when your home is your canvas
Little things mean a lot when you’re decorating your space and making it uniquely yours. Like this mini globe in a vintage egg cup accompanied by this fabulous watercolor painting by photographer Alicia Bock…
It’s a little corner of my home that’s truly unique.
Showing this project off at Funky Junk Interiors.
Actually, I don’t spend much time at all hating anything or anyone, so this is more along the lines of really hot decorating trends that I’m not particularly fond of, but what kind of headline would that make?!
There are two trends that I find particularly irritating, but that are on fire in magazines and amongst bloggers – the chevron pattern…
and the pouf…
First, let me say this about the chevron. To me, even in small doses, it’s too busy. Sorry, I just must not be cool enough for the chevron pattern. Or perhaps it’s that I get headaches too easily from patterns like the chevron. Or maybe it’s the shabby chic in me coming out. I just don’t like the internet-beloved chevron.
Next, the pouf.
Come on…how can you even take the pouf seriously with a name like that? Sounds more like a brand of tissues than a piece of furniture. I can’t even get myself to like the cool silver Nate Berkus pouf. OK, maybe a little.
Now, this is not to say that at some point in the future you won’t see me placing either of these poor, hate-listed items in my home. Especially since my overarching karmic lesson in life seems to be to say “I’d never…[fill in the blank],” and of course I end up doing it. Just wanted to float that disclaimer out with my hate list.
Any trends irritating you today?
Recently, I became infatuated with these from West Elm…
…but not so much with the price tag, which was $14.99 per strand. Almost as if West Elm heard my decorating prayers, they’ve now lowered the price to $9.99 per strand. But that would still cost me $60 for the 6 strands I would need. Sixty clams that I don’t really have for capiz!
Somewhat coincidentally, this past weekend we ended up going to the Easton Mall to meet my daughter’s new college roommate, and a great time was had by all. Plus I happened to spy a West Elm, so I thought I’d swing by to see if they had the capiz! strands.
While they didn’t have the exact capiz! strands that I was looking for, they had several different capiz chandeliers, all of which were gorgeous! And extremely thin and delicate. Super thin and very delicate. Probably too super thin and delicate to withstand 2 dogs, 1 cat, my 2 kids, my sister’s 3 kids, and any assorted other friends and relatives.
The moral of the story is, don’t just think about the beauty of a particular project, but also the practicality.
Usually I’m pretty good about factoring in practicality, but every now and then we all get blinded by beauty. And further blinded by a second reduction in price.
Bottom line, good thing I didn’t spend money I didn’t have on this particular project, because it just wouldn’t have worked.
But I still love capiz!
Lookee what I found on Craigslist for 30 clams!
A beautiful chandelier that I’m going to paint and put in my bedroom. (That is after it “cures” for a while in my garage with my other projects-in-waiting.)
Can’t decide…white, black or other?
Don’t want it to be too shabby chic. We’ll see…
Edited to add: My friend Claire says silver. BRILLIANT! Silver shall be. (After adequate curing time, of course.)
Doesn’t it even sound fun? Capiz!
I have been thinking about a capiz shell chandelier for my living room for a while now, but being broke and all, that hasn’t exactly made it to the top of my priorities list.
Until I saw these…
And thought, wouldn’t these look fabulous in this doorway, 3 on each side?
I wrote about this room and it’s lack of seating here.
So back to the capiz!
Wouldn’t they look fab? They’re on sale for $14.99 per strand at West Elm. $14.99 x 6 = no way do I have that much to spend on capiz!
($89.94 for the math types. Not including sales tax and shipping.)
(And I really did consider not linking to them so all of my trusty readers don’t buy them up while I’m searching for spare change and the TV remote in my couch cushions. But I’m not mean like that. If I can’t have them, someone should!)
So I decided to use the amazing powers of my resale license to search the internets for capiz! wholesalers, because I’m certain that the entire strand cost about $0.03 wholesale. Now that was quite an experience. I was astounded by the variety of craptastic stuff made with capiz! Just google “wholesale capiz shells rectangular”. In fact, let me google that for you.
While you can buy everything from a capiz! tissue box cover to a capiz! toilet seat, I could not find the rectangular shells I was looking for. Apparently West Elm commissioned those directly from Mother Nature herself.
Well, we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll hit the lotto and feel OK about spending almost 100 smackeroos on sea shells.
Or I could listen to my friend Claire, who says, “Go for the luxuries in life! The necessities take care of themselves.” Not the soundest financial advice I’ve ever received, but it sure is the most fun!
Recently, I’ve been trying to add a touch of mod throughout the house, to give a little kick in the pants to my usual vintage pottery barn-esque style.
In the spirit of everything in the house can be decorative, I’ve even added a touch of mod to the dogs’ food and water bowls.
I found this fun & funky leaf pattern platter on clearance at Target and thought it would be perfect for holding the dog bowls.
Don’t mind my dirty floors. That’s my contribution to the keeping it real department.
Here’s the platter with the dog bowls on it…
Just proving that you can add a touch of mod just about anywhere in your home!
…I’m gonna pretend to be a good sport.
So I didn’t win a room makeover from Mandi’s Epic Room Makeover Giveaway over at Vintage Revivals, which means I’m on the hook for updating my living room myself, which is fine, I suppose [fake passive aggressive sigh].
There are some pretty good contenders for the prize though. If you’d care to place a cash wager, I’m betting this one will win…
Giving all new meaning to the term “blank canvas”!
And she has some seriously fabulous furniture to work with like this couch…
and this chair…
I’m sure Mandi can do something fabulous with this blank canvas. Wonder if she needs an assistant?
Hello blog friends!
I entered my living room in a makeover contest over at Vintage Revivals & now it’s time to vote. Would you please take a minute & vote for me?
My living room is #110 – My ex-husband got custody of my living room.
Just scroll down toward the bottom of the page & click on the yellow star next to post #110.
Thanks so much!
The living room that was is no longer.
It used to have a comfy couch and was a quiet getaway for when the kids were getting rowdy in the family room or just watching the same episode of SpongeBob LOUD for the 47th time.
But my ex-husband got custody of the couch, so now that once peaceful hideaway looks like this…
Ok, so the couch was only a love seat, but still, this room is EMPTY! Which is why when I heard about Mandi’s Epic Room Makeover Giveaway over at Vintage Revivals, I got super-excited!
Not like I can’t do these things myself, but this room needs so much – couch, coffee table, paint, curtains, style, and with my $0 budget, a kid going to college in the fall, and very little time after my full-time job, I figured that this project could actually get finished with a little help from Mandi!
More inspiration for why I need help with this project…
The walls are white & bland, and definitely yearning for color. White blinds make the windows look barren. Curtains are called for…
Did you notice the scary shadows that are vaguely reminiscent of an octopus? That’s from this scary monster…
Frightening! It is, indeed, a hideous beast! I was thinking that maybe Mandi could do something fabulous like this…
…but then I grew up and came to the realization that not even Mandi could salvage that hideous chandelier from its ultimate ugliness. So maybe she’ll have another fabulous idea.
The originally scheduled programming for this room was as a dining room, but since I don’t “dine,” I figured that the space would be more useful as a living room.
I did go through a brief period when I thought that it could be a combo dining-living room, but that would have required the purchase of this bad boy, which was slightly out of my price range. (Budget = $0, table = $1899 + shipping.)
Since my fantasies have been dashed by the far-reaching powers of my [nonexistent] budget, I *hope* I can win this wonderful contest and have Mandi come play in my living room. Between the two of us, imagine the damage we can do!
It’s not a total loss. There are some things to work with that may be a wee bit inspiring for the likes of Mandi.
There is still a chair, although you can’t curl up on it and take a Saturday afternoon nap…
And this fabulous table that I scored at a resale shop, with my favorite lamp in the entire free world…a bird on a swing in a birdcage. And you know I have a bird problem. Guess I have a birdcage issue too.
Then there’s this vignette, with the bird of paradise painting that I did. Yeah, I’m bragging!
And these odds and ends, an eclectic grouping including a Buddha statue and the needlepoint of a girl that my grandmother did for me when I was a little because she said it reminded her of me. Yeah, eclectic.
Just imagine what Mandi could do with her awesomeness and my room! And then we could both blog about it and it would be fantabulous!
So that being said, I’d love it if you vote for me. And in the event that you’re not feeling sorry for me having to look at a bland room every day with a frightful chandelier that I’m afraid will somehow come alive at night and strangle me with its brass tentacles, please note that this room is the first thing that people see when they come in the front door. This.
And if that’s not enough to convince any rational person that I need the Mandi makeover, there’s this. Just think of how awful the custody battle was for that couch.
Yeah, I did go that far.
Thanks! You’re the best.
One of my house goals is to clean up my office. While I haven’t quite finished that project yet, I can show you some of that room, which is upstairs in a loft that overlooks our family room. I call it the eagle’s nest, because I can sit up there and hear just about everything that’s going on in the house. Perfect for spying on the kids.
Here’s a sneak peek of the cleaner parts of my office/art studio space.
My desk and the shelves above it…
Let’s start at the top…the top shelf, that is.
The middle shelf…
And the bottom shelf…
Globes and one of my favorite lamps on the desk.
Here’s a close up of the piece of wood…it’s a piece of wood that my son broke in tae kwon do. I wrote some of the things that are important to me on it, and it sits on my desk as a daily reminder to keep it real in my life.
Moving on in the room…my pink piano. Oh yes I do have a pink kiddie piano!
A gorgeous black velvet covered chair where my American Girl Bitty Baby doll sits. My cat sits there a lot too. Had to do a lot of lint rollering before this pic.
Some day I hope to have a dining room full of these fabulous chairs.
There is a couch that is not pictured here due to the aforementioned mess problem. I use this trunk as a coffee table for the trunk and for extra storage.
And because it would be quickly lost if I didn’t, I keep the key to the trunk on a hot pink velvet ribbon. Functional, plus it adds a great pop of color.
And let’s not forget my pink table.
This table, which we got from Ikea a million years ago, used to be ugly mustard yellow. And it lived that way until finally I spray painted it pink. Quite the improvement.
At the edge of the room is the pink phone and the writing on the wall…
That’s all for now. Still missing from the pics are the couch, front desk (the one shown is the back desk, sort of like a credenza), and the art table. Maybe I’ll clean up and add those pics. Or who knows, I could let it cure for another couple of months or years, like I do with many of my projects!
Showing off my office/art studio at Whisperwood Cottage…
