a dining room and a house tour

i'm back with more of my house tour!

here is the dining room which is the first room to the left when you walk in the house.

the room is a perfect square which fits my circular dining room table perfectly. i love this round table so much for dinners with friends and game night. a round table is so much better than long rectangles because you can see everyone and talk to everyone.

the blue cabinet between the windows holds my ever growing milk glass collection. on the doors i have taped some watercolors i did on old book pages to bring a bit more art into the space.

i painted the room white so all my treasures and trinkets would pop. this wall is filled with some family pictures, a fabric covered M and a few etsy photographs i have picked up through the years. i cannot believe my munchkins were once that little. at 9 and 7, they still resemble these pics, but i have a hard time seeing the baby faces that are reflected here.

this room is full of thrifty finds which include the blue milk glass cabinet, the recently painted blue low and long buffet, the mirror above the buffet, the chandelier and this white cabinet. oh, and pretty much everything in the cabinet from the gold rimmed china to the bridge tablecloths folded in the bottom section. yay for saving money through thrifting!

family room and a house tour

round two of my house tour is the family room - or what is currently the only clean room in the house!

i should probably have saved this room for the middle of the pack because it is my problem room. i have just never gotten that "i'm finished" feeling in here. not that you should ever have an "i'm finished" feeling in any room, because then you look around 20 years later and it's all pleather couches and gaudy wallpaper, but hopefully you know what i mean. the mantle is ever changing and really not anything spectacular at the moment, but i do like that my recent luggage painting has found a home there along with a strand of bunting i just made.

when we moved in, the judges paneling in this room was all dark brown and i knew it needed to be painted because the room does not have much natural light. before you get all hot and bothered about painting the wood - the paneling is really crappy 1/8" thick pieces "wood". not beautiful thick cherry which i would never have painted.

a few things about this shot:

• all the tables are second hand
• the child's rocking chair has been passed down many generations in my family
• the orange lamp is a yard sale find that i LOVE - the base has a nightlight in it and glows orange. perfect lighting for movie nights. haha!
• i am a sucker for large floor throw pillows which you see stacked up on an antique chest in the far corner. my trick is to buy the cheapest, ugliest large pillow you can find and then recover them. i think these pillows were $5 each and then i put upholstery fabric on the top and a generic brown on the bottom which is tip #2 - always use a cheap solid fabric on the back of your pillows, it's silly to waste $$$ on the backside of something.  

the best thing we ever did in this room is put in a set of hinge pin doors. previously, we have a tiny single door leading out to the deck which let hardly any light in at all. when we built our new deck, we doubled the door width and it has made all the difference. i knew i didn't want french doors because the couldn't really swing any where. i had settled on sliders, but the contractor talked me out of those because they let a lot of air out. the hinge pin turned out perfect. the left side does not move and is essentially a large window, then the right side is the door part that opens.

a few more things about this shot:

• the mirror is a recent $10 purchase - it's chippy and worn and i LOVE it!
• the tv stand dresser is a $100 purchase. i took out the top dresser, added a mdf plank in it's place, drilled a 2" hole in the back of the dresser for cables and now i have a place for the satellite box, dvd player, etc.

that's it for the tour today - see you next week!

a hallway and a house tour

i have decided to do a new feature on the blog over the summer since my creativeness takes a back seat to the pool and that area might be lacking for a few weeks! i absolutely love peeking into other bloggers homes, so i thought why not share mine as a visual house tour.

i live in a traditional colonial where you walk in and the dining room is on the left and the formal living room on the right. then you travel down the center hallway and the kitchen is on the left and the family room is on the right. the above shot is what you see when you enter the house. a small table that houses my seasonal vignettes and a vintage mirror above which i absolutely love. my mom has a mirror similar to this that i have coveted for years, so when i saw this one at a thrift store, i scooped it up. i actually decorate with a lot of thrift finds so i will point them out when i can. in my book, this is the way to go. 80% thrift and 20% splurge. you feel so good about the deals you get that you don't feel bad about the one expensive piece you must have.

the color on the wall is "silence" by glidden and is the perfect soft blue for my house - not too baby and definitely not beige! the rule that hallways need to be beige should be tossed out. many other colors can be transition colors between rooms, you just have to forget your fears and go for it - it is only paint after all!

i wanted some artwork to line the walls, but was a nervous nelly about how much it would cost, until i fell in love with a bird calendar by cavallini and my search was over. these calendars are printed on top quality paper and you get 12 individual pieces of art that all relate to one another and look great in a grouping. i am also a huge fan of ikea frames. they are simple enough to not overwhelm multiple pieces of art, but substantial enough to not look cheap.

there you have it, the first stop on your linwood avenue house tour. once i get a sunny day, the family room will be next (because it is the one filled with the least amount of junk at the moment :)

paint and chalk

ok guys, i need your help. my dining room is forever being worked on and one of the last items on the list is the buffet. i bought this piece over a year ago at an estate sale and let me be the first to say it is a beast. measuring over 6 feet long, but with size comes all the storage i could possibly want, so it's perfect.

in the room redo, i painted the walls white because i want my accessories to be the pop of color this time around. the yellow chandelier will soon be moving to the laundry room and will be replaced by the crystal one lying on top of the table. i love the direction the room is moving, but the sore thumb is the buffet which is located behind the table. i want to paint it, but cannot decide which option to chose which is where you come in. seriously guys, i see that you are reading, now is the time to pipe up and leave a comment about what you would do, humor me. my options are to have it professionally painted a hi-gloss color like midnight blue (similar style to my sewing table). or jump on the chalk paint craze and do it myself in a grey/yellow combo or something along those lines.

i have one piece that is already pretty close to chalk paint, but my apprehension is that this technique is too much the "shabby chic" style that i am trying to steer away from. i did that years ago and i want to move my house into a bohemian cottage style. lots of color, lots of mix/matched items. but the appealing part is i can do it myself and i am always up for learning a new technique.

here is a close up of the doors that have huge knobs. once i am finished painting, i hope to find some reproductions of these drapery tiebacks to be used as knobs.

so there you have it, my decorating dilemma. what would you do - professionally paint or chalk paint at home???

rearranging and reminiscing

do you guys rearrange your house all the time? i am constantly moving things from one room to the next and sometimes back again. as a little girl, i remember always wanting to move my room around and that desire has never left me. i am a person that likes change and gets a bit restless living in a house for more than 5 years (crazy, huh?), so my cure is to rearrange and redecorate. i am drawn towards little moments in decorating - the unexpected when you turn a corner. i have my grandmothers spoon collection and recently it has landed in a tiny corner of the dining room. at first, it bothered me that it wasn't more predominantly displayed, but now, i really like this vignette. the spoons displayed with some of my vintage aprons work well nestled in between the white cabinet and the wall.

my next decision was to finally bring my collection of glass spice jars out of the attic where they were placed 5 years ago on moving day. i have been waiting to pull them out until i find the perfect spice jar labels. well, i hunt and scour the internet for labels, but none of them are quite right. i know i should just make my own, but i'm being a tad bit lazy in that department.

so up they went, completely naked and unfilled. in all their emptiness, i still find them awfully pretty. as long as they put a smile on my face, i don't need to rush to fill them. at least that is what i am telling myself :)

a quilt and petals

my dining room redo is moving right along. i finally finished the table quilt and am completely smitten. i cut 8 pie pieces out of 4 fabrics from anna maria horner and tula pink. i sewed the pie sections together, then layered it on top of a white sheet for backing and low-loft batting in the middle.

i have not yet mastered free form quilting - instead, i stitched a line along each side of the seams. following along the seam created from attaching the pieces together, gives you a great ruler to ensure a straight stitch. then i measured out and added 2 more lines of stitching within each pie starting on the outside edge and ending in the middle.

once quilted together, i decided to scallop the edge of each section to mimic flower petals. i was worried about the binding going along the curves, but it turned out great.

this room is taking on a much more eclectic style which is so much more me than the formal room i had before. my tastes are always changing, but i think i will love this table quilt forever!

cabinets and redos

my dining room transformation is moving along. a bit slowly, but at least it is moving forward and not at a standstill. i was able to move my waterlogged, found cabinet in this past weekend and love, love, love it! you can go here to read about it's beginnings :)

i simply cleaned off any flaking paint and then dressed it up with some fabric and new handles. since i paid nothing for the cabinet, i completely splurged on the handles. they are from anthropologie and although i think both are prefect, i must say the branch pulls on the bottom drawer are my favorite. the back of the cabinet is lined with tula pink fabric and really ads a bit of fun to the room. i used super 77 spray glue to attach it to the back, but i think the wood still holds some water because when i went back the next day, 2 of the 3 panels had fallen down. to fix this, i ran a length of double sided tape along the top edge of each nook and this seems to have done the trick.

the cabinet originally had 2 doors on the bottom, but one was not salvagable from water damage. i decided to take the doors off completely and use this for open storage of my various quilts and bridge tablecloths. i can't wait to pile the cabinet up with all the crazy pattens i have collected over the years.

that's it for now. at the rate i'm going, it might be thanksgiving before the room makes it's debut, but i will keep you posted along the way!

table covers and a new room

remember when i posted this cabinet last week? well, it has sparked a complete dining room re-do and i am so excited. i went to our super special fabric store in town a few days ago for inspiration and it might possibly be my favorite place. this isn't just your average fabric store that carries patterns made by big corporations. no sirree. this fabric store carries all the big names... amy butler, anna maria horner, heather bailey - the list goes on and on. the store goes on and on as well with an assault of color wherever you turn!

back to the dining room - i have decided to paint the walls antique white and bring all the color in as accessories. above are 4 fabrics i chose to brighten up the space. from left to right, the first 3 are anna maria horner fabrics while the last, scallop pattern is by tula pink - a new to me designer. it is often difficult to mix and match different designers' fabric, but i think the scallop print compliments the other 3. in my opinion, they were made for each other.

the tula pink print will line the back of the white cabinet and then i big plans in store for the rest of the fabric.

this is a mock up of a crazy quilted table cover i came up with. we have a 5ft round mahogeny table in the dining room and when you include the chairs, the entire look is a bit wood heavy. i love the table and chairs, but really want to soften it up this time around. the quilt will be slightly smaller than 5 feet in diameter which means it will not hang over the table as tablecloths usually do. i will also use very low loft batting when pulling the quilt together so it won't be too puffy. i am so excited to start sewing and i hope it comes out exactly like i have pictured in my head. as every one well knows, this doesn't happen all the time :) however it turns out, i will be sure to document the progress with lots of before and afters.

thank goodness the munchkins have camp next week - between painting, sewing and hanging new crown moulding, my days will be packed!

cabinets and curbs

it is no secret among my friends that i have an extreme need to rescue any piece of furniture left on the side of the road. no matter if i have room for it of not, that cast off is going home with me and i will do my best to refurbish it.

i recently scored a beautiful cabinet with a hutch and it is a real beauty, i promise! my friend had this cabinet in her dining room for as many years as i have known her. they moved last june and it didn't fit into the new house, so for a year, it was banished to the back deck to soak in rain water and wind damage. the thing is, i absolutely love the peeling paint that the water damage created. a slight ooh and ahhh from me and it was mine (little did my husband know :)

the munchkins and i went to work flaking off all the loose paint. then i mixed up a bleach/water solution and scrubbed it free of mold and debris. it will be a bit tight, but i am going to put it in my dining room as a storage unit for my new cake stand collection. the bottom of the cabinet originally had 2 doors, but since one broke, i am going for the open shelf look. this is where i am going to place some vintage quilts and bridge tablecloths that i have inherited from grandmothers. have i told you about my bridge tablecloth collection? that might be another post altogether ;)

hopefully full photos will come shortly, but since this little cabinet has actually sparked an entire dining room redo, only time will tell the actual completion date!

bats and white

as i said a few weeks ago, i am really trying to amp up my halloween decorating this year. i found the idea for bats in either an old martha stewart or country living magazine. they are made out of thick black felt and i simply double stick taped them to the wall (paint touch up might be required, once removed ;) there are 3 different sizes and they start coming out of the fireplace opening and travel up the mirror. my new yellow mirror frame really works at this time of year! i collect fenton hobnail milk glass and my brother recently sent me a candle holder which gives me a collection of 3. the effect of placing them on the mantel is perfect. and since the photo was taken, i have now centered each candle holder perfectly. i am a bit OCD with symmetry and the fact that these are off kilter in this photo is killlllling me!

short and sweet

begin anywhere.

that's been my motto for quite some time now. short and sweet - no excuses when it comes to following your dreams.

when i read this design*sponge post, the wheels in my head started spinning. i wanted to stamp the words somewhere in my house, and that's when my eye fell on my sewing chair.

my mom surprised me with this chair years ago and i still love it. so i borrowed some metal stamps from a friend, grabbed a hammer and got to work. once the letters were imprinted, i filled the indentations with white paint to make the letters pop.

the result is perfectly imperfect :)

lighting and springtime

over 2 years ago, i acquired this retro kitsch chandelier at a barn sale. i tried a few times to conquer the rewiring of this piece, but it just wasn't going to happen. when a friend suggested i turn it into a candelabra, inspiration struck.

the original piece had a bright yellow cone going from the center up which housed a standard 60 watt bulb. this was the first thing to go, and then i took off all 5 bulb sockets. all that was left was a small piece of pipe on each stem which i glued inverted nails to. these serve as anchors for the candles. i only had tapers lying around the house, but i think small votives will fit nicely into each bloom as well.

i am already planning my 2011 easter table around this centerpiece, and in the meantime, it might be seen hanging from a tree in my backyard during an outside dinner. unless of course i decide to sell it??? hmmm.

pillows and piping

slowly, but surely, i am making progress on the family room redo. gone are the large orange floor pillows and in their place are happy yellow and green floor pillows. they brighten the room so much that i am glad i took the leap. i spend so much time decorating a room the first time that it is often hard to admit that some things can be improved upon, and even harder to actually do it! the green fabric was from a discount fabric shopping trip i took a few weeks back and the yellow is left over from my guest bedroom pillows.

when i make pillows, 2 things are a must - piping and rounded corners. piping gives pillows that extra something. it takes them from being home made to looking store bought. i round my corners for 2 reasons. 1. it is easier for the piping to lay around a corner and 2. if your pillows are squared off, there is always a lot of extra fabric in the corners that never gets filled.

call me a pillow snob, but that's the way my mind works :)

trips and surprises

my husband was in vegas this weekend and came home to a new huge triple mirror hung in our dining room...

our family room fireplace brick primed...

and the mirror above our fireplace painted blue!

at least, after 10 years of marriage, it is no longer a surprise that surprises will be waiting for him when he gets home :)

the mirror is from an estate sale i went to on friday. i am going to paint it white to freshen it up since it currently looks a bit 80s gaudy and blends in too much with the antiqued brass chandelier. hopefully today, the fireplace brick will turn a mid range taupe color and i will clean up the mirror. i can't believe i am already making progress on my make-over to do list.

family room and a redo

it's redecorating time! something about my family room has never felt right. i have a pretty eclectic design style, which usually works, but this room isn't pulled together as well as i would like.

items on my to do list:

1. recover the orange pillows with this fabric. possibly using a plum colored fabric for the backs.

2. paint the fireplace brick a dark taupe (i know that is controversial!!!) but i think it will blend better into the wall.

3. repaint my gold leaf mirror frame. mom, don't have a heart attack :) i bought a quart of behr's "lagoon" which is a teal color pulled from my floral chairs.

now place your bets on how long it takes me to finish this makeover!

fabric and a new scheme

saturday, i left the munchkins at home with their dad and i went on an all day fabric excursion. atlanta has a few discount fabric stores, and if you can handle the drive and scavenging, you can find some really great stuff. the first store i started at is deep, deep discount - $2 a yard or $2 a cut. for the cuts, you pull and sort through piles of fabric. some of the cuts i found had to have at least 6 yards in them and you guessed it, $2 for the entire 6 yards. now, this store is not one you go to for the key piece of fabric you are looking for, this is more of a curtain liner, pillow backing store. but for the cost, you can now afford to splurge on your main fabric.

my family room had never felt quite right to me. it is a dark room, and it just doesn't have the same lively decorating style as the rest of my house. i have 2 of the above chairs, plus a chocolate brown couch. i love the chairs, i really do. i always say that they are so ugly they are pretty. know what i mean? anyway, i have 3 super large floor pillows that the munchkins lay one. currently they are covered in a burnt orange fabric which, yes, do match the chairs, but it just isn't a fun fabric.

at the second store, a bit pricier at $5.99/yard (i'm getting crazy now!) i found this awesome chartreuse geometric. it is really thick upholstery fabric and now, finally, i can see where i want to take this room. i have sewing plans and a fireplace painting plan and hopefully i will be back soon to show you the result!

supplies and decorating

of all my studio supplies, i think my mat cutter might be the most indispensable. a few years back, i received this logan compact cutter as a birthday gift from my mom and i would be lost with out it. not to mention - broke! it is a crime how much professional framing costs.

decorating is a big part of my life and i love to find inexpensive ways to get great artwork on the walls. my go to place for artwork is calendars. typically a calendar is under $20 and you can find some great ones showcasing a series of similar prints. when we moved into this house, i knew i wanted to line the walls of our hallway with artwork and was thrilled when i found a beautifully printed calendar with a bird/botanical theme.

i used 8 months worth of art and bought some inexpensive ikea frames. then i went to work with the mat cutter. it is so simple to use, and very durable. i think the finished product came out just as great as any framing shop, and it definitely makes a statement when you walk into the house.

decorate and redecorate - it's a vicious cycle

due to my business, lamps come in and out of my house on a daily basis. which means, i am constantly switching out the ones i use to decorate my home with.

i bought a pair of milk glass lamps months ago, and they have been sitting untouched since then. the wiring needed replaced, but these were a bit trickier because the base is a nightlight, which translates into: 2 sockets, 1 cord. i was a bit intimidated which is why i didn't jump on updating them right away. but, the good news is they were easy peasy to rewire. the base can light up on its own as well as the top standard light, or they can be lit together as shown above. i am hopelessly in love with the effect of them glowing in an otherwise dark room.

office and studio, finally!

i've been talking about my new studio a lot lately and i am happy to say it is now ready to be revealed! my friend jessica ashley came over the other day and took fabulous photos for me.

since my new space takes over the formal living room of the house (which really, who uses this kind of a room anymore?), i added french doors to keep out the noise that 2 munchkins make. the street sign is from a thrifting weekend in savannah, ga - i couldn't resist, it was too perfect.

the space is what i have always dreamed of. i can do my graphic design work, make a mess crafting, or read a book. my own personal retreat :)

the desk is from ikea and is actually 2 tops put together. it has a glass top with a shelf underneath which is perfect to hide paper clutter. an old crib spring is used as a twist on a bulletin board - clothespins hold the items onto the frame. the crazy brown thing on the wall is left over from when this was a living room. i had painted a tree, but now i can't decide if i want to paint over it or not.

a few years ago, we built a row of bookcases along the back wall. since there is no closet in this room, the bookshelf is indispensable. it holds books as well as artwork from friends and family plus office supplies

i love this chicken wire basket. vintage milk glass holds crafting and sewing trinkets.

i'm always on the lookout for store props to hold everything i make. this old spinning store rack holds my aprons before they are shipped out.

and once again, my sewing table which i love, love, love. the color is so unexpected and puts a smile on my face every time i walk into the room.

so that's it, a little view into my world!

a baby shower and lots of love

today, along with 3 other girls, i hosted a wonderful baby shower full of love for JoyAnn over at JoyaJewelry. it was so much fun creating crafty decoration items, i found that i couldn't stop. the banner above says "congratulations" on one side and "it's a boy" on the other. i used mailing cards found at an office supply store and tons of glitter. the best part of the banner is the sweet little white and silver glitter birds which hang from the bottom. they were a christmas decoration find from target, but i think they can be useful year round. i'll be posting a tutorial for this banner soon, so stay tuned!

my friend jessica made these cupcakes with the most amazing wrappers. she actually hot glued doilies together to make them - such a good idea!

this is where i get a little obsessive. i bought some scrapbook paper, cut it into strips and taped it to water bottles to cover the ugly label. they blended into the party seamlessly.

and last, but not least, the guests walked away with small bags of sugar cookie birds. i stamped a message onto each card, and glued a fabric heart to the back. loving the look of the over sized cards tied to the simple plastic gift bags.

there was so much good food (thanks kim and jessie), laughter and friends. it was a great afternoon all around.