Soothing Rooms

I love colorful rooms and I’ve featured several on the blog. I know there are a lot of people that would rather stick to neutrals though. I do have to admit that neutral rooms can be really beautiful. These photos may have me changing my tune about wanting lots of color in a room. I especially love the rooms that have a muted color scheme with a few brighter pops of color thrown in.

Jennifer Brouwer Design via Houzz

Sarah Richardson

Urrutia Design via La Dolce Vita

Heather Scott Home & Design

Danielle Moss from The Everygirl

Hernán Arriaga via Elle Décor

Chris Goddard via At Home Arkansas

via At Home Arkansas

Dining Room Table and Chairs Makeover

Do you guys remember when I asked for advise about my dining room chairs way back in August? Well I finally got around to the makeover and I am thrilled with the results!

Here’s a reminder about the back story of the table and chairs. We bought them last May off craigslist for $80. The table was the perfect size for our new dining room and the chairs were solid and in good shape, but they needed updating.

The chair cushions were especially bad. Not only was the fabric ugly and totally not my style, it was also dirty and it had lots of stains.

Back in August I asked for your opinion on a fabric, which I really appreciated, but I ended up waiting to pick a fabric until I had completed my textiles class. I ended up choosing this fabric from OnlineFabricStore.net

I ordered several samples of different fabrics and this was the winner. It only cost $7.90 a yard and I ordered 3 yards just to make sure I would have plenty in case I messed up (for the record I only messed up once ).

Ben took care of refinishing the table and I did the chairs. He wanted to stain the top of the table a dark walnut color and pain the legs white, which I was slightly unsure about, but I absolutely love it! I took care of repainting the chairs.

I’m no expert at painting so I won’t give you a tutorial (there are plenty of other resources for that), but I did use one tip from Pinterest. I poured some paint into a plastic cup and then slipped a rubber band over the top to help wipe off the extra paint from the brush. It worked really well!

Here are a few more action shots of the sanding and painting process.

Ben took charge of recovering the cushions. With the first cushion he took out every one of the 50+ staples which took a really long time. On the rest of them he sped things up by literally just ripping off the fabric and then taking out any staples that were sticking out. I used one of the old covers as a template for the new fabric. I used a pencil to draw an outline about 3 inches wider than the existing fabric. Ben then used the staple gun to staple the fabric to the bottom of the cushion. We had the hardest time with the corners and they’re not perfect but they still look pretty good.

To the post I’m leaving you with a few before and after photos.

What do you think? Do you like the two-tone look of the table? Do you like the fabric I decided on for the cushions? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 27th birthday! I love birthdays, especially mine Last night we had some friends over for a little birthday party which was wonderful. Today I’m spending the day with my hubby before he has to go in to work at 10 p.m. He’s already spoiled me with homemade french toast, mimosas, flowers, and the kate spade clutch I wanted! It’s so pretty!

Also pictured are the awesome Birthday Girl glass my friend Jenna gave me and a Sugar Ray tank top from my friend Lexi. We went to the free Sugar Ray concert at Power and Light a few weeks ago and one of the crew members gave us this shirt. I told Lexi to keep it because it would fit her better, but since I’m the big Sugar Ray fan (it was the very first concert I ever went to! Sugar Ray and Goo Goo Dolls at the Illinois State Fair 1999), she gave the shirt to me for my birthday.

This weekend we worked hard to get the house ready for my party, which also involved finally finishing refinishing and recovering the dining room table and chairs! I’ll post more photos tomorrow but here’s a sneak peak:

Tribute to “The Office:” My Top 10 Moments

Friends, I hope you'll excuse me this morning as I take a departure from blogging about the usual topics to gush about one of my favorite TV shows. Unless you've been living under a rock you've probably heard that "The Office" is coming to end and tonight is the series finale. I'm a little emotional about it ending. The show has had its ups and downs over the years but it's absolutely one of the best sitcoms of my generation.

To celebrate the end of an era I put together a list of 10 of my favorite moments from the last 9 seasons of "The Office." It includes several Jim and Dwight pranks, some classic Michael Moments, a little Jim and Pam, and more. Okay, time for me to stop before I start crying.


Top 10 Office Moments

10. Jim’s Best Prank on Dwight



9. Stapler in Jello



8. Threat Level Almost Midnight



7. Bankruptcy



6. Michael and Erin Celebrate



The Office - "The Ultimatum" - Michael sprays Erin with champagne from Greg Bauer on Vimeo.

5. Parkour!



4. Gift Wrapped Desk



3. The Injury



2.  Bears, Beets, Battlestar Gallactica

The Office: Cold Open - watch more funny videos

1. Forever




Are you as sad as I am about the series ending? Did I include your favorite "Office" scene? Are there any moments I'm missing? 

Wanted: kate spade sale items under $140

Guess what? There’s a big sale at kate spade going on. Like, a really big sale. And a huge kate spade sale right before my birthday is a terribly big temptation. Good thing most of what I love is really affordable. Everything pictured below is under $140 and most of it is under $50. Take a look at all the pretty goods!

double bow studs, $19; tuttie flats, $99; birds over arches ipad folio, $39; astor court aurelia, $139; daycation passport holder, $19; plaza athenee short necklace, $49; la pavilion iphone case, $20; pasadena zippered chrissy wristlet, $49; ikeda drop earrings, $19 

Is there anything here you’d like to pick up for yourself?

The Great Gatsby Set

The new Great Gatsby movie comes out today and I am pumped! The book was good, although I think I probably need to reread it (I read it during high school and I don’t think I fully understood and appreciated it). But the main reason I’m excited for the movie is to see the gorgeous sets! I absolutely love the Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Arts and Crafts styles that were popular during the Jazz Age. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t too bad to look at either

Architectural Digest published a ton of photos of the set in its May issue. Here are a few of the gorgeous photos from the online story.

Stunning, right?! Is anyone else going to see The Great Gatsby this weekend?

Connections

I’ve made a few changes to the old blogaroo…first of all, I took down the Google reader followers box. Google reader is going as of July 1st so if you want to stay connected here are a few other ways to do so:

1. Follow Blue 11 Interiors on BlogLovin’. Click here and then just click follow. I know a few people have had trouble becoming a follower via Google so I think this should be much easier. (I don’t want to resort to begging but I would be SUPER grateful if you did this!!)

2. In addition to the BlogLovin button on the right side of the screen there are boxes to subscribe via RSS feed and to subscribe via email

3. I added buttons for my Pinterest page, Instagram, Twitter, and Email. I’ll also be adding a Facebook page soon! (Side note: does anyone know how to make those buttons smaller??)

Is there anything else you’d like to see added to or changed on Blue 11? I’m always open to suggestions!

Lastly, I’ll leave you with an image of this lovely print via Caitlin M. Conway on Etsy