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  When I found this old settee, the fabric was outdated and the webbing was a complete shot.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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For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to create a chess/checkerboard table for our own family room, so how excited was I to see one of my cousins actually take on this project herself !  I’m lucky to be Stephanie’s cousin by marriage, and I just love how with a little ingenuity, she transformed someone else’s discarded end table into a chess game table with two types of stain and imagination !  

The best part is, this was her first DIY project.  Bravo Stephanie ! 

Here is Stephanie’s DIY story:

“I found this table no one wanted next to a dumpster and I thought it would be fun to transform it into a chess/checkerboard table, an idea inspired by a table at my local coffee shop. 

The table had a lot of water marks, the finish was peeling, and one panel of the table was uneven.  So, a friend and I brought it home and set to work to transform it. 

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Greetings friends, it’s time for another end of the month roundup featuring some of your amazing projects ! 

Chantal from Haas Home sent me this clever idea – she created her own zebra print rug!  Chantal spray painted the edges black, then hand painted with acrylic black and white paint the unique zebra stripe pattern herself.  How cool is this ?

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After:

For the full zebra stripe tutorial, look right here.

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