Christmas Tree

It's so nice to be home! Right when I got home yesterday I yanked out the Christmas tree. We aren't spending Christmas here so originally I wasn't even going to put up a tree. But the season got the best of me and I pulled it down from the attic.



I just added my red and pink baubles and called it a day.

ps - I purchased the $10 faux sheepskin at IKEA for my parent's dog bed but Charlotte ended up hogging it so much that my mom gave it to her. She LOVES it!! '

pps- I stored our white tree in our attic which has a little window. The section of the tree that was facing the window has turned yellow. I think the heat of the hot sun shining on it all year long burned it. Major bummer! Those of you who have white trees BEWARE! Do not store near sunlight!

A Personal Design Project Before & After

By the time you are reading this we are most likely back home in Charlotte from our Thanksgiving break in Texas with my family. We were there for 11 days and during that time I worked on a very special decorating project... my parents master bedroom!

A little background - I have mentioned before I come from a family of engineers and doctors. I guess you could call me the "black sheep". My dad is a computer engineer/programmer, my mom is a mathematician. She tutors math and is writing a math text book. One brother is a doctor and the other is a mechanical engineer. And then there's me.. ha!

My parents have never been into decorating and have had their current bedroom suite for 10+ years. I was so excited when they finally asked me to help them revamp their room. We had SO much fun doing it and they love the result.. which is the best part! It's very nerve-wracking decorating for your parents ;) I love the result, too and it was fun letting them see me in action.

Here are the before shots. My dad was cleaning out his desk and wasn't too excited to be in the pictures.. sorry Dad!!







As I mentioned, they have had this teak bedroom set FOREVER! Time for a change. We were on a tight budget.. here are the things we did to change up the space:

- New furniture (bed, nightstands and dresser)
- New neutral, solid bedding
- Rearrange Current Artwork
- Curtains

Here are the afters!



The artwork made my job easy. All the pieces were painted by either my grandmother or my great-grandmother. My parents previously had the paintings all around the room but I grouped them together to create a focal point above the bed. Two of the frames were previously brass but we painted them espresso to modernize the frames.



The case goods and bed were purchased at Weirs in Plano, Texas. I picked out the furniture (along with the approval from my parents). I LOVE the dresser and nightstands we found... they look so much more expensive than they were.

I originally suggested a linen upholstered bed but we settled upon this one. In the end I'm glad we did, it helps anchor the room.





The nightstands are very large and works really well with the scale of the king sized bed and large room.



A collection of my parents books that fit them perfectly..


Not only are my parents smart, they are both wonderful musicians. My mom plays the flue and my dad plays the guitar. Making room for their music things were important.


Here is all the info for the quick project:

Bed, Dresser & Nightstands - Weirs - $1,556
Accent Chair - World Market - $125 (we got it on sale)
Curtains - IKEA Ritva - $35 per panel ($70)
Curtain Hardware - IKEA Beskada (I kept the caps on and didn't use the finials) - $18
Lamps - Home Goods - $40 each ($80)
Bedding - IKEA Malou - $50
Throw Pillow on Accent Chair - IKEA - $17
Existing Wall Color - Ralph Lauren Beach

Total: $1,916 (our budget was $2,000)

Thanks Mom & Dad!! I had soo much fun!

DIY Ruffled Christmas Tree

I was recently asked by Waverly to be a part of their 12 Waverly Bloggers of Christmas! We will be creating DIY holiday crafts with Waverly materials. The series runs from today (I'm up first!) until 12/23.



My holiday craft idea came from Pinterest when I saw a pin for this ruffled tree skirt:



I have a couple feather trees that I got last year and I thought a ruffled tree would look great with them.

This project is SO easy! The materials are:

- A hot glue gun
- A Styrofoam tree form
- Fabric (one sheer and one solid works well)

I chose Waverly's Peony Organza for the sheer and for the solid I chose Heritage Natural. You can search all of Waverly's fabrics on their website here.



This is the Christmas tree shaped cone I purchased at Michaels for this project:



I really liked the look of the frayed edges on the ruffle skirt above, so I decided to rip the solid fabric instead of cut it.



I measured all my pieces to be four inches wide (as shown). Just cut a little bit and then rip the rest and the piece will rip evenly.

The sheer can't be ripped because of the chenille peonies, so I cut these pieces very carefully to make sure the edges were even. These pieces are also four inches wide.


To start, I glued the end of the solid fabric onto the cone:


And then added a line of hot glue to start the ruffling:



You want to work in small sections like this. The ruffles don't have to be perfect (in fact it looks better if they aren't). Just bunch up the fabric and glue, it's very simple and there is no right or wrong way.



Be very careful!! The hot glue is very hot and my fingers were tender after this project.

Here is the finished first layer:


Next add a ruffled layer of your sheer right above the solid:


To make sure you don't cover up the pretty sheer layer, add the next solid layer an inch or so higher than the sheer:



You'll repeat these steps until you get to the top! When I got to the top I just gathered and glued the sheer carefully to make sure it looked pretty when pleated :)

And here is the final result!



And here is my new fabric tree with the feather tree I mentioned earlier.


Go to Waverly's facebook page to enter to win two $100 gift cards to JoAnn Fabrics and Michael's so you can create your own Christmas blogger diy craft!

Thanks Waverly for including me, it was really fun!

A Look Back

Last year we hosted Thanksgiving and I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at our table. Of course decorating the table was my favorite part!
















This year we're not hosting either Thanksgiving or Christmas. We're in Texas visiting my family and I'm helping my parents redecorate their bedroom.. so fun!!

Yesterday we went furniture shopping and found some really great things. We went to Weirs and I couldn't believe the prices! If you live in the Dallas area, this place is great. We got this awesome dresser for only $399!!



I'll definitely be showing you the before and afters!

DIY Euro Pleat Drapery

Pleated drapery has been around forever but will never go away. It's a small detail but makes a room look sophisticated and tailored.

[ Lonny Mag ]

[ Urban Grace Interiors ]

Recently, a client of mine purchased white linen pole pocket curtain panels from West Elm. The fabric is really beautiful and they work well for this project.

We decided to euro pinch pleat her store bought drapery because custom pleated drapery was out of our budget. Here are the DIY steps for how I did this.. it's SO easy!!

I wanted the pleats to be more casual than a traditional Persian pleat, so I just did two folds instead of three:


First measure three inches down from the end of the panel and start your pleating. As you can see, my pleats are three inches apart:


To create the pleats, pull up two folds of fabric of equal heights just like this:


Here are some other views so you can see what your folds should look like:





Then pin your pleats to get ready to sew:



I added the red line so you can see where you'll be sewing your stitch. Make sure your pin parallel to your pleat.

Make sure you pin all your pleats before you start sewing. Make sure everything looks nice and neat and the lengths in between each pleat is the same (3 inches).

Then all you have to do is sew your stitch!


The red line shows where you will be stitching. You don't want to start the stitch at the front of the pleat; start a little bit below.

Look at the green line - you want to make sure you sew each stitch in the same location to create uniform pleats. For my pleats, I lined up the top of the panel with the end of the ruler on my sewing machine. I used this guide for each pleat.. make sure you use a similar guide.

This is what I do when I sew the actual stitch: Sew forward, sew in reverse and then sew forward again. This assures a strong stitch.

And repeat until all your panels are pleated!

Here is the finished product:




These panels above are actually double width. I simple sewed two panels together to create the double width! (The windows are foggy because we steam ironed the panels).

And that's it! If you have a sewing machine, this is a very easy way to create a designer look for so much less than if you were to have custom drapery made. Of course, nothing is as great as the real thing but this is a good improvement to store-bought pole pocket drapes.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Day Dreaming Our Bathroom

Pinterest is dangerous, isn't it? It gives you so much inspiration for things you want to do. Our master bathroom is a disaster zone. It's the dirty little secret of our home and I don't think more than four people have ever seen it. I won't even share a picture (yet at least).. but let me try to explain it: vinyl floors so old and used they look dirty even when clean. Unpainted walls that have a layer of popcorn ceiling still on them from when we had our ceilings scraped (unfortunately they will most likely need to be sanded before painting). Trim around the floor that will definitely need to be replaced. It's just... gross. The vanity top and our shower has that old plastic faux-marble.

It's bad.. really bad.

Ever since we moved in I've played out in my head exactly what I'm going to do to fix it up. With this year ending, I've vowed to myself that 2012 will be the year that I will make it happen. Here are my inspiration pictures that I have been saving from Pinterest:

This is a very similar layout to our tub/shower. I'd love to have subway tile in the shower and seamless glass.


Subway tile like this... a very light gray grout.


Glossy gray trim and window treatments like this:


And my inspiration board:

(none of the items are actually sourced.. just examples of what I'd like)

I'm a firm believer in not over-renovating for your home/area. I've watched too many "My First Sale" shows where people spend tons of money on renovations and never get any of it back. I'd like to do things somewhat budget friendly. Here is a list of what I'm thinking:

- Replace vanity countertop with granite but keep current vanity.
- Replace current shower with subway tile, a new plain floor (like this) and seamless glass
- Simple ceramic floors
- New Paint (depending on budget I may do this)

I'm curious - has anyone done a similar renovation in their bathroom? I'm curious to what it would cost. I have a number in my head but would love to get some input!

It's quite comical I have it all planned out and I have no idea when it will actually happen. But what can I say.. I'm a planner!

What about you guys, do you have plans for your house but are not sure when you can put them into action?

Ikea Slipcovers

Do you remember a while ago IKEA's Karlstad had an option of white slipcovers with long skirts? I'm so sad they got rid of them... I wonder why? For some reason I was thinking about them this morning and did a little googling.

I still don't know why they got rid of them but I did stumble upon a really great alternative. Bemz.com has custom IKEA slipcovers that you can buy and they are really great!!

Example - This Karlstad chair has nice lines but ugly legs.


But add a white linen blend skirted slipcover and it is much prettier!

(sorry I couldn't get a picture without the text on it)

The chair from IKEA is $249 and the linen blend slipcover is $189. Less than $450 for an armchair - a deal!

Before - a boring IKEA sofa:

After - A rich, Belgian Linen sofa:

Sofa is $399 and linen slipcover is $379 equaling around $780 or a sofa. Wow.

I am filing this baby away for future reference.