Sunday Morning Blog: January 2010

Staircase Decor

Happy weekend everybody! For the DIY Friday I saw this beautiful redo of a staircase on Censational Girl. She put fabric bordered by molding on her staircase and produced a beautiful dramatic look. She said she will be replacing the carpet with dark wood stairs, personally I think it will just take away from the walls. Instead of posting it up here just go to her site HERE. Her originality will amaze you.

Have a great weekend! There is a bad snow storm headed my way. Keep safe everyone :-) See you all on Monday.

The Store of Lavishly Expensive Items...

Yes I'm back, the site is back, everything if good now. I didn't want to really post anything until I knew I could link to my site and not have to make you guys wait to look at it. So here is the Drool Thursday post.

As I was looking through furniture to use for Mondays post I found this site... Unica Home that has unbelievable high priced items like these adorable bouquet swivel armchair by moroso of Italy that go for $9,888.00!

The modern design of their items make every piece into a work of art. Check out these beautiful pieces...

And these whimsical ones...

(all photos from Unica Homes)

Site Back Up and New Items!!

Ok so the site is back up, they really pushed that 20 hour mark haha. Now I can introduce the new items for this week. Just click on the picture to take you to that item. Hope you like them!

Site Is Down...

Just an FYI, the site is down for some part of the day :-( Unfortunately it is on the hosting companies side so we have no control over when it will be back up, they said a "short while" but who knows how long that is in Internet time. I will let you know when its back up. In the mean time I will work on the new items that where added yesterday post

and the party stylezz post for today. So check back often!

Fun Little Home Office....

So like I started to say on Saturday my office is really tiny. Worst part is it is also my closet, the library, the music room, the art room, and where my dogs crate is. This room above is perfect (even though it has much more space then I have) for a random room/office. I would love to redo my office like this. But of course since I am a renter May comes too quickly and that uncertainty if we will be in the same house year after the year is quite frustrating. So I will dream up my perfect room for right now, while helping you all accomplish the look for cheap, and hopefully when May comes around and I find out whats going on I will be able to redo the room also.

What I love most about this room is how many usable surfaces there are. There is the table which looks like it gets used to meet with clients but would also make a good arts and crafts table. The stand in the left corner has a wonderful amount of space to hold your work materials and art stuff. And of course the nice big desk that isn't cluttered underneath (wish I could say that about my desk). Its stationed into whats important, where you do your work, where you meet with clients.

The shadow boxes are cute, if you run a pretty successful business I thought it would be cute to put up a new shadow box each year of what your business accomplished. Or you can put kids and family items in them. The one thing I really don't like is the cramped bench next to the table. Its nice if you meet with a lot of clients but if its something that one or two chairs can accomplish its just useless space.

Club Chairs: Sears

Table: Overstock

Desk: Overstock

Shelf: One Way Furniture

Lantern: "The Shop"

Sun Mirror: Stacks and Stacks

Shadow Box: Your Picture Frames

Rolling File Cabinet: Target

Minimalist Oak Desk

Ughh.... Sorry guys for the late post, better late then never right? I kept thinking yesterday was Saturday because my husband was home (rain day!). So I was all turned around. But here ya go, Fridays Lazy DIY!

Alright so its not so much lazy this week. I live in a small bungalow type home, so more room anywhere is always the main goal. The one room I hate the most is my office. Most of the time I wind up working in the living room or at the dining room table, because its just BORING and tight in there. So allot of my projects for the next few weeks will how to make that room more comfortable. I love the closet offices. The ones that are built right into a spare closet, but I can't do that. We only have 2 closets and the one in my office is for my clothes. So that's out of the question. I came across this desk that is wonderful from Design Sponge again. I love how simple it is but has a lot of room on top and inside.

Materials:

* two 6-ft. oak boards cut into two 5-ft. long sections and two 5-in. long sections
* three 4-inch metal L brackets
* stud finder
* electric drill with drill bits and screwdriver bit
* twelve 2 in. long wood screws
* (optional) tung oil

Instructions

1. Cut the oak boards to size and cut smaller pieces for the sides.

2. Drill pilot holes for the screws in the top and bottom board and then screwed each side to the bottom. (See Below)

3. Mount the top to the wall using the L brackets screwed into three studs. (See Below)

4. Then screw the bottom and sides to the top and its finished.

5. Afterwards, rub it down with tung oil to protect it, which darkened the wood slightly but retained the matte finish.

Another option is to paint it before you put it together to contrast it with the walls. If you don't want to hang the desk off the wall. You can also nail in a piece of board (like you find on the back of bookshelves) to the back of the desk. Then screw in legs (metal bars, hard plastic tubes, balusters, etc..) in either the shape of a normal table (one on each corner) or in an upside down "v" shape. Then place it up against the wall, it won't take up any more space then the original design.

Happy weekend!

Design Never Looked SOOO Good!

Happy Thursday everyone! The weekend is almost here and the weather looks to be crappy for the next few days here on the east coast. I guess I am going to be working....

My dream for our store is to one day be a brick and mortar store as well as being online. But of course this is something that takes a lot of followers, time, and imagination. I can't even imagine how much All the Bells and Whistles of San Diego costs to design a business. But if I could choose anyone to design our store one day, they would be the ones. They are so unique, what I like most is if I saw any of these places they designed I would not only remember who designed it but also who owns the restaurant, store, etc..

Check out their pictures...

(all pictures from All The Bells and Whistles)

Designer Trailer Park??

I know I haven't been consistant with the Monday and Tuesday posts, but I am having some HUGE writers block on those days. I was lucky to have gotten Monday out. If I can come up with something without taring my hair out you will get a double post some time this week. Alright so now lets get to your Mid Week Blues post!

Yep its Wednesday again, to me this is the hardest day of the week. Everything that I haven't gotten done that week slaps me in the face on Wednesday, then everything I need to get done on Thursday and Friday is like "Yep I'm Still Here!" I need to learn how to delegate my time better :-\. But the important stuff does get done like my orders and answering peoples emails, so as long as I have those done I guess my week is complete. The rest is just extra. While I was looking through every website I could find and read every article I saw for Tuesdays post, I came across this lovely.

There is a hotel in Cape Town, South Africa called "The Grand Daddy". It has all the normal things a grand hotel would have, a restaurant, bar, hotel rooms, suites, and a penthouse all with terrific style. The unique part is that its penthouse is surrounded by the rooftop trailer park! Yup you heard right this hotel has its own trailer park. Each has its own style, designed by local artists.

The Afro-Funk

Dorothy

The Ballad of John and Yoko

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

Pleasentville

Love of Lace

....and because I adore jellyfish my favorite......

Earthcote Moontides

Other then these, they also have sitting areas, a bar, and a movie theater showing older movies all right there on the roof. In the height of the season you can expect to spend 1250 Rand which is $199 per night. In the off season about $129.

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Ritz Fizz

In a Champagne Flute glass mix:

1/2 oz. Disaronno Amaretto
1/2 oz. De Kuyper Blue Curacao
1/2 oz. Fresh lemon or lime Juice
Top off with Champagne.
Stir together.
Garnish with a rose petal.

New England Seaside Charm for Less....

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and not to rough of a Monday. This weeks Home decoupage I will be doing New England seaside home decor. No matter the time of year this type of decor makes my world bright. I love old cozy cape cod bungalows with painted floors, light colors, and wooden slatted walls. This look can be achieved for pretty cheap because its patched together, its not all from one collection. Most of it seems to be collected along the way, which sometimes makes the coziest of areas.

The two chairs and couch can all be recycled. Just use slip covers, it will give it that worn in look. You can find slip covers at most stores that have decor items, Walmart, Target, K-mart, Overstock, Pottery Barn, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc..

The black and white floor could be painted but you could also use a striped carpet on top of natural or white washed floors. Try Ballard Designs for a striped carpet. When it comes to the skin on the floor a fun idea is to go to a fabric store and buy a few yards of suede in the color of your choice and draw a design (doesn't have to be of a dead animal) then cut it out and throw it down. Unless you find a cheap skin, this will cut your cost by about half.

The blinds on the windows are very bright and airy and are more of a decoration so the windows don't look so bare. Select Blinds have some nice blinds for decent prices.

Then of course there is the accents. The following can all be found at "The Shop".

Vintage Burlap Chairs, DIY

You will start out with a burlap upholstered chair, stool, etc... If you need a how to, to upholster a chair try here .

Materials:

-Linen or soft burlap (you can find this at your local fabric store or an online shop like Purl Soho)
-Computer/Printer
-Fabric Paint

Instructions:

1. Choose the text or numbers you’d like to use. On your computer, write them in your desired font and then either email the document to your local Kinkos/Printing Shop or bring the file in on a disc.

2. At your printing shop, ask them to blow up the file to your desired printing dimensions (just use a measuring tape on your chair to see roughly how wide and tall you’d like the font to be). Then ask the shop to print the final result directly onto plastic or a thick laminate paper.

3. Cut the plastic out around the letters and voila- you have your stencil!

4. To create a weathered look, Deepa watered down black fabric paint and use that to gently stencil your text onto your fabric.

5. Once dry, if you want the piece to look even more weathered, you can gently brush over the painted text with a light sandpaper- just be careful not to tear or snag the fabric.

This project can be found at Design Sponge

Have fun with it and send me some pictures of what you did! The possibilities are endless with this. Hope you all have a great weekend. See you on Monday for some home decor decoupage.

Spas from around the world...

While I was looking for cool blue things yesterday I came across a spa in South America that was gorgeous. After dealing with these freezing temperatures all I want to do is sit in a sauna or hot tub and roast. So of course I was drooling all over my screen looking at all the beautiful pictures. So here ya go, wonderful spas from around the world....

The Chiang Mai in Thailand