Floor Cushions

This week I made a couple of floor cushions with some of my favorite Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  My mom had saved the thick cushions from a sofa she was getting rid of and thought I might be able to use them...uh, yeah!  Foam padding is expensive!
One little hiccup in the process was that I ran out of piping.  I had bought the cream twill piping when it was on sale years ago, so I knew it wouldn't be easy finding a match. I couldn't find anything close ready-made, so I had to make my own.
I used the instructions here at Whipstitch to make the long continuous bias strip. 

From a half yard of fabric I was able to make over 10 yards of piping! A pretty good match, don't ya think?  :)

I made a zipper closure, which turned out to be much easier than I thought. And it makes for a neat and professional looking finish. (of course, it would've been better if I got it centered. lol)

I'm using them downstairs in the family room.

The lighting is terrible down there so the photos aren't that great, but you get the idea. :)

Well, that was my sewing for the week.  Its finally starting to warm up and feel like spring around here, so I'm heading out to play in the yard.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Living Room Corner

Just wanted to share a quick photo of a corner of the living room that I've been working on.  After selling the Tiny House, I was able to bring the few furniture pieces home that I had been using for staging.  The living room at this house has kind of an awkward L-shaped layout with a large off center fireplace.  This far corner wasn't working for the sofa, so I decided to hang a new light fixture (from Lowes) over a small round dining table.  It can serve as a game table, or intimate dining area for two.  :)

The artwork above the table was a HobbyLobby find and mimics the popular multi-print applique pillow from Anthropologie.
I'm on the hunt now for some items to decorate the mantle for spring. I'll share more photos of the living room when I get it together. 
Have a great week everyone! And I hope its looking more like spring where you are, because here in Ohio, we're still covered in snow!

Our First Home ~ Saying Goodbye

I know it has been forever since I've been here...but shortly after my last post, Hubby agreed to list the Tiny house with a realtor (his sister). She got it on MLS and within 10 days we had an offer just under our asking price.  YEA!  Then started the long process of home inspection, bank appraisal, buyer's loan approval, and underwriting.  But everything was finalized on March 2nd and we said goodbye to our first home.  We've owned this house for 21 years and have many wonderful memories and did countless home improvement projects.   Here's a few pictures of the house in it's minimally staged state.

 

 

 

I'm not sure that I've ever shared photos of the basement.  When we purchased the home in 1992, it had a typical cement, unfinished basement. We did most of the major work to finish the space about 18 years ago, but the bathroom had only made it to the drywall stage and the wet bar area had only been plumbed.  So those areas are newly finished and unfortunately, I never really got to enjoy them. :(

The flooring here in the lower level is a wood-look vinyl plank. We had had berber carpeting down while we lived there, but it needed to be replaced, so we thought this was an excellent choice and budget-friendly. (I'll share the installation process in a future post).

 

 

 

 

The doorway in the hallway leads to the work/storage room.

 



Opposite the storage room is the bathroom.  We didn't get the glass shower doors installed, but Hubby did an awesome job on the tile!

 

And at the end of the hall is the small laundry and utility room.

 

Well, that's the Tiny home tour. Its a little sad to say goodbye, but we live just down the street, so we do pass it everyday. lol  :)

 

 

 

 

Yellow Pottery Collection

I recently started a collection of yellow pottery to use in my kitchen.  I knew I wanted yellow as an accent color in the room and when I found 3 inexpensive vintage planters at the antique mall in the perfect shade, I knew a collection was born.  :)

I've been able to find several more since that day at flea markets and antique stores. So far, they have all been $10.00 or less!  I love the planter shapes and use them to hold all those little items that seem to appear on our kitchen window sill (extra keys, restuarant gift cards, pocket knife, etc.). 

I also made a new curtain for the window.  It is just a faux roman shade, since there is already a working shade mounted to the window. I know the photos are bad, but its impossible to get decent lighting in this room for pictures.

And this past weekend I braved the 98 degree heat and ventured out to the Lawrenceburg flea market.  No fabric finds this time, but I did score a fantastic old store bread sign from the 1930's.  Its BIG...and in yellow! It will be perfect for the kitchen. It has some rough corners, so I want to make a frame for it, but I'll show you pictures when its finished.
Stay cool everyone and have a great week!

Tiny House Porch Addition

There has been so much going on lately that I completely forgot to share pictures of the Tiny House's recent face lift. The project started last summer (before we purchased and even found the new house) and it was something I had wanted for a long time...a front porch!

This is what the front looked like before. Your typical 1960-70's brick ranch, complete with the obligatory yew hedge.

Just a small stoop and no overhang to protect guests from the elements.
The blacktop driveway had seen better days.

The first stage of the project was to have a new concrete driveway and porch slab poured. The front hedge came out and a we installed a jar bubbler fountain under the window.

Then the porch was built and we started laying out where we would lay the paver walkways. A local garden center drew up landscaping plans for us (many places offer this as a free service knowing you'll likely spend lots of money on the plants).
We love the craftman style and tried to incorporate a little of that into the design of the porch supports. We gave the drawings to our contractor and he did a wonderful job building the structure.
And here it is now. We finished up the painting ourselves to save on money and put in the rest of the landscaping.

I'd still like to get a few more plants in and a couple of chairs with pretty pillows on the porch, but its a definite improvement. I'm a little sad that I never got to enjoy it while I lived here but,we've still got a bit of work to do before it goes on the market and we're just a few minutes down the road, so I plan on sitting out on my new front porch every chance I get. :-)

I'm sharing this project over at the Shabby Creek Cottage link party. And at Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday.

Master Bedroom and Hall Bath Photos

It has been a very soggy month here in Ohio. Record rain fall has made this one of the wettest months in the past 150 years, so the yard pictures of all of the pretty spring flowers didn't happen. :( Work has been going on at both houses and waiting for a room that is completely finished before showing pictures is just getting ridiculous, so here are a few photos of two of our mostly finished rooms. The master bedroom closets now have their doors and handles. LOVE them! I was amazed at how much I was able to fit in them. I feel so organized!

A picture of what this corner of the room looked like when we bought the house is here in my Flickr.

I think I would like to eventually get white or mirrored nightstands, but these work for now.

The accent color for this room is a red-orange, which is in the art work and the pretty leaf print fabric that I'll be using as a border on the edges of the curtains. The small chair may get a new slipcover, as well.
The hall bath is small and nearly impossible to get decent photos.
The color on the walls is a fresh green called "Summer Field" by Valspar for Laura Ashley Home. The vanity is from Lowes and the shower curtain and pictures are from Kohl's.

That's it for now. Hopefully it will start to dry out around here and I can start planting my annuals. I have lots of hanging baskets and containers to fill this year. :-)

I'm also sharing this on The Shabby Chic Cottage Blog's Transformation Thursday link event. Be sure to pop over to see all of the great projects this week.