Book Project Bonanza Vol. 3

You may recall me joking that I was going to work through John & Sherry’s book, Young House Love much like that movie about Julia Child…

This was seriously 99% joke though. YES I draw a TON of inspiration from everybody’s favorite dynamic-diy-duo, but I SWEAR not all of the projects you see here are born from the pages of their book.

…Or at least that’s what I thought until I flipped through a few pages last night and realized we were seriously overdue for some Book Project listings.

*sigh* Perhaps I’m less creative than I thought. Or, they’re all just really good ideas that we can all try. Maybe a bit of both?

# 002 – Paint a [jute] rug. In the case of our project here, it was more a fail than a win. It was also our submission for the Pinterest Challenge Winter Edition.

# 032 – Make Instant Curtains. This particular project has about a zillion different iterations all over blogland and Pinterest. Buy drapery rings with clips. Hang fabric. Tada! I didn’t really highlight them too much at the time, but the tall-gray-and-lovely drapes in our newly styled bedroom are actually a flat full sheet from the same collection at target that I used to make the duvet. That way I was sure they’d match the same shade properly.

# 070 – Line Drawers with Patterned Paper. This paper is from the dollar spot at Target. I both organized, then re-styled our little ikea rast hack to prep for the big bedroom change that you saw just above.

# 095 – Baskets Solve (Almost) Everything. I honestly didn’t even think this was in the book, and only included this in the book recap after-the-fact. But who doesn’t like to use baskets? They’re pretty and they make my throw-things-in-there style of organizing look so much more, well, organized!

# 120 – Make Paint Chip Art. Ok, this is mostly cheating. Those smaller frames ARE a giant paint chip. The big square-like ones from Behr. No cutting or gluing. They were just stuck right in there. But they look so clean, they may be permanent features in our new bedroom.

# 143 Find Free Art. They’re completely right. Art is ALL AROUND YOU. Or, rather, things that inspire you are all around you. We have a whole series dedicated to inexpensive art because it’s just too easy not to! You know those pretty things you keep pinning online? Well the way you pin them in real life is either LITERALLY PIN THEM on a cork board (you know, old school) or by popping them into a frame. (Or shadow box, as Sherry is fond of.) This particular example is from a few old frames I had from college that I popped some glamor shots of food into that were featured in the 2012 holiday issue of Real Simple.

# 163 – Add a Plant that Probably Wont Die Immediately. My parent’s house has always had a window full of plants in our living and dining rooms. It’s just kinda always been that way. So to live in a place without them? No. They create fresh air for you, they’re green when winter is gray, and in a window they even create natural privacy screening. These are some of our favorite survivors. (Bill’s not too good with watering them when I’m away.)

So there you have it. A few more projects to cross off the list of 243.