Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees

Okay, they're everywhere in design books, blogs, magazines... but I've never seen one in "real life" so guess what, I had to have one. The Fiddle Leaf Fig tree, in the ficus family, is tall and sculptural and green. Despite my "black thumb," I WILL keep this plant alive! Check out just a tiny sampling of some photos that feature this beauty...

Sofitel Hotel, Australia designed by Studio Printworks via decorati.com

Jim Riley living room, found via HGTV

Lori Dennis designs via HGTV

Living room designed by Lisa Aharam, found on HGTV.

Foley & Cox on Decorati. Have you found this amazing inspiration repository yet?

Style by Emily Henderson. Her own home. The blues and whites and casual style are so inviting.

And here's mine.... Sorry for the crappy photos. (Can you see that kitty pretending she's in a jungle?) In terms of maintenance, this is a fickle fiddle-leaf. It's true. She needs LOTS of sun and a meticulously kept watering schedule and I even got a grow lamp to light her from beneath! She's my baby. And I'm going to be so sad if I can't keep her alive.

I searched for MONTHS and contacted nurseries and landscaping people, just in case they knew where I could find one. FINALLY I had some luck... Interiorscapes based out of Fairview, TN could get me one. This isn't your average cheapy houseplant, which adds to my desire to keep it alive.
Also, Cathy at Interiorscapes is SO WONDERFUL, I encourage you to give her your business if you're in the Nashville area. She's amazingly warm and helpful.

One issue was the straw/moss batting stuff they put in the planter to cover the soil. I kept it there because I thought it should be there, against my better judgement. (It isn't pictured.) My house guests at my housewarming were baffled that I was up-lighting my FAKE tree. Me: "WHAAA. Let me tell you about how REAL it is....first, the pricetag. Next, the watering schedule. Then the sunlight requirements..." Needless to say, the straw got pulled out immediately. :)

It's a constant struggle to keep this lady-tree happy. Her temper tantrums (read: brown spots on leaves) required me to move her to a better lit spot, regardless of my desired living room layout and careful design considerations. I guess we have a new queen of the house...

Bentwood Chair Love and My Own DIY

I have loved the bentwood style kitchen chair for a long time. So classic. Such feminine lines. But so utilitarian at the same time. There's no frippery here! This is a seat even a manly man could love.

Sara Ruffin Costello's home via thekitchn.com. And to date one of my favorite spaces ever. Frequently visited page in my Domino book.

I love how Bentwood Chairs are so transitional in style! Check out this apartment with all the light on Design Sponge.

Found on Emily Henderson's blog

This image is from Susan and William Brinson's Sneak Peek on Design Sponge. I'm obsessed with this whole beautiful home. Check out that gorgeous bedroom with the light and the yellow duvet. Dreamy.

This image is from Design Sponge as well but I can't be sure which house tour. Love this light and bright kitchen!

I had set my mind to finding a complete dining set and had searched for months....when I finally (Eureka!) found someone selling his reproductions on my local Craigslist. They had been used in his beach themed restaurant and bar. They were a great deal and he had about a hundred to sell! I bought 8 (for the great, long dining table I don't yet have. You've done this before, right? Tell me I'm not crazy.) I have only redone 4 of the 8 because I was under the gun for our housewarming party. I like to think I will get to the other 4. :)

The bad news.... The chairs were ugly. Really ugly. And in bad shape.

Never one to be intimidated by some hard work, I set to stripping the paint. My initial thought was to go natural with the wood and finish with a stain and some poly. Well, that was until I started stripping the paint and it WASN'T going smoothly. This was my first attempt, and if you ever stripped paint, you know it's a nasty process.

One thing I learned, apply a LOT of stripper (I used Strypeeze) and let it soak for several minutes. The bubbles will tell you when it's ready. However, you might just disregard my advice on this topic, because ultimately, I was not successful with the paint-stripping. I reassessed my strategy.New plan: sand and PAINT!

I revisited my inspiration. I'm liking the semi-gloss black....! Excellent. Now we're getting somewhere. I used Black (Forever) a Behr Ultra paint from Home Depot in Satin Enamel finish. It's a black paint with a primer in it (SO glad I went with paint and primer in one. Covers so much better) and ended up doing two coats, plus a bit of touching up at the end. I used a brush and let them dry completely between coats.

Of course, those nasty white-painted vinyl seat cushions HAD to go. So, I set to removing the staples. (the THOUSANDS of staples!) I had to take a picture to show this. Crazytown. In my experience, by using a cheap kitchen steak knife, you can pry under the staple before going back in with needle nose pliers. Tedious, but not difficult.

Next, the seats. I had to find a fabric to recover the seats with that would be durable and easy to clean. I decided I wanted a pop of color and pattern. I checked with the Boyf about whether he felt he needed to approve the print or not. He said he trusted me (aww!). So the fabric I found was a vinyl tablecloth (!!!) for $4.99 at Homegoods. (!!!) I know. Believe it! The company who creates it is called Style Happy and I can't for the life of me find them online. (Is it even possible that they don't have a website in this day and age!?) I ended up having Boyf okay it anyway before all the hard work since the pattern does incorporate some feminine colors. I figured the geometric print balances out the femininity of the colors. He liked the pattern too. (Hooray!)

So step one for the seats, remove staples. Step two, lay the plywood seat plus batting down on your new fabric. (I reused the foam because it was in good shape.) Step three, center your round seat over the center of your repeating pattern. This isn't necessary but will give it a more polished end result. Step four, pull up the edges to estimate how much extra you'll need around the edges. (I am not an exact-math-kinda-person. I am an estimator. My mother, similarly, has "the ol' level eye" and never uses measurements or a level. I get better results when I use my eye than when I bother with a cumbersome ruler/measuring tape/etc.) Step five, pull the fabric taut and staple as close to the edge as you can. My staples were not going in flush, so I had a hammer nearby, and after about every five staples, I went back and hammered the staples flush. Step six, shown below, trim off the excess with scissors.

The covering of the seats took a long time, but again wasn't difficult. I fastened the seats to the chairs using the pilot holes and brackets on the frames, and there you have it!

I'm pleased with the result and think they look cheerful and clean. What do you think?

As if I could want a bicycle more...

I love finding amazing ideas on the web... Real sparks of genius that make you shout, "Why didn't I think of this!?" with your hands in the air. That's exactly how I felt when I founddowntownfrombehind.com. BRILLIANT!

I go wild for tile!

I cannot wait to own my own home one day... I can guarantee some beauties like ones I've included here will be installed. It's incredible to me how the tiles in each of these installations provide such varying looks and such distinct feelings. The Mediterranean blue and white tiles transport me right back to Europe. The bright candy colors read more like wallpaper (that is easier to clean!)

Image from Design Sponge Sneak Peek featuring Emma and James Emmerson of greeting card and stationery publisher 1973

Image from Design Sponge Sneak Peek featuring the home of Sanna Annukka and Jasper Goodall.

Image from Design Sponge Sneak Peek featuring Fiona Douglas of Bluebellgray. I love this whole house!! The florals! The blues! I'm obsessed.

Innovative tile designs from Trend found at Oh Joy!

Portuguese Reproduction Tile from Lascaux Tile Company

Unknown source.

Check out this water feature at University of San Diego. I snapped the shot when Ryan and I were out there last week. Stunning!

Butterfly wall art and DIY

Here's a project I did recently based on unlikely inspiration... my old business cards! It seemed so wasteful to toss all of these little pieces of perfect cardstock. There had to be a project for them! I searched the interwebs and came up with very few ideas that inspired me. (I did use one idea from this site: http://geekgyrls.com/15-creative-uses-for-your-old-business-cards/. Ryan and I flipped them over and used them as labels for moving boxes. Especially the big reusable plastic kind that you don't want to write on. One strip of packing tape holds it in place.)

Then I had an "Aha!" moment... I quickly pulled up my inspiration folder of my favorite spaces and ideas for art that I could potentially execute on some scale. Doesn't that swirling ball of butterflies have such an impact? Let's see what you think of my smaller scale DIY version.

Paul Vellinski butterfly sculpture, photographed by Kara Mann, found on Decorpad

I did this project in assembly line format...First I folded the business cards. I wanted different size butterflies, so I found some other sturdy scraps in varying sizes. Something like flyers you get for the latest restaurant opening or postcards from the dentist. Keep in mind, if they are not glossy and more like construction paper, they'll soak up more paint and might not give you the look you're going for.

I made about 60 little butterflies, because I was creating while watching TV and just got into a groove. I did not end up using them all but will probably add to my installation in the future.


Then I drew one butterfly wing. You can use your own idea of the perfectly perfect butterfly wing. Mine was pointy at the top with a rounded bottom. (Sounds like the description of a female conehead. Heh heh.)

I then cut out along the lines I just made with scissors.

And pretty soon I had lots of little butterflies that look like they're about to take flight!

Next I painted them. I liked the idea of the solid black butterflies as in the inspiration image, but you could really paint them any color you like! Also, I discovered that spray paint doesn't work that great to cover the embossed lettering on the cards. This was especially true of some of the butterflies I cut out from the non-glossy papers I had. My solution was to use black paint with primer in it that I already had lying around. This worked very well. A second coat helped get the look I was after.

I didn't take a picture of the following step where I painted the reverse side. I ended up painting them with some acrylic craft paint I had lying around for a peek of color from the underside. Still a dark color, so not super obvious. But I can say, now that I have them mounted on the wall, they reflect a hint of purple on the white wall, which I think is pretty.

Once they were dry, I folded them a bit more to make them look like they were in flight and added a small sliver of double-sided tape where the "body" would be.


And here's the final result!



Now I have a pretty 3D sculpture that reminds me to take it easy and float with the breeze.

My own artwork, update!

One of my earlier posts touched on painting and creating art. I have since created some of my own pieces and I even have them hanging proudly in my house. I'm pleased to report the actual creation went easily, with the vast blankness of the canvas intimidating me only a bit. (Wine helps.) And having a few images that seem "re-create-able" also helps. Sometimes you just need a good color to help you get started.

Here are three of a series. Colorful abstracts that hopefully convey a certain ease and happiness.

The last two are part of a (potentially incomplete?) series of tree branches. My initial thought was to capture the same branch in different seasons. Perhaps this has been done before... but you have to start somewhere!

The one medium of art that I've been relying on since high school is collage. I just adore the process. The flipping through magazines, snipping choice words and pictures, and then finally sitting down with some rubber cement and my journal or a piece of cardboard waiting to be framed. There is something joyous in the juxtaposition of so many different kinds of typography and colors for me. I've included one of my many collages below. I created this one for Ryan, to encapsulate Summer 2009, a summer filled with many wonderful trips and countless great memories.

I hope you like them!