#406...lyla's nursery

Notes:

Lyla obviously likes her nursery, as evidenced by her fist pump

I used a few of my favorite vintage finds in Lyla's room, including the yellow flower crewel piece over the crib, the fabric that I made the drapes from, the swag petal lamp, and the small owl prints over the changing table 

The rocking chair and crib skirt fabric is sold here

The rainbow glitter "L" that we made for the room, ended up looking a little too color crazed, so we made a more subdued silver glitter "L" in cursive.

The small ceramic animals I originally wanted to glue to the clock, but Julie liked the display in front of the lamp, so we left it for now. Julie and I spent our childhood allowance collecting the animals from a small gift shop in New Hampshire where our grandparents live. I guess they would be considered vintage too, as they are about 25 - 30 years old.

I painted the tree silhouette on the right side curved entry wall because it is a narrow space, and I wanted to make that area feel bigger and brighter

#405...slipcovered clock

My week in California is nearly over, and I'm putting the finishing touches on Lyla's nursery and heading home. I made this upholstered clock for the room after Julie vetoed my idea of making a clock with tiny ceramic animals glued all over it. (Sometimes my crafting ideas do go over the top)

To make the clock, I used a wooden painting panel like this. I cut a center hole in the panel to fit the clock parts through and then sewed a simple square slipcover for it that I stretched over it and glued to the back. I was happy to use the last of my stash of Alexander Henry's spotted owl fabric in Lyla's room. It has been a favorite of mine for several years. The side fabric is from Project Runway winner Jay McCaroll's habitat fabric line.

#404...glitter art

My sister Julie told me that she really liked the glitter art done by Camomile Hixon that she saw on Home by Novagratz. I decided to try making a glitter art piece for Julie's house to hang in my new niece Lyla's room.

I used blue painter's tape to create a large "L" on a gallery wrapped canvas that I painted with a background wash of light gray.

I bought all of the supplies for this project at the local Michael's craft store. (I used 4 of the glitter packs pictured for the piece)

I decided to make stripes in the same pattern that the glitter came in the pack pictured above. Julie is much better at math than me, so she taped off the stripes while I rocked Lyla. I painted out each stripe with the tacky glue using the above pictured sponge and then sprinkled the glitter packets atop the glue.

I glittered every other row, and then ripped the tape back and carefully glued and glittered the in-between stripes.

Here is the finished piece, ready to hang on Lyla's wall tomorrow.

#403...san francisco state of mind

Here's what I've been up to in California...........

 Browsing around Heath Ceramics shop at the Ferry Building

Eating albacore tuna lox at the Ferry Building Saturday Market 

Digging through vintage wallpaper rolls in the attic of an old fabric store

Strolling through a local garden center

#402...lemons abound

My cousin Marie has a very prolific lemon tree in her California backyard. I'm jealous, because my potted Meyer lemon tree had a rough time during the severe Texas drought this summer and only has one puny lemon hanging from it.

#401...a quick note

If you are not reading Jenny's blog, then you should be......especially since she featured my kitchen front and center this morning!

#400...eboard's abound

I've been busy designing eboards over the past two months. Here's a look at my latest crop.

little girl's bedroom

kitchen

living room

little girl's room

entry hall

living room

laundry room

living room

living room/playroom combo

master bedroom

#399...piano keys quilt

For my new niece Lyla I made this Piano keys quilt. The pattern is by Spool, and you can find it here. I'm headed to California later this week to visit family, friends, meet Lyla, and decorate her nursery.

#398...amanda's bedside chest

I bought this chest of drawers resale for my client Amanda's master bedroom to serve as a nightstand. It is Ethan Allen from the Baumritter line, which was made in Vermont. My grandparent's had a bookcase wall of this line of cabinet that I think dates back to the 1960's. The cabinet was in good shape, but it actually had a ton of scratches that you can't see in the picture above.

I prefer to paint furniture with oil (alkyd) paint, as it gives a more even and harder finish once completely dried. Usually, I go with a higher end brand paint, however recently Home Depot started carrying this line of oil paints by Rustoleum. I don't usually do a glossy finish, but decided to try my hand at the lacquered look.

The cost of this quart of Rustoleum was about a third of what an alkyd paint quart costs from Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. There is not a wide color selection and they can not mix colors for you in the store, but for this chest, the smoke gray seemed the perfect choice.

I used a 4" smooth foam roller to apply, and between coats ran a 320 grit fine sanding block over the piece. The paint was a tiny bit thinner than what I am used to with oils, but after 5 coats I was please with the finish.

We changed the pulls to this cup pull, and added glass knobs from anthropologie.

#397...carol's house

Last week, I returned for a visit to the country to see my client's Carol and Jeff. We've been working on bringing some color and personality into their home. In the dining room, we worked on brightening the mantel vignette.

before

after

We found the contemporary circle painting at HomeGoods. I used some acrylic paints to brighten some of the circles a bit. The clock was an antique they had, and the blue vase was a school art project their daughter made years ago. We added the oversized hammered silver bowl as a table centerpiece, and brought in the ficus tree in large red pottery pot to the left of the fireplace. Only a few pieces changed the room a lot. 

Across from the fireplace was this giant empty baker's rack buffet.

before

Carol had all kinds of great mementos and treasures that were boxed in closets and cabinets. We pulled them out, and I styled a display for this furniture piece with their items.

We also worked on their family room while I was there. In the spring, we discussed painting the wall above the fireplace in a smokey blue green color. They settled on Quarry Rock by Benjamin Moore and it is a really pretty addition to the limestone fireplace.

before

We added the round starburst style mirror to the newly painted wall, and completed the mantel with a rustic carved wood candle holder that used to live on their dining room table. On the TV wall, we added a vintage metal sculpture by artist C.Jere, that I found a few years ago at a resale store and has been living in my attic. This room also only got a few tweaks, but they have big impact.