Ikea draperies
I did a couple of other projects last weekend in the “fun” bedroom when I brought the settee out. This bedroom has two sleeping areas within the room. One side has the bunk beds and the other side has a queen bed. During peak months out at the river there are lots of friends and family visiting, so filling up the rooms with beds is a must.
When I was putting the reclaimed headboard together, I was exhausted from lifting it into place, and I plopped down on in the queen bed. As I lay there, I realized that you looked straight at the bunk beds when you are in that bed. Which is fine if there is one big family sleeping in there, but a lot of times it is a mixture of family and friends. Awkward right? So it dawned on me I needed to put some type of privacy curtain between the two sleeping areas.
This is the view from the queen bed
And this is the view from the bunk bed side
I found the perfect fabric at Ikea called Britten Number 
I also picked up Ikea’s Lill white curtains for $4.99 to use as the liner for the backside of the fabric. I thought it was going to be a simple sewing job, which it should of been since all I had to do was sew panels of the Ikea fabric to the ready made curtains. But it wasn’t. To be honest, I can’t cut a straight line, nor sew a straight line, which means you get a crooked looking drapery.
Tufted settee gets a new home
Every time I got into my car I had to look at my newly upholstered tufted settee sitting in our garage. The garage just wasn’t doing it justice and I was itching to see how it would look in the “fun” room. So I snuck away this weekend to our river house to put the into the room where it belongs
Wow, what a difference it made going from a garage to an actual room. It has now found it’s permanent home and I couldn’t be more happier with how it looks in the room
This is exactly what I had envisioned for the room and it just fits perfectly on the wall
The table is from West Elm, the rug from Joss & Main
And I finally found a place for the antique mirror I purchased a year ago for $55. It is as if they were waiting for each other
So the room is pretty much done. I have some accessories I still want to bring in, but for the most part it is complete. This room went from flowery girly room, to a more unisex grown up design
I think the settee gives the room sophistication, and I tested it out, it is VERY comfortable. What is even better is that the Robert Allen fabric has a fabric performance of 200,000 rubs. Which is super durable since anything over 10,000 rubs is considered a good upholstery fabric. I think it is going to hold up very well. What do you think?
Damask wallpaper in my closet
It rained and hailed all weekend in San Diego. When the weather is like that I stay home. Why? Because San Diegans are the worst drivers when it rains {not me of course} and it is best to stay off the roads. So I pulled out a rainy day project. Wallpapering my closet. Yeah, that’s on everyone’s list right?
I bought the wallpaper back in November from One Kings Lane
It is by Kenneth James, and of course damask. The pattern is called Mallory, and the color is mist. One Kings Lane doesn’t have it any longer, but I see that it is still available on line at other retailers. I usually call in the pros when ever I need wallpaper installed. I am not a good at wallpapering, I can’t cut a straight line and getting the seams not to pull apart is always a difficult task. But since I only had two small walls to do, and the walls are smooth, I figured I could do it myself.
This is one of the two walls that I put the wallpaper on. I know this isn’t your average closet, believe me, I feel very lucky to have a closet like this.
There are two doors in my closet, so the other wall is identical to this one.
{These pictures don’t show the whole closet…spring cleaning is badly needed in there, so once I get that done I can show you the whole area}
Before and after of diamond tufted settee
I showed you here how I cheated my tufts on the headboard. When I got this settee at an estate sale for $50, I knew my cheating method was out of the question.
This settee needed the real deal, diamond tufting. That is something I didn’t want to tackle. I knew I was going to have to send her out to be professionally upholstered. But first the finish needed to be changed, which was right up my alley. Once I ordered my fabrics from Calico Corners,
Robert Allen Showtime Velvet in Steel
I made the decision to gold leaf the frame. Have you ever gold leafed anything before? It is messy to say the least. I pulled off the old grungy cording so that I could get the leaf around the whole frame. Then I gathered my supplies
The raw umber acrylic paint in a tube is my NEW go to for glazing. You just put a dab of it on a paper plate, add a bit of water and you have a glaze. The acrylic in a tube is thicker than the regular acrylic paint, so you can make it as thick or thin as you want.
This site has wonderful video tutorials on gold leafing that are easy to understand and follow Gilded Planet.com They explain how to gold leaf way better than I could, and not to mention it is a video so you can pause and rewind if you don’t understand a step.
LampsPlus versus Horchow
I am a HUGE internet shopper, I have been doing it for years, way before it became the “in” thing to do. I have bought things off the internet from small ticket items to over the top super expensive items. Internet shopping has become one of my strong traits as an interior designer, I have gotten really good at it {nothing like tooting my own horn!}. I spend a lot, and I mean a lot of time shopping around on the internet. I don’t always buy things, but I look and keep the site in my bookmarks for future reference. I know where to go to find things, kind of like a 6th sense. I still enjoy seeing items in person, but that takes time, gas, and finding the right store to go and then you have the constraints of store hours. With the internet, I can hit 20 sites {or more} in a couple of hours, any time, night or day, versus the 2 to 5 shops I would be able to see in person.
Two of my “go to” online stores for lighting are Lamps Plus and Horchow. I have purchased many, many times from both these companies over the years.
Like these beautiful scroll wall lights from Horchow
and the bronze shaded wall lights { the mirrors are from them as well}
And this bronze and crystal chandelier {I bought two}
Tutorial on how to make the tufted headboard
The tufted headboard tutorial is finally done. It was way harder than I thought it would be, which is why I am late on getting the post up. I think it was harder to make this tutorial than it was to make the tufted headboard! I can not say that my instructions are perfect, which is why I am going to give you links at the bottom of this post of excellent DIY instructions on how to make a tufted headboard.
My headboard is not the norm by the way. I have decided to call it the Pin & Tuck style tufting. The way I do tufting is no way near as precise and time consuming as the standard Diamond Tufting that is done. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good diamond tufting, with the deep tufts all laid out in a beautiful diamond pattern, you can’t get any classier than that. But I am way too impatient and too much of a perfectionist to do that method. So I came up with my own style, kind of a free style. Maybe some day I will take the time and really do a real diamond tufted headboard, but for now, this method works for me.
Just to keep everyone up to speed in case you missed my last post, this is the before
And this is the after
{the damask drapes are from Anthropologie and they still have them in stock}
Velvet tufted headboard finally done
It has only been a year and a half, but I finally got my inspiration headboard done for Shannon and Nate’s guest bedroom.
This picture was my inspiration picture I found back in October 2010
I was so excited when I found the same shaped headboard on Craig’s list for $60
I knew this headboard would work perfectly for my inspiration picture. But I needed to find the perfect fabric. When I saw this Thom Flicia turquoise velvet fabric at Calico Corners I was in love.
The color was a perfect match for the room, so I quickly ordered the fabric and anticipated it’s arrival to start this project.
So what took me so long to actually make the headboard? Getting the fabric. First it was back ordered, then out of stock and then lost in transit for 9 months. I didn’t think I was ever going to finish this project! {nor did Shannon and Nate, their guest room sat with a blank wall behind the bed the whole time I was waiting for this fabric} I was so set on using this fabric so I just waited, and waited and waited…but it was so worth the wait!
It turned out just as I had imagined, and just finishes off the room {the damask drapes are from Anthropologie}
Oh, so worth the wait right? My grandson Carter even can’t stop staring at it
Transforming a plain toddler bed into a custom bed
I have been helping my niece Lindsay with her toddler son Max’s room. She is expecting another baby in a couple of months, and needs to transfer the nursery items to the new baby’s room, which means Max needed a new bed. We were looking on Craig’s list for a toddler bed that I could fix up for her, but either they were already sold or they didn’t respond {so typical of Craig’s list}. As luck would have it, I happened to be at a friends house a couple of weeks ago who happened to have “stuff” in his garage that was going to the thrift shop. In that “stuff” I spotted a toddler bed. And that toddler bed went home with me, for free. Can’t beat that price right?
It was a cherry finish just like this one, in good shape, but I wanted to give it a clean start
so I spruced it up with some sanding, paint and a stencil
I sanded the rails and the headboard plank to the natural wood to tie the bed in with the wood dresser she is using in the room
I used Krylon Oxford Blue. It is a grey blue, even though it looks more navy in these pictures
It is sitting in my studio right now ready to be delivered to my niece. But I love how it turned out! It reminds me of something you would see in Pottery Barn, but for an 1/8 of the price
