Archives For -Fabric

Ikea Summer Accessories

April 26, 2013 — 2 Comments

ikea-summeraccessories2

While we were at Ikea ordering up our PAX closet system, we did a quick trip through the store (after all why not take advantage of the ballpit for a bit). I wasn’t on the search for anything in particular, but I saw some really cute summer accessories that I couldn’t resist. How cute are these summer items? So colorful! My favorite are the flamingo cups ($1 a piece).

ikea-summeraccessories3

Here is a breakdown of some inexpensive summer accessories that I picked up and a few more that I considered:

rotera-lantern-for-tealight-ikea

Rotera Lantern for Tealights, Ikea $3.99

I didn’t pick up this large glass lantern, but it was really nice in person. I need to think of how I could use it before I can justify picking it up.

Has anyone picked out any cute accessories from Ikea lately?

P.S. Our closets are in the garage waiting to be assembled. Pretty exciting! Now please try and excuse my dusty wrinkled clothes for a couple more weeks while we get our room together.

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Master Bedroom Curtains: Finally Selecting a Fabric

March 20, 2013 — 2 Comments

masterbed-moodboard2

I am on a Jacobean fabric kick! I was going to write about where I am headed on closet doors for the third floor tower, but I got distracted and thought I would show you my latest find. I have been stalking fabric again on Fabricguru.com. And they do have some pretty good deals, if you have the patience to sift through fabric pictures, since they don’t usually give you the fabric’s name. Granted these curtains won’t be installed for months, since we will be a construction zone until then. But I saw it and decided to pick up the fabric now, especially since I have been on the hunt for way too many months.

breamoreWonderland3

The fabric is Braemore Wonderland in Pearl. I have actually pinned this fabric twice on my fabrics board on Pinterest (once as a close up and once in a bigger repeat). There are several reasons I like this fabric. First is the scale. It is hard to understand in the picture but the pattern is huge!

braemorewonderlandpillow

from Lily on Blue on Etsy (no longer available)

I think it is easier to understand on this pillow. The second thing I like are the funky leaf patterns. I think that the fabric will play well with my giant Best Panels that will be installed behind the bed.  The third thing is the color palette. It works really well with the crazy striped rug, particularly the yellow and oranges. It doesn’t have a white background like I wanted, but it does have a white highlight which I think is important to work with the white trim in the room.

breamoreWonderlandchair-sarahrichardson

The third reason is that Mr. S. liked it and agreed it would work well in our bedroom. I held up a picture of it on the ipad next to the window and he gave me the thumbs up. And how could I say no after I found out that Sarah Richardson likes it. The picture above is from her Sarah 101: Premiere Episode. She is really a master with color and pattern!

So the downside is the price. I need about 18 yards of fabric, so price is pretty important. When I first started looking at fabric I really wanted to use a Premier Print fabric, in large part because of the affordability. The cheapest I had found Wonderland for about $30 a yard at OnlineFabricStore. Which wouldn’t be SO bad if I were only buying a few yards. At fabric guru they had 2 lots this week of this fabric. Just to make it confusing 1 lot was listed as Braemore (no pattern name) and one lot was listed as Kaufmann. The 2 totaled just about the right amount. Apparently it is fairly common for the different brands to have some of the same fabric listed under different names. I haven’t seen this particular fabric ever listed under Kaufmann before, but I suppose it is possible. The pictures online looked identical. We will see if there is any variation between the two when they get here. I ended up paying just over $12 a yard for 18 yards including shipping, which I think it a pretty sweet deal. The fabric shipped this morning and I can’t wait to see it.

Has anyone scored any good fabric deals lately?

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In -Bedroom, -Fabric, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS
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Pretty Fabric Please Come Home with Me

February 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

kitchenfabric-spike

In the midst of trying to figure out all of our second and third floor plans, I was temporarily distracted by some pretty fabric. For some people it is shiny things, but for me a good pattern makes me happy and distracts me from more important endeavors (especially late at night while surfing the internets after Mr. S. has fallen asleep). I have been on a very long search for the perfect fabric for our bedroom curtains and while searching one night (specifically fabricguru.com) I came upon a nice Jacobean pattern with good potential (Richloom Kathrann Printed Linen Blend Fabric in Garden). It had a nice large size pattern, a good mix of colors and the pattern and was a nice mix of modern and pretty. The only issue was the background color. I really want a white background, to work with the future white window trim and to lighten the gray walls. By the pictures it was a bit hard to tell how far off the background color was. I stopped by JoAnn’s to see if they happen to have it in stock.

fabric-sample

And just by chance they did have some of the fabric, so I asked very nicely for a sample and they gave me 2 to bring home. I immediately knew that it wasn’t going to work in our bedroom with the cream colored base but as soon as they were sitting in the kitchen I thought that I definitely need to use this fabric in here for some window valances. Because that is a priority right now (hahaha)!

richloom-kathrann-fabric

I ordered enough fabric for the windows with a little bit of extra for a couple of other small projects from fabricguru.com for the awesome price of about $6 a yard for 4 1/2 yards in 2 pieces (this retails in the $25-35 range). In addition to selling fabric by the yard they apparently have a lot of leftover small lots that they offer at really good discounts. Wow, I have just found a new place to spend many hours searching for the perfect fabric!

It is funny that one of the first things that I did when we bought the house was take down a lot of curtains and valances to let in the light and now I am putting them back up (of course in much nicer fabric that is not from the 1970s). I’m not quite sure to think about this development. We do have solar shades on a lot of our windows, which I do really like but they are a little ho hum looking.

kitchen-windowvalance-render

I just whipped up a rendering of what a valance might look like in here. I like it. I am considering actually making it with a solid backing and padding it slightly and using some decorative nail trim. Although if I follow something closer to my Dining Room valances, they would be easier to take down and clean. I do want to mount them inside the frame, so as to not obscure the nice trim.

What do you think? Does anyone else have a fabric obsession?

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In -Fabric, -Kitchen, -Shopping, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS, OUR HOME
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New Chair

July 16, 2012 — 1 Comment

New Chair from One Kings Lane

I hope everyone had a good weekend! We had a pretty relaxing weekend, although I don’t think I am quite ready for the week. I realized that I haven’t shown you my latest chair and its new home.

So I bought this chair a little while back thinking that it would go in our Master Bedroom. Well, we are still a long way from working on that space, so it was in the Living Room, until we did some rearranging and I moved it to the Dining Room last month. I like it in here so much that I think it will stay here for  a while and  I might need to look for a new chair for the bedroom.In its new location it is a good resting spot for putting on shoes or sitting and talking to someone while they are on the computer (which happens more than I would like).

Chair in Waverly Santa Maria Desert Flower

The chair was from One Kings Lane is no longer available, but the fabric is “Waverly Santa Maria Desert Flower” and is $19.99 a yard. They also have a coordinating zigzag and flower fabric, and it comes in a couple of colorways. I really do love the fabric. It is so fun, but it is definitely a statement piece.

P.S. I have some new exciting projects in the works, which I hope to share soon. I hope everyone has a good week and stays cool!

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In -Dining Room, -Fabric, -Furniture, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS
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Our Basement Part 57: Ikea Karlstad Sofa Bed Assembled

June 18, 2012 — 1 Comment

New Karlstad Sofa Bed

I hope all the dads out there had a great Father’s Day!

This weekend was really busy while we tried to get the house ready for 25 kids + parents for Sam’s 5th Top Chef Birthday Party (more on that later this week). We also celebrated Father’s Day (which included Mr. S. working hard on the house + some quality time with the kids). Plus on Saturday afternoon our new sofa bed for the basement arrived along with a new wood countertop from Ikea. Gotta love $59 delivery (into the house no less) for both.

We went with the Karlstad Sofa Bed in Sivik Dark Gray (based on several recommendations). Ikea is also running a special of 15% back on a gift card (to be used for the last upper cabinet for the basement). It arrived in 2 big boxes + 1 small box (for the slipcover). Delivery took about 10 minutes (once we convinced them to pull into the driveway).  It took the 2 of us about an hour and a half to put  it together (including unpacking and sorting). It was a pretty easy install with no major hiccups. The bed pulls out sideways (so your head is at the armrest not at the back). We tested it out in the store and though it was reasonably comfortable. The sideways layout also works well for our space (leaving enough room to walk around when it is pulled out). We can already imagine pulling it out for a movie night with the kids. The seat cushions are a bit stiff at the moment, but the sample in the store was quite comfortable, so I am assuming with 2 kids jumping on it, it will soften up in no time. And as an added bonus the slipcover is machine washable.

New Pillow from Homegoods & Napkin from West Elm that will be turned into a pillow cover

I picked up these pillows at Homegoods a couple of weeks ago. I think they look great with the sofa. The black outlines in the fabric work well with the dark gray fabric (which has almost a denim feel to it). The napkin is from West Elm last year. I bought 4 thinking that they would make a nice pillow cover, not knowing where I was going to use them. Fortunately the orangish-red looks great with the pillows. Not sure when I will get around to sewing these up though.

This week’s post will probably be a little sporadic as I try to get ready for this weekend, but we did finish up a lot of long overdue projects on the house, so I will try and get at least a few sneak peaks of the updates.  I hope everyone has a great week!

New Wood Counter (temporarily supported) filled with stuff for Sam’s Party!

Here is a little peak of our new wood counter (Lagan, $59). We temporarily supported it with some scrap wood, so that we could start using it. We will be adding a wall cleat to the back, creating a better support for above the safe and screwing it to the base cabinet on the right.

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In -Basement, -Fabric, -Furniture, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS, OUR HOME
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Outdoor Pillows & World Market

February 23, 2012 — 1 Comment

Beautiful New Pillows!

Sorry  I have been a little off in my posting this week. We have lots of stuff going on this week. The good news is that the basement is still moving along and the first of the beadboard has gone up in our laundry area (it is very nice). More to come soon! I also have a new computer (still to be configured) so posting should be a little easier shortly, after I get all the kinks worked out! They are also moving the router and some wiring in the basement today, so my internet service is a little spotty (i.e. for the last 5 hours).

So anyway back to my post, last year I searched and searched for the perfect pillows and side table for my front porch. I ended up making some pillows and then I finally found a table this winter. Well wouldn’t you know it, I have now found the perfect pillows at a reasonable price! The pattern is really nice! It is just the right mix of a somewhat traditional print with a more whimsical feeling  with a modern bright color palette (which happen to coordinate with my exterior color palette perfectly). Now I am a little torn about whether I should replace the pillows I made or not. Maybe I will  buy these and use them in the backyard. I think the chair cushions will look very nice on our Adirondack chairs.

The pillows and seat cushions are from World Market. I have never ordered from them, but I have admired some of their outdoor furniture and umbrellas before. I’ve heard generally good things about them, so I think it might be time to give them a try! I am also excited to see what else they will come out with later this spring. This weather has put me in a full spring frame of mind!

Here are a few curtains that caught my eye (and look similar to some much more expensive options from other companies):

Cool Paisley Garden Curtain, $26.99 on sale

Warm Garden Paisley Curtain, $26.99 on sale

Suzani Print Curtain, $26.99 on sale

Has anyone ordered from World Market before?

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In -Fabric, GARDENING & PLANTS, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS
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Sewing an Outdoor Pillow and Some Other Ramblings

August 17, 2011 — 2 Comments

Porch Swing (still needs to be painted) & New Pillow. Try to ignore the half dead plants.

My new pillow (the flower is centered but because of the swirls being asymmetrical it looks off)

In the last week we have had about 10″ of rain (mostly concentrated on Sunday). So in addition to getting water in the basement (literally seeping up from the slab)  it is looking like a jungle outside am I am not looking forward to taming it. At least the weather was pretty nice yesterday afternoon  (for the first time in a while) so the kids and I put on our bug repellent and spent some time outside, which was lovely. Earlier in the day while we were waiting for the clouds to go away, I decided that I should finally work on the pillows for the porch swing. So during Maisie’s nap I managed to get one finished. I should say that I have made a number of pillow covers in my day, but never one with a zipper. My mom always said that zippers were really hard to install, but I saw this great tutorial from designsponge/sewing in a straight line for how to sew a pillow cover with a zipper. It looked pretty straight forward so I decided I would give it a try. We had a few technical difficulties, but overall it went pretty well.  Here are the steps I followed:

Making an Outdoor Pillow Cover:

1. Bought outdoor fabric and two 16″ zippers at JoAnns. I bought 4′ (1 1/3 yards) of 2 fabrics since I wasn’t sure which one I was going to use. It is a Waverly fabric callled “Pom Pom Play” in Spa from their Modern Essential line. I just found this link showing the whole line of fabric, which I think are pretty and modern.

2. Ordered two 20″ square outdoor polyester pillow forms. The only ones I could find were from fabric.com. They are nice and squishy. You could also cover over a pre-made outdoor pillow. I looked around to see if I could find any on sale but I couldn’t find any in this larger size.

3. Put off doing project for about 6 weeks. Have cats sit on fabric. Wash fabric to remove cat hair and keep in a place where cats don’t sit.

4. Cut four 20″ squares for the 2 pillows. This was more difficult then I was anticipating because the repeat is really big on this fabric. I bought a yard and a third (4′) of fabric so I had a good amount to work with. In the end I went with centering one flower on 2 of the panels and on the other 2 I have 3 flowers off center. I ended up needing all of the fabric to be able to make 2 matching pillows and was really close to not having enough. Sam “helped me measure” the fabric for the pillow.

5. Iron fabric to get out creases from having it folded.

6. Pin one side together good sides facing each other. Mark 3″ in from each side.

7. Sew from corner to mark on each side (including backstitching to prevent unraveling). Use a 1/2″ seam allowance all the way around. I also used a polyester thread.

8. If you have a modern sewing machine you can apparently set it to “basting” to sew the remainder of the side. I have my old school 1940s singer which only sews one kind of stitch so I hand basted the rest of the side.

9. Iron seam flat.

10. Pin zipper so that it aligns with basted seam. Zipper should be closed and face down.

11. Sew to one side of the zipper. Most sewing machines have a zipper foot that you can install that leaves one side of the needle free so that you can sew next to your zipper without the foot getting caught in it. Of course I do not have one so I decided to wing it. I sewed with the zipper on the right of the foot since on my machine the foot is narrower on that side (I was probably about 1/4″ off of the zipper). Once you have gone down one side then turn 90 degrees and sew across. Then repeat down the other side.

12. Cut out baste stitching and check to make sure the zipper is working. Miraculously it worked! Keep zipper open (I foolishly kept mine closed and then had to carefully open it after the pillow was finished)

13. Pin and sew the other 3 sides.

14. Turn right side out and iron.

15. Put in pillow form and close zipper!

16. Put on front porch. Have kids lay on it!

17. Find time to make second pillow. Consider ordering a zipper foot for my sewing machine.

Does anyone else still have outdoor projects to finish?

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In -Fabric, -Porch, INTERIOR PRODUCTS, FURNITURE & FABRICS
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Our Bedroom Part 4: The Curtains

July 21, 2011 — Leave a comment

I want to make some full length curtains that will sit on either side of the 2 front windows and go from the bottom of the crown molding to the floor. These would be wide panels and each would cover the window and completely move out of the way on either side when not in use. This way they won’t interfere with the radiator (although I may need to put some snaps on the bottom to shorten them when they are over the window and radiator).

I’ve been scouring fabric stores and websites trying to come up with a fabric that is affordable, has a large pattern, isn’t too busy and comes in either gray or red. The pattern has been a tough choice for me. A lot of the patterns out there that I am drawn too won’t work with the BIG metal panels. I need a pattern that is graphic but isn’t “busy”. It is funny now that I am putting this together that all of my favorites are by Premier Prints Fabrics. They sell their fabrics through their website. Also several other sellers also sell it at a discount (although not all of the fabrics). Fabric.com sell quite a bit of their fabric for about $8-12 a yard. The thing I like about their fabric is that they typically sell them in a number of colorways. Their patterns can be a little trendy but I LOVE  large over-scaled patterns a lot.

I started with these fabrics. Big scale with large flower patterning, fits my modern play on a classic style but not clean enough for the “modern” look the room is taking on.

Curtain Option 1: Premier Prints Victoria Kelp/Linern, $11.99 yard

Curtain Option 2: Premier Prints Suzani Slub Yellow/White, $8.48 yard

Next I tried out some graphic patterns. The ZigZag is very HOT right now. I am a little concerned it could lot dated quickly. I am also concerned that the pattern might be too distracting.

Curtain Option: Premier Prints Zig Zag Ash/White, $11.99 yard

Graphic Curtain Option: Premier Prints Gotcha American Red $8.98 yard

My current favorites are these two options. I like that the pattern is abstract and I think once it is draping that these could look great. If I go with the gray I am going to need to get a sample before I finalize the wall color (so that they have a similar hue). I might just get a sample of both so I can see how bright the red is.

Curtain Option: Premier Pattern Chipper Storm $11.99 yard

Curtain Option: Premier Fabric Chaz Lipstick/White, $9.99 yard

The Ceiling Fan

What do you think?

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In -Bedroom, -Fabric, INTERIOR DESIGN CLIENTS, OUR HOME
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Fabric Love

July 1, 2011 — 1 Comment

Outdoor Fabric for Porch Swing Pillow (and the kids including Sam's spint)

Jiti Outdoor Pillow $65

Another nice outdoor fabric on sale for $9.99

I was over at JoAnn’s earlier this week to pick up some felt for our Fourth of July creation (more on that later). While I was there I checked out the fabric. All of their outdoor fabric is 50% off (most were $9.99 a yard). I have been looking for new outdoor pillows all spring/summer. So far I haven’t found anything that I loved that wasn’t expensive. The closest thing I had found to buying were this Jiti Pillow (which I am pretty sure is a Waverly Fabric). Fortunately I found a couple of nice fabrics with pretty large scale flower patterns that I scooped up (they don’t seem to have these patterns available on their website).  Ideally I would have 2 big square pillows and then two smaller rectangular pillows.  For now I may sew new pillow covers for the existing pillows. Now if I can just get around to painting the swing the terracotta color to match the top of the house.

Fun Bright Colored Fabric:

Two beautiful patterns from Annie Selke, on sale for $28 a yard

Annie Selke Seema Fabric, $23

Pillows made from Annie Selke Links Fabric in Indigo

More Muted Colored Fabric:

A combination of Annie Selke Fabrics

A Nice Outdoor Fabric from JoAnn's, $15.99

Another nice Outdoor Fabric from JoAnn's, $9.99

Also while I was JoAnn’s I checked out some of their designer fabric. As a lover of a good pattern, I can’t seem to help myself! So I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are now carrying Annie Selke’s line of fabrics. The fabric is kind of pricey but JoAnn’s has all of their special order fabric 50% off right now. I thought I would show you a few of my favorites. I don’t have a place to use any of these at the moment but I am now on the hunt for a spot (maybe Maisie’s Room).

If you are not familiar with Annie Selke but love playful colorful pattern, I highly suggest checking out her different product lines:

Pine Cone Hill

Dash and Albert

Vanguard Furniture

 

- Her Pine Cone Hill bedding is always beautiful and colorful (although sometimes a little too feminine for my taste)

-The Dash and Albert rugs are amazing (in both cotton and indoor/outdoor). If you get any home magazines, I am sure you have seen these lovely striped and patterned rugs, although you might not of realized who made them. Some day I would like to install one of them as a runner on the stairs.

-She also has a line of furniture made by Vanguard

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In -Fabric, -Porch, INTERIOR DESIGN CLIENTS, OUR HOME
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