Thought I’d share a little project I just finished up for a pre-teen client. She’s moving into what used to be a guest bedroom and needed a few fun pieces to make it her own. She picked the blue suzani fabric to be the inspiration.
I must say, I’m pretty pleased with how it all came together. I hope she loves the pillows and bulletin board in her new room!
I’m back at the sewing machine these days – there are tons of stitches in my future. I’m still plugging away at my list, and after finishing the porch swing, I’m on to curtains for the dining room and curtains and pillows for the living room.
I love the fabric for the dining room curtains, but I’m particularly excited about my plans for the living room. You may remember from last fall that I’m working on a blue scheme using our existing blue chairs as a starting point. Now that we have a fabulous painting, new couch and a little extra floor space, it’s time to start to add the finishing touches. Here’s my updated plan:
I just love the fabric scheme:
Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll have curtains, pillows and a reupholstered ottoman… The lighting will have to wait until our wallet has recovered.
It’s been a long time without a post for us! Sorry for the break, but we’ve slowed things down a bit, and for now, I’m planning to only post when I’ve completed a project around our house. On that note, I’m happy to report that I’ve finally finished the pillows for our front porch swing! I’m so glad to have them in place while there is still some summer left to enjoy them – here they are:
I went with different fabrics on the front and back of the pillows so that I have 2 schemes to choose from, depending on my mood. Both options have a the same red floral fabric and a stripe (all the fabrics are from Williams and Sherrill, by the way). In the first option I pieced the stripe fabric for a pinwheel effect. I finished the pillows off today, so I plan to head to the swing after the kids’ bedtime tonight for a little relaxing. I hope you are finding time to relax this summer, too!
iPhone users, this is one of my favorite apps! I don’t usually spend more than $0.99 on apps, but this one has earned every penny of its $4.99 price tag.
Whenever I’m dreaming up ideas for specific corners of my house, I snap a photo and add some measurements so I’m sure to have my facts in order when I’m running errands.
I also use it to snap photos and make notes of things I see while I’m shopping. I can jot down the measurements, the price, the source and then file it away in a logical place (i.e. not lost in my camera roll among all sorts of unrelated things).
I learned about My Measures from this post by Ashley on 7th House on the Left. Check out all the others she talks about as well as those in the comments section!
What are your favorite digital design tools?
Coming up with a new look for a room is really my favorite part of the decorating process. I could spend all day fiddling around with different ideas for the rooms in our house. I’ve been doing a lot of projects lately, so I decided to take a little break and have some fun with a new look for our family room. It all really started when Nathan broke the only lamp in the room, and before I replace it, I need to decide where I’m going with the room. So here’s my new vision:
This is our existing couch, and I made faux roman shades for the windows out of this Schumacher fabric a couple of years ago.
The grasscloth wallpaper, lighting, and basket coffee table would be new. I’m also toying with a darker color for the wallcovering – maybe a deep brown as an accent behind the couch:
Either way, I think I’ve nailed down the lighting, and if it’s attached to the wall and ceiling it will be harder to break, right?
Last week I showed you our painted built-in bookshelves in our new house. Phase II of the built-in transformation was to set up the small back shelves with our bar ware. Phase I was painting them Indigo Batik.
We were eager to figure out a way to replicate our bar closet from our old house that we loved so much. The open shelves and built-in cabinet below offer the perfect arrangement for pretty glasses on display and functional pieces stashed away.
We added individual lights beneath each of the wooden shelves to get the same dramatic effect we had from the overhead lights that poured through the glass shelving in the old house. And, obviously this time we went with paint instead of wall paper.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend to those of you in the U.S. celebrating Memorial Day. Cheers!
I’m still making gradual progress on my list. I just checked off #4 - which was a big one! Now on to a few of the smaller projects.
I’m still taking a short break from sewing, but the porch swing refresh is almost done. This week, I’m bringing the chandelier for Violet’s room to the lighting repair shop to be rewired.
I found this vintage piece on ebay for $30, and I can’t wait to see it hanging in Violet’s room! If you are interested in something similar, you can search for “Vintage Tole Chandelier” on ebay.
The National Stationery Show took place this past Sunday-Wednesday in New York. I was not in attendance this year, but I have been drooling over all the images I’ve seen posted on the web this week. Seeing the fresh design and fun booth set-ups always gets my creative juices flowing. The following images are all from Oh So Beautiful Paper, who each year, has great coverage of the show. Do you have any favorites?
Hammerpress
Smock
Hello Lucky!
Mr. Boddington’s Studio
Suzy Jack
Two cushions down! After I finished the cushion for the new window bench in the guest room, I moved right on to the cushion for the front porch swing.
Oh, and the new outdoor rug is in place! I love the navy cushion against the taupe rug and stucco.
Now I just need to get motivated to whip up the pillows, but I’m a little sewn-out at the moment… I’ll get to it soon!
Just a quick post since things are still a bit crazy around the new house. We tackled the den this weekend, which is where we’ll likely spend most of our evenings. The main feature is the painted built-in bookshelves.
The backs were painted a rich red. This isn’t really a fair before and after, since the photo below was taken before we bought the house. I completely forgot to snap a shot of the space either empty or with our own furniture.
Once I decided I wanted a dark blue for the bookshelves, I simply snagged Rachel’s “Indigo Batik” by Sherwin Williams that she used in Nathan’s nursery and ran with it. I’m super-excited about the results!
Next week, I’ll show you the back wall where we built our bar!
So how many of you have been following John’s patio project over at Young House Love? Are you as impressed as I am? It looks so professional and really makes me want to hang out back there! This is their before pic:
{ image from young house love }
And after:
{ image from young house love }
{ image from young house love }
Seeing him complete this project, with step-by-step instructions, has really got me inspired to get to work on my own backyard. You may remember that my yard currently looks like this:
Last year I created this little mock-up showing my ideas for an outdoor space. I think my husband and I might really be able to tackle this by ourselves. We’re going to check our schedules and our budget to figure out a good time to get started…I’m thinking maybe towards the end of summer. Has anyone else taken on a patio or outdoor living space? Do you have advice for a novice?
I’ve been meaning to share a little peak of how Violet and I celebrated the royal wedding. She was so excited to see an actual princess wedding, and I couldn’t resist making a little bit of an occasion out of it. So, we had a friend over for tea on Friday afternoon and watched the ceremony during Nathan’s nap.
We made lemon scones and tea and brought in some fresh cut peonies from our yard. We even had our own homemade “fascinator” hats! It was a treat and something I hope Violet will remember like I remember watching Princess Diana’s wedding with my mom.
A couple of months ago I shared with you the small plot of land my husband and I dug up to turn into our new garden.
After lots of watering and waiting, I’m finally seeing some of those little seedlings popping through the surface! After thinking I have a black thumb, it’s definitely rewarding to see something happening.
Most likely, we still have another 6-8 weeks before we’ll get to enjoy the fruits of our labor…but I can’t wait! Peas, carrots, zucchini, lettuce…yum.
On another note, if you have any tips about keeping unwanted bugs away please advise. I’ve started noticing some of the leaves being eaten and I don’t want to lose the plants after my efforts.
What are you growing this spring?
The second coat of stain went on our floors this morning and boy does it smell terrible in here! At least the view from our family room looks great (minus a few little finger prints on the french door).
I’m hoping we can move back into the living and dining rooms tomorrow, because right now our family room is also the storage room. We’re a little cramped.
It’s a small price to pay for shiny new floors and radiator free rooms. Time to head back outside for more fresh air!
I love the Montauk Nest Chair* by West Elm. I have two in mind for our new living room, though my co-designer/husband says, “No way!” I think he’s hung up on the fact that they are outdoor chairs; I might agree after seeing them in person. But until he, or they, prove me wrong I say, “What’s wrong with bringing an outdoor chair indoors?” If the shoe fits…
What do you think? Have you seen these up close? Am I crazy? I really like the washed grey color and I would put more of an “indoor” upholstered cushion on the seats. They look so lounge-y without being heavy or stuffy.
I’m not giving up…
*it appears the chair isn’t available on the website; I originally saw it in the catalog
I’ve been slow to make a dent in my to-do list for 2011, but today we took another baby step towards crossing things off. Item #13 was to buy a small desk and set up a little office space in our over-sized master bedroom. We weren’t looking for anything fancy, in fact, the biggest criteria was that it could fit into a nook that is only 35″ wide, so size was a key factor. Today we were at Target and decided to take home the Carson Anywhere Desk in Espresso. The color worked well with our existing furniture and the size, 34″, was a perfect fit!
{ image from Target.com }
The main use of the desk will be for my husband to have a little work space at home for his new job, but I know I will utilize it as well. We haven’t even taken it out of the box yet…so I’ll have to wait to share some pics of the office nook and check one more thing off my list!
One of the reasons we decided to go ahead with our impromptu office project is that we really need a proper guest bedroom. Today when we have guests, Violet sleeps on an air mattress in our room and our guests use her bedroom. It works, but it’s not ideal, and it doesn’t allow for our whole family to visit at the same time. So, the plan is to turn the office into a guest bedroom with all of the office and sewing supplies stashed neatly away when guests are in town. The cabinetry is a huge first step, but we still need a few other things, like a bed and some window coverings. Here’s my master plan for the room:
I’ll add a few other finishing touches along the way, I’m sure, but this is the plan for now!
I’m back home after a quick visit to my parents’ house. Despite my minor injury, I managed to get a few things done. I’ve been working on a project that wasn’t planned for this year but came up as part of our plan to remove the radiators. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
I made a cushion and pillow for our new window bench in the office. Instead of repairing the floors under the old radiator, we decided to cover them up with some much needed storage. Here’s what our office used to look like (see the radiator under the window):
Here’s what it looks like now:
A friend of ours is a carpenter, and he built these custom cabinets for us. The drawers under the bench are file cabinets for all of our papers, and the closets are a combination of shelves and hanging space.
I still have a few more projects planned for the space. I’d like to make 2 more pillows for the bench and an inverted box pleat valence for the window. These will have to wait until I’ve finished sewing cushions for the front porch swing and curtains for the dining room, especially since I already have the fabric for both of these projects.
I love the opportunity to wrangle a bit of chaos into something neat and tidy, organized and functional. Kitchen cabinets run amok…sign me up! File cabinet overflowing…bring it on.
So days 1-3 of packing our house to move felt pretty good. I got my plan in order, gathered supplies, made a few lists and even a good bit of progress:
But, somewhere in there I had a major meltdown as the last six plus years flashed by me and I’ve lost my momentum. Even when I know it’s time to move on, when exciting things rest ahead, this kind of change always gets the best of me.
I’m going to try another walk with the dog…
I am really excited for the debut of Jessica Jones’ new line of fabric, Outside Oslo. The home decor fabrics are being brought to life by The Needle Shop in Chicago and will be available for sale in May. If you are a retailer or manufacturer you can also visit their web site for wholesale information.
{ images from The Needle Shop Etsy store }
Will you purchase any of these designs for your next home project? Any favorites?
{ images from How About Orange blog }
