Leopard Print Curtains - Part 1

Once upon a time, I didn't consider myself an animal prints-type of person.  Then I started contemplating zebra print curtains for the living room.  But the zebra print fabric I could afford was too repetitive for my taste, losing the organic quality that drew me to using an animal print in the first place.

Since leopard is so hot right now it was hard not to think of it as an alternative.  What is so ironic about this entire situation is that of all the animal prints, leopard is probably my least favorite.  I consider it a difficult print because it can so easily go from classic to trashy.  And the quality (usually determined by money - of which I have none) has a big factor on which side of the spectrum you're going to find yourself.

The last thing I want happening in my living room is this:

From Amazon, but thankfully unavailable.

Eventually, I found this fabric by Premier Prints that I actually liked - a lot.  Enough to think about it for four months and still like it.


Premier Prints Amazon Wheat

It's called "Amazon" in the Wheat color.  I was drawn to it because of the color palette (not your traditional leopard print) and the hope of it reading as a soft, organic pattern.  After months (literally - I picked it out in November) I finally decided it was worth the risk and bought 3 yards to try out.

They arrived last night and I couldn't wait to tack them up to see how it looked.  Hot or hoochie mama?


Ignore the chair, it's not stylish but does a great job of camouflaging our Wii Rock Band equipment.

What do you think?

Okay, I don't really care, because I'm digging it.  Although I did call my neighbor over just in case I was wearing the "been thinking about this possibility for four months and don't want to start all over from scratch" blinders.  She liked it and totally got the textural look I was going for and the boyfriend even approved.  Shocker, I know.  Although I did have to give him several stern warnings that this means absolutely no other "jungle" related decor because there's possibly nothing I hate more than a themed room (unless it's on Disney property).

Here's a close-up.  It's a bit thicker than I was hoping for (I was hoping for more of a linen feel and this is more of a canvas texture).  But I feel like the online sample pics were very accurate to the real thing.  And for $7.75 a yard, it's a pretty good deal for this much impact.

I'll be adding a wide black border to polish them off (and of course sewing them into proper panels, not just tacking them up with pushpins).  I'm so excited about the outcome, I'm even excited about buying the other 21 yards and sewing (or, let's be honest, probably hem taping and fabric gluing).  So I give you permission to give me hell if you check back in April and I'm still not finished.  Okay, maybe May, depending on whether or not my son does soccer this spring.

What's Up, Wednesday?

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day!  We went to my son's school for his Valentine's party - otherwise known as Sugar Fest 2012.  I loved seeing him in his element, although it still hurts a little that he has an entire life separate from my own that I'm largely clueless about unless he fills me in on it.  We got to meet his "girlfriend" (who's in 4th grade - cradle robber!) and see him give her a Valentine.  It was just about the cutest thing ever, especially when he was followed out of the class by about ten fourth grade girls oohing and ahhing over him.

The boyfriend bought me this planter at Ross's for my present (although I might have twisted his arm all of the way to the cash register.)  I can't get a good pic, but it's gorgeous - metallic and reflective.  And a lot bigger than it looks in the picture (14" wide x 11" tall).  Ross had a wonderful selection of planters when we went - and nicely priced (mine was $16.99).  I'm trying to get a few planters together and actually plant something this spring.  I really want to grow bell peppers and some herbs, as well as some pretty flowers.

The boyfriend also got me a card that made me cry (and I'm not usually a sappy Hallmark cry baby).  It was exactly the right words to sum up our relationship.  Hallmark, taking full advantage of the fellas on Valentines, charged him $8 for a card - a card!  I joked with him later that he should have bought the cheap card and just copied the poem from the expensive card.  Futher evidence that I am, by far, the cheapest person alive.

Anyway, I'm slowly accumulating stuff for the house.  I wish I had the cash to redo a room completely, but right now we're just adding a few things here and there.  Since I couldn't find a sample, I bit the bullet and finally ordered a few yards of the leopard material I want for curtains, so we'll see if I like it when it gets here. 

I also found this pharmacy-style lamp at Goodwill for $10.

I love it, although it will eventually be moved to a reading chair (yet to be purchased) on the other side of the room.  As you can tell, the base is kind of ugly, so I'm going to try to camouflage that with a side table or something.  The on-off switch is missing (that's what you get for $10), but our living room has switch-controlled outlets, so it hasn't been a problem so far.

Black Sofa

This is the color palette I'm going for in the living area, which consists of the entry, living room, dining room, and kitchen:

I decided fairly early on that the easiest color for the couch would be the taupe (second in the picture).  It's a neutral, which I'd want for a big piece of furniture we'll be keeping for years.  I even found this pretty cotton velvet fabric that I liked:


Antique Cotton Velvet - Fabric.com

However, I was never really excited about it.  Let's face it, it's hard to get excited about taupe.  Even the name is boring. 

I briefly contemplated going golden yellow for more punch, but right now I'm digging the idea of a black velvet sofa.  Not inky, boudoir shiny black velvet, but almost charcoal with a broken-in feeling.  This couch is very similar to mine and I love the look.  It even makes me want to keep the skirt on my sofa.


Via Decorpad

I've never had a black sofa.  I think it would obviously hide stains really well, but I am worried it might require a lot of upkeep (a "shows every speck of lint" situation).  Anyone have any experience they'd like to share?

Lounge Chairs

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday!  I didn't do a specific post about it, but let me express my extreme gratitude for you - the reader.  I've always looked at Love in Idleness as my place to come and ramble about house-related stuff the boyfriend gets tired of hearing about.  So it is super touching that someone takes time out of their day to read (and sometimes even comment!) about my ideas or projects.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Speaking of the boyfriend.  He's told me in no uncertain terms that he hates our couch.  I assumed at first he hated that it is kinda ugly since I'm still saving up pennies to get it reupholstered.  This is what it looked like when we brought it home:

It looks exactly the same except now it sits on a blue rug and people think we have an unhealthy obsession with the color.  Eventually it's going taupe.   Although every time I see an episode of How I Met Your Mother I consider going golden yellow like Lily and Marshall's apartment. 

But then I think, you can find golden yellow retro couches every day on the side of the road, and I don't think they're all that attractive.  So it would probably be a big waste of money to have it recovered to look like a curb couch. 

It turns out that the boyfriend hates the low back.  I personally love it - both aesthetically and comfort-wise.  Which means, I'm not getting rid of the couch any time soon.  However, to keep the piece, I've decided to find him a Man Chair.  Something he can lean back and relax in - that our kids will refer to as "Dad's Chair."

Unfortunately, since I told him of the idea, I've come to realize this is his version of a Man Chair.

Preferably the kind with a built-in cooler and surround speakers.

Yeah, not happening.

My dream is to score a Plycraft or other knock-off of the classic Eames lounge chair and ottoman.  One will appear every couple of months on Craigslist (typically around $500), but they usually disappear within hours - what a hot ticket.

The other idea is to go with a distressed leather chair - either a club or a wingback.  Unfortunately, this option won't really save us any money (and might actually be more expensive), but leather chairs are much easier to find.  I'm really hoping to score at one of the nearby outlet malls - Restoration Hardware Outlet, are you listening?

Either way, like the couch's reupholstery, it's going to be an investment.  One that really makes sense since we'll get a lot of use out of it through the years.  Like most things in our house, I'd rather wait (and save) for what I really want than waste money on something I don't love completely.

Restoration Hardware Lighting

Did anyone else receive the massive tome that is Restoration Hardware's Fall 2011 Source Book?  Poor trees - so many killed just to give us 615 pages of industrial meets antique French meets airport hangar furniture.  I'm not a huge Restoration Hardware fan and I'm obviously not their client base since if I had $1745 lying about there is still a 0.00% chance of me being a 8-feet tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.


So it's no surprise that I found the catalogue a bit of snooze.  In fact, it took me 3 separate attempts to get all of the way through it.  After a while I started playing "find the color" in a useless attempt to find anything that wasn't a neutral.

However, I've always had a thing for Restoration Hardware lighting.  Well, not this lighting - I think this is obnoxious.

I was smitten when I stumbled upon the barn light.


Vintage Barn Sconce Bronze

It was love at first sight when I spotted their 1940s Architect's Boom Sconce. 

What - you were distracted by the monstrous Eiffel Tower?


1940s Architect's Boom Sonce


Then I thought it was a little big (which is how I would describe 99% of Restoration Hardware's stuff).  But - lucky me! - it comes in three sizes.  (Unlucky me - the smallest is still $250.)  And unlike most of Restoration Hardware's sconces - these babies are plug-ins.

I kind of have a perfect place for it - a weird corner in the living room where I currently have the Audrey picture (still matless after a year and a half).  Unfortunately, the art is not working there.  I was planning on getting a statement floor lamp - but this multitasker would handle the lighting, wall, and decor situation in one fell swoop.  Which would make the big price tag a bit easier to swallow. 

It will probably be pushed onto the list of "Items I Will One Day Buy When They Are On Sale and Hopefully Before They Get Clearanced Out."  Man, that list is getting long.

Craigslist Coffee Table

So you know how I've been planning forever on making an ottoman for the living room?  Well, that went out the window when I spotted this coffee table on Craigslist last week.

Only $10!!

I'm convinced that the secret to finding good stuff on Craigslist for super cheap is to look for the worst ads.  "Faux bamboo" and "Hollywood Regency" are descriptions that are going to run the price up, because that means the seller knows a little something about what they're selling.  No, you want the ad with the blurry picture, the table taken apart and propped against a wall, and the copy "Coffee table.  $10.  Need gone ASAP"  That's how you score on Craigslist.

I didn't even bother asking questions (size, condition, etc) before I went to pick it up because I knew I could easily paint it white and resell it.  In fact, that was the plan (because I wanted an ottoman, remember?).  Before I left I even showed the boyfriend Elisa from What the Vita's transformation of a similar faux bamboo coffee table from blah to beautiful with a few coats of white paint.


Before



After

I don't know if anyone else does this when Craigslist shopping - but when I go pick up something fabulous for practically nothing, I almost always act like a bank robber.  I literally think that if I stay too long chit-chatting, there's a chance that the seller is going to either a.) put down the crack pipe, come to their senses and demand more money; or b.) I will succumb to the overwhelming urge to tell the seller "Hey, this is worth SO much more than you're selling it for.  In fact, I'm going to turn around and sell it for 10x this amount."  So I try to keep the exchanges nice and short - which is probably a good thing since we are talking about complete strangers who may or may not have recently smoked crack.

It's not in perfect condition - mostly just scuff marks and places where the finish has worn away.  Here's a close-up of the legs:


Love!

When I was staining the bedside tables, I used some stain to touch up the places where the finish had worn away, so it's barely noticeable now.  Which is good, because I'm kind of loving the distressed ebony finish.  I'm working on removing the white paint scuffs.  Depending on my success, I may or may not paint the table legs a metallic brass color like this:


Love the black and brass contrast.

When I brought the table home, I was sure the boyfriend would be on the "hate" side of the fence.  But I had him set it up inside just to see how it looked.  Did I mention that it's ginormous?  48 inches square!  As soon as the boyfriend set the first remote down on it, he decided it could stay, potential profits be damned.  I, however, wasn't quite so sure.

Firstly, it's a glass table and I have a five year old golfer at home.  There was a good chance it wouldn't last through the night.  Also, I was so set on the ottoman - I bought the perfect fabric ages ago and have been saving up pennies to buy a massive amount of foam.  Ottomans are much more "us" than delicate glass-topped faux bamboo coffee tables.  And it smelled of smoke.

Oh, man, did it stink.

Up until now I've had the great fortune of not buying stinky used furniture.  So, I wasn't sure what to do.  I mixed up a solution of 50% vinegar and 50% water and wiped it down a couple of times a day for a few days.  I also set out a bowl of vinegar underneath the table to "soak up" some more of the smell.  It sounds like it wouldn't work - but it did.  At first, the vinegar smell (lovely in its own right) seemed to be only masking the cingarette stench, but after a few days the table was smelling perfectly normal.  (And yes, I'm still regularly bending over and sniffing my coffee table - no pictures, thank you.)  So that's my tip of the day.  You can also dust the product with baking soda, but I figured that would be pretty messy.

So what to do with the ikat fabric that perfectly matches my color scheme?  I have an old rattan table and stools with a glass top that I (big surprise) bought off of Craigslist last year with the idea of painting a fun color.  Which has never happened. 

Obviously having a faux bamboo table and a rattan table in one space is a little overkill, so I took the 2 1/2 yards of fabric and gave it a test run as a table skirt (no cutting, sewing or ironing yet).

I like it, but I don't love it.  So I'm not sure.  What do you think?