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Long weekend DIYs - a miracle called shelf liner


The bug bit me again - just when I felt our house is done and needs nothing but rest for the next few months. I am solely to blame though - I scrolled and scrolled Pinterest and Houzz all last week - until - ouch, I got bitten. But this time, I actually discovered magic through my pain. Strolling the aisles of Lowe's frantically with ideas swarming in my head I came across this:

White shelf liner - a material that could potentially take care of all my current cravings. I rushed back home with a roll giddy with possibilities.

The first project was simple. The study - with the recent adition of the faux white leather chaise - needed more white - prefferably high up on the walls. I had looked into panels (too expensive), stikwood (expensive again), airstone (great product - but required higher amount of commitment and effort than I was looking to invest), wallpaper (commtiment problem again), paint and/or stencils (effort problem again), and nothing was quite fitting for what I wanted.

And then I found the roll - and just stuck it to the wall rolling down from ceiling hieght and cutting with utility knife at the baseboard. Below is the result.

Next was the cheap plastic lamp we have been hoarding for years now. It was screaming for character and ever since I had moved it to our bedroom where more lighting is now most needed thanks to extended storytimes, it was looking downright depressed. I was wondering on whether to switch out the lamshades or cover them - and the liner came to rescue again. It is easy to sew, much firmer than most fabric and therefore looks richer. See step by step progress below from before to after.

I thought about just leaving the lamp as is - it looked quite OK to me with the update. But then, I had so much fabric left over from my India trip and extra cardboard floating around everywhere from Ira's crafts that I decided to make fabric borders for each shade. Any other border, especially ones that can be made with higher sewing skills and patience will go I feel. Images below show the steps.

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