Faded and beautiful

 

I must be needing soft lighting and relaxed spaces right now as that seems to be what I am most drawn to.  

We have another busy weekend planned - how about you?  Any time to relax and take in the beautiful weather?

I am wishing!  I have just recieved my copy of Steven Gambrel's new book which I cannot wait to dig into!

images via ?

 

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California casual

 

This is one of my favorite styles- California casual with a little industrial vintage mix.  Fun easy going and comfortable while being stylish.  How could you really ask for more?

images via

 

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Stacked artwork

 

I have been seeing a lot of great examples of stacked artwork lately and I really love the personal feel that it seems to give to the spaces.  Many of them are living areas but it seems to work over the bed too.  I love the mix of sizes and mediums for something that feels truly eclectic.   It is just a little bit different from the art collage that we typically see in the way that many of these collections reach the ceiling, which is fun and different.  I am thinking of adding to some of my collages in my own home to get this feeling  and to keep up those photos that I just don't want to hide away.

all images via pinterest original sources unknown

 

 

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A Couple Of New Chairs

Say hello to some new members of our house.  I had been eying these chairs on Target's website for a while.   

I originally ordered these but once they were assembled and in the room, it was too much blue and not enough contrast.  I returned them and ordered the white ones instead.

I almost didn't get the new chairs because they were always out of stock.  For a couple weeks after Christmas, I was stalking checking everyday to see if they were in stock yet.  I love the mix of colors on them.  They blend perfectly with the rest of the house and will allow me to add more color into the living room.  I used the fretwork pillows from the family room to pull out the blue.
 

We're thinking of adding a small sofa or love seat to add more weight to this space.  I wanted to go with just the chairs, but they are too small by themselves.  What do you think about a red or blue sofa?  Did you notice the room is painted now?  And yes, we need another area rug. 

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A Frame with an Agricultu'R'al Feel

This is the newest frame I added to the gallery wall in our living room.

Originally I was going with all black frames, then I tried some pine frames, and after I painted this old frame white I was inspired to add it to the gallery. I was looking for a creative way to frame the black letter 'R' and asked K, our almost 15 year old son, to cut some of his extra rabbit wire to the size of the frame.

This idea is not original to me but I really like the industrial/agricultural feel the rabbit cage wire gives to my gallery. A staple gun made quick work of attaching the wire to the frame.

A simple piece of twine ties the black 'R' to the rabbit wire.

I think it looks so much better framed.

On Thursday I shared the living room gallery work-in-progress as it was at Christmas,

and the Feed and Seed sign I painted. I still want to get a bigger frame for the photo of K's prize winning 4-H calf and I might rearrange a few things, but the wall is starting to come together.

The cost for this project was around $8 (yard sale frame $1, letter R $7 at a local decor shop, rabbit cage wire -free, and paint we had on hand.) This gallery wall is taking a long time to come together but I am enjoying the process. 

You can find me at the following parties...

It's So Very Cheri's It's Party Time

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday's #55

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Cowgirl Up! #4 at Cedar Hill Ranch also available on The Farmhouse Porch and two others

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

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Feed and Seed Sign

Well, I figured out how to upload my photos from my camera onto our new laptop so I could share photos of the sign I painted on the weeekend.

 Now I need to figure out how to get Picasa working on the laptop so I can edit my photos. Oh, and practice to hit the shift key and not the backslash key :( But I'm getting there. 

(It was a bit overcast when I took these photos so I apologize in advance for the straight out of camera shots.) I'm still working on the gallery wall in our living room and decided we needed a sign. Of course I wanted to have something a bit 'farm' related so I chose 'Feed and Seed.'

 I recycled the first sign I painted a bunch of years ago by painting white and then off-white over the beige with dark green 'CANOE RENTALS'. The board was a rough cut piece and so it has some natural roughness to it that made distressing really easy. Some Minwax stain wiped on and off added age to the distressed hand painted letters.

If you look closely you can see a hint of the old lettering and I really like that. The cost was $0, my favourite kind, because I had everything on hand.

I still need a few frames to complete this gallery, shown in the photo above at Christmas, but I think this sign is another step in the right direction. I will be sharing another addition to this gallery wall later in the week. It involves some rabbit wire (similar to chicken wire.) 

The lettering is not perfectly straight, but do you think it fits the agriculture theme of our living room gallery wall? Actually, we have pretty big hints of our love of agriculture in our home, including our kitchen, above, with the Farmer's Market sign I painted, and the barn photos. Hoping you have a great end to the week. We are expecting a big snowstorm tonight, weirdly enough the biggest one of this almost snowless winter of ours.

You can find me here....

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

SNS #122at Funky Junk Interiors

Rustic, Recycled, and Chic

It's So Very Cheri's It's Party Time

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

and Best DIY Projects of February at Beneath My Heart

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My curtains revealed and an introduction to The Loaded Trunk!

My curtains are finally finished! Some of you might remember this post awhile back when I asked for suggestions for curtain colors after we moved into our new apartment in Chevy Chase, MD.

Before:

After:

The curtains the apartment came with were drab and heavy. Our couch had to stay, and is an olive-colored suede, that depending on the light and colors around it can look gray, brown, or green. The rug is a new purchase that I love, and wanted to make it work. Our walls, though hard to tell in the picture above, are a light aqua blue.

I tried photoshopping some different color options in this post, but all of them left me a bit underwhelmed. You guys offered up some amazing suggestions for DIY's, specific fabrics, and other resources. The amazing Christine of Design with Christine came up with an amazing edesign for me, utilizing some Ikat curtains, and some throw pillows to tie the rug in with the couch. You can see the amazing job she did in her post.

The curtains Christine chose.

My photoshopping the curtains and pillows Christine found. Christine’s genius really got the ball rolling for me to find a pattern to balance out the visual weight of the bottom half of the room with the visual weight of the top. So, since I wanted to sew my own curtains, I began the search for the perfect (afforadable) fabric.

via 6th Street Design School

I really liked the fabric above, which a reader suggested to me . Even though it was above our price range, I ordered a swatch. The medallions were a bit too large for my liking, and the background was more of a beige than a white, so we decided against this one. I also ordered a few more swatches, but I wasn’t sold on any of them. Then, I noticed the curtains below on Danielle Oakey's blog, and went on an internet scavenger hunt to find the fabric.

Long story short, I finally located enough to sew my curtains (9 yards) from Red Rhino on ebay. They were actually the only seller I found with the fabric available. Red Rhino gave me a great price, amazing response times, and I couldn’t have been happier with the fabric. The match was very accurate to what was on screen.

via Danielle Oakey Interiors

So, after hours and hours of measuring, ironing, starching, sewing, and ironing and starching again, we finally had our curtains. I also added a black tape on the right and left vertical borders of the outermost curtains to mimick the black border on the rug. We are really happy with the results. I'm also in the process of testing out some swatches to sew throw pillow covers.

Another view of the room with the ikat curtains

A close up of the curtain and the black border

I'm testing out a suzani style swatch, as you can see from the bottom pillow.

Isn't this red pillow AMAZING!?!?

I couldn’t be more thrilled with the pillow, which  I received from The LoadedTrunk!

There couldn’t be a better cohesive element between my couch and my rug!What’s even cooler is the history of the pillow, called a Hmong pillow:

“This beautifulvintage textile was once part of a garment worn by Hmong women in Vietnam. TheHmong, an Asian ethnic group living in the mountainous regions of Vietnam andLaos, are known for their traditional textiles which feature cross-stitchingand often indigo block printing. They have been given a second life and werere-cycled to make these lovely pillows.”

 

They offer a handful of one-of-a-kind Hmong pillows.  This one in purple is gorgeous

I love that mine is one of-a-kind.They have other hmong pillows, and lots of other global goods. I could make a really long wishlist of itemsfrom this store, but here are just a few:

These bronze hammered bowls would look glamorous and beautifully organic anywhere.

The color in this Mexican coverlet is so rich.

Thanks again to The Loaded Trunk! You can see all their treasures on the online shop.

SO..how do you think our living room is coming along so far? 

We still have some art to hang,  maybe a floor lamp for the corner behind the palm, and the rest of the throw pillows for the couch (I want a pillow that will tie in the colors from the curtains)

And how about that pillow from the Loaded Trunk?

I can't wait to hear what you guys think!

*disclosure: I received the Hmong pillow as a sample

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Τραπεζάκι σαλονιού και δείπνο!

Το τραπεζάκι σαλονιού είναι ο κυρίαρχος του σύγχρονου ρομαντικού (και οικονομικού) δείπνου για δύο. Και όχι άδικα. Η επισημότητα που φέρνουν οι ψηλές καρέκλες στην παραδοσιακή τραπεζαρία τις αποκλείουν από τέτοιες περιστάσεις.

Το χαμηλό τραπέζι σαλονιού, ιδιαίτερα αν κάθεστε γύρω από αυτό πάνω σε μαξιλάρες και όχι στον καναπέ, δημιουργεί μια αίσθηση χαλαρότητας και οικειότητας. Για να δημιουργήσετε μία πολύ ωραία ατμόσφαιρα, σας προτείνουμε να το διακοσμήσετε με τρεις έξυπνες ιδέες που θα εντυπωσιάσουν και θα δημιουργήσουν εικόνες που θα σας μείνουν αξέχαστες!

Ασορτί με το μενού!

Είναι η πιο εύκολη ιδέα διακόσμησης για το τραπεζάκι σαλονιού. Διακοσμήστε το ανάλογα με το μενού που θα σερβίρετε. Κινέζικο, μεξικάνικο, ιταλικό ή παραδοσιακό ελληνικό. Δεν χρειάζεται να το παρακάνετε φυσικά. Αν σερβίρετε κινέζικο, τοποθετήστε πάνω στο τραπέζι σαλονιού κόκκινες χαρτοπετσέτες και τα ξυλάκια (tsopsticks) πάνω τους, ένα μικρό γλαστράκι μπονσάι, wok ή ένα μικρό φαναράκι.
Με την ίδια λογική στήστε το μεξικάνικο ντεκόρ, απλώνοντας πάνω στο τραπέζι ένα πολύχρωμο ριχτάρι ή σουπλά με μεξικάνικα θέματα (σομπρέρο). Αντλήστε ιδέες από τοinternet και χρησιμοποιήστε αντικείμενα με ανάλογο θέμα! Δεν χρειάζεται να το παραγεμίζετε. Ένα-δύο στοιχεία είναι αρκετά για να υποστηρίξουν το κάθε μενού.


Σοβαρό και πολυτελές!

Εννοείται πως οι οδοντογλυφίδες δεν ταιριάζουν σε αυτό το ύφος δείπνου! Για ένα τραπεζάκι σαλονιού σοβαρό και πολυτελές, η απλότητα είναι η βασική ιδέα. Δεν πρέπει να φανεί ότι προσπαθήσατε πολύ αλλά όχι και ότι δεν ενδιαφερθήκατε καθόλου. Ξεκινήστε λοιπόν αφαιρώντας. Αφήστε την επιφάνεια του τραπεζιού ελεύθερη από αντικείμενα. Τοποθετήστε πάνω του δύο σουπλά σε χρώμα αντίθετο από αυτό του τραπεζιού (αν το τραπέζι είναι σκούρο, τα σουπλά πρέπει να είναι ανοιχτόχρωμα και το αντίστροφο).

Διπλώστε δύο πετσέτες διαγώνια (σε τρίγωνο) και τοποθετήστε μία σε κάθε σουπλά. Προσθέστε μαχαιροπίρουνα, ποτήρια και κανάτα με νερό. Τέλος προσθέστε στο χώρο, αλλά όχι πάνω στο τραπέζι σαλονιού, στο πάτωμα αν θέλετε ή σε άλλο βοηθητικό τραπεζάκι, μερικά αρωματικά ρεσό.
Ρομαντισμός στο φουλ!

Το τραπεζάκι σαλονιού θέλετε να είναι άκρως ρομαντικό;

Γίνεται! Δεν χρειάζεται να αλλάξετε όλη τη διακόσμηση καθιστικού για να πετύχετε το ρομαντικό ντεκόρ. Επικεντρωθείτε στο τραπεζάκι. Επενδύστε σε σουπλά, χαρτοπετσέτες ή ποτήρια σε κόκκινο ή φούξια χρώμα. Προσθέστε ένα μικρό βάζο με λουλούδια πάνω ή δίπλα από το τραπέζι σαλονιού. Μία όμορφη εναλλακτική πρόταση είναι να γεμίσετε ένα μικρό διάφανο μπολ με πολύ μικρά ανθάκια χρώματος λευκού, ροζ, κόκκινου ή κίτρινου.

Μπορείτε επίσης αντί για λουλούδια σε αυτό το μπολ να έχετε βάλει χρωματιστά άλατα με αρώματα ή αρωματικά κεράκια σε διάφορα σχήματα. Εκτός από πολύ όμορφα στην όψη, θα χαρίσουν ένα υπέροχο άρωμα στο χώρο σε όλη τη διάρκεια του δείπνου.

Το τραπεζάκι σαλονιού και η διακόσμηση του πρέπει πάνω από όλα να εκφράζει το γούστο σας. Μην το παρακάνετε με διακοσμητικές υπερβολές. Απλά δείξτε ότι σας ενδιαφέρει ο καλεσμένος σας με μία-δύο εικαστικές παρεμβάσεις. Καλή επιτυχία!

Η 10DECO | Διακόσμηση Εσωτερικού Χώρου www.10deco.gr εκτιμά και αναδημοσιεύει τα αξιόλογα άρθρα του διαδικτύου αναφέροντας πάντα την πηγή: diakosmisikaispiti.gr

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