Odds and Ends

Hello? Anyone still here? I think this is the longest I have ever gone without posting anything. So long that I started getting, "Are you okay?" messages... Oops. It is crazy how fast time is rushing by. Here is a bit of what I have been up to...

My God-daughter and I started a fun tradition a couple of years ago of going to Color Me Mine each March to celebrate her birthday. This year I made a little plate inspired by one of Kate Spade's that I had been coveting. You can see Kate's here.

I am still working on the two little boy's rooms and recently stopped by Ikea to check on some furniture I wanted to use. While I was there I saw the lamp I had selected for the rooms and seeing it in person it made me fall in love with it even more. I decided I had to have one for me as well (the upside/downside of this job!). 

Ikea Ranarp Work Lamp | 39.99

Don't you love that cord?!?

I also saw this new furniture at Ikea and it is fabulous; it looks way more expensive than it is. It comes in white as well but the gray is amazing:

Liatorp | Ikea

I have also been working on sorting my 20,000 photos. I had a mishap at the Apple store where the trainer who was helping me back-up my photos ended up making duplicate and triplicates of everything and then ultimately deleting them. Some help, huh? After 8 hours at the Genius Bar we were able to re-store my library but I had to go back and remove the duplicates and re-organize everything. You know how you take a million photos go get that one great shot? Well, everything was in there - and I had to go back through and delete and delete until I had just what I wanted. It was extremely time-consuming but kind of fun. Especially seeing all the photos of my house over the years and the changes transformation. Like the entry ... it seems nothing stayed in one place for very long.

And this little room (photo from 2010) has been changed around more times than I can count:

 

In the beginning, it was our office, then a nursery, my youngest daughter's room and finally a high-schooler's get-ready-for-a-small-dorm room. For a couple of years, after my youngest went away to college, it was a "storage facility" for my wedding and styling accessories and now it is our guest room where my little granddaughter sleeps when she is here. It has always been the catch all room ... the room where discarded lamps and artwork goes ...

I'm glad it has a lamp of its own now :)

I have a few fun upholstery and paint projects I will share with you next time. Come back ... I am still around :) Have a great weekend everyone! xo

Ikea temptations

I took my mom to Ikea today (our third trip in the last week or so) to finalize a couple of cabinets we are using to create some extra storage and a worktop where we are removing her existing washer and dryer. 

I go to Ikea a lot by myself and I know all the shortcuts to bypass having to go through all the different departments and I tend to walk fast and get out as fast as possible. My mom likes to walk slow and look at everything. Which I realized today is not such a bad thing.

While we were walking by one of their bedroom displays I noticed a couple of pillows that I had never noticed before but when I went to find them they were not for sale. It turns out they were just selling the fabric. 

Have you looked at their fabrics? Honestly, I have always just walked past. 

The fabric has a nice weight to it and for the price I couldn't resist. 

Algort | $6.99 / yard

Tradklover | $7.99 / yard

I can see this as curtains in a child's room. 

I also saw some pretty cute rugs ... 

Unfortunately I had to resist those.

But on the way to check-out I grabbed a couple of dish towels ($2.99 for 2). 

From plain to spectacular

via

I have been spending a lot of time at Ikea lately. It is my "go to" place for frames (Ribba), shelves (Lack), cabinet handles (Vinna) and dressers (the Malm).

Malm dresser from Ikea

This dresser is a favorite of mine. It comes in several sizes and I have used them as nightstands, in closets, as living room consoles and dining room sideboards. At $69.99 for the 3 drawer chest or $169 for the 6 drawer dresser, it is an affordable option for most. Ikea now offers glass tops to fit which adds a really nice touch and you can easily dress it up by adding handles.
Like these for example:

via

But I thought I would show you some other ways to change the Malm dresser from simple to spectacular (just in case you have not seen them before!).

Amanda Carol at Home

Amanda used these overlays:

To turn her Malm into this!

The overlays are the brainstorm of Danika & Cheryle, a couple of friends who saw the need and came up with this ingenious idea. I found more great examples of how these simple overlays, can transform the Malm dresser on the O'verlays' website:

I love the white on white. 

And while I also enjoy the simplicity of the plain Malm dresser - there is something irresistible to me about these with the overlays.

It is hard to believe this started as a simple Malm dresser.

Ikea's Rast dresser is another common dresser to "hack." 

Here it is in it's natural state which sells for a mere $34.99:

Are you ready to see some crazy transformations?

via | directions here

My all time favorite is Nancy Marcus' Dorothy Draper inspired chest. Here is the $3,200 version:

Dorothy Draper Espana Chest

And here is Nancy's:

See Nancy's tutorial here

This one is pretty great too:

via | directions here

And finally, Naomi's campaign cabinet:

You can see her step-by-step instructions here. 

Pretty incredible transformations, right? But if you are like me (I am not crafty nor do I love DIY projects) it might feel a little overwhelming. So let me show you something that I know I can do (which means you can too!). It just involves a little spray painting ...

This ...

Ikea's Vittsjo shelving unit - $70.00

+ gold Rust-oleum spray paint ... turns into THIS:

via Cottage and Vine

Now I just need to find an empty wall!

Happy Monday Everyone! 

Meet Alex

I've been thinking about getting the Alex flat files from Ikea for a long time. For a couple of years actually. At one point my local Ikea said they were being discontinued and had them for a reduced price. And yet I still hesitated. But the other day when I had just about had it with the lack of organized paper management in my office (I have 13 design clients I am juggling right now) I decided it was time. So last week when I was in the area, I stopped into Ikea and picked one up. 

My office before Alex

Friday morning I carved out a little time to build it. It didn't take long at all. Compared to other Ikea furniture, which I think is the least complicated of all the build-your-own furniture to put together, this was probably the easiest. I started around 8:30 ...

I brought the box into my office where I would put it together. That was by far the hardest part - those boxes are HEAVY!

I removed everything from the box and as I was on my hands and knees sorting all the pieces I was shocked at all the cat and dog hair on the carpet. Had to take care of that first - eesh.

The first thing I aways do is separate the parts. It makes the job go much faster in the long run and if there is a part missing (rarely, but it happens) it is less frustrating to know up front.

Next I got the necessary tools together ...

I didn't get too far before I had to get some relief from the heat!

Got all the drawers put together ...

And needed a little energy (thanks girls!). All fruit no sugar added Mega Mango. (Day 5 of no sugar - woo hooo!).

Then all I had to do was put in the drawers and tighten the screws. Done!

 

Meet Alex. Isn't he gorgeous? 

I had a piece of glass that used to be on an old nightstand - I can have it cut to size later. All finished and not even 10:00 yet. Not bad, huh?

I couldn't resist dressing it up a bit so I went into the garden to see what I could find. My roses are so pretty right now!

What do you think? 

I love it! I think it fits just right and the best part is it will help me stay more organized. That is a great thing.

Jack, well he is not too sure.