#323...west elmish

A while back, I had an e-board client who described her style as West Elmish. I think these two West Elm catalogue pictures must have been the clean, hip look she was cleverly referring to. I'm not usually one for product catalogue shots, but I really like the art wall in the first, and the bookcase in the second.

 

#322...quick art update

I really love vintage crewel work pieces, as seen here and here in my house. Although I love their vintage appeal, sometimes they are a little too over the top vintage to put up, so I give their frame a quick update with a coat or two of spray paint, and I think they look a bit more modern.

before

after

#321...a pillow for sarah

My youngest sister Sarah has been living with Tyler and I for the past few years while in school. She graduated, got a job as a graphic designer, and is ready to fly the coop and move into her own apartment. She and I have similar style taste, and she is very creative, so helping her with her apartment is like getting to put together a dollhouse for me. We are just getting started, and she has been raiding my fabric scraps for her new pad. This weekend, I made her a single lumbar throw pillow for her bed from a scrap of this Thomas Paul fabric and some vintage yellow stripe piping.

She is pairing it with this duvet from Urban Outfitters

I am making some aqua and ivory striped drapes for her window from scraps of a blue & cream cabana stripe leftover from these nursery window shades.

#320...my latest e-boards

I've been selling my e-boards on etsy for over a year now, and I've probably done about 30 rooms to date. The boards are fairly time consuming to put together, but I enjoy making them, as they are a departure from my every day sewing and painting. Of course, I do stay up working on them until the wee small hours of the morning, which makes me a  little grumpy the next day... but who needs sleep, when there are lamps and rugs and bedding out there in cyber space waiting to be paired together. Here is my latest slew of room boards. Each board is based on the individual needs specified by each client.

A gameroom for 3 sisters

A family room for someone who loves orange

A home office for a bicycle enthusiast

A Master bedroom

A reading den....and below the living room that adjoins it

A kitchen with attached entry hall

A dining room

A kitchen for an owl lover

A sister's bedroom

An artist's studio

A teen's abode

A pretty master suite

#319...cabana & landscape progress (part four)

Our pottery cabana is nearing completion, and we are having some landscaping done, to make our yard worthy of our pretty cabana.

First, we had new sod laid. We decided that we wanted a combination of gravel and large pavers and cement border to fill the back portion of our yard, since we want to put seating back there, and it has poor drainage.

Tyler cut cardboard templates of a random cement paver path he wanted to make to connect the cabana to the existing sun deck pad where the chaise lounges sit.

The cement contractors came and built all of the wood forms to lay the cement pavers and borders.

Here is the laid cement. Next we have to get the gravel and finish the skirting on the cabana deck.

We also had a cement floor laid in the cabana. The way they draped the room in plastic to protect the walls and decking made it look like a scene from Dexter.

We also moved our grill under the loft stairs onto paver/gravel

In addition to the cement hardscape project, we have been doing some container planting. We are planning to use a multitude of terra cota pots in the back gravel area of the yard. We bought the pots at Home Depot.

I've had this cactus for about two years. It blooms every spring. We moved it to this bigger pot in hopes that it will get bigger.

My friend Ashley gave me a clipping of this pencil cactus, which we believe is the same plant that I admired at this house.

We usually line these yellow chairs up along one side of the pool. The look sort of reminds me of a lifeguard station. I bought the white ceramic garden stool at Ross for $30 this week. Tyler thinks it wrecks the symmetry of the chairs, so I may be using it elsewhere. We have been working so hard on the yard because we are getting ready to have my Mom's retirement party out there at the end of April. The upcoming party and nice spring weather have been great motivation to finish up the cabana and backyard. We're almost there..............

#318...lisa's nursery

My good friend Lisa is about to have her first child. Lisa's family is from Trinidad, and her whole house has a beachy vibe to it, and she wanted the same feel in her nursery. I did a small eboard for Lisa to help her with some  textiles and furniture pieces that she needed to bring her room together.

....and here is the finished nursery, awaiting its little arrival

I made the window pelmets from burlap, and added white twill tape for trim. I had some sea shell disc slices leftover from a project a few years ago, and they gave Lisa's pelmets some personality. I made Lisa's fishy quilt and chair pillow from Heather Bailey's mendocino line of fabrics (which sadly, is not in production anymore). Lisa's mom found the cute fish lamp at HomeGoods, and the burlap shade was the inspiration for the pelmets.

#317...hello kitty

This is my 12 year old kitty Gig'em. Recently, he decided that he wanted a bathroom remodel of his very own. He used to have a very nice box built into, and completely hidden under the corner bench in our kitchen, that he loved and used for years. For some reason, he decided that it was no longer good enough for him and wanted something bigger and better.

To oblige him, we got him a big Booda box, which was way too big to fit in the spot his old box went, so we had to move it to a new locale.

We have a small hallway between the two bedrooms in our bungalow. This bathroom is off of the hallway. It is really awkward to get a picture of it, because it is so small and has so many doorways. Here is my best attempt.

There are some built-in shelves on the left side, so we moved the Booda box into the bottom nook. It is pretty unsightly.

I decided to make a curtain to try to hide the box a bit....although weirdly, I think my curtain may actually draw more attention to the box. (Maybe I'm just not used to it yet.) I'm less than thrilled with this situation, but as you can imagine, it is very important that the cat likes and uses his box. So, this is what I am stuck with until he decides he wants something else.