A Little Imperfection in the Seat

I've developed a love for a bit of "imperfection" in the seat of a sofa or chair.

An uneven-looking upholstered seat cushion often results from being a down or down-wrapped seat cushion, so I think I'm a bit like Pavlov's dog and when I see a seat that's slightly uneven, I associate it with a down-wrapped cushion (which are super-comfy) and it looks more comfortable to me, which makes me like it more.  You also see it a bit more in single seat cushions or double because the longer a seat cushion is, the more it will vary.  

{Sofa by Verellen}

There are the quarter-bouncing seat cushions and the more slouchy down ones and while I think both are great (and each definitely has its place in certain homes or rooms) I myself love the more imperfect look of the slouchy ones in my own home because I'm an extremely casual person (it matches my sweats better ;) and when I sit in sofas, I tend to curl up in them & get cozy vs. sit on the edge of them & sip cocktails.  (And you can sip cocktails from a curled up position just as well- trust me  ;) ;)

{Garden & Gun--- loooove this house!!}

In my work for clients, we do both types of seats- quarter-bouncers and relaxed seats.   It really just depends upon my client and the function of the room.  I find my perfectionists & very busy clients are often more drawn to tighter seat cushions because of the look and the fact that they don't need fluffing.  (Flipping yes, always, but fluffing, no.)  I consider myself pretty busy too, but I guess I just have a thing for imperfection.


I'm the type of person who usually picks a favorite but still appreciates the alternatives.  It's probably why our client & client projects are all so varied...  I think different things are right for different people.

You don't often see imperfect down seats in photos because they usually get fluffed and primped before they're photographed, but you can still pick them out:

{perfectly fluffed, but you know she's a slouchy sitter... love}

I've found a couple of photos which look like they were shot just after my boys visited and had a party on the sofa, but they somehow look really beautiful & chic to me:

{I'm not sure where this image is from but I think about it a LOT.. someone let me know it's from Lonny}

I particularly love the look of a down seat without piping on the cushion.  Piping adds more "structure" to the look of a seat cushion and so a doubleneedle stitch often takes that away a bit and makes the seat more round/ less squared off.  (like above)

I can spy a little bit of the doublestitched down seat on the sofa on the left below:

Here's a leather seat cushion that really doesn't seem like it was prepped for it's photo and I love it (with piping):

{Lonny}

There's often so much newness and perfection in a home that's getting decorated that I really love to see elements that feel as if they're been there for a while & that have patina like the gorgeous leather on the wing chair above.  People often have unrealistic expectations with what will happen to a piece of furniture after it lives in a house for a while.  The reality is that pieces with fabrics and cushions and stuffing will change over time and that's okay.  Sometimes that change (or need to fluff/ whatever you want to call it) is a hallmark of quality & natural materials, which have their own innate beauty.  Good shoes can scuff, a great t-shirt gets softer, and jeans fade...  Life makes its mark on everything, so of course it will affect the things in our homes too.  I see this as part of everything & think these slow subtle changes are good.  Eventually, something can wear through to tatters, and you fix it or recover it, but along the road to tatters, that piece has a beautiful life as long as you take care of it.

It's the pieces that are made so that they look like they shouldn't change that end up looking bad as life hits them.  (In a sofa I'm thinking of an inexpensive foam or cushion insert that just gets smashed down and doesn't come back up leaving the seat cushion all baggy & lonely looking.) Like this:

{Image from Apartment Therapy}

Upholstered furniture requires care & maintenance:  flipping cushions periodically, vacuuming gently, washing or spot cleaning...

The seats on the chairs above look like they might be quarter-bouncers, but I love the slipcovers on the chairs because there's the tiniest bit of movement/ wrinkle in the fabric.  I love that little bit of reality which I think is beautiful.  (Reminds me of an unironed linen napkin = love}

Here's a room that's totally not my own personal style but that I find really charming.  I'd love to visit and  curl up:

{via Cote de Texas...  love the seat cushions!!}

Here's a pretty example of the slightly imperfect seat cushions I love on an English arm sofa:

{love this and found it on pinterest but am not sure of the source}

There's something so inviting about it to me.

 Here's a totally primped picture but I know these pretties are what I'm talking about:

Here's an example of a French mattress-style cushion that doesn't look like it's down wrapped but that still has that very "real" look I like:

I did a few of these layered together in the DC Design House a couple of years ago for a relaxed and "imperfect" feel:

 Anyway, I'm off for the day but would love to hear your thoughts on perfectly imperfect upholstery. Tight perfection? Love it or hate it?  Have a great day!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

10 Home Improvements To Consider

The sun is out and natures first green is our gold. Thank God, Spring is finally here. We are feeling it with the warmer days. Our energy levels are up, and now we find ourselves making weekend trips to the local Home Depot or Lowe's department stores. Some of us are looking for ideas, while others have a plan. Any home improvement big or small will have an impact.Whether you are looking to sell your property in the coming months or tired of being the worst house on the block, any improvement is better than none at all. Some home improvement can be value added, while others are personal preference to the way you want to live.

If you are looking for some direction and want a quick reference to what to start with, check out these 10 home improvements to help jump start your mental juices and get you to start on something:

Front entry doors: The average homeowner treats their entry door like a guest bedroom, little attention to detail and style. It is a huge curb appeal factor not to be ignored. Aside from energy efficiency and weather tolerance, a new quality door will immediately make a statement at entry.

Siding: Whether you are replacing it or debating on getting it installed, siding will add a punch to the look of your home. Not only does siding add a layer of insulation, and protection, but it will enhance the appearance of your home, and is considered capital improvement. Siding adds value.

Decks: Warmer days, means a lot of time out doors. What better way to enjoy it, than to extend your living space. Big or small, family entertainment can be enjoyed inside and out.

Windows: Replacement windows = energy savers, plus tax credits.

Kitchen: Improving your kitchen does not have to be a major investment, but it will make you smile more while making your morning coffee. Refacing cabinets and changing hardware is a start. Changing the backsplash can be the answer to an immediate change.

Basement: Living space taken to another level. Always take inventory of wasted, under utilized rooms in the house. If waterproofing is not a major job to tackle, framing, sheetrock, subfloors are very quick to install. A finished basement does not have to be major investment, but will add to the value of yours.

Attic: Hidden space for an office, extra bedroom, additional storage. Walking on beams? They do make easy to install sub-floors in squares, you pass them in the aisles all the time.

Bathroom: Can be a 30 minute makeover with replacing fixtures and hardware, to reglazing (not 30 minutes) your tub and tiles for that overnight transformation. Even a vanity can be painted a cool color.

Addition: If you find yourself outliving your space, large family or expecting one, research the cost in adding an addition before looking into a new home. You may find that an alternative is over your roof.

Landscaping: Some of us do not have a green thumb, keep grass short and it will never look sloppy. Landscaping is an art form, so it does require a level of attention. Consider evergreen shrubs as a carefree option.

Granted, some improvements can be a bit costly. Please gather your estimates, and make comparisons. The lowest is not always the best, and the highest does not always mean quality. Take it upon yourself to purchase all the supplies, and look for installation services only. This will make a big difference in your budget planning.

Granite Benchtop - Making the ultimate statement in kitchen design!

Kitchen is the heart of your home. Home owners desire granite Benchtops for supreme comfort, minimum maintenance and godly feeling of the natural stone. As observed, when a person from your friend or family enters the kitchen the first thing they notice is your beautiful and shining kitchen Benchtops. After its where majority of time is spent with families gathering, preparing tasty food and most of all entertaining life.

Granite Benchtops is preferred due to its high-price feature. It is perceived that despite presence similar in color, shape and size, some granite Benchtops are higher than others. Handling of natural stone is completed in various ways and stones which are crafted first are cheaper than those which come with more efforts. Then the price of the stone is dependent upon the amount of labor introduced in quarrying natural stone.

To save big amounts of money when renovating kitchens, you have the option of resurfacing your granite counter top. Instead of building a new granite bench top, you can simply remove the old counter top surface and have a brand new counter top. This option is considered to save you upto 70% in cost compared to getting a complete new granite benchtop.

Granite is preferred for its looks, maintained year after year with little efforts. Its usability is class apart. One can cut any amount of vegetables on the Benchtops and it will not show any mark. There is no problem in keeping containers with hot liquids on the stone as there will be no marks out of hot or cold surface. Besides, granite can be cleaned with a clean cloth regularly and the kitchen Benchtops will look as beautiful as installed on its first day.

Imitated granite is available in the market, but these are not successful as they begin to show wear and tear and show burn marks on them within no time. These are eventually replaced for their diminished looks, overtime. These Benchtops pose a problem for home owners who are deprived of looks and usability by installing imitated granite. Professionals are called time and again to sand and re-polish worktop, time and again.

Professional granite merchants have an expertise in assisting customers to buy the right material as per their budget and preferences. Customers are at ease to furnish granite kitchens with proper Benchtops, flooring and wall-cladding. Granite merchants are more than eager to advise customers with proper material, design and technical assistance.

Some people prefer marble over granite as they find marble more attractive. However, marble deteriorates after some time. In kitchens, it shows food-marks and in bathrooms, it shows water-marks, diminishing the effect of natural stone. Granite, on the contrary, shines as bright as during installation even after decades of installation. There is a large collection of granite Benchtops to choose from. Customers have the facility to avail first-hand designer services for granite for kitchen Benchtops. A designer works in close proximity of customer to maximize the functionality and cast a luxurious look to the place, within the prescribed budget.

Author Bio – This article has been written by James on behalf of IB Granite Benchtops Australia , pioneers in installing and supplying stone products to the building industry and private sector in Victoria. If you wish to makes the ultimate statement in kitchen design whether in the form of Benchtops, Vanity a kitchen island, or a piece of freestanding furniture; it can be the finishing touch of your kitchen‘s dream contact ibgranite.com.au

Our Library Loft Plans

In a few weeks, we're renovating the upstairs loft at our place.  (I CANNOT WAIT!!!! ... well, can't wait for it to be over, I should say ;) ;)   The loft is basically a family room where we keep all of the boys' toys, watch movies, read, etc... (Sidenote on why I love this floorplan so much: The boys don't keep any toys in their bedrooms here because the loft is right outside of their rooms, which has made our lives sooooo much easier.  Cleaning their rooms pretty much consists of making beds and dealing with clothes.  It's sort of like the old homes with the bedrooms off of the "nursery"... love it.)  Anyway, here's what the loft looked like when we bought the house:

We've removed the paneling and will removing the two existing windows and replacing them with one massive window, similar to this one in It's Complicated:

The window is actually 3 separate windows and will be around fifteen feet long.  It will completely open our loft to the back yard and I cannot wait!!!

Here's that area of the loft when we were living in it and using it as our kitchen during the renovations:

It's how it pretty much looks now with our wall-to-wall seagrass and half-painted walls.   The guys got as much done up here before we moved in.  You can really see how "pink" the beige was in the house compared to the cream we're changing it to...

And here's the view from this past Fall:

When you walk into the loft when we're finished, you'll really get to appreciate the view & almost feel as if you're outside.  We've added & enlarged windows wherever possible.  When I come home to our house (the downstairs) after travelling, I'm really struck by how open it is and I feel slightly exposed, but in a good way.  When it snows, you feel like you're almost out there with the snow.  This past week or two, everything turned technicolor green outside with the Spring, and there's a bit of a green glow in our house right now because it's so open.  (I was on facetime with my dad and he asked me what color green was on the walls!!)  I love it!! So, I think adding this massive window upstairs will really get the upstairs feeling the same way.

We're planning to add a window seat under the window:

This is going to be the biggest window seat I've ever seen at fifteen feet long...  I'm wondering how our workroom will get the cushion here.  ("Where there's a will" I guess?? ;) ;)

Here's another view of the family room "before": 

We've removed the built-ins in the pic and we are adding built-in bookshelves to all of the walls.  The new built-ins will consist of vertical drywall columns that support old wood shelves.  In the back of the room, we'll float our sofa in front of the shelves and use the inaccessible space behind the sofa for things we rarely need to access/storage:

We won't have room for floor lamps of end tables with lamps for the sofa, so I'm on the hunt for the perfect sconces to go above the sofa.
I should probably mention here -since I find that people often have questions about this- that we love to read and have a disgusting number of books.  We have ugly books, which I have ways of making look a little better, and we also have some really beautiful books, that yes, we actually read.  ( I say it like that because the last time I posted photos of a bookshelf of mine I got comments saying that the books on our shelves didn't look like they'd ever been read....  I'm amazed you can tell from a photo if a book's been read or not!) My husband (a former English teacher) and I both love to read and he loves collecting first or early editions of books.  My grandfather has also been gifting me (and now my husband & boys too) classics every Thanksgiving, so we've really gotten a fair-sized library going.  AND -I'll admit-  whenever I see a book that's really beautiful & looks interesting for a great price, I buy it, figuring it'll get read sometime.  I CANNOT WAIT to get our books out of our parking spot in our garage and into the house!!!   I've missed my books so much (it's  been since September) and can't wait to dig into them again.  
Here's a quick sketch of how the window wall will look, also surrounded by books:

The window seat will fit in with the shelves and then come out slightly farther than the shelves, which will be 24" deep on this will so the window seat looks more seamless.  Again, the drywall itself will be what shapes the buiilt-ins.  The window seat cushion will sit on a small drywall platform and the shelves above it and the vertical columns will all be made of drywall.  (House dream one day is to coat all of our drywall in a smooth plaster but for now, it's drywall.)  Because this wall of built-ins, is 24" deep, I plan to use it to really stash a lot of our books.  I have an insane collection of cheesy teen horror books from when I was a kid (books I still loooooove & read occasionally... Christopher Pike anyone??  He & L.J. Smith did Vampires best, I think!!!) and so they'll go above the window seat a few rows deep with their pages side forward instead of with their flourescent pink, green, and orange spines outward.  
Anyway, we're starting this next phase in a few weeks and are hoping to finish up this Summer...  Now that the elevations are figured out, it's time for me to start thinking about the fabrics & furnishings.  I'm planning on moving a table of ours up to the window seat so the boys can do crafts & projects, and eventually homework up there.  I'll keep you posted as I put the fabrics together... I'm envisioning a solid on the window seat mixed with a bunch of pillows in my fabrics.
Have a great day & can't wait to hear what you think!!


If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Simple Closet Organization and a Winner of the Ramsign Giveaway

 

I used to have my purses stuck up on a shelf in my closet.  Each time I went in there, that shelf just looked messy!

So this is what it looked like before...

 

 

And now this is what it looks like.

 

 

I had my husband add this dowel and now the purses hang nicely.  The straps are a little long on these, so I had to  wrap them around the hangers, but what a nice difference.

I think I'm going to try hanging my boots from hangers on this rod too...

 

 

 

 

Thank you to all of those who entered my Ramsign giveaway.  Using Random Number Generator, it chose #4.  HeatherF1 is the lucky winner!  Congratulations Heather!

 

Thanks so much for your visit.

 

Pam

Our Patio Before & After

Today's the day our patio makeover is up on The Home Depot blog!! We started with our backyard looking like this...

...And decided to add a patio there because we wanted a sort of outdoor family room where we could hang with the kids & entertain.  Home Depot gave us a sectional that we added to in order to make a massive  hangout area.  Our good friend, Mike Carr - of CarrMichael Construction- had the stone patio built.  And now we've got this: 

 I layered the sofa with some of my own fabrics and added in some vintage chairs so it would really reflect our style:

I took a TON of photos of the space and explained each and every little thing in the Home Depot blog so if you have some time, check it out here.

I'm off for an installation but hope you enjoy the post!!  Have a great day!!



If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Sneakity Peek: Our Patio

{Our patio coffee table.. full of our Early Spring Gardening projects}

We finished our patio last month, turning it into a little outdoor family room, and we've been loving it out there!!  Thanks to the sectional we got from Home Depot, it feels like we expanded our house.  Along with a bunch of other bloggers, we participated in the Home Depot Style Challenge:

Our patio photos will be up tomorrow morning on Home Depot's blog (9 AM/ Thursday May 2nd) where the entire before & after can be viewed.  Because we took the photos about a month ago, I have been dying to share them with you, so can't wait for you to see it!!

The inspiration for how we styled the shoot came from my old French carrot gravure we have hanging in our kitchen...

It was fairly chilly out when we took our photos and so I used early Spring Veggies and took color cues from the Spring greens & oranges in the carrot chart.

I'm off for the day but hope you enjoyed the little sneakity peek...  I'll be back tomorrow with the link to share the full before & after!  In the meantime, there are so many great patio & porch redos on the Home Depot blog right now from all of the other bloggers, so go here to see them!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.