Goodbye.

Photo Credit

After much thought, I have decided to stop blogging.  It's just too much.  For a long time my 9-5 job was very boring and I finally found a job that isn't at all.  With the new job taking up so much of my days and nights, I have little brain power left over to blog, much less know what's going on out in the design world.  This blog's content is lacking and as difficult as that is to admit, it's the truth.

Thank you for all of your comments and for reading this blog while it lasted.  I will be keeping the blog alive just in case you are interested in some tuturials, but there will be no more new posts.

If you have any questions, you can always e-mail me.

Best of luck to all of you out there.

Work Project.

I work for a law firm.  Nothing about what I do lends itself to design at all, BUT when one of our pro bono projects involved updated a local school's teacher's lounge, I got to flex my decorating skills.

Let me show you what we're working with:

Here's the idea board for the lounge area:

In addition to this room, we are making over 8 faculty bathrooms.  The items on the left are for the bathrooms and the items on the right pertain to the dining area of the teacher's lounge.  The decision has been made to go with the dining chair closest to the table.  The other dining chairs were some options.

Not shown on either idea board is the paint color.  I'll let that be a surprise.

The best part about this project is that we will be helping out teachers who teach in a poverty stricken school.  As a result, teacher turnover rate is high.  We hope they find a little solace in this lounge.  The project gets installed on Monday so stay tuned for the full after pictures.

Have a great weekend!

P.S.  All items on the both boards are from Ikea.

Before/After.

Last week I wrote about washing burlap.  This week, I'm going to show you what I turned the burlap sack into.

Before:

After: 

A pair of these pillows will be for sale at Slate this weekend.

Help: Pillow Inserts.

I have a custom pillow project and I am desperate to find 14"x24" BOX EDGE, DOWN pillow inserts.  Does anybody out there have a source?  Thanks for your help.

Update: Half-Bath.

Last year I updated my half bath.  It went from this:

 to this:

Today it looks like this:

The nude was a recent purchase from Slate's warehouse sale (they still have tons of stuff held over from the sale....next time you're in just tell them you want to see "next door" ).  I love all of the colors in the painting.  This bathroom is pretty monochromatic so I added her for color and interest.

Directly across from the throne is this new piece:

My mother-in-law gave me this thin, tall armoire.  It holds my paint samples and paint brushes, extra supplies, etc.  The size of the piece couldn't be more perfect.  The wire basket is a recent purchase from Metrolina, but it will not be staying.  It will soon be for sale at Slate.

Next addition for this room: curtains.

Washed Burlap.

Burlap isn't a material that you typically wash.  In fact, in most cases you dry clean it.  So when I went to Metrolina Expo this weekend and scored a great deal on some burlap feed sacks (so I could make more of these) I wasn't sure what to do when the burlap sacks smelled like the most digusting dog you could imagine.

Samsung front loaders to the rescue.  They have a cool setting called HAND WASH, so I started there.

I put all four of my burlap sacks in the washer on COLD, HAND WASH.  After they were finished, I took them outside to dry:

Good as new and NO MORE SMELL (wish I could say the same thing about my car).

I would not recommend throwing any burlap in the washer, but in this case I felt I had no choice.  I'm making some pillows with these sacks, but I haven't yet decided what shape (euro or lumbar).  I'll be sure to show you when I'm finished.

Friday Funny.

Photo Credit

Read this blog post to understand.

Happy Friday!

Splash of Color.

Want to add a splash of color in your home with paint WITHOUT painting the entire room?  Have you thought about painting your doors?  I've done it here, and this time I painted my pantry door.  

Here's how it looked before:

Nothing special really.  My kitchen is pretty light, so I decided to give it a little punch with Palladian Blue's big brother, Stratton Blue.  I had it color matched in Behr semi-gloss paint.  The color code is below.

Step one was to use a brush to fill in all of the places that a roller couldn't easily reach:

Here's the door after one coat:

And all finished up:

It's a beautiful blue grey color (with my lighting).  It was just the sort of jolt my pale kitchen needed.  It's so easy to do, and if you don't include drying time, it takes less than an hour to complete.  Think you'll paint your doors?

Framed: Postcards.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about how I was inspired by Phoebe Howard's postcard idea.  Well here's one of my post cards all framed up:

I purchased an 11"x14" sized frame and had some mat board cut for a 4"x6" opening.  I purchased the frame and the mat board at Hobby Lobby (on sale).  The frame was $15.00, the mat was less than $5.00.  I went super traditional, but you could take it super modern.

Weekend Photos.

Did you hear about Mr. Goodwill Hunting's thrifting party?  I shopped with my local group.  The first stop was the Habitat for Humanity Store on Wendover in Charlotte, North Carolina.  This store will blow your mind:

 And an almost purchase:

 

Several shopper gathering to speak to the man who planted the seed and organized the entire world-wide thrifting movement.  Do you know they were thrifting in Switzerland?  Crazy, huh? 

I got to meet The Nester too (sadly no picture with her).  She's so very nice.  Know who else is nice?  Pam from DIY Design Fanatic and Kim from Super Chyc.  I chatted it up with these ladies at the next stop.  Goodwill on North Sardis Road in Charlotte.

I got to shop with my good friend Bryn too.  She scored big time at the second stop.  Total for her purchases?  $21.00.

It was a great weekend.  How was yours?  Did you join the thrifting movement this weekend too?