Tag Archives: Fabric

Spring Front Porch Inspiration

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Julie

It’s the first day of spring and we finally have some beautiful spring weather! The sunshine and warmer temperatures lift my spirits and get me thinking about my yard.

As a result, I have been busy getting my yard ready for planting and doing several yard-related projects. We just finished getting a drip irrigation system installed in all of our beds and, oh boy, did we need that! I’m so hopeful that this new system will help keep more plants alive. I’ve lost so many during these past few years with the drought.

Hopefully, I’ll be sharing some of my completed yard projects soon (they’re still in progress)!

One “project” I’m working on is getting my front porch all spruced up. I want to get some new outdoor pillows, move a few things around and freshen a piece or two up with some paint. So I started doing a little playing with a mood board to help me get a vision. When I have lots of ideas in my head swirling around, it always helps me to put things together where I can see them.

Here’s my spring front porch inspiration:

I am going for a more colorful look on the front porch this year.

I am loving this fabric from fabric.com

I think it’s so fresh and colorful. It feels like summer just looking at it!

I also love these galvanized planters from Pottery Barn:

They add a casual, rustic charm I think.

The best part is, you can get this look for a lot cheaper than major retailer prices. I’ve seen buckets at the hardware store that would look just as cute for a fraction of the price.

I’m getting so anxious to get things moving outside, but the forecast still calls for some more chilly nights so I can’t go all out yet.

In the meantime, I think I’ll be ordering that cute fabric so I can sew a couple of pillows.

How about you? Are you planning for spring yet?

7 Comments
POSTED IN: Fabric, front porch, outdoor decor, porch, Pottery Barn, Spring

Share on facebook | Share on Twitter | Pin on Pinterest

My Favorite Room Guest Post at Savvy Southern Style {And a Few Questions Answered}

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Julie

Happy Friday y’all!

First, thank you so much for all your fantastic and uplifting comments about my dining room. I am honored that so many of you liked my room as much as I do.

Second, I am so excited that today, Miss Kim over at Savvy Southern Style, has invited me to share My Favorite Room over at her beautiful blog! I have loved her blog for ages, so I am beyond thrilled that she invited me to write a post about a room in my home! I share even more details about my dining room and the changes I’ve made in my guest post today, so be sure to hop on over to Savvy Southern Style to take a look.

Finally, I want to answer a couple of questions that came up about my room:

Wall paint color: Weekend in the Country (don’t you love that name?) by Valspar (Lowe’s). However, I had it color-matched at Home Depot in their Behr Premium Plus paint. It was just a personal thing. I really love the Behr PP paint…it has such great coverage and I was painting over a dark faux finish and I didn’t want to do a million coats.

Chair Fabric: Checkmate in Acorn – Calico Corners

Slipcover Fabric: I don’t know the name of it. It’s an upholstery linen fabric I bought at a local discount interior fabric store in Hurst, TX called, Home Fabrics.

Pillow Fabric: John Robshaw’s Mani Indigo ordered from House Fabric.

I will sharing a tutorial on how I reupholstered the checked chairs and the slipcovers soon so please check back.

That’s it for now. Thank you, again, for all of the great comments and don’t forget to go to Savvy Southern Style today to check out my guest post!

For past Favorite Rooms go here…lots of great eye candy!

Due to stolen content I cannot provide a full RSS feed. I work hard to provide fresh, original content and, unfortunately, there are sites that like to steal from honest, hard-working bloggers. Thanks for understanding!

13 Comments
POSTED IN: Dining Room, Fabric

Share on facebook | Share on Twitter | Pin on Pinterest

Living Room Updates

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Julie

You’re probably sick of me showing my living room all the time, but I have a few quick updates I want to share.

Today, I made the last of my final “big” updates to the room (I think).

First, I found this HUGE basket at Home Goods earlier this week.

I have been looking for something like this for a long time. My fireplace is very large and the fire box is small in comparison. It always feels a little off. I’ve been wanting something to go in front of it, but finding the right scale is HARD! Well, let me rephrase that…finding something the right scale and that doesn’t cost a fortune is hard!

Next, I did a little furniture re-arranging again.

I put the chair from the dining room back where it came from (even though I really liked it in the living room), because I needed it to keep things balanced in the dining room.

Bye, bye chair…

Instead, I moved our old Morris chair that had been in this room for years into this corner.

I don’t love it as much as the wing chair, but it works and my husband likes this chair. It was his before we got married.

I’ll probably keep playing with the pillow arrangement, though. I really loved the bosporus toile fabric over here by the fireplace, but I also love it on the couch with my ticking strip pillows…hmmmm

You can bet I’ll keep thinking about that!

But, my very favorite update (and the whole reason I wanted to share these updates with you today) is….

the Betwixt fabric pillows!

This Betwixt fabric is in biscuit and I absolutely LOVE them!

I have always liked this fabric when I’ve seen it online but I had never seen it up close and in person. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint!

The pattern is not screen printed, it is woven and therefore the weight of the fabric is luxurious — if you can call a cotton-type fabric luxurious.

The price point is high (roughly $70 per yard) so I was hesitant to order it having never seen or felt it in person.

But, I pulled the trigger because Holly Mathis — the decorator I hired last year to help me with this room — suggested this fabric. So, instead of ordering a swatch as I usually would, I just held my breath and ordered it. I am SO GLAD I did!

They really are the finishing touch to this room.

It feels so good to have this room all pulled together!

If you want to read more about my living room update and where it all began you can read the following posts:
Living Room Reveal Part 1
Living Room Reveal Part 2

Linking up to:

Savvy Southern Style
Miss Mustard Seed
Jennifer Rizzo

9 Comments
POSTED IN: Fabric, living room

Share on facebook | Share on Twitter | Pin on Pinterest

Dining Room Gingham

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Julie

If you’ve been following me for awhile you’ll know that I am crazy for gingham fabric.

Source

I don’t know what it is, but it just speaks to me and I LOVE it!

And, OH…and how I wish I had a picture (or maybe I don’t!) of me wearing a gingham suit — yes a SUIT — I had in the early 90s. It was YELLOW gingham! Can you just DIE?! Yes, I owned and wore a yellow gingham suit to work back in the day! Was I crazy?!!

I just did a quick Google search and found this on ebay (it’s already sold so don’t get too excited):

Source

It’s very similar to the one I wore. It certainly was cheerful! lol

Anyway…I’m not talking about fashion today — I am talking about some fabric that I am TOTALLY excited about!

Yesterday on my Facebook page I posted a link to The Enchanted Home. I’m so happy to know I’m not the only one crazy about checks.

In her post I saw this picture:

This was after I read a post on The Lettered Cottage and was swooning over this:

The Lettered Cottage

She was posting about her new feed sack pillow (which is adorable and I totally love it) but, of course, I zeroed in on that adorable checked throw!

And, then, it hit me. The brown buffalo check fabric would be perfect in my dining room.

Last fall, I posted about wanting to make slipcovers for my upholstered chairs. I bought white twill fabric thinking they would be so easy to launder and would be so practical that way.

I absolutely loved this set-up at the Wisteria store when I stopped by last fall. (If you are ever in Dallas you MUST go to this store!)

It’s part of the reason why I wanted white chairs in my dining room.

Aside from being a little daunted by the task of making six slipcovers, I just couldn’t completely pull the trigger on this DIY. The white fabric wasn’t coming together with all the other elements I wanted. It looked great in the store and on other blogs, but I just couldn’t get it together in my head for my own home. Does that ever happen to you?

So, I’ve been browsing Pinterest, blogs and magazines trying to come up with the right combination to complete my dining room chair transformation.

When I saw these chairs I was sooo excited!

I had already considered checked fabric but the color brown hadn’t occurred to me. But now, I think the brown check versus all the other color possibilities will be the perfect rustic match between my husband’s taste and my own.

Truthfully, I don’t think he would pick gingham in any color, but it won’t be offensive and I think it will help pull all the elements together.

Here’s the mood board that just came together after I discovered the fabric chairs:

Here’s the other part of this discovery that makes me happy…the fabric is currently on sale for around $17/yd. at Calico Corners — yea!!

As a side note, I am also excited about this cute plate I found too:

Spode Woodland Hunting Dogs: Black Lab

Source

I love it — it looks just like our dog, Bella!

You might have noticed that have a lot of projects in the works at the moment (finishing my daughter’s room, my master bedroom, solving my back entry clutter and, my dining room). I’m experiencing a little bit of “Decorating ADD.” (That’s when I start too many projects at once and get none of them done) When this happens, I have to remind myself to take things one step at a time and not to go overboard.

So, here’s to taking it one day at a time — cheers!

Linking up to:

Jennifer Rizzo

Liz Marie blog

The Shabby Nest

504 Main

Miss Mustard Seed

9 Comments
POSTED IN: Chairs, Dining Room, Fabric, Reupholstery

Share on facebook | Share on Twitter | Pin on Pinterest

I Did It! {Reupholstering Cube Ottomans Tutorial}

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Julie

When I revealed my living room re-do a few weeks ago I mentioned that I still needed to reupholster a pair of inexpensive cube ottomans I bought at Target. The sticking point was the fabric — how much yardage and the price point. I solved both dilemmas and just finished reupholstering them today — yay!!

Here’s the before:

And, here’s the after!

You’ll notice I didn’t put the button tuft in the middle like the before picture. I might still add that. I was undecided about it so I thought I would live with it like this for awhile and then see what I think.

The project took a little time and patience but I’m pretty happy with the result!

Here’s how I did it:

First, I had my husband help me take a couple of the legs off that were giving me a little trouble.

Then I used a screwdriver to lift off the staples that were holding down the black finishing fabric and the welting.

I decided to keep the old fabric on the piece and just add more batting over it. (On this piece it doesn’t hurt to keep the old fabric on, and it saved me the hassle of lifting off more staples.)

After it was dismantled, I added a new layer of batting (you wouldn’t have to do this step either…I did it because I felt the stool needed it).

Then I used some inexpensive muslin to make a pattern so I wouldn’t waste my expensive fabric.
I simply layed one large piece of fabric over the three sides of the cube and then pinned two end pieces and cut off the excess.

I didn’t sew the muslin…I just used it to make a pattern. I laid down the pattern on the “real” fabric and cut around it. I cut the sides a little longer on each end because I wanted to be able to adjust the fabric to match up the window pane pattern.

When everything was cut, I started pinning at the top by matching the stripes.

Here’s a better shot to see the extra fabric on either end to help me adjust for the pattern.

When it was all pinned, I trimmed off the excess fabric before sewing. I left about an inch seam allowance (except for the bottom).

After it was all pinned up, I slipped it off the ottoman and sewed it together. I turned it right side out, then slipped it back over the ottman and trimmed off any excess fabric and started stapling.

When it was all stapled, I started making the welting that goes around the bottom to finish off the piece.

I used the old cord to measure the length I’d need to make. When laying it on the bias (the diagonal), it looked like I wouldn’t have to do any additional sewing – yay!

With the welting finished, I started stapling it around the bottom of the cube.

When you get to this point at the end, you need to make it look like a nice continuous looking piece. It’s actually pretty easy. Here’s how you do it:

You peel back the fabric on one end of the welting and then match it up to the other cord so you can “join” the two together to make one continuous piece. Cut where the two pieces would join.