Awwww-ning

Awwww yeah!  We've got an awwww-ning!

Bad puns aside, there is one element to the playroom that's finished and it's Sofia's awning!  This playroom makeover is taking a million years, partly because this part of the basement is like 700 square feet and that's a lot o' beige to banish.  Plus, my kid STILL isn't sleeping through the night, so every time I sit down to blog about the playroom progress, she wakes up.  It's been very slow going, because I'm only able to do stuff in fifteen-minute increments.

But!  BUT!  I'm gettin' it done and we now have an awning!  Join me on a photo journey, won't you?

My awning inspiration.

source

Rule number one about awnings is that they must be striped.  I don't actually know if that's a real rule, but my awning was going to be striped because I love stripes.  Fat ones.  I went to JoAnn's but they didn't have fat enough stripes for me, so I went online and found a great navy stripe at Hawthorne Threads.

Not that you don't know what stripes look like.

However, I was hesitant to pull the trigger because $13.95/yard was a little rich for my blood and my strict $300 budget.  But the awning was so important to me - surely it's worth the money for something you love, right?  Yet I still couldn't do it.  There were so many things I wanted for the playroom and I really wanted, no, needed to stick to my budget.  I pinned it and thought about what I could do without so I could have my navy striped awning.

Meanwhile, Sofia and I made a field trip out to Ikea to pick up the Expedit and the Lack shelf that I knew for sure that I must have.  We went during the week and the entire place was practically empty!  The last time we were there, it was all three of us and it was on a Saturday.  It was so crowded, the lights were so bright and hot and Drew and I nearly got divorced that day.  Okay, not really but we were definitely snipping at each other because neither of us is that crazy about crowds.

This time it was like Sofia and I had the whole store to ourselves!  We moseyed around looking at stuff, having lunch, chatting about the big trucks that drove by, and it was wonderful!  

Now, if you've ever been to Ikea you know they have it strategically laid out so you have to go through nearly every department to get back out of the store.  We strolled through the teeny apartment mock-ups, all the bathroom fixtures, the beds and bedding, until we found ourselves at the textile department.  That's when the heavens opened up and the angels started singing.

They even spelled the name right!

And that price is music to my ears.

I snatched up two yards of the Sofia striped fabric because I had no idea how much I'd need for the awning, but two yards sounded like plenty.  I practically skipped out of the store.

I had every intention of building the awning myself.  I saw the picture and said to myself, Pssh.  I could totally do that.  Then I remembered my jewelry wall, and the nineteen holes, and I was like maaaayybe I should let Drew tackle this one.

So I begged and pleaded with my husband to make the awning.  I reasoned and cajoled and said that it would just be a couple of hours!  You're an engineer!  You can figure this out in like ten seconds!  Pleeeeeeeeease!  And finally, one Saturday afternoon, my awesome engineer hubby put on his engineer thinking cap and built his daughter (and wife) an awning for the playroom.

He went to Lowe's and got a couple of 1x3s and cut them down to size.

Then he built a box with some triangles in the corners for supports.

He moved a couple of ceiling tiles to find the studs 

and screwed the frame to the wall.

In this photo, I was like "Babe.  Look at it like you're making sure it's level."

I did *not* take a picture of the eye roll that followed.

I guarantee that if I'd done this it would have taken me three days

way more than nineteen holes to figure out how to make sure it was level.

My engineer husband got it on the first try.

Making sure it's level all around, which it totally is.

Then he measured the top piece that would be the top of the awning.

This is the easy part because it's just right angles so far.

Making the bar that slants downward to make the triangle part required 

math that I was not about to do.

I ironed my fabric and stapled it to the bar before he screwed the bar to the wall.  That way I could pull it tight so it would look like a proper awning.

I was afraid to cut the fabric until it was on the frame so Drew 

had to do some maneuvering.

But once it was up, I went after it with the scissors.

This is what the frame looks like.  

I totally could have done the box part and the bar on top part, 

but that slanty down part?  There would have been a giant pile

of scrap wood of all the mistakes I would have made.

After that, I pulled and stapled the fabric to the frame.

Then I trimmed the excess fabric.

It ended up looking like this.

When it came to the sides of the awning, I had no clue how to proceed.  So as usual, I winged it.  Winged? Wanged? Wung?  I eyeballed it - how 'bout that?

Yeah, that looks about right.

However, I cut a rectangle of fabric instead of a triangle because

I was paranoid about having too little fabric.

Then I hot-glued, stapled and fabric glued my side pieces to the frame.

Here you can see the extra fabric running horizontally.

I don't mind though - doubling up makes it look better to me.

That's what I'm telling myself.

That doesn't look terrible, right?

At least both sides match.

And seriously, isn't it the cutest thing ever?

I'm not done with it yet.  I'd like to add a banner of some sort to the front that says Cafe Sofia, I just have to figure out how to get the lettering on there.  But I tell you what, it is so nice to have one thing in this playroom D-U-N.  As I'm typing this, I'm waiting for the paint on the bookcases to dry.  It's the last part of the basement I have to paint and then I get to paint furniture and rugs!  

I'm so happy with my, I mean Sofia's awning.  But let's get real, this awning *was* for me.  She plays in her kitchen with or without it but I know I sure love seeing it.  I'm so grateful to my engineer hubby because without him, this would all still be just a pile of scrap wood and fabric, with me next to it, crying hot tears of frustration.

And since he did such a good job on the awning, I'm sure he'll have no problems building Sofia a water table.

source

Isn't that so cool?  I must have one.