Pepper Design Blog

Favorite Fabric: StaceAge

So here’s an online blast from the past with a little bit of everything… but what I’m loving most is their fabric selection!

It’s so retro it’s modern, if you know what I mean. These patterned, damask, deerhead, ikat, floral options are all awesome. I’m pretty sure the Mission Statement of StaceAge sums it up:

With a selection of fabric, furs, leather, trims, rugs and wallpaper to choose from it’s a neat store to just bop around in and browse.

For more great Favorite Fabrics check out this link or click the little ‘Browse Favorite Fabrics’ button in the lower right hand sidebar.

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 Fabric Night Light

This is one of the beautiful fabric remnants that I recently received from Calico Corners for the San Diego Design Expo. I wanted to find a fun use for it and came up with this basic night light fashioned from a Target fabric lantern.

The inner sleeve of the lantern slides easily out to reveal the light bulb inside, by simply recovering the sleeve you have a brand new look.

To create: cut fabric to size of lantern + 2″ in length and height, flip fabric over and use spray glue to create a 1″ hem around entire remnant (a ruler is a helpful tool to flatten out edges). You could also use the spray glue to adhere the fabric to your new lantern shade, but I used a simple pin to hold it in place so that I could easily change it out in the future!

It’s easy to update with new fabrics as rooms and tastes change.

This would make a great addition to a kid’s room or guest room – with the fabric’s intricate pattern the new lantern creates a soft, muted glow that I love. I even tried it with a red light bulb and it created a fun effect!