The Shelves are Hung

My premise still holds true. If I were to work a regular work week, my daughter's room would be done in one week. Needless to say, family happens and we still have a roommate in the Master Bedroom. One good thing that's happened is that she no longer needs a nightlight, but then again she may never go back to her room as cool as it may be.

MAKING IT LEVEL

Since my last post, we've managed to hang shelves and dye rugs. For the room, I wanted to stack the shelves vertically and add some extras to the package. I try to be as methodical as possible when hanging shelves. Have you heard of the saying "measure twice, cut once"? I tend to measure over and over again. I've had too many misaligned/unleveled  shelves to not want to do this. Here's how I did it. First, I positioned my desk to where I wanted it in the room. Next, I took blue painters tape and pasted it vertically on the wall on the left and right sides of the desk making sure that they are level. I also made sure not to tape it too hard to the wall so it would not pull of the fresh paint. Then I started from the bottom up. To hang the shelves, I used wall anchors. When drilling holes for wall anchors, I like to check and double check that everything lines up. To do this, I use small nails and hammer just the tip into the wall. By doing this, I'm able to use the pilot holes made to guide my drill more easily. I also like to put the level against the nail heads to once again check for level. It's easier to know for sure if it's level this way than with pencil dots. My last bit of advice on hanging shelves is to make sure you use the right anchors. When my husband asked me whether they were heavy duty or light duty, I just looked at him and said they were blue. I had no clue there was a weight associated with them. I just thought the blue went with a particular size screw. Hah! So, now my wobbly shelves had to be redone with different anchors. Good thing the new anchors were bigger than the last and I didn't screw everything up (literally).

YOU CAN DYE RUGS

Now, on to rugs. I thought I would try to dye some rugs. I really wanted to get a round rug for the room. I found the perfect rugs at IKEA (I got three). The only problem was that they were beige and I wanted them gray. Since the price was right ($9.99 per rug) the color was light and the size was small, I thought I would try to dye them myself. They were mostly wool and I figured that would take the dye okay. So, I picked up a three packages of dye and a small inflatable pool and went for it. I wasn't sure if the pool would melt with the hot water for the dye, but it turned out fine. I mixed the dye, poured in the water and placed my rugs into the pool. I made sure to move the rugs around. I did this for 30 minutes and "Voila! "The rugs were dyed. Now came the problem of how to rinse the dye out of the rugs. This turned out a little harder than I thought. I did the best I could and then hung the rugs outside to dry. I had them out for a day, but then the rain came. I brought them inside, but they were still damp after another day. What I didn't expect was the smell that came from them. It was worse than a wet dog!  Try a wet sheep! I went ahead and put them in my dryer on low for a small amount of time with a dryer sheet. I was hoping it would help with the smell. Not really. After they were dried, I used some Febreeze on them and that made all the difference. So now I have the gray rugs I wanted. Yeah!

Here's a picture I had to send out. This is most (not all) of the dollhouses, clothes, barbies, etc. that are going to be going to Goodwill. Can you believe this all fit in one small bedroom? And can you believe my daughter is letting go of all of this? I was so impressed I did take her out for yogurt. Yum!