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design vacation :: recap

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Well, my design vacation has sadly come to a close. And because I always overestimate how much one lazy human being can do on any given day, I didn’t accomplish quite as much as I had imagined I would.  But still, I did get a good start on things.

Here’s the recap of what I did accomplish…

Plus a couple of projects that I kicked off but haven’t finished yet…

  • Bought a couple of new throws for my family room – all that I need are some new pillow covers and that room will be complete
  • Got started on the big cleanup of my college daughter’s room.  This really should have happened by now, but things tend to get away from me!

All in all, a good week that recharged my creative batteries!

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.

design vacation :: master bedroom

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Although I didn’t accomplish quite as much as I’d hoped on my design vacation, I did spruce up my master bedroom a bit.

Inspired by a new duvet cover, I’ve started fixing my bed again.  After all, it only takes 2 minutes, even with scads of pillows…

I’m not sold on the color of the duvet cover yet, but I love all of the texture of the faux fur blanket and pillows, the brown floral quilt, leopard print, all topped off with the satin rose pillow. Kinda girly!

(And please, for the love of Pete, let’s just overlook the wrinkles on the duvet, OK?)

I tidied up my nightstand…

…and added some fabulous beaded raspberries to a formerly empty vase…

(Just for fun, let’s pronounce it VAHZ!)

The other nightstand got tidied, as well as a touch of mod…

Painted up a lamp…

And painted another lamp too that got added to this chest of drawers for a truly eclectic mix…

I even vacuumed.  And dusted.  And polished my furniture. No small feat for me!

I’m loving my newly cleaned and spruced up room.  Now I just need to add paint to this vaulted-ceilinged bad boy!

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 these link parties…

Mod Vintage Life

design vacation :: project break :: shabby chic meets mod lamps

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I’m on vacation this week, and spending some time cleaning and freshening up a couple of rooms.  I’ve been hacking away at my master bedroom, slowly but surely.

The look that I’m going for in my master bedroom is shabby chic meets mod. I’ve already got the shabby chic going on, and a couple of mod elements, but felt that these lamps were a little too ornate for the look I’m after…

The one on the right can be seen here in these keeping it real pics from the master bedroom…

Sorry, no before pic of the other lamp.

I decided to spray paint both lamps a glossy white.  Simple enough.  I figured it should be a quick and easy sprucing up. Maybe an hour max. Of course even thinking that was the kiss of death that guaranteed I’d have some sort of problem! Guess I forgot the basic physics formula of any DIY project…project time and difficulty is inversely proportionate to the number of times DIYer says or thinks it will be a quick and easy slam dunk!

Here are they lamps after the first coat or so…

I happened to notice that the lamp on the left was having a little bit of an adhesion issue…

The paint just wasn’t sticking on the neck of the lamp.  What the heck? So I continued spraying. I would conquer this lamp with cheap spray paint.

No improvement. Maybe it was the cheap spray paint.  Maybe it was because I didn’t wait long enough between coats. Or maybe there was some sort of texture or oil base or who knows what.  The other lamp, however, was shaping up quite nicely.

I had a can of Krylon Fusion for Plastic in white, so I decided to give that a try, since it’s supposed to stick to just about anything.  That began to work.

After I got the neck of the lamp fixed up with the Krylon, I sprayed the entire lamp with a couple more coats of glossy white. Finally, success!

Here’s the lamp that didn’t give me too much trouble, on a terrific inlaid shell table that I scored a couple years back at the end of summer for $20…

And here’s the problem child, that turned out great in the end…

Perhaps you’re wondering, why white? It’s all going toward my evil plan of eventually painting the walls a rich gray.  Just imagine how beautifully the furniture and accessories will pop against a deep gray backdrop.  Can’t wait to get to the painting phase of the journey.

A fun, eclectic collection of goodies that makes my shabby chic meets mod dream come alive.

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 these link parties…

Remodelaholic

design vacation – project break :: the letter a

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In the midst of my craft armoire declutter yesterday, inspiration struck, so I decided to go with the flow and create a little something.

I started with a canvas that I had painted in black & white stripes for a previously failed project.

In my decluttering, I came across an old atlas that I was saving for a moment like this. My son has an collection of letter As, since his name starts with A, so I had the idea of making a letter A with the map of Ohio, since we live in suburban Columbus, Ohio.

Here’s the Ohio page…

The Columbus area is a lighter color, which will make the perfect center of a lower case A.

A lesser person might actually print out a letter A in their font of choice and trace it onto the map.  I decided to create a more imperfect freehand version…

Then I adhered the letter to the painted canvas using rubber cement, which will create a good hold and will allow both the paper and the canvas to remain smooth.

All that was left was to add it to my son’s collection…

Done deal! Perfect addition to his collection, and since the canvas had already been painted, the project only took about 20 minutes.

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 these link parties…

Remodelaholic

design vacation – craft armoire

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Time for a design vacation status update.

I’m enjoying my design vacation and letting inspiration take me where it takes me.  This morning I was inspired to declutter one of my two craft armoires.

I’ve been hanging on to a lot of supplies and found objects for projects that I’ve been contemplating for years. I’ve come to the realization that if I haven’t done the projects in the 5+ years that I’ve lived here, I’m probably not going to be getting to them. Some of the various paraphernalia even traveled across country with me from California to Ohio. Which is kind of silly, now that I see it in writing.

Here’s how far I got…

Still more to go, since I want to consolidate the two armoires into one. But look at all of this excess…

Lots of stuff gone – two bags being donated, two bags of recycling, and a bunch of stuff that I sold to our local resale shop to the tune of $43! (The cat stayed…)

More to come!

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.

design vacation – keeping it real in the master bedroom

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Sounds kind of scandalous!  But when you see this, you’ll realize how completely scandalous it really is…

Messy-licious! And there’s more…

Nothing like watching an episode of Hoarders to jump start the spring cleaning bug.

And that, my friends, is my bedroom.  Let’s just say it’s gotten out of hand. So I started with a big cleanup. Which took a surprisingly long time. I’m sure that had nothing to do with treating myself to occasional trips to Pinterest.

While it’s not quite ready for the full reveal, here’s a little something…

Nothing wrong with this vignette, but I’ve been trying to add a touch of mod around the house, so I want to mix it up a bit.

I found a terrific iridescent vase at Target, and it looks pretty good…

…but it could use a little more height.  Something along these lines…

These are pieces of wood that my son broke when he was in tae kwon do. But the raw wood looks too, well, raw, so I painted it with a gray craft paint, not worrying about priming or if the woodgrain showed through the paint.  Call it character and texture.

There, that’s better. The painted wood adds height and texture.  Plus the wood pieces have special meaning to me, and now I’m using them instead of having them stuck in a cabinet.  My son even wrote his name on one pieces, making it extra special.

Plus it looks great, don’t you think?

Don’t forget to enter the Spring Cleaning Giveaway!

Showing off at these link parties…

Remodelaholic

design vacation & giveaway

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I’m on vacation from my job this week and decided that I’m taking a design vacation. Not a vacation from design. A vacation to design.

Seems that my house has gotten a little out of control. Same goes for my project list.

Conveniently, I found out that I was grandfathered in to an old vacation policy at work based on my start date, and was amazed to learn that I have not 2, but 3 weeks of vacation this year!  Wahoo! So I decided to take one of my weeks to work on my house.

Sometimes the best redesign begins with decluttering and cleaning. And some of my rooms have definitely fallen into messy disarray.

So my design vacation is going to be one part spring cleaning, one part design spruce up.

First I’ll go through the room and tidy it up, followed by freshening up the design. Nothing major like painting, because truthfully there just won’t be enough time.

Of course I’ll share it all right here, keeping it real with the scary before pics!

And in the spirit of spring cleaning, here’s a great giveaway…

This fabulous sterling silver charm bracelet, How Does Your Garden Grow? from Charming Darling is what’s up for grabs for readers in the US.  Here’s how to enter for your chance to win:

  1. For one entry, become of follower of this blog and comment below saying that you’re a follower.
  2. For another entry, share in the comments what your biggest design plan is for this spring.
  3. For an additional entry, like Homage Style on Facebook, and comment below saying that you did.

Be sure to leave your email address so you can be reached if you win.

Entries must be received by 11:59pm Eastern time on March 15, 2012.  The winner will be announced on March 16, 2012.

blog goals

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In addition to house goals for 2012, I also have a couple of blog goals that I want to make happen.  Soon.

First, I want – need – to push myself to do more.  More projects, more decorating, and more blogging.  Because I love it!

Along with that, I really need to start taking better photos.  Some of that is just plain laziness.  Most of the photos I take using my iPhone, because it’s what I have with me.  But I need to improve my pics, which means I need to leave the room that I’m in and walk to another room in my house and pick up my camera.  Yeah, like I said. Laziness.

And finally – at least for today – I need to jazz up my About page. It is, in a word…BLAND.  And I am not a bland person.  In fact, most of the time I’m downright ridiculous. But it’s awkward talking and writing about myself.  I feel like I’m bragging or something, and that’s not my style.

However, that being said, my About page still needs improvement, so I’m gonna shake it up.  And if you get lucky, I may even go so far as to post a pic or two.

OK, don’t count on the photo happening too soon.  Even though I look just fine in real life, I did not get the photogenic gene, so I usually end up looking the the victim or perpetrator of a crime.  Not exactly the look I’m going for!

So check back often…never know what you might find!

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…

 

 

2012 – the year of the blog

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2012 may be the year of the dragon on the Chinese calendar, but in my world it’s the year of the blog.

This is the year that I’m going to honor myself by taking the time to do what I love and feel passionately about – decorating – and enjoy the thrill of writing about my experiences and sharing them with you.

Like so many of you, I spend the vast majority of my waking moments tending to people and things other than myself. Raising my kids as a single mom, working full time to pay for everything that my family needs – from basics like food and housing to college tuition for my college-age kid.

Of course all of these things are important. But I’m also finally beginning to learn that in addition to meeting everyone else’s needs, I also need to tend to my own needs. Especially when I hear a voice inside of me, dying to come out.  A calling. I owe it to myself to heed the call. So beginning this year, I will begin to peel away the layers of the onion. I will heed the call to be creative. To create. With my home as my canvas.

But I’d be kidding myself (and you) if I said any of this would be easy. I’m busy. I’m tired. I’m stretched too thin already. Single mom. Full time job. Kid at home. Kid at college. Chronic fatigue. Not enough money. Not enough time. All valid reasons to do little or nothing.

Until I realized that maybe I need to push myself. If I love this – and I do love this – then maybe I need to sweep out a corner of the world for myself. To fulfill my dreams, and not just contribute to the fulfillment of other people’s dreams.

A time and a place for me. Life is too damn short to let it pass me by when I have a passion so strong.

It’s time to heed the call.

What’s the little voice inside of you telling you to do?