Oh the fabulousness just keeps on coming!   I received pictures of this settee revamp from a reader, and I am loving it.  Nina is a textile designer in San Francisco with a company called Swanky Swell, don’t you just love that name ?

Nina writes:

“I love your blog! I’d like to share with you the before and after of an antique settee I recently restored.  When I found this old settee, the fabric was outdated and the webbing was a complete shot. However, I was drawn to the shape of the frame and its Victorian style.  It had great bones to work with and I really saw potential in it, so I decided to give it another life.

I am a textile designer from the San Francisco Bay Area and I decided to restore this settee using one of my organic prints for the front and a matching solid in eggplant color for the back. The fabric is an upholstery weight certified organic cotton.  The frame was lacquered in high gloss black and new webbing and foam were installed. Double welt in the solid eggplant finishes the look.”

Before:

After:

Nina’s original textile designs are available for you online at Swanky Swell.  Here’s a few of her stylish prints I’d love to bring into my home!

Aren’t they lovely ?  You can also purchase Nina’s fabrics in her Etsy shop. 

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I was oh so giddy to receive a note from a reader that he had recently stenciled his walls with an amazing trellis pattern in his living room just like I did in our master bedroom.  

Courtney wrote:

“I have been reading your blog for awhile now and love everything about it, and because you are in the Bay Area!  Your blog motivated me me to create my own Jonathan Adler "lite" lamp using parts from the St. Vincent de Paul store in Oakland and to do some plantings in my garden/patio.  However, when I saw you were stenciling your wall, I thought I would share a recent project I just completed for my living room.  While I was not as industrious as yourself in making my own stencil (I bought it online) our desire for a similar pattern is evident.”

Before:

After:

Doesn’t his living room have that ‘wow’ factor with that amazing wall ?   I also love the gray sofa, the shag rug, and the Lucite coffee table.  Completely fantastic Courtney!

Courtney purchased a trellis stencil online ~ you can read his entire tutorial right here  including the paint colors and tricks he used to achieve this stunning effect, and the source of his fabulous stencil. 

Love it!

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Hiya folks, hope you had a lovely weekend !  Today I’ll show you my step by step for the hand painted trellis pattern on our wall in our bedroom.

I wanted something elegant behind our headboard but also dramatic with a hint of shimmer.  My original idea was to use wallpaper with a subtle metallic pattern, but when I saw Kristen’s wall featured on YHL a few weeks ago, I decided to this was a much easier (and cheaper) way to add the large scale design I wanted without the expense of wallpaper.          

This 13’ x 9’ feature wall was not difficult, but it did take a lot of patience.  I created my own stencil, sketched the pattern on the wall, and then filled in the lines with acrylic craft paint, all in about six hours.  

Supplies: poster board; utility knife or sharp blade; silver colored pencil; level; painter’s tape; craft paint; artist’s Filbert paintbrush. 

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I had every hope of finishing up all the final touches in my master bedroom over the weekend, but as fate would have it, nada was accomplished.  Instead, I took some leisure time, and I’m so glad we got out and enjoyed ourselves.   

Instead of finishing the space, we went out wine tasting in Sonoma and had the best time ever.  The weather was perfect, the kids were angels, the wine was cold, the cheese was stinky, and the evening ended so well, I crashed on the couch with the kids, all of us completely wiped.  It was heaven. 

But our bedroom remains a complete disaster zone, with laundry and ladders and paint cans and tarps everywhere.   I had a crazy idea to repaint the entire room last week in ‘Nantucket Gray’ by Benjamin Moore.  It’s the perfect shade of medium gray with a hint of olive.  My poor husband has been so patient with me while I try to give this room a facelift. 

One of the upgrades I was eyeballing were these lamps at Z Gallerie, they’re delicious. 

But then I found a pair of lamps for 1/3 the price at Marshalls ~ loved the shape, but of course I wanted them white ! 

I got this idea from Janell to spray paint some curvy lamps a glossy white, and I absolutely love the final result ! 

$40 lamp from Marshalls:

Love !

I spray painted with Rustoleum’s ‘Gloss White’ (heart!), and removed the brownish band from the shade.   Then I hand painted the champagne stripe at the base to make it pop off the dresser. 

So modern !  So purty ! 

Did you happen catch the sneaky peek at the hand painted wall treatment ?  If you follow my tweets, you’d have seen my inspiration link for it last week !  The bedroom should come together very soon, fingers crossed.

Today I’m off to Restoration Hardware ~ ordinarily I don’t shop there because they’re a little pricey, but I’m holding in my paint covered hands a gift card and their linens are on sale !  Aw, yeah.  Gotta love how my hub redeemed some miles from his business Am Ex to bring me a RH gift card.

He must have been listening when I kept saying how much I love their Belgian Washed Linen Quilt and Shams, and how I kept repeating after ten years, how much we really deserve something nice for our bedroom. 

Or maybe it was the page from the catalog that I taped to his side of the mirror.

I’m just subtle like that. 

I’m torn between Fog, White, and Orchid.  Decisions, decisions !  

What have you spray painted lately ? 

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I can’t quite put my finger on it.  I think my love affair with all things French may have begun when I was younger when I watched Gene Kelly in ‘An American in Paris’.  

Perhaps it was when I lost myself in Peter Mayle’s novel ‘A Year in Provence’ that I devoured many years ago. 

Most certainly, my l’amour was made permanent when I took my first trip to Paris in 1998. 

Whenever it happened, it happened, and my decorating style was forever altered.  I can’t help myself ~ I’m a self professed Francophile.

Despite my love of traditional French decor, I do like to inject a little modern flair, and the new mirror and trellis pattern rug in the living room certainly help.

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Awhile back, it was my grand idea idea to spruce up the living room walls with some traditional panel and picture frame wainscoting – in fact, it was my specific “please, oh please, honey can we please” request for Mother’s Day.  I managed to catch the Mister at a weak moment, and with a little charm and a lot of begging, he agreed to take on this project. 

We started our adventures in wainscoting back in May, and over the course of several weekends, we were finally able to finish, whew ! (dramatically swiping hand across brow)  There was some intense labor involved, some minor curse words muttered, a few panel do overs, plenty of cutting, a whole lotta caulking and spackling, and then there was all that priming and painting. 

I need to sit down, that was exhausting. 

Here’s the first peek:

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I love it when a plan comes together !  I’ve been working on the living room all week, mostly the wainscoting, but one of the other pieces I also wanted to makeover was my brown velvet settee.  I love the shape of this piece – it fits on the wall next to the fireplace to perfection, but I was sooooooo done with the dark brown color.  Rather than pay big bucks to have it reupholstered, I decided, for now, to simply slipcover it. 

I’ve mentioned before that my sewing skills are limited, but over time, I’ve been challenging myself to take on more intermediate sewing projects – this was certainly one of them.  I confess, I’ve admired the slipcovers across blogland for a long time, but this is my first attempt at slipcovering a piece of furniture myself.  After four days of piecing it together, bit by bit, I’m pretty satisfied with my new summer linen slipcover. 

Lovely readers, meet my little settee and her pretty new linen slipcover. 

Before:

After:

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So as I was touring the backyard the other day, I realized there’s definitely some sprucing that needs to happen, especially with guests coming on the Fourth. 

As I meandered up the hill behind the grapevines, I was reminded of the thrift store bistro set I found a couple of years ago that I had every intention of refinishing but I just never got around to it.   The set sits on a little gravel patio that has a great view of the vines, but it certainly been been neglected.  After leaving the bistro set out all winter (so dumb), the set was, how shall I say . . . . what’s the word ?  . . . oh yes.  

GROSS. 

I meant there was moss growing on top of the table, the paint was chipping everywhere, and it was covered in spiderwebs.  ICK. ICK. ICK. 

So I decided the time had come to give it a makeover.  I convinced myself I’d have a fresh new set in no time at all with just a little paint and fabric.   Well, that’s what I did, repainted and recovered the seats.  But in the middle of my revamp, something rather unexpected happened.  Something I hate to relive.  But you’ve just got to know. 

First, take a looky loo at this retro bistro set Before:

And After:

Purty, huh ? 

It’s just such a great set for sitting and watching the grapes grow. 

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There are three reasons I’ve never liked our laundry room. 

One.  The original contractor/builder of our house picked out the cabinets when this honey tone wood was still popular last decade. They’re very good quality cabinets, but I have not been fond of the color for, oh, ever.  

Two.  One of the cabinets in our laundry room housed our very old indoor cat’s litter box.  Sadly, we had to have our kitty put down a few months ago due to severe illness, but the good news is the cat box odor has finally left the premises.

Three.  Laundry is my least favorite household task.  I confess I do love the smell of fresh clean laundry, I just never wanted to be in the laundry room for reasons One and Two, and I so I would get lazy with this chore and tend to put it off until it got out of control. 

I am happy to say I no longer have those excuses because of this new and improved space!  Here’s what the room looked like last week.  Pretty bland, right ?

Before:

But here is my laundry room now !

Oooh la la, I am so in love !!! 

I think I will really enjoy doing laundry from now on !    

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We have some great friends named Tony and Mia, and our girls go to kindergarten together.  Mia is a busy mother of three who runs her own salon four days a week.   By the time she gets home from work, the last thing she wants to do is start a home improvement project.

What I love about Tony and Mia’s home is that every time you visit, you feel the warmth within, from the spice colors on the walls, to the rich and rustic wood pieces, to their doggie wagging her tail to greet you.  Their house definitely feels like a ‘Home Sweet Home’ and that’s why we love to visit.

So when I was in her family room the other day, Mia asked me what to do with her oak fireplace surround.  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to replace it or stain it, but she knew she didn’t care for the natural oak finish.  The wood’s tone clashed with her dark wood floors and furniture, but overall it had really classic lines and was in great shape.

As I leaned in, I could swear I heard the mantel whisper, “Paint me, I beg you.”  So I recommended we paint it white to coordinate with the trim and lighten up the wall.  Plus, a white fireplace mantel is simply timeless.  So in less than four hours, I gave her fireplace wall a fresh new look with just some primer, paint, and accessories.

Here’s Mia’s Before:

Here’s Mia’s After:

Splendid, right ?

The difference is all in the details !

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