Archive for the ‘Decorating’ Category
You may remember that several weeks ago I posted that I had found an almost identical replica of the Pottery Barn chandelier that my Mom had been eyeing on Overstock.com? Well, we finally got that sucker put together and hung. Let me tell you, it was no picnic getting the chandelier assembled. Each crystal had to be individually added, using little metal pins that you threaded through some holes and then twisted to secure. And then once that was done, each of the arms had to be added and the hardware that was included wasn’t especially high-quality so we ended up buying some more substantial lock nuts and spray-painting them brown so they would blend in. We also spray painted the candle sleeves white and after Mom bought a medallion from a local lighting store, we spray painted that too! Quite a process. But I think the results are worth it:
Here’s one with the light turned off so you can get a good look at it. Also a good way to see the detail on the beautiful medallion …
This final picture gives a good shot of the curtains that my mother-in-law and I together made for Mom. Mom actually bought the Pottery Barn Dupioni Silk drapes online but when she went to install them, we realized that the windows were different heights! It’s an old house and we’d never paid much attention before. But suddenly we understood why there was a valance over the drapes in the adjoining living room – those windows were different heights too! Mom found a valance design that she liked in a picture in a Southern Living and Karen and I worked until we had recreated it. I’ll post some pics about that process next … stay tuned!
In the meantime, yay for Pottery Barn looks at Overstock prices!
posted by Julia on Aug 14th, 2010 in Decorating
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A few of the steal-worthy ideas I saw this week …
My friends at Prudent Baby showed up on Hostess with the Mostess and this super-cute tutorial for Mod Podge Coasters. Love!
My friend Bonnie’s blog got me turned on to Flourish Design. This is the post that won me over. Why doesn’t my house look more like that? Love that cream dresser with dark pulls. Hmmmm ….
There are some really gorgeous photographs on One King’s Lane this week by Marcella Echavarria. The one below is stand-out. One King’s Lane is such a daily addiction … and this week I ordered a blue and white garden stool for our living room with a $25 credit that was burning a hole in my pocket! Pics forthcoming …
You know I love Miss Mustard Seed? She’s doing an awesome give-away. It’s a box FULL of fantastic antique stuff. A whole box! Check it out. And congrats to her on 2000 followers!
My friend Eleanor gave me a beautiful Pewter spoon when I was the Maid of Honor in her wedding years ago. It’s monogrammed with a B for my maiden name and it’s way too pretty to stay in a drawer. Love this idea! Think just one would be too boring?
Eons ago, my friend Katie Hitt snapped this pic for me at a Flea Market and said that these were selling for $199 each! She rightly thinks that they could be modified to fit nearly any decor. I was thinking of a slim, gold-leaf frame and mounted on a simple linen background. Would a soft lilac be interesting in a room with dark walls and lots of blue & white? I’d love to introduce another unexpected color for accent but just don’t know what …
That’s it for this week!
posted by Julia on Aug 1st, 2010 in Crafting, Decorating, Klepto Files
4 Comments »
Last night I was surfing around on Overstock.com just for the hey of it. And all of a sudden, I came across this:
Antique Bronze 6-Arm Chrystal and Iron Chandelier, $248.99 @ Overstock.com
And I felt like it looked suspiciously like this:
Camilia 6-Arm Chandelier for $399.00 @ Pottery Barn
The difference? A white hanging cord (changeable), antiqued candle sleeves (changeable or per the reviews on Overstock.com spray paint-able), and you put it together yourself (4 hour process per the reviews).
My momma had been eyeing the PB chandy. Let’s just say that less than 12 hours after my discovery and subsequent email, Momma is a very happy lady.
PB rip off accomplished!
posted by Julia on Jul 2nd, 2010 in Decorating
4 Comments »
When we bought our house, the hallway featured a built-in coat rack. It was a 1×4, painted the same color as the wall, and out fitted with a series of simple, wooden pegs. It was functional, for sure, but just not all that attractive.
Will and I decided that we would pull that rack down and recreate it later to better match the casual elegance we are hoping for in our house. And last week, we finally got around to doing just that. Here’s our new coat rack:
It turns out that this is a great feature to have in the downstairs hallway of our house. For starters, as is typical with any home built in 1930, ours is light on the closets (at least downstairs). And the closet that we had designated as our coat closet is inconveniently situated behind a rocking chair. We rationalized that the rocker would be easy to move for access to the closet. But what has happened instead is that the rocker has BECOME our closet … where we drape jackets, hats, scarves, the dry cleaning, dog leashes … you get the picture. Our hallway coat rack has really helped to corral all of that clutter. And what else is a hallway good for anyway? Might as well be for hanging coats.
How’d we do it? Glad you asked:
MATERIALS:
1×4, choose one that is relatively free of knots
decorative finish trim, lots of options available at your local home improvement store
sander or sand paper
finish nailer (don’t forget the possibility of borrowing from a friend or renting to cut costs)
decorative hooks and associated hardware (typically screws)
nail punch
hammer
saw (or have pieces cut to length at your home improvement store)
caulk
caulk gun
painter’s putty
carpenter’s wood filler
putty knife
STEP 1: MEASURE AND CUT
First things first you want to measure the length of your coat rack. We were butting ours up against the frame of 2 doors which made finishing it off pretty easy. If you don’t have 2 door frames (or even a door frame and a corner wall) between which to position your coat rack, you’ll want to consider how you’ll cap off the corners. If using trim, you’ll need a miter saw to get the look right. But we didn’t have to worry about that because the door frames helped us out!
STEP 2: AFFIX THE 1×4 TO THE WALL
We were working with a plaster wall so my hubby used special screws intended just for that purpose. Whatever is right for your wall, make sure you sink your screws so that you can come back later and fill over the screw head with wood filler. Will also popped a few nails in the 1×4 using his finish nailer for good measure.
STEP 3: AFFIX THE DECORATIVE TRIM
We chose this particular trim because we thought it echoed the patterns in the iron hooks. You could choose just about anything that is intended to help finish off an edge. The best thing to do is to hold it up against your 1×4 while you are still at the store and see how it looks. You’ll use the finish nailer to attach this trim. This is an important step. You don’t want to use a regular old hammer and nails for this task because you will dent the design in your decorative wood. Not cool! So rent or borrow the finish nailer if you don’t have one and enjoy the rush of using a pneumatic power tool!
STEP 4: SINK YOUR NAILS
Now you’ll want to go along and sink any of the nails that the finish nailer didn’t sink, so that the heads are just below the surface of the wood.
STEP 5: FILL, PUTTY AND CAULK
Get your wood filler and fill in the holes where the screws were installed. If you see any funky knots in the wood, you’ll want to fill those with wood filler too. Next you want to use some painter’s putty to fill in the tiny holes where the nails are The smother you can get the surface, the more professional and like-it’s-always-been-there your coat rack will look. Finally, use your caulk and caulk gun to fill in any cracks between the 1×4 and the trim or between the new rack and the door frame.
STEP 6: SAND SMOOTH
Once everything has dried, come behind and gently sand to make sure everything is smooth.
STEP 7: TAPE, PRIME & PAINT
Next you’ll want to tape off the wall around your wood installation and apply a coat of primer. Kilz is good for making sure that any knots in your wood don’t show up later as dark spots. Once that’s dry, apply 2 coats of paint. We chose the same color as our trim but the possibilities there are really endless.
STEP 8: INSTALL THE HOOKS
We found our hooks on eBay. I think we paid $20 for all 4. But there are lots of hooks out there if you get to looking. The web is a great place (but make sure you comparison shop) as is the flea market. Nashvillians, there is a vendor at our monthly flea market that has every kind of iron hook you can imagine – from kid-appropriate to ranch-appropriate to more Victorian like ours. We chose 4 and spaced them equally apart on the board. Will pre-drilled the holes and then just screwed them right in with some brown screws (due to the stellar price, the screws were not included so we just picked those up at Home Depot.
And ta-daaaaaa! A great place to hang coats and wrangle general clutter. How do you like our fancy coat rack, inspired by the much simpler one that greeted us when we bought our house? Those comments make me feel loved, ya know!
posted by Julia on Apr 13th, 2010 in Decorating, Inspired, Organizing
6 Comments »
Ashblue, a fabulous locally-owned gift shop here in Nashville, sent me a postcard week before last inviting me to check out their annual egg decorating party (thanks, Mary-Michael & Marrah!). But this event far-exceeded the typical egg-dying party for three reasons:
1) the blank canvasses we were handed were OSTRICH eggs
2) the decorating supplies went way beyond the usual dyes and stickers
3) Faith Hill and her daughter were there bedazzling with us!
My mom, mother-in-law and I all attended last Saturday afternoon. We thought we would spend an hour or so … but two and a half hours later we were finally paying our bill and walking out with our prized creations. There were young kids, older kids (some who were serious artists and really making some amazing things), and adult kids like us. All were having an excellent time.
I made this which I was really quite pleased with …
Rubber bands created the curved lines in the center when stretched around a naked egg. I used blue painters tape to tape off the ends while I dyed the center pink. After a trip under the hairdryer and removal of the tape and rubber bands, I found that some of the pink had seeped though to the ends. Although it wasn’t what I was going for, I decided to embrace the marbleized look and I taped off the entire pink center band and used highly-concentrated dye and a paintbrush to accentuate my previous “mistakes”. After some more time under the hair dryer I decided to go a little glam and I added the gold paint and jewels.
My mother in law, Karen, made this …
Since she was flying back to Savannah after her Nashville visit, she assumed that the ostrich egg would not make the trip so she dedicated it to my husband and I with a monogram. The monogram and fun pattern on the back were made with crayon. Here’s the back:
Then she dyed the whole egg in yellow. Next she added some clear glitter that makes the monogram look almost frosted. Then she glued all of those cool little flat, glass pellets into each circle on her crayon’d pattern. Pretty cute huh?
My mom made one too but I don’t have any pics. In bright greens, pinks, and yellows, we decided it was Lily Pulitzer inspired. She’s using it as the centerpiece of her breakfast room table for the Easter season.
I think these are both going to be heirlooms someday. Can’t you just hear future generations fighting over the ostrich eggs that grandma and the great-grandmas painted??
I have NO idea how you might source your own ostrich egg if you wanted to replicate this project for yourself. But Nashvillians, if you are interested, Ashblue has offered this fun activity for the last 5 years. It’s $32 per egg and it’s a ball. You need to reserve your egg in advance … but don’t worry, I’ll remind you next year. And even though Easter is over for 2010, you should run on into Ashblue anyway because they have some great looking stuff. My favorite is probably the DIY succulent gardens … so cute. Get on over there and hoping you and yours had an eggcelent Easter!!
posted by Julia on Apr 5th, 2010 in Crafting, Decorating, Holidays, Steal This
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This post isn’t about stealing any ideas or providing a tutorial on every detail of a fun, new project. It’s about carpet and what a difference carpet of the fresh variety can make. I can’t even believe I’m about to post these before photos because they are so completely embarrassing but I’m so pleased with the results that I just must share.
THE STAIRS
When we moved into our home almost exactly a year ago, we planned to purchase new carpet for the stairs and our master bedroom as a month 2 expense. Month 1 was devoted to paint, carpentry, plumbing, tile work, a new deck … you know, all of the stuff that comes after moving into a house that an elderly lady has been living in for over a decade. But when month 2 came around, my husband lost his job. So, we moved into conservation mode and just sucked it up. Here’s what we’ve been living with for a year in on our staircase:
Anytime we entertained, we felt compelled to tell the story of the timing of the losing of the job and yadda yadda. So needless to say, we are both thrilled about this:
Do you love it? We do! It’s called French Wreath and it’s 100% wool. Atlanta and Nashville friends, you can get it at Myers Carpet. The manufacturer is Godfrey Hirst and I’m sure you can get it lots of places. Which I would recommend. Lovely, soft stuff. Makes a great area rug too.
THE MASTER BEDROOM
Just after we closed on our house, we invited a fantastic crew of workers from Atlanta to come live in our master bedroom and work on things, namely, aforementioned paint, carpentry, plumbing, tile work, and a new deck. They were short on work due to the economy and we were happy to have them up. We told them not to worry about the carpet in the master bedroom – paint on it, track in gunk, whatever! It won’t matter since we were planning to replace it the following month. And then conservation mode hit. So this is what we’ve been living with:
See what I mean? Embarrassing. But hey, that’s life and we dealt with it. Check out the replacement. Nothing fancy … but clean and fresh. Glory be!
Ohhhhh for love of fresh carpet. I’ve never loved carpet so much. Yay!
posted by Julia on Mar 27th, 2010 in Decorating
3 Comments »
About a month or two ago, I was working out at the gym perusing someone’s left-behind copy of Better Homes & Gardens. I turned the page to find a photo of a farm-house sink styled with all kinds of colorful vintage vases brimming with different kinds of flowers. (Out of guilt, I didn’t nab that tattered BHG and now I can’t find the photo anywhere … let me know if you’ve seen it so I can post it here!) It dawned on me that literally every single vase that I own is clear glass (well, with the exception of my the egg-shaped vases that I used in my collection post). So I resolved to add some color to my vase collection and on my last flea market run, I scored this:
Besides just being a great thing to have on hand for when my hubby brings home flowers (which the smart guy does with regularity), I was hoping to find something that was just the right size to brighten up the telephone nook in our hallway. And, I think it definitely does.
I was so pumped up to see that the blue in the vase totally picks up on the blue in that occasional chair that we got hand-me-down from Will’s mom and freshened up with a bit of new fabric. But, I still felt like the space was lacking some pizazz. My good friend Rebecca who blogs right here told me about an awesome website that you’ve got to check out. You see, Rebecca knows that I had fake flowers and plants. You will never find silk botanicals in my home ever. But the real thing, when dried, is a totally different story. So for weeks I’ve been obsessing over Nettleton Hollow. Check out some of their cool offerings:
6 dried artichokes are $16.50 and 10 lotus pods are $8.50. Either would look awesome in a bowl or tray on a coffee table. The dried artichokes would be especially cute in a dish nestled in on some shelves with your cookbooks.
This manzanita branch is 24″ tall and $18.50. If you aren’t convinced that you should spend nearly $20 on a branch, take a look at Nettleton Hollow’s blog where manzanita branches are the star of the show and are used in a million different creative ways.
So I spent weeks surfing around the site. At first I was going to go the safe route and just get some grasses to fill my vintage vase. But then I decided, what the heck, let’s get funky with the dried botanicals. I found this photo on the Nettleton Hollow website and decided that was the ticket:
So here’s my little telephone nook now:
These botanicals are almost pre-historic looking. I’m into it! And while I was at it, I put some of that boring, dried rice on top of my bar to give it a little extra height. Maybe that crystal vase will get replaced with something colorful sometime soon. And for sure I’ll put an actual photo in that Pottery Barn frame instead of the birch trees that have been in it since Christmas.
Funky, dried botanicals r us! What do you think? Comments make me feel loved!
posted by Julia on Mar 26th, 2010 in Decorating, Gardening, Plants & Flowers, Inspired
3 Comments »
I’m going to credit this rip off to our friends Kasey & Justin who have 3 legit reasons for hanging guitars in their house:
#1. She works for Gibson.
#2. He is a FABULOUS musician.
#3. They have great taste.
Here are some of their fancy wall guitars:
I mean these cats are the real mccoy. Do Will and I boast these same credentials? Absolutely not. Perhaps I should revise my credits here. I’m going to credit this rip off to the city of Nashville. By virtue of the fact that we live in Music City USA, we feel justified having a guitar hanging in our house. Ok that’s not a great reason either. But Will is signed up to take some lessons and the guitar was my Christmas gift to him. It’s not a fancy guitar. As a matter of fact, it’s the second cheapest one that Yamaha makes and came with a crappy lessons DVD. But still, I’ve hung cheaper, less personal things on my walls in the name of decor. So here she is:
In case you are interested, the hanger we used is available here. I have no idea if it’s a good one but ten bones got my hubby’s new hobby up off the floor. So yes please!
City of Nashville (ahem, Kasey & Justin) rip off accomplished! Do you think we are posers? Tell me in the comments. Comments make me feel loved!
posted by Julia on Mar 16th, 2010 in Decorating, Organizing, Rip Off
5 Comments »
Ever since I graduated from dorm life, my mom has given me a bunny at Easter. I love rabbits (such sweet little faces) and I love to celebrate Easter and Spring so it’s no wonder she chose this tradition for me. Last year, my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law jumped in on the fun as well. As you might suspect, my rabbits are multiplying like, well, like rabbits. In Easter’s past I have spread them all over the house under the guise that having a happy bunny to look at in every room makes my bunny collection more enjoyable.
But this year I decided I would draw my bunny collection display inspiration from just about every article I see on collections. Everyone says group collections for impact. And I have to agree that a thematic display like a collection is a pretty cool way to show off your stuff. Here are some examples:
Genia Gilchrist (of Gilchrist & Gilchrist here in Nashville) was featured in Southern Living just before the holidays. In that article, Genia shares how she groups a collection of Santas she has been acquiring over the years. Isn’t it fun to see all of the different shapes and styles in one place?
I’m a lover of plates, although I try to resist buying them on every shopping trip (which I would if I could). Mostly I don’t buy them because I don’t have a great place for displaying them. But just have a look at how this collection totally makes this kitchen. Just darling.
If I had a collection of sea life specimens, I would want them to look like this. (That’s one sentence I never dreamed I would type!) If these were spread all over the house, it would be downright creepy. Like I’m getting the hell out of here creepy. With sea life specimens on these modern, open shelves, this office becomes totally cool.
modern home office design by san francisco architect Schwartz and Architecture via Houzz
I actually saved the picture below because I love the casual, mix-matched style of that front porch. But check out this clever display of metal buildings that this homeowner collected on his travels (#3 below). This is genius because put yourself in this man’s wife’s shoes (I don’t know that he even has a wife but work with me here). Your man insists on buying metal buildings on every trip that you take. He also insists that they be displayed. I mean what – are you going to strew them all over your den or even all over your bookcases? Well, come to think of it the bookcase idea could look cool. But what about putting them all together on the lower level of a table like this? Cha-ching! My Dad’s got some lighthouses that are going to get the same treatment in our lake house.
But back to bunnies. One of the spots in my house that I can’t get happy with is my mantle. I mess with that sucker at least once a month. Stay tuned for a post on that. So I figured why not corral all of the bunnies on the mantle for one high-impact Easter extravaganza? So night before last I unwrapped all of my bunnies and started arranging them. I was aiming for balance without symmetry. But when I finished, the mantle looked kind of empty. I decided this was actually good news since I can keep collecting and not outgrow my mantle for at least a few more Easters.
So to fill in a bit for this year, I added 5 of the Pottery Barn Egg-Shaped vases that I had been given for Christmas. This set of 6 total vases was a great find. The colors totally fit in with our house and even just a single flower makes these so cute almost anywhere. I hadn’t used them as a group until I nestled them in between the bunnies and I’ve got to say, I love the repetition that they add to the display. And although I don’t usually choose carnations, I chose them for this project since they are pink, cheap and long-lasting. They might even make it to Easter with a trim and water change.
What do you think of my bunny collection display on the mantle? Maybe it’s still missing a little oompf? Comments make me feel loved!
posted by Julia on Mar 11th, 2010 in Decorating, Inspired
7 Comments »
As you have probably gathered, I am all about stealing good ideas and making them my own. Sometimes this means doing things on the cheap. Other times it means that a great idea is worth a little cash so I go for it. Last week I got my Napa Style catalog. It’s Michael Chiarello’s company – you might know him from his Food Network TV program Easy Entertaining. The TV program is pretty good stuff – lots of Italian cuisine and California wine country influence. S0 you might imagine I was pretty intrigued when I realized he had a catalog company a couple of years back. Never purchased anything from him, though. The prices are just way to high, in my opinion. The dude must be making a fortune!
I think it’s high time we take vintage back to the flea market and get a Michael Chiarello/Napa Style rip off in the making. Let’s begin here:
#1) Napa Style is selling Vintage Pressed Glass Goblets (pictured above) for $49 apiece in their catalog. They are mismatched (super cute, tons of personality and interest there). These are each apparently at least 80 years old and made of pressed glass, a lost art from the 19th century (according to the Napa Style catalog).
First and foremost, pressed glass is not a lost art. Just about anything you buy that is glass is going to be pressed glass, including anything you find at Target or WalMart from glass giant Anchor Hocking. I’ll give Michael this, they aren’t as fabulous as they used to be. But that doesn’t mean you have to pay $49 a goblet to get the look! Here are a few I found on Replacements.com and eBay with prices.
Duncan & Miller Hobnail Goblet for $15.99 on Replacements:
Wright Glass Moon & Stars for for $15.99 on Replacements:
Set of 4 Duncan & Miller Pressed Glass Goblets for $19.99 on eBay:
Here’s a Highbee one from circa 1890 on eBay for $17.99. I am no longer impressed with your $49, 80-year old glasses, Michael. Not impressed at all.
And these are just the clear glass ones! If you are interested in colored glassware to spice up your table, pressed glass offers TONS of cute, vintage options. Spend a little time rummaging through yard sales and flea markets and I’m telling you, you’ll see TONS of these at crazy low prices. They were so common for so many years, it might even be worth asking grandma if she has any tucked away. My grandma does … in olive green.
#2) Napa Style’s Sugar Mold Candleholders (above) are apparently an Exclusive. At $99 for a half mold and $179 for a full mold (not including votive holders), they had better be! But guess what? They are not. For sure Southern Living at Home was selling sugar molds from their catalog a few years ago and they were not that pricey.
Look at this reproduction one I found on eBay. It’s $79 for a 43″ (that is 3.5 feet!) one including 12 glass votive holders:
And if you are ok with a reproduction sugar mold, the Nashville Flea Market always has tons. They sell them for $19-$30 and you can always haggle them down. Not a trip to the flea market has passed that I didn’t see the vendor with the sugar molds. It’s a sure bet. Look how cute my friend Molly’s table looked when she used a sugar mold to decorate her holiday table:
(Stolen without permission but with gratitude to my friend Molly Witherington who blogs right here.)
And here’s how Southern Living uses a sugar mold to make a kid-friendly centerpiece for Easter:
Moving on.
#3) Let’s tackle the Napa Style Vintage Spindle Collection, pictured here:
I’m going to ignore the $1,599 chandelier because I would not want to rip that off anyway. But the magazine rack, towel bar, and table are intriguing options for our upcoming lake house project. But at $349, $79, and $249 respectively, you can forget it. But you better believe I’ll be looking out for some old spindles on my next flea marketing trip. They can’t be much – and what a cool way to give the lake a little character. You’ll have to stay tuned for that one.
#4) Now let’s have a look at the Napa Style Antique Clawfoot Door Stop f0r $39.
Personally, I love the idea of using a clawfoot for bookends:
But whatever you fancy, it’s not a $39 investment. Random mis-matched clawfeet are everywhere at flea markets and salvage shops if you just keep your eye open. As a matter of fact, my hubby and I stopped into Preservation Station here in Nashville over the weekend and we saw lots of clawfeet around the shop:
These were $25 apiece, no matter the size. Still better than paying $39 but still not great. I’d be willing to put money that a flea market purveyor would part with one of these for $10 or $12, especially if was a stray with no matching pieces. But please don’t think I’m knocking Preservation Station. I’m not! Those guys have some fantastic stuff that is definitely worth the investment. Like maybe $495 for this pair of lamps made from an antique balustrade? They are calling my name and are worth every penny:
So Michael Chiarello, we are taking vintage back to to the flea market. Your good ideas can come to life in our homes without spending an arm and a leg. Rip off accomplished!
posted by Julia on Mar 8th, 2010 in Decorating, Rip Off
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