depot for about $60.  It still let the light in but provided the privacy I wanted.  It came in one long piece which was actually short for our window.  So, we decided to cut into three pieces and give an inch of space around each one.  First step was to measure and cut three equal parts.

Preparing to cut into three pieces

We lined the edges of the window with painter's tape to give us a clean line.  Then we just needed a spray bottle filled with water and a credit card.  You separate the paper from the window film like you're peeling off a sticker.  Except the one side isn't sticky until it's wet.  Then spray the window liberally and line up the film with the blue painter's tape. The credit card then comes in handy for pushing out all the air bubbles to the sides.

Our tools: painter's tape, a spray bottle and credit card.  And measuring tape of course!

Making sure it was straight.  We trimmed off a little bit.

Side one is complete!

On the other side, we decided to repeat the same steps except add our house numbers at the top. I borrowed my sister's Cricut for the numbers and found a platter that worked to trace an oval for the numbers.  It was actually pretty simple.  I just programmed in the house numbers and ran an extra (trimmed off) piece of the window film (with the paper backing still on) through the Cricut.  It cut in deep enough for the numbers and I was able to peel them away one by one.  Then it was just a matter of putting them on straight using painter's tape again as a guide.

Dinner platter made the ideal shape.

I printed them backwards so that they would look right from the outside of the house.

Here's a view from the outside of the house.

And then the project was complete!

You can kind of see someone at night if they're right next to the door.

A fun surprise occurred that night when we turned on the outdoor entry light.  The house numbers shone right through onto our wall with a cool effect!