Spring 2013 Pinterest Challenge: DIY Roman Shade

Since we finished the master bathroom about six months ago, I've been wanting to replace our crap-ola miniblinds with a Roman shade.  The trouble is that I could never make up my mind on a fabric.  Mr. GI finally guilted me into finishing it, so I looked in earnest last weekend for the perfect fabric -- and I found it on sale at JoAnn's:  Robert Allen's Baja Damask Greystone.  It was marked down to $10/yard (originally $20/yard), and I'm glad I swiped it up because it's no longer available online.  (They also have a beautiful blue version of the same pattern).  To spoil the ending, here is the finished product in our bathroom.

Spring Decor

It's good to be back!  I'm thankfully on the other side of the spring semester, with a few weeks off before I start classes over the summer.  While I have a little time sans school, it'll be a great time to catch up on the ol' blog.  Although we're not too far from summer, I thought I'd share our spring decor.  Mr. Great Indoors and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary this April, so I try to bring our wedding colors into our decor in the spring:  lavender, blue, and green.  What a beautiful cake we had.  (Photography by Tommy Blaylock of Accomplished Productions, cake by our wedding venue.)

Bathroom Humor {DIY Wooden Sign}

I'd been brainstorming on something to make for the space on our master bathroom wall just above the toilet.  I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do until I saw this photo on Young House Love with a long, skinny canvas.  Then I got to thinking that something long and skinny would suit that space just fine.  Read on for how I made it.

Merry and Bright {Christmas 2012}

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas this week!  Christmas is my favorite time of year, so even though it's technically over, I'm posting pictures of our holiday decorating to hold on just a liiiiitle bit longer.  :-)

I waited until the last minute (i.e.,  right before we left for the holidays) to take these pictures-- we had days of clouds and/or rain, so I was waiting on the sun to finally come out.  But by the time it did, I didn't have time to take a picture of our tree at night.  It's painfully obvious in the daylight that we need a new Christmas tree.  The tree has been around as long as Mr. GI has; we inherited it from his mom during our first Christmas together.  It's a fake tree, but it has real bark on the trunk which makes it difficult to tell that it's fake.  But it's been losing more of its needles than a real tree, so it's gotten pretty bare.

Another Guest Bathroom: Guest Amenities

I hope you all enjoyed the reveal of E's guest bathroom earlier in the week!  It's just in the nick of time, too, because UGA football season (starting today!!) brings all sorts of guests to E's house.  She pretty much has a revolving door every fall (we also run our own bed and breakfast during football season).  :-)  With that in mind, we worked some guest amenities into E's guest bathroom.

Psst... in case you're curious, the font I used is "Channel" on PicMonkey.

Another Guest Bathroom: Complete!

A few months ago, I introduced you to my friend E's guest bathroom.  She had been renting a home for the past two years with a roommate and now has the place to herself.  We worked together to make a plan for her guest bathroom.  Here's how it turned out!

One Dollar, Bob

If you're looking for The Great Indoors, don't worry-- you're in the right place!  It was about time for a little blog redesign. Bear with me if some of the features don't look the same.  I'll be updating those over the next few days.

The price was way right for this beauty we found at a yard sale a few weeks ago.

The 12th of July

...or, if I had posted this when I intended, the 4th of July!  I thought I'd share our Independence Day decorations in case you're looking for future inspiration.  I actually plan to keep these up for most of the summer since I'm enjoying them so much.  The only money I spent on any of this decor was $2.50 for the little flags (which we intended to take to our local fireworks but forgot at home!).  Other than that, I didn't spend a dime on this project.  I just walked around the house collecting anything that fit the look I was going for.  In this case:  red, white, and blue.

First up, our cookout table setting.  We had a few folks over to eat brats (totally un-American, I know), corn on the cob, and apple pie (definitely American), among other tasty things. 

Summer Pinterest Challenge: $5 DIY Vintage Sign

It's that time again!  The fearless ladies (and fellas) behind Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June announced this summer's Pinterest Challenge last week. I made some window art last summer, framed paint chip art last fall, and the always fabulous redneck Mason jar chandelier this winter, when Sherry and Katie were nice enough to ask me to host!  So I was definitely on board with a challenge this go 'round!

Another Guest Bathroom...

...but I'm not paying for it this time!  One of my good friends has challenged me to make over her guest bathroom, given a $60 budget.  I'm always up for spending someone else's money decorating someone else's house!  :-)

My friend E is in a rental house, and this bathroom used to be her roommate's.  Now she's got the house to herself, and she's excited about changing things up.

The Five Dollar Faucet

We had an awesome yard sale Saturday this past weekend.  Our best find was this guy.  He was only five buckaroos from a yard sale across town.  It turns out the people hosting the sale had a daughter who bought this faucet, used it for a year, then got a fancy free faucet (say that three times fast) from work.  There wasn't a price marked on the box, and we were fully ready to pay up to $20 for it.  But Mr. GI learned a chunk of wisdom from American Pickers:  always ask the seller what they're willing to take for a piece, never offer a price first.  The buyers (you!) are always in control, so if the seller offers a price that's too high, you can always work it down. 

Our Redneck Chandelier and Barn Light Electric

We're still loving the redneck Mason jar chandelier we made for the Winter Pinterest Challenge a few months ago, and I figured I'd give an update about how it's holding up.

Springing Around the House!

Despite the bathroom posts this week, I know I've been MIA for the last few months (Seven posts in the past three months?  Despicable.).  My work schedule has been absolutely nuts, and I haven't had much spare time to do anything.  But finally I had some time to be in the house in the past week, which I guess was obvious since we've started the bathroom.

So what better to do with a few spare minutes last week than spring decorating?  :-)

Winter Pinterest Challenge: Mason Jar Chandelier

If you're coming over from Young House Love, Bower Power, or Hi Sugarplum, welcome!  Take a look around The Great Indoors.  I'd suggest starting by taking the House Tour or looking at the Project Archives.

I seriously did a big ol' happy dance when I got an invitation from Katie last week to participate in the winter edition of the Pinterest Challenge.  I started reading Young House Love back when it was This Young House about three years ago now, and then got caught up in the bacon-stravaganza at Bower Power not too much later.  So it kind of feels like these girls are family!  And I'm glad to get to know Cassie at Hi Sugarplum, too!

When I got on board with this challenge, I considered several different pins, like this fun stickered canvas inspired by Kate Spade, or a super easy pillow cover, or even starting in on my guest bathroom remake with a printed (shower) curtain.  But the one that really got me was this Mason jar chandelier on Style Me Pretty (see the pinned page here and the original post here with lots more inspiration; photography by Tanja Lippert Photography).

A Merry Little Christmas, Part II

I showed you last week how we decked the front halls, so here's a little bit of the Christmas we have spread throughout the house.  I don't go too crazy (I hear there are some people who put a Christmas tree in every room!), but I like to have little reminders of the holidays no matter which room I'm in.

I love this sparkly golden tree sitting on our bar.

A Merry Little Christmas, Part I

I should admit at the outset that I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS.  The stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is by far my favorite time of year because just about everyone gets on board with the holiday spirit.  Decorations pop up everywhere, whether it's snowflakes, Santas, nativity scenes, or menorahs.  I seriously can't get enough of it.  There are plenty of other holidays in the year (Mr. Great Indoors' favorite is Halloween), but there's no other time of the year as unified as this one. There's a happy vibe around, perfect strangers greeting each other with "Happy Holidays," and holiday music on the radio.  How can you NOT love that?!  (However, I am of the opinion that the Christmas season doesn't officially start until Santa comes through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.... so it irritates me a little bit when I walk into a store BEFORE HALLOWEEN and hear Christmas music.  But to each his own.)

All that said, it shouldn't be surprising that at the first chance I got I slapped up our Christmas decorations.  Mr. GI and I got back from Thanksgiving on Saturday afternoon, and by the time it got dark I was hauling our red and green totes out of the attic.  Accompanied by "It's a Wonderful Life" on the TV (does anybody else miss that movie coming on directly after the T-Day parade?  silly dog show...), I had 98% of the decorations up by the time Mr. Great Indoors came out of hiding by bedtime.  Here's a peek at Christmas in the Great Indoors this year!

DIY Week: Fall Bunting

I was itching to make something festive that would last the entire fall season.  I've seen so many fun buntings around the interwebs recently.  The one that got my attention first, of course, was from Young House Love's bunting for Clara's first birthday.  (Hilarious post title, by the way, and one of my favorite "okay, we're human, too" posts from YHL.)

My only stipulation for this craft was that I couldn't spend a dime on it.  I knew I wanted it to be fall-colored, so I set out in search of fall colored fabrics already in the house.  I ended up with a t-shirt of mine (purple), two old t-shirts of Mr. Great Indoor's (tan and orange), and a few pieces of fabric my mom gave me a while ago (red and yellow).  And the strip at the top was canvas used for the camp bags I'm posting about tomorrow.  Forgive the flash, but it was the only way to capture the true-to-life colors of the fabrics.

DIY Week and Pinterest Challenge: Paint Chip Art

If you're stopping by from Bower Power or Young House Love, welcome!  Take a look around The Great Indoors.  We're in the midst of DIY week!

It's that time again!  Thanks to Katie and Sherry, this season's Pinterest Challenge kicked me into gear and got me to finally publish all of my DIY week posts (some of those projects have been in the hopper for a while... oops).  If you still haven't heard of Pinterest, here's my last Pinterest Challenge post to fill you in.  Follow me with that cute red button at the top of the page!  (Or just click here, although the button is more fun...)

This time around, I decided to finally do something about the paint chip ideas I'd had stirring in my head.  (No pun intended...)  I've included both the original source and my pins for each of the ideas I considered, just in case you want to do some research and/or pinning of your own!

DIY Week: Spookifying Our House

I don't go all out for Halloween, mostly because I'd rather decorate for a season rather than one day.  But I wanted to introduce a little of the day into our house.  So I let out some bats in our living room.  

First I grabbed some black construction paper and white chalk.  I got some rough inspiration from Google images and sketched away.

The Making of a Bookcase

Our dining room bookcase had gotten overrun with things, stuffed with books and odds and ends (some decorative, others just junk).  It was time for a makeover.  I didn't take a true before picture, but here's some of the stuff that came out of the bookcase.  There was more on the floor and in the chairs.  What a mess.