Ikat.

I am a big fan of ikat.  I love the variety of colors and the varying patterns it comes in.  It's super versatile -- it can sometimes be bold or other times more subdued.  (Side note:  Whenever I see the word and read it to myself, I pronounce it as "eye-cat."  And I don't feel like I need to justify myself here, clearly, that is the way the word looks.  But really it's pronounced "ee-kot." (see here and here; and listen here.)  More than likely, I will continue to pronounce it incorrectly when no one is around, but just thought I should clear that up.)

I love the bold ikat paired with the black and white chevron rug.  The right ikat + chevron = a match made in heaven.

The ikat print is playing a much more low-key role as throw pillows on the beds in this bedroom.  This entire room is fabulous in so many ways: the nightstand, the gold lamp, the color of those headboards, the pairing of the blue/green and pink, and the black and white rug (and of course the ikat pillows!).

(above photos: decorpad)

A bold ikat makes for fabulous curtains.  I love it paired with the other great fabrics on the couch.

(photo: 6th street design school)

There's a lot going on in this room, but check out those awesome yellow ikat drapes.  They are so pretty against the dark walls. 

(photo: the telegraph)

Ikat also makes for a pretty sweet ottoman too!

(photo: west elm)

And wallpaper.  I'm not sure about a whole room wallpapered in it, but doing panels like we did in our master would be a good option.

(photo: house beautiful)

And how about some ikat accessories? . . . Like this gorgeous rug.

(photo: house beautiful)

These super cute bowls.

(photo: anthro bowls via real simple)

And it's like the Target gods read my mind . . . here's an awesome ikat-inspired tray I came across today while shopping around. 

(excuse the terrible iphone pic; does anyone else feel the need to be sneaky when taking pictures of things in the store?)

But I'm not too sure about this ikat dress from Nordstrom.  What do you think?

(photo: nordstrom)

I am not opposed to all ikat clothing though.  This tank top from Anthro seems to strike the right balance -- the print isn't too large and the colors are muted.  I certainly wouldn't feel like I was dressed in curtain fabric while wearing this top.

(photo: anthro)

What do you think?  Do you like ikat?  Do you have any in your home or your closet?  Do you pronounce it correctly? 

Ikea Cabinet Makeover.

Our office is currently a little lot on the bland side to say the least.  I am trying to decide on a paint color for the walls (leaning towards gray at this point), which will make a big difference.  But in the meantime, I decided to jazz up this boring Ikea cabinet. 

It went from this (seriously, could this picture be any more boring?)

To this!

Unlike the bathroom trellis wall, it was an easy project and took no time to complete!  The cabinet has glass front doors with panel inserts.  One side of the panel is white and the other is black.  I could have probably just painted directly on them, but they had a glossy finish and I was worried about paint adhering to them.  And I thought it may be a good idea to keep them on hand in case I later changed my mind.

So I went to the art supply store and picked up a couple of thin canvases -- not the ones that are stretched over frames.  For two canvases, it was about $14.00.  The nice thing about the canvas too is that it will be very easy to paint over the fretwork design if I ever want to change things up. 

Here's a shot to give you an idea of the thickness of the canvas.  We just used our mat cutter to cut them down to the right size.

The hardest part for me was figuring out the pattern measurements.  I spent quite a while growing increasingly frustrated that I couldn't figure it out.  It would have been easier if I could have just taped off the design itself and painted the remainder of the space the color.  But of course, I wanted the design itself to be painted. Justin was finally tired of listening to me complain nice enough to come over and offer his assistance.

In no time, he made his own graph paper and had a template drawn out.  Show off.

Once the template was cut out, I just traced it on the canvas.  I put a border of frog tape around the whole thing so the pattern wouldn't be right on the edge.   

Then I went around the pencil lines with the tape.  Once that was done, I took a kneaded eraser and went over the edge of the tape lines to create a good seal (and to clean up any pencil lines). 



To help ensure clean, crisp lines, I used white acrylic to paint over the edge of the tape.  That way if any of the paint were to seep under the tape, it would be white and unnoticeable.  (Thankfully the white paint I had on hand was an exact match to the canvas.) 

(for those of you who notice every detail in a picture, you may have spotted my newest craigslist find!)

After that dried, I did two coats of teal paint.

Then the fun part -- removing the tape!  I removed it while the top coat was still wet.  Thankfully, it needed only very minor touch ups. 

I was so excited to put those puppies in the cabinet.  What a difference! 

I love how such a simple change makes such a big (and fun) impact in our otherwise boring office.

I am still deciding what I want to put on top of the cabinet.  I am thinking some bins for mail sorting and maybe a fun lamp from HomeGoods.   Stay tuned for more office updates . . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did you celebrate Valentine's Day over the weekend or do you have big plans for Monday night?  We are generally pretty low-key when it comes to celebrating Valentine's Day.  (For the record, we aren't unromantic, we just don't need a special day to remember to tell each other how much we love them.)   

In honor of the "holiday," here are some rooms that are Valentinesy (yep, just made up that word).

(all photos: decorpad)

And I've seen this image pop up on a few blogs recently and love it.  It just screams Valentine's Day to me!

(photo: ban.do)

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

P.S. Megan from Honey We're Home came over this weekend to help me organize our pantry.  I was so thrilled to meet her!  She is so sweet, was a pleasure to work with, and did a wonderful job getting our mess of a pantry in order.  If you need some help getting things organized at your house, definitely contact Megan.      

Blog Awards.

A big thank you to the following awesome bloggers who nominated me for the Stylish Blogger Award.  (And an apology too for it taking me so long to accept the award!

A Thoughtful Place

It's a Lunsford Thing

The Fabulous Design File

Simply LKJ

La Borda Bleu

Thanks also to Lauren Lane Decor for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award (frankly, I'm not really sure what that means, but I will take it as a compliment!).

To accept the awards, I have to share 7 things about myself.  So here it goes . . .

(1)  I don't know how to apply eyeshadow.  It's like I have a mental block.  I generally don't wear it, and when I do, I just put one color all over my lid. 

(photo: here)

(2)  I have freakishly tiny fingers and wrists.  My ring finger size is 3.75.     

(3)  I started dating Justin when I was 15 (we were both sophomores in high school).  I actually didn't like him at first, but with some encouragement from friends and family, I eventually came around and gave him a chance.  Thankfully I did -- we have been happily married now for 6.5 years!

(I'm not that much shorter than Justin -- it just looks that way since he is standing on some of the tree roots)

(4)  I dislike every Katy Perry song when I first hear it.  For some reason they always annoy me, and I end up changing the station.  But at some point, I force myself to listen to the song and always end up jamming to it eventually.  In fact, I was just listening to Firework.

(photo: here)

(5)  I am an only child. (Hopefully you're not thinking to yourself "oh, that explains a few things.")

(6)  I love pajamas.  Unless we are running somewhere after work, the first thing I do is go upstairs and immediately change into pajama pants or shorts.  Justin is always impressed with how quickly I can change into them. 

(photo: jcrew)

(7)  I received my one and only B in college my very last semester.  Stupid finance.

(photo: here)

Now, I am also to pass along the awards to 15 recently discovered great bloggers.  Because I've been remiss in accepting the award, many bloggers out there have already received the award.  But this past weekend, I updated my blog roll to add some fabulous new-to-me blogs out there.  So check out the updated list and go visit some blogs!  I am such a rule-breaker (actually, fun fact number 8, I am very much a rule-follower -- almost to a fault sometimes).

Verizon iphone.

First things first . . . thank you for all of your sweet comments on the trellis wall!  Several of you mentioned that you were in the process of doing something similar or that you wanted to tackle the project.  Be sure and come back to share pictures (or to commiserate, if needed)!

In other news, I've had a Blackberry for almost 4 years.  And while I still have to keep it for work e-mail, I got the Verizon iPhone on Monday.  (I was one of those crazy people who set my alarm for 2:00 a.m. and ordered it online last week.) 

(photo: here)

I am currently in the process of trying to navigate my way around the phone.  I keep looking for the Blackberry key!  But so far I am enjoying the touch screen and viewing the web and facebook on a much larger screen.
 
Anywho, I need your help (since I could possibly be the last person out there to not have an iPhone until now).   Are there any tips or tricks that I need to know?  And something I am super excited about -- what apps are must haves? 

Bathroom Trellis Wall.

I am slightly embarrassed to direct you back to my original post on painting the trellis pattern on a wall in our bathroom because you can see how long the project has taken me to complete.  But it is officially done and I like the way it turned out (and that's all that matters)!

I used the template from here and traced it onto the wall with a pencil.  Along the way, I used a level to keep things from going cattywompus.  Once I had drawn the pattern over the entire wall, I went over my lines with the paint.  Following Centsational Girl's lead, I picked up some acrylic craft paint at Hobby Lobby in metallic taupe and champagne.  I used about a 50/50 ratio of the two for the wall. It required 2 coats to get an opaque finish. 

I like how the paint varies based on the lighting/time of day.  It's hard to fully capture on camera, but you can tell how the color looks darker or lighter depending on the lighting in these pictures.  (As a side note: the frame and the print are from Ikea.)

In case you're curious what's in the apothecary jars, one of them has epsom salt and the other has bars of Ivory soap. 

As I referenced before, this project took a lot longer than I expected.  In full disclosure, it really was time consuming for me.  It's not hard to do, it's just tedious.  It took me one evening to trace the pattern on the wall.  And I'm just estimating here since I did it over a long period of time, but it probably took me close to 3 full days of painting to complete the wall.  I think you can do it in less time if you: (a) aren't a perfectionist; and (b) find a paint that looks good with only 1 coat (or are ok with a more translucent look).  

A few tips if you decide to tackle this project:

-- Have a massage scheduled.  My shoulders and neck were sore from reaching/looking up and from dodging the chandelier, which I knocked my head on more times than I care to admit.

-- Some wine (or other alcoholic beverage of your choice) is certainly needed.
 
-- I am slightly OCD.  This project is probably not the best if you're a perfectionist.  I spent so much time fixing very minor mess-ups, when in the end no one would have noticed them anyway.  Towards the end of the project, I realized not having the project completed was bothering me a whole lot more than a few little imperfections in the pattern.  So my goal then became just to get it done, with the realization that it didn't have to be perfect.  In the end, I don't even notice where I decided to stop freaking out about everything not being just perfect and instead just doing a clean job where it doesn't look messy.  The end result looks great (if I do say so myself) and that is ultimately what's important.  I wish I would have thought about this when I first started, but at that time, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into!

-- Test different brushes to see what works best.  I used one brush for my first coat to trace around the pencil and then a different brush for the second coat.  Finding the right combo took a little trial and error, but saved time overall.

-- Start from the middle of the wall and work your way out.  I started at the left and worked my way to the right.  As you can see, I had to add little curves along the far right side to make the pattern meet the corner.  Oops! 

Now when I take a bath I can actually sit back, relax, and enjoy the finally-completed wall!