#242...bridget's botanical gallery

My new friend Bridget in Chicago sent me these pictures of the artwork gallery she created in her home inspired by this post I did on hanging botanical groupings. I am so excited to see her DIY efforts.

To create her gallery Bridget says "I got a bunch of prints made, framed them, and hung them in our second room. I downloaded the prints from a free website that I found through your blog about botanical prints for walls. It's not much, of course, but it was my first attempt at anything even remotely artistic or DIY, so I thought you might at least appreciate the effort"........and I DO!

Thanks for sharing Bridget!

#241...mike & kelly's master bedroom

This past weekend, I visited my brother and sister-in-law, and we put the finishing touches on their master bedroom. This room required a lot of vision when they bought the house, as the photos below are what it looked like before they moved in. It was an ugly orange color, with matching lighter orange ceiling.

Starting with some new paint and a new ceiling fan, we decorated the space using re-purposed thrift store finds, and a few hand-me-down pieces. The poster bed was formerly mine, and had been in my garage for years, as it does not fit in any of the rooms in my bungalow. I cleaned up the wood and repainted the iron.

The duvet is by Calvin Klein purchased at HomeGoods, I made the Euro shams using this fabric, and the charcoal beaded throw pillows are from Anthropologie several years back. The bedside tables are thrift store finds that we painted a dark brown gray color. The bedside lamps were also formerly gold thrift store finds that got a coat of cream spray paint and some new light gray shades from Target. The artwork above the bed is a HomeGoods find. The mat on the print was an ugly faux brown color, so I took it apart and spray painted the mat in white and put the framed print back together.

This corner armoire hides the TV. A friend of mine was giving it away, so I took it. I changed the knobs, and painted the piece to coordinate with the nightstands. Below you can see it while I was working on it.

I recovered this chair years ago for a guest room in my house, and it is one of my very best upholstery efforts, so I was happy it could find a new home in their room.

This formerly gold lamp got a green paint job and a cute shade, and helps complete this corner of the room.

Here are few final pics of the room, including some palette knife paintings I did for the entry.

#240...deck dining

I have always wanted a long dining table for my deck, and when I found this set of six chairs at the Goodwill for $40, I decided to build a table to go with the chairs.

Tyler built the table using two pieces of oak ply-wood screwed together, and these Ikea legs. I stained the top and am painting the edges a glossy white, similar to this table inspiration that I saw on Plastolux a few years ago.

For the chairs, we sanded the tops to give them a splotchy weathered look, and I stained them. I spray painted the metal parts white, and intend to cover the seats in white vinyl....but until then, I painted a monogram "C" on the worn blue cushions.

#239...my favorite snack

A simple Caprese salad is my favorite snack. All it entails is a sliced tomato, a few slices of fresh mozzarella, a splash of balsamic & olive oil, a dash of salt and some fresh or dried basil. It takes less than 5 minutes to make and tastes so good!

#238...leslie's dining room

My client Leslie wanted a pretty, decorated dining room. We started off with her new dining table and chairs, her chrome and crystal chandelier, a mirror that we reoriented, and her Grandmother's vintage Hummel figurine shadow box (built by her Grandfather) that got a face lift with a bold Saffron colored paint.

before

after

before

after

Here is what we did in the room.......

Leslie painted the room Rock Gray by Benjamin Moore. I sewed the curtains using premade cotton gauze panels from Ikea and then added a black and white floral cotton gauze print from JoAnn Fabrics to the sides, and some yellow stripe upholstery to the top, creating a back tab panel that self pleats on the rod.

I made the console table and skirt similar to this one, and we re-hung her mirror in a vertical orientation to give the room height. We added also added lamps to the console to complete the vignette.

This was her Grandmother's Hummel box before. I found these two small mirrors at the Goodwill and we decided to use them to flank the box to give it bigger presence in the room.

I painted the set in a Saffron yellow color and wallpapered the back of the little box for a modern, fun look.

The chandelier shades also got a little face lift. After adding all of the white fabrics to the room, they were too gold, so I recovered them in a white linen with contrast bias, following these instructions from Autumn at design dump.

We made a table centerpiece for the room using a ceramic vessel found at HomeGoods, and some  artificial stems & moss from Michael's craft store. I am not usually an artificial arrangement fan, but I really like how Leslie's centerpiece turned out.

#237...thirty five

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good about embarking on my 35th year...until the realization hit me that I've already lived 35, and am starting on 36. Sobering reality before coffee...and happy birthday to me. In honor of my b-day, I decided to post 35 pictures from my inspiration desktop folder. There is something that strikes me about each of them, even though I can't necessarily put my finger on what it is. I am terrible about saving the sources of photos, so I apologize for the lack of credit. I can tell you that all were pulled from the wonderful blogs I have listed to the right.