Update on the apartment decorating …

Well, with the water-heater alcove curtain and matching kitchen window scarf all nicely hemmed, I began to think what a shame it was that the living room and bedroom window scarves — again, long pieces of fabric were unhemmed at the ends. The scarves are long enough to puddle on the floor and hide their long ends, but these ends were becoming frayed and stringy.  I LOVE Stitch Witchery fusible bonding tape! … I spent a recent Sunday afternoon using it to hem the ends. These ends, beside being frayed, had a ragged cut, so I folded them several times over, ironing the folds in place before using the tape. Because the milk-chocolate satin scarf on the triple living-room window would be too hard to rehang, I pulled the ironing board up and ironed the hems in while the scarf hung.  I had my doubts about fusible bonding working as well with black sheer fabric, but work it did.

The sides of these scarves still bear their raw, but neat, unfraying, "fabric-store" edges. These I've opted to leave alone and tuck out of sight. Hemming the sides would be TOO much work.

I did indeed darken the bathroom storage unit and tissue-holder basket but not with oil-rubbed bronze paint. I did so with the mahogany stain I'd used to freshen up my other furniture pieces. I also used that stain to darken the gold window-scarf holders in the kitchen and bath; enhance a pair of fleur-de-lis wall hangings; and redo an over-the-door wreath holder I'm using as a robe hook in the bathroom. (I love the stuff, but it stinks to high heaven and can make you sick even through those cheap little white nose masks.)

Again, I'd decorated the bathroom around our brown/paprika/copper/tan/champagne shower curtain; most of the accents are oil-rubbed bronze and cast-iron pieces with bits of bronze, tan and copper. I "pimped out" the place so much, in fact, that the silver-framed mirror on our stuck-shut, unused medicine cabinet started to look really pitiful. But we're renting, so what to do? I measured the mirror; it was 14 by 20. I went BACK to Hobby Lobby, took advantage of its 50-percent discount on open frames and bought an elegant, lightweight, dark-brown14x18 frame whose edges are wide enough to cover the length of the mirror, and added hanging hardware. The top corners of the mirror frame were still exposed, so I also bought a 11x14 mat to fit a 16x20 frame, cut the outer edges to fit the 14x18 frame, inserted the mat, and now have the frame hanging over the mirror frame.

The biggest bathroom challenge: the ceramic tile. Its burnt-peach color with terra cotta trim was a challenge in itself.  (The aforementioned shower curtain popped up in a Google search for curtains matching the tile.) But then, as is the case with a number of other bathrooms in our older apartment building, the tile on the outer bathroom wall is riddled with deep cracks … deep enough that some of the edges are raised. Our friend and next-door neighbor speculates that the walls were damaged when the bathroom fixtures were updated, and the powers-that-be simply opted not to fix them. We naively thought the tile would be addressed by the time we moved in. Nope. The tile trim also had deep cracks in spots. And, there is a crack running over the tub near its updated faucets, which would bear out our friend's speculation.

The property manager gave me the go-ahead to camouflage the cracks in whatever way I wished. I read online where one woman had bought paint to match the tile, then mixed the paint with "tile filler" to smoothly patch the cracks. This is what I would do, I thought, but put the plan on hold to concentrate on decorating with items we can take with us when we move.

Finally, I went hunting last weekend for paint to match the bathroom tile and of course, couldn't find an EXACT match. I also discovered that there seems to be no such thing as "tile filler" per se, so I'm wondering what product was used in the tip I read. I ended up with some crack repair stuff that's like caulking (comes in a similar tube) that was really too thick and tough to "mix" with anything. Long story short ... since the paint wasn't quite a match I did a rag-and-bag texture all along the tile wall with the cracks, then separated a cup of paint and mixed it with a little bit of brown hobby paint to try to repair cracks in the tile trim. That wasn't an exact match either, so I just did an intermittent two-tone-trim thing.

As for the main tile, I should have stopped at just ragging and bagging over it. I put some of that tough crack repair on top of the cracks to try to smooth them out, since some of the cracks have raised edges. It went on clumpy … and the stuff is not sand-able. So I just repainted over all that. The clumpy areas irritate me, but again, the wall looks better than it did.

Only "major" things left to do in the bathroom is:

1. Take white paint and a small brush to go back over some of spots above the tile trim, since I didn't have painters' tape (didn't think I'd need it, ha ha).
2. Wait for another 20-percent-off sale at Big Lots and buy a couple more of the large, decorative tin tile hanging on the wall over the tub. The one I bought hangs over the foot of the tub. I'd like two identical ones to hang over the side of the tub.

Of course I'll still be buying linens whenever I can. I have to start all over again with bath towels … the cheaper ones I got to match the decor when we first moved wasn't the best quality. I'd at least like them to be as nice as the upscale, dark brown tub mats I didn't think I'd ever find until I discovered them dirt-cheap in Tuesday Morning.

Future buys we need SOON: Storage bins for the closets — clothing, linen, kitchen pantry. I've put those purchases off for WAYY too long, telling myself we could at least close the door on those messes ...