Pepper Design Blog

Comfy Couches, Killer Prices

Having a big, over-stuffed couch in the living room was number one on the must-have list. We looked and looked and looked - but finding something that is both functional, long lasting, wallet-friendly and attractive is much harder than we ever anticipated.

In the end we settled on a sectional that would float in the middle of the living room. Something large enough to comfortably fit 6 or 7 bodies crowded around a board game or a few overnight guests. We found the above in chocolate (better at hiding stains?) with it’s sleek wooden base and modified microfiber cushions (extra soft but easy to clean up) at a reasonable price after a family La-Z-Boy discount (we have an in-house designer Aunt in Denver that helped to make it happen). Don’t worry, we’ve changed out the throw pillows!

BUT a few months later I stumbled upon this post by Young House Love and couldn’t believe this amazing find…

Custom Sofa Design has nearly 200 Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel look-a-likes, and the best part is they range from $500 to $700! Amazing, right!? I had to share this great secret… hope someone might be in the market!

A New Shade for Our Living Room {+ Discount}

I have always loved a patterned lampshade and I’ve been keeping my eye out for a fabric that would work well with the new living room design. In the past I’ve recovered a few shades for the bedroom and else where and I thought this trick might work well for this room too.

But then I discovered Jeanne McGee, a fabulous etsy artist that hand stamps her own fabric and creates beautiful lampshades from scratch (discount at the end of the post). When I saw this basic but classy print I knew it would be the perfect addition. Not too colorful (I redid this coffee table-to-ottoman in a very colorful print for the room already), not too over powering but definitely complimentary to the feel of the space:

Jeanne and I worked together to find a color that would blend well with the different neutrals in the room:

The finished fabric is beautiful! I’m so impressed with Jeanne’s talent in creating her own prints.

I asked about her process and she let me in on the secret, which essentially starts with a hand carved woodblock or stamp, white or off-white linen fabric or paper, and colorful ink:

Above is the poppy stamp in it’s original form. Below is an example of the ink transfer to the fabric (you can see the stamps all inked up and ready to go in the top image and the finished fabric right below):

After the paper or fabric has dried, Jeanne adheres styrene to the paper or fabric and begins the process of glueing the paper to the lampshade wire frame. This is done by carefully rolling the fabric over the wire and finishing the edges.

When the lampshades are finished, they look like this!

For more shades and handmade garland, check out Jeanne’s shop. I’m excited to share that Jeanne has joined on as a sponsor as well – you can jump out to her site at any time by clicking her lampshade ad to the left. Take advantage of a limited time discount for 20% off by mentioning ‘PDB’ in your Etsy order!

I’m adding my new shade to the living room and can’t wait to share the pictures! Here’s a sneak peek:

DIY Curtain Rods – A Quick Fix for $2

The living room is coming along great and I was so excited to find tan, neutral curtains from West Elm on clearance. The wool fabric adds a bit of texture to the walls, allows enough light to filter though and blends in well with our choice of paint – this will help with any future decor changes since beige works with almost every color and fits right into our living room inspiration board.

The only thing that kept me from happily covered windows were a few basic curtain rods and a bit of drilling. I found faux rod iron curtain rods from Target and thought they might just do the trick while also keeping costs low. But a bend in the center of each collapsible rod (and the little plastic gizmo that keeps the two poles connected) has been driving me crazy… I promise that it’s much more annoying than what this picture shows! So I sought out a quick curtain rod fix via Lowes.

I needed a solution that was longer than 36″, would fit well with my current end caps and had a smaller diameter than the brackets that were already drilled into the walls. After a bit of perusing, 1/2″ wooden dowels seemed like the perfect fit.

The next step was to cover each dowel with two layers of basic black spray paint. This left me with two dull looking dowels that didn’t match the sheen of my curtain rod end caps. So over the black paint went a thick layer of clear high gloss spray paint left over from another project that made those poles shine.

I wasn’t so sure of my plan after coat number one… but as soon as the glossy paint was applied, the end caps popped on and the panels re-hung, we were pretty happy with the finished result.

And no more bend! (Does the right side of the curtain look a wee bit higher to anyone else?) An easy fix for $1.75 per window.

I’m currently working on diy curtains for the bedroom as well – a little pvc piping, a few drawer pulls for end caps, a bit of paint… we’ll see if the finished project stands up to the industry standard!

Side note if you try this out yourself: After having purchased the dowels I found that each end of the Target rod was a different diameter, and thus so were the caps – they do this so that the rod can easily collapse in on itself. Plan on using a little bit of sand paper to shimmy on one of the end caps to each rod.