New ideas for wallpaper

At least once a month someone asks me to come up with a new way to show wallpaper.  You’d think that it’s main purpose (ie. on a wall) would be the ideal scenario, but I find that “new and exciting” is what I’m often asked to come up with.  So it was with great pleasure that I came across the book Wallpaper Projects by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith.

Their book features so many creative ways to use wallpaper that I got tingly all over!  (And the best part is the majority of their projects aren’t inventive for the sake of being filler to get to a certain page count for their book.  No!  In fact, many of these you might actually consider doing in your home!)   Here are a couple of my favorites:

Wallpapering the stair treads?  I love it!  Just a single roll would give you maximum impact!

I don’t think you know how much I love this.  I can never seem to commit to a bed frame that I love for for my master bedroom and therefore haven’t had one for years.  (It’s like the cobbler whose children have no shoes, right?)  Anyways…I think this could be an interesting solution for me.

These look simple to make and the effect is undeniably great.

I know, I know…we’ve seen silhouettes a dozen times already.  Everyone is doing them now.  But this one is particularly cute, so I had to post.  It’s a great use for those wallpaper scraps & samples that you never seem to know what to do with.  (At least, I never know what to do with.  I must have four random rolls of wallpaper sitting in my closet right now that I love, but didn’t have enough to do a big project with.)

Anyways…there are a ton of other great ideas as well as all the instructions on how-to in this book, so I definitely recommend it.

Fireplace Mantle redecorating inspiration

This weekend we re-arranged the furniture & art in the living room.  It feels SO much better.  I’m not sure why it took me so long to do it because I’ve hated the way I’d initially laid out the room from the beginning.  (I was probably stuck doing other projects.)  Anyways…the one thing I haven’t had the energy to tackle is my weird fireplace facade and ugly mantle.  I’m still not going to tackle it at the moment since it involves demolition and I’m in the throes of doing that in the half-bathroom.  So I thought I’d just redecorate the mantle.  Here are my inspiration pics.

We’re probably going with the last idea because the mantle itself is kinda wonky and might not hold anything really heavy.  Plus we collect postcards from all of our travels.  It could be a good way to show them off.

(Lastly, I wish I could give photo credit for these, but I only know two of them.  The red sofa is from the Wallpaper Projects by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith.  The last photo is from an old issue of Domino.  I’ve had the others saved in my inspiration file for ages.)

A new project begins: The powder room

First let me explain something.  My house has a full bath (upstairs) and an old servants “bathroom” downstairs that is actually only a closet with a toilet in it.  NO SINK.  And unfortunately there is no room to expand on either side (it’s blocked in by a stairwell and an exterior brick wall).  Anyways, this weekend I decided I would tackle the half bath by peeling the wallpaper.  It had been painted over several times, so I thought this was going to be difficult…but not so.   (Meanwhile, keep in mind it’s hard to photograph since it’s so small.)

A general idea of what I’m working with.

Here’s what the old wallpaper looked like when I started peeling.

Progress made.  I ended up peeling a lot of wallpaper in no time!  However as I began to keep peeling I realized that the exterior wall was covered by a weird 50’s wallboard that was super soft and not worth painting over.  So I poked a small hole…and then the next thing you know I’d torn all the wall board down and discovered an old exterior doorway that gave me an extra 8″ in depth where I’d be able to create built-in shelves!!  In a space this small…every centimeter counts!

Wow!!  I was thrilled to have found an old doorway!  At the bottom of the pic is the old baseboard.  I’m so thrilled!!  Now I have to either sheetrock or use beadboard to close it in.  (Oh, and install some foam insulation.)  I can’t wait to get you the after pics soon.

Lastly, I did some digging online and found the perfect sink for my teensy little powder room.  It’s only 8″ deep! If you have a teeny, tiny space and are looking for a sink, I can’t recommend this one enough.  It’s from the Whitehaus Jem collection and is so cute in person.  Vintage Tub & Bath had the cheapest price on it, plus free shipping.

Long overdue photos of the Ohio State Fair 2009

Several weeks ago Nick and I went to Ohio to visit our friends in Columbus.  While we were there we stopped off at the Ohio State Fair for the afternoon.  And of course, I enjoyed myself immensely.  Here’s all the heartland goodness.

Sheep Judging

Sheep shearing

Roast Beef Sundae?!  On a hot summer day?  No thanks.

Fancy chickens?  I’ll take two please!!

Or maybe just one small one?  Do you think my neighbors would hate for me having chickens in the city?  It can’t be worse than having loud kids, right?

Anyone up for learning how to milk a cow?  Ehhhh….maybe not.

Nah, I think I’d rather have a meatball splash.  Sounds super refreshing, right?!  Just like a dip in the pool.

And of course, the perfect photo op by my wonderful guy (who took all the photos obviously).

Found Style Lust

First, let me be transparent in saying that this is a re-post from a great blog All Things Lovely.  This guest cottage from Robin Brown that she posted about is absolutely outrageous.  How can I be jealous, envious, sad, excited, in love and filled with lust all mixed up in one?  I don’t know…but these these photos elicit major emotion in me.  I want to be there.  I love the owner, and hate her all at the same time (because she’s not me).  Is that wrong?  *sigh*

Anyways…here’s the house porn.

Do you think Nick will mind if I cheat on him with a pink refrigerator?

Hello Mr. Built-in, please meet my vintage bone china collection.  Oh…no…it’s MY pleasure!

Dinner party al fresco?  Okay…why not?

I mean…c’mon.  Vintage sofa?  I don’t love all this kind of fringe normally…but I could prop my feet up on this and eat nachos.  No problem.

Welcome to my garden!  (ssshhh!  This used to be my headboard!)

Too hot outside in the garden?  Then let’s hang on the porch and drink some lemonade.

Omg…true love just happened.  I hope that Nick isn’t too upset with me.  Thanks again to All Things Lovely for sharing these with us [originally].

365 Messages of Love

It’s wonderful being surrounded by creativity each day.   And I can truly say that one of my favorite creative / talented individuals is my friend Nishat Akhtar.  In the process of trying to work on my own wedding invitations, I love stopping by to see what Nishat is up to…and this little something just made me smile so much that I felt compelled to share it with the rest of you.

She created this daily love note box for her newlywed friends.  It was inspired by old slide & specimen containers.  The box contains 365 tiny envelopes, each containing a note about love, excitement, or adventure, one for every day for their first year of marriage!  How amazing is that?!  I absolutely love it.  How much would you love to have one of these for yourself?

See more about Nishat and her talent here.

Duh! How did I forget to officially post “after” pics of my guest room?!

It’s been almost a hundred years since we actually finished the guest room, but I just realized that I never officially posted the “after” pictures of our work.   (If you like to snoop like me, then you may have already poked around my flickr and seen them, but since 99.9% of you don’t do that…I thought it might be nice to share.)  And because everyone needs a healthy dose of perspective, here are the BEFORE shots:

Pretty bluesy, right?  I mean…those mirrored closet doors made me want to poke an eye out.  (Not to mention one of them had broken glass.)   Anyways…so here is our AFTER shots:

Yes, you are correct our floors are slightly slanted…as is easily visible in shot #2.  Also, here’s the post showing the original inspiration for the guest room makeover.  On a completely un-related note, Nick has decided that whenever someone comes to visit and stays in our guest room he’d take a portrait of that guest(s), and we’d start a portrait collection.  And here’s the first one he did to celebrate our first guest since the room’s overhaul.  (It’s my best friend and soon-to-be maid of honor Ashley.)

And of course, all photo credit for the AFTER shots goes to Nick.   All the BEFORE shots….well those were all mine. 

Days at an early 1800’s Stone Mill

Yesterday and today are being spent working at this old mill in central pennsylvania.  The weather has been nice, the food has been excellent, and cell phone reception has been noticeably absent.  But here are a few pics showing the loveliness of the setting:

Florals are the new black

I NEVER thought I’d say this (because I’ve always been more of a geometrics kind of person), but I’m really feeling the re-emergence of florals lately.  Everything from tiny Liberty prints to bold 1960’s flower power.  Everything these days seems to be coming up…roses.  (And peonies.  And daisies.  And dandelions.  And…)

Liberty print dress, $125.

Dandelion Decal, $19.

8×10 fashion polaroid, $125.

Bold Floral graphic wall decal, $29.

Bubble Gum floral chairs, $1500.

Tufted Floral Rug, $398-998.

custom made tea dress, $100.

Modern Romance Teapot, $34.

And no, it’s not just because I managed to find some new wicker porch furniture that happened to have floral seat cushions.  (The print on those is only marginal, at best.)  Anyways…new florals.  Who knew, it would take this long for me to come around?  Perhaps it’s because of the wedding.  Perhaps it’s due to all the yard work I’ve been doing.

Max Wanger, why don’t you live in Philly so that you can photograph my wedding?

You see Max, I adore your work!  There are so many of your pictures in my “inspiration file” just for photography styling alone that it pains me that you live so far away.  However, flying you in from Los Angeles is probably out of the question…so I thought I’d pen this lament in hopes that at least everyone on the west coast could see your brilliant work and hopefully fill your dance card with lots more work.

But just in case you happen to be in the Philadelphia area next June and would like to take a little visit to a farm and photograph a lovely couple, then okay fine.  Far be it from me to tell you no.  I mean…it only makes sense that it be you since I would just be comparing everyone else’s photos to yours and they’d never measure up.  *sigh*

Okay…well in case anyone else out there isn’t as unfortunate as me to live so far away from the talented Max Wanger, then stop over and peruse his lovely images.  Of course, you could also drop him a note telling him to move to Philadelphia as well.  I mean…I wouldn’t mind.