September 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Brass is back!

When my sis and I were in Dallas a few weeks ago, we stumbled across the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and decided to duck in. I'm glad we did! I found some super cheap plywood pieces for an upcoming project, and this little $5 beauty.

I liked the shape of it and picked it up intending to repaint it. But you know what? I'm kinda loving it as is! I swapped out a shade from a lamp I'm not using right now. I love the warm metal tone, it's perfect for fall!

A few keys to using brass:

*Steer clear of a finish that is too glaring and shiny and bright yellow, look for a warm mellow glowing tone.

*The shade should be a crisp, modern shape.

*And while you're at it, mix those metals up a bit. Go ahead. It's o.k.

Mandi found this beautiful lamp at a thrift store and toned down the bright brassiness with-our favorite-Rub N Buff.

Source: vintagerevivals.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

A few more brass beauties-

Lonny

Source: houzz.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Eclectic Bedroom design

Eclectic Living Room design by Portland Maine Interior Designer Landing Design & Development

So, go ahead and keep sending your old brass lamps to the thrift store. I might just snatch them up. :)

Linking up with:
Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality

FALL MANTEL {2012}

Monday, September 24, 2012

This mantel morphed into something different than what I had originally planned. Here's the long story ~~kinda~~ short:

-I started with an old dresser mirror (just the rectangular center mirror itself) that's been the in garage for about 10 years, you know, with the ugly orange-ish maple finish that lots of old furniture has.

-I used my trusty Rub & Buff to make the frame gold and leaned it on the mantle with my black lanterns that I robbed out of my newly completed office. My plan was to use the black lanterns and mixed metal tones.

-It just wasn't working for me, the scale was too small. I remembered that there was also a surround for that mirror that went with the dresser. So, I dug it out, swept all of the cobwebs off of it, and gave it a quick gold spray to match the mirror. All the while, I was really missing the burst of color from my green shutters on last year's mantel..

-It hit me...wouldn't this entire piece be fun GREEN...give me the color I wanted...and make a big impression?

-It was as good as done with some leftover paint I already had.

So, after sharing that long thought process, here's the result!

This bear light was my son's night light when he was little in his forest-themed room. I've held on to it and wanted to find a special place to use it.

I found this mini version of my gigantic West Elm twig ball at Gordman's last year.

I completely used what I had for this whole set up, didn't buy one thing! Sooner or later most of the things I have stashed away come in handy.

I was also tired of looking at our fireplace screen (chasing a rabbit-did I tell you I had to ditch our log filled fireplace? Bad bugs. Boo. It was a sad day, but I haven't totally given up on the idea. I have a plan for the spring when we're finished having fires for the season.) so I rounded up some large baskets from around the house and filled them with pretty (clean, no bugs!) aspen logs.

I did use some of the same components as I did for last year's mantel, the lanterns (their size fits the space best up there), the wreath, and the feathers, but it still feels different enough to make me happy.

I'm finishing up the decorations in the rest of the house, and will show them to you in the next few days. Tonight my sister and I are headed to help decorate and stage my mom's booth for the season. Happy Monday, friends!

Centsational Girl

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Fox Hollow Cottage

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

Friday, September 21, 2012

For over a year I've been planning to repaint my master bedroom. For months I've been thinking of fabrics that I want to used in there.

Do you read House Beautiful magazine? I just subscribed a few months ago after many years of not receiving it, and have enjoyed looking through it's pages again.

Upon receiving the latest issue a few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the cover.

You see, I'm totally infatuated with this blue fabric. I've been considering it for the drapery in my master bedroom. I've pinned it, more than once I think, on my Pinterest Fabrics Board (you can follow me on Pinterest here).

If it's showcased in a beautiful magazine layout, I must be on the right track...right? Sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of validation like that with my design choices.

I'm also trying to decide what companion color I want to use, red or coral or something else. Recently while on a day trip I found the fabric in a real store (I'd previously only seen it online) and was able to play around with some colors to go with it. Coral?

Reds? I'm a little afraid of it coming across a bit patriotic. I'm all for the Red, White, and Blue, but not sure that's what I want in my bedroom, ya know?

The one drawback is the price. While not totally outrageous, it's more than I like to spend on fabric. $20/yard (the lowest I've seen) for me is pretty steep, especially considering I will need close to 15 yards. I think I can do a bit better than that if it comes up on sale, but still, big investment.

Because of the cost, I've also considered stenciling my own curtains with a similar pattern on a dropcloth, much like Amy did here:

Triangle Honeymoon

So, I'm still thinking and planning, and trying to finish up some other half way done projects. I'm close to biting off my master, and wish it was done yesterday already!

Here are a few other examples of the lovely Duralee Kalah fabric:

6th Street Design School

Source: cotedetexas.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

via

I'm playing around with paint samples also.

I think these two are the front runners-hard to tell much difference but I separated the colors with the stars for you.

What do you think? Am I headed in the right direction?

THE OFFICE-CLOSE UPS & DETAILS

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

This room was builder's beigey-white when we moved in, went red immediately, and now is back to a crisp white. If you missed my post last week, the ceiling is "Wrought Iron" by Martha Stewart and the walls are "White" by Behr.

Here's where we came from:

I have painted the formerly stained cabinets in our kitchen and the living room built-ins, but really didn't want to paint all of the shelves in this room. So, my thought was by lightening the walls the stained wood wouldn't look so dated. I ended up painting the back of all of the shelves the same color as the wall to lighten the interior of the shelves as well.

Last month I asked you all to help me pick an accent color for the room. You all had some great suggestions, but I realized as I started putting things back in the room and on the shelves that I had just about every color to work with! I decided to let all of that speak for itself and kept the fabrics and pillows neutral. I did add a few pops of turquoise, and some red stands out a bit in a few of the accessories.

Let's just work our way around the room...mmmkay? Here are the shelves to the left of the computer-by covering the lower shelves I was able to move the baskets that were previously down low for and use them for storage (and take up a shelf...there were tons to fill!).

There's no way a candle would be functional on that top shelf, so I filled these oversized lanterns with some books and my children's handmade baskets that they wove in the third grade. You can't quite read it but that red book has one of my favorite titles ever: HOW TO BE A Preacher's Wife AND LIKE IT. Ha.

Here's the shelves to the right of the computer:

Plain old paperbacks look a little more interesting displayed in an antique dough bowl. This shelf looked a bit empty so I framed a few pages out of an old children's book and nailed them to the back.

Rather than the shelves being strictly for books (which we could have done-I stashed a lot elsewhere), I wanted to be able to store many of my often-used supplies so they would be at my fingertips. This shelf houses glass containers full of stamps, markers, glue, scissors, and other assorted craft supplies.

The bike memo wheel that my parents made is the center attraction of the gallery wall over the piano. I also gave a little gold spray paint to my lamp with the striped shade like Carmel's.

Just what the doctor ordered...1 lemon drop per day after piano practice is completed!

I picked up this old tambourine at a thrift store for $1. I think it's perfect on the gallery wall over the piano to tie in some of the wood tones from the rest of the room.

There are some things that will never look "pretty" (speakers everywhere, video equipment, cords, etc.), so I tried my best to work around them and move on. A big solution was to cover the previously open lower shelves. I've loved the look of the skirted consoles that are so popular right now, and adapted that a bit to make it work here. I kept the fabric simple since there were so many other colors and patterns in the room.

My husband is a drummer, and on his international trips he's started picking out a small drum as a souvenir. The brown one is from India and the red one is from East Asia. Also displayed are gifts brought back from foreign lands from his parents.

A metal container holds fabric remnants. Did anyone else's parents spend way too much money for "the only music library you'll ever need" when you were a kid? :)

I used baskets that were previously for toy storage to corral children's books, break up the shelves a bit and add texture.

My grandfather's mug-beautiful and bold and crazed and old.

A final look with my DIY Drum Shade and Hand-Painted Accent Wall Panel-

With that, I think I will declare this room officially done! And the best part is, other than the paint, about $15 for the skirting supplies, a new photo mat, and switching a few photos from color to black and white, I didn't buy anything for this room! Hooray for using what you have!

Linking up with:

Emily A. Clark