It started with a little paint...

You know that room. It's the one many of us have, that used to be something, maybe a child's room or a guest room, that suddenly became the place to put anything that didn't immediately have a home. Well, I have a couple. The one under discussion is Sarah's old room, destined to be the catch-all after she left for Singapore, a mixture of her discards and my "what do I do with this" room.

It all started with a water leak, a leak that had been insidious for many years and suddenly made itself known. What resulted was significant expense and the replacement of a window seat, framing and sheet rock among other things. To save a little money I decided to do the interior painting myself. Painting is easy.

I chose a soft violet with grayish tones, stark contrast to the electric lemon yellow chosen by my daughter in her teen years. Going on the walls, with that yellow beside it, it looked hideous! The end result is lovely. Of course, a stark window is crying for care, and I found the perfect fabric when not really looking for it! Tends to happen that way, so I keep fabric swatches and paint samples and measurements of everything in my purse like others keep family photos.


I have a very dear friend who is a professional seamstress. She can make anything, and makes everything look really easy. I struggle, but I did manage to make a simple valence window treatment that looks professionally done, and did not have to call her once for help. That's progress. I did learn through my friend Google how to prepare the valance board, pre-drill for the L-brackets and get the thing together. What they didn't tell me was trying to drill through fabric and batting to attach the L bracket causes the batting to wad up into a ball. Not good. Anyway, I figured it out.


Mounting the thing was something else. Expletives that I didn't know I knew flowed freely from my mouth. I needed 4 hands and for some reason I have only 2. It's up there, securely and level. I have learned to measure, measure, measure and use a level always. So I now have an almost completed guest room, just a few finishing touches like a window seat cushion, a little art on the walls and a throw rug to cover the stains on the carpet by the bed (til I can get the carpet changed)!