Thoughtful and easy Christmas gift for teachers, neighbors, friends, etc.

My son has multiple preschool teachers and caregivers that I wanted to give a little gift for the holidays to show our appreciation.  I wanted to give something that is practical and useful but just a plain old gift card sometimes seems a little thoughtless to me.  But, at the end of the day, they are all working hard and sometimes a gift card so they can purchase exactly what they want is a nice gesture. 

This year, we got them a Starbuck's gift card (they have the cutest cards this year in the shape of ornaments!). 

In order to make the gift a little more thoughtful, I got these mugs from Anthropologie with their first initial, filled them with some sweet treats and affixed the gift card to the gift as the tag.  They were a big hit!

Old Furniture, New Purpose

We bought these shelves for our old house in Virginia at Ikea.  They are one of the best purchases we've made from there.  First of all, they don't really scream Ikea which makes me happy.  And because the piece connects across the top with another shelf, they almost have the feel of a built in.  It was the perfect piece to house my husband's need for a ginormous television and I was able to style things around it that I liked to look at.  Also, when you do something simple like change out the hardware, people truly don't believe that you got the thing at Ikea.

SHELVES BEFORE:

I almost didn't bother moving them to the new house because I wasn't sure where I was going to put them.  You see, the layout of our living room is a little hard to work with.  There is no foyer so you walk directly into the living room and the front door is over to the side of the room.  The only wall without windows is the wall beside the front door and so it would be really weird to put the tv on that wall because when you walked in the door, you'd be in the middle of the seating/tv area.  And the tv is just too big to put in front of the windows because a) I wouldn't want to block all the great natural light; b) um, major eyesore and c) the glare would be so bad it'd be hard to watch tv.  That left us with one option...mount the tv over the fireplace.  And that, my friends, is a saga for another day.  Suffice to say, our marriage was a little rocky for a while until we got that crazy ass situation sorted out.

So, because we mounted the tv over the fireplace, and situated the seating accordingly, we were left with this big long empty wall over by the front door which posed two problems.  First, the wall is so big that it required something SUBSTANTIAL.  A dinky piece of furniture would look dwarfed and out of place.  Second, remember how I said there is no foyer in our new house?  That means no hall coat closet either.  That in and of itself is annoying for adults but try having two little kids who constantly need coats, hats, gloves, etc.  So I got creative.

I decided that the height of the lower shelf would be just about right for a bench seat and that I could utilize the interior blank wall space as a spot for hooks to hang jackets, scarves, bags, etc.  Plus, I still got to have a place for my pretties to jazz it up a little so that it still looked nice in our living room.  The fabric I chose for the bench seat is upholstery grade and I chose neutral colored ikat that gave enough texture to make it interesting but was neutral enough that I wouldn't tire of it.  I had the bench cushion made with 3 inch foam and it ran me a couple hundred bucks for the fabric and labor.  I found the antler hooks at Anthropologie.  Originally I wanted to have one of each of these but they were sold out of the duck ones I two wouldn't have been enough hooks or looked right on that big of a space.  In the end I think the fact that they were sold out of them turned out in my favor because I think having the hooks match ultimately looks better than it would have to have three different kinds.

SHELVES AFTER:

So, there you have it.  For around $300 I have a new entryway piece that is pretty to look at and serves an important purpose in our new house.

#cameronjonesinteriors #ikeahemnes #ikeahack #livingroomentry #moderntraditionalmix #raleighdesign #anthropologiehooks #ikeaupdate #ikeashelves #ideasforikeashelves

Easy and Festive Fall Centerpiece

My neighbor John is getting married.  In order to celebrate the big event, my other neighbors and I are threw him a party.  I was in charge of centerpieces.  I did a similar centerpiece for my own rehearsal dinner almost four years ago!  It couldn't be simpler and I think they are perfect for fall.  Plus, I can send John home with something pretty for his front porch.

All you do is cut the top and stems off of a pumpkin, clean out the insides, and stick a mum inside.  I used 8 inch mums with the plastic pot removed because I wanted the flowers to sit snugly inside without sticking up too much.  I also like to get mums that have some flowers but aren't completely bloomed so that the recipient gets to enjoy them for longer.  Just don't forget to water them!

An added bonus?  Roasted pumpkin seeds!  Truly one of my most favorite things of all time.  All you need is a little patience to get rid of the pumpkin pulp, some salt and olive oil and a warm oven.  Divine!

DIY Pom Pom Trimmed Curtains

I have been loving the look of custom curtains with pom pom trim for some time now. I don't have the funds for custom drapery right now but I am so pleased with how my latest project turned out. It is the look of custom curtains for much, much less.

 I started with a set of Ikea RITVA curtains in gray. They aren't anything special but they are relatively thick and I like how they are not tabbed or grommetted on the top so they look more custom to me. I tossed the tie backs aside. These bad boys were $34 for BOTH panels. I haven't even been able to find a deal that good at TJ Maxx or Home Goods (trust me, I've been trying).

Here's what the curtains looked like out of the package:

Then I ordered some pom pom trim from Etsy.  I got mine from Frog Feathers and they were great.  Affordable and quick and they were able to set up a custom listing for me so that I got the exact amount I needed.  So, about the amount...I ordered 5 yards and literally had JUST ENOUGH for this.  I recommend that you order a little extra so you aren't pushing your limits like I was.  Here's what the trim looked like before.  It's upholstery pom pom trim so that it can be sewn on.

Then, because I cannot sew, I took the curtains and my trim down the street to my dry cleaner.  There was a slight language barrier and I know she thought I was CRAZY when I was asking her to do this.  I drew a picture to make sure we were on the same page...it is important that the trim is (obviously) on the INSIDE of the curtains.

My dry cleaner seamstress may have THOUGHT I was crazy but now she THINKS I am a genius.  Every time I go in she wants to talk about my beautiful curtains...and aren't they??

Here are some close ups so you can see the detail.

Here you can see the inside of the curtain:

FYI - my dry cleaner charged me $94 for the curtains.  This included hemming the curtains so they were the right length for my room (err on the side of longer when you buy the curtains so you don't end up with high waters...) as well as adding the pom pom trim and pressing them.  You'll definitely want to have them pressed so they don't have the creases from the package.

So, there you have it...custom looking pom-pom trimmed curtains for under $140!!!

Affordable Art Project

This was a crazy affordable project and not to mention easy. I think the end results looks pretty great. I framed some fabric to hang over the huge, bare wall space above our king sized bed.

For a long time I've been looking for something to go over the wall above our bed.  It's a big space and I was wrestling with what a mirror would look like because I was afraid it would look disproportionate to the size.  I am also sick of having lots of little pieces of artwork around because I can't afford larger pieces that make a bigger statement.  Not to mention, larger mirrors were crazy expensive too.  The end result of this project gave me some substantial size for an unsubstantial cost.

I started with the Ikea Ribba Frames.  These were I think $19.99 each.  They're huge so not a bad cost.

I spray painted them gold.  I think the can of spray paint was under $5.  I like this because it has some sheen but it is more of a darker, brassy gold than cheap and chintzy looking.  And then added some ikat fabric that I ordered from here.  It was $23/yard and I only needed 1 yard to complete this.

Note: 1 yard is plenty to fill up both frames but if you are trying to repeat a large pattern, you need to be careful about pattern repeat so you can get the look you want.

Bargain Bench Redo

I picked this bench up for $15 at a consignment store a couple of months ago.  My husband hated it but I saw potential...or was it might have been the rock-bottom price tag.  Either way, I was determined to prove him wrong.

Here is the before picture:

Here is the fabric I decided on - it is timeless because of the polka dots but I like how they are randomized instead of evenly spaced out which feels a little more fun to me.

I got the fabric on Etsy from the Fabric Shoppe in case you are interested.

Step Two.

Heavy duty foam and zipped cushion cover created.  Now I just need to paint this sucker.

Final product will be forthcoming!

Felt Stuffed Hearts

I was feeling creative a couple of weeks ago and decided to use some of my felt and fabric scraps into little heart shaped door hangers.  It was a super and easy fun project that I think I'll make some more of.  They just dress up any little space to have one hanging.

I used scrap fabric on the back of each one so they look something like this:

Antelope Head for the Dining Room

Some people probably feel that the whole antler trend is over.  I am not over it yet.  I have been loving some of the different items in West Elm etc. but just couldn't make up my mind on which ones I loved the most.

My husband and I went to downtown Frederick, MD a few weeks ago on a little day trip.  We found this great home design store (of course I can't remember the name of it now) and I fell in love with this antler head.  It wasn't white like I wanted but I loved how the antlers formed a heart.  At $25 I couldn't pass them up.  All they needed was a little paint...

Here is what it looked like before:

And then after a little high gloss white paint all "mounted" up on our dining room wall.

My plan is to do a gallery wall of art around the mirror but one thing at a time...

How To: Counter Remnants as Fireplace Hearth

As part of our continuing basement "renovation" of the new house, we decided it was time for the fireplace to have an update. Here's how it looked after the handyman ripped the brass cover off:

Yeah, not too pretty of a sight.  At first we thought about having someone come tile the entire fireplace.  We went to pick out some tile but I wasn't sure I was going to like how it looked even with my idea of white marble tile with a dark gray grout.  Plus, we would have had to purchase the materials and pay someone for the installation (I don't think our DIY skills are that great yet...despite what the hubs would tell you).

We did a search for stonemasons around and came up empty handed as far as options.  I kept saying I wanted white marble with some dark gray in it to match the color we chose to paint the paneling.  Then my husband had the idea of searching for a countertop remnant since he could picture what I was looking for on a counter.  We headed to USA Marble and Granite in Fairfax, VA.  Not only was the selection great, it was kind of fun rooting through a warehouse of remnants to find just what we were looking for.

After searching...

and searching...

we decided on one that was just right for us:

For $280 (WELL over half of what tiling and labor would have cost us), they cut the stone, beveled three of the four edges (we left the fourth one flat so it would sit flush against the fireplace), and polished the stone.

All that was left was the install.  The floor in the basement was tile.  We knew we wanted to carpet it but we had to get this stone down first so that the carpet guys could work around this.  We bought QuickSet cement and a trowel at the handware store.  Then we laid the stone down at the fireplace hearth where we wanted it to go and traced around the edges with a pencil.  We used an old bucket and mixed it with water and used the trowel to even everything back.  We set the stone back on top and voila!  We have a new (and much improved) fireplace hearth.  I've got lots more work to do in the basement and certainly need to decorate the fireplace more (and get a screen) but here's what it looks like now:

Here's a close up of how they tacked the carpet underneath the new hearth so that everything is flush.

Close up of the beautiful gray marbling in the stone: