Ellen's Nursery Chair

There are always surprises when you do upholstery. Always! It doesn't matter how many times you do it, furniture is like people and every piece, just like every person, is different.

Ellen brought me this chair

It was her grandmother's and now that Ellen and her husband are expecting their own little bundle soon, she wanted to use it as the nursery chair. The pink velvet wasn't exactly the direction she was wanting to go though so she asked me to help out with the upholstery situation.

This chair had about 2 million staples in it. I have seriously never seen that many staples in anything. I filled 3 red Solo cups with staples! Craziness! Once all of those staples were removed is when the good stuff starts though.

Making cushion covers

Sewing piping

Adding tack strip

Sewing the skirt

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Pinning it on and hemming it

Then blind-stitching the entire back and outside arms of the chair so it's a tight fit.

I threw my daughters pillow and elephant in the chair quickly and snapped all of these pictures with my phone. Bad little blogger I know but, Ellen needed to come pick it up and I had been down with a migraine for 3 days. 

Aren't my dingy hall closet doors awesome? I think the sun faded pattern from the old gold lattice I removed gives them just the right touch. Oh well, one day it will be a pretty place...sigh

Another happy client and moving on to the next one ;)

Jade's New Room

Jade's room still has work to be done. While Dylan's room has structural changes coming, Jade's is more of an incomplete decorating story at present.

This is what Jade's room looked like when the other owners still had the house

She's the messiest child ever, so I know her room isn't always going to look as precious in person as it does in my head...or when I clean it. This is what her room looked like when she was in the south bedroom at this house.

It's sad, and I am working on it but she is more stubborn than I could ever have fathomed! The stubbornness comes from both sides and the messiness is a Taylor genetic thing I'm almost positive. But, sometimes her space can be precious just like its inhabitant ;)

This piece below was a craigslist find. It's slated for a makeover, but client work comes first so I will have to work on it later. It's a little larger than I usually like for a bedside chest but I loved this piece and couldn't let it go. I shifted things around and made a place for it.  I think it is so cute in here and I cannot wait to get it finished!

I'm also going to make custom curtains for this room, but something had to be done temporarily with the super ugly shutter fabric. I chose to go neutral and used drop cloth fabric. It was awesome to see the transformation. It brightened the space almost as much as painting the ceiling a crisp white had!

I love the fabric in her room. The pinks are really dominate but Jade wants to focus on the blue and green in the fabric so that's where we are going with it. I love that she picked unpredictable colors. I thought she would still be all over the pink and purple, but she's growing up.

The supporting fabrics are precious. Polka dots just scream "Jade" to me. She's a spunky little girl for sure!

And while she loves to read and make messes (usually with clothes or paper) all the time...

...I love to organize! If you want to see how I truly am then look inside the closets of this house. If you look at the rooms you might think unseemly things like "hoarders" or something. But, that's just us living here.

All I have to do is open a wonderfully organized closet and smile. 

Her room is a happy place and I love that she loves it just as much as I do!

Dylan's Room

While I did Jade's room first in the room switch, her's really isn't ready for a reveal yet. While Dylan's still lacks a few things, his actually is more complete.

Since they switched rooms his was the one with the hideous green wall

I cannot explain to you how happy I was to cover up that green wall!

This is what we've ended up with for now

No, I didn't cut in up close at the ceiling because we are planning to add trim work in here and it will cover that. I see no reason spending time on a ladder painting carefully at the ceiling line if it's only going to be covered over. It seems like silly and un-needed work...or maybe I'm just lazy sometimes ;)

I also need to figure out a window treatment for in here. I have his curtains from the old house, but they are striped and I think I need something a little different for this arrangement.

 This is his reading nook. I'm trying to make a big deal about it to encourage my little scientist to read more.

This wall above, with his desk, and the wall shown below with the closet door are where some changes will be happening. The wall the desk is on is the back wall of this large hall closet. 

Dead serious that closet is 8 feet long by 3 feet deep...in the hall! So we will be sealing it up in the hall for more wall space and to make the end of the entry way a little nicer to look at than just doors. It will be opened up in Dylan's room as his new closet then. There is another hall closet that is almost as large right by the front door and a linen closet further on down the hall. I'm all for storage, but it seems redundant. The wall pictured below that houses Dylan's closet now, falls in between the his and hers closets in the master bedroom. So we will be sealing off the door in Dylan's room and taking down the walls inside to make one huge master closet. I grin every time I think of this!

It still needs some work but the room has definitely been enjoyed! These little Texas boys made a shooting range behind the bed and had an awesome time for about 45 minutes just shooting at toys of different sizes.

I think he missed his toys on the first day of school! When he got home he played so hard with them for hours and then crashed.

It's never good when it's quiet (right moms?) so I went to check on him and found this:

An extra tired boy, in a messy and well loved room, and for once quiet was perfect!

Something I Adore

We all know I love design, we all know I love chairs (my husband thinks this is a sickness), and we all know that my love of both of those things started because I LOVE houses!

Television and Movie houses have always inspired me so much. I have my favorites for sure, but there are so many great ones.

Some notable ones are:

Father of the Bride House

Home Alone House

It's a Wonderful Life - George Bailey's House

Sense and Sensibility - Barton Cottage

 

Something's Gotta Give Beach House

 

 Stepmom House

All of the houses above are great for sure, but let's get to the ones that make my heart beat fast. Let's start at the very beginning. 

When I was a little girl, my Aunt Joyce would fly in from Seattle every Thanksgiving to see us. I cannot explain to you how much I love this woman. She is my second mother, my adoration knows no bounds! She snuggled me on the couch one year and we rented (yes rented) a VCR and Gone With the Wind. I believe I was six at the time and we had just gotten our first color TV...our family was late to the technology party!

I was more enraptured by the clothes, houses, and overall glamour of the movie than the actual story at that time. But I still remember the first time I saw Tara in all its glory - I got chills!

My love of houses has only grown since then.

Tara

 Twelve Oaks

The next love came when I was a freshman in college.

Practical Magic House

Who wouldn't love that?!?

My all-time favorite house is the house in What Lies Beneath. It's completely my own personal style. The style I would have 100% if I only had myself to consider.

What Lies Beneath

The interior is just as beautiful as the exterior. I just love this house!

All of the houses (above) pictures and stories were found at hookedonhouses.net

You should really visit her site for more pictures and the amazing and sometimes shocking stories that go along with these houses. I find it fascinating!

But, something happened in the summer of 2012, something called The Bourne Legacy. I fell in love with another house. The first time we were watching this movie and the house came into view I got chills and leaned to my husband and said, "Oh darlin! Look at that house!!!" To which he replied with a smirk, "Only YOU would say that."

We never see this house all fixed up - it is a restoration project. But, oh...the bones are so lovely and it has layer upon layer of character!

Check out the house's full story at remodelista.com

The Bourne Legacy House

Just a few more of the things I adore.