Overscale Botanicals

I was having this momentary insanity thinking I should title this post "Feed me, Seymour!" but I fear that, apart from the obvious issues, I may be dating myself just a bit.

I've been noticing a ton of giant botanical images around the joint lately.  While I am satisfied--for now--with my framed artisan paper in the dining room, I'm always on the lookout for something better that I can afford or DIY, and looking at my inspiration folder I see an awful lot of these huge pairs of flowers.

This California home by Nathan Turner was the first one where I stood up and took notice.

[via nathanturner.com]

I mean: yellow!  I love that each one is a single bloom, and that the composition places the flowers differently in each frame.  I have some old polaroids from a shoot at Real Simple where we shot really interesting flowers in bud vases on seamless for the monthly calendar (do they even still do this?), and I'm wondering if they have enough resolution to blow up this big.  Those were professionally shot and styled, but I bet, with a good enough camera, you could make your own version.

I'm also loving these big, saturated green ones.  They feel like leaf pressings on steroids.

[via pinterest]

[Lauren Liess, Pure Style Home]

For a moodier approach, how about something like this?

[pinterest]

Gorgeous. I love how sort of dark and ethereal these are, and especially love how casually (and crookedly!) they are tacked up over the little table.

And in reverse, white floral on black ground:

[I guess I could have cropped this ad, but this way it self-credits]

I find it interesting that all of these are in pairs, maybe in tribute to all those classic botanical groupings with dozens of plates on a wall?  (Speaking of which, how about super sizing the whole grouping, for maximum effect?)

[via Cote de Texas]

Maybe it's simply because people like the balance in pairs, or decorators have too much wall space to fill.  No matter.  I'm a fan.

Oh, but this lonely guy works, too, don't you think?

[ via Southern Living]

So what do you think?  Would you go big?  What's your favorite? 

O'verlays

I MAY have mentioned once, twice, a thousand times how much I adore Danika over at Gorgeous Shiny Things.  She was my first blog follower who I didn't know personally, and I still don't know how she finds all the little bloglets at the beginning and follows them as they become full fledged blogs.  She shared one of her past homes as my first guest flashback Friday post.  She posted the girl's room and the botanicals I made based on their curtains (which reminds me: things are changing up there: stay tuned).  She even set me up with a "Stylish blogger" award.  As if that wasn't enough, she has been an endless resource when it comes to the design biz, both on and off line.

This multi-talented lady has been very busy developing an awesome new product.  The idea started when she created this fretwork for the front of a client's ikea cabinets.





Can you even believe the transformation?

Well, Danika teamed up with Cheryle of the Whole Nine Yards, and the two of them created a line of fretwork panels that you can buy online and add to furniture that needs a little lift.  Here are some of my favorite applications, from their website:







Super fun, right?

Go on over and check them out here, and tell Danika I sent you!

What would you dream up for one of these bad boys?  I always love to hear your DIY ideas.

Sheers

Sometimes a quick change can make a huge difference in a room.
Take our dining room.  One of the first rooms to be "finished" in the house, there was one little thing that was driving me crazy: the totally practical, totally expensive, total eyesore of a Hunter Douglass blind.

See how I tried to hide it in this picture?  Yeah.  Wait, here it is:

Here's the thing: this guy is a workhorse and completely logical for the space.  Our huge dining room window looks right at our neighbor's front porch, so blocking the bottom half of the window gave us privacy while allowing in a good amount of light and preserving a view of the beautiful white pine.  Yet I have never liked these shades.  I think they're ugly: there, I said it.  They were installed by the previous owner (or the builder), and because they are high quality and pricey, I felt like I had to just live with them.

When summer hit, I found myself opening the blinds more and more for all that light and green, just as the neighbors were spending more and more time outside.  If they are on their porch and we are sitting at our table, it's like we are all at the same party but giving each other the cold shoulder.

On my next trip to Ikea, I grabbed a pair of sheers with a sort of swiss dot along a line.  I put them up just with their tab tops to see if I like the effect.

See the neighbor's house?  Told you it was awkward.  But now, I love the way I can see out without it ever feel like I'm staring at anyone, and I love all the nice soft light.  (I can also open the sheers and use the blinds for a combo of privacy and direct light, as before, but I haven't wanted to do that even once since putting these up.)  Now I just need to decide whether to put them on rings on this rod, pinch pleat them, get a double rod, leave them alone.  I think I'll leave them alone for now and give it a good think.

I recently read something about the return of sheers--possibly in the new House Beautiful, but I can't seem to pin down the source.  The designer was basically saying that with our current desire for light and a good indoor-outdoor connection, sheers are the way to go.  I think I agree.

What about you: would you do sheers?  Do you like the look of layered window treatments?

Happy Fourth of July!

Small Measures: Ombre

[anthropologie.com]

Loving the breezy boho feel of dip dyed curtains.  Ikea, white (lace? swiss dot?) plus dye.  Dip and dry.  With words to spare.

Reader Design Dilemma: Recalled Crib

Rachel writes to me with a recalled crib.  She doesn't want to use it as a crib or donate it (for safety concerns), but she also thinks it's kind of wasteful to kick it to the curb.  Instead, she'd like to repurpose it.  Here's the crib:



Sort of standard issue, in natural.  (and pictures online are apparently available in two sizes: teeny, and tiny.)

My best idea for this is the most obvious (sometimes the simplest solution is best, no?).  This is a convertible crib, which means it is built to also function as a daybed.  Like so.



I would make a few little alterations and use this, daybed style, as a little kiddo couch.  Cut down the legs, ditch the bumper and replace it with some cute graphic throw pillows, sew a slip cover for the mattress, preferably out of ticking, or make one of these custom boyos a la Lauren Liess's window seat in the DC show house (I love that she stacked three.  So Princess and the Pea),

Or use a pair of floor pillows like I did in my stupendously amazing graphic design job of a mock up



(I know, you're super impressed).  Or, heck, just use a cute sheet.

You could put it in a little nook with book bins or a wall mounted book shelf nearby.  Maybe a clip on light on the higher part of the arms.

But maybe Rachel has already thought of this, and would like a little more.

Hoe about turning it into a playhouse?  Kind of like this:

I would use the crib, again, in daybed mode, suspend a hoop from the ceiling, mosquito net style, only instead of netting use some burlap or cotton duck (you know, cheap and durable) and drape it over the side arms, kind of like this.


 
Or this



(Hey look: ticking!)

Or this (only sideways).



Now, i wouldn't go that themey in an actual bedroom, but how cute to have cowboys and indians fabric, especially if you let it drape over the whole bed,  teepee style?  Like a blanket-and-chairs fort, only better.

Not doing it for you?  How about taking the casters off and using it as a gated step stool in the kitchen.  Like one of these.



Now, I have to admit, these plans are not feeling very creative.  So I did some looking around the interwebs, and I found LOTS of repurposed crib project.  The best round ups are here and here.  Here's the thing, though.  Lots of the projects I came across used pretty spindles from a Jenny Lind-style crib to create all manner of things: table legs, a plate rack, a bench.  Or they use the metal springs from the base of the crib, which, I'll come right out and say it, I am totally against.  This Alpha Crib just isn't that interesting, and I actually do think it's best value is in using it as a whole, not breaking it down into plain old slats of wood or other parts.

Which brings me back to my simplest, obvious solution: daybed toddler couch.

Well.  You guys are more creative than I am.  Anyone out there have a better idea?  Please share it so we can pass it along to Rachel!

"Senegalese Storage" the Ikea way

Everyone is going ga ga for Serena and Lily's Senegalese storage baskets, and I will admit, I'm joining the hype.  After the prevalence of African stools and textiles such as kuba cloth over recent years, African baskets seem like a natural trend, especially when done up in such fun colors.




Available here.  Only problem (can you guess?)  The price tag.

Amber over at Amber interiors took matters into her own hands when she found a similarly-shaped basket at Home Goods, and improvised with tape and spraypaint.



Pretty cute, right?  (Tutorial, here.)

When I first saw the Serena and Lily version, I was immediately reminded of the Asunden collection at Ikea.


While they don't come in a large storage size, the type of weaving and the shape of the lidded bins gives the same feeling.  I bought the group of three (above) back in the fall, and have been using the smaller ones to hold toilet paper in two of our bathrooms (there's no closed storage), and the lidded one for trash in our master bath--love that it's covered!  There are also these bath accessories:



And this individual lidded basket


The best part?  The set of 3 is $34.99, the pair of bath accessories is $9.99, and the lidded basket is just $6.99.

Sold.