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choosing an accent color

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Recently I freshened up my family room by adding some simple accessories and not spending scads of money. My new accent colors are orange, yellow, and a vibrant green.

I chose those colors by taking a look at some of the accessories I already had in the room (that I knew I’d be keeping) and picking out some of the more vibrant colors, like the orange and yellow in this lamp shade (which has a great story behind it)…

The spicy pumpkin orange and greens in this chair…

The golden lamp…

The yellow in this vintage advertising art…

And the vibrant yellow lemon zest in the poodle’s martini…(and what poodle doesn’t deserve – hell, even demand – a martini?)…

All pieces that I already had in my family room that either I love (the art and the striped lampshade) or that need to stay because the lotto fairies didn’t leave me a winning ticket (the 90s chairs). Bottom line…I built an entirely new look based on what I already had with just a couple of colors that are now here…

and here…

Plus, just to keep everyone on their toes with a little design surprise, I didn’t just stick to orange, yellow, and green, but also added in a little zebra and black and white…

…because doesn’t black and white zebra match just about anything? Just shake your head yes and agree with me and no one will get hurt!

See it all pulled together in the family room here.

little things :: work cubicle edition

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For those of us who work full time outside the home, we spend more waking hours there than in the homes we love with the family we love.

OK, now that I’ve depressed you, let me at least encourage you to do something to spruce up your cubicle space.

Nothing as extravagant as you’ll find here…

Maybe something a little more subtle…

One of the ways to soften the harsh edges of a cubicle and give your workspace some life is with a plant. Here’s a plant that I’ve had at my desk…

Just your basic succulent.  (I can’t handle plants that need any more care than very infrequent watering, hence the succulent.)

Then one day we were cleaning out our supply of old versions of dictionaries and style manuals.  I work as an editor, so we need to work with the most up-to-date versions. The books were going to be tossed in the recycle bin, so I decided to give them new life and add some height to my plant…

Use what you have decorating at its finest! Now it’s just a little thing, but it’s really spruced up my plant and my desk!  You can add a little design just about anywhere with a stack of books.  And no need to pay lots of cash for this one…check out the dumpster, the recycle bin, your bookshelf, or the library book sale.

Here are a couple of other tchotchkes that I use to personalize my cubicle space…

Because I love me some letters and numbers, I *had* to own this lamp when I saw it on clearance at Kohl’s a couple years back.

And this sweet thing from my monkey collection…

Just a couple of things to make my cubicle to seem less sterile and more fun!

Have you done anything fun to brighten up your workplace?  Share your pics on the Homage Style Facebook page.

And don’t forget to enter the Spring Cleaning Giveaway for a chance to win this adorable sterling silver charm bracelet!

Click here for contest entry details.

Showing off at…

ottoman before & after

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About a year ago, I found this ottoman in my neighbor’s trash…

It was in pretty bad shape, but sturdy nonetheless…

Obviously trash picked, since there was even garbage in the springs…

Gross, but salvagable!

So, I let it cure in my garage for a year.

Eventually I picked up some zebra faux fur, which I bought from Joann, using a 50% off coupon from the Joann app on my iPhone. I bought a yard and a half, which cost me around $12 with the coupon.

This weekend the moment of inspiration finally struck!

I already had high gloss black spray paint, so I cleaned up the ottoman and spray painted the legs.

I didn’t worry a whole lot about getting paint on the original fabric, since the faux fur is thick enough to cover any discoloration.

The legs weren’t looking too bad…

It’s amazing how much of a difference just the black paint makes.

And now for the faux fur…

I began by stapling the prewashed fabric in the middle of the wider side of the ottoman.

As an aside, if you’re in the market for a staple gun, let me recommend that you consider an electric staple gun.  They’re just a couple bucks more than a manual one, and totally worth it, because the electric one won’t kill your hands the way a manual one does. It’s still a workout and you’ll still break a sweat, because you need to press firmly to release the safety and you’ll need to pull the fabric taut as well. But overall, it’s much easier to use.

After stapling several places in the middle, I stretched the fabric taut and stapled similarly on the opposite side.

I stapled my way out from the middle, and then did the same on the shorter sides of the ottoman, working my way to the corners.

When I got to the corners, I folded them like I was wrapping a present, tucking them in and under as flat and tight as possible.

So that it looked like this on the side after stapling…

And like this underneath…

I wasn’t terribly concerned about how things looked underneath, just as long as it looked good on the visible surface. And I think it turned out looking pretty darn good!

Isn’t it adorable?  I love it!

Best of all, it was a super inexpensive project.  Only cost me $12 for the fabric, plus the spray paint I already had on hand (approx. $4), and my time an effort.  Can’t beat that!

I’m not sure if I’ll keep the ottoman with the red and orange chair, since they’re both pretty bold, but the combination is growing on me, and boy do I love the zebra faux fur ottoman!

Would you keep the chair and the ottoman together?

Showing off my new ottoman at Funky Junk Interiors and Kammy’s Korner. And jumping into the contest over here…

 

 

spinning a yarn

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In the office of my home there is a large and boring wall that’s been crying out for help for some time now.

It really needs some paint, but that’s not happening this week. I already started to give the wall a bit of flair with this fabulous frame…

…but there’s still a lot of wall left.

So I decided to spin a yarn.  Or at least use a skein of yarn to create a wall hanging.  Here’s the yarn…

It’s some seriously gorgeous yarn, and I wish that I could knit a throw with it, but I don’t have enough and it seems that they’re not making it any more. So a wall hanging it is.

This was a really quick & easy project. I used embroidery stretcher bars that I already had at home. They are pretty inexpensive – a couple of bucks each at your local craft store.

I tied the yarn around the stretcher bar…

…and started wrapping the yarn haphazardly around the stretcher bars…

…and when I was just about out of yarn, I knotted the end of the yarn around the stretcher bar…

And that’s all it took to create this…

I love it!  Adds some color, texture, and visual interest to an otherwise boring wall!

And cheap to boot!  While this project was free to me, since I had everything sitting around at home, if you had to go out to buy the pieces and parts, you could probably make this for between $10-$15.  Not bad! Perfect for decorating on a tight budget.

This project even won the seal of approval from my 11-year-old son, who said it’s “really cool!” Can’t beat that!

simple & inexpensive art work

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This year a friend and I agreed that while we would exchange Christmas presents, since we’re both expense-ridden single moms, we would pick or make presents from something we already have at our houses.  Terrific idea!

I’ve been thinking about a couple of different ideas, and if you’ve learned anything about me by reading this blog, you’ve come to realize that I’m a professional procrastinator.  So it wasn’t until tonight – the night before I’m delivering my gift – that I finalized my plan.

For several years now, I’ve been hanging on to this fabulous fish-themed paper.

In fact, it moved from California to Ohio with me, curing, waiting for just the right moment and project. I got it for free, from a fabulous shop called Tuvalu, in Ladera Ranch, California, where they used it to wrap fragile purchases. I can’t recall what I purchased, but I loved the paper and asked if I could purchase some, but they gave me a pretty good length of it for free.

My friend and I both work as editors in our day jobs, and we both love anything with numbers or letters or handwriting.  Plus we both love anything nautical or fish-themed. And anything with a hint of antique. This paper has all of that and then some.

It’s just gorgeous paper, but not over-the-top, hit-you-over-the-head theme-y.

Quite perfect, in fact.

So, for her Christmas gift I decided to wrap a canvas with the paper so she can have some new artwork for her new home.

I used a 12 x 24″ canvas that I already had at home.

I used the high-tech technique of gift wrapping the canvas and taping with Scotch tape.

Resulting in a perfect wall hanging!

I have to admit that I did have a moment of Grinchliness, because I loved this wall hanging so much I thought about keeping it for myself. But then I got over my momentary selfishness and decided that it’s the perfect gift for a dear friend! Hope she likes it!

take it out on your home

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Feeling frustrated? Life got you down? Things just going wrong? Take it out on your home.

No, I don’t mean that you should punch a hole in the wall or run around tossing breakables to the floor.

Instead, after you’ve tried your usual coping methods – mine is napping my troubles away – if you still feel like crap, don’t throw yourself out the window, throw yourself into a project in your home!

It doesn’t have to be a major project. Any old project will do. And if money is what’s causing your angst, no need to spend more…just start cleaning. Decluttering is free and most people have cleaning supplies hanging around.

Throw yourself into a project and something interesting may happen. You may just get into “the zone” and forget about your problems…at least temporarily, and every little bit helps.

dropcloth = restoration linen

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This weekend I was perusing the The Restoration Hardware 2011 Source Book yet again (think back to the days of reading the Sears catalog toy section over and over and over…this is the adult version, courtesy of Restoration Hardware), when I happened upon their Belgian Linen Drapery Collection (page 514 in the Source Book).

I couldn’t help thinking how much my drop cloth curtains look like the Belgian Linens…

Even the textures look similar.  Here’s the drop cloth up close and personal…

And the Belgian Linen texture…

Looks pretty similar to me, and at $10 per panel, the price sure is right! What do you think?

Let the drop cloth revolution continue!

a little impulsive chandelier shopping

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Who doesn’t go impulse shopping for chandeliers on the internet in the middle of the night?

I sure do!

Last Thursday evening, I set out to do some updates to my blog. Amazingly enough, I somehow ended up at HomeDepot.com. Strange how those things happen.

Ultimately my e-wanderings took me to the chandelier page where I came upon this beauty…

How breathtaking! It’s perfect for my living/dining room! It’s the Progress Lighting Berkley Collection Oxford Silver 3-light Chandelier. Better yet, it was on sale for $50, plus free shipping. And the sale was ending at midnight.

It was late, my resolve burned out at least 3 hours earlier, and I had my debit card by my side.  A perfect storm.  The recipe for an impulsive chandelier purchase!

SOLD!

I decided that I would paint it a metallic champagne to match the living/dining room.  Nothing more to say, right?

Wrong.

On Friday Ijust had to share my amazing find with a friend at work. So I pulled up the webpage and I was shocked to see that the chandelier was no longer on sale for $50, but had gone down to $35.96!

ACK!

I promptly called HomeDepot.com’s customer service and they were happy to give me an adjustment to the new sale price!  I was now down to Craigslist prices! Woo hoo!

Now I’m just waiting to receive it.  The champagne metallic spray paint has already been purchased. I am project ready!  I’ll share the details as soon as I have chandelier in hand.

funky zebra table

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Out of the ruins of my daughter’s room came a damaged occasional table…

…the top was ruined with nail polish and who knows what else…ew!

Because the surface was damaged and the laminate was peeled in a couple of places, I was ready to simply throw it out, which didn’t thrill me, because without that table, other pieces of furniture would eventually be used for the very activities that ruined this one.

After thinking on it for a day, I remembered the zebra print Duck brand duct tape my ex-husband gave to me. Eureka! I could cover the tabletop with zebra print duct tape!

(If you don’t have an ex-husband giving you gifts of duct tape, you can get some at Target for about $5.)

Simply apply the tape to the tabletop, slightly overlapping each row of tape.

In less than an hour, the table was repaired, and better than ever!

Isn’t it adorable?

And easy as pie! (Well, actually way easier than pie, since I don’t find pie to be all that easy…)


There may be other pieces in my daughter’s room that may get the duct tape treatment! Stay tuned as the Great Clean Up continues…

score!

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Remember the chandelier that I bought on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago?

You know, the one that’s still curing in my garage waiting for a paint job, the one I thought I might have paid too much for at $30?

This one…

Well, imagine my surprise when I was perusing the Ballard Designs catalog and saw one that looked very similar to the one curing in my garage!

Page 36 in the current catalog for those of you who want to follow along by hard copy.  Yeah, that’s right.  It looks very similar to the 6-arm Talia chandelier with a suggested retail price of 179 clams!  In fact it looks sturdier with slightly nicer scrollwork. And I thought I might have overpaid!  Ha!  Total score!