Decorating With National Geographic Magazines

I found a bunch of National Geographic magazines at an antique mall recently that I bought to put in my parents' new game room.

I love these magazines! My girls have been in heaven, poring through the pages and looking at all the gorgeous photos and maps inside! Evie said it best when she told me "Mom. The Earth is pretty magic, don't you think?" :)

The covers are so pretty, too! It reminds me of this beautiful Tilton Fenwick room!

And speaking of that gorgeous room, at the same antique mall that I bought the National Geographic magazines, I found a pair of horn-inlay Karl Springer chippendale style chairs. Major, major heart eyes for these! I'm so tempted by them...

Wouldn't those seats be great reupholstered in a black leather?

DIY: Nook Book Shelves and Benchtop

Remember how I mentioned that our carpenter had installed a few simple shelves in our nook to hold our TV components? I like the easy bracket system he had come up with, so I duplicated it recently when I wanted to fill out both sides of the nook with shelves.

I pulled off the old shelves, but kept the brackets and cut down 1x2" primed pine boards with a miter saw to fit the back and sides. The side pieces were finished off with a 45-degree angle cut.

The first bracket installation is the most important. Starting with the bottom most shelf, I made one measurement and mark on one of the walls. 

Then the most important part after that first measurement is to use a level to mark all the way around the nook to help you know where to hang the brackets. 

I used an 18-gauge nailer to hang the back bracket first, right on the line, and then the side brackets.

Once you have the first set of brackets perfectly level and installed, the rest of the measurements are easy. Just figure out the distance you want between each shelf, measure up from the bracket and make a little mark. If the first shelf is level, the others will be too.

When all the brackets were installed, I filled all the nail holes with spackle before giving the whole nook a fresh paint of gray paint.

I used laminated pine boards for the actual shelves. Home Depot cut them all to size for me and I stained them with half classic oak and half driftwood stains.

The pine boards are just sitting on top of the brackets, but I could have nailed or glued them in place if I was more worried about it. I'm so happy with how these shelves turned out. I really love the thicker, more chunky look!  

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I don't know why installing shelves has sort of felt too hard-core for me up until now. It's a crazy simple project!

The bench solution was simple too! I didn't want to sew a box cushion, so I had a piece of 1/4" plywood cut to fit the seat area and used a coupon to buy a piece of 2" upholstery foam at Joanns.

The bench is wider than the full width of the fabric. so I had to seam the fabric. The pattern made it pretty easy to line everything up, and a really good pressing fixes even less-than-perfect seams. In the end it's pretty hard to tell where the seam is on the bench. 

I think the key to a really soft and fluffy bench top is a good, high-loft batting layer. I used my trusty handheld staple gun to attach the seamed fabric. I went a little overkill on the stapling so there would be no pulling on the linen. (You can see where I seamed the fabric on the right side of the bench here below - it's not that noticeable!)

I think the bench turned out nice. The pattern is fun and the seat is a comfy, inviting place now!

Have you made any shelving or bench tops yourself? Any tips you'd like to add?

Our New, Pretty Book Nook

Remember the odd nook we have in our living room? It's a funny little space that I wasn't totally sure what to do with for a while. We already have those big bookshelves in the front room so it seemed redundant to have books stored in here. Plus, it's really not that that big of a space.

When we built the fireplace surround, we piped through an opening for the TV and cable cords, so that the components could live on a shelf behind the nook. The carpenter who helped us with the fireplace threw up a couple of simple, but sturdy shelves that I painted out in the wall color (Ben Moore's Brushed Aluminum). We've mostly just left the space empty (slash shoved stuff back in there when doing the unexpected-company-is-at-the-door mad dash). Not exactly a great use of space.

Then I had a light bulb moment when I realized I was drowning in magazines (I hate to part with my favorites - they're like design books to me). I had been keeping the unread ones on our coffee table and then tucking them into a cupboard after they were read, which worked fine. But when you love and look at magazines as much as I do, and when you have a nook that needs something special, what to do was a no-brainer!

I will share tutorials for the bench and the new shelves soon - they were super quick and easy, and I think they make the space feel so much more purposeful. I went a little more simple and cozy on the styling because I'm dying for it to feel like fall here. (SEASONS: I MISS YOU!)

Target reached out about sharing their seriously great new Threshold line for fall. Think: warm, soft, cozy, comforting, with equal parts organic and modern. It's all beautiful. Like this brass task lamp? It's gorgeous, solidly built and a really decent price point for something that looks like a million bucks!

The little glass terrarium and the green agate tray are both from Target as well. Either one would make a great holiday or house warming gift!

These little benches are fab. The legs are exceptionally gorgeous (maybe the world is finally moving past the standard dark, squared off tapered legs!?) and I love the textile used for the upholstery!

I hung a giant vintage mirror from a local antique store above the DIY console. I loved the light the mirror brought into the room, but suddenly the wall felt a little boring, so I added a series of New York prints from this book in these pretty limed wood frames.

Over in the nook area, I added a few woven baskets on the shelves for tucking away catalogs and unread magazines, and a few little vases and bowls to act as catch-alls and bookends for the slippery magazines! I especially love the concrete vase with the gold stripe.

What could be more cozy and fall-appropriate than chunky sweater pillows and a super soft, tassle-y gold throw?

I used this little side table as a plant stand for one of my favorite snake plants. I'm obsessed with these plants because I can mistreat them for like a year or more and they never die! True love.

It's nice to have a quiet, chill corner in what's normally a pretty bright and busy room. I feel like we all have our own little corners in the house now - Michael loves to retreat to the white settee in the music room to play his guitar, the girls have their own favorite spots in the playroom and now I get a special nook for cozying up with my beloved design magazines. :)

This post is sponsored by Target. Shop Home Décor for modern luxury made easy.

Painting Over a Vintage Abstract

I picked up this mid-century abstract oil painting at the flea market a while back. I liked it enough but it definitely wasn't love. I bought it for about $20, so I figured I could make something hang-worthy out of it.

When I got it home, I knew it had to be changed. The colors looked so, so drab with my mustard rug and ivory sofa. So using just a couple tubes of oil paints, I mostly went right over the top of artist's patterns and just brightened up the drab colors. So easy! And it looked like a brand new painting in just a couple minutes. :)

Top and bottom images were a part of the photo shoot we did last week at the loft. Photography by Nicole Franzen and styling by Kendra Smoot. I'm going to be showing more images from that shoot this week while we are getting unpacked at the brownstone.

Making Curtains Out of Drop Cloths

Using canvas drop cloths from the hardware store is a super economical way to make thick, light-filtering curtains. There is magic happening in the interwebs, and all sorts of creative bloggers have come up with great methods for jazzing up the panels - paint, dye, trim, you name it.

Check out a lovely assortment of links and ideas for drop cloths HERE on my latest post for the Better Homes and Gardens blog.

images via BHG

PS Remember this project we used drop cloths for? 

Copy Cat Design: Kate and Andy Spade's Living Room

If I could pick any apartment to move right in to, it would easily be Kate and Andy Spade's home. Traditional furniture with amazing modern art and lots of bright colors? Just perfection! I'm so glad Colleen (who is a busy little bee working on Lonny this week!) picked this room to reinterpret. I totally ordered the dinosaur puzzle. :)

Here's Colleen:

Kate and Andy Spade’s apartment gets a ton of play in publications, and for good reason! They are experts at mixing color, pattern, and time periods in an elegant way.

1. Sabrina Table Lamp; Z Gallerie, $130
For a bit of sparkle.

2. Puzzled Triceratops; Amazon, $5
For me, one of the hallmarks of Kate Spade’s style is her nod to the playful. Her living room is fairly traditional, but there are playful moments, like an arrangement of dinosaurs.

3. Black and White Spotted Pillow Cover; Furbish Studio, $50
Adding a graphic print to traditional decor keeps the look from being staid.

4. Sofia Sofa; Ballard Designs, $1700
These Louis style sofas turn up on Craigslist from time to time too! Consider painting the frame black.

5. Stripe Linen; Decorator’s Best, $50
A good rule of thumb when picking upholstery fabric for a feminine furniture style like this sofa is to go masculine. Menswear-inspired fabrics and colors counteract the frou-frouness!

6. Truman Table Lamp in Sunflower; $145
I love these lamps for a sofa console.

7. Blue Junior Pillow; Jonathan Adler, $98
I’m from the Midwest (and was not in a sorority), so I never knew monograms were such a thing. I’m starting to get the fuss now!

8. Pale Powder Paint; Farrow & Ball
I’ve recently been turned on to Farrow & Ball colors. If you’re looking for an elegant shade, their selection is perfect. If I were to repaint my living room, this would be the color.

9. Lacquer Accent Table; Overstock, $244
Just a cute pedestal table!

10. “Rings” Print; Minted, $215 for 30”x40”
This room is a great illustration of how to use art as a starting place for a room’s colors, but not the definitive palette. Nuance is good.

11. Marie Arm Chair; Home Decorators, $380
Painted an off white, these would be great!

12. Driftwood Stripe; Decorators Best, $71/yard
Wide stripes are fabulous on side chairs.

13. Brinkley Pillow; Crate and Barrel, $20
A simple solid pillow.

14. Silk Pillow Cover in Poinsettia; West Elm, $10
For some extra sheen and color on the sofa.

New LR Rug Progess

I've been rug shopping for about a year now, trying to find a pretty persian for our loft living room. The striped rug suffered from a red juice incident and has never quite been the same. It is a lovely rug, but I've pretty much decided across the board that I prefer that graphic patterned rugs with any white in the pattern go in a bedroom or an office. Any time I choose a jute or a persian rug for a living room project, it just works better and looks better for longer. Function trumps form for me, but only by a little bit. :)

I am SO picky about rugs now. They are the hardest design decision for a room I think. Just like clothes, fit is everything, so often you should be buying a rug for a specific room's needs. And since rugs should be so big, the color can really change the feel of a room. And because of lighting, you almost always have to try a rug out before buying, which is a nightmare. And rugs are so gosh darn expensive. And if they're not expensive, you can tell. Tricky! (going rugless seems better and better by the day!)

I've decided to go with a jute rug in our brownstone's extra long living room. I love the texture of natural fiber rugs and I think the jute will hold up well against the residual dirt I'm sure will get tracked in from the garden (although I do know there are cleaning challenges that come with natural fiber rugs).

I used Merida's Bora Bora jute rug in Volcano for a client project recently and it is just natural fiber rug perfection. It's as cushy and soft as wool. The color is a lovely driftwood gray, not yellow like most jutes (so over yellow rugs for a while!), and it comes with a braided edging option.

The IKEA Tarnby and West Elm jutes are great rugs, but they are not nearly as soft as the Merida and I don't like that they are borderless. It feels a little unfinished and the edges have rolled up for me even with rug tape. The closest second place to the Merida rug I've seen is this Pottery Barn rug. But again, it's not as soft and the color is very light and yellow.

We need a long, narrow rug for the brownstone, and the quote back from Merida was out of our budget (almost $4000 for the custom size. Ouch!). Then over Memorial Day I did a little shopping in the ABC clearance basement, and what did I spy over in the jute corner? A handful of driftwood gray braided jute rugs.

Turns out these are not Merida, but a company called Fibre Works. Look how similar the color and weave is though!

Full price, their rugs are not all that much cheaper than the Merida jutes. But they just happened to have some in the clearance basement. So while they weren't IKEA-cheap, they ended up being more like PotteryBarn-cheap with the sale and my designer discount. 

I ended up buying two 8x11s that I'll use to make a big 11x16 rug. I'm thinking about blind-stich binding them myself with some jute twine and then the seam will be invisible. But even when they're separate and just sitting next to each other, the seam is not all that noticeable. It would be super easy to do this with the IKEATarnby if you need a big rug for super cheap. The weave of jute provides a lot of give, so you can sort of morph the edges into each other.

The tape measure marks out the LEE sofa here.

And here's where the chesterfield will sit.

I want to layer a smaller (like 6x9) persian on the jute under the seating area for a little bit of color and pattern on the floor, like the inspiration photos at the top of the post. I saw this pretty turkish rug at the flea market the same day I bought the jutes. Aren't the colors fantastic? It was not super cheap, so I was a good girl and passed. I'm sure eBay will come through for me like it always does.

So what are your thoughts about my new rug philosophy (no graphic white in the living room rug)? Feeling a little like I should get off my high horse here! :)