Making Room for a Crowd - My Thanksgiving Table

Happy November!  Recently, StyleBlueprint Louisville contacted me for some tips on successful holiday entertaining.  I thought what a great opportunity, as I recently had to dust off a folding table stored in our attic a couple of weekends ago, when we invited a few friends over very last minute for an impromptu dinner.

Aren't we all having to do the same thing?  Trying to accommodate a large number of guests or even last minute company during the holidays??

Below I share how to entertain for a crowd 'stylishly' this season using a folding table and mismatched chairs!  Hop over to StyleBlueprint Louisville to read more about this here.

To hide my ugly folding table I bought two yards of burlap fabric for under $10 from Joann's to act as the tablecloth and then layered my monogrammed linen hemstitch runner I already owned on top of it.  I almost always use chargers when it comes to setting my holiday tables (instead of placemats) as they always make for easy clean-up.  Besides, it mixes up your china which lightens the mood.

Another no-fail tip is to always use greenery as your centerpiece.  Here, I bought a couple of bunches of seeded eucalyptus from Trader Joe's for $3/bunch and combined it with a dozen of coral colored spray roses from Kroger.  The resin antlers holiday ornaments, I picked up from Digs Home and Garden for $15, make for a nice addition to my centerpiece.  I also picked up some fallen magnolia leaves (with sprigs of winterberries) from my backyard and used them as an embellishment on each of the guest's plates.

Lots of layers and texture!

Don't worry about mixing your chairs during the holidays.  Here I used my upholstered parson chairs (from Ikea) as the host and hostess chairs and then used my bamboo kitchen chairs for the rest of the seating around the table.  

Lighting is so important when decorating your table and setting the mood.  Candles and table lamps (instead of recessed canned lighting) make your home feel cozy and look more festive.  Use pillar, tapered and tea light candles.  Any vessel will work!  I love the look of mercury glass or iridescent votive candle holders when decorating for the holidays.  

I hope you enjoyed my thanksgiving table and tips on entertaining! Thank you to Styleblueprint Louisville for sharing my ideas!

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Kitchen Command Central Continues

Our kitchen has two external entry points - (one from our garage) and (one from the backyard) - which translates into high traffic areas with no room for a mud-room.  You might remember this project, where we converted a regular hanging closet to a mini-mudroom.

I am so happy we did this - it has helped with the clutter of jackets, coats, shoes and backpacks.  

Since now we are painting our kitchen, I can move to phase two, where I plan to use vertical wallspace to create a command central spot.  Unfortunately, there is no counter space in our kitchen for this so I have to think vertical and use wall space.  See inspiration below.

I desperately need a letter bin of sort to control the mail, school papers, magazines, bills, etc. I also need a bulletin board to hold important numbers, tickets, coupons, etc.  I need a couple of hooks for the kids backpacks and lastly, a tote or basket to hold random items.

I found both the cork board and the magazine holder (which I'll use for mail, papers, etc.) for an incredible price - both for $60.  They are part of the Marta Stewart Living collection from Home Decorators and I bought them when they had an additional 40% off their outlet prices (MLK weekend).  I actually bought them in the ugly cornflower color to get the outlet price plus the 40% off discount (I guess nobody wants that color).   I plan to paint both white.  See here and here.  And, let me just say, I am so impressed with this magazine holder - very heavy and the slats are removable!  Top notch!

Wish me luck!!  Can't wait to get this completed!  

ORC: Week Six - Final Reveal

I can officially say that I have completed Linda's One Room Challenge and survived to tell about it!!!  I might've neglected my family, our pet fish and the house for the past week, but I am very, very happy with the outcome!!  AND I can also officially say (and my husband will agree) that our guest room is soooo much nicer than our master bedroom - and there is something completely not right with that!

I am happy to share it with you.  Here is my guest room reveal….

Those beautiful brass nailheads caused a couple of gray hairs and took so painstakingly long.  For every one I got right, I ruined about twenty.  No joke.  But, it worth the hundreds I saved from buying a new headboard.  

If you remember, below is a picture of our guest room BEFORE:

And, this is our guest room (and which also pulls double duty as my office) AFTER:

Below is a snapshot of my huge homasote DIY bulletin board that also serves as my catch all inspiration and design planing board. 

And, my little desk below surrounded by all the many things I love and treasure.  

For those of you who have followed along, thank you so much for sticking with me!  This was a great challenge for me personally and professionally!  If there is enough interest, I'd be happy to put a blog post together about my DIY headboard.  I think I spent approximately $180 in materials and supplies at the end of the day. 

If you are just tuning in, I've just spent the past six weeks participating in Linda's One Room Challenge and you are welcome to read more about my guest room's transformation during the previous weeks here.   Thank you Linda for hosting my first ever ORC.  Hop over here to see the other participants and their crazy transformations. 

Also, I'd like to thank Nicole Pullen who helped me with the photography! She is based in Louisville.

Sources are listed below.

Paint // Euro Fabric // Lumbar Pillow // Coverlet // Scalloped Sheets // Bed Skirt // Sconces // Headboard Fabric // Headboard Nailhead // Bench // Bench Pillows // Desk // Desk Chair // Mirror // Desk lamp //

One Room Challenge - Week Four

Hello Friends!  The weeks for this One Room Challenge seem to be going faster and faster.  Crunch time is on!!  The push this past week was upholstering my headboard, but more on that later.

Let's talk about the fabrics in this picture, shall we?

The John Robshaw euro shams (turmeric in light indigo) came back from my seamstress and look fabulous.  

This alan campbell petite zig zag fabric will be the bolster that sits in front of the shams!  I wanted a pop of color and this fabric packs a lot of punch!  It has yet to arrive, but hopefully by Friday.

I originally wanted to do a blue and white gingham/check bed skirt.  Finding the perfect check size in the perfect color is a lot harder than you think.  Trust me I tried.

I did find one (pictured above - centered swatch) from the UK, but it was very expensive - that in addition to the labor of making a custom bed skirt was just a wee bit out of my price range.  

As I did more research, I found another bed skirt (not custom and not a check patter) but with a very similar look and feel for at least a third of the cost.  So, I went with that.   I have yet to receive it so we will see how it all works out.  If it doesn't work,  I might be scrambling at the 11th hour!

I plan on having light blue embroidered scalloped sheets to tie in the light indigo blue from the Robshaw shams.  

The rest of the bedding will be white which will offer a nice contrast to the raffia fabric on the headboard.  

I will have throw pillows on the bench which is why you see Serena and Lily's chambray diamond fabric in the first photo.  I didn't want the room to be all blue and red so I'll be throwing a little green in the mix.  In the photo below, I love how the green mixes so well with the blue and red. 

As you can see it is slowly coming together.   Still, so much to do and I pray that we have sunny days leading up to the reveal day so I can take some decent photos!

The headboard will be the MAIN focus this upcoming week.  I could write several posts on this DIY.  

Let me just say that upholstering a rounded headboard is not an easy task, my friends.  To say I'm nervous with how this will come out is a little bit of an understatement.  But, I'm clenching my teeth and moving forward!! 

Until next week my friends!  Here are weeks 1, 2 and 3!!  Wishing all my ORC friends out there the best of luck!!

Architectural Interest: Chair Rail vs. Wainscoting

Let's talk architectural trim.  We have no architectural interest other than our ceiling molding in our modest entry.  To make our entry 'shine', I wanted to do a recessed or flat panel wainscoting design.  See inspiration below.

But, after taking measurements, I decided against it mainly because our entry has a very narrow front hallway that leads to the kitchen (which gets a lot of traffic) and if we were to install the flat panel wainscoting, it would chew into the space making the hallway even more narrow.

I am now considering doing a chair rail which won't chew into valuable space.

Finding the exact chair rail to match our dining room (still in progress) turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but after some online searching I found a very similar match.  See here.

The plan is to paint the chair rail and wall space below the chair rail in BM White Dove and then do a textured wallpaper above the chair rail as a nod to classic design.  I have my eyes fixated on Ralph Lauren's herringbone textured wallpaper.

I plan on continuing the chair rail into our living room which flanks our entry.  I think the challenge is going to ensure that the chair rail fits seamlessly into the design and doesn't feel forced.

In regards to the color palette in our entry, I want to play off the drapery fabric that'll be in our dining room - John Robshaw's Prasana American Beauty that you see immediately to your left when you walk into our entry.

Some of these items might be a pipe dream, but I say start big and I'll see where it goes….;)

Our Dining Room: Paint Progress

Life has been hurdling by at breakneck speed (is May almost over….seriously?) and there has been much going on in our household.  School just got out and we're gearing up for summer.  This means lots of outdoor activities and projects.  BUT, we're still trying to tie up some loose ends with some of our indoor spring projects.  Specifically, we're trying to finish up our dining room.  I'm very excited to tell you that our dining room is almost fully painted.

Remember, this post where I was undecided with painting just the trim OR painting the trim and below the chair rail?  Well, the decision has been made….

{in progress: window mullions still need to still be painted}

I'm in love.  Seriously.  I originally just wanted the molding/trim painted blue, but after living with it for  a week or two, the space didn't feel grounded enough.  It felt to ethereal and I decided I needed more color.

{in progress}

So my very patient husband granted my wish and painted below the chair rail this past memorial day weekend and I love how it turned out.  

The above fabric will be for the floor length lined window panels.  I will be doing black hardware so it ties in with the black lantern.  I still need to decide if I want to have a woven shade layered behind the panels and what type of pleat for the panels. 

Here you can see the various types of pleats my seamstress does and I want the french triple pleat (top row…third from the left).

Above is the fabric scheme I am considering for the DR.  The ticking and check will be used as slips on the chairs and the les indiennes floral will be used as two pillows on the head chairs flanking the cupboard.

So, we're slowly getting there.  There is still a ton to be done and I will save the other details like the furniture and slipcovered parson chairs for a later post (when I have some pics)!!!  Hope you enjoyed!!

Our Dining Room: Progress

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Well, this has nothing to do with St. Patricks day and all to do about my dining room!  Ha!  Anyway, I'm trying my hardest to make progress on some rooms in our home before May arrives (translation: lots of family and friends visiting).

Here is one combination I am considering for our dining room (the fabric is for the drapes).

At first, I was ho-hum about the fabric, but my husband really likes it and lately, it is really growing on me.  I like how the navy and red keeps the color scheme grounded.

When picking out the paint colors for the DR walls, my sticking point was this cabinet/bookcase below which I plan on using it in our DR.  I wanted one of the paint colors to match it so it looks cohesive.  It took a lot of paint samples, but I got it.

I always feel that if you have one painted piece of furniture in a room it adds some whimsy and casualness which I really admire.  I did that for my daughter's room and really liked how it turned out.

The plan is for the lantern to hang over an antique dining table (have yet to purchase).   But, something along the lines of this…

I am considering two ideas for our DR when it comes to painting our walls.

Idea #1: Is to paint the all the walls ivory and to paint the trim the blue greenish grayish color.  Remember that the cabinet will also be the blueish greenish grayish color too.  Here is some inspiration:

Idea #2: Since my DR has a chair rail, another option is to paint the chair rail and the wall below the chair rail the blueish greenish color along with all the trim and keep the ivory above the chair rail.  See inspiration…

What is your preference?  Honestly, I like both styles so I think I am going to try both and see what I like better.  I'll be honest though, I am so nervous to paint the trim!!  Have you ever painted your trim a different color than white??

Our Guest Room / Starting Point

I am in full-on over-drive to finish our guest room before spring arrives.  Once the weather warms up, we plan on having quite a few visitors come to Louisville.  The good news is that I have decided on most of the elements for the room and I just now need to pull them all together.  This is where I am ….

{1} I already own John Robshaw's turmeric fabric and plan on using this fabric for euro shams for the bed.  These will be propped against a white headboard.

{2} I would love to get Circa's french library sconces to flank a very large scale bulletin board above my desk (not pictured), but I'm still on the fence due to the price.  Maybe I'll be surprised on Mother's Day?? ;)

{3} Woven shades are installed and white drapes still need to be installed.  I plan on sewing trim on the edges of the panels.

{4} Remember how I said I wanted to add color this year as part as my New Year's resolutions??  Well, here it goes…I will be adding a pop of red as a lumbar pillow.  Love Quadrille's nitik pattern.

{5} The walls are already painted BM White Dove and I want to do a bold bedskirt to ground the bed. I love checks so it probably is no surprise that the bedskirt will be blue and white checked.  

{6} I would love to bite the bullet and invest a tortoise bamboo side table to add some warmth and texture to the room besides the woven shades.  Most bamboo side tables I've seen are in the the $300 to $400 range…..hoping I can find one for half that! 

Well, that is it for now…..Let the fun begin!!  

Chambray Sofa

When the right time came, I was always convinced I'd buy an english rolled arm white or flax slipcovered sofa.  These days I'm all about chambray.  Today, I'd buy a chambray sofa and wouldn't think twice about it.  I think it would work really well in our family room.  Above is my inspiration.   

Poking around pinterest, chambray sofas are more common than you think….

BTW, you might've noticed a new look and feel here at Green Street.  It's not 100% yet, but slowly getting there.  Bear with me as I clean things up and get things organized.