Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hope you all have a great St. Patty's Day weekend!

I love this image of a D. Porthault sheet used as a shower curtain!  I also love the white tiles, the kohler sink and the waterworks fittings.

Sorry, I've been out of the loop.  I really, really hurt my back and I've been pretty much stuck in bed all week.  I hope to return next week.

Chic DIY Art

One of the things I want to ensure our new home has is layers and layers of art.  I have noticed that every home I love is filled with beautiful art.  And, as many of you know, art can be terribly expensive.

So, today I thought I'd leave you with some very chic DIY projects for affordable art.  I found all of these via pinterest.  I seriously can't wait to try them these when we are back home.

Here, they cut out circles from a poster board, spray painted it gold, layered it on fiberboard in a fish-scale pattern and framed it.  So beautiful and graphic!  Such a great idea if you are in need of a large piece of artwork and don't want to spend a lot of money.  

Ribba frames (from Ikea) spray painted gold.  They look amazing and high-end.  Who doesn't want a touch of metallic in their home?

Definitely not a new idea, but framing a vintage scarf is instantaneous artwork.  I am on the hunt for a vintage scarf while here in Vienna.  

So clever.  Framing a letter, postcard or memento that has sentimental value. I particularly like how they framed the envelope along with the letter.  Given where technology is going, handwritten notes will be a thing of the past - what a great way to preserve meaningful letters, notes, etc.  

Aren't all of these so great and doable?  That is my kind of DIY - super easy, affordable and looks design worthy!!  Have a great weekend guys!!  Bis bald....

2011: A Year in Review

Happy New Year!!   2011 has brought a lot of success in so many ways!  Of course the greatest is little E that is now 3 and 1/2 months old.  Other successes were finishing up some long standing projects around the home and getting our house sold in a relatively quick manner.  Here are some Green Street 2011 highlights:

DIY bulletin board

Before & After Kitchen Roman Shade

Before & After Kitchen Stool

RIT Dyed Lamp Shade

DIY Painted & Stenciled Ikea Rug

Before & After Kitchen

Before & After Patio

Before & After Hallway

DIY Greek Key Roman Shade

Before & After Renovated Bathroom

Before & After Dining Room

Before & After Sideboard

Make sure you click on the links to see the 'before'.  There are some huge transformations.

All of these projects were completed before Elizabeth was born in September and our house sold in October.  Phew! We accomplished a TON in 2011 and I look forward to a new adventure when we temporarily move to Vienna, Austria (leave this Tuesday).  

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Day and the next time you'll hear from me will be in Vienna!!   Bis dann....

Tara Guerard: Champagne and Pink

Have you seen how Tara Guerard's set her dining table for Thanksgiving in this month's issue of Southern Living.  I'm head over heels for it and am loving this color combination of champagne and pink.

via

Don't you love the bench with the pink pillows?  How fun and unexpected!  In fact, I love this color palette so much it will be the inspiration for my daughter's quilt that my mother in law promised to make for her.

So pretty.

I love this tablecloth with the wide contrasting band!  So dramatic!

Ironed on monograms - brilliant!!  Love how the Lindt chocolates add the pop of pink!  Great styling. 

Love the self serve bar!

So, now I'm on the mad hunt for champagne colored fabric for Elizabeth's quilt!  If you have any recommendations, let me know!  

In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.  

Before & After: DR Sideboard

With all the craziness, I've been slow to post some of my finished projects.  And, once the baby arrives (due this Sunday) I know I won't have time.  So, here is the sideboard I found at a tag sale for $25.

BEFORE (Post Sanding)

It wasn't the best quality, but it was the perfect size for our small dining room.  If you remember from this post, I decided to paint it BM Pale Avocado and add this hardware.

I haven't hung my antique gold federal style (eagle) mirror above the sideboard because we're moving in less than a month and I really don't want to put new holes in the wall.  So, here is the sideboard now.

AFTER

The other day, I placed my mirror on the sideboard to see how it would look.  I'm dying to hang it - I think it would go perfectly above the sideboard.  

AFTER

I found that mirror at an antique store for $45.  I love it.  The sideboard has a collections of items which I love and found at various places.  I know my orchid looks in bad shape;  I can not for the life of me keep orchids alive.  

And, do you spy some DwellStudio Gate Citrine fabric in the reflection of the mirror?  More on that tomorrow - I will reveal my dining room (as it currently stands) and will show you what an awesome job Melissa from Windows by Melissa did on my roman shades!    Stay tuned!

Finally, it's the weekend!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week!  Lack of power had me going bonkers, school starting had me emotionally unstable, job demands had me running around, 36 weeks pregnant had me exhausted and a 4 hour home inspection had me a bit preoccupied.

BUT, on a different note, this video inspired me especially with fall right around the corner.  Laura Day can do no wrong in my book!!  I want to try this!!  Great DIY - check it out!

DIY: Greek Key Roman Shade

Sorry for the absence.  We're putting our house on the market and we are furiously (and frantically) finishing home projects.  I'm exhausted and blogging has taken a hit.  Anyhow, I wanted to share the DIY roman shade I completed.

It's for our upstairs (recently renovated) bathroom.  The greek key trim is from M & J Trimming.

Some white duck cloth from Joann's, Greek Key trim and a Home Depot (Providence) natural bamboo shade and viola: 

I was inspired by this photograph:

and I followed John's Journal tutorial.  If you haven't seen her dining room shades, they're amazing!

I would love to do this project again and the greek key trim made me so happy.  I was torn between the green or black greek trim, but I'm so happy I decided to go with the green.  

I do have 3 to 4 yards (60 mm) of the M & J Trimming's black and white Greek Key Jacquard trim if anyone is interested.  It retails for $9.98/yard and I'll sell it for $9.00/yard.  

Let me know if you're interested.  

Dining Room Mood Board & Updates

Remember this post about my dining room?  I've been slowly making updates to it.  It's taking longer than usual mainly because at 32 weeks, I find myself exhausted most of the time.  The interior designer created a mood board for the space, I simplified it, but here is the jist of it.  

My Dining Room Mood Board

The walls have been painted which I think has been the biggest transformation.  We painted over wallpaper!!  I wouldn't recommend that for everyone, but there are a lot of reasons we decided to do that.  I plan on doing a separate post on that.  

Melissa, from Windows by Melissa, is making my roman shades.  I primed and my husband painted our sideboard and we got new hardware. 

We got a new rug and we painted our existing dining room table and chairs.  Since our DR table and chairs had a finish on it, I originally planned on using an oil based primer and a latex paint.  

But, I then learned about a product from Sherwin Williams called 'adhesion primer'.  It basically allows you to prime without sanding.  It bonds tightly to surfaces considered 'unpaintable' like, ceramics, PVC piping, furniture with existing stains, etc.  This would allow me to 'skip' the sanding and actually use a latex based primer instead of an oil based primer.  Latex is a lot easier to work with.  So, I bought it and tried it. 

The true test will be time, but I have to say it was a dream to use.  Now, here comes the major setback.  My husband (who didn't even want to re-do the dining room because we're moving soon) spent a half day (while I was at work) painting the table and chairs for me.  When we brought the furniture into the room, we noticed that color on the furniture was off and not the same as the walls.  (We're painting the furniture the same color as the walls).  We re-checked the paint can to confirm that it was the right color and number, but noticed that the formula used was different from the formula used on the walls.  I am so upset.  

We will go back to the paint store to complain, but you just can't get back all the time and labor that went into painting the table and chairs.  My poor husband.  So, right now, I have to figure out what to do, but I am so deflated.   So, stay tuned....this saga will be continued......

In other news, I want to thank Elizabeth from The Mustard Ceiling for featuring my hallway yesterday on her blog - see here. 

I was very flattered as she is a great designer and DIYer.  Her blog is full of amazing projects!!  Thanks, Elizabeth!

Mini Makeover: My Patio

If you remember in this post, I told you that we have teensy tiny patio I wanted to spruce up.  Our patio was virtually a place where we kept our trash cans and stacked garden chairs during the winter.  It is nothing pretty to look at by any means.

Before

If we were to stay in this house longer, the first thing of order would be to either re-paint or spray wash the foundation and re-cement the stairs.  I also would replace the metal door and windows, but it's not worth it because we want to move.

If you remember, I also said I had no budget for this makeover so I wanted to shop my home and repurpose what I had.  As you can see above, we had two wicker chairs, a garden stool and an outdoor/indoor rug (not pictured).  All of these were to become the main ingredients for the mini-makeover.  

Above is the mood board I created for my project.  Here, you can see the rug I had to work with - definitely not my favorite, but it worked just fine.  I spray painted the wicker chairs glossy black and the garden stool an apple green.  I bought cream round planters from Joann's (out of all places) for 50% off.  And, I bought sunbrella chair cushions and mini lumbar pillows.  

After

Here is the after.  In my humble opinion, I really think the planters make it.  They add color and life to this patio.  So, what do you think?  Not bad for re-purposing what you currently own and using your green thumb!! 

Now if only the mosquitos would disappear, I could sit out here in the evenings!!!