Move over Lunet chair, there's a new favorite in town!

I collect chairs like most women collect shoes!  I guess there's something similar between a pair of shoes and a well crafted chair: they both can be sculptural like a piece of art; they both can be pretty as well as practical; and they both can elevate a room or an outfit into a statement.

I love looking at all styles of chairs, but I don't become obsessed with them until they reach my price range AND I have somewhere in mind for said chair to go.  No point lusting after an Eames recliner if you can't afford a real one and you don't have room for one anyway.

Luckily both of those prerequisites were satisfied shortly after Christmas when I realized that after the tree was taken down, there felt like there was a huge empty space in the corner of the room that was just crying out for something.  Previously the space had been taken up by the drum kit, but since moving that to the basement, that spot had been left bare.  Also, luckily for me, my favorite store, Anthropologie, were having a huge sale with an extra discount of 40%.  I snagged this chair for less than $500!

And it finally arrived today.  It's now taken up residence in the hollow spot, but I like it so much I may have to swap it with my other favorite from Anthropologie, the Lunet chair.

Here it is, not where it's going to go, but doesn't it look pretty against the white fireplace?

Tufted Emilie Chair

And here it is in situ.

Still debating whether it looks better with the cushion or not.  It certainly matches the painting which incidentally I picked up for $95 from a local thrift store.  The thing that drew me to the painting was that it's a picture of Union Square in San Francisco which is where my husband proposed to me 21 years ago!

Here the chairs are together.  You can see that there's definitely similarities between the two so they work together in the same room.

Look at that gorgeous tufting!

It adds a spot of color to this corner.

But I still think I prefer the Lunet chair there; the scale is better suited.

The only regret I have is that I didn't buy two!  I think in my next house, they would look perfect together either in front of a fireplace or around a small side table.

DIY Anthropologie Style Curtains - Ikea Hack

If you've ever shopped for curtains at Anthropologie, you'll know how expensive they can be. Not only that but you're also limited to the standard lengths with a max of 108 inches. I wanted the curtains for the music room to be floor to ceiling length.  My ceilings are 10 feet tall so that pretty much meant that I would need to get custom curtains.  Fortunately I found out that Ikea sell a very inexpensive white curtain called Ritva, that almost looks like linen and is 118 inches long.  They are also only $34.99 for a pair!  Perfect.

Except it wasn't perfect.  Knowing how much cotton shrinks when you wash it, I decided to preshrink my curtains before hanging them so that I knew exactly where to hang the rod.  And boy, did those curtains shrink.  And not only that, but they also shrank to different lengths!  (I bought these curtains over a year ago, and recently bought another pair to use in the hallway.  The newer pair have not shrunk as much and they are also finished on the bottom unlike the older ones).

Another bonus of these curtains is they also have a built in tape at the top which allows you to make the pleats with curtain hooks (which is a much nice look than the simple rod pockets that most curtains come with).

So I hung the curtains and tried to ignore the fact that some puddled on the floor while others were 3 inches above it!  They're also kind of flimsy so they didn't drape that nicely either.  A chance purchase of a huge quilt on sale for only $70 from Sundance Catalog set the wheels in motion for a bit of customization to said curtains.

The first thing I did was decide how much of the patchwork quilt I wanted to attach to the bottom of each curtain.  I chose to use the bottom of the glass pane in the window to be my guide.

I then measured the desired height and used painters tape because I didn't have any chalk or a ruler long enough.  

I though about leaving it as is with just the quilt, but decided that it didn't look finished.

So then came the task of deciding what type of piping or detail to use.

I really liked the green geometric fabric, but it only came in 45 inch width.  I would either have to turn it around so that the pattern was not the diamond shape that I liked (see below), or I'd have to join 2 pieces together which would create a seam.

Once I had decided on the trim I dusted off the old sewing machine and got to work.

Fortunately the quilt, which incidentally is made from saris, is sewn together quite roughly so my bad sewing skills can be disguised.  I simply sewed the patchwork onto curtain making sure that the finished length of the curtain was the desired length (skimming the floor).

I then cut out the trim piece, folded it in half and ironed it.

The final step was to sew all the layers together using a straight stitch.

The trim is only sewn down one side so it is like a flap.

I feel a bit guilty chopping up the quilt because it states on the Sundance Catalog website that each quilt takes 6 months to make!  But I think that the curtains came out beautifully.

Here's a break down of the cost of the curtains (per panel).

Curtain Ikea $17.49
Quilt (divided by 6) $11
Trim $1
Grand Total of $29.49.

And I still have quite a bit of the quilt left that I can either make a small throw blanket or a couple of pillows.

My "favorite nook" featured on Brooklyn Limestone

Today I'm so honoured to be featured on Brooklyn Limestone blog.

Brooklyn Limestone was one of the first blogs I ever read and it's still inspiring me all these years later.  For the next week or so Mrs. Limestone is doing a guest series called "my favorite nook".  I'm so thrilled to have my space included and excited to see the other "nooks".

Look, there's my room, second from the left. 
Check out the feature here.

Let me know what you think!

Anthropologie Pinned My Room!

I'm so thrilled to know that Anthropologie (my favorite store) liked my music room/library enough to pin it on to one of their inspiration boards.

I think I'm more thrilled about this than when I found out that Katie Couric had pinned my chair!

Don't you just love Pinterest?

Music Room in Action

Doesn't the library/music room look calm and serene here in the photo that I submitted to Apartment Therapy?

Looks can be deceptive.  Here's what it was like two hours ago.

It's the boys performing a new song they wrote last week called "Gumball Machine".  They've composed songs before but that was with the help of their old music teacher.  This one they completely wrote themselves.  I think it's quite catchy.  What do you think?

Those with a keen eye will notice how I managed to store the amps in the bookcase.  Always trying to find design solutions for everyday life.  Now I just need a separate room to store all of Callum's lego models.

And if you like the room, then please do me a favor and vote for it on Apartment Therapy's Room for Color Contest here.  Thanks!

Adding Some Bohemia to the Library/Music Room

If you know me then you'll know that every room in my house has to have at least some form of pattern somewhere.  The music room was looking a little bare to me since removing the chevron settee that was previously in front of the fireplace.  I also needed a new place for Callum to be able to sit and strum his guitar.  And to keep the music room from looking too formal, I thought some patchwork floor cushions would do the trick.  Lucky for me, Pottery Barn were having a sale so I snapped these up.

The boys love to do their homework lying on the snuggly rug.

The colours in the cushions reflect all the different colours of the books and help make the room look less formal and more bohemian.

The following pictures are some inspiration photos that I pinned to Pinterest.

Suzy Hoodless Interior Design

Kathryn Ireland

Michael Haverland?

This even has pocket doors like mine.

Emma Reddington - The Marion House Book

The picture above is from the Marion House Book blog.  This was my main inspiration for the mantel.  I had no idea when I picked up the floor cushions that Emma had also used them in her living room until I looked at this photo yesterday. Funny how good design sticks in your head without you even realizing it.

Nathan Turner

You can find the above sources on my Pinterest account.

Library/Music Room Update

This room is taking forever to finish!  I think it's because it's such an awkward space.  Everything seems to be in a corner.  Fireplace, piano, chair, drum kit, you name it, it's in a corner!  And having two massive pocket doors and a wall of windows doesn't help.  But I think I'm slowly getting there.  I just hope the family don't buy any more musical instruments because I'm running out of places to put them.  Anyway, a big decision I made last week was to put some doors on the bookcase.  We have way more paperbacks than nice hardcover books, and it was just looking too messy.  Plus now I have somewhere to hide the guitar amps when not in use.

Here it is with the tulip table that I bought a couple of years ago just for this space.  I think it actually looks really pretty, but it's not very practical if you want to open the bookcase doors.  So back upstairs it went.

I'm still considering spray painting the curtain rod gold.  Yes, I know, enough of the gold already!  But I really like the look of brass curtain rods and because the window is bowed, I had to make a curtain rod out of PVC pipe.  I should probably do a tutorial on that one because I'm sure there are many people with bowed windows that don't know what kind of curtain hardware they can use.

I'm not sure about the dead space between the curtain rod and the top of the window frame.  Maybe with the rod painted it won't look so odd to me.  I may even see what it looks like with matchstick blinds, but that again depends on whether I can hang them with the bow.

Roman got a new drum kit for his birthday/christmas.  I swear he chose the finish and wasn't influenced by me at all.  See that boy has good taste.  It's way bigger than his old drum kit, besides being a jazz kit which is smaller than regular kits.  But it still manages to take up the vast majority of the room, especially because he has 4 huge cymbals.  And it is really loud!  Hope the neighbors don't complain.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I'm thinking of entering Apartment Therapy's Room for Color Contest again.  I know, it's just a popularity competition, but I do have fun doing it.  And although this room isn't perfect, I do think it has something unique about it that may appeal to the Apartment Therapy readers.  So wish me luck.