A fun DIY idea

I love getting DIY ideas from innovative store display, don't you?  I know, you are TOTALLY going around Ikea looking at the way they hacked their own pieces.

I recently spotted this dresser and had to share.

They took a narrow scarf/ runner and applied it to the front of the drawers.  In this case, it doesn't look permanently affixed, but you could really use any fabric, some spraymount or fabritac, and maybe some nailheads to finish off the look.

What do you think?  A really fun way to spruce up an old or cheap set of drawers.

New Wool Flatweaves

What do all of these flatwoven wool rugs have in common?

They are from Ikea!

That's right: perhaps inspired by the wild runaway success of their black and white broken stripe dhurrie, the Ikea folks are at it again.  I saw a number of these in person today, and out of context would never have guessed the source.  (Well, maybe not never.)  Most are good sized (around 5x8 or around 8x10), and all are under $300.

I personally love all the classic stripe options.  Surprise, surprise.

Have you stumbled upon any great finds lately?

Cafe chairs

I am a big fan of what I think of as the "frenchy cafe chair."

I recently used Serena and Lily's riviera chair in this client's kitchen.

(There will eventually be a blue, skirted, backless bench on the window side of the table.)

I just noticed these new cafe chairs from a very affordable source.

It's the "Almsta" chair from Ikea!  $99.  I would love to see a bunch of these at a table paired with a built in banquette, kind of like this.

Someone go ahead and snap these up!

Large Scale botanical on a budget

I popped in to Ikea yesterday to take a look at their curtain rack systems for a project, and happened to notice this large-scale botanical poster for $19.99.

Vintage versions have been making appearances (I blogged about them here), and really nice reproductions can be had from here, but if you want the look just for now, this is a great way to go.

I have to say, I kind of like that this poster LOOKS like a vintage knock-off.  Something about the way the images are styled, it almost ends up a little bit cheeky.  Know what I mean?

Ikea blunder

I was at Ikea yesterday, and asked one of the co-workers if the catalogs were out -- I had seen a PDF of the cover and wanted the featured chair for a client's living room.  The catalogs were not in the store yet (I got mine in the mail later yesterday--and promptly lost it), but the co-worker said. "ohhhh.....I don't think we're going to be carrying that chair."



Sure enough, it is a vintage Ikea chair "renewed" with some current pillows.

The co-worker, who shall remain nameless (mostly because I don't know his name), said "I really don't know why they did that.  I have a feeling it's going to cause some problems."  Feeling like I was the first of those problems, I said, "yeah, good luck with that," and away I went.

It is interesting to me that Ikea is in some way trying to own this notion of "refreshing," going so far as to showcase their own ikea hacks, such as the new pine dresser, "a fine, pine canvas," which reminds me of this beautiful project.

The catalog also shows an upholstered dresser using Ikea fabric.  Cute, right?

But to me, the interesting thing about Ikea hacks is the creativity of the people creating them.  Give us the canvas, let us paint, you know?  (Check out tons of ikea hacks here.)

And back to that cover:  we count on Ikea for inexpensive, short term, good looking refreshers.  Showing us those on a chair we CAN'T have?  Well, that's just a tease.

What do you think?

P.S.  To enter the giveawy for a $50 gift card at Shabby Apple, check out instructions and leave your comments on yesterday's post.  Giveaway is going on until Tuesday 8/7 at midnight.

New fabrics that won't break the bank

I'm off this morning to plan the attack on a super low-budget, super fast-turnaround home staging project, which means I'm thinking about fun, bright, inexpensive stuff.

Like some of the new fabrics from Ikea.

This watercolor look is so on trend

Large scale floral, but --quirk alert--it's really cabbages

So Marimekko

Who doesn't love a good stripe?

Cute, modern, organic, large-scale pebble print.

I want to use some of these.  Like, almost as if they were high-end designer fabric.

What do you think: any favorites?

What not to do

Yesterday I showed you a couple of looks around one bedspread.  While the styles were different, the strategies were the same: bold color, floral patterns, solid drapes, matching finishes on the furniture.  I mentioned that the other way to make this small-scale bright pastel bedspread work would be in a softer, mostly white space where the pattern can take center stage.

I went about putting one together and ended up with this.

Pretty, right?

Right, only: fancy.  There's really no way that the inexpensive cotton print could no stand up to the elegant finishes in this room: taffeta, velvet, gold leaf, antiqued mirror, quartz.

This is a funny thing about making moodboards divorced from seeing the actual items: you sometimes focus on color, pattern, and shape without concern to finish or scale.  Fine and fun when it's just an idea (like this series), but of course you have to consider ALL these factors when designing an actual room.

So, to put that quilt in a pale and neutral room, it should be more like this:

Cotton, linen, weathered wood, wool textural rug, funky details like multicolored buttons in the tufted chairs and contrast thread on the tasseled curtains: casual but not boring.

Although all told?  I think that quilt just wants to play with as many colors and patterns as possible, and I still prefer yesterday's looks.

What about you?

Like Liberty, but less

This is a case of an excellent source--and terrible timing.

Waaaaay back in the beginning of our time in this house, I was dreaming of a bedroom for my girls inspired by Liberty of London (for Target) bedding.  (That little idea is buried in this post about moving a rug from room to room--I'm really not particularly linear, am I?  Also, funny story, the first rug that moved from the girls room to our room moved back to their room; the SECOND rug I bought for their room is now in ours.)

Anyway, guess who is making supremely cute, extremely affordable, Liberty of London style floral coverlets?

Ikea, that's who.

Our local store recently got some major renovation to the marketplace, and the bedding is much more accessible than before.

These cute little prints have made their way into the kitchen, too.

Fun for summer.  Most of it is melamine, so would make a great picnic, beach, or outdoor set.


It was 80 degrees here today.  I guess I've got summer on my mind.


Oh, and come on back next week.  I'm having a LOT of fun making up little girls' rooms using that quilt!

"Senegalese Storage" the Ikea way

Everyone is going ga ga for Serena and Lily's Senegalese storage baskets, and I will admit, I'm joining the hype.  After the prevalence of African stools and textiles such as kuba cloth over recent years, African baskets seem like a natural trend, especially when done up in such fun colors.




Available here.  Only problem (can you guess?)  The price tag.

Amber over at Amber interiors took matters into her own hands when she found a similarly-shaped basket at Home Goods, and improvised with tape and spraypaint.



Pretty cute, right?  (Tutorial, here.)

When I first saw the Serena and Lily version, I was immediately reminded of the Asunden collection at Ikea.


While they don't come in a large storage size, the type of weaving and the shape of the lidded bins gives the same feeling.  I bought the group of three (above) back in the fall, and have been using the smaller ones to hold toilet paper in two of our bathrooms (there's no closed storage), and the lidded one for trash in our master bath--love that it's covered!  There are also these bath accessories:



And this individual lidded basket


The best part?  The set of 3 is $34.99, the pair of bath accessories is $9.99, and the lidded basket is just $6.99.

Sold.

Maskros Gone Gold

Lately I have been staring at the Ikea Maskros light fixture in my dining room and willing it to be something else.  Don't get me wrong: I love it.  It's just, everyone has it.  Which I don't always mind.  And which was to be expected--I mean, a giant statement fixture for just $89?  What's not to like.  Ally at From The Right Bank posted recently about her own dining room find and the general trepidation of buying something you think will wind up everywhere, and it got me thinking: DO I care?  WHY do I care?

Meanwhile, the thing is WHITE.  Which at first I loved.  And my girls say it looks like snow, a giant snowball.  But as things come together in the house, it feels a bit TOO white.

And I got to wondering if I could spray it gold.  Or even spray the outsides of the "flowers" gold and the backs black for a whole lot of depth.  Or just tip the edges of each flower, so it would be white flecked with gold.  Only problem:  while only $89, I know my husband would blow a gasket if I ruined a perfectly good chandelier and had to buy another one.  And he would not be wrong in these feelings.

But then someone else did it first.  I saw the photos. I got my answer: Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Whose gorgeous house is this, you ask?  None other than textile designer Amy Butler.  Check out the full house tour on Apartment Therapy.  I have to say, while I think Butler is lovely, her style is a but sweet for me, so I was surprised to find the main living spaces in her house to be so appealing.  Edgier than I would have expected.  It doesn't hurt that it is a huge mid-century house on a hill with all kinds of original details--wait till you see the front door.

Now, I have no qualms about being a copier.  Especially in this case, since I thought it up before I saw it done (though I appreciate a pioneer showing the way).  But:  will THIS version be everywhere?

Maybe I should go back to that birdcage I was thinking of wiring.  Except.  Aren't you seeing birdcages all over the place?

Perhaps I should just stop looking at Shelter mags.  Then I could go back to thinking I was a genius, all full up of original ideas.  A genius, I tell you.

The Lamp Factory

I currently have three pairs of lamps in various stages of makeover.

It's no secret that I L.O.V.E. Home Goods lamps. They have a wide variety, they often have pairs (and I love pairs of lamps almost as much as pairs of chairs), and you can't beat the price. Even other mass retailers that I think of as being inexpensive, like Pier 1 or West Elm, sell lamps for about three times as much. Many of my faves from Home Goods look unique, and you would never guess I paid under $50 at a discount store.

However.

For some reason, the default base seems to be that brushed nickel, no matter what the style of lamp. And with gold accents in most of my house, nickel lamp bases just won't do.


So I've been spraying a couple of them with metallic brass rustoleum. In the un-ventilated basement. (Still too cold to open the windows here!) When the girls and I walked in the back door after school pick up, the house reeked. Oops.

This pair also had mismatched finials, and neither looked like it went with the lamps.
So I got an extra $5 knocked off each one and figured that a matching finish would at least distract from the mismatched shapes. Maybe eventually I'll buy new finials (but I doubt it.)

Pair number 2: ikea wall lamps for the guest room. You can see one in the middle there, also going from nickel to brassy, along with the wonky finials.


(You can also see the legs of a set of 4 white Ghost chairs, all stacked up. I almost sprayed them gold, just by the proximity of that spraying station. That would have been a VERY expensive mistake. Sometimes I'm a total idiot about my projects that way.)

Pair number 3: What do you think about this classic navy ticking to top off these brass stick lamps? The original white shade is feeling a bit stark against the new navy walls.


I think I'll probably go for it. This is the last project for the guest room, and then I can share the results! But at least this is a sneak peek of the wall color. I like it more and more and more and more. And our weekend guests dug it, too.

Oh, and the green lamps back in the living room.

Perhaps the most subtle "after" shot on earth. But much, much better, especially since the frames on the wall RIGHT THERE are black and gold.


Sometimes it's the little things, isn't it?

Loving these new Ikea frames (and other contents of my brain today)

I'm a big fan of Ikea frames, especially the Ribba: they're cheap, they come in white, black, birch, and medium wood tones in many sizes, and they have a simple, modern shape and a nice deep profile. Not right for most original works of art or paintings, but great for prints, works on paper, and art you make yourself.

So I was delighted to recently discover their NEW line of frames, the Odby, which really amps up a decorator's frame arsenal.Still clean and modern, but I LOVE those rounded edges, on the frame and the matte, which makes these look more custom than mass market. They come in a couple of sizes in the rectangle, plus a nice sized square, and range from $14.99 to $29.99.

We picked one up for Oli's room, and we'll be using it with this print.
We wanted something typographical, and personalized, but the letter O (for Oliver) is the most challenging, in my mind, because it looks like a zero, or just an oval (okay, an ellipse), and I love how eakdesigns created a collage in the shape of an O made of all things that start with the letter. The octopus is my favorite. (Speaking of which, I would love this Octopus hook from anthropologie for the room, but at $48, there's no way this time.)



All 26 letters are available in the eakdesigns Etsy shop, and I kind of want the C and the E for my girls, though I really need to stop re-inventing the wheel and finish the botanicals for over the beds, already.

You know, I really meant to give you one focused piece of information in this post, since I've gone a little cuckoo with the free association lately, but there I go, steam of consciousness style again.

Welcome to my brain.