A Pretty and Functional Den

I was visiting Mom recently and she gets pretty much every magazine there is. She had a copy of the Dec. 2010 issue of a really good home magazine, Southern Living.

I spotted a room makeover in this issue and was really impressed with the attention to detail, palette and design of the room. The article appears on pg. 72 and is called “Meet The Hassingers.” It is a story about a couple that met and married and then had to mesh their own personal styles. I am not sure what happened to this world, but apparently men also have opinions on design and style. When I was first married this was all considered the woman’s prerogative and frankly, my own husband never cared what I chose.

But, it’s all different now and that is a good thing. Anyway, if you take a look at the “before” photos, they are comical at best. They feature two giant brown leather recliners and for added measure a huge green leather (pretty sure we are talking faux leather here) wing chair, a sad window treatment and a super-sized TV above the fireplace. This must have been his home, not hers.

The transformation is fantastic. The designer chose a soft neutral grey green for the walls, a large sailcloth sofa big enough for two or four with masculine tacks and then to feminize the space, added bright pink and green pillows, hot pink vases with roses and colorful art to the walls.

But what most impressed me was the window treatment. So many people are skittish about anything but beige fabrics and this designer chose an ikat design drapery in a green, red, pink and gold palette. It totally pulls the room together. The TV is still atop the fireplace, which is ok since there are other interesting things to focus like the jute rug, artwork and accessories.

Of course, I have a few areas I would have treated differently. While the fireplace is not centered on the main wall and is flanked by bookshelves, I think the choice of recovering books with white or off white covers is weird. These shelves would be better suited with some interest, like greenery, and vases in the accent colors or even plain white vases mixed in with real book covers. I think the art on the left wall is hung way too low, as if only a three year old could appreciate it and the giant lamp hanging over the sofa is really difficult to sit beneath. A really big lamp in red or pink on the table behind the sofa would be great. I do like the comfy upholstered chairs that flank the fireplace but I am not wild about that cocktail table.

That said, the overall transformation really captured what the clients wanted – a comfortable and functional room in which they could relax and entertain.

Photos from Southern Living

Baby Andy's Bachelor Pad is Decorated

In our last blog, I talked about striping Baby Andy’s room to look like wallcovering. It is so great to do this, since if you don’t like it or want to change it, it is an inexpensive paint job to fix. Of course, we all loved our results. Now it was time to finish the job.

Remember we are using the Owls Sky pattern from Dwell Studio. It is a charming owl and tree print fabric in a soft mercerized cotton. The colors are so perfect – turquoise, green, brown and gray on a white background. When Adrienne ordered the crib ensemble, we found we could order a lot of different pieces (pretty much any baby thing imaginable) but we could not order fabric by the yard. We needed this so I could make a window treatment.

So, we improvised. Adrienne ordered the matching shower curtain - a nice 6’x6’ piece of beautiful patterned fabric in a smaller scale than the crib quilt. Perfect for a window treatment. The shower curtain had a nice top treatment with grommets, and instead of cutting them off and making a casing, I kept the buttonholes and cut from the bottom, the measurement I needed plus yardage for a 2 ½” hem. I then lined the fabric, very simply with a plain white good quality lining – lining is essential, as it keeps the “body” of the fabric in place, doesn’t stretch and protects the main fabric from sun damage. I simply cut a piece of lining and neatly attached it. I then added a cute green ball fringe to dress it up and we were ready to go.

The baby’s room window measured about 3” across (it is a transom area above a door), so the 6” width was perfect. You usually want to double your measurements to get a nice fluffy treatment. I purchased an inexpensive white rod with a ball finial at K-Mart from the Martha Stewart line and hung it up. It is adorable.

I used some of the remaining bits of fabric to cover a night light shade I bought at Hobby Lobby for about $8. I have seen it online for ½ the price. I added the ball fringe to this also and it was ready.

I found a wonderful chocolate brown rug at HomeGoods in a 4'x6’ size and we placed it in the middle of the room. The deeper color was essential as little Andy’s room leads out onto a wonderful deck. I figured it was a high traffic area and a sweet pastel rug was not such a good idea. It has a circle pattern in turquoise, grey and white.

Of course there was some remaining fabric, so I found a wonderful laundry basket with handles at Tuesday Morning. It had a striped lining, so I removed the lining, took it apart and used it as a pattern. I cut out pieces from our pretty owl fabric, sewed them together and made a new lining for the basket. Instead of heavy fabric ties, I used a lime green ribbon to thread threw the casing. It now houses baby wipes and diapers in Andy’s room.
Adrienne and Jim purchased classical white furnishings – crib, dresser (doubles as a changing table) and bookcase. The final touches were very personal – photos of the grandparents (that’s me) and original whimsical pieces that hung in Jimmy’s room when he was a baby that his mom had saved. Adie added some classic toys of Jimmy’s (like the talking phone every child owned) and Archie and Jughead that lived in her room when she was young.

I am not sure what kind of entertaining Baby Andy will be doing in his Bachelor Pad, but he will be doing it in style, I am sure of that. His daddy bought him a shirt that said “Lock Up Your Daughters” and I hope they heed the warning!

Window Treatments and Beyond

Recently my wonderful sister-in-law Shelly, (also known as Sherry) asked me for some design advice. She wants to update the window treatments in a few areas of her home, specifically in the kitchen over the sink, in the dining room (which features a window seat) and above some French doors that open to a patio.

Since Shelly and my brother live in Arizona, I asked them to take some photos of the windows and provide accurate measurements so that I could get a feel for each space. I asked for not only length and width but depth, the distance from the floor to the ceiling and the distance to adjacent walls or cabinets. This gave me a much more complete picture in my head to start working.

Let’s concentrate on the kitchen today. Currently they have a gathered valance that has seen better days. The window is centered between two rows of cabinets and does not have room above for either a fabric treatment or an alternative. Since Shelly does not sew and doesn’t want a custom treatment, the options are to go with ready-made or come up with something else. Unfortunately so many of the ready-made treatments look alike and have very little originality. They are gathered or poofed or swagged or whatever. So, lucky for us, I always have an idea. Here is what I suggested:

1. Don’t use fabric. Hang a shelf there instead. There are very nice wooden shelves out there that are reasonably priced from stores like Pottery Barn. They can also be ordered online from places like Exposures or Ballard Designs. The shelves come in lengths from 2feet and up. They are made to look like wooden crown molding – some are very decorative, some are very sleek. I recommend a white painted version, with a lot of depth so you can actually use it for display. The shelf is a great place for some plants or some treasures you like to look at every day, like Grandma’s teacups or even something one of your grown children made long ago. You get the idea. Even a mini collection of brass teapots will work.

2. No more cleaning. By losing the fabric you won’t have to constantly take down the treatment, wash and re-hang it – but you will still have to dust the treasures once in a awhile. All of my friends know how much I LOVE to dust and clean. Stop laughing all of you.

Photos above from Pottery Barn

3. Hang a row of plates in this space. The plates can be individually mounted on plate hangers and hung in a row, or buy a cool horizontal plate hanger from a place like HomeGoods (talk about treasures galore). You can even buy the plates there too. If you have any heirloom plates or a special theme you enjoy, let that be your guide. My personal favorite is the French toile look – I have a few plates and platters hanging in that pattern in my own home. The plate hanger shown below is from Fine Home Displays.

4. Go natural. Again, by losing the "everyone-has-it" fabric idea you can be creative. Buy a natural swag made of curly willow or twigs and put a small loop on either end and just hang it on two nails or hooks in the wall. “Decorate” it with silk greenery like trailing ivy or grape ivy and then add some faux fruit (wires in very easily) or even faux flowers, although that would be my second choice. If you don’t feel you have the creative chops to do this yourself, you can always go to a local florist and have them make one up for you – yes they all will work with dried flowers too. Or, go to a silk plant shop or even to Michael's where they have custom designers to work with you. Just be sure to take your measurements or a photo of an idea.

5. If you go with a natural treatment or even with the shelving at the holidays you can customize it to make you smile. String lights on the swag or display your Santas on the shelf. Remember to buy a shelf with a lot of depth – some are very narrow and only meant for plates.

OK, there are a few ideas for all of you. I personally can’t wait to get to Arizona and see some finished results!!

Jack and Jill Accessorize

So we've been working on a design project for a former client of mine. A few days ago in "Jack and Jill United", we were focused on bedding - but today we are all about the bathroom and accessories.

The colors we are working with are a soothing aqua green, a soft lime green and periwinkle blue – the “watercolors”. I suggested a periwinkle paint for the connecting bath but it could also go in the more sophisticated of the two bedrooms. Pottery Barn offers some great bath rugs and towels. For this project, I suggest the cornflower blue or clover green. In the bath be sure to use towels that pick up the colors in both rooms. For the window treatments one idea is to buy roller shades (they have come back BIG) like the Ribbon-Border Roman Shade in parsley from Pottery Barn. Roller shades come in cool colors now too. Or, we can just use the existing wooden blinds.

The Company Store is a great source for linens and accessories. They have wonderful 500 thread count sheets in the nicest, softest sateen finish. Check out Eloquence Supima Sateen Sheets - I prefer the woven dot in skylight. If you can, it is really nice to give your guest the best sheets you can afford. They will last longer and launder nicely, too. The Company Store also carries tone on tone striped bamboo blankets and throws and these are SO soft and nice. This is also my source for down comforters, for those winter months. Folded on the foot of the bed, they just look so luxurious.

Since our rooms are to be used for guest rooms only, we don’t need a lot of storage - now may be the time to replace the dated chest with a painted white bookcase with drawers or a nice desk. Your guests need to have somewhere to put away a few things, but they don’t need an entire dresser. (We don’t really want them to stay too long, do we?) On the bookcase put a pretty decorative vase or plate or colorful baskets and boxes. Use white wooden frames and a framed white decorative mirror (a good, large mirror is essential) like the Brighton Mirror mirror from Crate and Barrel below.

Accessorize with some unusual pillows that don’t match the bedding. I also recommend purchasing a different dust ruffle than the ones that come with the matching bedding. Buy a contrasting color or pattern so it gives a custom look. Be sure to have some nice lighting on your nightstands too. Your guests are sure to rest comfortably!