Home Decor Trends 2014

Recently The Wall Street Journal published home decor trends for 2014 highlighting what is in and what is out. According to the article ikat prints, white kitchens, woodland creature like owls and deer we use for decor, books in matching colors as well as much beloved antiques furniture pieces reupholstered with linen and neutral looks are all out this year...

Instead using window sheers, macramés, corduroy upholstery, venetian marbled paper prints and deco-inspired hues such as rose, quartz, topaz, olive and whiskey are the new looks and way to go.

I love the fact that sheer is no longer considered to be granny-ish and outdated! We have tons of beautiful and freshly photographed sheer and lace that offers more transparency and light when used for window treatments.

To find this fabric go under Home Decor-> Sheer

To find lace go to Apparel & Fashion Fabric → Lace → Assorted Lace

However I am not sure I agreed on replacing velvet with corduroy. Velvet brings the richness of color and luxurious depth to the surface, plus there is less waste when cutting, as its nap is continuous,  oppose to corduroy which is directional....although if using the wider waled corduroy as suggested in the article, the end result can look bold and interesting...

We will be getting more of the wider waled corduroy in our store and online shop but these are also suitable for small furniture items and light upholstery...

To find this fabric go under Quilting & Cotton Fabric → Cotton Corduroy

I am undecided. What are your thoughts on this? Leave your comments and let is know what you would rather have in your home!

The downstairs is coming together…a new bulitin board, a few pillows and my drapes (finally)

Hello home!

I know a few months ago I shared some of my house remodel with you all. We have been in for almost a year now and slowly I am starting to get the fabric in. I swear it's like the shoemaker's wife. Anyway, finally a few of the projects are done & I wanted to share them with you. If you remember, the entire house's color pallet was done off this beautiful cotton print, ML243870,  which I found in the store and loved. 

I decided to make drapes to anchor the main living space/dinning room and a pillow for the couch. The fabric for the taupe striped pillows was from a small roll I was lucky enough to find hiding in our home decorating store. It is a perfect compliment to the floral print and the couch color. 

Here are a few pics of Robin making the pillows. 

Making your own piping..

Sewing on the fringe..

And here are the drapes…

To make pattern matching a bit easier, Robin used the sew through double sided wonder tape.

That's a lot of fabric to pattern match!

 Here is the room after install yesterday. The drapes just tie everything together. 

(Sorry the color is a bit off from the lighting. The table is not orange at all and the walls are a grey taupe. I need movie lights! LOL!))

And the bulletin board…

Since I wanted to tie into the blues and greens from the main room into the kitchen, I picked this great damask print, but you can use most fabrics. It all depends on the look you're after. I love the French Stamp prints we have. It reminds me of the Restoration Hardware look. Really there is something for everyone on the site. I suggest the Home Decor section as the fabrics are a bit thicker, but a regular cotton print would work as well. Even an Ikat print would be fun.

Here is the space right after we installed it. So nice and clean. If only that was really how it looks.  

And this is how it looks once the family stuff goes back in. I have to say it is still pretty neat. Give it a few days and the kids will take over my work space. 

I now love walking in the back door and seeing this board. It just makes me happy. Next I'm off to find a paint color to add some color to the walls. 

Enjoy!

Pillow, dog bed, or kid magnet?

When "Best In Show" came in, we all thought it was a great new Home Decorating print. Robin thought it would make the cute dog bed, so off she went.  She combined it with our brand new chenille fabric and a winning combination appeared. Making a pillow or dog bed is a pretty quick project that can infuse some pattern and color into any room. Here are a few pictures of the pillow coming together....















As anyone with children knows, the best toy is something that was not intended to be used as a toy. It can be the shoe box from you new shoes or the work pillow I brought home to photograph. I came home and left the pillow on the fire-place to photograph later that day. When I came downstairs this is what I found...



It immediately became a great place for Sarah to play. Before I knew it the doll was out and the pillow was not mine any more.  As you'll see below, she took her dogs and gave them a dog bed. Needless to say it took a few days to get the pillow back to work with. It is now in the window for you to see, but let me tell you Sarah was  not happy about it. While the intention was a dog bed, it would also be a great throw pillow if it was a bit smaller, but for Sarah it was a great comfy new play place. I guess you'll have to make up your own mind, dog bed, couch cushion, or perfect play place?



Enjoy!

Here comes the pop of color....

All I can say is I love it! Fabric is like the icing on the cake. The eat-in area in the kitchen is pretty, but these pillows just added that pop of color and fun that I was looking for. I have been going back & forth for weeks trying to decide which fabric combinations to use. If you walked into my house over the last 2 to 3 months there were always different fabric samples sitting on this table. I have to live with the print for a few days, see it in different lights, and get a few opinions on it. Usually after a few days of looking at it in the space I just know. Unfortunately, for the last month I kept rejecting my choices. Nothing felt right until last week.  I brought home this turquoise starfish fabric home and it coordinated well with the main inspiration fabric, which will be across the room, as well as the red geometric print I already knew I wanted to use.

Here are a few pictures of Robin making the pillows. We ended up making four of the turquoise pillows in size 24" and three of the red pillows in 22". I wanted to hit he lip of the window and also wanted some height difference in the two pillows. Since the red is such a strong color we decide to make those the smaller ones. Robin and I agreed if we made the reds the larger ones they would over power the turquoise one. Also since I already have red chairs and bar stool (not visible in the picture) I wanted the turquoise pop.

Here are the supplies you will need. Everything can be found online.



Interfacing going on the pillow fabric



Attaching the handmade piping. Click here for the cord that goes inside the piping.



To help attach zipper, use sew through double sided tape to hold zipper in place.



When working with a fabric that has a distinct print, it is really important to center it so you like the final outcome.



Cutting the back side. Make sure to find the grain or straight edge.

If you don't have a wilting foot, you can use the zipper foot and move the needle to the edge.



This is a new product. It's a size 6 invisible zipper  by the yard. They are great for home dec projects.



Lastly get your pillow forms and stuff your pillows. To make the corners nice and full take a bit of loose pillow stuffing and put it into the corners. This will fill the out nicely. Beautiful pillows that really have that wow factor!


This project really reminded me that just adding a few decorative pillows can really change up a typical room for not a lot of money. Hopefully you will be inspired to make a few yourself.

Enjoy!

Regina & Robin

Dream House, Construction, Part II

So finally the worst was over. The major dust had settled and it was time to watch the pretty stuff roll in. This island, in Winter Cloud Quartzite, made me so happy. It gave me the loook of Carrera Marble, with all the durability one needs when you have three children. Especially one five year old who loves to paint and craft.

During the building process I was always walking through the home decorating store and looking at fabric. I was just waiting for that one piece of fabric to jump out at me and finally it did.

This Braemore fabric had everything I was looking for. The house has an East Coast feel, yet has many modern touches. I wanted to use various shades of turquoise throughtout the house and keep the walls pretty nuetral. It gave me a relaxed beach feel and reminded me of our travels to Hawaii, without being kitchy, yeIt it felt fresh and modern. It was perfect and I was so excited! I am so glad I found this so early in the process. It really influenced many of my choices. My wall color is the light taupe grey and the hardwood floor is the dark brown.

 The backsplash behind the range and in the kitchen, laundry/mudroom, and the girls bathroom are all different shades and shapes of turquoise and green glass tile .

 The house is pretty open and only has one living space. It is anchored with a long firebox, book shelves, and a television. The stone I picked out, Silverwood Marble, is also a taupe grey/brown that works really well with the fabric.

Honestly, for the first few months I wasn't sure when this fabric would show up, but I always knew I would use it. As the months went by and my piece traveled to every store with me, I finally had that ah-ha moment. It would be perfect for the drapes in the dining space. Now that we just got a couch, which sits ajacent to the dining space, I am planning on using it for a few of the decorative sofa cushions.

Next week we will be making the pillows for the kitchen banquet. From the kitchen you can see the living and dinning area, so I am still usng some turquoise, but will be adding a pop of red to go with the red bar stools abd banquet chairs.

Check out our Instagram account to see the fabrics I finally decided on yesterday. I really love them and think they will bring this space to life.

Enjoy!

Dream house, the construction starts...

So after 2 years of talking to loan officers, working with the architect and pulling magazine pictures it was time to start construction. I remember feeling surprised and shocked that they actually had a date to start demo. I think on some level I didn't think it would ever happen. Once we moved most of our stuff out we let the kids do a little demo of their own. They had a great time writing on and putting holes in the wall.

The week before demo started we had  a garage sale where we let people bring their own tools and basically buy whatever they could remove. While it was nice to make a few bucks, I was just so happy to recycle things that other people could use, like our wall ovens, hardware, doors, and light fixtures. When they came to demo a few days later it felt so good that these items were not going into the huge trash dumpster.

Finally the first day of demo was upon us. We were all so excited. Within a few days the cabinets, floors, and drywall were gone. Let me tell you it is so much faster tearing it down than building it up.







Since we started demo in November, they basically worked from the inside out. Our contractor wanted to leave the roof on just in case we got rain. Once a good chunk of demo was done they poured the foundation for the front addition. Once that was done they opened the sub floor and poured the footings for the second story.





After that they demoed whatever was left. Within a few weeks my house was no more. It was a little scary. Everyday I would go by and hope they had started re-building it.



By mid December the re-build had started. We were very lucky. We only had a few rainy days and the work moved along quickly. By Christmas the new beam had gone in,which would help us achieve the open feel we wanted and the first story was almost framed. Next the stairs were getting built.



In January they started on the second story. I remember the first time they let us walk up there. There were no walls, just the sub floor. It was our first glimpse into our master retreat. We were so excited.



By the end of January, we had what appeared to be a new house. It was amazing how much work happened in less than 12 weeks. 

Next came the inner working of the house. HVAC, electrical, and plumbing all had a lot of work to do before the walls were closed up. There were days where I swore no work was being done, but then I would go in & see wires running in the open walls. Now when people come over and look at our house I always tell them all our money is in the walls. I know the inner workings are very important, but I was ready to get to the stuff I could see; fixtures, hardwood, tile, and maybe even cabinets. I learned I still had a way to go. Slowly over the next three months the windows went in, they wrapped the outside of the house to protect it from moisture, and they worked inside. They did more work on the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, as well as, installing shower pans and bath tubs, built-in cabinets got framed, and the fireplace went in. Slowly it was coming together.





Finally in March they insulated and put the dry wall up. All of a sudden I had a house!



Check back next week for Construction, Part 2, the stuff you can see!

Enjoy!