TheDesignFile

Great deals await post-holiday shoppers

If you’re like me, you think about Dec. 26 as a day for Christmas returns, relaxing and maybe picking up a sale item or two that Santa didn’t bring.

But the days after Christmas are a great time to shop for your home.

Furniture, dishes and pillows are on sale – just like clothes, toys and electronic gadgets.

So yesterday, I thumbed through some of the newspaper sales circulars to see what great home items you can buy today for cheap.

Lamps Plus is having a great sale. Check out the gorgeous crystal Possini pendant at right. It’s marked down now to $299 (from a regular price of $349). It is a show stopper!

Here’s a sampling of what else I found:

Top row: Loft 2-piece sectional, JCPenney, Doorbuster sale on Monday until 1 p.m., $888, down from $2,398; Croft & Borrow quick and drying bath towels, Kohls, $3.99 down from $11.99

Bottom row: Jubilee Tan Chenille Arm Chair, Lamps Plus, $199 down from $249; Faux Leather Cocktail Bench and Ottoman with Shelf, Target, $114, down from $139.99.

What post-holiday deals are you out shopping for? Tell us what you’ve found.

Merry Christmas ... from your long-lost blogger

Merry Christmas!

As we celebrate one of my favorite holidays, I need to offer a huge apology to all my regular readers.

For the past month, I have essentially disappeared from the blog world.

There are lots of reasons, most of which are boring. But primarily, I have been working hard on another, unrelated website and just became incredibly distracted.

A few of you know that last summer I switched jobs. My new post – at a small liberal arts college near Indianapolis – has me overseeing student journalists. The kids cover state government and I edit their stories and mentor them, as well as write stories when they are not available.

We have our launched a new website – www.TheStatehouseFile.com – for our operation and I’ve spent weeks now building the site and working out the kinks.

That’s the primary reason that I haven’t been with you.

But I’m coming back…perhaps with fewer posts, something less than daily but more than weekly.

I start today with a Christmas wishes and a photo above of just one of the gorgeous decorations that my Mom created at her home.

It’s a fairly simple project, though Mom acknowledged it was a little harder than she initially anticipated.

Sunday roundup: An IKEA trip, windows & more

With Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to start decorating our homes for the holidays.

My husband has started working on our outside lights but I must admit I haven’t done the first thing inside.

Over at A Beach Cottage, Sarah made her annual pilgrimage to IKEA to load up on new holiday décor.

Sarah has some great photos of her IKEA trip and shows off the fun stuff she brought home. The post made me want to run right out to IKEA – if only it wasn’t two hours away!

Here’s what else to check out this week:

• The Telegraph has a “modern nativity set” that looks like a set of blocks. Hmm.
• It Needs More Glitter has a series of posts about holiday department store windows. So fun!

A simpler, more casual Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you’re all having a great day and a wonderful time with family and friends.

We’re having a houseful, as we typically do on Thanksgiving. Normally I get out my china and silver for the feast. But this year I was going for simple and easy.

I showed you yesterday how I made my herb centerpiece. It was really the inspiration for a less traditional green color scheme.

I also told you earlier that I didn’t have the brown or tan tablecloth I wanted. So I decided to try a sheet set. I bought a twin-sized tan sheet set for $9.99 at TJ Maxx and it was the perfect size for my two tables.

Then I layered on a piece of green outdoor fabric I used as an accent for a few years on a porch table. I placed it diagonally on the table so that it stretched further.

At TJ Maxx, I also spied these fantastic green birds. I absolutely fell in love with them, even though they really have nothing to do with the rest of my décor.

The two small ones were $5.99 each and the two larger ones were $7.99 each and I decided I’d saved enough buying the sheets to splurge on them. They seemed to be just perfect for my tablescape.

Otherwise, I just kept everything simple.

I used our everyday dishes, which are beautiful white Aspen place settings from Crate & Barrel. We received them last year for Christmas and I love them because they are so versatile.

I used green paper napkins (the second year in a row for paper napkins!) and our everyday glasses. I did add our crystal goblets for wine, primarily because we don’t have enough plain goblets.

Tiny Seckel pears – sometimes called sugar pears – with small, handwritten place cards finish off the table.

So that is this year’s table.

It’s a far cry from last year’s fancier and more dramatic black and white Thanksgiving design.

And it’s different too from the more traditional orange and brown themed table I’ve used so often (see at right).

Still, I really love this year’s green and my stick with it for next year… or maybe not!

Do you have photos to share of your table? Post them at The Design File’s Facebook page.

I can’t wait to see all your ideas!

An herb centerpiece for Thanksgiving

I wanted to do a quick Thanksgiving-eve post on my centerpiece.

I admit to not having great pictures and the project not coming out quite as well as I expected.

But the truth is, sometimes it’s fun to show the imperfect projects too.

I was so in the mood to do a lighter, more casual Thanksgiving table this year and seemed to be repeatedly drawn to photos of tables featuring live plants.

So I decided to use this bamboo, footed bowl that I purchased at Goodwill earlier this year (it was part of one of my displays at The Couch Show) to plant some herbs.

The bowl is really not intended to be a planter so I tried to line it with cling wrap, which didn’t really work that well.

If I were doing it again, I’d try to find an inexpensive plastic bowl to try to fit down in this one to hold the plants. Or, I wouldn’t worry about it. It is, after all, an $8 bowl from Goodwill.

I found the herbs at a great downtown Indianapolis grocery store. I bought sage, dill and thyme – mostly because of the way they would look together.

Then I simply slipped each of the plants out of their pots and loaded them into the planter.

I tried to keep the sage and the dill toward the middle because they’re taller. But as I worked with the dill, it kind of flopped over and, well, that’s where it has stayed.

When I had all of my herb plants in, there were holes. Seven plants just wasn’t quite enough for this bowl, which is about a foot in diameter.

Can you see one of the big empty spaces in the photo at right?

That sent me back to the store.

For some stupid reason, I didn’t go back to the great little downtown grocery.

Instead, I went to the nearest Kroger, which didn’t have any herbs. Then my husband called with more stuff I needed to pick up. So I went to Walmart, where I didn’t see herb plants but I find some small potted ivy. Perfect!

I came home and planted the ivy in the empty spots and then watered. OK. Here’s where I made another mistake. In my zeal to make sure that my dry plants got plenty of water, I overdid it. Of course, this planter doesn’t have any holes (and did I put any stones in the bottom? No!) and so I had to tip it in and drain a lot of water.

Of course, I really should have put those stones in the bottom. It would have helped not only with the drainage but also to mound up the center a bit, which would have looked better.

Still, I really love the outcome. A few days later, the soil’s sogginess seems to be hurting the sage and helping the dill. Hmm. But I think it will be just fine for Thanksgiving!

More photos of my very simple Thanksgiving table tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope all your holidays are wonderful.

Buy Hoosier handmade for the holidays

Rather than fighting the crowds at the mall on Black Friday, consider instead buying some Christmas gifts from a locally-owned shop or the DIYers and crafters in your community.

Those of you who live in and around Indianapolis have a perfect opportunity.

The Hoosier Artisan Boutique is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.

The fair will feature 50 Indiana artists selling handmade goods that will make fabulous Christmas gifts.

There will be art, textiles, children’s clothing, jewelry and more.

I went to a similar event a few years ago and it was so fantastic. I think I’m just going to make it to this weekend’s Hoosier Artisan Boutique.

We have a Thanksgiving event on Saturday but I’m confident I’ll make it just time to buy up all the good stuff others have foolishly passed up!

You can get a preview of the artists at Hoosier Artisan Boutique, but here are some examples. The pieces below come from Susan Ball of New Castle:

I love those Ball jar soap dispensers. They are so cool.

Below are pieces from Beverly Skinner of Battleground, Ind., who makes amazing glass art.

There are so many more fantastic artists and gift options. Make sure to check it out!

Sunday roundup: Great projects for your home

Shelly Leer over at ModHomeEc makes a great point in a post this week about how she does more spending to get ready for Thanksgiving than she does on Black Friday.

That’s so true for me too!

In her post – Thanksgiving Rewind: Recycled Inside Out Pillows – Shelly recommends some revamped pillows to make your home seem a little updated.

“New throw pillows could do wonders and are always a good decoy,” she says.

This post tells you how she took some thrift-store clothing and turned them into these great pillows.

Here’s what else to check out this week:

• Hoosier Homemade has some great ideas for a kids Thanksgiving table. If you’re going to have some little ones at your celebration, you don’t want to miss this fun post.
• Hostess with the Mostess has some amazing ideas for dressing up stock photo Christmas cards. This semi-handmade idea will make your holiday cards standout from the pack.
• Young House Love has another great reader-redesigned kitchen. I love the way reader Laurel-Dawn took her cookie-cutter kitchen into something very special. See one of several photos from Young House Love at right.

Getting creative – a sheet for a tablecloth?

It’s just days until Thanksgiving and I headed down to our basement storage this morning to pull out my brown table cloths when – oh no! – I realize I don’t have any brown table cloths.

Seriously. I thought I did. But it turns out, I was thinking of brown cloth napkins I have.

I have a burnt orange table cloths. I have white ones. I have black ones I used last year. And I have some patterned ones that are not appropriate for Thanksgiving. But no brown.

However, I have a table scheme in mind that I don’t want to alter.

So do I go out and buy two new table cloths? I hope not. They can be so expensive. Instead, I’m going to experiment.

Because I’m going with a much more casual Thanksgiving table this year, I’m headed out to the store to look for some inexpensive sheets.

I wasn’t sure about this idea, but then I did a little browsing on the web. Turns out, I’m certainly not the first person to have thought of this idea.

In fact check out this cool video, which makes me feel perfectly at peace with this decision…

Looking for more options for old sheets? Look at the list I found over at DIYLife.

New Reclamation shop is packed with treasures

Last spring I told you about a great new shop in the SoBro neighborhood of Indianapolis called Reclamation. What I didn’t tell you then was that owner Elizabeth was being pressured out of the building she had at 49th and College (a foreclosure dispute involving the building’s owner, not her) and was on the hunt for something new.

Last night, I attended the grand opening of her new – and much larger – space located at 5335 Winthrop Ave., just south of 54th Street and right around the corner from the ModHomeEc studio where I take upholstery classes.

The new Reclamation is not just a shop. It’s really a sort of antique mall with a number of rooms and hallways connecting individual sellers.

But it’s not your typical antique store. Many of the sellers focus on Reclamation’s “rediscover, revamp, repurpose” slogan and offer pieces that are truly reclaimed.

Also, it just has a much more modern feel.

Last night’s event was packed! And if you can believe it, I forgot my cameras. The whole point was to take a slew of photos to show you the space.

Instead, all I had was my iPhone, which as many of you know, shoots terrible photos in low light.

So this post is an experiment.

I decided to take advantage of the vintage vibe of Reclamation and use my new favorite app – Hipstamatic – which gives your iPhone photos a ‘70s style instamatic camera feel.

I actually sort of like the way the photos turned out, although they don’t really give you a feeling for how modern the space really feels.

Place card ideas for a casual Thanksgiving

Long-time readers know that I stress every Thanksgiving about making nice place cards.

I know it’s a silly thing to worry about, but I love for my table to look beautiful – plus I have a few folks at my dinner who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and I want to keep them apart, at least until dessert is cleared.

So I’m on the hunt.

Earlier this week, I told you in my post - Rethinking the Thanksgiving table – that I want to go more casual this year, rustic maybe.

With that in mind, here are a few ideas I’ve come across.

At right is an easy one from Better Homes and Gardens.

“Simple imagery and fanciful lettering marry on this business-card-size tag,” BHG says. “Choose a fun font or fill in names by hand using a calligraphy pen. Pin each place card to a miniature pumpkin or gourd.”

I like both options above, also from BHG. I think I could probably find the tags above left at a scrapbook store. And the leaves above right, well, I have plenty of them around the yard.

Finally, I think this cardamom pear place card idea is beautiful and unusual.

I don’t know whether I could find these pears on my side of town, though!

 

Do you do place cards at Thanksgiving?

What are you doing this year?

 

For more place card ideas, try these posts:

Place card inspiration for Thanksgiving

Five ways to make holiday placecards special

My black and white Thanksgiving table

Rethinking the Thanksgiving table

My husband and I are hosting Thanksgiving again this year and although our group will be a little smaller, I still need to come up with a centerpiece idea.

For several years, I did essentially the same thing – a long narrow line of grapevine garland with some pumpkins and berries attached.

Then I tucked in fall leaves and gourds, some of them real and some fake.

Then last year, I decided to try a black and white Thanksgiving table. It was a great change for me.

I went with a simple black tablecloth, my silver and white china and some grey and white napkins.

Then I spray painted a bunch of candle holders, mini pumpkins and gourds and acorns bright white and scattered down the table.

For fun, I added a few black and white family photos. I also used scrapbook paper and labels to make black and white place cards.

So now with Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, I’m faced with the question: What to do this year?

I turned to the web for inspiration. I found these very interesting grass bouquets at Better Homes and Gardens. I think they are very pretty.

“Junk- drawer finds – such as napkin rings, doorknobs, or copper plumbing fittings (sold in hardware stores for less than $1 apiece) – make perfect holders for grasses,” BHG says.

“To get your grass bouquet (our tall bouquet is ‘Evergold’ sedge, and our short bouquet is ‘Ice Dance’ sedge) to stand upright, cut ends flush,” BHG says.

“The flat bottom should allow the bouquet to stand on its own. If still unbalanced, slide a copper fitting around the base to provide support.”

I also love the look at right from BHG.

The simple bar jars with greenery create a casual feel and suddenly – as I’m writing this – I think that might be kind of fun.

I use my good china every year for Thanksgiving, but I ‘m starting to think it might be a nice change to go casual.

I have plain white plates that would look great on a brown table cloth. A dash of greenery could really be nice.

Finally, look at the great casual Thanksgiving table below, which I found at MyHomeIdeas.com and was featured in Sunset magazine. I see lots of ideas there.

So I think I’m headed to a more casual table. What direction are you going for Thanksgiving this year?

Sunday roundup: Kitchens, tool talk and more

The talented folks over at Young House Love spend much of their time showing off the cool projects they’re doing in their own home.

But they take time out to recognize great rooms in their readers’ homes as well.

That’s the case with the gorgeous kitchen remodel shown at right.

This is one of the after photos in a post about the redo of a kitchen in a 1948 ranch style house that belongs to reader Kathryn.

You’ll have to head over to Young House Love to see all the before and after photos. But I’ll promise you it’s worth the trip.

Plus, you get to see the progress going on over at writers John & Sherry’s house as well.

Here’s what else to check out this week:

• Design Dazzle has a great post about with ideas for DIY Christmas gifts. The list includes black Rice Krispie treats that are made to look like coals. It’s not too early to get started!
• Homestretch has a post with some beautiful white kitchens.
• Pretty Handy Girl has instructions for you new DIYers on how to use a cordless drill.

A friend inspires a look for faux fur chairs

A friend recently contacted me with an idea about covering a chair in faux fur. Of course, I was all for it.

I immediately hearkened back to a project I featured earlier this year from The Nesting Place. You have to check out how The Nester created this striking fur chair.

And I see now that fur chairs are becoming something of a trend.

Check out this one from Pottery Barn Teen. The Furlicious Desk Chair is $299.

And then I saw this antique slipper chair covered in white faux fur from wildchairy on Etsy.

“It has been upholstered using old world techniques combining coil springs that are 8 way hand-tied, horse hair and organic cotton,” the Etsy description reads.

“I don't use foam or toxic materials in my chairs, only materials that will last for years. It is covered in a beautiful white faux fur and is a real conversation piece.”

The latter is an understatement. The price – at $895 – is not!

You can bet if my friend recovers a chair in fur, you’ll see it here.

But in the meantime, is this a project for you?

An afternoon upholstery break: Boudoir benches

On a whim last Saturday, I popped into the ModHomeEc studio in Indianapolis to see if I could catch my upholstery teacher Shelly Leer to ask some fabric questions.

Instead, I found a class in progress with Shelly teaching a couple students how to make a “boudoir bench.”

I was intrigued enough to stay and take photos to share with you today.

Unfortunately, I missed the very beginning of this one-day class and so I can’t show you the “before” – which were some basic wooden frames that Shelly and her charming husband Ed built before the class.

But you can see the frame in the photo below. When I arrived, Amy (above) and Laurie (below) were covering their wood frames with Dacron.

They already had added foam – three inches, I think – and Shelly was showing them how to fold the Dacron around to make nice, clean corners.

Shelly is a master.

Next comes the fabric – my favorite part!