So on a whim, back in February I ordered two on Etsy.  And they just sat on my desk. Then Tanya from Dans le Townhouse just recently framed her agate slices and they are stunning

This was the motivation I needed to get my rear in gear and do mine.  I wish I would of been able to hand pick my agate slices, rather than order them on line.  The agate slices I ordered aren’t half as stunning as Tanya’s. And they didn’t have that pretty gold around the edges, which makes them look so much prettier.

My plan was to order the frames at Pottery Barn like Tanya did, but I got lucky and found two at where else…HomeGoods!  They were white 11 x 14 frames with a nice mat,  I wanted black frames, so I just sprayed them black.  I quickly gold leafed the edges before I assembled them into the frame.

I attached my agate to a canvas panel, which is a thin canvas board with the texture of a stretched canvas, but more sturdy.  Canvas panels were my staple when I was in interior design school for presentation boards.

I used Aleen’s Glass and Bead glue on the backside of the agate slices to adhere them to the canvas panel.

And here are my framed agate slices all dressed in gold

I think the gold leafing of the edges really made them pop

I plan on putting them in a bathroom out at our river house so I wasn’t able to get a picture of them hanging on a wall.  The best spot for light was on my carpet in my office, not the best “staged” photo but oh well. 

I guess I have a thing for agate slices…a while ago I switched out the knobs in my daughter’s closet with these agate slices from Anthropologie {no longer available}

And in my search for agate slices,  I came across this DIY tutorial how to turn agate slices into coasters at Desert Domicile

That might be my next project.  I think they would make a beautiful gift {and another reason to use agate again!}

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Here they are right before I took them out of the kitchen for my magic makeover {via a bad iPhone picture}

It was going pretty darn good.  I took the chairs apart and took out the million nails on the seat

Wiped the frame down, lightly sanded the wood and then started spraying {heirloom white}

But in reality, it was the wrong time of year to start such a project.  It was cold and off and on raining.  But I kept going.  And I must say they were looking very nice.  Until the last coat

This is where the nightmare began.  They were a hot mess. But I wasn’t going to give up.  So back to sanding, and more spraying.  I wanted to tone down the white paint, so I wiped a mocha glaze over the stool.  This step went well.

Now it was time to reupholster them.  I was being oh so careful…but of course,  I cut the dang fabric wrong and had to start over.  SO this time I knew my cutting mistake right? I was confindent it wouldn’t happen again.  WRONG!  I cut the fabric once again incorrectly.  What the heck?  UGH!

I now had no extra fabric left to make any more mistakes.  I made an executive decision and took them down to the upholster.  Yeah, they had the new fabric on the seats in less than an hour.  Felt like such an idiot, ugh!

So I brought them home, and there they sat.  I was kind of over them, and didn’t have the drive to dive in again.  3 months later my daughter says, “Mom, it sure would be nice to sit at the island again, when are you going to have the barstools done?”  I guess my family had been pretty patient. There wasn’t much left to do on them, just seal them and add the double piping.  Guilt creeped in and I finished one that day.  That is all I had the drive to do, just one.  3 months later, my husband starts asking me when I am going to have the other one done.  Guilt creeped in again and a week later I finished it.  It took me 6 months to get this project done.  After all the paint mishaps, upholster failures, I just lost interest but still wasn’t going to go out and buy new.

Next time I’m buying new. Lesson learned.  What’s your longest DIY project?

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Last weekend I used the fabric with starch on a bigger area at our river house guest bedroom.  This time I did a whole wall and I am so pleased on how well it turned out. Of course I didn’t think before I left the house to bring my good camera.  Then once I started the process, it dawned on me that some of you might like to know I how I did it, so iPhone pictures is all I got.

This is how the room looked before

But after 6 years of this, I was ready for a change.   I wanted to add a more modern look to the room and use a pop of color and a pattern on the headboard wall.   I knew wallpaper was too permanent, and the thought of taking it down when I tire of it was not appealing. And so I came up with the idea of using a bold fabric instead of wallpaper as the alternative.  This whole concept is great for renters, or a designer like me who is constantly wanting to re-design a room.

Here this is how it turned out

What a difference right? The room itself is still a work in progress.  I wanted to get the fabric up on the wall so I could get a feel for the whole room before I finished everything else.   It was a pretty painless and easy project that took me about 3 hours to complete.  I had a helper, my sister, but it is doable with one person.

I purchased the fabric from Home Fabrics for $8.99 a yard.  The type of fabric I used was a home decorator fabric, 100% cotton, which is about the weight of a duck cloth.  Most of Joann’s home decorator fabrics would work.  But you can not use velvets, the fabric would be too heavy for the starch to hold,  or silks, because when they get wet from the starch it will leave water marks.

How to put fabric on the wall using starch

First you need to calculate how much fabric you will need. It is the same calculation as if you were to use wallpaper.  I could try and explain how I figured out how much fabric I needed for my room, but I think this article on Home Made Design explains it much better than I could.

The wall I wanted to do was 11′ wide x 8′ tall.  I calculated that I would need 10 yards, but I bought 13 just in case {which in the end came in handy when I accidentally cut one of my panels 12″ too short}

Then I got these supplies ready

Liquid starch, a paint tray, a sponge roller and an exacto knife.  It took one full bottle of liquid stach to do my wall.  So if you area is bigger, you will need more than one bottle of starch. It helps have a broad knife or a wallpaper brush to smooth out the fabric and press it into corners, but since I didn’t have either of these, I used a stiff piece of cardboard, and it worked just fine.

To make your job as easier, set up a large work area where you can lay the fabric out for cutting and applying the starch to the fabric.  I improvised and cleared an area on the floor in another room lol.  Your walls should be somewhat smooth, a heavy textured wall will not work for this application. You could lightly sand your wall to knock down the drywall mud areas for a smoother look.  Luckily I didn’t have to do this.  No need to prime the walls, but do wipe down the area to make sure you have a clean surface.  My wall had a satin paint finish, and the starch adhered just fine.

Now that you’ve prepared your work area and prepped your surface, your ready to start hanging the fabric.  The first thing I did was a dry fit.  {no picture sorry} I examined the design of the fabric and determined where I wanted the pattern to meet the ceiling. Then I measured out the length of the wall adding 2″ for overlapping at the ceiling and floor.  I didn’t have the confidence in myself to pre-cut each piece before I started, instead I choose to hang and cut each piece as I put them up.  But you could use the first sheet of fabric as a template for cutting the next ones.

The wall and the back of the fabric both get starch.  Note: I do not soak the fabric in the starch, which other people have done. I feel that soaking the fabric is overkill.  And  soaking the fabric means that you have to allow for shrinkage and potential wrinkles from stuffing it into a bucket, which I do not want to deal with.  It works just as well my way, so I figure why add another step. 

Once you have your first panel cut, use your sponge roller and roll starch on the area of the wall where the panel will go.  Then lay your fabric panel, unfinished side up, on your work surface and roll starch on to the fabric.  Use the “Book” methed by folding both ends of the fabric towards the middle, paste side in.

Since the fabric is 54″ wide, I lined my fabric up to the ceiling and tacked a nail in each corner to help hold the fabric while I positioned it and smoothed it.

I started in the far corner, overlapping the edge against the wall and made sure as I went along that my pattern was straight.  I worked my way across from the inside wall side to the outer edge of the fabric, then side to side, smoothing the fabric down with my hands as I went. Don’t worry if you have minor wrinkles in the fabric, they will disappear as you smooth them down.

The great thing about using starch, is that if it dries by the time you get to an area, {which mine was doing because of the ceiling lights were putting out some heat} you can reapply the starch to either the wall or the inside of the fabric {or both} and it will re-adhere perfectly.  I also noticed I had some small areas that I missed in the middle where the starch had dried after I had the whole panel up. So I rolled my foam roller on top of the fabric in those spots and the starch absorbed through the fabric.

Here is a picture of the first panel up {man these are grainy pictures!}

If you have switches or outlets make sure you take the face plates off before you put your fabric panel up. Lay the fabric right over the outlet and switches when you are putting up your panel as if they are part of the wall.  When you are 100% sure your fabric panel is perfect, then take an exacto knife and cut around the switch or plate.

For the next fabric panel, I debated as to whether to butt the seams up {which means cutting a straight line, which I am terrible at} or overlap them.  So I had my sister look it up on the internet, “how to do seams with wallpaper”.  And this is what she read to me “if you want perfect seams hire a professional”  We both laughed and I made the easy choice of overlapping the edges of the fabric panels, cause I’m no professional!

See the arrow?  That is my seams over lapping.  Honestly you can hardly notice the overlapping once it is all up.

On the areas where the fabric meets the baseboards and ceilings, make sure you take your broad knife {or in my case a piece of cardboard} and run it along the edge.  It helps to seal the edges and give you a straight line for trimming. When the fabric is dry, do your trimming of all the edges using your exacto knife.

This tutorial turned out much longer than I had antcipated.  It really is not a difficult project to do, hopefully my long post doesn’t discourage you from trying this method yourself.

Besides the fabric on the wall, I think my second most favorite thing in this bedroom are the Nest chairs.   I put one in each corner of the room.  Aren’t  they fun?  I found them at a consignment shop in La Jolla.

If there is something I didn’t explain clearly, feel free to contact me or leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer it.  And if you put fabric up on a wall in your own home I’d love to see pictures!

Link up to

Gail’s Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life

Craftberry Bush Inspiration Gallery Link Party

Create & Inspire Party

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Target has some great outdoor seating on sale for under $300

1/2/3/4

Or if you need something a little bigger how about this Threshold™ Conservatory Sofa  for $299

Add a matching Chaise for $179. {look at that nice detail on the backside..crazy good for $179}

Threshold™ Conservatory Chaise Lounge

I fell head over heals in love when I saw these benches. Aren’t they fun?  Love all the colors. And it is on special right now for $299 {I need to check the shipping costs, sometimes that can be the deal breaker for me}

I love using garden stools for side tables.  Or pair them together for a coffee table. This one caught my eye from Grandinroad.  The interlocking chains give it such depth and texture

Meryl Garden Table $129

You can never have enough serving space when you bbq and this outdoor buffet is a perfect size for just $299

Yorkshire Buffet  {comes in black too}

Overstock always has great prices on their outdoor rugs.  This one is 5’3″ x 7’7″ for $99.79.

I love my trestle table and chairs I bought last year from Frontgate

I noticed Ballard Design has one similar this year for about $1,000 less

And since we are on the subject of patio furniture I thought I would show you the new Aspen Line from Restoration Hardware.  I have never bought outdoor furniture from them, it’s a little pricey for me, but it doesn’t stop me from looking.  

It’s very chunky and rustic.  Everyone loved it when I posted it on Facebook, What do you think?  Personally,  I would need help getting out of that chaise lounge, it’s pretty low to the ground for an “older” gal like me.

I’m sure there will be a lot more sales to be had on outdoor furniture between now and summer, and I will be on the hunt for great deals.  Which you can follow along when I pin it or post it on my facebook page, cause I love sharing deals!

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See, I love the look of potted plants around my house, but I’ve realized I am not too good at watering them.  They always look good for a couple of weeks and then I forget to water them.   So my solution is to use fake.  GASP!  That is such a no no in the design world.  But I don’t care, it works for me, and that is all that matters.  HomeGoods is where it all started, they have some of the best looking faux boxwoods at the best prices.   I have been posting pictures of my topiaries that I have acquired in the last 6 months on Facebook.  But Facebook has been implementing a lot of changes {for the worst}, and half the people that like my page, {if not more}, don’t ever see what I post.  Ugh, so frustrating.  So I thought I would share them all in one post today. {these are taken with my iPhone since that is what I use for my Facebook}

Here is the view of when you go down our main stairs.  As you can see, the patio is very visible through the french doors.  Normally you would see half dead plants or just an empty containers sitting out on the patio.  But not anymore with my new “live” potted boxwoods .

And when I walk out on the patio, I am greated with green foliage.  I stuck the topiary in the pot with dirt {so it would look like a real plant} and then this weekend I planted some spring plants I picked up at the nursery.

I put two more on my back patio

And added two boxwood balls to my dough bowl on my outdoor table in another part of the yard

Oh and two more at my outdoor day bed area {I hope to get the drapes that wrap that daybed finished by summer…so I say lol}

The hanging lanterns are new too!  It is by Bevolo and I purchased them 5 months ago, but it took our electrician that long to come run the wire and hang them.

If you don’t have a HomeGoods near you, I just got the Improvements Catalog and they have them on sale right now.

So, are you going to report me to the design police or are you on board with my “faux”?

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My idea was to start an E-design service business, so I started this blog to market my new adventure. Then I chickened out, and pulled all the professional pictures off my blog.  Showing my house to the whole world was kind of freaking me out.   And then I was told if I ever wanted to get published in a magazine, {which I dream of} the room or rooms can not be published anywhere else. So I’ve kept them off my blog just in case an editor should come knocking on my door {yeah right!}.

So here I am 3 years later, no further along with an e-design service than I was when I started.  Often I look at these beautiful pictures Aaron did, and the money I paid, and I get bummed at myself that I have never pursued my original goal. Although! I do feel that I have at least accomplished one thing in the last 3 years of blogging, and that is my creditability. If you look around my blog, you see that,  yes I love to DIY,  but I can also design .  And to me, creditability is one of the most important traits of being an interior designer.

Since emerald green is Pantone’s color of the year, and St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend, I thought it was perfect timing to pull our emerald green bathroom out of my archived portfolio.

All the walls in this powder room are upholstered floor to ceiling in an emerald tone-on-tone damask fabric. There are two windows in this bathroom, one you can see slightly in this picture.  I used the same wall fabric for the balloon valance treatment on both windows. The crown molding continues around the valances jutting out around the windows to hide the hardware for the balloons.  Love that trick!

I found the mirror locally, it was originally brown, but I gold leafed the heck out of it {note to self, stick to smooth surfaces when gold leafing} but it works perfectly in the room now.

The sink is a work of art, it is hand painted.  I am bummed that Aaron didn’t get a close up of the sink. Here is one I took so you can see the detail {not as good of a photographer as Aaron though}

I added metallic shades to the wall sconces after these picture were taken {another non-Aaron photo}

The ogee bullnose edge detail on the emerald green marble beefs up the vanity.  The vanity I had custom made. The finish is a hand applied cream crackle with gold leaf accents.

Aaron is a phenomenal wedding photographer.  I mean phenomenal!  He did my daughters wedding and got me hooked on his work. He does shoot residential properties but just not as often as he does weddings, We were pretty much the blind leading the blind on deciding the best shots.  Looking back, I wish I would of styled the rooms better and given him better direction, but I had never done this before.

I loved emerald green long before it became the 2013 color of the year, it is so fun to see it come to life this year.   And as far as my e-design service on my blog go, I have yet to get the nerve up and promote myself.  The funny thing is, most designs I do for clients outside of this blog, I do 60% of them via the internet.  It just is so much easier now a days to communicate via email, and use designated inspiration boards on Pinterest .

I would love to hear feedback on whether you think I should offer e-design services.  Would you pay to have a designer help you with a room in your house via e-design services?  But better yet, would you hire me if I offered it?

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This is the only decent picture I could find of my old sofa. It’s  from years ago when we first moved in, before I found side table lamps.  That’s my daughter’s dog Daisy, she loves lounging on my sofa when she visits.

I spend 80% of my time in my office when I am at home, either on the computer or lounging on the couch watching my shows. I would say it is my “woman cave”.

I had  the navy blue tufted sofa custom made, and I added a chaise lounge for you know…lounging. Oh and that tufting?  LOVE!.  And let me tell you, this sofa rocks my lounging world!  It is so darn comfy and soft.

I opted not to do a skirt like I had on my other sofa.  Instead, I had them frame the sofa on a wood base and then added brass nail heads.  Even though this room has a French feel to it, I wanted to add a more modern look to the sofa.  I only used the nail heads on the lower portion of the sofa, so that it wouldn’t be too modern.

I have white wall-to-wall carpet in my office, {yeah, white, what as I thinking?} and it gets dirty fast.  When I saw these oak limed herringbone floors on Pinterest, I instantly wanted to rip out my white carpet and have them installed.

I even had a guy come out and measure and quote the room. But at the last minute I chickened out.  I just like the softness of the carpet through-out the whole room.

So plan “b” was to try putting an area rug under my sofa to help keep my white carpet cleaner.  I was so excited when I saw this 100% wool 8 x 10 blue geometric patterned rug at HomeGoods for $399. But that was before I got my new couch delivered.  Now that the new sofa and rug are in there, I am not going to keep it in there. Plus the darn rug keeps moving, looking all lumpy most of the time.  {as you can see in the pictures}.

The scooped armrests on the new sofa are the bomb.  My old sofa had high rolled arms, which makes lounging really uncomfortable. {take it from me, I did a lot of lounging on that couch for 7 years and I could never get comfortable}

I borrowed the Worlds Away coffee table from another room, it is too little for the space, but it will do for now.  I need a 30″ round and that is not an easy coffee table to find.

This is the wall across from my sofa.  My tv is behind those long cabinet doors.  I shut the doors just for you.  No need to show a silly tv.

Now that the new sofa is in the room, I need to make some changes.  Don’t know if I like my Dorothy Draper style chest with the new sofa.  That might have to go. And I think the blue shades on my table lamps are adding too much blue.  I might just add some trim to see if that helps, if not I will look for a more neutral shades.

I have window treatments and accent chairs with the blue toile fabric that I love. It just goes with the style of the room, so I won’t be taking that pattern out.

But I do want to add another color.  I am still on the fence, but I am leaning towards pops of fuchsia.

So here is the room without the blue rug. I like it much better don’t you?

I also brought in two chairs from another room and moved the toile chairs back in front of my desk. Those side chairs are staying in my office for sure!  I pulled them in the room on a whim, just to see the scale and style, and they worked perfectly!  I have ordered that gorgeous Robert Allen fabric for pillows.  My start of adding fuchsia accents.

I would love to add a fuchsia over dyed rug.  But I think I would have to see one in person before I pull the trigger on that purchase.  I think they may go too purply if you get the wrong one

via

As you can see, it is all a work in progress.  But I can guarantee that even without all the right decorative elements in the room, I am over the moon happy with my new navy tufted sofa.

PS..you can see where I put the blue geometric rug on my facebook page.  It works so much better in that room.

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When it came to designing the inside of our elevator, I used the elevator at The Venetian in Las Vegas as my inspiration {this is the only picture I could find of the Venetian elevator, I have no clue who that guy is}

via

I bumped up the design a little bit though.  I added the tufted mohair on the bottom panels, used a custom wood laser cut panel on the ceiling, and a gold leaf stenciled pattern on the inside of the doors.

Photograph taken by True Photography

Last year when my husband had major surgery on his leg and was unable to use the stairs for months, we were so thankful to have an elevator.  He wasn’t confined to one floor, it gave him the mobility to move around the whole house.  It made us realize that we are not getting any younger, and this elevator might just be the key for us to stay in our house longer.

And the funny thing is, it has recently come in handy for our 13 year old dog Sam.  He has arthritis in his back legs and he just can’t make it up the stairs when it is time to feed him.  In his mind he thinks he can, but it is the sadest thing to see when his hind legs go out as he is going up.  So one day I decided to try the elevator to bring him up to feed him.  He was a little scared at first, but now he just stands in front of the elevator waiting for the door to open.  He may be old, but he is still smart!

Here he is waiting for the elevator to open

Once the doors open, he steps inside and stares at the other set of doors to open.  He hasn’t gotten down the concept that it isn’t instantaneous to the next floor.

Sam is pretty darn lucky to have such a stylish ride for his daily feedings.  I know down the road, my husband and I will be thankful as well when our tired and old bodies can’t make it up the stairs like Sam.  I no longer look at our elevator as extravagant, but a really smart decision we made in the building of our home.  What do you think, if you could, would you put an elevator in your home?

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