design vacation

design vacation :: angsty teen boy’s room

21 October 2013 by Andrea Leave a Comment

My little boy is not so little anymore.

In fact, he’s a teenager. Guess that means it’s high time for an angsty teen room.

When we last saw the boy’s room, it was a vintage cowboy room…

Not so cool for a teenager. So sadly it had to go.

Then it needed to cure for the requisite length of time. Here at Homage Style, we don’t just jump into projects. We think them through, allowing the creative juices to flow. Some call this procrastination. I call it the creative spirit!

Well, this past week, my son went to Washington, DC with his 8th grade class, so I decided to take some time off from my day job and revamp the boy’s room. So off I went on yet another design vacation.

My son picked his own paint color and it was deep cobalt blue from Behr. I felt that it might be a little dark and overpowering, but then again, I’m just the mom…what the hell do I know? So I let him have his paint color. Ultimately it was the perfect color to set the tone for a dark and angsty teen room.

Let’s take a look around the room, before the angsty teen boy gets home and kicks us out! Here’s the finished product…

With two windows, the room gets plenty of light, plus the black and white striped curtains from Ikea help to keep things light and fun.

At the foot of the bed are two grey beanbag chairs…

For the record, I don’t advocate TVs in kid’s rooms, but the boy scavenged this one, and a little dumpster diving never hurt anyone, so I let him keep it. Plus there’s no cable, so he can only play video games on it. Aren’t those beanbag chairs perfect for gaming?

In the corner above the TV is a globe lamp that I made myself from a discarded globe my sister the school teacher gave me…

Globe lamp how-to blog post coming soon. Bet my sister’s sorry she gave up that little treasure!

On the wall next to the TV is an old laminate bookcase that I spray painted ages ago for kid #1 and it’s still going strong. Above it is a manly French memo board that I created from a wooden retail display shelf…

Ohio State fans, don’t mind the Michigan hat…he only wears it on crazy hat day!

How-to blog post for the French memo board will be coming soon too.

The memo board is my pride and joy of the entire room! I’ve been percolating on this idea for quite some time now and was thrilled with how it turned out!

A closer look…

The wall opposite the window has some great features as well, like the floor-to-ceiling bulletin board made of 12″x 12″ cork tiles…

Isn’t that fun? Right now there’s a synthesizer in front of it, but I’m sure it won’t be long before it’s covered with all sorts of memorabilia.

Notice the You Are Awesome poster that I made last year at a letterpress printing class I took with some girlfriends. Plus there’s the lava lamp…isn’t that a requirement for every angsty teen room?

And the black and white striped canvas balances out the black and white curtains on the other side of the room and breaks up all that blue. It was super easy and cheap to make…just painted the canvas white, then taped off for the black stripes, painted the black stripes, and voila!

We’ve all heard the saying, the best things in life are free. Well, this is especially true for free art! It’s the best!

I was lucky enough to score some advertising art posters from work and was thrilled that they were the perfect colors and style for the boy’s room. And by score, I mean co-opt them after someone left the company and left these bad boys behind. The first is a cool clown placed to the left of the window…

And the other is a giant robot towering above the headboard…

To the left of the robot poster is a Serbian ethnic instrument, a tambura, which the boy occasionally tries his hand at. It, along with the wooden French memo board and the cork board, as well as the natural wood on the furniture and the wooden box on the nightstand add an earthier touch to what could otherwise be a too cold blue room. All the beautiful wood tones warm up the room while giving it a very masculine touch.

I was really happy with the way the room turned out, but was especially thrilled when the boy came home and said he LOVED his new room! I’d call that a successful design vacation!

design vacation :: recap

28 February 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

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…

Cleaned up my craft armoire
Made a letter A wall hanging
Spray painted 2 shabby chic lamps
Spruced up my master bedroom
Most importantly, plenty of relaxation and time for lots of creative brainstorming about future projects!

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

28 February 2012 by Andrea 4 Comments

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…

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

23 February 2012 by Andrea 1 Comment

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…

design vacation – project break :: the letter a

22 February 2012 by Andrea 3 Comments

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…

design vacation – craft armoire

21 February 2012 by Andrea 2 Comments

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 & giveaway

20 February 2012 by Andrea 11 Comments

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:

For one entry, become of follower of this blog and comment below saying that you’re a follower.
For another entry, share in the comments what your biggest design plan is for this spring.
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.