The Attic Bedroom: Rated PG-13 (almost)

Starring an almost 13-year-old and her room.  Special appearance by: Justin Bieber!! 

Seating fit for a Tween Queen: floor pillows, frenchy chair, and chalk tables!

Since movies have been shot, edited and canned in less time than it's taken me to premiere photos of some of my completed projects, I'm rolling out the red carpet for this 'After' series. 

The seating area above is from this room...rememeber it?:

Imagine it a white box with a sad green window seat.

 (This pic. was taken after I painted and treated the walls with a glossy turquoise.)  

Drumroll....

detail of greek key trim on the drapes...loved the way they turned out!

the chalk board tables I made -- a huge hit with she and her pals!

the Craigslist chair I redid

And making his cameo, as promised:

The Biebs playing his most popular role: adorning a tweener's bedroom door. 

Special thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law, photographer West Freeman, for shooting these 'after' photos!  (The Biebs photo courtesy of my iphone).

And the Superbowl Ring goes to....

My bed!  Yes, rember this lovely-dovely 'ole-beddypoo that I redid for my friend's lovely little girl?  **(so, technically, it's not my bed since I don't sleep on it...but since I had a hand in it's creation, I feel like it's mother.)


Long story short, a knock on my friend's door from a producer evolved into her house being chosen to shoot a Chase Bank commercial, featuring Drew Brees.  The :30 spot will run this very evening in the advertising Superbowl of Superbowls, the Superbowl!


In the commercial, Drew's adorable little boy kicks a football that ricochets through a few neighbors' homes.  The scene starring the bed begins at the :04 second mark when the football crashes through the room where a teen girl is doing yoga.

So, my bed's famous...and it better thank me in all it's acceptance speeches!


I feel like Navin R. Johnson right now:

"This is the kind of spontaneous publicity....Things are going to start happening to me now."


PS: I have been a horrible blogger lately, I know.  More updates soon!  Lots of fun projects! xo.

No Mommies Allowed

While I've been busy not blogging, a certain five-year-old in my house has been busy maturing into a teenager.  Seriously, he turned the big 0-5 on Monday and he's already trying to get rid of me.  


The fiver in question politely asked me to help him write a sign for his door.  As he dictated, all I could think was:
a) He was so courteous about asking me to stay out.  
     (Notice the two 'pleases'...I can pat myself on the back for that.)
b) At least he's still calling me Mommy, and not by my first name yet.
c) He only asked me to stay out for A minute -- that's not that long.  I can handle that.
d) Where has my baby boy gone?


The best feature of this door sign is, of course, the drawing he created at the bottom:

That's a picture of me in the circle with a red X on top of it.  

So in the event that I can't read what I wrote, I can refer to the 'No Mommy Allowed' symbol.  He's a genius!


Here's big boy's room:

The mid-century chest actually came from grandmother's house --
it was in my Dad's room growing up!  I hand colored the old baseball photo above it.

I love this flame-stitch wing chair!  The colors in the room are green
and blue with orange accents so I put a fun orange zebra  pillow .

You know me and how I love to paint things...his bed got the orange treatment!
I painted the pop-art piece above his bed to add more color.

Sock monkeys with an awesome needlepoint pillow by his God-Momma!

His bookshelves are such a mess right now I will spare you that view.  I really want to do some canvas curtains in here with a fun blue trim, or just a big fat blue border on the bottom.  What do you think?  You think this look can last him a few years?


And speaking of kid's rooms...my niece's room is almost finished!  It has taken forever due to several fabric back-orders.  But, curtains are done and hopefully will be put up this weekend!  Look out for pictures soon!


xo.

A Star is Born

Stage fright is not an option when you look this good.

She can't dance, she can't sing, and she definitely doesn't smoke.  In fact, she just sits there. But she's really good looking and full of personality.   

The chair reprises the role made famous by Ms. Garland.

It's the classic story as retold by me and a chair.  (Hold on, that's Hollywood calling on the other line.)  Unknown talent discovered and born again under the spotlight.  Alright, so maybe the chair's no Judy, but I'm still its Norman Maine -- with the exception that I'm not fatally jealous of its success.  You get the idea.   Remember this chair?

Grandma mint-green disaster in poly-blend floral rash 

It was a $40 Craigslist chair.  Apparently its only redeeming quality, besides its cute frenchy curves, is that it's really photogenic considering how ugly the finish and material were in person.  You can read more about me, the chair, and its transformation here.

Here is our star now:

So what if it just sits there?  It received a standing ovation from its most important fan -- its new owner, my niece.  A little paint, new material and it sparkles under the spotlight (a.k.a. the track lighting in its new attic bedroom).  The wise Judy Garland once said, "Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else."  Mission accomplished, star. (Applause track...)

Fit for a (tween) Queen part II

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

Fit for a Queen part I.  One thing I love is the challenge of a budget. Things add up, and there’s no shame in saying, hey…is there a less expensive alternative? Creativity is really tested when tackling the almighty dollar. I love the thrill of transforming something bought at the cheap into something fabulous and unique. The more the frugal, the more the creative.

First, plans for my niece’s room changed when I found the above rug from Garnett Hill. I love the combination of coral and teal, and so does my 12-year-old ‘boss.’ With the rug, however, the hot pink fabric for the chair no longer worked. So all the original fabrics got tossed, and I decided on this budget friendly trio:

Fabrictastic!

Next, instead of spending money on custom curtains, which can add up quickly, we are getting plain white sailcloth curtains from Pottery Barn and trimming the lead and bottom edges with this coral/pink greek key trim:

Custom trim on store bought drapes = a Custom look

Third, instead of spending money on the coffee table for the seating area, I bought two of these puppies from Target for $15/ea. and painted them with chalkboard paint:

$15 table + chalkboard paint = tween dream

Here is the room before the rug, etc. (but after the paint glaze):

O Room-eo, Room-eo, wherefore art thou cool Room-eo?

Deny me a rug and refuse me more color....

Or if thou wilt not, at least refuse thy sad looking window seat.

Room in Transition:

I can imagine she and her friends really enjoying this seating area,

and I love the way the rug gives a big pop of color to the space.

Floor pillows ...

and a striped window seat to lounge on,

and two cool chalkboard tables (which she immediately got to work on)!

Fabric ordered: check. French chair at the reuphoster: check. Curtains on the way: check.

Soon enough, my favorite pre-teen queen will have something to write

home about, or rather, write about home.

Fit for a (Tween) Queen

Did I mention I’m ‘tween-tweaking’ (slap me for that) my 12-year-old nieces bedroom? Guilty. Am I correct in thinking that a pre-teen is tween, and what wordsmith came up with this term? Why the added ‘w,’ and does it denote anything in particular? Forgive me for this very philosophical line of questioning.

Before I sink myself further down this rabbit hole, let me take that elusive w back, and just call her a pre-teen. As they say, age is only a number. She is wise beyond her years, or maybe I’m unwise below my years. Either way, we just ‘click,’ and I’m lucky to call her family.

Above is my inspiration board for the room.

A few months before she asked for my help, she had had the room painted a very bright teal/turquoise. A great color, but it was so bright I had to bring my sunglasses just to consult on the space. I decided the first thing I would do would be to add a glaze to tone the color down a bit, and add a little high-gloss glamour to the space.

The only item that Momma said must stay in the room is an antique Victorian bed. Other than that, my niece and I were on our own.

If you can see the design board and its accompanying descriptions, congratulations, you don't need Lasik. (For whatever reason, no matter how many times I've resized these images in photoshop, they still show up teeny on the blog? Try clicking on the photo to get an enlarged version.)

For the not so visibly, and the visibly challenged people, here are the design cliff-notes:

1.The idea was to pour a bunch of hot pink color into the turquoise room with various fabrics

2. Floor pillows, a french chair (the one I'm redoing), and a coffee table to provide a seating area in one corner of the room

3. The Celerie Kemble Betwixt fabric to cover the window seat and to trim out the curtains (for the big window facing front of house), and roman shades (for above the desk and window seat).

4. A Parson's desk and french chair for studying in the corner across from the bed.

Of course as with any good plan, there have been multiple changes, mainly in the name of el budgeto. Check back tomorrow for more, and progress pictures.

I can promise you this:

It's looking Tweentastic!

Forty and Fabulous

Here’s a $40 golden nugget from Craigslist. I am in love with Craigslist. I also love the $40 that departed my wallet to purchase this little french star. The photo actually makes the material look better than it actually is/was. (Note to self: need better camera?) Let's be clear, this is not a silk damask. More like a poly-blend floral rash, in grandma mint-green nonetheless.

I’m currently redoing my pre-tween niece’s bedroom (more on that soon). Somehow, by the grace of Justin Bieber, I persuaded her to trust me with her space. Now that I am in the circle of said trust, I convinced her this chair would be a unique alternative to the ever-popular 'Pottery Barn Teen' beanbag. (This is not a knock on PB Teen. They have some standouts and I must say if you are are in the market to buy your 12-year-old niece a beanbag, this flokati covered one takes the cake. Cool, huh?)

The room is painted a pretty teal, and my idea is to accent with pink or coral/orange. Anyway, Plan A was to paint it a high gloss hot pink and cover it in a fun zebra print.

But then I ordered this awesome rug in coral from Garnett Hill, and so on to Plan B: to paint it a high gloss white and put some other funky fabric on it. Here it is in progress:

Fabric options:

I'm thinking the suede Kravet material in teal, with a zebra pillow (everybody, especially 12-year-old girls need a little zebra print). I'd like to do a big floor pillow with the suzani-like fabric, and recover the window seat with the stripe. After pictures of the chair coming when the reupholstery is donezo. I promise more pictures and information on the 'tween-tweaking' (ha ha) of her bedroom soon...

A Headboard Ahead

My friend’s little girl is going into Kindergarten -- the Big Time. Thus, she is upgrading to a nice queen size bed. Ahhh, the life. Truth is, her parents are upgrading to a King, so she gets the old Queen. Seriously, this little child is one princess who will definitely grow up to have all the grace of a Queen. Spunky, adorable, polite, and full of questions -- I love her! So when her mom, a very dear and old friend (I’ve known her pretty much my entire life), asked me to tweak the tired headboard, of course I said yes.

We debated about what to do with it. Her room is a very light yellow with pink accents in the curtains and bedding. My vote was to‘funkify’ the plain jane headboard and paint it a high-gloss, hot pink just to spark it up a notch, à la this:

(image via Elle Decor)

Note the gorgeous chest on chest in the corner of the room. The fact that it is painted bright yellow is totally unexpected and playful. I LOVE it, and always reference it in my head when I go scouting for furniture, or plan to redo a room. Case in point, I painted my son's bed bright orange. (Anyone know who the designer of this room is? I saved the image a while back as one of my favorites.)

But her momma, otherwise known as the boss in this situation, politely said “Um….no,” every time I mentioned the idea of the hot pink headboard. To my trained eye, what she was actually thinking was “Um, no. And, seriously Katherine, you crazy!” Maybe I was a little ahead of myself?!

The beginning to the end of this little story is that we settled on my ole standard, the antiqued look. Hey, a little patina goes a long way.

Here is the headboard before:

Plain Jane, No Thank You Mam.

And after:

An Oxymoron of a Headboard: Newly Antiqued

I obviously need a better camera than my iPhone. Anyone have any suggestions? These pictures do not show off how gorgeous the bed turned out. As soon as she has it up in her room with her bedding, I’ll post another picture with hopes that her momma has a better camera than moi.