Preserving Precious Memories

I have the cutest pinkish red crochet trimmed bikini for my daughter that my dear friend Melissa bought for her on her first birthday.  I love that swimsuit dearly and plan to one day preserve it in a shadow box and hang it in my home.  These pictures are my inspiration.

Via Amanda Nesbitt

Via Absolutely Beautiful Things

via Beach Vintage Blog

Via Giannetti Home

Room to Dream via Elements of Style

Erin with Element Interiors design firm and her famous design blog has given us a little boy's room to boast about.  She custom designed this amazing space for the Room to Dream Foundation and you can read all the fabulous details here.

Holy Crafty Creations Batman! Another fabulous design by Christie Chase.

My friends, it never ceases to amaze me the insane talents of my friend Christie Chase. She is a real life Martha Stewart for the hip thirty-something’s. She can sew herself a sassy little cocktail number for her dinner party; paint a beautiful canvas piece of art for her living room and then cook up some homemade carnitas for that evening’s festivities, from scratch. I am totally serious the woman can do it all.


So naturally I had to share with you the amazing upholstered letters she custom made for a client. AMAZING!

Click here to read the How To.

 
 

Mudrooms - A Definite Mommy Must Have

This awesome post on Mudrooms by Molly Frey Designs makes me wish we had one for all our clutter and crap that end up everywhere.  Check out the full post here.

Beautiful and Affordable Play Room

Do you love the way this gorgeously styled play room looks? Could you envision it in your own home and does it make you yearn for an interior designer?

Photo from Sloan Mauran ID

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are not alone. I too stopped dead in my tracks and wished my upstairs rec room looked like this. Well my friends, good news! This gorgeous and yes totally affordable room is more achievable than it looks.

Okay so let's start with what you might not have in your kid space, beautiful hardwood floors, 8" baseboards, beautiful AND expensive wood double hung windows and of course that arched window seat. But aside from the architectural details, the styling of the room is perfection and yes achievable.

Would you believe the meat and potatoes of this room comes from Ikea and a few other chic and cheap retailers? Allow me to demonstrate....

First we'll start with Ikea, where you'll find about 80% of the items for this design.  This rug is not the exact same as the photo, but a very close second and you can't beat the price.

The ever so popular Ikea toddler table and chairs.

The bookcase...Ikea as well.

   

Or the Ikea Expedit turned on its side.

Some baskets to fill the shelves.

The comfy armchair in pink if you have girls or if you are striving for gender nuetral, the red.

The apple green pillows, also Ikea.com.

And the wall art.  Frames from Ikea and wall cards from LandofNod.com.

And finally the biggest splurges for this very affordable room, the beautiful gord lamp and custom roman shades.  The lamp is from LampsPlus.com and the fabric is an apple green cotton duck from fabrics.com.  The perfect fabric for a simple roman shade. 

So there you have it, high style for a steal.  keep in mind this design works beautifully because the bold furniture and asseccories are accented with clean crips neutral walls. 

Ice Cream Dreams and Waffles

I love this fun and vibrant breakfast nook featured in Traditional Home magazine.  Styled after a traditional ice cream parlor, it's a setting perfect for food, crafts and fun. 

This look would be so easy to duplicate in your own home.  Striped walls with a pale barely there pink on the bottom and that table looks a lot like this oh so chic and affordable Ikea one. 

A similar chandelier could be found here and spray painted white, then pull it all together with a set of vintage chairs recovered and whoa la!  High style for a steal. 

Theme Room Done to Perfection- HGTV Dream Home

A new year brings a new HGTV Dream Home and naturally I love to cruise the online tour and soak up all the design details. I was especially excited to see that this year they did a child's room with a theme. A Toy Story theme, but done in a childish-sophisticated manner (now that’s an oxymoron) so it's not in-your-face over-the-top Disney. I can appreciate a child's room decorated with a specific theme in mind, but always with subtle details.

Notice how if you just remove the toys the theme is gone and the room is still a perfectly designed room that will grow with the child.  Nothing else needs to change, nuetral elegant bedding, bright and cheerful walls and simple window treatments.

The bed and bedding is my favorite part of the room.  Orange, turquoise and white bedding with just a touch of black. By the way, this is my favorite way to dress a child's bed with pillows.  Euro Sham in the back helps to anchor the bedding, standard sham and then the accent pillow for that little pop of color in a fun pattern.

To take a virtural tour of this room click here.

Frugal Friday: Chic and Easy Fabric Art

I spied these beautiful framed fabrics on a featured nursery room from Spearmintbaby.com.  It got me thinking, how EASY and CHEAP this project really easy.  Even if you don't have a crafty bone in your body you can make this art for your child's room.

To help you out here are a few beautiful and FREE templates from the beloved Amy Butler.  To make this fabric art, start by printing your desired template on computer paper and enlarge or shrink to fit your frame as needed.  Once you have the right size cut out the template and pin it to your fabric.  Try to arrange your design so that it hits the center of the fabric pattern.  Notice above how the damask butterfly is perfectly centered over the fabric pattern?  It makes for a much more eye catching piece of art.

After you cut your fabric designs, glue or tape (double stick tape) the design to your frame back.  You can also use construction or other decorative papers to create a prettier background. 

Hope this helps sparks some decoration inspirations for your homes!  Click here for the Amy Butler patterns.

 

Outdoor fabric for baby bedding? But of course!

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have used outdoor fabric to make custom crib bedding for my customers. Most people would never consider the textile for a child's room, but with the huge selection of stylish fabrics available today the possibilities are endless and very deceiving (in a good way).


Outdoor fabric is designed to not fade, wrinkle and resist stains. Hello, shouldn't ALL baby stuff be made from such a textile? Of course like any fabric not all are created equal and some outdoor options are better than others. Below are just a few I scouted online and a couple I have used a time or two.

So what on earth would you make for your child from outdoor fabric? Think crib skirts, fabric for the outside of your bumpers, bumper ties, window treatments, floor cushions and play mats, hampers and changing pad covers. I could go on and on…