Freshening Up

I've recently completed a few little projects in the living room. Here is a round up:

Remember these lamps?

I decided to recover the shades in an eggplant fabric:

Here you see them from the front as well as my other two new projects--sewing an oversize black and white ikat lumbar pillow, and painting a 2nd hand coffee table tomato red:

This is how the coffee table looked before:

I actually kind of liked it, but it just wasn't working in our living room. It could have looked cool with all white furniture, but I already have several competing undertones happening in here, and this table was adding too much to that. So I sprayed it with Rustoleum's Cherry Red and brightened up the trim with gold paint:

The large lumbar pillow was super easy too. I got about yard and a half of the fabric from Lewis and Sheron then measured and sewed two long rectangles and stuffed it all with fill.

I like that the color scheme feels a little daring and happy :)

Restyling

I've been hammering out a lot of little projects around here lately one being restyling my office wall with things I had on hand at home. Here is how it was before:

I felt like it was looking a little toooo horizontal on top, and needed to be a little more dynamic. So here's how things look now (let's not call it an "after' but maybe just an "in process":

(Let's pretend like the chair isn't shredded and the flowers are full and not quite so...dead, k?) So a tablescape 101 will probably included a tip to layer items in something of a triangular form. I more or less did that on the top shelf, and then overall the three main rectangles (computer, large wood frame above, and large wood frame on bottom right) form a triangle as well.

I'm liking the movement in this new setup, and the hits from the yellow lampshades that my awesome friend, Jenn, gave me, and the mix of thrifted art, kid art, art prints, and the lovely St. Therese piece that my other awesome friend, Chris, painted.

I'm sure more tweaking is needed, and will happen, but thought I would post it so far. What are your favorite styling tips?

Bedroom Moodboarding

Hey guys! I did some quick brainstorming for a relative's master bedroom. Here is a general concept although more tweaking and changes will likely happen. Any rug opinions?

I would layer in some more purple and a little orange in the above.

Option 2:

The kilim rug is a little more boho than the other elements, but I still like it here. The purple rug is more in keeping with the jewel tone in the the nightstands.

I have a lot of little projects finished around here that I will post about in the next week. Just wanted to pop in with this. xo

Ummmm, hi there!

Heeeey....So, I took a blogging hiatus. I didn't exactly set out to, but once you get out of the habit it is hard to pick it back up again. Then all of a sudden this morning, the light was lovely in my living room, and I decided to snap a pic:

See that sad little yellow ottoman? Well, it is a DIY that I did hastily, and am going to clean up/ tighten up this month. I bought it for $6 at the thrift and it looked like this:

So I recovered it with some indoor/ outdoor yellow fabric:

This is what it looked like when I first completed it:

Unfortunately, I cheated and didn't use a staple gun, and my toddler pulled out most of the nailheads. Woopsie. Easy enough to fix though.

Another little change is the sheepskin covered bench in the top pic. I got a large sheepskin rug on Craig's for cheapity-cheap, and threw it over this bench that used to be in our entryway:

Now it is in our living room looking like this:

Yikes, sorry for the messy pic. Anyway, I kinda love it. It keeps the living room open to the dining room and the view beyond, while still adding seating all the while looking fairly boho-chic. And then I felt even smarter when I saw this little number for sale at Anthro for over $2000:

Yeah, theirs is radder, but it's also the price of an average mortgage payment. 

And speaking of my old entryway, it now looks like this:

I added some pics, and got a different bench from Craig's for $20. The plan is to clean up the brass base, and recover the fabric --- maybe in an ikat (no, I'm not over ikat) or a camel colored tufted leather? Or what do you suggest?

So that's some of what has been going on around here. I hope to be popping back around the ole blog a bit more than I have been. Man, that is not setting the bar high is it? Love to all, and drop me a line if you pop by--I'd love to hear from you!

Summer Patio Ideas

Today I'm delighted to be guest blogging over at Meet Me in Philadelphia.  Ashley's blog is a must read, and it was so fun putting together a patio moodboard for her summer inspiration series.  

Pop by and leave the adorable Ashley some comments!

Yellow

I'm not a big yellow person, but when it is done well it can be pretty fantastic. Here's some sunshine for your day:

design sponge

via dwellers without decorators

via LGN

Domino via the decorista

via Martha Stewart

Angie Hranowsky via

O'Neil Rose via Remodelista

Kitchen Decorating

So I'm waist deep in kitchen decisions. I'm considering this light fixture for the breakfast nook:

via

And I'm loving it with this runner:

via

I'm thinking this combo is modern/ global magic! Thoughts??