Please Bear With Us

We’re obviously going a little nutzo over here, technology wise. In the meantime do what you do, but don’t forget about us. I’ve got Bluehost on it.

Another Cute and Free Calendar

Holy inkjet Batman, we’ve found a free super cute calendar download to share with you guys!

We’re still partial to the little one we whipped up earlier this month, but if you’re looking for something a little more graphic and bright then download this puppy from Jeannie Jeannie asap. Grab your scissors and click here to get the calendar. Personally we’re looking forward to June right about now.

Photos: Jeannie Jeannie

Curtain Call

Our little gift from the Target fairy arrived this weekend and we sure are happy that we went ahead and splurged the time and few extra bucks on trading out our 84″ curtains for their 95″ counterparts.

It took almost an hour to iron out some pretty tough wrinkles from four really long curtain panels, but it worked out well because the ironing gave our curtain rods time to dry.

We picked up these from IKEA, but didn’t use the finials.

Spray painting them gold was an inexpensive solution that softened the curtain rod, letting it blend into the wall more so than the harsh black metal rod would have. See what we mean?

 

We are happy with the results. The color scheme doesn’t make too much sense yet, but we think it will all come together in the end – and we’re one step closer.

What do you guys think? Good call to go long? Thought we’d throw in a nice football reference just in time for playoffs.

We Can See Clearly Now

We’ve been shopping around for awhile now looking for  that perfect lamp to include in our guest bedroom.  The lamp featured in our Better Homes and Gardens inspiration photo, check that out here, is the Zak lamp by Crate and Barrel.

As much as we love the Crate and the Barrel we didn’t love the $229 price tag attached to the the Zak Lamp.  With no luck finding a copy cat at Target, Home Goods or World Market we started thinking more creatively.

It only took a few minutes to realize that we could make one of these puppies pretty easily – so that’s exactly what we did.

How’d we do it?

Step One: Find a vase that you can flip upside down and drill a hole through. We already had a drill bit specially made for glass and tile, and we picked up a large glass vase for $7.99 from T.J. Maxx.

Step Two: Once you’ve drilled through the vase, run a clear wire through the vase and out the the top of the hole you’ve drilled and attach a socket set to the wiring. We secured our socket set into the hole we drilled and reinforced it with super glue. The socket set and wiring cost $5 for both at True Value.

Step Three: Attach your shade and light bulb.  We used the lamp shade off our living room floor lamp and then bought a larger shade for the floor lamp. A small shade will run you about $10.

For less than $25 we made our own version of the Zak Lamp that looks just as lovely. It is a more appropriate size for where it sits in the room – and we’ll be able to buy groceries for the rest of the month. Score and score.

Featured: Between Blue and Yellow

We were so excited to get an e-mail from Kathleen of Between Blue and Yellow letting us know that she saw pics of our dining room china cabinet online and wanted to feature it on her Atlanta-based website. 

Here’s a little blast from the past of our painted cabinet.  We purchased it from a garage sale and painted it up the weekend before we started the blog – this was one of the many projects that inspired us to start sharing our DIY stories with you guys.

Hope you enjoy reliving the magic – and if you ‘re looking for more second chance furniture inspiration check out the Between Blue and Yellow shop. It will have you rushing out for some paint and new knobs in minutes.

Do you guys have any similar projects out there to share? Finally get around to fixing up that old dresser or upholstering that chair? We’d love to hear all about it!

Ants Marching

Last week we clued you in on just a few of our nicknames for the pups, relive all of that here. Today, we’re sharing one of Chad’s nicknames for me – “the ant.” Not as romantic as you’d expect right?

This somewhat lackluster nickname came about shortly after moving into the casa, when Chad realized that if I do in fact want an item moved to another location of our home I will get it there. Regardless of size, weight or assistance.

He first called me an ant after coming home from work one day to find an armoire in a completely different room of the house than it had started that morning. We also succesfully carried a really heavy ping pong table down to the basement together one day. Sounds simple but it was REALLY heavy. 

The moral of the nickname? I (in Chad’s eyes) can carry twice my weight when properly motivated. For ants it’s food, for me it’s furniture.

Earlier this week the ant struck again.

You guys are well aware by now that we are trying to gussie up guest bedroom number one. We’ve built a quick and easy headboard, seen here, and ditched our old paisley sheets and bed skirt, seen here. Our next step was to rearrange the remaining furniture and even remove some pieces from the room.

Both of our guest bedrooms have become dumping grounds for furniture that we are not sure where to put or sure if we even want to keep around. The room we are working on first was getting a bit crowded – and trust us you don’t even want to see the other room yet.

Here is an artist’s rendering of how the room started out.Looks good right? You can see that we have a dresser right next to the entrance to the room. In real life it looks something like this when you walk down the hall – blocking the entire view into the room, making it seem much more small and crowded than it really is.

We love this dresser; it was actually Chad’s as a kid and one of the only pieces of furniture he brought into this marriage. This dresser, a desk chair and a tiled coffee table all hail from casa de Chad, pre-Amy.  It deserves a better place in the room than just being in the way.

Here’s the new plan. A little more open, minus one honkin’ desk.

So how am I going to pull the switcheroo with Chad at work? One word: blankets. 

Let me preface the remainder of this post with the disclaimer that I am in no way a professional and this may hurt you if you are not careful. We and Triangle Honeymoon the blog cannot be held responsible for any injury to person or property for following these instructions. It is just what worked for me and I’m telling the story. Do so at your own risk. However if you do so and your room arrangement turns out awesome-ly – we’re happy to hear it!

Back to business – I use the slick wood floors to my advantage while being careful not to scratch or damage them by throwing a thick blanket under the furniture legs. Then I drag, pull, push or do whatever I need to do to safely get the furniture into its new place in the room. 

In the case of Chad’s dresser, I didn’t have far to go so I only put the blanket under two of the legs and then lifted the other end (with my legs not my back) and pulled it into the corner. Removing the contents and dresser drawers made a big difference in the weight department, just a tip.

That honkin’ desk had to vacate the corner in order to make room for the dresser. So he now lives across the hallway in the second guest bedroom. Lucy enjoyed checking out all the scooting.

The finished product is a guest bedroom with much more breathing room and a more attractive entry.

Looks a little bland right now, tan, tan and tan – but we’ve got big color and pattern plans ahead so stay tuned.

Are you guys rearranging things in your home right now? Got a success story to share? Give us a shout. Until then, happy scooting.

 

Design Debate: Fresh or Faux?

Christmas was packed away long ago, but remnants of our tree can still be found in our guest bathroom a la three DIY wall-mounted vases.

The greenery has held up really well without end in sight – despite the fact that we don’t have any water in the vases. We know the winter greenery can’t stick around forever, so we are already contemplating replacements for our evergreen sprigs.

We could go with beautiful fresh blooms that will not last nearly as long, or even greens from the back yard, as we’ve been known to do in the past.  But what do you guys think about silk flowers?

At least we wouldn’t have to water them. There are no imposters in the casa now – but is it time to start? We thought this would make for a great reader design debate. Let us know what you think. Okay always, never, sometimes? Spill ‘yer beans.

Reader Shout Out: Rug Shrugs

One of the best aspects to starting a blog is all the fellow bloggers you meet with similar interests. Blogging gives you the opportunity to build a little network that’s useful when you need feedback on, say – your living room rug?

We’ve had the pleasure of “meeting” Wendy through cyber space and this little lady just finished up a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c living room decor adventure. Here’s how she started. Cute pup right?

She’s (Wendy, not the pup) ripped up the carpet to make way for beautiful new wood floors and has added lots of fun accessories and pops of color throughout the room.  We have to admit that we are both absolutely green with curtain envy. Look at those guys!

In all her decorating success, Wendy is still a bit hung up on the all-important rug decision. She’s considering a Chevron style, something like this, which we think could be awesome.

Wendy asked our opinion on the rug dilemma and we each came up with a suggestion.

Chad: Our living room rug from World Market. Seriously, I pick ours.

Amy: Yellow could really make some of her awesome pillows stand out. I would try the Andalusia rug from West Elm.

No matter what Wendy chooses we know that it will look great, she seems to have a knack for decorating and doesn’t need our two cents. We just hope she sends pictures after deciding what to do.

Have you got a design decision to make and want some feedback from amateurs? Opinions are free around here so send your pics our way! Want to check out another reader’s awesome room makeover, click here. View this reader’s personally perfect living room here.

Wendy’s Photos: A Southern Accent; Rug Photos: West Elm

A Love/Hate Relationship

Not Chad and I, I’m talking about me and curtains.  We’ve put up drapes in the past only to have them leave our rooms too dark and heavy, we’ve put up shears in the past that just looked too airy and cheap.  That was during our pre-blog days, so we don’t have any of the fugly pics but trust us it was bad.

Our recent success with roman shades in the kitchen has given us a little boost of curtain confidence that will come in handy in decorating our guest bedroom.

All of the windows in our home have white wooden blinds on them that we loved when moving in. I’m slowly getting over them, but am not going to be silly and take them all down. They provide great privacy and aren’t cheap – we just need to dress them up a bit inside. Plus, drapes will really give our room a finished look if we can get them right this time.

In keeping with our inspiration photo, we picked up four faux silk smoky blue curtain panels from Target awhile back. They were living in the closet, waiting for our kitchen projects to be finished up before we moved on to other rooms.  Today was supposed to be their day to shine.

Instead, they are wrapped up and heading back to Target. It really is sad.

So how did this all go down? Well we unpackaged one panel, slipped it onto the curtain rod and walked it up the ladder to decide where to place the mounting hardware on the wall according to the width of our panel.  You see, part of our past curtain dilemmas was that we were hanging the curtains literally in front of the window, blocking all the light – rather than mounting the rod in a way that allowed the curtain panels to frame the window and not block it. Lesson learned.

Anyhoo, so we are checking out the width of the curtain when I look down and realize that my 84” long panels are too short. D’oh!  They would be a perfect length if we wanted to hang our curtain rod right above the window frame, but we want to hang it about 8 inches higher, to split the space between the window and ceiling.   Doing this will make the room seem a little grander – a plus in a guest bedroom. This will also keep our curtains from lopping over our protruding blinds in a funny way.  See what I mean?

The game time decision?  Take ‘em back. If we are going to take the time to do it, we might as well be happy with the results. I am crazy enough to be disappointed every time I walk in that room if the curtains are not right where they should have been. It’s a sickness I know.

Of course a quick trip to Target.com showed us that they do in fact make longer versions of our panels – yea! However, they only sell them online – boo!

We hate waiting, but decided it’s worth the shipping time and extra thirty beans to get exactly what we want.  The free shipping code I found at this website, helped make the decision a lot easier too.

In 7-10 business days we should have the new curtains in our hot little hands. In the meantime we can return our shorties to the store and spray paint our black IKEA curtain rods a bronzy gold. We had decided to skip that step to just get the curtains up – well, the curtain gods are now punishing us for our laziness. No excuses now.

My Excaliber 1964 Stratocaster

It will be mine. Oh yes…

What? You don’t see the resemblence? Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Here’s a little hint:

This Bone Sunburst Mirror from Ballard Designs is 269 bucks but makes my little heart sing. Here’s hoping it goes on sale – soon.

P.S. Our weekly feature on Durham Magazine is up! Check it out here.