TheDesignFile

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!

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.

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.

Sunday roundup: Art walls from around the web

Share Space – the new blog and website from IKEA – posted this great photo of an art wall this week.

“Few things are as intimidating as a big, bare wall when you're looking to refresh or transform your space,” the post says.

“A photo collage (or combination of photo and art collage) can fill that empty space, while simultaneously telling your story,” it says.

The post offers some great ideas and tips for putting together your own wall of art.

Looking for some other ideas? Here are some recent posts from across the blogosphere that show off art walls:

• Young House Love recently had a fun post called Some Slap Happy Office Art.
• Nesting Place shows off a cool art wall as part of a 31 Days of Lovely Limitations series.
• From the Right Bank has a series of posts about art walls. The most recent post, though, is actually an interesting look at art in a cool restaurant. See the photo below (thanks to FTRB for the ability to post it!)

Sunday roundup: Halloween DIY ideas

I’ve tried to show you a number of Halloween projects this month to help you get your home ready for those trick-or-treaters.

With just a day left until they start ringing your doorbell, I thought I’d use today’s roundup to give you just a few more.

I’ll starting with this amazing ghost created by Layla from The Lettered Cottage and featured at HGTV.

Layla made this spooky guy with cheese cloth, spray starch and foam balls.

Get the step-by-step instructions, complete with photos, at HGTV.

Her instructions are ingenious!

I may have to run out and make one of these this afternoon!

Here are some other fun projects go get you ready for Halloween:

• Thrifty Décor Chick created the coolest Halloween display out of paper bats. She cut them out using the Cricut machine and then mounted them as if they were startled and flying away. Love it!

• Kay Ellen Design shows how to create a great looking Halloween table. See a photo at right. Plus, she’s giving away a beautiful mercury glass owl.

• Katydid & Kid had a how-to post for a fabulous crepe-paper Halloween wreath. The raven sitting in the middle is the perfect touch!

Sunday roundup: Tips for painting, tools & more

Over at the great Craftberry Bush blog, there’s a great post called Playing with shadows...an easy painting techinique.

Writer Lucy describes the process of using a light to project a shadow on the wall that you can use to create a simple silhouette.

In this case, Lucy was using a branch to paint a tree on the wall.

She placed a wooden window in front of her simple painting with a faux crow to create a Halloween style vignette. She also shows how the same technique can be used to create other looks as well.

See the Craftberry Bush blog for more detailed instructions.

Here are other posts to check out:

• I got a kick out of a post at A Beach Cottage called Mrs Beach Cottage has a New Boyfriend? Who’s the lucky, uh, object of her affect? A HEMNES mirror from IKEA. So cute.
• Pretty Handy Girl, a great blog for projects, has a post every good DIYer should read: How to Use a Miter Saw. The post is part of her tool tutorial series on Fridays.

Sunday roundup: Painting a door and more posts

Sarah over at Thrifty Décor Chick does a nice job with tips that help you replicate the projects she’s done.

And that’s never been truer than one of her posts last week: How to Paint a Door.

Sarah walks you through painting the inside and outside of her front door, including tips for reducing brush strokes, picking a primer and which areas to paint in what order.

She even provides instructions for how to tell if your original paint is latex or oil and what that means for your project.

“Two things to remember,” Sarah writes. “Figure out if you’re dealing with oil or latex-based paint (that you are painting over), and get a sample of your color – mainly for an exterior door. The color on the swatch in the store will look different in your house and will look even more different outside.”

Thanks to Sarah at Thrifty Décor Chick for offering such great advice!

Here’s what else to check out this week:

• Young House Love has a great house crasher post with a tour that is just beautiful.
• Nesting Place has a nice post on using what you have to achieve a designer look.
• Cristin at Simplified Bee has a great collection of pink and orange girls designer bedrooms.

Sunday roundup: Terrariums, offices and more

You may have noticed from some posts earlier this year that I’m on a big of a terrarium kick and so when I saw a post about them at Pretty Handy Girl, I knew I wanted to share it with you.

Brittany – aka Pretty Handy Girl – created the beautiful terrariums below and her post about it explains just how you can make one too.

“Terrariums are making a comeback in home décor,” Brittany writes in her post. “Gone are the octagonal mirrored terrariums. They have been replaced by sleek apothecary jars, tall cylinders and lidded glass vessels (to name just a few shapes.)”

I should acknowledge here that in a vintage store today, I actually bought an older style, sort of church-shaped, leaded glass terrarium.

So the one I eventually make won’t be as sleek as these. That’s OK.

But as you’re waiting for the post about my project, make sure you head over to Pretty Handy Girl to see how to make the beautiful ones above.

Here are some other great posts to see from the past week:

• Freshome has yet another post about a beautiful, modern home. Where do they find all these amazing places?
• The Style Files shows off some inspiring work places. They really make me want to rework my office.
• Craftberry Bush has a great post titled in part: 'rustafying' not to be confused with rastafarian.”

Sunday roundup: Stencils, offices & kids rooms

My friend Shelly Leer over at ModHomeEc has embarked on a whole house makeover that she’s documenting in her DIY Journal over at IndyStar.com.

She’s also offering some peeks of her projects at her own ModHomeEc blog and today I wanted to share one of her posts with you.

Shelly used wall stencils from cuttingedgestencils.com to create the beautiful wallpaper-style look just inside her front door.

It’s a perfect look for a small wall in an entry – dramatic and stylish.

Want to recreate the look? Head over to IndyStar.com for the wall stencil tutorial and make sure to stop at ModHomeEc as well to see the photo that inspired this look.

Great job Shelly!

Here’s what else to check out:

• The New York Times poses an interesting question in a story today: Can anybody be a designer? This article is about design generally – not just interior design – and keys on an exhibition at the Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea. But it includes some interesting ideas.

• Staying with an unintentional newspaper theme today, I liked a story this week at the Las Vegas Review-Journal about rethinking small office design. This is intended more for small companies than small home offices but it highlights how technology is changing how we work.

• The Washington Post recently offered a list of tips for organizing a kids bedroom, including this one: “To eliminate desk clutter, Anzia says, bulletin boards work well for pinning class reminders, school events or photos.” (My example above is from Pottery Barn.)

Sunday roundup: Moss ball, glue guns and more

You may remember my posts about The Couch Show, an art exhibit that I participated in with my friend Keith and a great designer named Brandy Ketterer of Brandy Ketterer Design Co.

Brandy used cool moss balls as part of her design (see at right) and they really added that designer look to her space.

So when I saw that Pretty Handy Girl had a post about making your own moss balls, I knew I had to share it with you.

What’s great about the Pretty Handy Girl post, though, is not just the project. It’s the wonderful tips she provides on using a hot glue gun – including how NOT to get burned.

“The most important thing to know about using a hot glue gun is that it is dangerous!” Brittany writes in her Pretty Handy Girl post. “Never mind that you can buy one for $5 or less and some of them look like they were made by the same company that makes McDonald’s happy meal toys.”

She adds, “Treat this little ‘gun’ like a power tool and use extreme caution when using it.”

If you’re a crafter, thinking about becoming a crafter, or just want to try out making moss balls, check out the post.

Here are a couple other posts to check out this week:

• Freshome, which never fails to have interesting homes to view, has a great tour of a New York City penthouse with amazing views and sleek modern furnishings.
• Re-Nest has a fun DIY post about creating a log table (and you know how much I love those). The project actually comes from Seakettle but don’t follow that link. I got a message saying it had been hacked. Just admire the project over at Re-Nest.