DIY

As promised, here is the low-down on the book slings I made for Brody’s room. I got my sweet husband to begrudgingly happily hang these up last night, and I am so thrilled with the final product!

This is the tutorial that I used to make these book slings. It’s a pretty easy process- trust me, if I (who can barely sew a straight line) can do it, you can totally do it, too! I loved the idea of these for several reasons: 1) it helps the kids choose their own books because the covers are visible 2) they’re great for small spaces. I knew I needed some kind of wall-mounted book rack because Brody’s nursery is TINY and we had no space for even a book basket. However, every book rack I found online was so expensive!! I thought about using Ikea spice racks (like this), but we don’t have an Ikea, and they don’t sell them online. So, when I found this idea on Pinterest, I knew I had to try!

Materials/ Cost:

-Fabric (how much depends on the size you’re going for- mine was $17 because I took the easy way out)
-4 double rod brackets (bought mine from Lowe’s for $5 a piece)
-4 wooden dowels (5/8″ diameter… also from Lowe’s for $2.30/ each)
-Spray paint for the ends of the dowels (already owned, so free!)
Total cost for two book slings: $46.20 (or $23/each)

This would have been cheaper if I had just bought a yard of fabric, but I had a mildy brilliant idea of using a window valance as my sling fabric. This is so brilliant because a valance already has a rod pocket on one side, which meant I only had to sew ONE pocket. Oh yes, you can tell me how much you love me later. I didn’t take pictures during the process, so use the above tutorial if this is confusing. Basically, I cut my valance in half, hemmed up the raw edge, then folded the bottom edge over to make a new pocket. I did make the mistake the first time of sewing up the existing rod pocket when I hemmed my raw edge, but I realized this, cut the hem back open and fixed it. You kind of just have to tuck in the edge of the rod pocket instead of sewing that part of it up, if that makes sense.

Once you have your two rod pockets sewn, you just thread your dowels through to see how long they should be. The dowel just stick out just enough to be mounted into your brackets. Just cut them down to size with a saw. Then, you can leave the dowel as-is, or if you’re OCD like I am, you can sand the edge lightly and spray paint the ends to match your hardware.

Then, just install your brackets and hang up your slings!

This is what the hardware looks like, all installed. You can see why I chose to paint my dowels, because they are visible in the brackets. It also gives you a peek into the structure of the sling.

Lucky for us, ours screwed right into studs on either side, but if it doesn’t work out that way for you, just use the drywall anchors that come with your hardware before screwing it in. Since ours are anchored into studs, you could put a ton of books in these things without worrying about them falling off. I also chose to use a thicker dowel than the original tutorial suggested for that very reason.

We are so thrilled with the ways these turned out, and I am even more excited to get Brody’s nursery totally finished with every project that is completed!

P.S. I’m going to be on the radio Wednesday, January 4th at 12:40 p.m. (ET) with HGTV’s Frank Fontana on his “Down and Dirty” DIY Radio Show! They’re doing a segment on DIY Disasters, and they found my original blog post on Brody’s dresser and the staining nightmare that ensued. So, they’ll be interviewing me about the project, the problems I ran into, how I fixed it, and also plugging my blog. So cool!! It streams live online, here’s the address if you’d like to listen to me ramble live on the airwaves!

P.P.S. If you read my blog in a reader, hop over and check out the new header I made- I am loving Brody’s nursery color scheme so much, it migrated over here!

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So, it’s been a while since I blogged! I think I’ve only posted twice this week, which is not normal for me, but I have really been enjoying the down-time this week. I have Friday through Monday off again, and I have to say, these two three-day weeks are really spoiling me!

I have been ridiculously motivated over the past couple weeks, to the point where I don’t quite recognize myself! I have been working like crazy in Brody’s nursery- I am definitely obsessing over getting everything done, but it seems to be working. When I was pregnant with Knox, I was so overwhelmed with all of the zillion ideas I had for his room that nothing seemed to happen. I have seriously just now finished his room (well, once we hang one more thing up, it will be “finished”). Well. This time, I have Pinterest, and it has been so helpful to keep my ideas all straight! I am moving right along in the nursery this time. I have been taking on little DIY projects that have been a lot of fun (or really annoying, depending on the project) and have really made his room feel personalized. Here’s a little sneak peek at some of the things I’ve been working on:

I was up until 1 a.m. last night sewing. For real, I actually used my sewing machine again since that one time I used it to make a crooked pillow. It really does get easier each time you do it! Proof that I actually had the machine on and running:

What was I making? First, a pillow for Brody’s glider (LOVE that fabric… it has cute safari animals amidst the swirlies) that is actually NOT crooked! Woo hoo for me! Small steps, people, small steps:

I also sewed these book slings!! This was a Pinterest idea that I adored, and y’all… I did it. I actually made them, and my seams weren’t even crooked!

I still have to install them, but you get the idea. Here is the idea I pinned, below, if you want to see what they’ll look like hanging and learn how to make them before I actually take the time to explain the process. I promise I’ll talk more about them, though, when I do the final nursery reveal (and the super smart idea I had that saved me a lot of time on the sewing end of things!):

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I’ve also taken full advantage of this time off (and all of my Christmas gift cards) to get most of the shopping done for his room. Instead of doing the traditional name letters over the crib, I decided to go with a huge “B” for next to his window. It looks like this one, but in mustard yellow and is 30″ tall.

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I’m still waiting on his crib skirt to come in, the girl making it had some hold-ups with moving to a new house but assures me it will be here soon! It’s made out of this fabric, which I fell in love with immediately and had to track down because, of course, it’s been discontinued (like all of the good stuff seems to be).

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I did some shopping over the past two weekends and bought a basket for Brody’s toys (not really a bargain at $30 bucks, but I love it), $13 bamboo roman shades for his windows (thank you JC Penney clearance section!) along with a curtain rod and white curtains, a hamper, ridiculously expensive picture hangers ($7 a piece, I think that’s nuts) for the animal silhouettes over his crib (because I don’t want them falling off!!), two floating shelves, some cute knick-knacks for the shelves, a few picture frames and a cheap silver floor lamp. It’s really coming together, but I’m going to make you wait a little longer for a picture of the whole room!

Now that I’ve actually written a post, I am going to get back to my riveting New Year’s Eve of washing more baby laundry and eating Hot ‘n Spicy Cheez-its… don’t judge me, Trevor is working, and I’m pregnant and hungry.

Happy 2012!!

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