Some Decor Ponderings

I'm on a bit of a staycation this week and loving every minute of it. Naturally this means I'm looking at everything about my home I want to change.

I've had the inkling to re-paint our entry way for a while now but as you can see I'm not sure what about the color I want to change.

It's right off the living room so that's something to consider. What would you do here? I'm all ears!

Ordered a swatch of this fabric from spoonflower.

I'm highly considering it for curtains in my office. The floral just feels so fresh and I love the colors.

From here

Of course then the rug I have just wouldn't do. I'm considering these as pairings...

The ever popular beni knock off from World Market.

This awesome vintage number from Esale Rugs. I'm not sure if this would be too much with the curtains or not. But it might just be the perfect mix, something to consider.

Bought this trim to go on the shower curtain I'm making for our hall bath remodel. I got 8 yards for $17! I love the warehouse fabric places on harry hines, they are stupid cheap.

I'm going with a textured white linen mix for the fabric. I like that the trim doesn't match the wall color perfectly.

Picked up this roll of shimmery vintage wallpaper for only $5. I'm not sure what I'll do with it but it was too good to pass up.

And of course, dog noses are never too far away.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Curtain Call of the Week

It's time for another curtains call! Thanks to The Glam Lamb for the clever title. I knew it should have a catchy name!

Image from MMR Interiors

The bright colors on black is just gorgeous. And paired with all the other patterns and black and white bedding, just gorgeous!

Wish I could see the rest of this room, don't you?

Happy thursday lovers!

PS Happy Day of the Dead too! This was me celebrating last weekend...

Hope you had a great Halloween and that all my readers in the North East are safe and warm!

Curtain of the Week

I'm a sucker for a good curtain. Maybe it's because I like fabrics in general so much. Maybe its because, HELLO, they are awesome!

So I'm going to start doing a curtain of the week. Behold the first installment...

You have also seen this fabulous Schumacer fabric in these fine rooms;

Michelle Adams bedroom from Lonny.

And her lonny office. She really loves this fabric and so do I!

Curtain Addiction

I don't know why I became so drawn to curtains. Maybe they are like the cherry on top, the jewelry to the perfect outfit. I personally think they are important enough to make or break a room. Which is why I spend so much time shopping for the perfect fabric when decorating a room.

I have so many images I've saved just for their curtains!

Marks & Spencer S/S 2011

Amber Interiors

From Made by Girl

From Design Sponge

From Black and Spiro

From Marcus Design

That's just a small sample of curtains I've obsessed over!

See more of my obsessions on Pinterest!

Have a great weekend!

Project Week: Ombre Curtains

Here it is! My big project, hand dyed ombre curtains. Most of you know I'm no stranger to undertaking DIY projects but for some reason this one was a bit intimidating to me. It could have easily gone horribly wrong, I could've burned myself with scalding water, wasted money, hated it. But fortunately none of that happened and I love the outcome!

I started out with these Ritva curtains from Ikea. A bargain. The website says $35/pair but I swear I only paid $30...

Some rit dye + internet research and I got started.

I heated up the water in big pots on the stove and dumped them in these tubs to make the dye bath. My husband was on stand by to help me keep things under control. I started doing it by myself and had premonitions of him walking in the room with water boiling, dye everywhere, wet dogs with purple streaks and utter chaos so it was good to have a helper. 

Since I was doing two colors, each beginning at one end of the curtain, I decided it would be best to dye them at the same time. 

Each end of the curtain started in the dye bath, I put about 10-12 inches of fabric in for about 5 minutes, then another 10-12 in for another 5 minutes, until the whole thing was submerged. To blend the center together I went back and for into each dye bath, overlapping as I went.

I didn't do the timing or amount of fabric on each level to an exact science, no sense in getting caught up in something that might not make a difference I guess.

You can see I had some trim in there. I bought this dyeable trim from Joann's to sew on vertically. For dyeing though I just safety pinned it to the curtain.

Then I hung the curtains outside and hosed them down with water and wrung them out multiple times. The whole project was difficult for the mere fact that these curtains are 118" long, so it made it hard to maneuver I guess you could say.

While they looked great at this point, I wasn't happy with them. I wanted them to be very dark on each end and they weren't. So back to the store I went.

I re-dyed each end, soaking for much longer this time, and repeated the whole process again. Finally I was happy!

The only problem was, the trim which was made of rayon shrank considerably, boo. I had cut the trim extra long in case of this very situation and it still shrank probably about 8-10 inches!

Oh well, most of you DIYers know that part of doing projects is rolling with the punches as you go. So I sewed a little bit across the top and bam, I was done!

They look lighter with the light shining through but they are actually pretty dark in reality.

I think I need new curtain rods now, but I freaking love my new curtains!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!