red and blue and better with two

recently, a reader sent me a request for some inspiration pictures including twin beds with a red and turquoise color scheme.  i scoured my inspiration files and the internet and came up with a few photos for her. 

i didn’t find too many with both red and turquoise, but i did find quite a few with variations of the colors. {unfortunately many of my inspiration files aren’t labeled so if you know the source of any of the “unknowns” please let me know so that i can give the proper credit.}

 

{source unknown}

{domino}

{source unknown}

{pb teen}

{country living}

{martha stewart}

{jeff andrews}

{source unknown}

{domino}

{source unknown}

{brooke giannetti}

{barrie benson}

{little green notebook}

and lastly, one of my favorite rooms of all time.

{domino}

LiveJournal Tags: twin beds,red and turquoise,domino,barrie benson,little green notebook,brooke giannetti,jeff andrews,martha stewart,country living,pb teen

adorable DIY conservatory, a guest blog from maison decor

hi,

i hope all of you enjoyed seeing blayne’s lovely home yesterday.  today amy chalmers from maison decor is guest blogging about the precious little conservatory that she made out of windows.  i met amy through twitter and her blog a few months ago.  she is such a sweet soul.  i love hearing about her family’s trips to their countryside lake home in new hampshire.  her relatively new shabby-chic-esc blog is filled with tons of pictures from her amazing garden as well as musings about her vacations and family homes.  i was so impressed after i read her post about building her own conservatory.  it was so like a project that i would tackle…that is if i had a back yard.  I thought you all would enjoy seeing it too so i asked amy to be a guest blogger this week.  enjoy!

 xo, Cristi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello Everyone!
I'm Amy from Maison Decor. I  was asked by Cristi to be a guest host on her beautiful design blog Charm Home.  I jumped at the chance! I've gotten to know about Cristi as she has shared bits of her life, like stories with her adorable hubby.  I'd like to share a little bit about myself. New to the blogging world, but designing into my third decade now, home decor and all things associated with that arena bring me great joy. I'll admit I have a slant towards Country French Design, and anything shabby, (has to be chic!), vintage, with old world glam captures my personal interest. Professionally my strengths are floor planning, color selection and window treatments. My days are shared with my husband of three years, our kids,( four boys/men) and two dogs. Believing that good deeds and positive energy do rub off, I am happy to join in and share what I have learned along the way with all of you.
Thanks again Cristi, you are as sweet as you are gorgeous!!
I hope you all enjoy my post about a project I had in my mind's eye and was able to bring to my garden.
Amy

a petite garden conservatory made out of windows

The story ends this way:

Here is the beginning....
My petite garden conservatory..how it came to be:

It started with this image.
Wow...a bunch of old windows put together to make a garden solarium!
That went right into my brain file..the one where I start hatching a dream plan.
I figured the next time I saw some old windows being thrown out on the side of the road, I was going to claim them. Sure enough, it happened!
There was a pile of nice small sized windows that could fit in my mini-cooper this week! I brought them home and asked my husband to unload.
He smiled a funny smile and gave me a kiss...he thinks I am kooky sometimes...quirky, kooky and lovable. ;-)

Thrilled with my find, but I needed to do some more research online and in magazines.

This little greenhouse is on a stand. That's a neat idea from Country Gardens Magazine Summer '08.

In my mind I secretly want one of these attached to the house...swoon.

I like the scrolled iron at the top here.  Looks like there is a wooden base with legs 
(maybe it's a table base) and then the windows are put together on top of that. Neat. This is cute, but maybe a tad too small?  
Maybe I could make a village....I saw an idea on a real model that I might use for my plan..a stone base.

Maybe I should build a mortared stone base and stick the greenhouse on top like above?

We have lots of rocks in our yard...wanna see?

Yes, this really is my back yard..my husband likes to collect granite blocks. 

I like to collect old windows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But lets get  back to my little miniature conservatory project. I wasn't sure how to put them together, and as I often do, no plan in my mind, I grabbed my tote bag of tools. I have a lot of drapery hardware and I decided I would just start attaching them to each other with angle irons.

I started to build a basic box with the larger of the two sizes I had. I wasn't going to get fussy about this and started screwing without benefit of a level. Sorry Dad.

The last window had to be coaxed a bit before I put the angle iron and screw to it.

The windows leaning against the chair are going to be the roof!

Now the basic window box shape is built. 
You can see the old spring system in the sides.

It's pretty solid!

An iron hanging planter and bracket from TJMaxx

Wondering what I could use for a fancy iron scroll for the top like the model picture I loved.  It hit me: I had that new iron planter on a scrolled iron wall mount bracket!!! 
Yippee.It was a perfect fit.  As my husband says, "better lucky than good".

Now I have the roof finial mounted with screws. I am going to turn this into a hanging planter conservatory. I will leave open the ends for ventilation and mount a hook inside that I can suspend a hanging plant. Otherwise anything in here  in the summer is going to cook.

I attached a piece of aluminum gutter strapping by snaking it through the joint in the roof and anchored it to the top. This was going to be the planter hook. I tested it out.
I hung a pink geranium and blue lobelia planter from the hook and it happened.

I was just captivated!  I fell in love in my yard.....Couldn't stop staring....
I'm getting there! But it really need some more finish work.

I made a pattern of the peak of the house
and traced it onto a shingle and then cut it out with a jigsaw.

I found some lead flashing and I cut it to fit the peak, with my kitchen scissors.

I tacked it all in place with nails.

Then I secured the scrolled bracket to give it the frenchy flair!

I covered the exposed spring system with a primed 1x3. 
I notched out one side so it would fit better.

I used a solid white stain by Cabot
to paint anything that wasn't white. 
I didn't want a completely fresh white paint job. 
I wanted to leave the areas with the age and patina of time.

I added an old skeleton key.

An iron & glass vessel is going to serve as a petite lantern.
A zinc number 1 plate to say this is the first one I ever made'.

Hubby and son put a slab of granite in place for 
my petite garden house. 
It's handy having an excavator and operator around the house!  Set on it's new foundation, it is a proud little structure.  I'll plant foxgloves and bleeding hearts around it.

I know I will get a lot of pleasure looking at it in my garden.
I will gaze upon it from my office window.

Rainy days and sunny days it will bring a  smile,

snow on the roof with a little bird feeder inside...
candles inside for an evening garden party...

I see it twinkling in my garden all year round.

thanks for the great guest post amy! to visit maison decor’s blog click here.

LiveJournal Tags: guest blog,maison decor,conservatory,diy

Dollar Store Tiered Party Trays

As I have mentioned, we are getting ready for Miss M's Garden Party 1st birthday coming up this weekend.  I'm really hoping to be able to have the party outdoors (fingers crossed for good weather).

I have been working on some of the decor for her party and wanted to share these fun tiered party trays that I made from items from our local dollar store.

Now I cannot take credit for this idea.  I saw the tutorial for these trays by Julie on Joy's Hope blog and knew I HAD to make these!

These are made from silver dollar store trays that have been spray painted to match the party decor.  They are attached to one another using dollar store super-glue and each tier is a dollar store crystal candle stick holder turned upside down.

Julie at Joy's Hope spray painted the candle stick holders which looked super-cute.  She also used a rainbow of colors that made them look so fun and happy.  I decided to leave my candle sticks clear to up the elegance factor - I like the way the crystal looks.

I made three different sizes.  All of the candle stick holders are from the dollar store, except for the tall one which I just happened to have on hand.

Joy's Hope has a great tutorial and will show you everything you need to get started making these pretty tiered party trays.  I think these would be so fun for the holidays - can't you picture black and orange for a Halloween party or red and gold for Christmas?  For $4-$6, why not make them for all the seasons!?!

Cottage Mama's Note:  Now if you plan to serve food on these trays make sure to put down some decorative paper or a paper doily - these are not considered food safe due to the spray paint that was used.  These would also make a great place to store your jewelry or in a girls room for all her hair bows and accessories.

vacation and a guest blog from this photographer’s life

{historic battery}

hi everyone!

this week is going to be a little different here at charmhome.  billy and i left town saturday morning to take a much needed vacation.  we are now in charleston, sc, which is one of our favorite places to be on earth.  we couldn’t be more excited about spending time with our friend kevin, relaxing on the beach and eating yummy seafood.  well, actually i’m way more excited about the seafood than billy is (billy doesn’t like seafood), but you get the point.

{folly beach, sc}

anywhoo, since i’m relaxing in the sun i’ve decided to have a couple of guest bloggers over to post at my blog so that you have some entertainment.  i’ll be back thursday and friday with new posts but today and tomorrow you’ll get to meet some new faces.

first up, miss blayne beacham from this photographer’s life.  blayne and i met last year shortly after i discovered her blog and became obsessed with her interior photography.  once we met we were instant friends.  at the age of 26, she has quite a portfolio under her belt.  she has photographed some of the most amazing homes in the atlanta area.  not only is blayne super-talented but she’s such a sweetheart.  her stories always make me smile. 

since blayne’s blog is mainly devoted to photography, she hasn’t been able to share many stories about her chickens.  {no, you didn’t read that wrong. I did say chickens.}  she also hasn’t been able to share any photos of her newly redesigned home.  when we started talking about what she should do the guest blog about i was so excited when she wanted to blog about her home and her chickens. 

i hope you all enjoy blayne’s post!  be sure to check out her site if you haven’t already.  you’ll be floored by her amazing interior photography.

xo, Cristi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stop waiting and just do it + Meet my chickens

Hey Guys!  I spend so much time photographing other people’s houses, that I jumped at the chance to photograph my own.  Thank you so much Cristi for giving me that opportunity.

I bought this house three years ago, and at the very least I can say it has been a labor of love.  We have moved the furniture into so many arrangements you would not believe it.  Finally I gave up and decided I needed a professional interior designer’s help but I had no idea how much it would cost!  After months of procrastinating and feeling like I couldn’t do it myself, I snapped.  I just decided it had to be done and no matter what I would do it myself.  No more living in a half finished place and waiting for someone to bail me out.  I only had $1500 to spend and one weekend to do it.  If you are afraid of changing your space because you don’t know exactly how it with turn out, I say JUST DO IT!

So here it is .  This is the living room.  Before this was so cluttered.  We had the TV in here, but it was so far away from the sofa we wouldn’t see it.  We ended up never watching TV or using the room.

And this is Sister.  How cute is she?  This is her favorite chair ☺

Here is the entryway.  I wanted to put that piece of furniture there because I always want a place to put mail and keys as soon as I walk in the door.

The two paintings were figure studies I did in high school.  They were rolled up behind the couch, but my interior design friend came over and thought they would be great in the house.  She got them framed for me, and we hung them here.  Do you like them?  The piece of art on the right side is a piece from my dress series.  It is printed on a metallic surface, so it almost acts as a mirror.

Here is the new room we created.  We hung the curtains in the back to block off my studio space, which had been spilling out into the room.  We bought these two leather chairs from IKEA for like $200 a piece, and the table came from Scotts for $100.

So here is the bookshelf that was a thorn in my side forever.  I literally had a brain block about how to arrange them.  I got some motivation from the new Sex and the City movie.  I loved how everything was in the same color scheme, and since I hat tons of green stuff I just went with it.   A lot of this art I did, and a lot is from my friends Kenson and Melissa Payne Baker.

I got this mantel from a house we sold three years ago!  It was this beautiful home that was built in the 20s.  This mantel was left after a garage sale, and they were going to send it to goodwill.  I was so excited to take it off their hands.  I do not actually have a fireplace, so this mantel was leaning against the wall for the past three years.  Literally.  I had no idea what to do with it.  I asked my friend Laura from L. Green Studios, and she suggested putting a large antiqued mirror in the place where the fireplace would have been, I waited and waited to find the perfect mirror, but they were all so expensive.  These are those square mirrors from IKEA.  I really like how they look.  What do you guys think?  The art above the mantel is from my dress series.

And finally, this is the master.  Until a few weeks ago I was sleeping on a mattress and box springs.  I had been looking for a white Lenin bed and a white comforter for so long. I also found this bed at IKEA.  I think it works for a few years.  It’s not exactly what I want, but it sure beats the box spings!  I am thinking of getting a huge fluffy blue comforter to go at the foot of the bed.

And finally, here is the chicken coop.  I got Easter chickens, and they are big now.  We built this coop from scratch, and I just love it!

This is where I will be gathering eggs in just a few days!

Here are the chickens!  Their names are Moose (a girl), Alice and Sally George.  They are very nice and just sort of hang out and roost all day.

Thank you so much Cristi!

If you guys want to hear more about my adventures, please come on over and visit me at my blog, www.thisphotographerslife.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

blayne, thanks so much for sharing your newly decorated space and for introducing us to your chickens.  your home looks so lovely.  i know you have to be so proud of what you’ve done to it!

LiveJournal Tags: this photographer's life,blayne beacham,guest blog,charleston,the battery,folly beach