Tag: home decor

Mother and Son Autumn Swag

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Mama

My son and I enjoyed yesterday’s wonderful fall afternoon walking in the woods, gathering leaves and creating a beautiful autumn swag with our bounty. This was just a little project I dreamed up that I knew my little guy would enjoy and it was a good excuse to tromp through the woods together on a beautiful day.

If you have a hole punch and a little patience, this is a perfect family craft project. We simply picked up lots of colorful, and some not so much, leaves throughout our walk and then used a hole punch to poke holes near the stem of each leaf (unless nature had already provided one), sorting them into small, medium and large leaf piles as we went. My six year old loved punching the holes!

After everything was punched and sorted, we started stringing. We simply loaded a long piece of baker’s twine with a variety of leaf colors and sizes and tied a bow at both ends. After I hung the sway, I evenly spread out the leaves until it was pleasing to the eye and you could see several different colors and leaf sizes. Of course the leaves will continue to dry out and lose lots of color over time, but that’s part of the charm. Also, this cute little swag is highly flammable, so maybe the fireplace isn’t the best place to hang such a thing.

I loved how this autumn swag turned out and had a great time making it with my son; unfortunately this is probably one of those one-event-only projects that will go in the trash before the forth coming Christmas décor explosion. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to make another one next year.

New Knobs Know-How: Little Touches Have Big Impact

Posted on February 18, 2016February 18, 2016 by Mama

Yes, I’m writing a post about knobs. While I know my husband is shaking his head about now, I hope the rest of you will stay with me and eventually nod your head or throw in an “awesome” or “a-ha” by the time we reach the end.

Let me start by saying that I love the little touches. The little touches that say, “I’m not builder’s grade,” “I may be small but I say a lot,” and “I make all the difference.” I love to change out the smaller items like knobs, pulls, faucets and curtain rods and put my own stamp on a space in a fairly inexpensive way. These accent items can make such a difference in the feel of a room, but their cost is minimal and their impact is grand.

So here’s my closet’s new knobs. Never mind that I have very (and I mean very) basic closet doors, which may eventually be changed out with something more interesting one day, but for now they are here to stay and they are donning their new stylish crystal-ish knobs. So there’s nothing too exciting about this picture from this distance but I’m digging the change. Before, I had very basic oil-rubbed bronze knobs that lacked any sort of character and stood out like a sore thumb on the creamy white backdrop of closet doors.

This is a photo of the old closet door knobs — very basic and very boring. In fact, the contrast between the closet door color and the knob only emphasized the fact that they were small and had zero character.

click on photos to view larger images

And here are the new knobs up close. I was going for subtle sophistication with this choice and think the look was achieved. I love the way the light shines through and bounces off the round knobs without garnering too much attention. These new knobs reflect the look of the round crystals hanging from the bedroom chandelier, and I also like the rubbed silver backs that mimic the muted silver mirror frame hanging on the adjacent wall. These little guys aren’t big, but I think they have a lot to say.

If you’re looking for some new knobs with a bit of character, you might try Hobby Lobby. They have a great selection of fun, whimsical and classy knobs that might just fit the bill, and they go on sale about every other week. While I ultimately went with the choice above, I did try a couple of other selections before making my decision.

I love these square crystal knobs. They are very classy and have a nice brushed silver center, but unfortunately they just didn’t work with my doors. As you can see, they overlapped the seam between the two door panels so much that you could actually see the crack through the knob. Plus, trying to keep them perfectly square and in line with my doors was going to be a feat. While I opted out of this particular knob for my closet doors, I do have another life in mind for these little beauties.

This was another fun crystal knob choice. I love the imperfections and the roundish shape, but ultimately the embellishment was way too silver and the shape was just not sophisticated enough to jive with my chandelier. I saved my receipt and these little cuties will go back to the store.

So if you’re itchin’ for a little pick-me-up in your home on a minimal budget, try changing out your knobs. These little touches can have a big impact.

From Floor to Table: Easy Drop Cloth Table Runner

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Mama

I have a larger-than-most dining room table in my home, coming in at just under eight feet long when both drop leaves are up and over three feet wide to boot. Needless to say, it can be difficult to find the right type and size of table runner for the dining room so I decided to whip up one of my own using a spare drop cloth and a few quick stitches.

Let me start by clueing you in on my inspiration for this project, other than the fact that I had all the supplies and knew it wouldn’t get much quicker or easier than this. I follow a small home and lifestyle blog called Little Farmstead and Julie is always sharing photos of her beautiful and cozy house. In one of her recent posts she showed a close-up photo of her table, complete with runner, and that’s when the light bulb went off in my head. While it looks as if her table dressing is perhaps made of linen, I had a drop cloth and so I gave it a go.

To make my little (or actually rather large) runner, I decided on a width and length for the finished piece, used scissors to make snips and simply tore the cloth at the cuts to create the finished dimensions. With my sewing machine, I stitched two close lines about a quarter-inch from the frayed edge along the entire length of all four sides, and that was it. I used a matching thread for stitching, but I think a contrasting thread would add a cute little pop of color.

So there you have it — my drop cloth turned table runner. It just doesn’t get much easier than that, and I gotta say I’m diggin’ it (even the hubs piped up with a compliment).

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