One Room Challenge: Week Five

This is the final week of scrounging together items for my One Room Challenge.  Next week I’ll be showing you the final reveal of the bedroom in a country house.

As I mentioned last week, I was going to attempt to pull off a DIY with this Peter Dunham fabric.

I turned a pair of lamp shades from this…

To this…

It was nerve wracking!  My hands were shaking and sweating.  It wasn’t all that hard but I’m not a DIYer and so practicing on expensive fabric had the adrenaline pumping.

I also dropped off a beautiful print by the talented photographer, Julia Lynn, to the framers for art above the bed.  I went with a darker frame to pull in the side tables and to up the “country” vibe.  It also really drew out the darker colors in the photograph.

I’m hoping this Serena and Lily bench will arrive in time for the end of the bed.

There’s not a hope in hell for the Chairish side table will get here in time. It will take over six weeks to ship from Chicago.  And my client paid more for the shipping then the actual piece. Thumbs down, Chairish!

But, all the other items are going to come together and I’m happy with every little bit that’s been arriving.

I’m glad the finish line is in sight because I’ve been running out of steam.  One more week!  Check out the other participants here.

Pleat It Up

I have a feeling pleated shades are coming back in and I like it.  2008 Kate would be so anti the pleats but they’re fab when used correctly.

Irving and Morrison

Charlotte Moss

Is it time for pleated shades to make a comeback or am I growing more traditional with age?

One Room Challenge – Week Four

Alright guys, we are getting down to the wire.  In two short weeks I will be showing the finished bedroom.  As a refresher, I am joining Linda of Calling It Home and many other bloggers to make over a room in six weeks.  I’m working on a bedroom for a client for their house in the country.

This is all happening in real time and things are going fast.  On the first week, my client was presented with this plan:

With her input and some tweaks, we’re now moving forward with this plan –

One thing that I was on the hunt for big time was a side-table to go with the one shown in the moodboard above.

As luck would have it, I found a great side table at my local Salvation Army.  It was actually sitting out on the sidewalk and I spotted it while driving El Camino.  One quick stop in and it was all mine.  To be honest I wasn’t even fully convinced in the store if I was making a mistake but it had that country feel, is the same wood finish as the other side table and similar dimensions.

I delivered it early this week and I love it!

I’ve got to pump up my styling (and use a real camera) for the big reveal but I’m pleased with how it’s all coming together!

Final note, I’m completely disappointed with Chairish’s shipping.  I ordered the other side table three weeks ago and it very likely won’t make it on time.  The antique table is shipping from Chicago and it’s not like they had to make it or it wasn’t in stock.  If it doesn’t make it in time, I’ll improvise.  I just wish that Chairish had similar shipping to One Kings Lane.

I’m off to attempt a DIY with this fabulous Peter Dunham fabric…

 

Please check out the other participants here.

Kitchen Nook Progress

Okay guys let’s chat kitchen nook, shall we?  For those of you who are loyal readers (thank you, Debbie) you know that I have big dreams for our breakfast nook.

Currently this is the little alcove that sits off of our kitchen.

It’s highly functional with a small West Elm desk, a child’s kitchen, two high chairs and two antique chairs.  Isn’t it clean too?  My God people, it’s hopeless in there currently.  But, I’ve got some big plans. Originally, I wanted a booth along the back wall and on the left hand wall that juts out so I would have an L shaped built in booth.

I had my guys over from B&L Seating who have helped me out in numerous design projects to see what they thought.  They felt that the left hand wall was too short for it to be very functional and didn’t think the booth should curve.  So now, we’re thinking about doing one long built in bench/booth along the back wall and then nothing on the side wall.  I’ll then do a smaller table and people can access the booth from either side.

 

 

Next decision comes in with the booth fabric.  In my dreams I’d do nice fluffy down pillows in a comfy linen fabric and make it like one giant inviting couch to come sit in while I slave away in the kitchen.  Kidding!  WHile I drink wine and microwave.

Something Amanda Peetish…

In reality, I have children that would smear red sauce into the fabric faster than you can say “dammit Josie stop that”  Trust me, I’ve tried.  She is fast.  So vinyl it is.

I’m considering cognac

 

I’m considering seafoam

I’m tiny weeny bit considering patterned oilcloth – is that crazy?

I’ve just always loved this Amy Butler oilcloth pattern (shown below) but I don’t think I’d go through with it.

 

We’re getting places people.  I just thought I should let you know where my heads at, like a nut.  Thoughts?

Happy Friday!

One Room Challenge: Week Three – Gone Country

Another week has gone by and it’s time to check in on One Room Challenge: Project Country.

I’ve got the great start to a joke…What do you get when you have a mother, daughter and two baby grandkids to set up an Ikea bed?  Unfortunately, for us, the answer is – insanity – and it wasn’t very funny.

My mom and I built the ikea bed while Josie (my two year old) napped and Gracie (my seven month old) refused to nap.  Attempting to build a bed on a hardwood floor without making a peep was not easy. We were dropping huge boards and unintentionally making all kinds of noise but miraculously Josie slept through the clamor.  Grace was way too excited to sleep so she hung out with us.  Mom and I built the entire bed up to one last piece fairly quickly (in about an hour) when we realized one of the first boards was on incorrectly and we had to take apart the entire bed and remake it.

This is how close we were when we had to take it all apart.

Grace found it all very entertaining.

We eventually got it built and this is where we’re at so far…

which is a major improvement considering where we started.

However, I’ve still got a long ways to go.  What you see in the above photo is only a touch of how the bedding will actually look.  Here’s the direction I’m headed in for the bed linens.

A huge thank you to my mom for assisting me in making an Ikea bed out of the kindness of her heart.  Now, that’s love people.

Please check out the other participants here.

Feeling Inspired – Anna Burke Interiors

I hate to admit it but my design inspiration has been running low lately.  Perhaps because we are bombarded with images from online mags to Instagram that designs can start to feel redundant.  As we are inundated with constant access to designers work, originality dissipates far too soon; an indigo batik pillow becomes ho hum, a black room seems typical, etc.

I stumbled across the work of Anna Burke Interiors yesterday and it felt fresh to me.  She is traditional with a twist and oh so fun!  She collects interesting vintage pieces and mixes them with bespoke furniture for a look that doesn’t feel formulaic.

Funny story – when I first saw this image (above), I fell in love with the sofa and I thought to myself, “one day, I’m going to own that sofa” And then I looked up the source.  Ummmm, I already own that sofa in pretty much the same color: it’s Jonathan Adler.  #mommybrain  Mine is covered in spit up and needs to be restuffed so that could be why I didn’t make the connection.

My home (above) image by Liz Perryman

Back to Anna –

What really got me inspired was Anna’s Instagram feed which I’m clueless on how to pull photos from.  I could get you this one image.  But, I encourage you to follow her here.

Anyone been inspiring you lately?

One Room Challenge – Gone Country

I’ve got an update on the one room challenge, where I’m making over a guest bedroom in the country.

As a reminder, here’s the plan I showed to my client this past week.

The feedback is in people. The big issue came with the headboard.  My client doesn’t like tufting and well you can’t really get around that.  She also didn’t feel that a tufted headboard belonged in the country.  I loved the look and the big shot of green so I tried to push my headboard choice by showing my client the kelly green fabric swatch that went so fabulously with the stems of the flowers.  I also upped the country vibe by switching the blue pillows out to ruffled pillows to see if that would help.

Nah.  She was almost convinced but not fully there.  So, it was time for a new bed.  As luck would have it the very most perfect four post bed came onto Craigslist as I was searching high and low for the correct alternative.  And here she is…

Yes, the discontinued Edland bed in a beautiful yellow pine.  Now that bed will do just fine in the country, city or the suburbs.  Speaking of the burbs, I was 99% ready to hoard my find for my own suburban home.  But, I passed it along to my client and she was on board!  And we are moving forward!!  We officially have a bed!

Other feedback was that she liked the spindle wood side table but not the round side table.

I was fine with that.  The round side table wasn’t a complete love for me but rather something that I thought went well with its mate.  When doing bedside tables that are different, I think it’s important that they are similar heights and widths to pull it off.  So, for now, I’ve got some hunting to do.

Overall, my client was very pleased with the design and loved the bedding, which is the most important part.  We’re getting places!!

I’m just celebrating my luck with the Edland bed.  I mean check out this old Blueprint pic for inspiration…

 

PS – remember Blueprint Mag?  It was the best!

Next week, I’m headed over to build the bed and to start to bring the room together.

Please go check out the other participants, here.

Easter Recap

I’ll tell you, we almost threw in the towel at the eleventh hour on hosting Easter.  When we found out it was going to be raining on Easter, we were super bummed.  Ever since we moved in last May, we couldn’t wait to host Easter under the Wisteria in our backyard.  Emphasis – backyard. In fact, just two days before Easter the garden seemed to taunt me in all it’s best colors with the sun blazing down…

The outdoor table that Graham built fits 13 people.  But none of us 13 people wanted to eat lunch in the rain.  Our dining room table easily sits six and you can squeeze in 8.  So we just had to make it work…

Good thing I have quite the collection of chairs over the years.

And if we couldn’t have lunch out in the garden, well then I was determined to bring the garden indoors, dammit.

 

I went hog wild at the floral shop and our house smells heavenly at the moment.  Don’t you wish your home could always be filled with fresh flowers?

 

I’m so happy that we didn’t pass on the baton and skip out of hosting.  It worked wonderfully to host it indoors.  There is nothing like family to make them all happily cram in together.

The kids braved the rain and went outside to check out what the Easter bunny left behind.

The Easter bunny also had baskets with goodies for the girls to dive into as soon as they woke up.

I relished the opportunity to put my sweet girls into dresses.

Graham and I attempted to get shots with ourselves with the girls, which is always a process.

In the end, the sun did come out to greet the late afternoon and all the cousins got to run around outside together.  Rain or shine, it was a glorious day spent with those we love so dearly.

I hope that your weekend was equally as bright.

 

One Room Challenge: Country Bedroom

Alright, I’m going to give Linda’s brilliant idea to decorate a room in six weeks another shot!  It feels like yesterday I completed my mom’s pool house for the last one room challenge; you can see the final reveal here:

And yet here I am again going to give this whole world wind decorating thing another go.  I have missed the action of completing a room in one fell swoop.

This time, my lovely subject is a small bedroom in a 100 year old Victorian home in the country. I’ve already got a bit of a One Room Challenge fail as I don’t have pics of the room for you today.  You see the room is actually quite a drive for me and I can’t seem to find my pics from when I was last there.  I promise you will be getting the before photos of the room in the next couple of weeks.

For now we’ll let your imagination take over, picture this – a blank slate – cream walls, two rather large windows with beautiful matchstick blinds that look out onto a picturesque garden, a peaceful morning light shines brightly through the windows right onto a queen bed that is sitting on a metal frame, in desperate need of a spruce up.

The room needs some country loving.  So here we goooo….

 

What the room needs is a headboard, bedding, bedside tables, art and bedside lamps.  I fell hard for that duvet which is from Ikea of all places and so I built the design around that.  I have presented my plan but of course there always is tweaking that needs to be done.  Next week I’ll be back with the feedback and what was changed.

Please go cheer on the other linking participants here.