Pepper Design Blog

Easy Vase Terrariums

I’ve been so inspired lately with all of the decorating ideas on bringing the outdoors in. One trend that has especially caught my eye is the glass vase terrariums that we’re seeing on dining room tables, in kitchens and even in outdoor spaces.

I was rummaging through my buffet recently, attempting to reorganize, clean it out and cut down on what I no longer use, when I came across a few vases and vase fillers that I thought would be perfect for a couple of indoor terrariums for our dining room. In fact, I didn’t buy a single thing for this project – everything was either from under the buffet (where lots of vases live), in my craft bin, from around the house or from the garage.

Here’s what I managed to find to put these guys together:

*A large clear vase (you could also use a fish bowl or punch bowl)
*Several smaller, shorter vases for holding the potted plants (I used votive holders)
*River rock (this can be purchased in mass at a home improvement store in the gardening section, just hose off those dirty river rocks and you should find beautiful black ones! these are left over from my wedding as vase fillers, believe it or not)
*Dried Spanish moss (also from my vase filler collection – can br purchased at any craft store)
*Dried or live green moss (mine came from the craft store as well, also left over from a wedding)
*Succulents for planting (from Ikea and our yard)

First up was to replant my little succulents in the votives with a little potting soil and a little water.

There are actually three little votive candle holders in the bigger vase above, though it’s hard to see that last one.

Then I filled in rocks around the votives:

Next up was a layer of Spanish moss:

And finally a thin top layer of the rich green moss:

Put it all together, and what do you get!

Lots of layers or prettiness!

I ended up ‘planting’ a few more cactus varieties from our yard to add a little color, and I added a few rocks to the top after bringing these guys inside.

The smaller one was super simple – same as the above but just one votive of planted succulents.

I’ve been playing with styling these guys – maybe with a cloche? He’s holding on to a few left over clippings.

I think they look great in the dining room. The terrariums would be neat as a centerpiece for the table over a burlap runner and surrounded by simple white flowers for a dinner party. Oooo, I can see it now.

Again, the layering is what really makes these guys. Though some sort of tinted vase might be kind of neat as well.

I love that I had all of the supplies on hand, makes for a super easy weekend project!

I kind of have a thing for collecting and holding on to great vases and different filler decor. It all started with my wedding five years ago and has grown to help plenty of friends with their big day centerpieces (yes, that many vases. times three). So that little stash in my garage is actually a cabinet that really needs to be emptied out… one indoor terrarium at a time.

Bedroom Refresh: New Curtains!

This past weekend I finished up the new curtains for the bedroom. Last week I had shared a sneak peek of the fabric I had found, but a little pinning, pressing and hemming later and my curtains are up and hanging.

This room has been asking for a little character update since we moved in almost four years ago, and being the hidden bedroom that it is (no one ever really wanders into the master), I’ve left it as-is for some time. But now it’s well on its way to a little sprucing up! Even if that just means a few new fabrics, art and rearranging.

I’m loving the start! This fabric has had me smitten for some time and just as I had imagined, it goes so well in the space. The blue compliments the bedding and the tans work perfectly with our bamboo roman shades.

The bed still needs a few punchy throw pillows, and I think I’ll recover those bright white shams in the back, but the new front standard shams are from West Elm and my aqua/soft blue coverlet was found at Pottery Barn. So much better than the all-blue as it was before. This side of the bed is still in dire need of a night stand…

Alright, on to those curtains. Here’s the quick and dirty on how I sew a simple unlined curtain panel (this style can be a pocket rod or used with clips like I did above. Just for reference, here’s where I tackled lined curtains).

For me, it’s all about the folding and pressing.

I begin by flipping my fabric over, folding down one edge about 1″ and then I pin and press into place. Next I fold down that same edge to create a wide hem, usually 4-5″ for the bottom of a curtain, 3-4″ at the top and 2-3″ on either side (to me, the thicker the hem the more professional it looks).

Here’s an example of prepping the top of the curtain. First I fold the fabric over 1″ and pin, then press that fold into place. Next is folding again for an addition 4″, pin then press. This is what is my new top pocket rod if that’s the style of curtain I’m making.

That pressed crease is key! It will not only guide your sewing line but will keep the curtains looking polished.

I repeat that process for three of the four sides (all except the bottom) and then sew along the top fold about 1/2″ in from each new hem (not the edge of the curtain but the folded over part, see arrow).

I sew the top hem first and then hang my curtain to let the weight of it pull the fabric down. Now I measure exactly where the fabric hits the ground and pin about 1″ below that to allow a slight break at the floor. This establishes the base point of my curtain. (I highly recommend remeasuring here by hanging your curtain unfinished from the rod, there’s nothing like sewing a panel in one go to only find out your 1/2″ too short or too long!)

Next I pinned, pressed and sewed the bottom hem just as I did the top. I haven’t sewn my sides up, but they are pressed into place just like in the image above.

Now it’s time to sew up the sides. Beginning at the top panel hem (not the top of the curtain) I sew straight down each side, again about 1/2″ in from the folded over hem edge. I’m keeping my top and bottom hems unsewn along the sides because I think it looks cleaner, and it creates a nifty little pocket if you want to hang your curtains directly from the rod without clips.

If I flip the corner over, here’s a visual that shows that the side hem stops right at the bottom hem.

And if you have any boo boos? Because mistakes are always inevitable… I turn to my trusty Sew No More (discovered this guy in the $1 bin at Vons – you know, the bin where they’re just trying to get rid of product? But this stuff is awesome.)

My sewing machine stitch hadn’t caught about 10″ of a pressed hem, so I applied a little fabric adhesive and now it’s all better.

The last step was ironing the curtains one last time and then hanging them up! As mentioned before, I opted to hang my panels from curtain rod clips (you can find a pack of 7 – one pack for each panel – at any home improvement store).

To help shape the pleats, I improvised a bit and used a hair duck clip and left the panels bunched for several hours.

I’m sure there’s a better way to do that…

The curtains tie in well with other areas of the room, too. A garage sale painting I found a while back (above chair) looks as if it were made with the curtain color palette in mind:

I’m thinking now that mustard might be a great color to use as an accent on the bed? Actually, the fabric from my thrift store chair looks pretty matchy too.

The curtains also help to balance out a window behind the bed that’s a little off center, though this bed is asking for new throw pillows.

The fabric reminds me of a more floral suzani print, the actual name is Orbetello by Thibaut in blue.

One more project crossed off of the list!

A reminder of the room before we moved in:

What we put together shortly after we unpacked boxes (in pretty bad lighting):

And now where the room is today:

That means as of now the rug, most of the bedding and the curtains are done! With art, pillows and possibly a new bed frame to go.

We actually have plans to demo this room and the adjoining bath to create one master suite sometime next year… that will really be a fun project. But baby steps, all in due time!

More master bedroom posts here: curtain fabric sneak peek, a new rug, the floor plan.

Project Nursery: Floating Shelves for Liv’s Tree

Last week I shared my weekend plans to add bookshelves to the colorful tree in Liv’s room. My inspiration stemmed (hehe) from this idea, but scaled back with just a few shelves on a few branches so that the shelves easily integrated into the wall image (rather than vice versa).

The project wasn’t too difficult to accomplish but it did send me back to the hardware store more times than I can count, hence the not getting it quite finished by end of weekend. But I’m loving the end result!!

The new shelves make for a little extra storage for a few small books, stuffies and art supplies. The bonus is that they’re out of Liv’s reach, so I can keep colored pencils, crayons, etc ready for drawing but not easily accessed by the little one.

My only challenge in building the shelves was figuring out an easy way to ‘float’ them so that you wouldn’t see hinges or nails or adhesive from the front side.

We ended up accomplishing this by using a 1/4″ dowel that we cut into small 4″ sections, and then inserting it half way into the wall and half way into each shelf several times.

Let’s start from the beginning…

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Tree Branch Floating Bookshelves
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Materials: 3/8″ pine planks, 1/4″ dowel, wood glue, drill, spray paint, saw (circular or manual with a miter box), nail gun (or finishing nails and a hammer)

To find the best angle for each new shelf, I first held up my wooden planks to the tree branches and made pencil marks for the exact angles I was hoping to achieve.

I determined that this particular shelf should be 15″ long and have a rise (that vertical piece) of 5″. All three shelves would have the same rise but varying lengths according to the branch lengths.

I could have easily cut a soft wood like pine with a saw and miter box, but we ran the planks through the circular saw and that this was the angle we were left with:

Just to be sure, I double checked my cuttings before adhering the two pieces together.

The first layer of adhesive came in the form of wood glue. You can see below that I labeled each set of planks for each shelf with an A, B or C so that I could easily match up the two pairs out of the total of 6 overall planks when gluing.

Then the two pieces of shelf were nail gunned together. Tapping finishing nails into the end with a hammer would have done the trick as well.

Three nails later and each shelf is secure!

I tested three different shades of brown to get as close to the original paint color, this is the one I ended up coating my three shelves in:

After several coats (I prefer to layer on light coat after light coat – sometimes as many as 4 or 5 rather than 1 or 2 heavy, drippy coats) of spray paint and a night of drying, it was time to attach the dowels.

I chose an oak dowel (stronger than pine) for this project and Kevin pre drilled three holes in two of the shelves and two in the smallest. Because the dowel was 1/4″ wide he used a 1/4″ drill bit. Easy peasy. Kev helped with this step because a steady hand is most necessary to avoid splitting new shelves. There’s not much wiggle room when you’re drilling a 1/4″ hole in a 3/8″ plank! He’s a pro with these tools.

Next we added the dowel:

And cut each to about a 2″ length poking out of each hole.

The shelves were ready for install. My apologies for switching up shelf examples here but now we’re working with the lowest shelf where as before the example shots were of the middle shelf on the left of the tree. Oopsies!

In this shot I’m lining up the shelf with the tree branch to determine my first hole.

Using the same 1/4″ drill bit, I drilled in one dowel hole for the shelf.

Now that I have my starting point, I can line up that first dowel hole with the shelf and appropriate dowel, and make clear pencil marks for where the next two holes should be.

Here’s the shelf with the finished drill holes. Because the drill holes have to be drilled at the perfectly straight angle that the dowels on the shelf will be at, I had to wiggle the drill bit around to get this step right. But before I completely push the entire floating shelf in…

I add a bit of wood glue to each dowel, coating the sides and top.

Finished!

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Very excited about the new shelves!

And the little artist loves her evolving nook here in the corner, she’s already getting plenty of use out of the table, chairs and art supplies. I need to come up with a better solution for that roll of paper! That guy flies just about everywhere, leaving a happy trail of paper behind.

Oops! I just realized that one of the rings on the coral curtains has popped off! Need to add that to the to-do list.

The nursery is sloowly evolving into a big girl room

More Project Nursery posts found here: tree branch bookshelf inspiration, newly updated felt mobile, a new reading nook part 1, finished after photos, no sew fabric pennant, baby clothing art, handmade felt butterfly mobile, DIY crib skirt, basket liners part 1, part 2, the, glider makeover, recovering an ottoman, sewing lined curtains part 1, part 2, part 3, curtain fabric selection, nursery fabric board, rocking horse find, new pendant light, new sconce lighting, vintage wall art addition, changing table makeover, nursery wall striping tutorial , painted animal project, the initial inspiration board breakdown, the before pictures