Taking it one step farther

I posted some stripey possibilities yesterday for my girls' bathroom, but there's one more thing I can't seem to get out of my mind.

Loose, imperfect, hand-drawn stripes.

Collecting images these past few weeks, I couldn't help but fall for these painterly interpretations.

Lovely ribbon spotted over at Design Dump

The Delavan Stripe fabric from Rubie Green (Rubie Green is the eco-friendly fabric line from Lonny Editor Michele Adams; I've always assumed this stripe is named for decorator and former Domino design guru Tom Delavan,  She was an assistant there, after all.)

But when translating this to the walls, I worry about ending up with a sloppy mess.  But look, I see two possible ways to carry it off!

Source: tudorks.wordpress.com via Heather on Pinterest

By simply painting semi-regular stripes in white over an existing paint color, the room above is painterly without being sloppy.  The sharp silhouette and stark color of the black lamp sure doesn't hurt, either.  What you might need: a 3-inch roller and a wobbly hand.

Spotted in country Living this month, these stripes are more random in their width and the way they repeat.  Somehow the washed effect of the paint (as opposed to a solid-looking stripe in a latex-based paint) keeps the mood super romantic, and almost bohemian-country.  (Can that be a thing?  THAT would be a mash up!)  What you might need: various sizes painters tape, water-based paint, and a dragging tool.

I love a modern aesthetic, but I have a traditional backbone, and somehow the clean lines of my house always seem to be TOO clean.  Instead of honoring them I'm always trying to soften them.  Rustle 'em up a bit.  Maybe this would be a good way to do that?  And if you can't experiment in an upstairs bathroom for kids, where can you?

So.  NOW any preferences?

I'd love to hear from you!

Stripe styles

I know: stripes are not exactly a newsflash these days.  They're everywhere!  The big trend of the last year seems to be bold, wide, horizontal stripes, like those found in these bloggers' homes:

Emily Clark


Honey and Fitz



Modern Jane


Sherry Hart


Danielle Oakey


Modern 24/7 (actually this was for a client of hers)


Abby at A Delightful Design

(Lovely, ladies!)

If you want to take this on, these ladies have you covered--follow th elinks above to their tutorials if you are so inclined.

Stripes are one of the most classic patterns out there, and their popularity is due in no small part to the nice way they play with others: florals, geometrics, traditional, modern, you name it.

My girls' room has a nice big bathroom adjoining it, and I'm planning to use the leftover pink paint from the bedroom to stripe it up in there.  Not a big bold cabana stripe, though.  I've been thinking something more like a Farrow and Ball wallpaper.

FB block print stripe

FB tented stripe

Here's some context for how this type of stripe plays on the wall.

[Celerie Kemble in Lonny]

[Source unknown]

A bit more traditional without being stuffy.  I also like Farrow and Ball as a reference point because some of their stripes are actually produced with paint--the paper is dragged through vats of paint--and since I'll be painting the walls, I'll be going for a similar effect.

Before signing on for HOURS of measuring and taping, I figured I'd better determine just the right pattern.  So I pulled out some big sheets of white paper, some painters tape, and the can of paint and went to town.

The choices (from top to bottom in the photo above):

1) two-tone.  The wider stripes are the bedroom color.  The narrower stripes come from a can off the free shelf at Hirshfield's.

2) Wide variegated stripe

3) Narrow variegated stripe.  Same idea as the above, just everything closer together.

Any preferences?  I'd love your opinion!

New and improved

I was so thrilled to have my blog and business featured in the St. Paul Pioneer Press yesterday, in their Open For Business column, which highlights Twin Cities area businesses that have been operating for less than a year.  (If you are so inclined, you can read the article here.)   A big thanks for the opportunity!

A nice side effect of this press is the potential for some new people to come visit the blog, which got me to thinking about all the good content that is not so easy to find around here.

So I switched some things up.  See the tabs up top?  I separated out some of the different series as an easier way to access the archives.  Now you can find all of my project/how-to posts in one place, under "tutorials."  It was actually really satisfying to pull this together and to realize how much I have MADE this year, how my sewing and DIY skills have improved, and how many new skills I have gained.  (I put some to work over the break that I will share soon.)

Check it out, and I'll be back all week with inspiration images, design ideas, and all that good stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Small Measures: layered upholstery

(here)

Take quiet fabric up a notch with a panel over the basic upholstery.  Stripes every which way!

Birds in flight

My girl are still on winter break.  Driving home from a day-long playdate yesterday, we encountered a little traffic on a particular stretch of highway that overlooks downtown Minneapolis on one side and wide open space on the other.  The sun was just starting to set and the sky was luminous blue with an edge of pink and all of a sudden, dozens of birds took flight.

The girls stared out the window, and the three year old said quietly, "Mom, look!  A hundred million birds!"  And then they were quiet, unlike the "ooh, ahh, ooh, aah" that they produced for "Christmas houses" when we drove past them, lit up at night.

The birds were far enough away that they were abstracted shapes, just simplified outlines, and almost blurred at the edges.

I thought: I wish that was a wallpaper.

Then, looking at the current issue of House and home, I was reminded that it (almost) is.

(here)

This one doesn't quite capture the rhythm of the flock for me, but Jill Malek makes one that is somehow organic and geometric at the same time.  

(here)

We're thinking of putting it in a client's living room to introduce a sense of movement.

As always, the natural world is such great inspiration!

With the girls back at school next week, posts should come back on the early-morning schedule.

New Year

I'm not much of a maker of resolutions: too much pressure.  Too random, pinning it all to a day on the calendar, counting down to failure.

But this year, right now, seems like a good time to start changing some things around here.

For a long time, I thought "I'll be happy when [fill in the blank]."  It actually became a joke around here.  So often did the words "it will be better when..." pass my lips, that my husband would jump in for me: "next week?  Next year?  When this project is done?  When that event is past? When?"

When, indeed.

Here's the thing.  These last six years, we have been on one whackadoodle roller coaster ride.  In six years, I (we!) got engaged, got married, had two kids, got promoted, quit a good job in the depths of a recession, sold a house (without a realtor) at the bottom of the real estate market, moved cross country twice, applied to eight schools in three cities for my two children (plus one each for my husband and I), developed and taught new classes at two universities in two different subjects and two different formats, edited two books, saw three close family members and one dear friend through seven cancer battles, started two small businesses, looked at 50 houses before buying this one and beginning on an odyssey that ultimately ended with this blog and Heather Peterson design.  And that's just the big stuff.

But now, hopefully, the roller coaster is over.  We are settling in, and in truth I have everything I said I wanted.  It is the ultimate "when."  And yet I'm still waiting for that elusive invitation to happiness.

I've been thinking about all of this these past few weeks, in the rush and swell of the holidays, in the quiet of a blog break, and then I saw this.







Images from an installation where the artist Yayoi Kusama created an all-white interior environment and handed a bunch of kids thousands of stickers and let them go crazy. (here.)

And then I read an interview with the writer Diablo Cody (she of Juno fame) in which she shares a life-changing encounter she had in her twenties when she was in a deep dark, "Why me" phase.  She met someone in bad-luck circumstances--the details are irrelevant here--who simply asked "why NOT me?"  The point being, of course, that it's all about attitude.  That our responses to all the things in our life--good or bad--are a choice.

And then I remembered my wonderful friend and former boss, an indomitable woman who starts the year off with not a resolution, but a mantra.  I remember my favorite one (so good, in fact, I think she kept it for two years):

Choose joy.

Simple, no?

And then I was reading the most recent Elle decor, and feeling sort of disappointed by the whole thing, until I saw this.



I wonder if anyone is seeing what I see.

Well, here it is: the curtains are much too short.  And uneven.  They are all wrong, really.  And yet this interior--fabulous in plenty of other ways--is in Elle Decor.

So perhaps my intention for this year has to do with taking things less seriously.  Being less hard on myself.  Allowing the time and space needed to build a life.  Saying what I really think instead of what people might want to hear.  Remembering that fun is a choice, too.  Enjoying what I DO have (so many blessings), and enjoying it now.  Right now.  Not looking to some mythical future moment when.....

I have yet to find just the right words for my 2012 motto, but you know what?

I'm not going to sweat it.

Or--lest I set myself up for failure--I'm going to try.  To not sweat it.

It may sound half-assed, but man, is it huge.

Giveaway winner!

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, if that's what you celebrate.
I'm taking a blog break this week to spend some time with my family, get some work done, tackle a whole bunch of projects around the house, and generally rejuvenate.

But first!  I need to anounce the winner of the custom initial necklace giveawy from Mish Mash studios.

Southsloper, come on down!

You can email me directly at heather[at]heatherpetersondesign[dot]com or leave a comment here with your email and I'll put you in touch with Annie to discuss your necklace.

Enjoy!

Catch you all back here in the new year.

Heather