The story about the bathroom… floor

We have almost finished the upstairs bathroom remodel.  I can’t believe I was initially against remodeling it!  I didn’t want to put any more money into this house, but my husband made me see the light.  Sometimes he has a good idea or two.;)  Let’s start from the ground up, the floor.  I found this great deal on Craig’s List for honey onyx tile and that was the jumping off point.  But I didn’t want to do yellows and browns, I wanted to do yellow, gray and white.  No cream, no brown, white and grey thankyouverymuch.  Here is a shot of the honey onyx on the floor:

 

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Daisy’s… again

What can I say, I love this store.

Wandered in yesterday to return some Dash and Albert rug samples I had borrowed for a client’s house.  And every time I go in I spy something new.  I had seen this wingback chair previously but I hadn’t yet recognized the genius of it… that my friends is a slipcover!  Let me tell you the problem with nicely upholstered furniture, inevitably stuff gets on it.  No matter what you do, somebody is going to smear their raspberry jam fingers on it, somebody furry is going to jump on it, somebody is going to spill coffee on it… it will happen, trust me.  The beauty of a slipcover is that you throw that baby in the wash when that happens.  Let your kids play XBox while eating pizza in the living room, let the dog jump all over the furniture, let your girlfriends bring their red wine into the living room, hell have a sangria while you are at it.;)  I am having a love affair with the wingback, and I don’t think I had ever seen a slipcovered one.  Love it.

And the bag, gorgeous!  I loves me patterned fabric and tote bags, this one has the most beautiful lining and Barbara says they are practically indestructible.

Here is another bag by the same designer, might be too florally for me to carry regularly but it is a great shape and style.

Then I spied this bust of Thomas Jefferson and he found his way home with me.  It’s OK, he’s no stranger, I can bring him home.;)

Have an amazing weekend!

star lanterns

I have wanted one ever since I saw a photo in a mag with one dangling in between 2 vanity mirrors.  Oooh!  Maybe I could hang one over my bathtub!  OK, that is totally going to be in the works although there is a pot light up there, and then there is the whole code business.  Code schmode.

Anyway, I have a client with a totally mod U shaped house that encloses an outside courtyard with a pool in the middle, I love it.  And all around that U is a hallway with every room off the hallway.  So the hallway is a big part of the house and leads you through the house and connects everything.  It needs to have some pizazz.  I am thinking these star lanterns to lead your eye through the hallway, but she is unsure.  I will bring this pic and we shall hang something up there to resemble a lantern to see if we can get an idea what it might look like.  She’ll come around, or I will come up with something else.  The wheels have just begun turning.;)

Here is a great source for those lanterns from Domino magazine:

the joy of treasure hunting

You never know what you are going to find at my favorite trash to treasure source, Urban Ore in Berkeley.  I head there often and come home with great finds.  This week I am helping a friend furnish her new home in the wine country, she is going for cottage chic, light and airy and bright… and I had my eyes open for full and queen sized bed frames.  And looky what I found!

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Congratulations Daisy’s!

My favorite store for all things home decor, stationary, toiletries, etc. opened a new huge 2nd store location right down the street from me and Scarlett and I stopped by as we heard there might be cupcakes involved.;)  I would buy everything in the store if I could.  Seriously.  Thank goodness going to the store means I have to actually get in the car, otherwise I would be in there every day and the owner Barbara might have to ban me from coming in.

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Great Lampshade Glitter Project

I’m in the final stages of finishing (is anything really ever finished?) my living room makeover.  The fireplace is the focal point, and I am trying to downplay the huge TV over it.  I have really liked these lamps flanking the TV on the mantel, but the lampshades have not yet come up to speed.  Here is what they looked like before I started futzing with them.

I went back and forth between black and cream lampshades.  They were $17 from Ikea, so it wasn’t like choosing between a Chagall and a Picasso.  I settled on cream because I like the warm glow, but the plainness of them was bugging me.

They needed to be dolled up somehow.  I glued some trim on there thinking it was the perfect fix, and then I didn’t like it!  Maybe it was the trim I chose, who knows but they still were not working!

So then I thought GLITTER!  A bit of glitter makes anything better, and hadn’t I seen Martha Stewart glitter the inside of a lampshade once?  Yes, here!  Here are the itty bitty teeny tiny sconce covering lampshades that Martha glittered, note the slight variance in size between these and the honking lampshades I was determined to glitter:

So.  Initially I was going to glitter the inside of the black shades with red, I love the warm glow the inside of a lampshade gives off when it is red or pink.  I would love to glitter the insides of the cream ones, but the color of the glitter would show through and I didn’t want big pink lampshades in my living room, although there is nothing wrong with a huge pink lampshade just not the look I was going for in my living room.   So, I got out my big black lampshades and pulled some shades from my glitter color library and the green called out to me, as often green does.;)  And away we went.

Here are a series of video clips documenting my glitter escapades:

Great Lamp Glitter Project part 1

Great Lampshade Glitter Project part 2

Great Lampshade Glitter Project part 3

Great Lampshade Glitter Project part 4

Great Lampshade Glitter Project part 5 COMPLETED!

The final result:

Closeup on the inside of the lampshade:

And here is a closeup on the type of glitter I used, tinsel glitter:

And the final product!  On to the next project!!!  These look so good I am all up in the insides of all of the lampshades in my house trying to resist myself from glittering the whole lot of them.