Peacocks!

I'm so loving the peacock duvets from Dwell's new bedding line, due out this April.

Now, just to choose between the yellow and the gray... hmm...

via d*s

Wide Stripe Carpet

The first house my husband and I lived in after we were married was an adorable 100 year-old little house in downtown Mesa, AZ. It was like a dream come true for me to finally have my own little home to decorate!

The house was old and drafty. The wood floors in the master bedroom were especially cold in the morning, so we opted for area rugs. There weren't the same kinds of online and discount options available back then (or at least I didn't know about them), and I thought it was way out of our price range to get large area rugs from the standard sources.

So we went down to Mesa Sales, where they sell all kinds of great fabrics and flooring, including carpet remnants. For our bedroom, we spent about $75 for a remnant of a wool carpet that fit perfectly in the room, just a few inches inset from the walls. I think it was about 14x16'. The carpet was gorgeous. It looked just like a seagrass or jute, but was super soft underfoot. For less than $2 per linear foot, the nice people at Mesa Sales bound the edges of the carpet remnant and made it look finished. It was really a nice and reasonably-priced solution for that space.

When I saw this image from House Beautiful, I wondered to myself if there was a way to use two different carpet remnants cut into strips to get this same look? Maybe some industrial strength duct tape on the underside to keep the strips together and then have the whole thing bound?

House Beautiful

Pretty, right? So many of us with young kids like the look of a graphic striped carpet, but want something a little more plush than a cotton flat weave. This could be a good solution. I might just give it a go in our next apartment.

Jordan's Living Room

Have you ever stumbled across a blog and then subsequently neglected home, family and self for hours/days until you had devoured every. single. post? Oh Happy Day was one of the first blogs that did that for me. Jordan has an amazing eye and is talented in just about everything she tries.

It was a really fun day when she contacted me to work with her on decorating her San Francisco apartment.

We're still working on her entry and bedroom, but check out what we've done so far with her living room:

Jordan wanted more color and pattern in the space, so we used Celerie Kemble for Schumacher's Hothouse fabric as our color palette inspiration, since it went so well with Jordan's navy Crate & Barrel sofa. We used this print for a long pillow on the sofa.


We had two mid-century chairs recovered in a small scale trellis patterned green velvet.

We used this navy and white stripe fabric from IKEA for two throw pillows with white piping.

There needed to be more seating in the room, but space was limited, so we opted for this small settee by Nate Berkus for HSN.


I love how the ikat pattern works with the big floral and the velvet.


Jordan had a small round ottoman with a great shape but it needed to be reupholstered.


I found this really beautiful yellow fabric a while back at a fabric outlet and bought the whole roll because I loved the color and pattern so much. I think it's perfect in this space.


We also had an orange velvet pillow made, seen here next to the Jonathan Adler lemon pillow.

Jordan used to have her computer and office space in her bedroom. I'm a big fan of having the office space incorporated into the living space, especially for city-dwelling, work-at-home mothers. It's not always an option for everyone, but I love being right next to my kids while I'm working.

We got an IKEA armoire off Craigslist, painted it BM Casco Bay and added my favorite brass ring pulls.

The best part is the office space that can be completely shut away.

Next to the work space is a little play area for Jordan's son, Moses. Don't you love the white Bertoia kid's chairs? They are from Room Service Home and are a great price (see my post about Room Service here).

{As a side note, I really admire Jordan's curated toy collection. I know first hand how easy it is to amass an obscene amount of plastic junk. It feels like 90% of the toys we own are unnecessary. I've done some spring cleaning in our play room (aka other half of my office) and I'm committed to continuing the editing process. Jordan recommends reading this really interesting article about children and toys.}

Other elements in the room include the TV console that got a couple coats of my favorite red, Rustoleum's Saftey Red. The previously mis-matched bookshelves were painted BM's Spring Dust. The area rug is from IKEA. And the awesome cowboy print has a great back-story.

There are a couple more projects left in this room, but Jordan is having her second son any day now, so I'm pretty sure she's willing to call it a day with decorating!! I love it and hope she enjoys spending time here with her soon-to-be-expanded family!

No-Sew Pedestal Sink Skirt

Inspired by these two images,

Palmer Weiss

Tom Scheerer

I decided it was time to add a skirt to the ugly pedestal sink in our powder bath.

First I measured.


Then I sat down and came up with a game plan and incorporated my measurements.


I decided to use some indoor/outdoor fabric in a pretty emerald green color.


I did some more measuring and some cutting.


Then I did some ironing. I made my bottom hem 4" to give some extra weight and make a nice drape. The sides were only 2".


After I ironed in all my hems and pleats, I used a small amount of Fabritac to secure all the ironing.


Then I glued white grosgrain around the borders.


Using some clear velcro that I picked up at Home Depot (cheapest source I've found),


I velcroed the middle panel first to the underside of the sink.


and then followed with the side panels. You can see here that I ironed in a pleat on the side panels that makes it so you can easily access the space under the skirt through the middle panel, but it looks continuous when all the panels are in place.

I love how the skirt hides the unsightly plumbing and provides some much-needed storage in our tiny half bath. Also, the outdoor fabric has worked like a charm here. Any water that splashes down from the sink beads right up and is not absorbed. If something ever did stain or leave a mark though, it would be easy to pull the panels off the velcro and put everything in the washer.

Vintage Scarves as Pillows

One of my clients inherited quite a few vintage silk scarves from her grandmother. Lots of Liberty of London and Vera.

We're putting the collection to good use. One will be framed and several others made into pillows. One of my favorite scarves is a sweet blue Liberty of London floral that will go on a chair in the nursery. It looks just like this one, available here:


Both Martha and Eddie Ross have featured this same idea for turning scarves into pillows and shared their instructions here and here.

image via Eddie Ross

image via Martha Stewart Living

Framing vintage scarves is another great idea.

Country Living

Domino

House and Garden by way of Style Court

Martha Stewart Living

World of Interiors via

This framed Vera scarf hung in the Rockefeller Center Anthropologie.

image via the Vera Co blog

If you're not lucky enough to inherit dozens of vintage scarves, check out eBay for an incredible and very inexpensive selection. Here are some of my favorites up for auction right now:

Orange, teal and yellow Vera



YSL



40s floral


Pink and yellow



Vera cityscape


For my color-loving Canadian readers!



Red and gray Vera
Navy polkadots!




Blue and orange stylized floral


Make two boudior sized pillows out of this long Vera floral



French floral


Red and white stripey


Kick start your collection of LofL scarves!



Emerald green (the color du jour for me)


Any other great ideas for repurposing vintage scarves?