2 Items I Want…Now!

Not to be greedy or anything, but it’s so fantastic when you find something you’ve been wanting for a while. And at a semi-affordable price.

I mentioned last week that one of my goals in 2012 is to create a mini home office in our Master Bedroom. Well, I found the perfect little writing desk that would fit in the space and provide the function I need...

It's called the Julia Desk. Ain’t Julia purdy? She’s from the website Home Decorators Collections, and the cost is normally $399, but it's on sale for $190 (much more affordable). The painted white finish will work well in the room. I like the bamboo-style trim and legs on the desk. The few drawers across the top will hold pens, pencils, paper clips etc. I plan to float some shelves on the wall above it to hold baskets and bins for bulkier items.

And here's the great part ... I found a chair that I want to buy to go with the desk! It's the Sand Parsons Chair from Kirkland's...

The cost is normally $80, but it's on sale for $60. I like that the chair is upholstered - for comfort - and the color is neutral. So, it'd be versatile for any space in the house. The nail head trim is a nice little detail. The dark wood legs don't necessarily coordinate with all the painted white wood in the room, but I could always paint them white if I decided I didn't like the wood contrast.

What do you think? Like the style? Worth the moolah?

P.S. It would go on this wall of the bedroom ...

The bookcase would go on another wall.

 

***Thanks to Kirsten Krason @ 6th Street Design School for the sale tips!

King Me!

No, I'm not talking about checkers.

When we were first married, Joey built me a king-sized headboard for our master bedroom. At first it was painted black, but a year or so ago, it was painted white. It looks like this...


The reason we needed a (mostly free) king-sized headboard is because one of the first items we bought with our wedding dough was a brand spankin' new pillow-top king-sized mattress set. And let me tell you it's the most comfortable mattress set on earth...just ask my mom (but don't ask why my mom knows the comfort level of our mattress set).

Joey and I will be married 7 years in July. That tells you just about how long we've owned this king-sized bed and headboard...yes, almost 7 years.

Guess what I haven't owned in these 7 years?

KING-SIZED PILLOWS!

Did you know these exist? Yes, they do. In fact, most of the king-sized sheet sets we received as wedding gifts came with king-sized pillowcases. But since we only had regular-sized pillows, these extra large pillowcases just flopped over the edge of the pillows and most of the time got tucked back behind the pillow. It's all kind of sloppy looking.

And since I'm an avid bed-maker, I quickly noticed that it takes 3 regular-sized pillows to stretch across the width of the king-sized bed. It just doesn't look right.

So, I was in Bed, Bath, & Beyond the other day (with a 20% off coupon), when I spotted some lovely on-sale king-sized pillows. A light bulb went off, and I bought them. Total impulse purchase, except that it had been nearly 7 years in waiting anyway. The king-sized pillows cost something like $18 each.


I wasn't overly concerned about the comfort level of these pillows as they would not be our "sleeping" pillows. They're decoration on the bed (most men - and some women - don't get the need for decorative pillows, but I'm telling ya it's a necessity).

Eventually, when I buy all new bedding, I will get purdy king-sized pillow shams to go on these pillows, but for now, they got (also new) chocolate brown pillowcases (sorry mom, I didn't iron them first).


Notice how 2 pillows now cover the width of the mattress (the headboard is a little wider then the mattress)?

And why the chocolate brown color, you ask? Well, these are the three reasons I quickly came up with during this impulse purchase... #1 - I wanted a high-contrast color against the white headboard. #2 - The new matchstick roman shades in the window along with the baskets in the nightstands are a chocolate brown color and I felt the need to add this color to other places of the room. #3 - I like the warmth and richness yet neutrality of the color. It sort of grounds the other pillows on the bed.

Speaking of other pillows, I threw my long body pillow on the bed after the new brown ones. Luckily the green pillowcase that has been on this for a couple years blends right in with our new green/pumpkin/brown/tan/white color scheme. Lastly, I added the 3 decorative pillows my mom made when she helped make the bedroom curtains.


Nice and tidy, right?

The only problem is that there are no "sleeping pillows" on the bed in these shots.


That's because there are actually 3 other regular-sized pillows (I didn't include them in the picture above) that we use for sleeping. I will eventually purchase 2 more king-sized pillow to replace these, but I want to be sure to get really comfy pillows that are just right for each of us (Joey likes his pillows pretty flat and I like them a bit puffier). So, those will come sometime soon.

In the meantime, I hide the 3 wrong-sized pillows behind the king-sized brown ones, using white pillowcases to help them blend in with the headboard...


...not even Spike notices them!

Hey, you gotta do what works for now, right?!

Master Bedroom Curtains: Final Results

I'm so excited to show you the results after a weekend of hard labor around the home front. My mom and dad were in town and offered to help with various around-the-house projects. Today I'm going to share with you the beautiful curtains that my mom made for our Master Bedroom.

If you remember from last week, I picked out fabric for a custom curtain project. I originally planned to use Sherry's DIY no-sew plan for making the curtains (as seen here), but after mom offered to sew them for me - including adding a white lining to the back of them for additional light/heat/cold blockage - I couldn't refuse the offer. Mom worked on the project most of Friday, while I was at work, and with a little help from me (very little), she finished it up on Saturday.

If you want to go back and see the details of picking out the fabric, click here and here. Otherwise, let's get down to the results, shall we?

Here are the new beautiful curtain panels that flank the sides of our large Master Bedroom windows...


I think they're beautiful. Even Joey mentioned that he likes this fabric so much compared to what I was contemplating using.

I'll add the disclaimer that the fabric color is a rather soft, pumpkin-y color of orange. I know computer screens can alter color to appear different, but trust me that it is not a bright crayon orange. It's very warm, soft, and easy on the eyes. And the "white" in the pattern is a bit more of a cream color. So, it all blends nicely.

I want to give a big thanks to my mama who did much pinning, sewing, and ironing to put these together. She's always so helpful.



And with Joey's help, we put the curtain rod hardware up Friday night in order to measure the final length of the curtain fabric and sew the bottom hem. The rod came with 3 pieces of hardware that look like this...


...and Joey screwed one into the wall at the very center of the window and added the other 2 to the walls just outside the window frame. I purchased the rod at Lowe's for about $40. It's extra long (extends up to 144 inches) since we have 3 side-by-side windows to cover. Lowe's offered a great variety of finials for the end of the rod, but I chose the glass ball. I like that it was simple and you could see the wall color through it.


I must admit that I really like the color scheme. It's so warm and inviting. The chocolate brown matchstick shades add more color and texture and I'm planning to incorporate a little more chocoloate brown in the room. I have a little green lampshade next to the left curtain panel, and the green and orange combo seem to work really well together.


If you take a step back, you can see the bigger picture (ignore the ugly ceiling fan). I hung the curtain rod right at the ceiling (it's recommended to go 6 inches above the window frame if possible), and the curtain fabric length stops just above the floor. By hanging the curtains "high and wide", it makes the window seem even larger, and it becomes a bigger focal point in the room.


In addition to the curtains, my mom was able to make 3 pillows for the bed with the extra fabric I purchased.


I like that all 3 pillows are slightly different - the solid green is a basic square with no extra detail, the solid orange has a little flap around the edge, and then there's the striped pillow, which I was super impressed by - great pop of color against the neutral bedding and white headboard.


The pillows coordinate so well with the curtains. I still want to get new bedding down the road, but at least what we currently own is very neutral and works fine with the new color scheme.


So, here is the final Before & After pic of the windows. It's just amazing what window treatments will do for a room! Everything is starting to come together now.



What's next for the bedroom? Probably some artwork ... involving this furry creature...



...Spike does fit the new color scheme after all. What luck!

April Fools Day

I'm not foolin' ya today. While I'm at my office staring at this for 8+ hours of my precious Friday...


...my mom is at our house working on turning this fabric...


...into pillows...



...and we'll be working on the Master Bedroom curtains this weekend too!

Happy April Fools Day!

Master Bedroom Curtains: A Whole New Direction

Warning: This is a long post. Stick with me.

Well, I've come to a decision regarding our Master Bedroom curtains. And much to my surprise (or not), I didn't choose any of the options I laid out for you in Friday's post (click HERE to review).

You see, once I was in the store, I realized that they had most of their "Home Essentials" brand fabrics on sale for $6.99 a yard - the cheapest option possible. And they had a great variety of patterns and colors. And only 1 of the fabrics I pre-selected fit this category. So, most of the fabrics were eliminated as soon as I decided I wanted to limit myself to these Home Essentials fabric options.

Now, I'm not lying when I say that my friend Chelsea and I spent a whopping 2 and 1/2 hours browsing fabric choices at JoAnn Fabrics on Sunday afternoon. And when we walked out, she had fabric to make curtains for her kitchen, and I had NOTHING! I mean, I got a lot of ideas to think about, but the fabric that really liked best didn't exist in large enough quantities to make the curtains. Boo.

Last night I made a second attempt and went to a different JoAnn Fabrics to see if they had the same fabric that I really liked, but in a larger quantity. The answer? Negative. Apparently everyone else likes that fabric as much as I did.

Hence, I came to a fork in the road and had to make a decision: Do I settle for my 2nd/3rd/4th favorite fabric that has the same color scheme (blues/green/whites), but different amounts of color, different patterns etc? Or do I go a whole new direction? I decided to walk the plank and take a leap of faith and go a whole new direction. I came to this conclusion as I was walking up and down the aisle with my handy little paint swatch (color "khaki") in hand, and I asked myself what colors just naturally looked great with the wall paint color. And certain fabric just jumped out at me over and over again. And I went with my gut reaction.

But before I show you the final fabric choice, I wanna take a quick look back at the other fabric options I was originally contemplating and explain further as to why they were not an option for the room.

Fabric 1: This was one of the Home Essentials fabrics on sale for $6.99/yard, and the store had large quantities of it, but the colors were completely wrong. What appears to be a white/cream color in this fabric is actually a light yellow color in person. And the green color is a very yellow-green in person. It looked like puke next to the wall color. Not good. I nixed it.



Fabric 2: $39.99 per yard. Eeek. Way out of my budget. Nixed.



Fabric 3: Also $39.99 per yard. Nixed.



Fabric 4: $34.99 per yard. And didn't really coordinate well with the wall color and scheme of room. Nixed.



Fabric 5: $34.99 per yard. Plus I decided stripes were not the way to go. I looked at a lot of striped options in a variety of colors and got bored quickly with all of them. Nixed.



Fabric 6: $74.99 per yard! OUCH! This is actually my favorite fabric I saw in person. And I would love to custom order a comfy chair in this pattern - if I had a lot of money. Nixed.



Fabric 7: I never could find this pattern in the store, but online it costs $29.99 per yard. Nixed.



Now that you've seen the bad, here's the good(s). My new crazy curtain fabric choice is officially called COURTYARD PUMPKIN! That's right, I'm going orange on you.

I couldn't find a picture of the fabric color on JoAnn's website (probably because the color/pattern combo is going out of print), but here's a picture of the fabric I was able to locate online.



Why do I love this fabric? Let me tell you:

1. I just love this orange color. We used a paint color similar to this in a little house we rented for a while and I tell Joey over and over that I wish I could remember what paint color it was that we used because I LOVE IT.
2. It's warm color. I like using warm colors for the bedroom. It adds the cozy factor.
3. It's the perfect mix of masculine and feminine. The pumpkin orange is a bit more of masculine color, but the scroll pattern gives it some girl charm.
4. It's all one solid color (two if you count the "white/cream") instead of a bunch of colors mixed together. I can mix-and-match a lot of other colors in the bedding/pillows/decor during the different seasons to coordinate with it.
5. It just looks great with the khaki walls and dark brown bamboo shades. I couldn't get over how the colors draw themselves together.
6. It's a bit modern, eclectic, unexpected. I'm branching out.

In addition to the curtain fabric, I bought a little extra pumpkin fabric to make a coordinating pillow cover for a pillow on the bed (not sure how to do that yet). And I bought a complimentary green fabric to make a another pillow for the bed. The green is a pretty shade (feminine), but has a geometric pattern (masculine) - another good compromise. I do want Joey to like the bedroom after all.

So, after hours and hours, I finally check out, went home to look at the fabric in the room, and I still love it.


I can't wait to see the curtains hung next to the brown matchstick shades...


Cost?

Courtyard Pumpkin Fabric: approx 6.5 yards @ $6.99 per yard = $44.66
+
Geometric Green Fabric: 1/2 yard @ 6.99 per yard = $3.50
+
Tax
=
$50.81 Total

Do you get the new direction? Is it making sense to you at all? All I want to say is... Don't hate! Appreciate!

Next up? Curtain making time. This is where it gets interesting...

Master Bedroom Curtain Options

I've been thinking, thinking, thinking about curtains for our Master Bedroom. I've looked at all kinds of options at standard places like Target, JCPenney, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Even stores like Lowe's have curtain options. I've found some curtains choices that I like, but nothing that I swoon over. I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that I might try to pick out some custom fabric and make my own curtain panels (*shock*).

Now, I don't own a sewing machine, and even if I owned one, I would have no idea how to use it. BUT I've seen bunches of tutorials on other blogs of how to make your own no-sew drapes! And I may try this option.

However, the first step is to actually pick out the fabric I want to use. This is tricky only in the sense that there are a million options to choose from when talking about custom choices. I've started by doing a little searching on the Joann Fabrics website. I found a few options I like. So, I thought I'd share 'em with ya and see what you think.

But before we get to that, here's a picture of our Master Bedroom windows with our newly installed matchstick blinds...

...but it just looks kind of sad with no curtain panels.

So, here are a few options I've selected (no commitment to any of them). You'll notice a color them of greens/blues/browns/tans. I'm previewing a large picture of the fabric plus a side-by-side picture of the room and fabric - just for helpful visualization.

Fabric 1

I love the variety of greens. I love the browns which will coordinate with the tan walls and brown blinds. I love paisley patterns.

My fear? The paisley pattern is too small and will appear "busy" when hung in large quantities.

Fabric 2

I love this particular blue in the background. I love the combo of blue, green, tan. I love the pattern.

My fear? Not versatile enough for decorating for different seasons. Is it too feminine?

Fabric 3

This is almost identical to Fabric 2, but with more muted tones and a creamy background instead of blue. I continue to love the fabric pattern and color combo.

My fear? Colors are too natural and won't stand out enough against the tan walls and don't coordinate well with the darker blinds.

Fabric 4

This is a pretty bold choice. I love all the colors. I think it will add a richness to the room.

My fear? I will get tired of it quickly. It's not versatile enough to coordinate with other fabrics I might use in bedding, pillows etc.

Fabric 5

I love stripes - gives a very clean-line appearance. Again, I like the blue/green/cream color combo.

My fear? It's too boring.

Fabric 6

I love, love, love this pattern. And the colors. And everything about it.

My fear? It doesn't fit the look of the room. Too traditional of a pattern maybe?

Fabric 7

Of course, I had to thrown in a bird-option. I love that the colors are simple - just green and white. The pattern would add some whimsy to the room.

My fear? Not the right color green. Not colorful enough.





Well, that's all (7) of them. I just don't know. After looking at them over and over, I think I'm most drawn to Fabric 1, 2, and 6. But I'm very much a see-it-in-person type of gal, and I think a trip to Joann Fabrics is in order this weekend. I gotta "feel it" if you know what I mean. Plus I can bring my handy paint swatches with me to color match better.

Which fabric choice would you pick if you were me? Shout out a number!