Updates on a Budget

I guess the blessing and curse of being an interior designer, is that you want to keep up with the trends, and you...WANT TO KEEP UP WITH THE TRENDS. This translates into a thorough 'out with the old, in with the new' compulsion about every 5 years or so. We are not fabulously wealthy, so I have to tame the beast when it comes to satisfying the urge to bring a fresh look into my home so frequently. But I do find that my interiors start to look dated, especially when it is my occupation to build homes that are stylish and appealing to a wide range of buyers. I am constantly perusing Pinterest and blogs for light fixtures, cabinets, flooring, paint colors, etc. and it just whets my appetite all the more about my own home. I sometimes hate that about myself, especially when I let my brain settle down and start thinking about a more global perspective on priorities...

But alas, we have been in our home for almost 7 years now, and it was time. I was up for the challenge of changing things up on a budget, so I rearranged some of my stuff and created a fresh look on the mantel and then tackled a few rooms and projects slowly, making use of thrift stores and large doses of elbow grease.

First up in 2014 was our master bedroom. I painted the walls a warm neutral called "Latte" (Sherwin Williams 6108) back when we built the house, because I knew it would provide flexibility with any future changes. In addition, I always keep white/off white bedding on hand, and just change up the rest. I wanted to bring a serene, neutral palette to the room that invites us in to relax. For about $250, I did the following:

• Stained two antique sewing tables from my favorite thrift store with a quick swipe of Rustoleum stain in "Driftwood." I just painted it on, and lightly wiped it off. I replaced the wooden knob with a cute $6 dangle pull from Anthropologie in aqua. These became my bedside tables. (I did something similar to a cherry chest of drawers.)
• I bought two lamps on sale for about $15 each from Lowe's that were the shape I wanted, but I didn't like the base. The glass had been painted from the inside so I swished a LOT of nail polish remover around and wiped it with a paper towel. This gave me clear glass bases, which I covered with cute fabric lampshades. 
• Two throw pillows from Home Goods, one in gray, and one in pale aqua (down filling only, please) and a cotton cable-knit throw from Ikea completed the bed. 
• Using a small swatch of leftover fabric from another project, I recovered a small bench, and a yard of a cotton velvet was enough to make two tiny pillows for my little white boudoir chairs. 
• My big splurge was to replace my ceiling fan/light. Although I hated to lose the fan capability, I figured if I was really dying at night, I could always add a small fan on the floor...but I really wanted a beautiful light hanging from the ceiling with a dimmer switch. It brought a touch of elegance to the room, and soft overhead lighting. 
• Lastly, I added a simple sheer scarf draped over the existing curtain rod to just soften the lines of the window, and let all that natural light in.

Several months later, the next project was an extra bedroom on the second floor. We had painted this room bright green when we moved in and filled it with black and white accents, and although we all loved it 7 years ago, it was time for a relaxing change. Looking for a gray/khaki/white/gold combo with very few subtle pops of color. For about $200 I:

• Painted the walls "Worldly Gray" (Sherwin Williams 7043). I have used this color in several of our new constructions, as it is a warm gray and works with just about everything. 
• Spray painted several accent pieces gold: candle holder, few picture frames, metal wall hanging, and some brushed nickel drawer knobs for the existing white dresser. 
• Bought a pillow with gold sequins at Home Goods for the bed; again covered in white/off white bedding. 
• Covered an old fabric headboard with a furry twin-sized blanket...this was enough to cover a queen sized headboard. Just wrapped it around the existing fabric, and stapled it on the back. 
• Made a pillow with some scrap fabric. 
• Scrounged around my 'stuff' and found some quiet prints framed in gold frames. As well, I found some black and white drawings and photography framed in black. 
• Brought a beautiful bassinet up from storage for my new little granddaughter coming any day now! 

BEFORE:

    

AFTER:

Lesson learned: Often you can update your rooms with a can of paint and a ruffle through your stash of family photos and pictures. I am not a pack rat, but I do understand that trends come and go, and if I just hang on to a few things, they will come back around someday. Who knew that gold/brass would come back to haunt us? I've even seen antique brass door knobs in stores recently! Noooo!!

Our home is designed after the beautiful villas we had seen while living in Italy, and part of our original plan was to install rough hewn beams in our kitchen ceiling. But we never got around to it, until my talented and industrious husband decided to go for it a few weeks ago. It was precarious at times, but we did it together and had lots of fun and near disasters! Materials cost a mere $150, wood and stain. 

As the baby's due date approached, I found I had this nesting instinct to get my lingering projects done and installed...even though I am the Nana, not the Mama! I had a really cute antique chair that I found at the thrift store for $5 that needed new padding and fabric (extra I had in my stash) and a quick coat of paint. 

    

And I really wanted to update my lighting without getting new fixtures. What to do? What to do?... I decided to try making a lampshade that would fit over the curvy lines of my very traditional breakfast table chandelier. For a first attempt, I am rather pleased with the way it looks. I will do a few things differently next time, but I learned a lot of lessons along the way. 

• I ordered an 80' piece of bamboo edging (1"x1/8") that came in a roll from a seller on Ebay for $20 (figure I can make some more lampshades!). Calculating the circumference I would need, I cut the bamboo on a chop saw and glued it into 2 equal circles and let it dry while clamped. 
• Using poster board, I cut pieces in the width of what I wanted the shade's height to be. For this 27" diameter fixture, I made the shade 14" tall, and 29" in diameter. I removed the top level of bulbs (the fixture originally had two levels of lites, 6 on the bottom and 3 on the top). The poster board was glued and clamped to the two hoops with clamps.
• Once dried, I hot-glued a length of fabric in the same manner and covered the rough edges on the interior of the shade with binding tape in a similar color. 
• Now the tricky part was to determine how to actually hang the shade on the fixture. I decided to create a triangle of bamboo edging glued together that could rest on the three candelabra bases where the bulbs had been removed on the top layer. The triangle then rested on the 1/8" thickness of the bamboo edging on the inside of the shade...not super secure but since (most likely) no one will be swinging from it, it works. 

  

Now, come on Baby Girl! We are ready for you to arrive! 

Getting "The Townhouse" Ready

My youngest will be a sophomore at App State this fall. They don't guarantee housing for anything but freshman, so she and her buddies had to find another place to rent. They found this amazing townhouse, so we've been having lots of fun this summer preparing for it. Lots of shopping, sewing, stapling, gathering. They need a wedding shower to pull it all together! But for now, it's just some extra stuff that all the moms have gathered - a chair here, a blender there..

But Jessie's bedroom has gotten a little more special attention. I LOVE doing this kind of stuff, and she happens to be one of those people overwhelmed by all the choices and leaves a lot of it to me. I love it when a "client" can't decide what to do and asks me to make the decisions!

So shopping we went: the first trip was an epic fail that ended in tears (I know, #firstworldproblems) and halfway through the second outing, her countenance began to wane. After wandering through hundreds of bolts of fabric, she was losing heart. Then I saw it: a lovely bolt of linen that hit the spot. She proclaimed, "Let's get it" and we were off. It was the launching point to gather a few other pieces to add some color.

In the end, we had a padded headboard with a matching bedskirt, and three accent pillows. Pinterest is brimming with ideas for these things and she had seen several things she liked. The challenge was to zoom in on just one idea. I am a fan of starting with neutrals, and leaving some latitude for changing little things (like pillows) if you want to bring in a different color scheme. My decorating mantra is to spend the big money on things you can live with forever (like a neutral couch) and change up your accent pieces periodically.

We made the headboard so that it can hang on the wall - lightweight, with some mounting pieces on the back. I called my husband and his power tools in to make the big cuts, but everything else can be done with a pair of scissors and a staple gun. Very little skill is needed.

The bedskirt did require some skill; design, measuring, sewing. The pillows are simple sewing.




A few tips:

• Use lightweight 1/4" plywood for the headboard base
• I used last year's XL twin foam mattress pad from the dorm bed as the padding for the headboard - recycle!
• Make a pattern for the shape of the headboard out of a cut-up paper bag, wrapping paper or newspaper
• Measure twice; cut once!
• Cut the foam pad and the fabric a bit bigger than the frame of the headboard and then pull tightly around to the back and staple the cheese out of it!
• Re-cycle old pillows that you are through with for your new pillow forms. Down-filled ones are my favorite and are expensive new...but I have tons of pillows around the house I don't use anymore, so they are perfect for recovering.

We've really had a great summer together that started with two weeks at the beach, lots of hun-cal-fro-yo, playing "Draw Something" on our new iPhones, taking swim aerobics with seniors (citizens, that is...), learning new recipes, planning for The Townhouse, and just being girls together. 

 I just love her. :)

Family Projects

When Kirk and I married 25 years ago, we were paupers. Well-educated paupers, but poor none-the-less. And we were staunchly opposed to debt. So we barely had anything to fill our new apartment save a few random pieces of furniture: a really old couch from my grandma, Kirk's big 1980s stereo components, which included some hefty speakers that doubled as end tables, the lovely storage unit made from fruit crates to hold said stereo system, and a bed that we actually bought. Figured we needed a bed. :)

So, every weekend we scrounged yard sales in Dallas where we set up housekeeping. And in Dallas, you can find some pretty nice used stuff. One of our first acquisitions was a recliner that we paid $15 for. It was in good condition but we didn't like the fabric. I knew how to sew (clothing, that is) so Kirk decided with that skill in hand, we could recover this chair. He declared, "It'll be our first family project!"

And so our tradition of family projects ensued. We've repaired other chairs, built bookcases and remodeled kitchens. A good marriage takes effort; a 25 year marriage doesn't just happen. You must be intentional. We often talk to young couples about building oneness through shared experiences. Each time you do something together, it's like wrapping a thread around two pencils. If you only wrap one thread, the bond is not very strong...wrap many times around, and it's nearly impossible to pull those pencils apart. Add a minor crisis in there - spill a can of paint, cut the fabric too small, have to live without a kitchen for a week - all the better! The memories mellow (and sometimes get embellished) with time, and make for great stories.

That chair has been recovered a second time, and needs it a third. But the best thing is that the tradition of family projects is being passed on down to the next generation. Our son loves that chair, and I promised he could have it when he moved out.

But I had to take that promise back recently, when I rocked a baby to sleep in it, just like the old days...my kids are adults now, and I know that eventually there will be some grandchildren that need rocking, so I told Jonny, you'll have to find your own recliner!

Sure enough, he did (and he only paid $5 for it!). He and his girlfriend decided to attempt recovering their chair. I told him it would probably make or break their relationship...I would give a few pointers at the beginning, but they were on their own, to make their own memories. They are getting there, relationship in tact, but they are taking a breather. Jon has cursed it and verbally sent it to the depths of the earth a few times. It's about half finished, and they are doing a great job. But the best part is that they are building relationship through this experience.

Maybe re-upholstering a chair is too daunting to you, but what could be your family projects? Cooking together? Painting? Writing a book? Find something that is yours, and spend some time developing that skill. It may come in handy one day, as you are intentional in building a relationship with someone!