Pepper Design Blog

Making Room for Spring! A Living Room Update

Yes… it might be a little early to be thinking about Spring, but our living room was feeling a bit down and I’ve been itching at the bit to infuse a little color.

Actually, bright and cheery color might be a theme here this week now that I think about the DIY projects I’ve recently been working on and the awesome styleboards Maryam put together (her post soon to come).

Here’s our living room with its ‘Spring Infusion’ in full swing. It might not look that different from our previous set up but it’s four DIY pillows (+ two store bought versions), a new striped throw, a new addition to the wall collage, bookshelf revamp and mantle update away from how it used to be.

Go ahead and ignore that giant hole in the wall in our dining room (it’s the old door to the new bathroom that is getting plastered up soon). But! Check out the new pillows.

Let’s start with the pop of raspberry red. I found the beautiful velvet at our local discount fabric shop and made two easy pillow covers out of it for less than $12. The color is actually very similar to the coral West Elm versions I had there previously, but those guys were showing major sun wear-and-tear and were beginning to look tired and haggered (is that a word? spellcheck says no). These ones are more pink than they are coral and I love how they look with the other green accents in the room.

The brown and white trellis print is a new addition too. He’s from three cloth napkins from Target (bought them as part of my stenciled Christmas present kit and ended up not using them). Love the modern print!

Next to the velvet and trellis print pillows is another cloth napkin number. I’ve had this solo floral napkin in my collection for some time (why just one? not sure… maybe I thought it would work for a bread basket or something ), but it’s getting much more use now as a horizontal pillow on the sofa! The backing is a tan linen from my remnant pile and the stuffing is just an everyday standard bed pillow (perfect length horizontally and a bit ‘stuffed’ vertically, but that lends itself to a nice soft ‘pouf’).

On the other side of the sofa is my World Market cow hide find (but a much softer version than a hide material) and my invisible zipper tan pillow from this tutorial. The green velvet version (love that texture! and mixing textures in pillows in general) is a C&B addition from a while back.

That new striped throw was from my holiday gift guide list (the rusty pink, green and brown versions are on sale for $13 right now in store!) from West Elm – it is sooo soft and the pop of blue balances out the pinks and greens and browns.

Other new room changes include moving a floral print (recognize one of my favorite artists from this post?) from the bookshelf to the wall collage along the back wall. (Looking at this photo I’m now thinking that the wall collage is way off center–note to self that I need to bump the bookshelves over about 6 inches).

A close up of the addition–I moved a few pieces around  to create a new layout, too. Love the silver frame and how it breaks up my traditional (and favorite) warm brown frames. Here’s another example of how linen mattes have become my second go-to after white! This frame/matte combo is actually from West Elm (I’m beginning to sound like an advertisement for them but we have one locally here in San Diego so I stop in periodically to check out the sale racks), but I’ve also had linen mattes made (like this set from the office) at Michaels, too.

Speaking of bookshelves, I like to use frames in bookshelves to help break up the solid brown backing (or whatever backing color is in the bookshelf I’m working with), so I replaced the silver frame with a framed piece of bright green handmade paper from Paper-Source (you might recognize it as my ‘pop’ of green on the mantle at Christmas).

I also added a white ceramic bird (the one with long tail feathers on the second shelf down on the right–found him at a second hand shop in Iowa) and a white bird candle to my accessories. I find that a commonality (i.e. the white color) amongst a handful of accessories brings unity to a shelf that could otherwise be too messy. Despite a consideration towards design with these shelves, this bookshelf is still functional for us with all of the books that we actually want to access on a regular basis stored in various baskets or by color (like those on the top shelf).

Moving further down the wall from the bookshelves, our rustic leather smoking chair (he’s been in the family for over 4o years) received a new silk green pillow that I found on sale.

Last but not least, the mantel received a little makeover post-Christmas. Instead of redressing it with my usual look, I took the opportunity to find new pieces to feature (plus, over the holidays I found better homes for most of the other photos that were up there originally).

My favorite new piece is the beautifully (and simply) embroidered print by Etsy artist Avery of Dear Night. It’s inspired by this print from Secrets from a Stylist (my favorite HDTV show) and despite my best efforts to track down the actual artist and to purchase a similar piece of embroidered art (which included unanswered emails and lots of tracking), I worked with Avery (who is Awesome! And so talented–I’m so lucky to have found her randomly on Etsy while searching) to create our own version on a linen fabric based around one of my favorite ‘home’ quotes that was unique enough as not to be a replica. I LOVE it. So much.

It was sort of a Christmas present for Kevin. But mostly one for me.

On the other side of the mantel are two branches of giant green billy balls! Yes, I believe that’s what they’re called, though Crate & Barrel calls them ‘Chestnut Branches‘ (which is admittedly a little more attractive). I began regretting my decision when the lady at check out referred to them as ‘very Dr. Seuss-ish’ but immediately retracted on that when I saw them in the house replacing the branches on the mantel. I think they look so cool!

I was ready for a change from the birch branches that originally filled this vase. I love the branches and I’m still looking for a new location for them, but they didn’t always look super on the mantel (they’d slip out of their arrangement and would poke out in random directions) and these guys are a bit more mold-able without looking and feeling like fake wire flowers (because they’re not really flowers). Plus, any opportunity to add a little green life to a room is one I’m happy to take.

A few more shots of the mantel:

The last update is moving our big brown ottoman from the dining room (used as extra seating as a bench) into the living room as an alternative to a coffee table. I loved the free space of not having anything in front of the fireplace and plenty of room for Liv to play, but it wasn’t realistic for hosting people, eating chips and guac in front of the football game, or for holding glasses of wine after a long day. This ottoman is sort of the best of both worlds, it has soft edges for Liv to bounce around, it’s light weight and can easily be pushed out of the way (under the front window behind me in the below shot) and it’s sturdy enough to hold plates of food or a wooden tray for glasses. I’m thinking I might reupholster it in something more creative than the store-bought faux brown leather though… we’ll see.

In every attempt to keep a somewhat normal living room set up, I try to limit Liv’s toys to just a single basket in each room she plays in outside of her room. You can see my World Market basket (which I snagged for $10-ish with a coupon) in the corner next to the fireplace.

And there you have it! My infusion of Spring into our neutral living room space. I’ll post more on those really simple envelope pillows I made (all four in just a couple of hours–no zippers required) later this week. Happy Monday!

More posts on our living room can be found right here.

Office Makeover + Pinterest Challenge: New Pendant!

I took on the Young House Love + Bower Power Pinterest Challenge and I’m excited to share my results!

So the room is no where near done (you can read about the progress here), but you might remember that it started as this:

Some major demo, a little bold paint and a few other fun additions later, and we’re left with this:

But back to the challenge… I wanted to make a chandelier for the guestroom ‘nook’ (aka the far end of the office with the Spanish rounded ceilings) and I decided to try my hand at a capiz shell pendant. I saved this beautiful Serena capiz chandelier by Oly in my ‘favorites’ folder a long long time ago, it’s so stunning!

Source 1 & 2

Actually, I had no idea who it was by or how crazy pricey it was (north of $1,500) until I began pinning similar styles on Pinterest.

So after much deliberation for how a not-so-fancy version could be DIYed, I set out to hunt down my main materials.

First, I needed capiz shells to line my new pendant with. I searched eBay, Amazon, online vendors… you name it. And then I remembered a shell shop near the beach in San Diego that was sure to have exactly what I was looking for. Best part? The shop is always 50% off. It’s funny, locals are on to the game, but when I stopped by earlier this week to peruse capiz shells, I overheard one of the owners tell a tourist wondering when the sale was going to end ‘Oh, you know… we never know. Maybe a few weeks?’ I wanted to whisper into the girl’s ear ‘Don’t worry, if you come back next year it will still be on’.

Nevertheless I found my best option. This chandelier was $39 and at 50% off it beat my online finds. If you’re looking for something similer though, this online chandelier or several of these capiz strands could definitely be used.

Mine on the left kind of looks like a super cheap version of the Laura Ashley chandelier on the right.

Now that I had my shells I set out to make the pendant frame. My initial thought was to hunt down a drum lampshade at a thrift shop, but I searched and searched… and then I thought that maybe I could build the frame from two tapered lampshades with the same sized bases (I was looking for about 18″). That turned out to be quite pricey because only the big box stores had them in stock. Finally, I ended up at Lowe’s searching for wire that I could shape into a circle and solder together. I realized I was taking on a huge project  when I sat there deliberating where the clamps might be put and how I could weld two perfectly straight ends into one long circle.

I decided to give HomeGoods one last shot late in the evening last night. I was hoping to find a drum lampshade period – no tapering, no fancy schmancys. Just one that I could take home, take apart and begin my project. Wow did HomeGoods come through in a big way! Not only did I find my lampshade (the Perfect shade!) but  it was coming apart at the end and I was able to get it and the base lamp for $15. Sweet.

The last piece of the pie was a basic pendant light from Lowe’s for $20. I found a similar one at Home Depot but it was $39, so that one will be going back.

Now it was time to get crafty!

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Capiz Shell Pendant Light

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Materials: pendant lampshade, 200 capiz shells with at least one hole drilled into each – preferably pre-strung (this number will depend on the size of your shade and the length that you’d like it to hang), white thread & needle, craft glue (any glue that will dry clear), pendant kit, paint (in the same color/finish as your pendant kit) & paint brush, spray paint (in the same color/finish as your pendant kit), light bulb, x-acto knife, Goo Gone (plus rag and gloves)

{1.} I began by disassembling the lampshade so that I had just the top and bottom frames. My x-acto knife really came in handy for this one – I started with scissors but quickly realized that a thin blade would be much better at pealing the outside right off. If you’re left with a gooey mess, try wiping down the frame Goo Gone and a rag, just be sure to use gloves.

{2.} I spray painted the metal top and bottom frames a dark brown to match my bronze pendant kit.

{3.} While the paint was drying I began to take the shell chandelier apart. I kept strands of five shells strung together and restrung (with white thread and a needle) any loose or shorter strands so that I had nearly 40 strands of five shells.

{4.} Then I slowly began attaching the strands of five to the top frame of the disassembled lampshade.

{5.} When all 40 strands had been tied to the top frame, I measured the length of the shells and tied the bottom frame directly to the top frame at the same distance with thread (fishing line would work great for this step as well). I wanted a ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ to the pendant so that it really did resemble a lampshade, but you could always forgo the bottom and just let the pretty shells sway.

At this point I found it helpful to hang the lampshade from a floor lamp (removing the previous shade) so that I could work with it while it was hanging.

{6.} Now it was touch-up time. First was gluing stray shells together so that the shade had a flat look to it (totally optional), previous to gluing the shells sort of ‘spun’ on their own.

{7.} Now that the pendant was upright and hanging, the next touch-up step was to restring and retie several of the shells that had come apart or out of order. I even tied several strands directly to the bottom frame so that some stayed taught.

{8.} Finally, I used brown paint and a brush to cover up the points where the thread wrapped around the now brown lampshade frame.

{9.} Depending on the lampshade that you chose, you may be able to attach it directly to your pendant light kit and wire ‘er up! We had to make the washer in the top frame of the lampshade slightly larger to fit our pendant kit.

{10.} I posted an ad on Craigslist for a licensed electrician (a good tip is to ask them to bring a copy of their license with them right in the ad to weed out anyone that could do damage and not be accountable) to hook the pendant to our existing light switch for $25. An electrician from our neighborhood responded and rewired the new light the next morning! When that was taken care of Kevin simply attached the new wires to the existing box. You can tell from this shot that we took out two of the three arms of the pendant kit so that it wasn’t quite as long.

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Here’s a shot at night to see how the shells make the pendant sort of ‘glow’, I love that. For this photo Bodie decided he was definitely not moving.

And there you have it! I’m linking over at Katie’s, Ana’s, Erin’s, and Sherry & John’s blogs… come check out all of the great ideas.

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: organizing the bookshelves, wall collage part 1, part 2, fabric bulletin board inspiration, (new) inspiration board, new lamps, wallpapering open shelves, finding the perfect credenza, new trim, dining table-to-desk, a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300,inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.

Office Makeover: Wallpapering Open Shelving

I drove up the coast of California to visit family this past weekend, but I managed to finish step 1 of making over the new credenza before taking off. As mentioned in this post, I found the perfect sized credenza for the new office (and all of that storage that we’ll need!) on Craigslist.

The plan was to paint, add paper to the open shelves and change out the hardware to give it a brand new look.

Once the piece was home and in the space though, I immediately knew that the painting portion of the project wouldn’t be necessary. Once out of direct sunlight, the rich walnut tones were beautiful. When paired with the lighter woods of the desk and bookshelves, the credenza’s color lived up to it’s mid-century modern shape (which is known for rich walnut stains) and was no longer as honey/yellowy as it appears in the above pictures.

The top of the credenza could use some love, and I considered sanding and restaining to see if I could get rid of a couple of stains from long ago. But when it came down to matching the color to the rest of the piece, I knew that restaining could open a bag of worms that might have led to redoing the entire credenza. So we’ll leave it as-is for now with the hope of one day really focusing on the nitty gritty details.

With painting crossed off of the list, I moved right along to wallpapering the open shelves.

The shelves were screaming for some attention. I’ve added fabric backing to shelves before and I love the look of a pop of pattern and color in an unexpected location, so I began searching for a wallpaper, wrapping paper or sheets of decorative paper (check out the selection at Paper Source) that were large enough to line the back of these shelves without seams.

I settled on this wallpaper from Lowe’s because it has just the right amount of subtle color/pattern to work with a variety of future fabrics that we haven’t quite settled on for the room.

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Applying Decorative Paper to Shelves

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Materials: decorative paper (wallpaper, wrapping paper, handmade paper…), glue stick(s), straight edge, ruler, knife, scissors

{1.} Carefully measure each ‘wall’ of your bookshelf/credenza and cut paper to fit. I’m glad I had an entire roll of wallpaper, I had to recut several times, definitely buy 50% more than you anticipate using because of silly and unforeseen mistakes! I would have hated to have halted the project to run down to the store for more paper. Because the inside of this credenza has varied levels for different shelves, I opted to only line the most inset points. Once the shelf is back in place, I think that that will provide the cleanest look.

{2.} In my search for a non-permanent adhesive, I settled on a glue stick (the standard, kid’s crafts version). I could have pulled out the wallpapering glue from this project or even used double sided tape – but my goal was to have edges that wouldn’t roll up over time and to still create an adhesion that would allow me to replace the paper with a new pattern some time down the road. Cover your paper liberally with the gluebefore adding to the walls of your shelves (but don’t wait too long between applying glue and sticking up or you’ll have extra creases and bubbles).

{3.} I used a plastic triangle from my husband’s architectural-supply box for school (though a wallpapering broad knife or smoother – even a standard ruler – would have done the trick) to smooth the paper firmly against the walls of the credenza as I slowly added the sheets of wallpaper. Moving out from one corner across the paper provided the best results and the least amount of bubbles to ‘smooth out’.

{4.} Use a utility knife to clean up any edges that are not directly up against your corners… and then repeat until all walls (and the ceiling) are lined!

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Next step is finding some neat hardware to replace the older brass pulls. I’m on the hunt.

More visual inspiration of paper backed shelves from this way-back-when post!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: finding the perfect credenza, new trim, dining table-to-desk, a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300, inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.