Pepper Design Blog

DIY Morrocan Lamps

Recently Centsational Girl began a terrific little weekly ‘Best of the Blogosphere’ round-up that I’ve really enjoyed checking out. When this idea popped up by Ruffled, it reminded me immediately of these West Elm lanterns that I used in this outdoor inspiration board for the May issue of San Diego Magazine.

Pretty similar, right?

So simple and so lovely – these would look beautiful around a garden party or as centerpieces for a wedding. And I love that they’re made out of the metal found on a used radiator cover!! Really, I know it’s crazy. So resourceful. You could also use upcycled perforated metal sheets or purchase from a major home supply store.

A bit of white spray paint for the metal and an immediate transformation. The clover design is an added perk.

Full tutorial here.

Hope you had a lovely weekend! We traveled out to South Bend, Indiana for my brother’s graduation from the University of Notre Dame. We’re having a great time and I had the chance to celebrate my birthday on Sunday with family while there!

A Merry Modern Christmas

This Modern Christmas photoshoot by Sitting in a Tree is so fun. I love that it’s full of non-traditional colors (no red or green to be found), shapes and patterns - it’s creative, contemporary and a neat spin on the usual this time of the year!

The playful patterns are the best! Oh how I’d love a linen closet full of turquoise stripes and yellow geometric prints. Mix that with a bit of fuchsia, glitter and gold and you have yourself a very merry modern Christmas.

A few of my favorite ideas to steal: individual trays as place settings (you can buy these for just a couple of dollars each at online stores such as Oriental Trading and paint em up any way you choose), confetti ornaments (another great DIY project) and tree branch centerpieces wrapped in book pages (a quick coat of white spray paint and a dash of white glitter would be another sparkly alternative).

The entire design, including home decor inspiration, can be found here.

The shoot was set in San Diego and staged to replicate a new couple’s first Christmas – out with the old traditions while welcoming in the new. Photography by Joielala.

Jazzing Up Ikea Curtains

When I was working on the inspiration board for our bedroom I had my heart pretty set on simple drop cloth white curtains. What could be a cheaper material and a more classic look than basic white canvas?

Ahhh if they only sold basic white canvas drop cloths. I checked five hardware stores (which sort of takes away from the low-cost mission) and came up with tan/natural options only. I even considered a) ordering online and paying to have the canvas shipped to me or b) purchasing canvas fabric from the local discount fabric shop and hemming them myself. Both seemed too time consuming for what was supposed to be a basic project…

Thankfully a recent trip to Ikea revealed white panels for $14.99/pair. Perfect! Drop cloth canvases from Lowes were roughly the same price for a similar amount of material.

Drop cloth curtains would require curtain clips, so I modified my Ikea panels to create a look slightly more jazzed up look by trimming each tab off of the top of the curtains.

Then up went the rods and bamboo roman shades!

I like to hang rods slightly higher than the window frame to add a little drama.

Each curtain panel received a set of curtain clips (you can find these at your local home improvement store or home decor store) and a very thorough ironing.

I wanted the curtains to pool a bit at the bottom so I didn’t bother hemming them (that’s not a pretty pool job above, but you get the idea…). A quick application of iron-on hem tape would take care of raising the length if need be.

And there they are! Not much to holler about but a clean, basic, affordable solution to what were empty and boring windows. It also has always bothered me that the window behind the bedframe was so much smaller than the actual headboard, now the curtains help to balance out the proportions.

One more project for the master bedroom down!