My Bestie's House

Hads is buying a new house and you know what that means!!!  I get to play and make it beautiful!!

I will post more in depth coverage of what we have going on so far - but in the mean time - here is the color story.

I am so excited to be working with my bestest to make her brand new old house exactly what her and her hubs have always wanted!!!

FINALLY!!!

Let it never be said that I don't have some patience in me.  Granted, not a lot, but just a smidge.  I have had this fabric picked out for 3.5 - almost 4 years.  I lovingly refer to it as the perfect floral and have chosen all colors in every house I've ever owned around the hope of having this fabric grace my windows.  Two years ago my sweet husband bought me 31 yards for my birthday.  And it has been rolled up waiting for us to either take it to the workroom or pick a house to live in for more than 365 days.  I used to visit it in the attic, pull it down occasionally just to glance at it, and then drag the heavy bolt back up out of the way.

Well - NO MORE!!!

As an Anniversary gift for my husband, I made the draperies.  Fourth Anniversary is fruit & flowers - so it's perfect - and he wanted them bad too!  Now - this is where my non-patience enters.  I was sewing on the DL, so I had managed to get two of the panels done, but desperately wanted to see what they looked like in the room hanging.  Only problem - we didn't have the window hardware to hang them - so what did I do?  Tacked them up there with finish nails! ha!!  It did hold surprisingly well and I was so pleased, that I RUSHED to get the last two panels done and up so I could surprise Sam when he got home from work.

He actually noticed!!  Though, it probably helped that I left a note on the door telling him there was an early anniversary gift inside... ;)  I realize that it was my job as an interior designer to impress upon people the great qualities of window treatments - how much softer, warmer, etc everything feels when the windows are dressed.  But they still manage to surprise me every time I put them up in our house.  The living room just feels done now - atleast the furniture seating group of it - and it's so much more comfortable.  We are in absolute love.

And - in true form - we've already moved the blue frames to the left of the bookcase.  We added an armoire to the hallway for storage and all of our favorite prints had to be relocated and found a new home there.  I'm sad to see the blue frames go - in my head it looks perfect and done - but in reality it hadn't quite gotten there yet and pretty sure the Hubs was none to pleased with the idea in the first place.  Oh well.  It's not like we ever leave something where it is forever.  Ha!

The Unveiling of a Nursery

Today was the day by which the nursery MUST be done - J's big baby shower!  And her girls did the BEST job - the food was yummy, the blue pina coladas in bottles were adorable, and J is MORE than set for when little Will graces the world with his arrival in July.  And the icing on the cake -  the nursery is finito!  Except for a couple pictures on the wall and staining a bookcase - J has really made his nursery a place for a little boy to grow and be loved in.

(Now - I'll be honest - my camera is having some issues with autofocusing - as in, it won't do it - so these are the best that my photog bestie could get for me...)


Without further ado - Will's nursery highlights:

What we did: 

Completely custom crib bedding except for the crib sheet - "circles" & monogrammed blue linen crib bumper with stripe ties, stripe inverted pleat skirt.

Semi-custom window panels with stripe "skirt"

Hand-painted Sailboat Canvas by J - isn't she talented?! - with large stripe fabric sails

One of J's only REQUIREMENTS was that I find space for a RadioFlyer wagon - I think it's an adorable toy storage solution for in front of the window - unfortunately - the caboose that came with it wouldn't fit - but I bet it still makes an appearance later... ;)

J picked out the lamp and table and they both fit perfectly - once the slides are fixed - the dropleaves will come up and give her plenty of room for all the momma necessities

The chair is covered in a chenille and the pilllows, which I already showed, make the perfect spot to cuddle with sleeping babes.

And there IS an adorable deep chocolate fluffy rug that  goes in the middle - but who would want 30 people's shoes tromping all over it when there's a baby coming soon... 

What we did: 

J found the BEST resource for paper lanterns - so she ordered a bunch (seriously - like 30) and we suspended them from three little white hooks with fishing line.  Very free form but I could not be more tickled with how great it turned out!

J and her mom also scoured stores and the internet alike to find a dresser that fit the dimensions perfectly to act as their changing table.  The nursery is a good size - but using a dresser instead of a traditional changing pad would up the storage possibilities (and be a lot prettier and more functional later in little Will's life.)

What we did:

This is probably the EASIEST project - open back frame, monogrammed knob stuck directly into the wall, covered pretty hanger, and what do you have? The cutest way to display your little ones coming home outfit.  This has been on my to-do list for my William for forever, and I'd be lying if I wasn't a little envious that J got it done before me...but it's so cute - I don't mind! ;)

I could not be happier with how Will's nursery turned out and it was an absolute pleasure working with his momma to make her dream come true.  Much love and best wishes to you both!  I can't wait for his arrival!

I die.

My bestest Hadley has a photography studio - you know that.  I posted about the window treatments already.  But the poor mama's (and their entourage) had nowhere to sit.  Now granted - I don't think I've ever needed to sit in a chair at her studio, usually I'm too busy desperately trying to get pepito to pretend to be happy during picture taking - but I've never had anyone come with me either.  Anyhow.  Hadley needed chairs.  Cute chairs.  Cheap chairs.  (please ignore the quality of the iPhone pictures - I really need a point & shoot I can carry around...)

More than a month ago, when both our babes were elsewhere (how did that happen?!) we scoured the thrift stores and found some perfectly sized comfy chairs at Salvation Army for $25 each.  Not an awesome price like I've seen all of you find - but pretty dern good for Columbus and hefty chairs.  At this point I was convinced that, even though it looked more complicated than anything I had attempted before, I could strip them down and recover them for her.

Oh, woe is me.  Way above my skill level.  Well - maybe not - but I didn't have the right tools to even get them ripped down properly and I certainly don't have an air gun stapler thing.  Shoot.  So, with much shame, I called Hadley and call the my workroom, who quoted us a price.  And while reasonable - I felt terrible.  But we didn't have much of a choice if we wanted them recovered.  Shoot.

Upholstery magician Ray had them ripped down in a matter of hours and then they sat in my house while we tried to get our schedules to align so we could paint them.  We FINALLY found the time to paint them RED this weekend.  So, first thing Monday morning, I loaded them back up in the  car and took them to Ray to finish.  I'm sure he thought that I had fallen off the face of the earth - but atleast they understand that I have a baby and the time that it takes to get out of the house/do anything at all is ridiculous.  I digress.

I got the call last night that they were ready! Yay!  First thing today I headed out to get them.  Lucky for me, I only live 2 minutes from the workroom.  And I die.  I knew they would look awesome - I squealed when I saw the fabric at Hancock's - but this - is just awesome.  Really happy we didn't go with a solid texture - these have such a great punch!!

I had to drop them at Hadley's house instead of the studio, crazy baby schedules, and I can't wait to see them with the curtains.  It is going to be so fun with all the colors and patterns.  Hadley squealed and, honestly, I'm a little afraid she's not going to take them to studio she loves them so much.  They might find a home in her home... ha!  So Love!!!

Rock A Bye Baby

J's Nursery Chair came in last week!!!

I went forever ago and picked out three choices for upholstery, 2 good and 1 best of the worst, and she picked my FAVORITE!!  A velvety textured fabric.  LOVE!!

She coerced  asked her husband to put it together Friday night and it is perfect!!  The  color - everything.
OH - and she got a fluffy chocolate rug!!!  It will all make sense in the end - and her crib is coming in any day now!!

I love how the colors in the pillows pull across to the curtains - but just you wait until the bumper and skirt are done - it's going to be perfection! SNEAK:

Pillow Talk

As the title implies - I've been hard at work making J's nursery chair pillows - and they are A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. I absolutely love that they don't scream "baby" and seriously, the fabric makes you want to snuggle in - it's so soft and comfy.

She had found the 18" forms at PB Outlet at a super price, and has a bolster at work that she loves, so picked one of those up too. But when she went to get the fabric - they only had about 32" of the plaid. So...we weren't going to be able to do both pillows out of only the plaid. No biggie - we have that gorgeous checked chenille we could pair with it.

Originally, we were thinking to do one and one but then J suggested using both fabrics on both 18s. Brilliant - and yes, I am embarrassed to say I didn't think of it first... Y'know - as long as someone is brilliant - it doesn't matter.

So, with no baby to interrupt, I cut the fabric, hemmed, made button holes, pinned, sewed, made the covered buttons (which was no small feat with upholstery weight fabric), sewed on the buttons, and fluffed. Love love love. And so so easy!!!

I'm not gonna lie, the bolster pillow scared me. Sewing in circles - ahh!! But I am happy to report that I only had to rip half of a seam because I put the envelope flaps backward and my first try is a smashing success. J loves it!

Now, on to the crib bumpers and skirt. Ridiculously excited about this nursery and kinda wanting to completely redo pepito's...just saying. ;)

Oo Oo Studio

My best friend Hadley has her very own photography studio now and a brand new fabulous place. And I get to be lucky enough to help make it feel fun and kid friendly.

Totally awesome stuff... www.hadleyscott.com

We began with window treatments, of course, my fave. And in effort to save her some moolah - we decided that purchasing ready made curtains (84" length) and sewing a skirt on them would be the most beneficial. and easy for me! ;)

She found the super fun squiggly stripes at Hobby Lobby - I told her to buy the entire 8 yard bolt because we needed to add 27" to each of the 8 panels and the extra, what turned out to be 32 inches, I could use on the door windows.

picture taken pre-pressing... but how fun is that fabric?!

Luckily Target had the perfect grommet heading panels, though it took two trips to enough for all the windows in her studio. I did some math - and decided to hang the curtains high, taking advantage of the 9 foot ceilings - cut off 14 inches of the solid brown panel, hemmed and sewed on the 27 inches of squiggles, repeat 8 times and done.

fun fun fun

We installed them on Sunday and she (and I) love them! Kind of by accident we decided we liked the "full break" at the bottom hem. I "might" have mismeasured a bit...but I like how it turned out and goodness knows I've installed draperies that I intended to hang like that - so all's well that ends well.

two of four windows in this room...wait til it's all done - it's going to be awesome!

I can't wait to finish out the space, with new chairs, accent tables, and hang all of her gorgeous photos on the wall!!

and I had every intention of taking in progress pictures - but got too excited and forgot...my apologies.

A Nursery for William

Not my William - but for a friend who is having a little boy this summer and I am so excited to be getting to help her with it! We had our first consultation on Sunday and we figured everything out in two hours. The general floorplan, what pieces of furniture to look for, crib selection, wall decor elevations, fabric selections, it was lovely. And on top of it all - I get to sew the bedding and window treatments for her!! Well, the bumper and bedskirt. I am really excited to get started and figure it all out.

More later - but the fabrics are gorgeous and that's where I will start. Her husband, who is perfectly adorable and would probably hate that I say so, had this "thing" against polka dots, which is kinda why we're doing "custom" bedding. It was difficult finding a readymade bedding that she liked AND had no polka dots in sight. Problem - while fabric shopping, J. found the cutest "circle" fabric and it was PERFECT. So we had to keep referring to it as circles, and not dots, and lo and behold - he agreed!! It's going to be pinch your cheeks cute - so excited!! And the swatch doesn't do it justice, because there are three rows of "circles" total and they are different colors. Will snap a pic of the full pattern later at the store...

the full fabric story all together

the "circles" will be the main fabric for crib bumpers

J loves a good stripe - this will be an inverted pleat bedskirt and also part of the window treatments

this will be used on the wall in a very cool way - more on this later

a feel good plaid as an accent pillow for J's chair

possible accent for crib bumpers - we're also looking at a solid linen...

So that's the general idea - with slightly darker than normal beige walls. Sherwin Williams Sands of Time - it's going to be great!

the swatch looks funny on my screen - it looks much better in person with the fabrics.

Just so I don't spoil everything - I'm stopping now. But stay tuned...this is going to be fun.