Family Room and No-Sew Curtains

We are very lucky to have a large addition off of the back of our house with beautiful peaked ceilings. It looks like a log cabin. We don't use this room very much since we spend most of our time in the living room where the TV is but it is good for company and for when we put our Christmas tree up! The room doesn't have heat or air conditioning which is the other reason we don't use it that often and keep it closed off...It does have fan and a gas fire place though. When we do use the fire place it heats most of the downstairs!

One thing I don't like about the family room is all of the wood paneling. I think the real wood on the ceiling is beautiful but not the stuff on the walls. I really really really want to paint it but my husband likes the cozy log cabin feel of the room. We even had a vote at our house warming party and I lost! Shocking. So he agreed that we can keep the wood paneling for 5 years and then paint it. Soo 3 more years to go. In the meantime I am trying to embrace it and use warm colors in the room.

We have not spent too much money on decor in this room. The orange chair is from a yard sale, and the couch and two trunks were passed down to us. We DIYed the coffee table and the curtains. 

I did not sew the curtains but it was still a long project which took me about a month while watching TV last winter. I used hemming tape to hem the curtains after seeing that on Young  House Love (remember, sewing machines scare me). The fabric I bought for the curtains is really thick upholstery fabric which made it harder to use the iron-on hemming tape. However I think the thick curtains help keep the cold/heat out/in and we keep them closed most of the time. Since there are three windows and two doors in the family room that I wanted curtains on it made sense to DIY them due to all the unique sizes and the expense of curtains. Even DIYing them ended up being expensive though because the fabric I wanted was about $17 a yard. I also didn't really understand at first that curtains should be wider than the actual window so I did not buy enough fabric. And then the fabric was discontinued. Pascal came to the rescue and suggested layering with white fabric. The white fabric was only a couple dollars and I think my mistake worked out in the end! We bought the curtain rods and clips on Amazon.  

 

Pallet Coffee Table

Wood pallet projects were some of the first things that I started pinning on Pinterest back when I started two years ago. I loved all of the different things you could do with pallets that are usually free. I decided that I wanted to make a coffee table. It took me a while to find the right pallets. I usually see them in the trash so I collected for a while. I found two that were similar in size. One of them had more slats on the top then most so I thought that would be a good one for the top of the table. 

I made this table last summer when I was starting to rehab furniture. I don't have any process pictures but here is one before picture. I primed the coffee table the same time that I primed this dresser. When I am using oil based primer I like to do as much as possible while I have it out. I usually just throw the brush/roller away after using the primer.

I had to do some work before priming though. I borrowed a power washer and cleaned the two pallets off. Once Dry I sanded them. It was hard getting in all the cracks but I did that by hand and then used the power sander for the tops. Pallet wood is not in the best shape so it took a lot of sanding.

Priming was hard as well trying to get in all the cracks and crevices of the wood. I primarily used a foam brush for this step. After priming, I decided to use spray paint. I knew that although more expensive it would be a lot easier. My husband and I decided on orange. This was pretty much the first piece of furniture in our family room at the back of the house so we could pick anything we wanted.  I wanted something bright and bold so that's where orange came in. I bought six cans of spray paint. And it was sooo orange. After one can I decided that we got the wrong orange. It looked like a traffic cone. So I returned the other cans and bought a less bright orange. 

After painting my husband helped me to screw the two pallets together. It was very heavy after this step! We then added wheels that we bought at Ikea. They were $20 for four wheels. So with paint and the wheels this table was about $40 which is much less than buying a coffee table.

Finally, I coated the top and sides of the coffee table with polycrylic to protect the finish. And ta-da!  For $40 it is perfect for the space and unique which fits in with this quirky room. Well I don't know how unique pallet tables are according to Pinterest but they do become unique when you customize it to your space!