Think Outside The Box.

Today I thought I would do an intro piece for my post on wall hangings. Later I am going to delve into techniques and tricks for decorating your wall space. I'll go into more detail about how to get it right, and give you a handful of good hints for figuring it out in your home. But that's not for today.... 

When we moved into this house, I knew I was going to have get creative. Especially with the walls.

This house is almost twice the size of our last home, and there is about 100x more blank wall space. In our last home, being a 1900s antique house, almost every single wall had either a gorgeous leaded glass window, a doorway with extravagant wood molding, or a beautiful solid wood door. There was just about zero space or need for any wall art. I had a few spots to fill and that was about it.

Enter this house. Built in the last 20 years, with MUCH fewer windows, no fancy moldings or doors. That left a heck of a lot of wall space that cried out to be filled!

I knew I was going to have to get creative with my dollars and hands in order to fill the walls and add some personality into the very boring architecture. Seeing as I had just a small handful of pieces in my arsenal already. Most of which were mirrors (small spaces=lots of mirrors!).

I have already filled a good chunk of the walls, as you have seen in prior posts. Lots of painted canvas, printables, a gallery wall (which is still empty!), DIY sunbursts, and DIY chalkboards. Not to mention all the many mirrors (I am slightly obsessed with the amazing qualities of mirrors in a home). Besides all those things, here are two new ideas that I have recently used in our almost-finished family room.

I was trying to figure out how to fill the three narrow walls in the family room. We painted the room (well, 3 out of the 4 walls so far) a lovely gray and we have also finished the industrial wall unit. Between those two elements, there is a lot of texture and darker tones. With the walls, wood, & steel. So I knew I wanted to stick to white frames. I wanted all of the pieces on the wall to tie in together, and seeing as I did the gallery frames in white, and the chalkboard in white, it was a no-brainer.

But what to put in the frames....hmmm. I mulled it over a while and one day I just opened up Ebay on my computer and started looking around. Here is where I ended up.

Don't mind the huge white ottoman in the middle of the room there. We haven't gotten around to putting it in the basement yet.

And grrrrr, I see that the frames are slightly askew in this shot. BA! I hate that. I fixed it, but apparently AFTER I took the photo. Oh well.

Moving on! Let's start with this set of pieces here.

Oh I just love them. I knew I wanted something yellow to add a shot of color to the very neutral wall/shelving unit. After some browsing of different ideas I had rolling around in my head, I ended up searching "yellow nautical maps" on ebay and this is one of the sets that came up. I loved it right away because of a)how bright and graphic they are, and b)they are of Lake George NY! Moderately close to me, and a family vacation spot as well. I also loved how large they are. I am going to talk about scale tomorrow, but I wanted something substantial for this wall because of the large shelving unit right next to it, as well as the large window. I also knew I wasn't going to be putting any furniture in that space, so I wanted to make sure the wall pieces would suffice. Perfect, perfect, PERFECT. Know what's just as perfect??

That's right folks. I picked up all four maps (technically they are one long map), for a grand total of $17. SEVENTEEN!!! You saw how big they are right? How bright? How completely terrific?? Yup. I almost cried. What was just as good was that those lovely white frames were on a huge sale at Michaels and I paid under $10 a piece for them. So for all four framed maps, it was under $60. Something like $55. SCORE.

Look at the lovely detail. I really like how they are worn, a little riped and faded a bit too. Totally adds character and life to them. Plus they are just the most perfect shot of yellow for the space.

I made sure they were hung just high enough so that little children wouldn't knock into them accidentally. Yet they are still low enough to take care of needing any furniture on the wall. LOVE.

Here is an example of some of the ones you can find on Ebay on a daily basis. This one (there are lots like this) is a bit more subdued in color, but definitely gorgeous.

Up next is a set of four vintage National Geographic ads from the '50s that I stumbled upon. Again, I was on the lookout for a splash of yellow. I also wanted to add some black & white to help tie in the industrial/modern feel. The camera theme is running high in the room now, which I am totally digging. A couple '50s cameras on the shelving, and now four Kodak ads. There are two more, but they are for the unpainted wall, so you'll see those later. These are my favorite two though. GRRrrr with the slight crookedness!!

I love the vintage look, slightly yellowed and faded. I also think it's pretty neat that they all say Rochester, NY on the bottom (which you can't see here). Being that we are in Rochester and all, it is fun that they found their way back "home".

These were also a steal. I paid $2.99 each for them, and since they were from the same seller, I only paid the shipping for one. Woohoo! This is one of the other ones I picked up. I have no idea why it says sold for 5.99, since it was 2.99, but whatev. There is one more, another yellow one, that will hang with this one. The four frames were $5 a piece. So the total was $37 for all four framed pieces.

So. Point being. You can decorate your walls with unique, fun pieces for CHEAP! No one else has these exact sets and I love that. I love how unique the nautical maps are. I love that I didn't just pick them up at Target or wherever. They are one of a kind and completely cool. Take a look around Ebay, there are SO many great things that you can use to give your home personality. Vintage ads and maps ALLLLL over the place.

I'll be back soon with a whole bunch more advice on wall hangings, so watch out!

High & Wide Baby.

Today I wanted to talk about a tip that has helped me quite a bit as I decorate our new home. If you're anything like I was/am, you are challenged in the drapery department. My mother in law worked for JcPenney Custom Decorating for something like 20 years, and I am sure she was appauled at my choice in curtains in our last house. I really had no idea what to do with windows. I suppose I didn't do THAT bad, I went with all white sheers and white romans. No biggie. Except for one big thing. I hung them low and narrow. GASP. As in, basically just covering my windows. Yikes.

So then, as I navigated the decor world over the years, I noticed a big trend that I was NOT a part of. Hanging your window treatments HIGH up on your wall and WIDE on your windows. Why was it not obvious to me before?? What a ginormous impact this single tip has on a room.

Want to make your windows seem twice as large? Make your ceilings feel higher? Room feel more grand? Make a statement instead of just being "there"? Well then my friend, here is your solution. Easy as easy can be too.

Here is an illustration, just so you can get the idea. When I saw this earlier last week, I just knew I was going to have to share it. Because as much as I know the difference, it was crazy to see it drawn out so simply.

This is from Elements of Style.

Now wontcha look at that! BAM. Can you believe that is even the same window???  Drastic improvement.

Along those lines, here are some of my tricks when dressing a window.

-Curtains should be either puddled on the ground a bit, or just touching the ground.

-Hang them within about 3-6 inches from the ceiling.

-That means, no more 84" inch panels. 95" all the way.

-Hang your rod wide enough so that the entire panel hangs just on the outside of the window frame. What I do, is have the panel approximately one inch over the window trim. So JUST covering the molding.

-You can either leave them as is, or if you want more privacy, hang roman shades. I hang  mine directly behind the curtain rod. Waaaaay up high on the wall. By doing this, you'll increase the height of the window and it will appear as though the window continues all the way up.

-With the romans, when they are open, open them so that they are JUST covering the top window molding.

-White panels ALWAYS work in a room. Always. If you have a dark space especially. I almost always go with white. I like to use white panels and patterned or bamboo romans (see HERE for my no-sew roman shade tutorial that has something over 18k Pinterest pins). White just brightens the space and again, makes the window seem much larger. Plus they are just so versatile and timeless. I like grommet top (if you plan on opening and closing them a lot especially) or back tab, which give you a nice pleated look. I steer away from tab top.

-If you want to add color or pattern and don't want to use a roman, you can use white panels and then cut one patterned panel down the middle and add them to the outside of the white panels. Giving you just a splash of color.

-For sliding glass doors, I do the same thing. Our deck slider has the rod hung right under the ceiling, with bamboo shades hung directly behind the rod. I used white grommet top panels so that they can be flung open and closed easily. The door looks WAAAAAAY bigger than when we moved in and vertical blinds were in place. YIKES. Stay away from verticals if you can at all help it. Talk about the '90s!

-For rods, I like large brushed nickel. As in, not the skinny skinny rods. I also like round finials. Classic, traditional, timeless. Honestly though, go with what suits your taste. Oil rubbed bronze and black are also nice.

Here are some examples of the window treatments hung in our house so far. We have only done the family room, master bedroom, kitchen, and partially the play room. I say partially because my plan is to make patterned fabric roller shades or romans. I just haven't gotten on that yet. I am working it around in my head, in terms of what color/pattern I want in there.

Playroom

This is the closest shot I have to a before. Before this though, the previous owner had frilly lace curtains hung directly over and on the window.

I would hang the curtains even wider than this if you can. I didn't because I was trying to use the rod I already had, which was stretched out as far as it would go. If I ever feel like it, I'll buy another rod and pull the panels out 6 more inches or so. Notice how I left the space between the rod and the window bare here. Works just fine. Shades to come eventually.

Master Bedroom

Again, closest I have to a before. This was the previous owners. Waaaaay too low. Too shiny. Mini blinds. Brass tiny rod.

Here is the other window.

After. BAM!!!! Can you even believe this is the same window???

Now I realize this is not the same window as the first photo. But, I haven't finished the other window and this one was dressed the exact same way as the other one was, before I took it all down for the photo above.

Notice the high bar, romans hung directly behind it and opened up right to the edge of the window. White panels hung completely on the outside of the window. This looks like a completely different window. Craziness.

Family Room

Before.
Previous Owners. So much wrong with this.

After

This was before we painted and moved the bookcase out of the room.

The room how it is now, from another angle. I don't know why I don't have a straight on shot. Whatev.

Here are some of my suggestions for inexpensive, versatile, white panels.

TARGET Grommet Top 95" FOR $35 (I have these in my family room and kitchen)

IKEA Back Tab 98.5" (comes with hem tape) for $10 a PAIR (these are the ones I have in my bedroom and playroom)

I think I've illustrated my point here. High and wide baby. Any other window treatment questions??

Things ARE Coming Along.

Fun times here in crazy land! I say that because we are constantly in the midst of multiple projects at one time. We try to devote ourselves to one at a time, but that just never happens. What can I say, we just LOVE to punish ourselves and stretch our sanity to the edge! Well, so it seems these days.

Right now we are knee deep (er, waist deep) in digging the holes for the deck posts. Wow. That is all I can say to describe it. They have to be 4 feet deep and Steve is digging them all by hand. Yes, by hand. Our soil here is very very rocky and clay, so an auger would be difficult to use. Hence the shovels and post hole diggers (and wonderful friends!!). It took Steve over a week to dig the eight holes (nights mostly). Then we had our inspection of the holes, which he did wonderfully and they passed with no problem, butttttttt....it turns out he has to dig FOUR MORE holes. Yeah. That was not good news. Because our house is cantilevered, we need to have more posts closer. They didn't catch it when we initially applied for the permit. BUMMER. We were hoping to have framing started this weekend, but instead we are digging again. Oh well. We keep on keepin' on!

Here is Steve sledgehammering a humongous rock that stood in our way of digging. That poor poor man.

The other project we are working on is the family room. Now that the shelving is done, and we painted the wall behind it, we were itching to paint the rest. Because we both have full time jobs, painting has to happen in the evening after the kiddos go to bed, or on the weekends. So that means it usually takes a few nights of painting in sections to get a room completed. So far we have 3 out of 4 walls checked off the list! Woohoo!

I am really really enjoying this color. Grayish by Sherwin Williams, if you recall. It is not even a tiny bit dungeon-like, but rather bright and cheery and sophisticated. It lends a modern feel to the room, which is filled with a blend of traditional furnishings and modern/industrial accessories. So cool. I am loving this room more everyday!

Here is one corner of the room while we were in the midst of painting. So a partial before. Look at that masking tape yellow/beige. Buh bye drabby!

Here is the same view just a few minutes later. If you notice, pretty much everything else is the same, but already SOOO much better.

Annnd here is the same angle the next day after I hung the window treatments back up and put everything back together.

It never ceases to amaze me how much paint can transform a room. I mean, seriously, what an improvement!

I took some more photos on my real camera (these are all courtesy of my iPhone), and Lightroom is officially back up and running, so early this week you'll get to see more. FINALLY! Sorry for the slow goings this last week or two. When you don't have a computer or software, it really makes things difficult. Lots more to come. Love you all for hanging around during technical glitches!

Industrial Modern FUN

After a night full of working (mostly Steve) until 2am, we wrapped up the shelving unit! It looks 1000x better than I even imagined and I couldn't be any more thrilled with it. My incredible husband amazes me with his skills! He always works so hard to see my ideas and designs come to fruition. What a guy!

(Now, pardon the photos. I am a day or so away from being able to use my computer and Lightroom again, but for now I had to shoot in jpeg and do zero editing. So these are all straight out of the 'ol camera.)

Without further ado, here is our industrial/mid-century modern work of art. VOILA!

Don't mind the TV cords. Soon to be moved behind the TV.

Are you loving the gray wall as much as I am?? Again, we chose Sherwin Williams Grayish and it is perfect. Bright and light, with a touch of warmth, and it contrasts nicely with the white trim. It is a smidge off in color here, sorry, again, no editing. It is showing a bit greenish in the top two photos, but it is more warm and ZERO green in real life.

In terms of the styling, I am really enjoying how it is coming together. I am trying to blend loads of texture and keep everything earthy in color. Notice glass, metal, leather, lambskin, soft blankets, mirrors, paper, greenery, wicker, wire.

A bunch of the pieces I have found recently while antique shopping, some of them we've made or repurposed, and a couple of items we already had. I still have a fantastic Kodak camera from the '50s on the way from Ebay, as well as a really cool metal airplane. Other than that, this is it.

LOVE these '50s books I picked up last weekend for a buck or two a piece (Actually, the blue one is more recent, but looks super modern to me). Talk about great titles too!! "Fortune Is A Woman". Truer words were never spoken. ;) I painted that little wooden airplane that I snagged for $1.

Steve welded this nifty piece of artwork for me. Totally cool.

I am diggin' the mixture of soft/cushy with the wicker and metal and wood. Again, sticking with earth tones.

I picked up those wicker boxes at Michael's (last night actually) for 40% off plus 20% off with an entire purchase coupon. DEAL! They are perfect for holding all of our DVDs and our DVD player.

This awesome antique toy phone Steve and I discovered while on our day trip last month. The box is one I had that I painted with chalkboard paint.

These are all books I had. Camera for $5 last weekend. Spheres I made and featured HERE.

This cigar box I scored last weekend as well. Marked for $20 at the antique shop, I offered $10, she agreed. Woohoo! Perfect spot for the remotes and incredibly cool. 

All in all, a BIG success! It was surely a labor of love though. It took more time, more money, more stress, less sleep and a smidge of disagreeing (only natural right?) to get it done, but in the end, it is even better than I thought. 100% custom, totally unique, and crafted by hand by my amazing Stevie-Poo (sorry babe). 

Maybe I'll get more into the construction of it later (including more photos once we paint more than just that one wall), but for now, that's all folks! What's your favorite element/piece??

Oh, and a before and after, just for fun.

BEFORE

AFTER

Family Room Sneak Peek!

GAH!!! I'm so excited! Steve and I finally mustered up the energy to start back up on the family room shelving unit. We have been a smidge burned out lately and needed a minute to catch our breath. AHHHHH. So. Now that THAT is out of the way, onward!

Last night we set up the entire thing. Measured it, anchored it to the wall, put the unstained boards on it, hung the tv, and made sure we were happy. Ummmm. Happy? ECSTATIC! I didn't want to take it down!

Alas. We had to. Steve has to remove the two middle units in order to remove the boards to stain them. So it was just a sneak peek. But he managed to stain all the shelves last night and they are ready to go tonight. See? (iphone pics again, my computer is still on the fritz so I have no Lightroom)

Oh they look heavenly. Nice and dark cocoa-ish to pick up on the woodtones on the other side of the room in my desk and post office box. Coordinates so nicely with our coffee bean couches and contrasts perfectly with the white end tables and frames and the blue rug. I wanted them to look a bit distressed and aged, and Steve did such a great job. Love love love!

Here is what the piping looked like up, without the wood of course.

HUGE right??! I was surprised at how substantial they are! I mean, I knew it was going to be most of the wall, but it is hard to envision until you actually see them up. It is going to make SUCH a statement in the room and the entire first floor (this wall is visible throughout the floor). I don't even think you can tell that well from the photo, but they are lovely.

We are also planning on painting that wall tonight. Steve picked up the paint that I finally chose last night, and hopefully we'll whip that out this evening. We don't want to have to take the entire unit down again just to paint, so we'll do this one wall and then finish the rest soon.

Here is the color I picked.

Sherwin Williams Grayish. We color matched (like always) to Olympic Premium Latex paint since it is one of the only zero-voc paints with zero-voc colorant as well. Can't wait to see it up!! It is nice and light and bright and slightly warm to coordinate with all the warm brown tones we have in the room. Yet not beige-ish or too cool. I think it is going to be perfect with the industrial shelving. Hopefully tomorrow I can come back and show you! Maybe, maybe not. We'll see how much we get accomplished this evening.

Another really cool update for the room is in the artwork realm. I managed to snag four (fantastic!) nautical maps of Lake George NY on ebay this week. Graphic yellow. Gray. White. BIG. Annnnnnd $15 for all four. KILLER! I am going to frame them in the same frames that I used for the gallery wall and they will be grouped as a set on the wall where the old oak bookcase was. Here is a sneak peek.

PERFECT right??! I am in love. I had no idea they were going to be this lovely. What an absolute steal. Just when you think Ebay is lost and way overpriced. Wait until you see how incredible they are going to look all together.

I also have been wrangling some funky objects for the shelving lately. Today I painted a box I have been saving, with chalkboard paint. CB2 inspired! You'll see that soon. Lots going on here, and soon I'll have some more reveal photos to share. It is just so fun to see things coming together!

Quick & Dirty Cushion Recover

Last night I had a burst of energy and inspiration to do a little project while the kids were with Steve outside. I grabbed a piece of scrap fabric and my staple gun and got to work! I have two ottomans/benchs in our family room for people to prop their feet on. Our room is very wide, so you can't reach the "coffee table" to put your legs on, so I like to have these available. Who likes to relax on the couch without a foot rest?? I recovered one already with a bright yellow chevron fabric, but this one was just plain white and I really wanted to update it a bit. I had a minute so off I went!

Here it is before. We actually recovered this about seven years ago. It was Steve's grandparent's old stool and it used to be floral.

All you need is a piece of fabric (I am using leftovers from the roman shades in the kitchen, which was actually a tablecloth from Target), a staple gun, and staples.

Step 1) Remove the cushion from the stool. Mine was not attached this time because there is a little storage area underneath, but the last one I did was screwed in.

Step 2) Lay your fabric out and place the cushion on top. (Don't mind the old gross vents. When we redo the kitchen they will be getting replaced.)

Step 3) Cut. I know. This is all very complicated. Thank GOODNESS you have the photos. ;)

Find a baby to park it on the corner of the cushion. PHEW! Glad I have one just hangin' around.

Kidding. I couldn't get him to move his tush.

Step 4) Start stapling it nice and tight. Make sure your pattern is right where you want it by flipping it over and checking the placement first. I do the two long edges first, then corners, then short edges. I'm not an expert on corners, I just fiddle with them until I like the way they look and do lots of stapling.

Step 5) Replace the cushion on the bench, screwing it on if you need to. VOILA!

Now. I am planning (I think) on painting the wood either white or gray. But I want to wait until we paint the family room because I'll just do it at the same time. Also, I always have a hard time taking the plunge when it comes to painting hardwood furniture. I am always afraid of ruining it! So, I mull it over awhile just to be sure. For now, both ottomans are wood toned and when I decide, I'll do them both. Or not. We'll see.

Here it is in it's home. Ready to be pulled out as needed or have a drink or magazine plopped on it. Whatev.

Oh shoot, I should have taken a better photo. See at the top of the mail sorter? I put the West Elm spheres that I made up there. Perfect spot! The stain matches 100% and it adds a bit of height to the piece which, in my opinion, was just a teeny bit short before. Someday I'll take a real photo to show you better.

So there you have it folks. That took me 5 minutes. Quick and dirty (notice I didn't show you the underside once it was stapled? That is where the dirty comes in. Who cares! No one can see it). Now it looks like it was purposely chosen for the room. YAY!