Jealous of Another Client

Sometimes there are great pieces of furniture that come through Peacock Door Designs and I wish (oh how I wish) that the were mine. My daughter apparently shares my love because every time she walked past this piece she stroked it. Then the last time she was touching it, she turned and said, "Mama, do you think we can trade your client my new desk for this vanity? I just love it SOOOOO much!"

I hated to break her sweet heart, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. It makes me smile that she already has the love of furniture.

This is a cell phone picture (taken by the client) of the piece before:

The Vanity Base

The Vanity Mirror

In this picture you can see that my living room was overtaken by furniture. At this point there were actually 5 pieces in this room that do not belong to me. I call it my furniture factory.

It was shabby chic time around here. Here is what the piece looks like now.

The piece came to me with a mirror broken out - they will have another one made for it soon.

The detail on this piece is incredible! The little foot is so whimsical and I just adore it!

My Chandelier

When I did this post, I thought this would all come together much more quickly. But, when you have to wait for something to ship from England you really shouldn't get your hopes up. 

It started out as a dream for a wooden chandelier. Then it morphed into finding something more affordable that I could live with. Then I fell in love with an antique brass chandelier. But, when I saw this it all came together for me.

Now all I had to do was find the chandelier. That's usually the hardest part, but I lucked out completely and found one not even a month after I had made up my mind.

Then I got to work. Painting, laughing at my dogs, and ordering crystals.

Slate the guard Great Dane

They just couldn't understand why I was inside their space or why I locked them out of it.

I painted it quickly, hung it quickly, and had ordered the crystals before I did any of that, and the crystals took forever to get here. None of them making it here by their stated arrival dates.

So I definitely did a jig or two when the last one came in today. I also smile constantly when I see the completed chandelier in my space. I'm in love with this!!!

It just makes me smile.

Shauna's Game Table

I love it when plans seem to be working out. When suddenly all the pieces seem to fall together and there are blessings all around. I feel that way right now. I'm feeling blessed, business is picking up and I'm loving what's happening around here. I love what I do! 

My friend Shauna found a cute little drop-leaf table and wanted to use it as a games table in their den. It was pretty severely water damaged and she had loved my new dining table so it was time to stripe again.

This is what I had to work with. It's such a cute little table.

It was pretty straight forward so I got right to work.

My house is an insane mess at present! I still have my old dining table set up (as you can see in the background) as a sewing table. I honestly don't have anywhere else to put it and I have to have it for work right now. So, for now it's in the middle of my living room.

This was the table I drew inspiration from. I LOVE this table!

Without going into too many details, the striping didn't go quite as planned and there was a lot of me using a tiny detail brush to correct what the tape pulled off. Never having had that happen before I was shocked. I have a good system and have striped many pieces now...first one ever to pull off paint when I removed the tape. Oh well, she wanted it lightly distressed then so I sanded and sanded.

I think this is such a cute little table. I love that the inside of those curvy little legs are the color of the stripes.

I love the distressed stripes and edges, making it look loved and worn in.

But mostly, I just love it when my clients love what I bring them. It makes me smile every single time. Shauna didn't even seem to mind that my daughter danced around her house in a tiger tutu during the delivery.

So proud to have another satisfied client and another project under my belt.

Evolution of a Little Girl's Room

Way back when we found out we were going to have a little girl, I was nervous. I'm NOT a pink person! All the nursery bedding stuff was so pink and I hated a lot of it. I didn't want pink walls and I certainly didn't want that little girl outfitted in pink from curls to toes all the time. So, I found something I could tolerate and went with it. Yes, there was pink in it. I just tried to play up the other colors more. The walls went peach and I used words like "raspberry"to disguise even to myself that there was pink in the room. I fell in love with this room!

My mom made that crib skirt - couldn't you just die for all those satin ruffles?!?

It was so very Jade Reese! Then, when it came time to make it into a big girls room, I went in search of fabrics that went with those colors. I thought, why not just grow with it?

But my daughter wanted to earn her big girl room and pick her own colors...Yes, she wanted pink and purple and my stomach turned. Could I do it and not hate it? I had wanted to do a color scheme that would last until she was at least 12.

It was many many paint samples and a lot of talking myself into it when we had this new "big girl" room.

When it was finished I thought it was cute. I could see the appeal and I know that it looked pretty, but it wasn't what I had envisioned and I KNEW that she would want it to be more grown up sooner rather than later.

It happened. Sooner came and she said it was "too little girl for me now Mama. Maybe we can just paint the walls and it will look better?" I love that she is only 7 and tries to offer cheaper design solutions. It makes me smile. The only issue was that I actually really and truly fell in love with her drapes and I couldn't change everything completely because I refuse to change her drapes. Work with what you've got and make it look more mature.

It's an ongoing project but here is a sneak peek of what is coming. Yes, we are neutralizing the wall colors and that will help greatly! But, neutralizing the bedding happened faster because I had most things on hand. I made her a new duvet cover and modified her toss pillows in a day. Sewing while client work paint was drying. I'm getting great at stacking projects to make the most of my time.

Pink and purple are staying. Purple and the duck egg blue are the main focus now. The fabric choice is much more mature as well. I can see this lasting for a long time.

 It will be a much better space for this mama as well. The walls were killing me slowly. It all adds up to my little girl not being quite so little anymore though. I still can't believe she's so big.

And we have one super happy little girl! I love how excited she is about her new things. We're planning the room together this time and she has good suggestions now that she's older. I love that little Duchess!

Barrel Back Chair

I bought fabric a long time ago for these chairs. WAY back in this post, I talked about more to come with these chairs...that was in September of 2011. I had the fabric then. That tells you how busy life can get. I was all ready to go with those chairs and here it is February of 2013 and I just finished ONE chair!

These are the chairs before the makeover. I got the pair off craigslist for $65. The PAIR! These are Ethan Allen chairs, the wood is a little beat up, but it needs to be in this house. The upholstery is ugly but really was in perfect condition. They looked so good I just couldn't pass them up. Oh, and they were the perfect size. the aqua table has had a couple of makeovers since the first paint and glaze job. It's perfect to me now though.

I'm not going to show a lot of progress pictures during this post, I'm too excited to get to the good stuff! Plus it's hard to hold things in place while upholstering and take pictures at the same time. I didn't have anyone around to help me this past week - I seriously saw my husband only at bed time all week.

So here it goes. I stripped all the old upholstery off.

Then I got busy cutting out and sewing together the new upholstery.

The back was easy, the front was harder, the cushion actually brought me to tears. I had always had the expert help of my mother on cushion covers before. She would coach me through it and show me tricks. This was a hard thing for me to do since I haven't even been sewing for two years yet. Let's just say it took me a few tries to get it almost right. I know there are imperfections in this chair, it IS my first chair to sew a cushion for...and I had never installed a zipper before either. I'm very proud of this chair! It's definitely not perfect, it taught me a lot, but I think it turned out beautifully.

One down, one to go and I am a happy girl!