Office Redo

Hi friends! Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while; I was sick all last week. It was zero fun. Well except for my Glee marathon on Netflix, but then I couldn’t sleep because I had “Bootylicious” stuck in my head all night. And because I had a fever. But that’s another story…

Anyway, a couple weeks ago I posted some photos of really cute home offices. One of them stood out as simple and easy to recreate.

Via Decoration Finds

So I took a shot at putting together my own version of it and I think I did a pretty good job!

 

All of these pieces individually were really reasonably priced, and all together the whole office only costs $979! For the full details check out my set on Polyvore.

DIFFA KC Dining by Design

Hello friends! Even though it’s officially Spring it is snowing like crazy outside. We probably already have at least 8 inches and it’s not done yet! It may be cold and nasty out but I am dreaming about warmer weather. How does “April In Paris” sound??

Save the Dates designed by Hammerpress

“April In Paris” is this year’s theme for a major event called Dining by Design, which is put on by DIFFA. DIFFA stands for “Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids,” and this is their big fundraising event for the year. Here’s more information from DIFFA’s website:

“DIFFA’s DINING BY DESIGN is “the Cannes of tabletop,” proclaims avant garde filmmaker John Waters.
But what exactly is DINING BY DESIGN? It’s the signature fund-raising event for DIFFA KC, which showcases the personal passions of some of the area’s leading design talents. Each participant is given a set amount of space and the freedom to create their own dining environment.  DINING BY DESIGN was founded in Kansas City over 20 years ago and has become the signature event for DIFFA chapters nationwide. DINING BY DESIGN is one of the most eagerly anticipated events in our community and it has helped raise more than $2 million for HIV and AIDS education and prevention in the Kansas City area.”

This year’s Dining by Design will take place on Saturday, April 13 and will feature two events. The Dining by Design Gala is taking place at The Gallery and it will include wine, cocktails, an amazing dinner, live entertainment, a live auction with some incredible experience packages, a post party in the Kill Devil Club next door, and more. Conversations on Dining is the new daytime event which will feature some of KC’s most creative business people in a panel discussion about food, presentation, spaces, nutrition and trends. This will also be an opportunity to view the tables and talk with the designers. For more on the panelists see the invite below.


To purchase tickets for either event please visit Diffa KC’s website here
I became involved with this event as a result of my internship. I’m so excited to be a part of Dining by Design and to help raise money for such a worthy cause. I’m helping with the DBD committee as well as assisting my awesome boss, Katy Sullivan, with a Moroccan-themed table for the event.
Katy is also the chair person of the whole event and she designed a Coco Chanel inspired table that was featured in this month’s KC Magazine. If you’re in the Kansas City area make sure to pick up a copy (it’s free!).



Dining by Design actually takes place in several cities throughout the year. New York City just hosted their DBD Gala this past Thursday and it looked incredible! Check out some of the pictures of the tables from Habitually Chic (more on the website).







I can’t wait for April 13! It’s going to be amazing!

Shiny Pretty Things

Here’s a few pretty pictures to start off you weekend with.

Gorgeous chandeliers spotted while shopping for work,

Morning coffee in my new favorite mug from Target,

Chocolate covered strawberries and champagne on the morning of Ben’s birthday,

Both sides of The Kauffman Center, spotted when I missed my exit leaving work,

Country Club Plaza, always a favorite,

Gorgeous table feature in KC Magazine by my boss-lady, Katy Sullivan, to promote Dining by Design (more on that next week!)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Bargain Find of the Year

I love my bargain finds and I happen to think I am really good at getting bargains. But my most recent purchase is one of my all time best finds. 

I bought two rugs on HSN.com (home shopping network, of all places). They’re by Nate Berkus and they were on clearance for, like, 80 percent off! So I bought a 2’ x 9’ runner, originally $149.95, for $23.98! I also bought a 2’ x 3’ rug, originally $49.95, for $10.00!

Let me back up a little bit here. I can’t really take credit for this find, since Catherine from Your Modern Couple found it first and shared it on her blog. She got the 8’ x 10’ version for a steal, but I really needed a runner for the hallway and a rug by the front door, so within 10 minutes of reading her post these babies were in my shopping cart.

They’re a really great flat weave and they’re 80% wool and 20% cotton. If they look a little ripplely it’s just because they haven’t flattened out yet from shipping.

I love the graphic black and white pattern. It’s kind of chevron but kind of ikat-ish too. I have no complaints so far. I’m in love, and I think Leo is too.

The rugs are also available in blue and gold. To buy one for yourself just click here.

Hump Day High Low: Grosgrain Pillows

It’s time to play the High/Low game again! Here are two very similar pillows. Which one do you think is more expensive?

 

 

Do you have your guess?

 

 

 

 

 

Were you right? The pillow on the right is by Caitlin Wilson and it retails for $55 for the smallest size (20” x 20”).  The pillow on the left is from Target and it is only $24.99! Pretty good knockoff isn’t it?! So for less than half the price you can have a very similar, albeit slightly smaller, pillow as the designer option. And the Target pillow is a very pretty orangey-coral color in person; the online picture makes it look more like a dark orange.

kate spade Inspired Lampshade

Do you remember the lampshades I “made-over” a couple weeks ago? The ones I decorated with the gold sharpie?
It was an ok start but it wasn’t where I wanted it to be. The sharpie was gold but on the fabric shades it just looked brown. So today I broke out some gold metallic paint, some ribbon, and a glue gun, and…ta da!


I used Martha Stewart metallic craft paint in yellow gold (the same stuff I used on my chevron table and my gold embellished frames) and a small paint brush to paint over the existing sharpie polka dots.


Notice how much better the color looks (the sharpie dots are on the left, the gold painted ones are on the right.)


I picked up two rolls of ribbon in the fabric section at Hobby Lobby for about $3 each. I used my handy dandy glue gun to attach the trim to the top and bottom of the shades.



Easy peasy! The only tricky part of the project was getting the ribbon to lay flat against the curved surface of the shade. I used my finger to smooth out the ribbon as I applied it, which helped the wrinkles and gapping. It also helped to even out the glue so you I didn’t have a thick line through the middle of the ribbon.



While I was sprucing things up I also decided to swap out the boring nickel knobs on the nightstands to pretty new glass ones.



It’s hard to tell from the picture but the new knobs are clear glass with lots of little bubbles, they are much prettier than the boring nickel knobs!
And there you have it! All it took was a little paint and a little ribbon to makeover a boring white lampshade into a white, gold, and black kate spade inspired piece!

**linking up at East Coast Creative** 

Free Artwork Printables

A couple weeks ago I posted pictures of my new gallery wall in the upstairs hallway.

I still love it! One of the best parts about it though is how inexpensive the whole thing was! The mountain picture on the top left is a photograph from a vacation in Colorado, the Happiness canvas art is from TJ Maxx, the gold mirror is from a garage sale ($1!), the dog print was a gift, and of course there’s the paint chip art. 

The other four pieces were free! I downloaded them from Feed Your Soul: the free art project and then printed them on my home printer. They have so many cute prints to choose from!

Stephanie Fizer

Angela Vandenboogaard

Shuxin Liang

Ilaria Benedetti

In fact the internet is chock full of adorable free printable art.

Life Is A Beautiful Ride

Coldplay: look at the stars

Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals

Skidamarink de dinky dink skidamarink (Anybody else remember The Elephant Show?!)

Hydrangea Botanical Print

LOVE

You Are My Sunshine (I have this one too, so cute!)

Now you have no excuse to not have some fun artwork in your home Which one is your favorite? Have you found any other sources for free printables that you love?