Artwork on Demand

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this before, but one of my favorite things is to find artwork in unconventional ways.  Such as taking old calendars or book pages and adding your own custom or store bought frame.  Or if you're looking for something different with a touch of history, you should try visiting Vintage Printables.  This site has a mass collection of public domain images.  If you can sift your way through the somewhat confusing navigation, then you will find vintage images from old Playboy covers (totally G rated!) to botanical and animal prints and mythological creatures to antique denistry tools.  Just click and download the image and print anyway you like.

Bicycles via Vintage Printables

Catesby duck via Vintage Printables

1923 Playboy cover via Vintage Printables

3-color process via Vintage Printables

Livres de fleures via Vintage Printables

Vain Valentine via Vintage Printables

Mythological mermaid via Vintage Printables

Cathy - at HomeGoods Diva Decorating site - had the same idea as me.  She took the images from Cavallini's Natural Wonders 2008 calendar and used the beautiful sea prints with French text in the background to frame and display above her mantle.

Calendar prints turned into fresh artwork

I have pages from the same calendar framed in my room, however I'm thinking about switching them out for images from Cavallini's Vintage Maps 2011 calendar.  Cavallini papers are some of my favorite to frame.  They are a good size and printed on a thick off-white paper stock.  The colors just pull you in.

I'm into the whole map thing right now for framed art!

Cavallini has a nice collection of large calendars to choose from, but they do sell out quick so I would grab one now before the holiday (wow so soon!) shopping begins.

we, we! Paris!

I'm pretty excited about my $4.50 purchase from Amazon.  It's a 28" x 20" vintage looking map of Paris, France.  Geography was one of my favorite subjects in school and I have to say I'm pretty darn good with directions too.  When I was younger I actually requested my parents purchase me an atlas one year just so I could learn about the layout of other cities... weird, yes I know.  But I could kill a lot of time staring at maps.  Here is a picture of the one I purchased.  I'm hoping to go out and find a frame for it this weekend!

You'll have to click on the image to make it bigger - and then you can see all the cute details... like the 2-D buildings and the muted colors.  Once this is up on the wall it probably won't be too long before I have the streets and rivers memorized ;)
Heureux vendredi! Au revoir!

Madeline Weinrib

I've lusted after almost every one of her rugs and fabrics.  The bold colors and whimsical patterns are booootiful!

Rugs

Fabric for the Home

Sale Alert

Sale Alert: 25% off all home decor items until Monday!!  Burke Decor, one of my top 5 web sites for the home!

 

You make me wanna la la...

So Ballard Designs makes me wanna sing a little song and dance around the house... that's how much I love browsing through their catalog.  So I've decided to dedicate this Friday's post to all of my current Ballard obessions.  Be careful not to drool on your keyboard (hey, it happens).

Louis Daybed

Bergere Chair and Ottoman

Antoinette Bench

Rosette Mirror

Adams Armchair

Sofia Settee

Olivia Side Table

Strasbourg Chair

Geneve Rug

Macau Armchair

John Derian for Target

Target never ceases to amaze me.  I love the international wardrobe collection (picked up a cute Tucker dress yesterday!) that comes out every three months, and the collaborations with top designers for home decor is always something to look forward to.  Recently John Derian came out with some lovely, vintage inspired items for the home.  I wanted to showcase a few of my favorites.

Melamine floral plates

I totally see this in a little boy's bedroom or bathroom - very cute.

Animals by numbers wastebasket

These would be cute even as a toothbrush holder or for storing bobby pins and hair ties.

Insect tumblers

As I (briefly) mentioned in the beginning, the Tucker collection is ahhmazing - so go check it out for some pretty tops and dresses.

XOXO: Mercury Glass

I love mercury glass.  All shapes, sizes and colors!

Lamp via Cache Collection

French mirror c1750 via Sonait Antiques

Pillars via eBay

Candlesticks via Paris Parfait

Vintage glass

Vintage apothecary bottle

One day until the weekend!  Yay! TGI-THURSDAY!

Football Fanatics

It's officially the start of college football!!  I can already smell the bourbon and coke, hear the sound of Rocky Top singing through the stadium and feel the crisp autumn breeze against my face... ahhhh it's my favorite season... FALL!  I wasn't as into college football while I was in college (odd, yes I know), but afterward I felt a sense of love for my school like I hadn't felt before.  I guess while you're still in school it's easy to take advantage of the fact that everything is right there underneath your feet and when you wake up one day and realize you have to move on and be an adult, a sense of nostalgia pulls you back in.  I'd give up a lot to go back and do it all over again.  College really is one of the best times of your life.  And while I don't have a time machine to actually do that, I can most certainly enjoy the excitement that football gamedays incur.  So in typical Southern fashion you must adorn your home (or tailgate) in all things football on Saturday afternoon - these little extras really add the school spirit!

What better way to welcome the fans

Let all the neighbors know who you're cheering for

A nice mixed drink would be great in here

Fill up your cup

Or if you're feeling a little fancy, have some wine

After you fill your glass, head over to the spread and fill up from one of these super cute trays

All items in this post can be purchased online at Football Fanatics

Have a happy holiday weekend!! GO VOLS!

Before and After: Simple Upholstery

It's incredible what some fabric, a pair of scissors and a staple gun can do.  When my roommate decided to sell her stools to the only table (a small bistro style) we owned, I knew we needed to get a legit kitchen table.  I wanted something antique/vintage that I could add a little touch of modern to.  Good ol' Craigslist did me good.  I found this antique Duncan Phyfe dining set for sale along with the matching buffet console.

Vintage Duncan Phyfe dining set (image via Craigslist)

The price was right and the size was perfect for our small townhouse!  The table even fit perfectly on our sisal rug that a friend of mine in the carpet business happily custom made us for free :)  My favorite part of the furniture are the legs.  These images above don't really do it justice but there are some nice lines up and down the dainty legs.  After purchasing I knew immediately I wanted to change out that drab, disgustingly 80's fabric (blah!).  And I even entertained the idea of painting all the pieces white and updating the buffet knobs.  However, I knew that any painting would have to wait... I was barely going to have time for the upholstery.  And so the search for the right fabric began.  I found EXACTLY what I wanted at Nashville's Fabric House.  A decorator's dream store with rolls of fabric from floor to ceiling.  What I found was a cute and feminine play on the traditional leopard print - the creams and blues were just right.

And here's what the fabric looks like on the chairs today.

See the pretty legs here!

To be quite honest, upholstering these things was more time consuming than I thought.  Not difficult, but more effort than I had intended to invest right away.  It would have been much easier had I just needed to cover the current seats, but nothing ever goes as planned.  As soon as I unscrewed the bottoms I noticed there were already 3 layers of previous fabric!  The bottom and last layer was definitely the original fabric and so was the dodgey foam padding underneath that.  So I basically had to start from bare wood.  I pulled off all the fabrics, the old batting and as many staples/nails as possible.  Then made a pattern template for cutting out new batting and fabric pieces.  It took me about 45 min per chair so make that 4.5 hours total of upholstery time.  Now you can see why I didn't want to rush into painting.  I think I'll just enjoy the cherry finish for a while.