Friday, September 30, 2011

Before and After: A Rental Redo

A few months ago a friend asked me for assistance in redecorating her living room.  In telling me what she would like to do and after seeing the room, I realized we had to overcome the following challenges:  she is renting the property;  the room is painted a surprising dark navy blue; and she wants to stay within a fixed budget.  

Here is the before:

Living Room

So, I began the decorating process with my usual go to place, Craigslist and other second hand shops in the area.  In these resources, I found a rather battered console that had beautiful lines--a coat of coral paint fixed that problem.  A  pair of ordinary dark wood lamps turned attractive with, again, a coat of paint.  A good thing to keep in mind when redecorating is to always use what you already have and my friend had some lovely pictures, some vintage, some modern.  These changed the look of the room by simply gathering them together on one wall.  A low budget black and white striped rug helped ground the sofa and coffee table (both Craigslist finds).  The photos below illustrate the end project--a beautiful living room that is an excellent example of what you can do without breaking the budget, using second hand and by recycling what you already own.    I want to extend my sincerest appreciation to Peter VanderPoel, for photographing this room with such skill and artistry.  Please check out his website at the following link: VanderPoel Architectural Photography

After:
Photo Credit: Peter VanderPoel

Photo credit: Peter VanderPoel

Photo credit: Peter VanderPoel

Photo credit: Peter VanderPoel

I will provide an itemized list of the costs associated with this re-do in a future posting. Hope this may encourage or inspire you all to buy second hand! 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Nursery Color Inspiration

Herge

My husband being of French descent grew up reading 'Les Aventures de Tintin,' of which he had every copy written by Herge and thankfully saved by his father. When my son turned 3 his dear Papi gave him the whole collection creating another avid reader of Herge. Although I may not have grown up reading Tintin, I have enjoyed the gorgeous comic illustrations especially the covers. Years ago I copied the most appealing covers to frame for Charlie's room, but sadly I never got around to actually completing my project. So, when I found out I was having another boy I thought of my original plan right away. Not only am I framing these beautiful images, but I'm using the 'L'ile Noire' cover as my color inspiration. Note that the ocean is a lot darker with a tinge of green on our cover than in the image above. 

The room is currently a the warm shade of cream, which matches the cream above to perfection. So I plan on using the stencil pattern below...

Image of Stencil Pattern from Cutting Edge Stencils

In this color to match the color combination of the sky...

Riviera Azure Benjamin Moore Paints

The white of the stencil above will be cream and the the inner sections blue. That is all I have for now, so onto bedding, chair upholstery and possibly a new color for the dresser...

Blue Lake Benjamin Moore Paints 

Hope you all had a great weekend! 

Friday, September 23, 2011

Fridays Finest Finds

Again just a few great items on Craigslist in DC...

Bamboo Headboard $35

image 0


image 2 image 0

Dresser $45 (Paint.)...

image 0


image 0


image 2 image 1


image 0

You could re-upholster the above bench for a cozy corner like the one below...

via turquoise, tulips and bliss

Or you could re-upholster the bench above and use it as extra seating for your living room like the one below...

via la dolce vida


image 2

MCM Chandelier $75

image 0

Coffee Table $30 (Great price.)...

image 0

MCM Formal Sofa $600 (This is just stunning.)...

image 0 image 1

Bentwood Rocker $95 (I am so tempted to get this for the nursery, but I already have a ball and call upholstered chair.)...

image 0

Modern Bar Stools $150

image 0

Bold Sofa $180 (Love this sofa!)...

.

.

Patterned sofas can be so fun and energetic, as evidenced in the inspirational image below...

Holly Farrel

I also love the patterned sofa and chair in this living room by Micael Beckman...

Micael Beckman

Colorful Vintage Seltzer Bottles $40/each

image 0

Chaise Lounge $300

image 0 image 1

Below is an inspirational image of the CL chaise above...

via House of Turquoise

Chair $30

image 0

Italian Glass Table $100

image 1

Mid Century Lamp $40 (Fabulous lamp...too bad it doesn't have a match.)...

image 1 image 2

2 Ethan Allen Chairs $400

image 0

The chairs above remind me of the pink chairs in Kelly Wearstler's office below...

Kelly Wearstler

Mirrored Coffee Table $75

image 0

The coffee table above may not be as large as the one below, but the inspirational image can give you and idea how beautiful mirrored furniture can look...

via whorange

Gold Oval Mirror $25

image 0

Large Mirror $85

image 3

Gilt Mirror $30

image 0

Vintage Tiger Wood Coffee Table $50

image 0

Okay, I've got to stop there. I could keep on going and going, seriously why buy new when there is a plethora of awesome used furniture out there???

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Thursday, September 22, 2011

A Petite Present

Recently I made a tiny little gift box for a great friend, whom I've been friends with for over 20 years...yikes! I had an old container which I just couldn't throw away (this my friends seems to be the story of my life...'hmmm, I can do something with that')...


I then glued scrap paper onto the box...


Then came the petite gift that I made in pottery last year, which I imprinted using a vintage Indian block print stamp...


I added twine to make a little ornament...


Placed it gently into the box...


And voila a petite gift for my friend...


Hope she likes it as much as I love her! Do you all keep crap stuff that you think could come in handy some day like I do?