Mom's Living Room Design Begins!

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend and a happy memorial day!  I went up to my mom's this weekend and she's pretty awesome so I definitely did.  Not only did I go for a nice visit, but I also went so that we could look at fabrics for her living room that I'm designing.  I mentioned her vintage fabric way back when that has become the inspiration for the color palate.

She had custom drapes out of this fabric about 20 years ago and we haven't seen it in probably 13 years since we moved into her current house.  So she was ecstatic when she discovered she still had and loved the fabric!  

We've been talking about what she wanted in the living room for quite a while and the ideas keep changing (remember the red idea), so I got fired up when she seemed more firm on this idea.  I started gathering ideas on a Pinterest board and created this mood board...

She currently has a lot of warm colors in the living room, so I wanted to balance this warmth out with blue drapes and also coordinate with the blue in her art, crystal, and teacup collections.  Unfortunately for the pocketbook, she has a lot of windows, which means a lot of fabric, and a lot of $$$$ for custom draperies!  I scoured the internet for affordable blue patterened drapes for a while without much success until just recently. You can imagine my excitement when I checked out Ikea again (the best deal for drapes) and found these!

EMMIE KVIST

And even more excited when Mom confirmed that she really liked them.  So while I was up visiting I put them up for her and then we searched for the right fabric to reupholster her settee. Here's a little peek of the room and some possible fabrics.  

The left fabric is the drapery, the right will be pillows, and the two middle area possibilities for the settee.  There are actually two settees at the moment, but only one will be recovered. The other will be replaced by two chairs, so I'm on the hunt for some pretty and hopefully inexpensive warm pink/peach chairs.  We also did decide that we'll repaint a neutral beige color pulled out of the floral fabric.  We have a ways to go, but its actually begun, and I'm really excited about it! I think its really going to be lovely once we're done.  So I'll have updates for you as we move along.

I also meant to photograph her TV room, which I designed, but forgot my camera.  Oopsies!  I'll have pictures of that after my next visit so stay tuned.  For now, here's a teaser you've seen before.  ;)

Three Tips I Learned of Late

1.  I got excited when I read Centsational Girl's awesome trick for fixing white-out windows in a photo.  How, you ask, does it work?  If you've got a tripod you take two photos in the exact same position varying the aperture so that one is over-exposed with a bright interior (the window will look white) and the other makes the outside visible (the interior will be dark).  Then layer both images into Pixlr or Photoshop and use a layer mask to bring the outdoor image through.  Check it out!

source

2.  If you loose your cell phone and don't have another to call it, you can go to http://www.wheresmycellphone.com/ and your computer will call it for you.  I hope I remember this when I need it! (Source)

photo source

3.  And a positive reminder...

Source

{Re-Styling} What's On My Coffee Table

Do you guys constantly move things in your home around?  I do.  I'm constantly re-styling my house by moving things I have around.  Because when my eyes have seen the same thing over and over for a while, it's like my brain doesn't even notice it's there anymore.  So the pretty vingette I created last just looks 'blah' to me a few weeks later.  Not only does re-styling give a new look that feels fresh on the eyes, but it gives me the opportunity to enjoy things that I've become accustom to overlooking, and it also gets me to dust when I'd otherwise put it off.  When the goal is re-styling instead of cleaning, its much more fun, right?!

So I thought I'd share my coffee table with you today. Especially being that I just read the Nester's post on creating vignettes.

I got this vase from my mom for Christmas and misplaced it for a while. So glad I found it! I just love the earthy colors, classic shape, and movement in it!

High Hopes Like Gatsby

If you follow me on Instagram then you probably know how I spent my weekend.  I saw the Great Gatsby, which was awesome.  I've always loved the book and the design details in the fashion, architecture, and interiors where beautiful! 

Source: House Beautiful

Isn't that rug gorgeous?!  Not to mention the soft flowing shears, tailored chairs, architectural trim, and grand chandelier... Just lovely!  I'd like to do a post on the design in the movie if I have the time.  

Speaking of beautiful rugs, I did a little shopping and found these ikat flatwoven rugs, with which I plan to make a large square ottoman for my living room. Only $33 for a 5x7-ish rug at Stein Mart! The red, coral, and orange is the perfect thing to warm up the living room. There's even a little green in it which works perfectly with my pillows and sofa.

I also found this cute little metal chair at the Salvation Army.  (Can we say regular customer? Thank God I don't have space for too much or I might turn into a hoarder!)  It's just small enough to give us a place to sit at the top of our stairs.  I plan to recover it sometime and maybe give it a fresh coat of paint.

AAAAAnd... I got my business cards in the mail from moo.com.  Yay!  I designed them myself.  What'd ya think?

I've also been working on putting together some of my previous school projects and assignments   I'd say "into a portfolio," but it probably will be no where near the finished document I'd like my portfolio (I'm kind of a perfectionist).  But at least I'll have a hardcopy to show to prospective employers.

So... there's lots on my "To Do" list with class three nights a week, homework, all these projects, etc.  Perhaps a bit like Gatsby, I have high hopes and aspirations for getting all these things (and more) done. Without an illegitimate angle like bootlegging of course!  The busy life is stressful at times, but I love all this design stuff like Gatsby loves Daisy (well maybe not exactly, but you get what I'm saying… A LOT).  I'll do my best to stay connected to you blog buddies and share my  inspiration along the way and the fun projects that result.  Wish me luck!

To all you mothers out there...

I love you Mommy!

Chevron Painted Clover Table

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. School has started up again, so I'll probably be posting less for the next 11 weeks while I'm studying lighting and AutoCADing away.  But I do have a couple more projects from the Noah's ARC nursery to share with you.  So up next is my chevron painted clover table...

Ok... so its not exactly chevron, but I wanted to create a pattern that mimicked the chevron stenciled wall, so it sort-of is... and that's what I'm gonna call it! So there!

Although I really love every project we did for the Noah's ARC nursery, this little clover side table was basically my baby.  I even bid on it myself, but I guess someone wanted it even more because they outbid me in the last 30 minutes of the silent auction.  So new clover table owner, whoever you are, I really hope you're loving her as much as I do. :)  Here's a little tale for you of how she came to be...

I took it to my home, gave it a good cleaning, taped off all the brass, and primed it.  As you can see, I didn't do a very good just sanding (really it needed stripper) which bit me in the ass later.  But until I knew that, I continued along my merry way and we spray painted it green and let it dry with all the rest of the painted furniture.

Then I went to tape off my design and as I was adjusting the tape, much to my dismay, the paint started peeling off!

So I had to start over.  This time I stripped the table with Citristrip first.  When it was all stripped and sanded, we noticed this really pretty burled wood edge so we decided to tape it off keep the wood trim.

Then I mixed my paint colors...

I used the Sherwin Williams "Colonial Revival Sea Green" as the mid tone and mixed some white in for a lighter tone and added a darker paint (a sample of Benjamin More from Ace Hardware) for another dimension.

I also used caulking, which is a little painters trick I learned to make sure you get crisp lines.  You simply run a light bead of caulking over your tape edge and then wipe it off with a damp cloth so its barely there. That seals your tape line down so paint doesn't seep underneath.

I taped off my design with frog tape using the tape width as a spacer and labeling "L," "M," and "D" to keep track of what color each line would be.  Then I started painting...

Judging by the poor picture quality this was obviously a late night project. I spent a few evenings working on it, letting each coat dry for a day before painting the next.  The left photo shows the first two coats (the medium base and dark coat) while the right shows all three coats before I took the border tape off.

To finish her off, I touched it up by hand and gave it a coat of wipe on poly/  Then, cleaned the brass legs with Brasso...

...stepped back and oooooed and awwwed...

Here she is in her final spot in the nursery...

And now she's in a new home for someone else to enjoy.  Hope you're lovin' her out there!

 

New Facebook Page

So I'm branchin' out and Turned to Design now has a facebook page. Yippy!

And you may have noticed, I also added a facebook button to the blog...

Get your clicking finger ready for a little "like" action and show your support!  Thanks guys!

We Won!

Yesterday the gracious staff of the Salvation Army hosted a beautiful little awards ceremony for the Noah's ARC Design Challenge.  We had amazing competition who created beautiful designs in three Salvation Army stores in Orange County (four including ours).  I'm so excited to tell ya'll... we won!

Thanks so much to all who participated!  And thanks to all of the readers who have provided support and encouragement along the way.  I feel so blessed to have been a part of this awesome design event and honored to contribute to an amazing organization that helps save lives every day.

DIY Framed Jersey

If you were a 15 year old boy, or perhaps a 15 year old boy and a 16 year old boy who share a room (yep, you've got to imagine being two people at once!... haha) and you wanted your room to look "cool", what would you want?  Some framed jerseys perhaps?  

I've just recently begun working on designing my boyfriend's sons' room and YES, it has been confirmed that framed jerseys are on the list.  Yay! Way to think like a teenage boy!

So we went on a hunt for some frames this weekend and found two of these bad boys on sale for $24 for both.  You best believe we snatched them right up for this DIY framed jersey project.

Because the pictures were originally hung horizontally, we had to remove the hanging hardware with a screw driver. Next I pulled off the tape on the back and...

began removing staples like a boss!

After pulling the mat apart from the print, I used the original print on cardboard to create a form for the jersey. I cut a notch for the neck and also trimmed the top so that the shoulders would be at an angle conforming to the fit of the jerseys.  That's the way uh-huh uh-huh I liiiike it!  ...uh... don't ask.

I used the same piece of cardboard that held the art in as the backing to mount the jersey. To make it look clean and professional, I bought a yard and a half white felt from Joann's for $8.  Since you could kind of see through the felt, I spray painted the cardboard white.  With the cardboard painted, I pinned the felt to it so it was correctly aligned. Then unpinned and lifted one half at a time, sprayed it with adhesive, and smoothed the felt down.

Teen boy wanted the name on the back showing, so I turned the jersey over, laid it on the felted cardboard, and pinned it in place.

Finally, we put it back into the frame, and reinserted the staples.  Ta da!

A New Look For The Blog

I wanted to give the blog a slightly more professional yet still fun and happy look so I'm doing a little re-design... well, for me its actually really time consuming.  I'm sure not an html-css genius and have just taught myself with blog tutorials online and what not, but I think its coming along nicely.  What'd ya think so far?

I've still got some things I want to change. 

• I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to adjust the margins.    It seems that the html editor in blogger is different than it used to be and I cant seem to find the numbers that I should change.  I'm hoping to make them smaller so that the stuff in the sidebar lines up.  
• I also want to adjust the vertical padding/margins in the sidebar so that everything isn't quite as far apart.  
• The font for the post titles seems to have gone back to a default and it doesn't seem to change when I use blogger's "Customize" template thing.
• And does anyone know how to make the look more consistent across internet browsers?  I've realized it looks different in IE vs. Chrome (which is what I use) and I haven't seen it in Firefox.

If you know of any solutions to these things, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment away or shoot me an email.  Thanks guys!