Yellow??

I'm in need of a yellow fabric (I think) for my mom's living room.  The two parson chairs are finished and they look great.  I need some pops of color with the new fabrics and my options are; yellows, greens, blues, and tans.  Tan's don't really pop.  Also keep in mind that there is an existing leather sofa and love seat that we are using.  Since I think leather is more on the masculine side but good for kids and dogs, I want to soften it with beautiful fabrics.  I found one yellow fabric that I really do love but I also love this bluish/green fabric (2nd picture).  WHAT to do?  Yellows are sooo hard to chose from - I can't have something too bright but I don't want it to look like a nuetral.  Here's two fabrics that I think could work and one of them isn't yellow :-)

The living room is coming together nicely.  We are still searching for a paint color - the delay with this is because the space is sooo big it has to be just right.   Hopefully the decision will be made on Sunday. 

Every night this week has been incredibly busy with something so I hope by Sunday I will have most of the pillows done, finish the other cube, and pick the paint color.  I'm also working on another e-design of what I want to do to our master bedroom over the next couple of months.  Happy Friday everyone!

Here's one of the yellow fabrics I found and the next one I just fell in love with so now I'm kind of torn. 

Here's the most recent update to the nursery - better pictures to come. 

Work, work, work

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is next week and day by day my to-do list is growing.  Speaking of Thanksgiving - I wanted to take a second and reflect on what I'm thankful for.  Life goes by so fast that it's easy to go through the motions without being thankful for the small things.  I am extremely thankful for my wonderful husband, family, friends, and abundant blessings that have followed me through my life.  ALSO - our little boy who is due in January; every day I get more and more excited about meeting him.  Lastly is something new I'm thankful for - this blog - I didn't realize how much fun I could have sharing about something I'm passionate about.  

Since my last post I have been frantically working on trying to finish the other storage cube, sew some pillows, and pick a paint color for my mom's living room.  Last night I worked on some throw pillows - here's the result of one of them. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it, so I have my work cut out for me over the next couple of days.

 

Here's a quick back story on how I started sewing -

A couple of years ago my girlfriend and I were walking through a fabric store and I decided since throw pillows cost so much money I was going to start making my own.  I think at that exact moment my obsession for home decorating began.  I grew up watching my mom, grandmother, and aunts all sew, so I knew I had some good teachers if needed.  Plus I figured how hard can it be to sew a square??  I immediately went home and convinced my husband I needed a sewing machine.  He thought I was crazy.  WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I going to do with a sewing machine??? After much debate, I won and  happily clicked the "purchase" button.

A couple of days later my sewing machine arrived and I was determined to show my husband this would be the best INVESTMENT ever.  Every weekend I would run to the fabric store and buy more fabric to sew more pillows to prove to him this machine was worth buying.  In the midst of trying to prove to him this was worth the money - I fell in love with decorating and re-decorating.  I think every project has improved my sewing skills and I truly look forward to accomplishing a project.  I have made so many pillow covers it's kind of insane.  The majority of them are sitting in my craft box waiting for someone/anyone to use them at this point.  You many ask - why so many??  Here's the thing - whenever I want a quick update to my home, I run to the store, pick a fabric, and sew a couple of pillows.  It instantly changes the look of the room.

Recently my sewing skills have expanded towards sewing curtains, crib skirts, and slipcovers to recover anything I can get a hold of.  Since I'm working on this project for my mom I figured I would help to keep cost down and sew everything myself.  Plus I love a good project.  

Here's a couple of pillows that I have done over the past year for my house.

Hope everyone is having a good week.  I'm so excited about the weekend.  Besides my house projects that will keep me busy we have a great party that we are going to on Saturday and on Sunday we are celebrating a bunch of family birthdays.  I love this time of year!!!   

Living room story board

E-Board for my Mom's living room.

Here's an idea of what I'm putting together for my mom's living room.
More to come as the project gets underway.

                 I will have to improvise with the budget and finding everything to go with the original pieces that my mom has, but here's an idea of what I'm thinking about. This living room is a huge space so we are going to incorporate two different areas.  One for seating and then possibly a reading corner with the two arm chairs.    

I found an amazing mirror at HomeGoods on Friday and I can't wait to show it.  It was exactly what I was looking for but half the price.  Can't wait until it all comes together.

As for the nursery we did hang some prints this weekend and I'm still waiting on my curtains which should be done soon.  Since I'm in the homestretch of my pregnancy I'm trying to get the majority of my house project done before the little man comes, so I'm super busy.  There's a long list but the top priorities are the nursery, living room, and getting the house ready for the Holidays!!!  I LOVE CHRISTMAS and love decorating to make my house festive.  I have a couple of fun projects that I'm working on as well - I'll be sure to share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to a great Monday!!

Nursery Preview

Here are some pictures of the nursery in pieces.  The rocker was delivered yesterday and it's so comfortable.  Good thing since I hear I will be spending a lot of time in that chair.  The biggest thing I'm waiting on is the curtains and that should be done in the next two weeks.  Hopefully by December 1st, the little man's room will be done so I can run around and finish my holiday shopping.  Here's some pics - ENJOY.  

 Drum Lamp Shade from Shades of Light - OBSESSED!

 Ordered from ETSY 

 Part of the ottoman that I reupholstered - similar to the cubes I just did

 Love the baseballs

 His first pair of TOMS - LOVE THEM

DIY upholstery

As I mentioned in Monday's post - DIY upholstery is one of the easiest ways to customize your look.  I found these great storage cubes and am getting ready to recover them with a fabric that I LOVE for my mom's living room.  If you can see past the UGLY it will totally be worth the time invested. 

I thought this project would be a quick and simple fix to turn these ugly ducklings into beautiful swans, I was mistaken.  After I sat down to measure out the fabric and make sure I had enough for both cubes, I realized my project was going to be much more labor intensive.  Not only do you need to make sure your cuts are exact, but due to the intricate pattern - the sides won't match up with the lid without actually sewing all four side.  Now, I realized I would be sewing much more than anticipated to accomplish perfection.  

Of course if you don't care then you could simply wrap the fabric around the cube and sew only one side.  Since this is for a client (my mom) I actually want everything to look perfect.  So by the time I cut all the fabric, pulled out the screws for the lid, and lined up everything to get ready to sew, I didn't have it in me to pull out the sewing machine and finish the project last night.

After a long day at work I really wanted to get started on at least one of these cubes.  So I just finished the first cube about 10:30pm.  With one done and one to go I can hardly wait for these beauties to be completed.  I was hoping for perfection - let's call it 98% perfection with bits of imperfections throw into it :-)

Here's some pictures to go along with my hard work

 After the project

 After

 Side by side - Ugly Ducking, Swan in the making - I still need to add the legs

 I told you the before was UGLY!!

  

Over the past two weeks I have watched my ideas start to come together and I can hardly wait for the big reveal.  I have the upholster coming on Thursday to pick up the arm chairs and I think I found the fabric for the wingback chair.  I still need to sew some pillows, buy some DOWN inserts, pick a complementary paint color, and start putting the pieces into the room.  Word of advise in regards to throw pillows.  INVEST in some down/feather inserts.  They will make the room.  You really don't want to skimp on some polyester inserts that you can't use.  I made that mistake and almost immediately had to replace them with a better quality insert.  The best thing is - they aren't that expensive, Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn have great ones to chose from.  Also, some great fabric stores have them for a decent deal. (Additional Note - one of my girlfriends mentioned IKEA has great inserts for super cheap - thanks Nellie!)

My goal is to upload before pictures this week but since we have a baby class, full-time jobs, family in town starting on Friday, and a couple of thing in the nursery to wrap up - I'm really going to try to set aside some time to get these pictures done. 

Any fun projects out there that you have watched come to fruition over the past couple of months?  If your looking for inspiration - head over to Pinterest, you will find plenty of ideas there.  You can click on my Pinterest button to the right and see if you can draw inspiration from any of the thousands of boards out there.    Can't wait to share more. 

Project update

Wow, this weekend was busy.  As I mentioned in my last post I'm working on a project for my mom's living room which needs to be done by Christmas.  So I spent most of Saturday picking out fabrics and paint colors.  Sunday was spent attempting to get the nursery ready for my sweet little boy due in January.  Since I'm in the process of putting together an e-board for my mom's living room, here's my progress so far:   I finally chose three fabrics for inspiration -  Here are some pictures - more to come over the next couple of weeks.

Recovering two storage cubes - may use for a throw pillow or two

Using for throw pillows

Here's all three of them together:

The striped is what I'm using for the armchairs

It's kind of crazy how the computer changes the colors of these fabrics, but these are beautiful fabrics I swear!!  The paisley that I'm using actually has some really pretty colors of blues and grays with some tan.   I'm still on the hunt for a herringbone fabric to recover an ottoman that will serve as the coffee table and another fabric for roman shades.  This is the herringbone I'm thinking of:

Whenever I go to Home Goods or TJMaxx I'm constantly on the lookout for solid pieces of furniture that has potential to become something beautiful.  I knew I needed extra seating for guests and storage for blankets for the living room.   Today was the day that I scored a great deal on two storage cubes with feet.  Did I mention that the fabric was hideous?!   I was giggling to myself carrying these suckers out of the store because I wouldn't be caught dead with something so ugly.  Here's the thing - it's soooo easy to make something beautiful if you have some time and a little creativity to see past the UGLY.  It's such a simple project that I hope to finish this week.   You will need a:

• Staple Gun
• Sewing matching to sew the sides - or you can tuck the fabric in pretty snugly on the sides - whatever works best for you.  
• Screwdriver to pull all the staples out of the original fabrics.

Here's an example of what I got today - I bought two of them to serve as extra seating if needed and I'm planning on putting them under a console table.

I think I mentioned that I'm working with a leather sofa and love seat.  So I really want to brighten up the space with some pops of color and an updated look.  I'm getting three chairs re-upholstered over the next two weeks and can't wait to see how they turn out.  Re-upholstery in my opinion is one of the best ways to save money and get something custom made if you have a solid piece to start with.  These are the pieces that I'm getting done.  

• 2 Armchairs - I picked a really pretty Waverly Striped for these chairs (see above)
• Wingback chair with an ottoman - I still haven't picked a fabric for this one yet 

I'm working with a pretty tight budget so 1/3 will go towards recovering these chairs.  The rest I will use to add accessories, throw pillows, paint, and some great pieces of art.  More to come tomorrow -  maybe I'll get around to uploading pictures of the nursery???

Living room makeover

I have my first big project!!!!  A living room makeover for my mom!!  Yes, it's my mom but that's ok everyone has to start somewhere, right?  My lovely mother was kind enough to ask me for my help while she updates her living room.  The kicker - everything needs to be done by Christmas within a tight budget.   Since I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant I'm sure I'm going to be running around like a mad women trying to get this room done, finish the nursery for my little man, all while trying to save both of our pennies.

Since the majority of us don't have the money to run out and buy new pieces every time we want to update our house - we will use a lot of the existing pieces.  We will update the space with fresh paint, incorporate pops of color through fabrics, accessories, and more accessories.

Here's where my inspiration has started.  I love the light colors with color coming through on the accents that can change over time.  The living makeover won't look exactly like this but I LOVE the clean lines, comfy look, and relax feel that these rooms present.  We won't be going with light couches since my mom just bought some about two years ago.  Since they are leather - we are going to incorporate colors through accessories.   I'm in the process of picking fabrics right for accents chairs, pillows, and an ottoman.

 Traditional Home

 Traditional Home

Traditional Home

Here are some of the fabrics I'm obsessing over right now for this project:  I'm thinking throw pillows?  We will see what my mom falls in love with when I bring her samples.  

This week I am attempting to sew the curtains for the nursery - finalize the fabrics for my mom's living room, and find some great accessories to get this project started.