After a stressful week with sick kids and the whole bit, I intend to put my feet up this weekend and just relax. How I wish these rooms belonged to me. If you know me – you know my style. No words needed.

You also know my love for books. And how nervous I get if I don’t see books in a home. I love this room! And what an impact a black wall makes against all that white. Must try one day.

Before I sign off for the weekend, I just want to share 2 blog alerts with you. Attenzione!

I am a huge supporter of entrepreneurs (I have had a business myself) turning their dream into business (and I feel like a Mama bear for my friends). Here is another blog friend of mine who took the leap. The entertaining, smart and generous Sue with The Zhush just launched her first on-line store this week.

She is starting off small (or so she says!). Here you will find many lovely things for the home and yourself. I just purchased two friendship bling bracelets — one for me and one for a close girlfriend. I know that Sue is going to do very well. That is just part of who she is!

Lastly, I need to tell you about the most fantastic giveaway I have seen in blog land – EVER! And that is from no less than Joni with Cote De Texas. In my very early blog days (when I had zero, zip, nada followers), Joni took the time to both comment and send a couple of encouring e-mails to me. What a generous thing to do! I can’t say that I am part of Joni’s blog circle of friends, but I look up to her and that gesture I will never forget.

Back to Joni’s giveaway. And look closely. Joni with the brilliant company Julie Neill is giving away one of these two stunning chandeliers to a lucky winner this week.

The estimated retail price is around $3,800/each for these original, handmade pieces. Holy smoke! What a giveaway! A room that gets the company of one of these stunning pieces will only need a simple rug and a chair. That’s it. The chandelier makes the room. Go here to enter the giveaway.

With that I am signing off. Happy weekend to you all!

Images: 1) Greige, 2) DesignDarling, 3) Chandeliers via Cote De Texas.

I am so excited to share my new series — The Best DIY Minds (on the planet!) with you all. And I am doing this for selfish reasons! I want the best DIY (Do It Yourself) projects collected on my own blog, so I don’t have to hop all over blog land for inspiration and tutorials. You will find the DIY portfolio button on my front page and I hope to fill it with tons of inspirational projects that we all can tap into and actually tackle ourselves.

Let me introduce you to Janell with Isabella & Max Rooms. I have known this generous lady for quite a while in blog land and I can so relate to both her design style and her life attitude. This talented girl shares amazing DIY projects (mainly out of her own home) on her blog and she both inspires and pushes me (and I am sure all her readers!) to be much more creative with my head and hands!

This is how Janell sees her style: “If I had to describe my decorating style I would classify it as transitional with an eclectic edge. And interestingly, I am happiest with the rooms in my home that have a masculine aspect to the design.”

Janell’s blog is jam packed with wonderful projects but the one that stands out the most for me (perhaps because I need one myself) is her headboard project.

She took this.

… and this

To this.

To THIS!

I absolutely love what she did! And it inspires me to get my husband involved and tackle this project together.  Seriously, this I must try!

For the full tutorial, go here.

And this is Janell’s favorite project (so far).

“The lamp makeover project is a favorite of mine. I had been looking high and low for a pair of ivory gourd lamps at a decent price. I kept finding lamps I loved, but at a price I couldn’t justify. Then I went to HomeGoods. The pair I found were a bright blue, but the shape and size perfect! I knew spray paint could easily fix the color issue and the gloss finish gave the lamps the high end look I was after. The finishing touch was to cover the lampshades with a Chinoiserie fabric and contrasting trim. I couldn’t be happier with the fun yet sophisticated result.”

Before:

After:

 

Thank you, Janell for taking part in this series.

I Salute You And Your Incredible Design Mind!

All images via Isabella & Max Rooms. DIY Design button via Splendid Willow.

I have a serious design crush on this lady. It is a good thing we don’t live in the same city — or she would find me frequently on her door step. Emma is her name, and she resides in an old Victorian house in Toronto with her family. This is her street.

My Knock-Knock series is usually about homes I have personally visited but this time I am making an exception. I will pretend I already know this home! That is how much I like it — and her! I am glad that the blog world connected us and I so appreciate our virtual friendship. (Her wonderful blog is called The Marion House Book).

I love this home because it feels lived in. It is interesting and personal. It is not contrived and trendy in a phony way. It is current and yet unique. In my opinion, people with good self confidence (and style) live in this home!

Here is a brand new image of Emma’s living room. Her thoughtful Mom recently purchased that wonderful Suzani for her in Uzbekistan.

Another angle of the living room. She kept the tiles around the fireplace because they are original to the house. I like how she thinks. Pay attention to the black chandelier. Emma and her husband found it on the floor in the corner of a local furniture store. They bought it for close to nothing and did the electrical work themselves.

A wonderful kitchen for family and friends. And no predictable cookie cutter style.

Emma just updated her dining room with some black Eames chairs and a new light fixture. I love the oversized painting by Canadian painter, Tony Scherman (Napoleon’s hand), passed down to the family by Emma’s parents. The only wall big enough to hold the painting was this one above the sideboard. It clearly was meant to hang there!

When I ask Emma about her interior design style, she tells me:

“I like spaces with a sense of individuality. Rooms that tell us a story about the people who live there, which usually means mixing different elements together to create a unique space.”

A brand new image of the master bedroom.

A bathroom with dark gray walls. Works wonderfully with white of course and with natural light.

Oh, and this is what the bathroom looked like before!

This is how I first discovered Emma — when stumbling upon her post about her porch chair makeover. Apparently, while going for a walk, she came across these two chairs that were a bit beaten up and in need of some love. She gave them some paint and some new outdoor fabric. Look at that transformation! (I would have moved the chair into my living room!).

Do you understand now why I adore this girl?

Thank you Emma for sharing your wonderful  & relaxed home with us. And thank you for sharing some brand new images!

Happy new week to all my readers – let it be a good one!

All images via Emma & The Marion House Book.

I have said it many times before — I can not draw to save my life. But once in a while I get courageous with a canvas and some paint and create my own personal art work. And so far I have even ended up liking them. I think I am fairly good at compositions and colors — but abstract is the only way I can go. (One day I might be brave enough to show you a couple of my own pieces).

My husband and I will continue to invest in art we truly enjoy. But right now (or until the wallet is a tad fatter!) I have that urge again to trot down to the local art store, equip myself with some art supplies and get started on my own, humble creations. Here are some beautiful art pieces which inspire me to come up with my own interpretations.

First up is a display of the most wonderful modern velvet fabrics in stunning frames. A terrific idea! And art in itself. But I am more interested in creating something similar & original from scratch – and with a paint  brush.

My eyes were drawn to this image many times while reading this article. How I would love to create something large in color!

Let me say that I feel no shame, whatsoever, in hanging one of my own very personal artworks next to a museum piece. Art can never be about money. You must love what you put up on your walls. Then the price tag is no longer important. I have nothing on my walls that I do not absolutely adore. (High-end, low-end, famous, totally unknown, old, new. I mix it all).

I have had this image in my style files for a long time (don’t even remember the source, sorry). But I love the deep burgundy colors in this stunning abstract painting. How lovely against all white.

This image I picked from the creative & generous Mr. Will over at Bright Bazaar. I remember telling him that I wanted to make something similar myself, on paper. I love this piece! I have a crazy obsession with round shapes. I am apparently not a square girl!

This painting with something sentimental, in an almost whispering color — all on white –  also gets my creative juices flowing. What a quiet statement piece.

The beautiful b/w artwork by Alexander Calder gets me longing for, saving up for, and also wanting to create something similar myself.

Almost like a piece of art is this fabulous chair that I found over at my lovely blog friend Sharalee’s blog. How gorgeous this chair is with two different kinds of upholstery!

And finally, a different kind of artistic gene. My good friend, Piper, who’s blog friendship I have so enjoyed for quite a while, had a major launch this week. This talented girl quit her day job (yes!) and went for her dream - - to open a creative on-line shop. I am so proud of her determination, creativity and her entrepreneurial skills. I will support any good, individual shop before I even look at large chains. And this shop has my 110% support.

One Sydney Road is the name of her shop.

And look what I just bought! A retro looking squirrel pillow. Just because my husband always is referring to our 3 kids as “squirrels”!

I hope some of you are walking away from this post at least a little bit inspired. Don’t be afraid to create your own art & don’t be afraid to fulfill your own dreams, just like Piper.

Images: No 1 via Jude Allman, no. 2 + 3 scanned from Veranda, no. 4 scanned from Elle Decor, no. 5 (unknown, sorry), no. 6 via Bright Bazaar, no. 7 via Marcus Design, no. 8 via Veranda, no. 9 via A Life More Fabulous, no. 10 + 11 via One Sydney Road

Happy new week friends. For those of you celebrating Halloween, I hope you were booed royally this weekend!

Last week I asked for some help regarding a very handsome piece of fabric that I have seen a little here and there in the design world without knowing what it was. Actually the first time I saw it was at Peet’s coffee house in Redmond, WA, close to where we live. I remember staring at a few of these framed beauties and really enjoying the pattern. Look closely at a very similar cloth panel in the frame above the white sofa. Pretty isn’t it?

Well, a few terrific readers came to my rescue. Arlene (Thank you so much!) wrote: “I framed a piece for my husband’s office, and they are not hard to come by.  A little less common are the full pieces of Kuba, which come in very long lengths and are worn as wrap skirts. I have a couple, and I adore them. I keep one draped on a bench, and I have a 10-footer, framed, which takes up a wall in my dining room. They will range in price from $200 to $20,000, depending on age, ornamentation, etc.”

Ahaa! Kuba Cloth. Now it had a name. (I feel I should have known it already). I did some more research. And I found out that the particular cloths I am looking at are also called Kuba skirt panels. 

Artists from Paul Klee to Henri Matisse have been inspired by the geometric motifs of the Kuba people from Congo, Africa. Textiles are considered the highest form of decorative art among the Kuba people. The Kuba cloth is believed to be ancient, the oldest surviving samples of the cloth date back to the seventeenth century. Men weave the fabric out of raffia fibers and women apply the designs.

The handmade fabric is woven into panels and then decorated with one or more of dozens of geometric patterns. Long pieces are termed skirts and usually decorated with applique and embroidery. These skirt panels (which I am looking at) are single panels of dress/skirt wraps used by the Kuba tribe women and men in dance ceremonies.

Shorter pieces are most often created with a combination of cut pile and embroidery (looks like tufts of velvet). The velvet panels are referred to as Kuba “Shoowa panels”. The Kuba Shoowa panels are used as a form of currency or display of wealth.

My blog friend Lana, (who’s taste and friendship I so respect) from Cape Town, also chimed in. She even sent me these pictures of Kuba cloths from her parents lovely home. She took the pictures this weekend at her Mom’s birthday party! How special & generous is that! Thank you so much Lana. It made my post so much more real!

Here are some images from the design world with objects of Kuba cloths or in Kuba-fabric style.

Over the weekend, I spent a chunk of time in front of my screen finding that special piece for my own home — and here is a great candidate! I am thinking this skirt panel (from Hamill Gallery of Tribal Art) might be moving in with us very soon! The panel measures approx. 21 x 26 inches. I have never been to Congo, the only place I have been to in Africa is Morocco. But I am all for bringing the world into my home and sharing beauty and history from all corners of the world.

I can’t wait to have it framed and find that special place in my home for this handmade piece of African art. I will show you once it is up.

Happy, happy to you all!

Images: No.1 scanned scanned from House & Home, No. 2, 3, 4, 10 and 11 via Hamill Gallery, No. 5+6 (set) & 6+7 (set) via Lanalou Style, No. 8 via Wisteria, No. 9 via Greige Design.