Spoonflower ~ Make Your Own Fabric!

I came across the website Spoonflower where you can create custom printed fabric. AH-MA-ZING!

You can pick out and order someone else's design, or design your own.

• No minimum order
• $16.20 per yard, $5 swatches
• Premium natural fabrics
• Eco-friendly textile printing
• International shipping
• Weekly fabric design contest

Stay tuned - I'm going to design and make my own pillows for my livingroom couch here in Miami!

Sit in a Sette

World Market's Cute as a Button Loveseat, is true to its name. The style of the couch alone is nice, but when I saw that each tufted button is different...it quickly became the cutest settee I have ever wanted to sit in. AND its on sale right now - $100 off!

A rose of many colors

These pillows make me so happy. I particularly love them on this couch! Enjoy these custom made ruffle rose pillows from the Funky Boutique's Etsy page in pastel or primary colors!

Friday Finds ~ Hipster Rug

This Martha Stewart argyle rug in wrought iron is chic, fun, and reasonably priced. You can get a fairly large rug for under $400 at Home Decorators Collection.

Our Faves (10.27.10): Sit up or lay down!

Target has this very sleek looking (and functional may I add) chair that unfolds into a twin sleeper. The sleeper lounge chair is dark grey, very urban looking and only $150 - which is cheap for an oversized chair, let alone one that acts as a bed!

Our Faves ~ A Must-Have Sofa

Meet my new favorite couch...its name is Essex and its from West Elm. Essex has GREAT legs!!

And...the Essex bench is worth a shout out too.

Design Tip of the Week (6.27.10): What To Do With Open Wall Space

Happy Monday Everyone! Don't forget to enter our giveaway here of the perfect summertime accessory ~ a gorgeous ice bucket/wine cooler!
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Gabrielle submitted the following design dilemma: After 3 years, my living room is almost complete but I have one huge wall behind our big couch that's just naked. What do I do?

This got me thinking about the many couches that sit in front of empty walls. Or how many couches fade into their surroundings. Here are some solutions for Gabrielle and some ideas of how to change your living room look.

1. Paint the wall behind your couch a different color. If the room allows this, picking a contrasting color to create an accent wall is a good way to add some depth to your living room.

{Photo from Casa Sugar}

2. A mirror. Its an easy way to elegantly fill an empty wall white adding more light to a room. Mirrors will also make a smaller room appear larger so this is a perfect solution for a small living space.


3. There is something about uniformity in design that makes a room look clean and crisp. Find some similar pictures or postcards and frame them in the same frame in a line. Picture frames with over sized matting as seen below are a great way to fill your walls!

{Photo from Apartment Therapy}

4. Wallpaper! SO many different types. SO many designs to pick from. A fun way to create a great focal point in your space. You wont need to hang a thing if your wallpaper speaks for itself.

{Photo from Urban Sardine}


{My Home Ideas}

Our Faves!: Poof...and its gone

Love this Round Rattan Pouf from Pier 1 Imports. Its on C-L-E-A-R-A-N-C-E, our fave! So grab one before they disappear (poof).

Design Tip of the Week (2.8.10) ~ Expanding Your Houses Sleeping Capacity

Not everyone can have multiple guest rooms, but there are several options out there that can increase your sleeping capicity for house guests without requiring an addition. Furniture designers have really stepped up their game to create multi-functional space-saving designs for the chic yet square-foot challenged consumer. These pieces allow you to work with what you have but add some temproary guest space when you need it. So invite your friends and family over a weekend!

Resource Furniture has many interesting space-saving designs that focus on providing multi-functional uses and incorporate several storage options like cabinets and shelving. For example, the ATOLL 000 takes the Murphy bed to the next level by adding a full sofa and storage space. This is a great option for a family room or finished basement and the sofa comes in many different fabrics to suit your style!

Sit on your coach by day...

A queen bed for two guests to sleep comfortably by night...


Another good option is finding an oversized chair that can convert into a single sleeping option. The Romano Convertible Chair available from Amazon is a great modern piece that looks just as nice as a chair as it does as a lounger. This piece has three options (chair, lounging with the back up, or flat for sleeping)


Want a more contemporary look? Go for Crate and Barrel's Oxford Twin Sleeper.


And then there is the Flying Bed company, the versatile Murphy bed designer. Here is the Beetle Kill Pine model, using a unique wood from Colorado.

Friday Finds ~ sit, store, stare

This storage bench from Walmart in Gerber Sungold is the perfect sunny solution to any room. Its functional and fabulous...we love that combo.

Friday Finds ~ To infinity and beyond!

Love, Love, Love the endless lines of this chair. The Acacia Infinity Stool from Blissliving Home would look perfect in any room (bathroom, bedroom, living room...move it around!)

Our Faves! ~ Jewel Tones

Jewel tones are all over the scene right now in home decor. They are rich and interesting and can be incorporated into a room to provide impact, class, and character. However, jewel tones require a little bit of an eye so that they are used to their utmost potential. The Swell Table Lamp from Crate and Barrel is a perfect high gloss jeweled addition to your home. Peacock blue is our fave!

Design Tip of the Week Rewind! (From 8.11.08): How to Decorate a Small Space

Bringing one out from the archives for ya! Lots of good tips for those of you with some space limitations.

Small rooms always seem daunting to us as we struggle to find ways to use them efficiently and maximize their potential. We all have had to face this challenge, whether its our small city apartment, a small nook in the house that is dying for some love, or that glorified walk in closet the realtor called a "third bedroom". Color, placement, and design can all work together to create the optical illusion of a comfortable and airy space. Here are some simple tips to help make any small space open up:


*Paint the room all one color, including the ceiling, which will eliminate the visual separation that occurs when the ceiling is a contrasting color. Use cooler color hues like a light blue or a mint green to create a feeling of openness and calm.

*Expand a rooms size by using furnishings that increase amount of "negative space" rather than opting for bulk pieces. Negative space is a design term that describes the areas of emptiness surrounding the objects in your room. For example, a couch on legs versus one that has a fabric skirt at the bottom creates more negative space because you can see under the couch from all angles. Another example is using a glass side table with a simple base or a chair with an open back and visible legs.



*Use mirrors! See our August 4th for tips and examples of how to use mirrors to create more open space and depth in your home.


*Declutter the room and try to find multi-functional pieces that you can store your unsightly stuff. Need an ottoman? Than choose one that has storage space in it.

*Reduce the use of patterns. Stay simple by getting furniture with solid color fabrics and incorporating some simple patterns for accents (like throw pillows).


*Stay away from heavy drapes. Instead of choosing those rich floor length curtains, use shutters or blinds. They take up less room, increase negative space when open, and the horizontal lines of shutters actually widen the space.

Lets face it, sometimes the illusion is way better than the reality. :)
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Friday Finds ~ Ottoman on the Move

We love these small, versatile, and chic Abaca Ottomans from Crate and Barrel that can easily be used as a small table or extra seating. This is a real bang for your buck type of home accent. It is completely functional, but also adds a little something to your look.

Friday Finds ~ Smooth as Stone

We are posting this lamp not only cause its really, really nice, but because we were totally sold by the amazingly accurate product description West Elm provided about the Pebble Table Lamp. "Inspired by the smooth, organic shape of a river rock." Its just...perfect. Sometimes there really is perfect translation from nature to your home. Must touch it...now

Our Faves! ~ This feels like BUTTA

Oprah had this company's robes as one of her favorite things, but Barefoot Dreams has an incredibly cozy collection of blankets that you must have in your life. They come in all different sizes from baby blankets, throws, to KING sized. They also have an organic cotton and bamboo collection. They come in all different colors and styles and can be found at department stores like Nordstrom as well as small boutiques. You can find a distributor from their website. However, if you really want a good deal, Overstock carries them and so does Zappos. Go wrap yourself in heaven...not kidding, it is.

JUNE Primed4Design{er} of the Month ~ No Plain Janes Here!

Back in February we showcased Kristine's chic apartment style in our Decorator of the Month Segment. For June, we would like to present Kristine's Nana, Jane! We can see this family shares a flair for decorating and a love of unique antiques. Jane has a colonial house dated back to 1848 in an Ohio suburb East of Cleveland. Everything about her house is thought out, you can see it in all her attention to detail found both inside and outside her home.

Lets start from the outside and work our way in. Our favorites: the fence, the hanging plants, and the cotton spinning wheel on the front porch!







Jane's landscaping doesn't disappoint either! Her inviting outdoor spaces are accented with an antique bicycle and wagon wheels.







The kitchen is filled with so many unique goodies...so much to take in, so little space on this blog. The highlights: the working antique stove, the tin ceiling, and all the fun knick knacks including a cookie jar collection!















Off the kitchen, Jane has a keeping room where they warm up in the winter with their stove fireplace.







Her dining area is adorned with a tiffany lamp and a handmade hutch with pearlized containers made for spices.





In the main floor bathroom, you can be entertained with Jane's message wallpaper (lots of great sayings!) and not to mention more tin ceilings.





Here are some more unique treasures throughout her house.

A high back loveseat



A working victrola (a wind up record player)from the 1930s.



An 1820s organ from Pennsylvania.



Jane's house has many admirers. In fact she has a stack of cards from passerbys that have stopped to inquire about the house. Thanks for giving us a tour, Jane!