Fabric Hunt

I woke up super early this morning (possibly due to the fact that a bony 6-year-old had climbed into my bed and was trying to elbow me to death).  I stumbled to the couch in hopes of grabbing a couple more hours of sleep before the school routine started, but instead decided to go on a fabric hunt.  Because that's what normal, sleep-deprived women do at 4:30 in the morning.

I recently designed an office to go with the guest bedroom plan I did for a friend.  I'll share the full design soon, but it was completely inspired by this fabric.

Pillow by Studio Tullia on Etsy, via Pinterest

Gorgeous, right?  I loved the pinks, gray, and pop of grellow.  Decidedly feminine, but also sophisticated.

Only, I couldn't figure out who made the fabric.  I searched a ridiculous combination of keywords like "pink""coral" "gray""chinoiserie""vase"- all coming up empty.  I hunted the Schumacher site because it looked so similar in style to the famous Chiang Mai fabric.  No luck.

Finally, after about an hour of blog hopping, eureka!  "Portobello Vase" in the "Ladybug"colorway. 

Hancock's of Paducah

And you know who makes it - Waverly!  Not some super, high-end design firm like I originally thought.  In fact, it's only $28.95/yard at HouseFabrics.com.  Well, it's not cheap if you're doing curtains, but for the yard I'll need for some pillows I think it's a steal.

Guest Bedroom Design

Recently, I've been coming up with ideas for a friend's guest bedroom.  I'm not sure if we'll end up going in this direction, but I love everything about it so much I thought I would share.  She's a single, professional lady, so I had fun embracing a more feminine style than is possible in my house (where it's 66% male). 



Veranda via Design Crisis

This picture from Veranda was a huge inspiration.  As a child of the '80s, it's hard to find any kind of love for the color peach, but the right shade (like this) is killer in a bedroom.  I've heard numerous times that pink walls make everyone look better - and I'm thinking the same can probably be said for peach.  I definitely want to find the perfect shade - more yellow than pink and light enough to steal the show without screaming in your face.



Benjamin Moore's Delicate Peach

I found this one online here, but haven't tried it in person.

Also like the above image, I love the tonal drapes.  I found this gorgeous glazed silk at Fabricguru.  Of course, it's no longer available there, but might be worth tracking down elsewhere.

Brunschwig and Fils Glazed Silk in Golden Apricot

Although I wanted the room to read more feminine, since it's a guest bedroom, I definitely wanted to have more of a gender balance than the inspiration photo.  I decided to pair the peach with a classic navy for a dash of traditionalism and orange to warm everything up.

Alice Lane Home via Decorpad

We'll make a simple orange headboard with nailhead trim and then pair it with classic hotel-style bedding in a crisp navy and white.

Lastly, we'll finish out the room a few antique, wood pieces (I'm thinking the dresser, a small writing desk) and more modern, glamorous touches (glass, gold and lucite), for a nice balance.  Although this picture isn't the right colors, I love the mix of the antique wood table and the sleek brass lamps.

via DecorPad

 

Those are my thoughts on the guest room so far.  Now I'm going to try and figure out how to make a mood board to properly sell the idea to my friend.

Halloween 2012

Atticus wanted to be a zombie this year, so he (and just about everyone else) was a zombie.  Give the kids what they want, right?

It definitely wasn't one of our most creative costumes, but I liked that it was cheap (old t-shirt and a $7 make-up kit from Target) and quick to put together after work (mid-week Halloween sucks, am I right?). 

Of course, Atticus is already planning next year's costume (which will change about a zillion times before then).  And I'm eating my weight in Milk Duds.  Hope everyone had a good one!

Docksta!

I finally bought a Docksta table for my living room corner!

I wanted a pedestal table to go with the director's chairs, and the Docksta is the cheapest option.  It's $199 at Ikea, but I waited four long months to score one off of Craigslist for only $50.

Unfortunately, it's about 15% too big.  If it was just 2 inches shorter and about 5 inches less in diameter, it would be perfect.  I worried that was going to be the case before I bought it, so I searched (in vain) for a similar table with slightly smaller proportions.  I'm a big fan of buying it once, and buying it right, but the corner looks SO much finished now, even with slightly too large table, and since I got a good deal on the Docksta, I can probably sell it later to offset the cost.

DIY Spice Rack

I hate my kitchen.  It's small.  It's ugly.  It's poorly designed.  It has practically no storage space whatsoever.  When we decided to rent our duplex, it (and the equally small and ugly bathroom) were the two things that really made us debate whether or not we could live here.  Fortunately, I was born with a "make it work" personality and, once we moved in, decided on three projects I could do to make the kitchen more functional and less crappy.

#1 Paint the cabinets.
#2 Put up a spice rack.
#3 Build a pantry on wheels to go between the fridge and the wall.

So, we've been here 1 1/2 years, and I finally got around to crossing something off the list.  A spice rack!

Whoo hoo!  A little disclaimer - I know the rest of the kitchen sucks, it's a wood-tone nightmare right now.  But I'm working on it.  Glacial speed, but working on it.  Picture red cabinets and some art above - now doesn't that look better?

Anyway, back to the spice rack and how I made it myself.  It was super easy and I really liked the way it turned out.

First off, I bought 32 spice jars at World Market.  I bought the cylinder style (the one in the back of the picture), not the round style.  They are $3.99 for a set of 4, and I coupled that with a $10 off coupon they e-mailed me.  What I like most about this style is the lid, which rotates so you can shake the spices, and it's nice and big so my measuring spoons fit inside the jar.  Plus, out of the $1/jar category, they looked more expensive than the other options I found.

They're not officially labeled yet, although I did put ugly labels on the bottom as a makeshift answer.  I'm still looking for a label I like enough to commit to.  So let's file that under the "still in progress" part of my kitchen.

Then the spice jars sat on my counter for a month (or two...) while I figured out what kind of shelves I wanted to build.  As you can see, I have a galley kitchen, and the best place for us was this unused back wall by the dishwasher.  It's close enough to the stove that I can reach it easily, and it obviously needed something.  I did not want deep shelves that stuck out a lot because I do have two upper cabinets that need to open into that space.

At Ikea this weekend (where my fabric was sold out - boo) I saw the Ribba picture ledges and thought - they'd work well.  Only, I knew Ana White had a similar plan that would be cheaper to build. 




Ana White - $10 Ledges


We stopped by Home Depot and I picked up $23 in lumber (2 1x4s and 1 1x2 in "select pine" because I knew I was going to stain them).  That was the perfect amount to make 4 24-inch wide shelves.  I had stain and screws on hand (although I did have to buy finishing nails for the front).  If I did it again, I would also pick up some wood conditioner - pine doesn't take stain as evenly as you would like it to.

I made my cuts first, then stained all the boards (Minwax Jacobean) and left them to dry overnight.  The next day, I put them together assembly-line style in all of 40 minutes.  It took me longer to hang them on the wall than to build, honestly!

In person they look pretty awesome.  You might have to take my word on it, since my photos kills at 7 am  (or any time, really) are a little lacking.

Now, maybe they'll inspire me to cross something else off my kitchen to-do list.

Ikea Fabric

I'm not the biggest Ikea fabric fan, although they usually have one that I don't think is horrible.  However, I definitely think this is super divine.




Tradklover Fabric - Ikea $7.99/yard

  I am thinking of using it to make a cover for a body pillow in the master bedroom.  Maybe with some contrast piping.

It reminds me a lot of Hinson's "Fireworks" by Albert Hadley - available as a wallpaper or a fabric.

The Direction of My Bedroom This Week

I haven't worked on the master bedroom yet.  Hardly at all.  I threw up some curtains, painted the nightstands, and walked away.  I have a lot of ideas going on in my head, but I have yet to come up with a good, solid design plan.

However, I did come up with a new space plan this weekend.

Our bedroom is decent at 12' x 13' and it also serves as our office space.  We currently have this ugly armoire desk we inherited, and coupled with The General, it's too much big bulky furniture in the space.  I'd love a more modern, parsons style desk - long and sleek.




Via La Maison Boheme and Pinterest

I'm obsessed with this image.  Love the gold frames, love the wall lamp, love the built-in shelves.  Would kill to be able to hang/afford grasscloth walls.