Client Project: Windows, Windows Windows!

whew TGIF! and a great big happy birthday to my better half!! i love you mr. r!! yesterday i surprised him with a garage organization system from garage tek which was a hit and i kind of can't believe i pulled it off. if you're in need of some help with garage clutter, this is for you (and no one is paying me to say that although i kinda wish they were ;). it also made us purge a bunch of stuff - i loooove to purge it's like my fav thing - but only to a point because i didn't want to make him suspicious!

i just started working with a new client and she and her family recently relocated to the area. i totally commend her because starting over is hard to do!! they bought a new house and the first thing she wants to focus on are the windows. a little unorthodox to start there but fun nonetheless! so i shared with her two ideas, one bolder and one safer, and they chose the bold option! we might end up choosing a different dragon fabric but the idea is still there.

samples are ordered and we're off and running! have a great weekend - we'll be getting our tree!

Yellow Drapes

a friend of mine said this weekend that she's thinking of putting canary yellow drapes in her dining room. love a girl who isn't afraid of color and bold choices! so i thought i'd round up some rooms to see how it works in various spaces.

via mydomaine.com

design my melissa rufty

jo malone headquarters via habitually chic

by emily henderson

via house and home

via style at home

little green notebook

is it for you? if you're not sure, i say go for it in a room that you're not living in all the time like a dining room.

Client Project: Dining Room Romans

remember this project? it was fab! well the same friend also added some romans to his dining room. fabric is gray line linen warsa in off white (same fabric that i used on my kitchen/family room windows). we decided to have his banded in black and they came out really sharp!

Project Update: Kitchen Window Treatments (Done!)

i feel like this has been a long time coming but when we got home from sea island a couple weeks ago there was a very long box waiting for me - window treatments!! (here were my inspiration shots)

we quickly installed them but it's taken me forever to get a sunny day to snap some shots. and they (the pics) are still not very good. need to learn how to shoot into direct sunlight. anyway, here's the new look!

first before:

and after!

just warms it up and finishes it off i think. but to be honest, my first reaction was that i wish i had done something a little more interesting - pattern or color - since i'm so wired for those two things. but i reassured myself of my original choice by remembering that i will one day switch out the nasty old rug under the kitchen table and likely replace the kitchen table. both good opportunities to add color and pattern. also the rest of the room has a lot going on so it's good to have something more neutral. phew crisis averted!

and here is the weirdest shot - anyone who has been to our house can attest to the fact that the marble looks so much lighter in real life. one day i'll suck it up and have a real person come photograph our house!

this shade over the kitchen sink ended up a bit longer than i wanted but i didn't think it was worth sending back.

(again, weirdo marble)

i used etsy seller ideal window fashions (same one who did the shade in charlie's bedroom) and overall the workmanship is fantastic - very well made and the ribbon is placed impeccably. i gave grace, the owner, a description and my inspiration shots and she nailed it. they all have that slightly relaxed look which to me is the perfect balance between too formal and too casual. and all of the width measurements fit the windows to a tee which is important when you're doing inside mounts.

one way that i saved money was asking for these to be non-operational. we would never put them up and down so it saved a ton on fabric and mechanics to make them a fixed length. also i asked for standard lining (vs blackout) since it's the kitchen/family rooms and i don't mind - in fact i prefer - if light filters through.

(i must have taken this shot 100 times and this is the brightest i was able to get it - pathetic!)

at first my hubby declared that he hated them (sweet) but then his eye got used to it and i think he likes them now. it's such an important point though - you get really used to looking at something the way it is that sometimes when you change it, you actually think you've made a mistake. but my experience is to give it time and usually (except for things like our laundry, oops), you end up happy.

Project Update: Kitchen Window Treatments

quick update today in the latest part of the kitchen facelift project - the windows. i posted here about ideas for roman shades and *just* needed to pick out a fabric. way easier said than done. i ordered all kinds of samples that i thought (hoped) would tie the spaces together and would work with what we already have going on. see here and here for what's gone on so far.

designers from top left: sarah richardson, serena and lily, i forget!, jonathan adler, windsor smith

there were more samples too that i can't remember anymore but none of them were it. i was so sure i wanted a pattern but every sample that came to my mailbox was proving me wrong. so i took a big step back and tried to wrap my head around the idea of a solid. in fact, pretty much a 180 from where i was because i kept feeling myself drawn to white. 

white?! how boring! i know. i kinda agree - the color side of my brain was freaking out! but in the end i decided that if i kept it simple, i could really do anything in the future and not be tied to one bold fabric. i still have this little voice (i have a lot of voices huh?) saying that it's boring and predictable and blah blah blah but i'm trying to ignore it. so i bought 10 yards of gray line linen warsa in off white (and i've been helping out two friends who are both using this same linen for window treatments too!).

BUT to keep it a little interesting, i sourced (sounds fancier that way than just "found") some vintage ribbon to trim the edges. figuring out the color for the ribbon took another week but i decided on a soft gray that would compliment the walls and the kitchen backsplash. of course i found it on etsy - a shop called shy myrtle. 

i wanted it to be about an inch wide and to run right along the edge - as opposed to inset  - so i sent the seamstress this image as my inspiration.

and now we wait!

p.s. on a total tangent - do any of you watch the show flipping vegas? the couple have made a killing doing what they do but their design choices are a little... questionable. they were working on a multi-million dollar house and they were adamant that a white kitchen - as in white cabinets - would be a terrible choice and the house would never sell if it had a white kitchen. instead they thought medium wood tone would be better. i had to change the channel before i threw something at the tv.

Kitchen Window Treatments

as i've been saying for a while now, we need some fabric on our kitchen windows. it goes such a long way to softening up all of the hard surfaces. i love all of the beautiful trim and casing on our windows so i'm thinking of inside mount, relaxed roman shades. there are five windows in total - the kitchen sink, three in the kitchen table nook, and one in the family room. and they're all on the same wall so whatever i do, it needs to be the same for all five and therefore work in both the kitchen and family room.

first i was digging bamboo or natural fiber shades. but that wouldn't really soften things and also my hubby "hates" them apparently. i'm telling you - it was a viceral reaction. so i switched gears and went on to fabric. a few inspiration images...

(love this one and i think i've posted it before but it's just so pretty!)

Outside Mount Roman Shades

good thing this is a design blog or this would be a really boring post. ;) i have this thing for roman shades. i love them. and i used to be all "inside mount is the way to go" but i've embraced the outside mount look lately. just take a look at these windows (with a few that have awesome valances thrown in for good measure).

oops inside mount! too good though not to include!

inside mount again but i couldn't resist!

all images via pinterest. follow me here.

Affordable Black Out Curtains

drapery is one of those things that's sneakily expensive. you have to factor in the cost of the fabric, lining, labor, and hardware. it adds up! so i wanted to share a little tip on how to save money on drapery.

unless you have mad sewing skills and a sewing machine, neither of which i personally possess, here's an idea. buy ready-made panels and have them tailored to the size you need. i know, seems so obvious! for the boys' nursery i needed wider than average panels and a length that's not standard so bought three panels from pbk (here) and took them to a seamstress to have them reworked. she cut one in half and combined it with the other two to get a custom width. then hemmed them to the length i needed.

each panel has blackout lining which is a must for sleeping and goes for $69 (96" length plus free shipping at the time). the seamstress charged me $65 to rework the three panels into two. compare that to truly custom curtains and you definitely save. i did the same thing in the living room in our old house and it came out really well there too.

Etsy Love: Shades By Annie

oh monday you are evil sometimes :) BUT i worked hard this weekend to line up some good posts! the theme this week is how to save money (when spending money) on home projects.

i'm working on that project list - roman shade for the mudroom! i love our mudroom. we recently painted the walls a light gray and the trim really popped out (not sure if i shared the the paint before - it's benjamin moore balboa mist). before the walls were essentially the same color as the woodwork and it looked a little monotone and cold. so i tried to warm up the space with paint.

the other way to warm up and finish off the space was to add a little fabric on the window. i wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible but was set on a roman shade. so i thought about fabrics and almost went with this one from serena and lily (trying to tie in with the navy on the canvas bins).

but it's $50/yd and i would need two yards to make the shade (plus there's a 2 yard minimum anyway) which on top of the labor of making the roman shade, felt like more than i wanted to spend. so i wracked my brain and my stash of fabrics in the basement and still came up empty. in a final attempt for inspiration i combed through the many fabric samples i've accumulated and came across this one...

and it hit me! the table skirt from our bedroom in our old house!! it's been in our entry as a temporary thing while i try to figure out what to do there (if that ever gets prioritized).

it felt out of place in the entry but it's perfect for the mudroom! so i carefully cut the seams and salvaged the center piece which luckily was the perfect size. it feels so great to repurpose the fabric (and the lining which is good quality) into a new roman shade and save $$! 

i searched etsy for a seller that had reasonable pricing but also high quality workmanship. annie from shades by annie fit that bill and was super nice to work with. her workmanship is great and the shade fits perfectly.

i love how it looks and it's such an easy change! in case you're wondering, it's a regular cord/cleat system but we just mounted the cleat on the upper left behind the shade so you can't see it and the boys can't get to it.