Friday Finds: Summer Fun

How on earth is it already August 1st?  We are hoping for nice weather this weekend so we can grasp on to the last bit of summer before it races by! 

Friday Finds for an ideal summer weekend!

Clockwise from top right:

Lacefield D852 Bali Peacock Floor Cushion

Hopewell Workshop Watercolor Quilt via Domino

Bamboo 21 Piece Picnic Basket from Bed Bath & Beyond

Villy Customs bike via OKL

DIY Ladder Toss game from Waiting on Martha via The Home Depot Apron Blog

Great Rose Wines under $15 via Rachel Ray Magazine

Govino Shatterproof Wine Tumblers

Textile Tuesday: Vintage Furniture Transformations

Lacefield customers often comment on the unique upholstery pieces we feature in our catalogs and on our website.  Even junky old thrift store furniture can become eye candy with a simple upholstery job in one of our signature print textiles. Throughout the year we scour antique markets, Craigslist, Goodwill stores and local thrift shops for inexpensive, distinctive furniture for Lacefield photo shoots.  Here are some of our favorite finds in all their thrift store glory, alongside their beautiful transformations:

A vintage granny wingback is transformed with Lacefield Bengali Grey textile

These hotel surplus dining chairs now look like French antiques with a little help from
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Lacefield Bombay Cobalt and Bombay Mist textiles

Lacefield Isla Spring textile breathes new life into this settee

An assortment of vintage chairs are revived with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint
and Lacefield Jasmine Seaglass & Trellis Mist textiles

This curvy beauty was brought into the 21st Century with Lacefield Madras Bisque textile

A cheap chain store wing chair gets a classic update with our Serengeti Coral textile

We use a wonderful local upholstery shop for the pieces shown in our photo shoots, but after an amazing weekend of networking with DIY bloggers at Haven Conference, I feel inspired to learn how to upholster some smaller pieces myself.  There is a great new upholstery guide book on the market, written by professional upholsterer, Amanda Brown. The extremely talented and resourceful Brown runs Spruce, a furniture redesign firm in Austin, Texas.  Would you be brave enough to take on an upholstery DIY project? 

Spruce by Amanda Brown is available HERE

Friday Finds: Pressed Botanicals and an Easy DIY

We have fallen in love with the look of pressed botanicals used as wall art. Whether it is a single framed large scale pressed leaf or a grouping of multiple small pressed plants, the visual impact is quite stunning.  

Giant botanical by Stuart Thornton in House Beautiful via

Lauren Liess Interiors via 

via Holly Mathis Interiors

Lauren Liess & Co.  design studio and retail shop in Great Falls, Va

Romantic Homes Magazine via

Wall of pressed botanicals via

Black matted botanicals via

Framed botanicals via Elle Decor

Delicate botanicals via

Get the look with a lovely blog post from A Pair & A Spare DIY, which walks you through a simple, step-by-step process to create gorgeous pressed botanicals inspired by Hong Kong floral artist, Gemma - aka Hayden Blest.

via A Pair & A Spare DIY

Textile Tuesday: Japanese Shibori

Japanese Shibori, similar to tie dye, is a form of resist dying where fabric is folded, wrapped, tied or twisted then submerged in a dye pot. The intricate patterns vary depending on the method used.

examples of four different Shibori dying
methods via Folk Fibers Blog

inspiring quilt made using a wide array of shibori fabric

via Good Studio

via Desire to Inspire

stunning shibori kimono spotted on Tumblr

Shibori dying is a simple, yet rewarding, DIY project.  To create your own shibori fabric, you can purchase an inexpensive dye kit and try one of these step by step tutorials we found online:

Love this folded shibori DIY over on The Aestate

Anthro Blog features the folded and wrap methods of shibori

Make this lovely shibori scarf with
a detailed Martha Stewart DIY tutorial

textile artist Carol Anne Grotrian teaches shibori workshops
in her Cambridge, MA studio.  

Look We Love: Art Walls

Curated art walls can make a big visual impact in interior design.  This look has been trending online and in design magazines for years, and it is one we never tire of.  Achieving this "perfectly imperfect" look is no simple task - the most visually appealing examples have either a unifying theme, color story, frame style, spacing or scale.

via The Right Bank

via Domino 

via Southern Accents

via Domino

via The Right Bank

via Pinterest

A great way to determine the layout of your art wall without creating unnecessary nail holes is to cut butcher paper the same size as each piece you want to display.  You can arrange the butcher paper until you achieve the layout and spacing that works best on your wall.