Painting

As promised here are some shots of the new painting in my bedroom.

Bedroom art

Ha me painting? Well I had an old stretched canvas laying around from college that must have had 7 layers of paintings hidden underneath. I did a quick design nothing fantastic (I normally work on smooth hardboard canvas anyway).

It's now in the master bedroom and it was going to go with a new duvet I ordered but, it turned out the one I got was not the right color at all, so sadly it went back. I did end up finding a cute white comforter at Tjmaxx while shopping with a friend. Simple clean done.

Once my snoring husband wakes up I'll take a picture of the bedroom and the finished painting.

West Elm sale items

I keep going back to the West Elm site because I was hoping they would restock their double lounger outdoor cushion in white. I'm happy to say I see it up again, sadly it's not not part of their 15% outdoor sale, boo. I plan on getting one and having my husband build the actual lounger himself. I want him to start making me more things, I've got a long list!

So then I took a look at all the new items and then I looked at the sale items and I saw this cute duvet cover. I'm not sure what it is about this color that speaks to me, but I love it. Square-tuck duvet in dandelion.

More sale items I love:
john-paul philippé sketch 41"w x .75"d x 31"h $199.00 Sale $119.99
loft task lamp $99.00 Sale $74.99

Mattress

I'm in love with my new bed! My cat Floyd loves sleeping on it and when ever I can't find him he's usually there snoozing.

The side tables have yet to be started, but we finally have all the materials we need. Al even got hardware that allows the drawers to close slowly when pushed in, much like in this kitchen featured below.

Woodgrain

I am really starting to like the idea of modern furniture made with reclaimed, weathered and raw wood. I think it helps bring down the blandness of some pieces and warms them up by adding some eye-pleasing texture.

Our next furniture project is going to be floating side tables for our bedroom. Walnut on the outside to match the bed, with spalted maple drawer fronts. The spalted maple swirls (which occur naturally when a maple tree is infected by a fungus) are somewhat soft and spongy, so they need to be sealed and hardened with super glue. Then the wood is sealed with shellac and finally a protective topcoat can be applied. Here's what they will look like:

Bed Progression

The bed is looking amazing! Still need to pop in the top boards (see plan) and find a new king-size mattress.

Materials: 2 sheets of walnut veneer plywood, several 2x12's from the home center, and walnut veneer edge banding to hide the plywood edges. My husband cut his own shellac and added a reddish brown dye to it to better approximate the look of aged walnut furniture. After three coats of the tinted shellac, he put on two coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal wipe-on varnish - one gloss coat and one satin coat.

Total Cost: $490

The next project is going to be a set of matching floating nightstands with spalted maple drawer fronts to add some texture!

Why bed sheets used to be smooth and silky (and why they aren't today)

I'm looking for new king-size sheets for my new bed and I'm not having much luck... Seems like every time I get cotton sheets, all I can find are these linty, wrinkly, rough ones, regardless of the thread count. Now, I know when I was younger my mom would pick up vintage bed sheets from flea markets and they were always super smooth and cool to the touch (not to mention super durable - I have a mint green pillow case from the '70s that I still use today!)

So doing some internet sleuthing, I stumbled upon an Amazon.com review where a person who's had the same experience as me explains that those old sheets owe their silkiness to an industrial process called mercerization. Take it away, Wikipedia:

Mercerisation is a treatment for cotton fabric and thread that gives fabric a lustrous appearance. [...]

The process was devised in 1844 by John Mercer of Great Harwood, Lancashire, England, who treated cotton fibres with sodium hydroxide. The treatment caused the fibres to swell, which in Mercer's version of the process shrank the overall fabric size and made it stronger and easier to dye. The process did not become popular, however, until H. A. Lowe improved it into its modern form in 1890. By holding the cotton during treatment to prevent it from shrinking, Lowe found that the fibre gained a lustrous appearance.

[...]

Today the modern production method for mercerised cotton, also known as "pearl" or "pearle" cotton, gives cotton thread (or cotton-covered thread with a polyester core) a sodium hydroxide bath that is then neutralized with an acid bath. This treatment increases lustre, strength, affinity to dye, resistance to mildew, but also increases affinity to lint. Cotton with long staple fibre lengths responds best to mercerisation. Mercerised thread is commonly used to produce fine crochet.

The Amazon.com reviewer continues:

Sheets and pillowcases were marketed as mercerized and it was included on the label. Mercerization is a process of washing the fabric or thread under tension (to prevent shrinkage) with sodium hydroxide and an acid neutralizer which not only gives it a smooth luster and increases strength but reduces lint, improves mildew resistance and increases affinity for dye so it won't fade or bleed. In the 70's, we could buy sheets and pillowcases which were also "Pre-shrunk," "Cotton blend" and "no wrinkle, no iron."

You can still find vintage cotton/poly sheets in unopened, good condition on Ebay and Etsy. Hard to find, but totally worth the search!

What I would have wanted.

When I think about bedding for my bedroom this design is what I would have wanted. Since I don't have a magic bedding machine, I guess I will just hang these as large scale prints over my bed. Now I need to hunt down a simple light gray comforter. My printer does have the ability to print on fabric. I just may have to look into that so I can have some small matching throw pillows.

If anyone one is interested in these two prints I'll put them in my etsy shop.

Bedding options

So my husband is making some progress in the garage with the bed. So, I've been thinking about softer things. We are moving up to a king sized bed so I will need all new bedding.

Here are some of my picks. I'm really loving Orla's bedding, but I'm still not sure. I may even just keep my eyes open for something solid gray or tan. I really want something brown and gray but I can't find much with that combo. I'd love to design my own bedding, I can already picture it in my mind now...

Flower Blossom duvet by Orla Kiely (UK)
organic imperial duvet cover from West Elm.
Echo Design™ Fan Floral Comforter Set
Soak in Amber Bedding by Inhabit


Below is a picture of the bedroom currnetly.

Platform bed

We are full of ideas, but actually making it is the scary part. A while back I mentioned a sideboard project we'd designed. Sadly that hasn't come to be. My husband is a bit of a perfectionist and he hasn't yet figured out how to get a nice, even finish without an expensive sprayer... We are new to this furniture-making thing!

OK, so a bed. We really need a bed (and no paint finish problems to worry about!) I showed him some beds I liked and we decided on something simple and strong. We started buying the wood for the inside structure, I'll keep you all updated on our progress.

West Elm fall preview (totem pattern)

Totem Duvet
Totem Pillow Cover

Way to go West Elm! Finally something I must have!

I recognized the pattern right away: I bought the craft book below, dated 1962, about a year ago on Etsy. I just loved the cover and it's made a great coffee table book. Now that same pattern is available in duvet form. I can die happy!

Cozy Danish Bedroom

I love the furniture and the bed spread. I always admire people who work with few decorative elements and have it all come together. This bedroom looks so cozy yet clean and simple! Check out more at Anne Ingman's Flickr page.

Guest room

I was at HomeGoods yesterday, which I never really shop at. I was in the mood and, well, it's next to my grocery store. Anyway, I found some cute white lamps on clearance that I thought would look good in my guest room. Then I remembered the bedding from U.O. that I really wanted, which just happened to be on sale. I took a look at them again, and saw that they'd been marked down yet again! It was a sign - I needed to pounce! (I hope they get here soon.)


Now, there is a lot of blue and green in this room, so I'm thinking about making a tall, padded, white headboard to help break it up. I'm actually really excited about making the headboard; I found a blogger who did one here. I'm not sure how to get or make fabric buttons, does anyone know how that works?

Bedroom vanity

I took a trip to Ikea last week on a mission to find a dressing table for my bedroom. I was going to get Ikea's Malm dressing table, but.... they don't have it in the walnut brown color I wanted anymore! I was so sad. I'd been looking for a vintage vanity on CL, but I was having no luck there either.

Then yesterday I found this cute, old desk that I think might do the trick. What do you think?

Craigslist Curb Alert! (NH)

Free Full Size Headboard (Concord, NH)

Guest room

I painted a robin's egg blue accent wall in the guest room today. Once I upgrade my queen bed in the master to a king I will move the queen in here.

click here to see what it looked like before

The guest room

One of the reasons we fell in love with our particular home is that it has about 2300 sq. ft. of living area. Most mid-century homes (at least in New England) are quite small by comparison, so for a while it seemed like we would never find a place that would suit both our space needs and our architectural wants. Thankfully, we did.

The house has three "bedrooms": a large master bedroom, another large room that is my office and a third, smaller (14ft x 12ft) room in between the two. We've been using this third room as storage (we have no basement) but with the garage almost completed, my husband has been moving his tools and things out there, and the room is beginning to clear out. There's still some stuff in there I need to move - a table, my childhood doll house, my nana's old army trunk, a bunch of old lamps - but it's getting to where we can start thinking about turning it into its intended use: a guest room!

I'm at a loss for what I would like to do in there. What color should I paint it? For some reason I keep thinking blue or yellow... Any ideas?

Bedroom (updated)

After reading Anna's (Door Sixteen) blog post about causal beds, I've decided to put up a canvas that I've been working on over the bed. (and I made my bed for the first time in months!)

After looking at the pictures of my bedroom, my queen bed looks so small! I'm happy to have such a large bedroom, but I think I'm going to need to upgrade to a king bed in the future..

The image below is what the room used to look like with the previous owners, before we moved in.



Update

Here is a close up on the flooring. Many people seem to think this is laminate flooring, but it's the real thing. Large stone slabs!