Saturday, October 13, 2012

Duct Tape Bed Skirt and the Hidden Stash of Dew

Note as of September 2013 - My husband and I are now blogging over at The Home Avengers!  We made the switch because we are looking to move from our small apartment sometime in the near future.  So enjoy this post and then come visit us!

I have TWO teenage boys (15 & 17) sharing a small bedroom at the back of our apartment.  Somehow we managed to fit 2 twin beds, a nightstand, 2 dressers, a desk and a chair in this room!  There is a 3 ft. walkway between the beds, a 2 ft. walkway between the beds and dressers and a 3 ft. strip of space at the front of the room.  We rearranged things 4 times until we got it this way!  Here's a pic from the doorway looking into their room:


Right away what do you notice?  All the junk under the beds!  Well, we're going to cover that up shortly, but first, let me tell you a little bit about their room.  The picture on the nightstand is actually a picture of Theatre Boy in his first leading role as Shan-Yu in Disney's Mulan Jr. and the Himalayan Salt Candle is because my boys like fire.  The nightstand in the middle was a DIY project from last year.  The 2 dressers match it and we love the vintage square hardware!  This set has been in the family for many years and actually came from my boys Aunt Karyn.  They had been forgotten inside a storage unit and we rescued them!  Here's another pic:


Yep.  Look at all them bare walls.

Under their beds is pretty scary too:


There are the usual teenage boy things.  Chemistry set, box of hot wheels, models of Star Wars things and shoe boxes filled with cards.


Under Theatre Boy's bed things get a little crazy, because that's where he houses his [not so] secret stash of Mountain Dew.  At any given time there are at least four 12-packs in multiple flavors under here.  Original, Throwback, Voltage, Code Red, Dark Berry and White Out can be found and sometimes he doesn't even notice if we steal one!

To make more space under their beds I put each bed frame on risers (actually all the beds in our apartment are on risers) and some beds have the special under bed boxes with wheels on them .  This has presented a problem finding bed skirts because the height of all our beds is definitely non-standard.  I would either have to special order bed skirts (pricey) or have them custom made (even pricier) for them to fit.  And even though I sew I have neither time nor inclination to tackle bed skirts for the whole family right now.

Enter Duct Tape.  The solution for everything.



These no-sew bed skirts are made out of 2 lovingly used King size flat sheets (but you can really use any size sheet for this, this is all I had on hand that I wasn't planning on using ever again), a pair of scissors and a roll of duct tape.

To make a bed skirt, first cut the sheet in half longways.  Like from the middle top of the sheet to the middle bottom.  The next thing I did was iron each piece of the sheet, but you don't have to.

After that take the sheet and fold over one of the edges that borders both the cut side and the uncut side.  Then drape the sheet, uncut long side brushing the floor, at the middle end of the bed and duct tape it in place.  Here's a picture to give you a better idea of what it looks like after this step:


And here it is taped in place:


The next thing I did was drape the sheet around the bed, ensuring the edge was barely brushing the floor, while wrapping the box spring like a present and duct taping it into place, like this:


Once the first side was completely draped I duct taped everything into place (while eating a bowl of Cool Ranch Doritos):


Then I repeated it on the other side:


Once it was all duct taped and done, I tugged and pulled and re-positioned until everything was exactly where I wanted it, then I put the mattress back on and made the bed.  And Voila':


The Mountain Dew stash is finally hidden.  This project actually cost me ZERO dollars!  So exciting!

Thanks for stopping by BIG FAMILY/small apartment today.  I'm gonna go drink a Dew now.


BECAUSE I AM COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY OBSESSED WITH LINKY PARTIES,
YOU CAN FIND THIS POST LINKED UP HERE:
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SO IF YOU'VE READ THIS FAR, FIRST OF ALL 'THANK YOU!', AND IF YOU'D LIKE A COPY OF MY LINKY PARTY EXCEL SPREADSHEET CONTAINING OVER 100 ACTIVE DIY LINKY PARTIES, PLEASE BECOME A FOLLOWER OF MY BLOG AND THEN SEND ME AN EMAIL!  I WILL BE OFFERING THIS SPREADSHEET TO NEW FOLLOWERS THAT REQUEST IT BY EMAIL FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2012!  WANT YOUR LINKY PARTY ADDED AND FOR ME TO LINK UP?  JUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT WITH YOUR PARTY AND I'D BE HAPPY TO!
I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

42 comments:

  1. Ingenious! Duct tape is one of the greatest inventions :)

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    1. Thank you Kirstin! Craftiments is awesome and I'm following your feed!

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  2. You are the bomb! I just put a bed on risers and it looks like my skirt has highwaters! THanks for the great idea!I would love for you to come link it up on I Freakin' Did it Friday http://bit.ly/RN9vwo

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    1. Thank you for stopping by Kelley! I linked up to 'I Freakin' Did It Friday' and I'll be back next week!

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  3. Clever idea. I really looks like it was sewn in place.

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    1. So you like, totally saw Martha Stewart? Get out! I use her stuff on almost every project! Jealous!!!

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  4. What a great solution! Thanks for linking up to The Weekly Creative :)

    Shannon @ Sewing Barefoot

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  5. i love this!! great idea girl. duct tape and super glue can fix anything in my book!!
    if you have time link it up to tell me tuesday!!
    xo
    ash
    http://jaysonandashley.blogspot.com/

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the invite Ashley - I've linked up and added you to my list! See you at your party next week :-)

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  6. That's a great idea! I used safety pins to fit a king size bed skirt onto a queen (too lazy to sew). I think I'll go back and redo it with duct tape...much more secure!

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment! I looked at your blog and am honored to be your 5th follower! You go girl :-)

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  7. Thanks so much for sharing this great idea on Simple & Sweet Fridays. Duct tape to make a bed skirt, brilliant!


    Jody

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  8. Duct tape....??!!@?!
    What the....!!!

    What an awesome solution that won't slide out otf the way!

    I love it!

    hugs ~ Crystelle
    http://www.crystelleboutique.com/

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    1. Thanks Crystelle! Loved your blog and I'm your newest fb follower!

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  9. Now that's smart! Duct tape is amazing stuff! This looks great, no one would ever suspect! Thanks for sharing at Gettin' Krafty!

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  10. Don't you love duct tape! Very clever! Thank you for joining me at Home Sweet Home!
    Sherry

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  11. Looks great - those risers make a big difference - Very, very clever solution to the bedskirt! I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
    Kathy

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    1. Thank you Kathy! Loved your link party and I'll be linking up again!

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  12. Wow! What a cool idea! No one would ever know it wasn't a purchased bed skirt! So clever! And it looks great! Thanks so much for joining in Blissful Whites Wednesday!!
    Have a lovely evening!
    Becky

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    1. Becky your new linky party rocks and makes me want to make more white things everyday :-)

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  13. You are a creative problem solver. I love this idea and it's so easy. Thanks for sharing at Anything Goes At Eye Heart Monday's. :)

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    1. Thanks so much Cinthya, I'm glad I found your party and I'll be linking up again soon!

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  14. Wonderful tip. Love it!
    can't go wrong with duct tape for sure. I came here via a party...I think it was the blissful white Wednesday...but can't swear to it!
    going to check out your small apartment blog...
    Pat

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by! I loved your blog. I'm definitely going to try that homemade laundry soap!

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  15. Nicely done! Thank you for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

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  16. I am soooooo impressed. :D I may have to do this to my mom's condo. She is storing things under the bed now that she had downsized and it has the same look as your before picture - minus the chemistry set and hot wheels. :D
    Thanks for sharing on BeColorful.
    p

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  17. LOL Mountain Dew stash! My husband did that all through college. :-) Those bed skirts are total genius, and I LOVE that you used duct tape to do it! Thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!

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    1. Just wanted to stop by to let you know I'm featuring this today on Practically Functional! You can check it out and grab a button here: http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/10/the-fun-in-functional-link-party-23/

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    2. Jessi I'm so excited about the feature! I can't wait to get a button and you will see me at your next party!

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  18. Outstanding, really thankful to you for sharing this info, duct tape is surely very useful to do things like these, the room of my kids also looks the same and i will definitely do this to hide all that stuff under the bed.

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  19. i really like the contents of this blog.Must purchase the quality furnishing from
    Internet based Beds Company . i must say you will like it.

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  20. Somehow we managed to fit 2 twin beds, a nightstand, 2 dressers, a desk and a chair in this room! ... twinbedskirtpink.blogspot.com

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