You may have seen a tweet recently about reupholstering a chair.  And maybe you’re wondering about that chair.  Well, here it is, in all of it’s stained and smelly glory, waiting to be loved on.

We picked it up off the side of the road for free earlier this month and it’s been waiting patiently on our front porch for some new fabric.  I’m still unsure if it’s possible to even do it.  I’ve been searching online for tutorials and hemming and hawing over if I should go for it, or just drop it off at Goodwill for someone else.  I think it would be a great chair for our dining room if we recovered it in a simple linen or ivory colored fabric.  But is it worth it?

What do you guys think?  Should I go for it, or not?  Will it be a waste, or a fun project?  I’m on the fence still…

We’ve been busy around here at the Jewel of the Prairie, sprucing things up in our foyer, building a compost bin, and now, updating our guest room!  Eventually I’ll post more about progress on the spa bench for the bathroom, but for today, you get pretty pictures of our (very much still in-progress) guest room!

Here’s what it looks like today:

Now, for the story…

When we bought our house, this room was occupied by a young boy and was decked out with a sports theme, complete with baseball fan, football cross bars, and a wallpaper border.  And let’s not forget the forest green ceiling, shall we?

Since we A) don’t have an 8 year old boy with a sports obsession, and B) don’t enjoy cave-like rooms, we knew this would be a HUGE overhaul.  Soon after we closed, we got to work on removing the wallpaper border, and priming the room for some fresh paint.

I seriously have nightmares when I remember priming and painting this room!  With that dark green paint, it took two coats of primer to get good coverage on the walls and ceiling before we could paint.

Already looking brighter, right?  We chose a light blue color for the wall, hoping to coordinate a bit with some furniture I’ve had since I was a teenager, which formerly belonged to my mother as a child.

A little brighter than we expected, but it was still a HUGE improvement from what we started with.  \

We added furniture into the room, and the wonderful quilt my mom made for me, and for a while, the room looked like this…

Again, let me remind you where we started:

So much better, right?  Well, there was obviously still a lot more we could do with this room besides paint and change the fan out for a light from a different room.  I had dreams for drapes, artwork, and hopefully, a bedspread that matches the room a bit better (the quilt will have a new home in a different room).

Fast forward a few months, and I finally was able to snag the last missing piece to complete the furniture set – the headboard!  In the 10+ years I’ve had this furniture, we were never able to get the headboard from my grandparents due to the size of it.  After a quick trip in April to help them move, I was able to bring back the headboard in a U-Haul trailer, and at last, she’s with the rest of the family!

Ignore the awful color in this photo – take a cue from me and never take pictures at night!

We switched out the quilt for something blue, which works a bit better, but still doesn’t quite fit.  Maybe I need to recruit my mom to do something custom once she finishes the half a dozen other quilts she’s making  We also put in another lamp on the left that was a garage sale steal for $1.  Sure, it’s huge and probably would look better in a living room, but it works for now.

The most recent update to the room is something I’m super excited about – drapes!  I found some inexpensive drapes at Ikea, and after some drilling and leveling (thanks DH!) we now have some glorious flowing drapes to add a little bit of softness to the windows.

The print is a bit more modern, but still soft and organic looking, which is just what I was looking for.

I also snagged a white throw pillow on sale at Macys for $10.  The quilt stays for now, along with the gold sheets. Obviously this combo is SO working!  *cough cough*

A couple of other additions to the room include a vintage fan we found at Good Will for $3, a huge stack of art books in need of a home, and a little print that I might hang somewhere in the room.

What do you think of the floor lamp with the orange, blue, and white?  Do you think it’s too much?  I kinda like it, in a very vintage-meets-traditional-meets-modern kind of way.

Over on the dresser, I added a negative botanical print from a photography class I took in high school, a handmade glass hurricane that used to be in my great grandparents summer home on Washington Island that I rescued from my grandparent’s basement , and three Swedish and Danish painted plates and hangings that belonged to DH’s grand parents that I’m going to hang in the room somewhere.  Oh, and a cute little stack of books

I love the changes so far

My first design board is for my younger sister, Carrie, and her husband, John.  I’ve been bugging my sister for a couple of months to send me pictures of her living room so I could give her a mood board.  They live in a nice 70s ranch that they’ve been slowly sprucing up with modern light fixtures and punchy fun colors.  Here’s the note from my sis:

Here’s our living room pictures, finally! I do have a large painting to put up, it’s mostly reds/oranges/some blues (modern) and I also found this really cool piece that’s pretty big too to put on the wall. It’s an old window with a cool modern red Coo Coo clock decal on it. Sorry I didn’t take pictures of those. We want to eventually have a big bookcase (probably Ikea) on the big wall behind the couch, and probably a small desk back there too. There’s probably 4 feet of space behind the couch.

Have fun designing our LR!

Carrie

Here’s their design board with a layout of the room.

First, they’ll keep the current soft turquoise blue walls, the couch, rug, the window treatments, and the turquoise lamp.  If there’s room for the rocking chair, then keep that too.  I’ve incorporated orange/coral, red, and a bit of purple/mauve for accent colors to give the room some interest.  Let’s get to the new stuff!

1. This TV console from Ikea will help anchor this wall and give a nice spot for their current TV, plus either a few accessories or a lamp.  Then it can transition for a widescreen TV later on if they choose.
2. Above the TV, it would be awesome if there were two floating shelves, stacked about 12 inches apart, for displaying photos, plants, accessories, or books.
3. Some sort of table or chest behind the couch would be great.  Since there’s not enough room for a coffee table in front of the couch, this will add an extra landing spot for drinks and snacks, maybe even a lamp.  I’d love to see a glossy red painted campaign dresser (scour around on craigslist) or a light and airy glass topped table, which are also plentiful on craigslist.
4. Storage is definitely needed, so we’re bringing in some fun shelves (turned on their side) along that huge wall – check out these simple square ones, or these more mod multi-sized ones, both in a brown/black color.  Above it, they can display their artwork and a few more accessories.  They can also add some fun and playful storage boxes from Ikea (white, orange, and basket-weave!) to hide a few items if they want.
5. Plopping two of these clear glass lamps on either end will add a bit of symmetry to the wall, especially if they put their art piece in the middle.
6. There are two options for working a desk space into their living room – either add a simple desk with side cube storage and display space, or forego the shelves and have a desk/wall shelf combo like this.  Since Carrie & Jon have a big pooch, I’d recommend the first option just so they don’t end up with wagging tails knocking stuff over all of the time, but this desk/shelf unit from Crate Barrel would also be a great space saving solution.
7. If Jon and Carrie need some extra light for their work space, placing their turquoise lamp they already own in the corner will add just enough.  To further decorate this space, they could use some simple boxes for storage, and add a nice simple botanical print in a basic white Ikea frame above the desk.
8. A nice parsons chair for the desk will look beautiful, and can double as extra seating as needed when guests stop by.  Brown leather, tan suede, or white would be best.
9. The space in between the window and the door is begging for some artwork or photos.  This would be a great space for a vertical display of several of Jon & Carrie’s favorite pics from their honeymoon, or of other favorite memories.
10. If there’s enough room by the front door, a simple hanging rack and this handy storage ottoman will help sort jackets and scarves and be a welcomed place for guests to kick off their shoes.  If space is limited, either skip the ottoman, or place the ottoman next to the door under the photos.
11. Some bright and fun pillows will help add some color to their couch.
12. A bunch of different fun accessories to dress up their shelves can be spread through out the room on the floating shelves above the TV, or along the bookshelves.  Look for things in the purple/mauve color – like these small glass vases from West Elm, or this larger bamboo vase from Z Gallerie; red, orange/coral – like this natural coral; and turquoise – like this vase.  White, (here, and here too!) and clear and natural woods will work too.

I hope you like it, little sis  I had fun decorating your living room.  Most of the items are relatively affordable, and a lot of the fun accessories could be substituted out for similar objects in the same colors found at Home Goods or any other home decor store.  Happy shopping!

Today, I’m going to share about where I spend probably 65% of my day: my desk.

You’re excited, right?

In general, I love working from home.  There’s some obvious bonuses: I can stay in my PJs until noon, there’s always snacks available, and I don’t have to deal with office gossip or endless chatter and distractions.  But there’s some downsides to it too.  For instance, I often feel torn between getting work done, and cleaning the house.  That’s a big one for me.  I’ve found that I just CAN’T work if my house is messy.  It drives me batty.

I’ve also discovered that in order to be productive and continue to work at home, it’s important for me to have a dedicated space.  I share an office with my husband, who really only uses it for a few hours on Saturdays, so basically, it’s all mine.

Even more important than having my own space, though, is having an ORGANIZED space.  I love organizing.  Unfortunately, I’m not very good at it, and I’m always trying new systems or ways of keeping my space, and my life, organized.  Nothing is perfect, and neither am I, so I just go with what works…until I find something better!

Here’s the current state of my desk:

Wow, all of those cords going every which way below my desk?  UGLY.  Same with the stackable in boxes on the top right.  Yikes.

Let’s go in for a close-up, shall we?

That’s better. At least I can pretend all the unsightly cords don’t exist, right?

1.  My new Kassett boxes from Ikea!  They’re slightly too deep for the cubbies, but I figured I could do one on the bottom and offset it with one up top.  Right now, the one on the bottom left has stationary and envelopes in it (I write a lot of thank you notes for my job) and the top right one is still empty.

2.  My handy dandy 500 GB  external hard drive.  I got it on Black Friday a couple of years ago for $50 or something ridiculous like that.  I partitioned it so that half of it is for storage (mostly photos) and half is for backing up my laptop hard drive.

3.  A picture of my younger sister and I at Versailles from my trip to Paris in college.  It’s one of my favorite photos of her and I because that trip was such an adventure for me, and I loved that I got to share the last week with my sister and my parents.

4.  A random assortment of things: a small journal I was given by my supervisor, a blue glass bird that belonged to my husbands mother, an origami flower I made, and hiding in the back is a little tin that used to be a candle that was my grandmothers from one of her trips to Asia.

5.  A picture of my cutie-patootie niece in an old green frame a friend gave to me.

6.  A large red wooden pencil that says ” Mrs. W_______” that belonged to my mother-in-law, who was a school teacher.  My husband gave it to me, and I thought it was just right for my desk

7.  A beautiful glass frame with pressed flowers in it, holding a picture of my older brother and my niece.  It’s a picture I took at my grandmother’s funeral.  This picture means SO much to me.

8.  A small frame with my sister’s senior picture (I need to get a new one of her and her husband), my favorite box of stationary from my dear friend Linnea that she gave me in college, and an Eiffel tower ornament my mother gave me after our trip to Paris.

9.  An electric pencil sharpener that I should probably move since I never use it…and a stack of books I’m either currently reading or using for work, including: In Defense of Food, In the Name of Jesus, Peppermint-Filled Pinatas, a Bible commentary for Genesis, and one of my favorite prayer books my friend Cindy introduced me too, Face to Face.

10.  My stack of plastic “in boxes”.  Each of them has a different label that I use for sorting items or my “next actions”, for all you GTD folks.  In theory, I should have probably about a dozen more, but I’m not sure I could actually handle that.  Currently, I have four.  They include House (which is currently overflowing), IVCF (job stuff), Computer (anything I need to type up or complete online that comes to me in paper form), and Inbox (which is for general tasks)

11.  A hilarious mug that says “Lefties are better lovers!” from my husband, who happens to be left-handed.

12.  Some random notes to myself or from my husband.

13.  A pretty empty picture frame.  I need to find a picture for it, because it’s been sitting empty for quite a while.

14.  Scrap paper and a random CD that needs a home.

15.  My new Target lamp!  I mixed and matched the base and shade so that it would fit on my desk.  I need to find a different bulb, though, because it peaks out above the shade.

16.  My old Manhatten desk from Target – they don’t make this style anymore.  But this one is fairly close.  It has three drawers, and the middle one is a keyboard drawer where the front folds down.  The hutch matches, and is also no longer available, but Target has a few nice options that are similar.  I really wish I had a desk that was a bit more right-hand friendly, and had a wider keyboard tray so that I could also put my mouse on it – something like this.

17.  A small black plastic container to hold pencils.  I’d love to find a cute mason jar at Goodwill to replace this.

18.  The main event, my 15 inch MacBook Pro (here’s a newer one, even though the permanent battery is just about the worst idea EVER), on top of two large dictionaries.  Why?  Because buying a monitor is not in the budget, and I needed to raise the screen so that my posture wasn’t awful.  It looks ridiculous, I’ll admit to that, but it’s functional and free.  Hiding behind my laptop is a large bottle of hand lotion that I snagged at Whole Foods the last time I was in Minneapolis.  I’ve got really dry skin in the winter, so this was essential to have close at hand.

Below my desk is a small file box, and next to my desk is a wire basket for trash.  My chair is just a basic office rolling chair, hopefully someday replaced by something a bit more elegant and comfortable.

And that’s everything!

Thanks for taking a tour of my desk.  I hope you enjoyed it!  Probably my favorite thing right now is all of the green – I love green!  It’s so fun and punchy, and very appropriate for spring.  Next on my list would probably be the pictures of family.  Since they’re all 4+ hours away, I like to have little reminders of them close by.  I definitely need to get a picture of my parents and my nephew though!

What’s your favorite thing about your desk?  Either at home or at the office?  Do you keep pictures of family and friends? Are you super organized, or is yours covered with paper and really an “organized mess”?  Do tell!

One of the things we’ve desperately needed for a while is a duvet cover for our down comforter.  When we got married, we really could not find anything we liked and ended up registering for an entire bedding set at Macy’s.  But we never really liked it.  Plus, it was ridiculously over priced.  So, for the last 18 months, our comforter has been naked.  No duvet in sight.

Naked comforter

This, however, was not a good long term solution.  Apparently, the natural oils from your skin, sweat, and any left-over cosmetics begin to stain the fabric of your comforter and can break down the fibers in the comforter.  A quick Google search turned up this article, and several others about down comforters and the need for duvets.  We have a goose-down comforter -mmmmmm, it’s lovely! – and we’d love for it to last a long time, but you’re only supposed to have them cleaned ever 3 years or so.  So, in order to make it last a life-time, we needed to invest in a duvet.

One added bonus to having a down comforter is that you can easily change the style.  Duvet’s are like a pillowcase for your comforter – they are both protective and add some pretty decoration to your bed.  You can find inexpensive ones at many different stores, and I imagine it wouldn’t be too difficult to make your own.

The hunt was on for our new duvet.   Our budget was around $150, including shipping.  I looked at all of my usual haunts: Amazon, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond.  There were some good contenders and  a good selection, but reviews for my favorites weren’t very positive and encouraging.  I knew I wanted something high quality, but not exorbitantly overpriced like the $400+ duvet we registered for at Macy’s back in the day.  I also wanted something that was fairly classic and could adapt to changing styles, yet would fit in our modern bedroom.

After a good deal of searching and considering several options, I finally found this at West Elm:

And I loooooooooved it.  Simple, clean lines, but also not too modern that I couldn’t completely change the style of our bedroom in 5 years and have to to replace it.  It’s an organic pleated voile duvet – what is voile? – and I ordered it in white.  Maybe that seems ridiculous since the comforter is already white, but it’s classic and can go with anything.

The best part?  It was within our budget AND on sale!!!

I placed my order and patiently waited, and yesterday it arrived in a box, neatly packaged in a little carrying pouch, which will be great for summer storage.

I decided it would be a perfect time to change our sheets (definitely overdue…) and make the bed up all nice with our pretty new duvet.  Here’s her debut:

Isn’t she pretty?  Ignore the wrinkles, apparently ironing would have been a good idea, but who has time for that?

I am, of course, no incredibly aware of the sparseness of our bedroom.  We have hand-me-down endtables as nightstands that are about a foot too short, and the bed is in sore need of either a bed skirt or a true bed frame.  Obviously, neither is necessary, but wouldn’t it look better than the exposed corners and seemingly “floating” bed?

It’s funny how one new thing leads to another, isn’t it? 

I love this idea – taking vintage tea cups and making a clock!  I’m not sure if I love it enough to do it myself, though.  We’ve got a random assortment of tea cups with no real significance to them, and I bet a trip to an antique store and Good Will would give me enough to make my own DIY clock.  But where in the world would I put it??? Would it be totally weird to put in a bedroom?

What do you think?  Cute, or too much?

Taken from Sweet paul: time for tea? via How About Orange

It’s time for another edition of Weekend Planning!  I neglected to share my plans last week, and frankly, I can’t remember if I actually got anything done.  Whoops.  Hopefully this time around, sharing it with you will help keep me accountable!
House:

- Put the hide-a-bed away in the basement (something that should have been done 2 weeks ago!)

- Find a selection of (cheap) hardware for our downstairs bathroom – we need knobs, toiled paper holder, and towel bar.

- Continue researching paint options for our dining room and living room

- Research how to make small repairs on plaster walls (anyone have experience?)

- Make hummus for lunches next week

- Sweep and mop the kitchen floor (it’s been neglected in my daily chores)

Personal:

- remove batteries and memory card from my camera and package it to send on Monday to Chicago for repair

- Give myself an at-home facial

- Relax with DH before a crazy week begins!

How about you? What are your weekend plans?

Earlier last week, before this took the blog world into a mad craze, I discovered an AMAZING resource in the form of one very crafty and thrifty blog – Knocked Off Wood.

She takes popular furniture pieces, like this canopy bed from Pottery Barn…

And creates floor plans for the DIY carpentry enthusiast!  Or beginner

Her plans include more than just a picture, though.  She’s got dimensions, cut lines, recommendations for wood and finishes – she’s thought of it all!

I’d love to try making any of these that she has plans for:

A sleek book shelf that I think would look great on our second floor.

A great console table or buffet.

This cute little craft organizer that’s very customizable.

Or if you’re super advanced, try this island table!

It’s originally $5000 from Williams Sonoma, but you could build it for probably $200 (not including the granite counter, of course!)

What a great way to save money AND have a wonderful piece of furniture that you built yourself and could pass on to future family members!

Is there some piece of furniture that is way outside your budget but you’d like to take a stab at and build yourself?  Or maybe you’d just like to dream about building something?  Is it a simple table, shelf, or a more complicated entertainment system?  Do tell!

How many of us have tons of old T-shirts lying around that you never wear?  *raises hand*  DH was just saying the other day that my mountain of freebie shirts from various camps and events is ridiculous, and even more ridiculous is the fact that the only time I wear them is to the gym or to do dirty work around the house or yard.

But then today I found this adorable idea to make pillows out of old shirts, and I am SO making this my next project.  Especially since it is super easy.

Cute, yes?  Maybe a little too cutesy for some, but I might make a regular sized pillow and a few smaller ones too and throw them on the beds in our guest rooms.  Easy peasy.

Now I just need to get my sewing machine fixed…link to Ruffled T-Shirt Tutorial.