Cheap "Vintage" Fans!

I love fans. Especially at night when I sleep. But I also love a chandelier in my bedroom and don't want to sacrifice it for a ceiling fan.

SO, I've been dying for a vintage floor fan or vintage look-alike fan. (check out Haskell Harris's bedroom below. You can see her whole house here.)


When we were visiting my dad (we're home!) I went to my FAVORITE antique mall, Volo, and saw so many beautiful vintage fans (below found at retro.net)


However, I really didn't like the visual I got when I pictured Christian's arm in the fan. (The slats are so far away!!!) I've also been wanting Restorations Hardware's Allaire Telesoping fans (below) but was having trouble justifying forking over $200+ for a floor fan when the ugly ones are so cheap. So, you know me... I went almost a whole summer without a fan because I wasn't willing to spend the dough or buy an ugly one. haha



Ahhhh, so pretty!!!






Anyway... Enter Walmart. Oh wow. We never go because we don't have one near us at home. But we love that place. My eagle-eye husband saw fan boxes labeled "vintage" and we snapped them up right away!! At only $38 and $25 (?I forget exactly?) I couldn't have been happier!!! Below is the desk on and it's almost identical to RH's desk fan.

(hahah like my vintage map styling? ;) ;)

And here's a closeup of the floor fan in my bedroom. (The top pic in this post is also of my walmart fan):

a bit more of a gunmetal finish in some places (why there would be more than one finish, I have no idea) but for $38, I'm ok with it... Actually I should say THRILLED with it! :)

(I'm almost ready to show you some after pics of the bedroom- just waiting on a couple of items to arrive!) We found some more amazing deals this past week & can't wait to show you!!!

xoxo,

lauren

Blowing Up Images on Canvas: Your Thoughts??

Ok, so I wanna have a little fun in my dining room... When I saw the gnarled tree print (below) that Nina Griscom had blown-up onto a canvas, I was in love & wanted to try it out for myself.

I also LOVE the massive size of the hawk print in Victoria Pearson's home (House Beautiful) below.

With these 2 houses in mind, I started searching for images. I've always loved The Little Owl by Albretch Durer (below). (And of course, the Hawk got me thinking birds... And I would actually go nutty for an exact copy of Nina Griscom's tree in a larger size to be honest.)

But then, checking out morel of his work, there were so many others I loved!! A lot of them were of really dark subject matter and they were so beautiful, but my husband & I both love the one below.... Blown up to say 6 or 7 feet tall, it would be sort of like a modern tapestry.

I found a bunch of companies that do giclee canvas transfers on custom size super-large canvases but they're really expensive. I'll give Kinko's a shot. Does anyone have any other ideas?? We're still loving the idea & considering the splurge but here's my next worry: Obviously when you enlarge something so big, it loses quality. It gets pretty pixelly. Below is an image of a preview of what it would look like 6 feet tall:

Kind of reminds me of comic books... So what are your thoughts?? Still doable??? Or are we crazy??? I think it would be fine at a distance and most likely still really interesting up close--- but will it look too poppy???

Here's the (hopefully!!) dining room table:

And below is the the massive canvas would in. (The shelf will be gone of course--- it's needed in the storage room.) And also, I'm moving (ok, my husband's moving) the chandelier to the entryway. I want some sparkle in the dining room & have a huge tall entryway that needs some spicing up.

For furniture in the adjoining living room, I've got the green velvet sofa and the two matching reverse- toile green/white chairs. I'm planning on doing parsons chairs with white slipcovers & some type of green fabric for the top part of the chairs.

ok, I need some honesty on this blown up canvas... I can't gaurantee I'll listen but I think the truth will help. thanks.

xoxo,

lauren

***UPDATE**** Thank you SO MUCH for your ideas & thoughts!!!! Quality was my biggest worry about this project too. We tested the blowup out on paper & loved it (even though it is pixelly- it reminds us of the fibers in a tapestry & it looks really cool... If you're considering doing this, have a portion of the image blown-up to the size it will be (on regular paper) and see if you're ok with the quality.)

****** new update: Kinkos doesn't do enlargements this big... I went here: http://www.wizardprints.com/pricing.php I'm having it printed onto fabric with an adhesive backing that sticks right to the wall. It will have to be done in 2 pieces because of the size but I think I can make that work!

A Big (scary!!) Step

Eeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!! We bought a minivan!!!! Since our family's growing (below) and our other car was on its way out, we replaced it with a MINIVAN. It was actually a really frightening step for us... a minivan... that means we're grown-ups ... Being young parents, we're definitely the only ones we know with a minivan... You wouldn't think this mattered to us, but it did. We found one that sort of looks like a cross between a truck & a van, but as my uncle said, "Who are you kidding???? It's a X%@*!ing minivan." hahahah

BUT... I have to say, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I've never been so excited about a car in my life!! I can't believe how easy it is to get Christian in & out of the car seat & to fit everything in the car. Life actually got easier and that's good. A minivan, who would have thought? C'est la vi!

Next week I'll be back to blogging- have so much to catch up on- I've missed you all like crazy!!!
xoxo,
lauren

Master Bedroom Design Plan

As most of you know, we moved to our new house a couple of months ago. We've been working on it pretty much non-stop. Usually when I move to a new place, the bedroom is the one place I get feeling good right away... not so this time:

Above is our bedroom when we first moved in. Clearly I added in some functional things like blankets on the bed & a lamp but we pretty much lived like this for a while. About a month ago we painted the paneling white and I got to planning it out on a super-tight budget. I'd had designs on a homemade upholstered white linen headboard... until we found an antique brass bed for trash on the side of the road: (It's not exactly like the pic below... it has no porcelain knobs & is a bit thicker.) I LOVE free things. Really love them. And it's just so old & beautiful & has the perfect patina.

I know we all got sick of brass a bunch of years ago, but to be honest, I'm actually starting to love it again in the right context and when it's a bit burnished... (hahah should I be allowed to write a design blog??!! ;) ;) I want the whole house to feel like a fusion of modern & antique with a serious nod to the outdoors... SO, in this room I went with the antique bed and paired it with these (really cheap!!) ikea "MALM" dressers as nightstands:

I love having a dresser as a nightstand. No knocking off my water (I really used to do that a LOT) and I get to have fun with vignettes (flowers don't get in the way) and now on top of of my closet, I finally have a dresser too!! (There's so much room and I feel so much more organized!!! hahah I know it's such a normal thing to have, but when you're without one for long enough, you really appreciate it!!)

Anyway, since we're going with major color shots in every room of the house, I really wanted this room to be my white haven. I want to be able to add in color (with accents) or take it away on a whim. Below is the duvet cover I ordered from West Elm... I ordered it specifically because it looks good even when unmade. And with baby #2 on the way, I know this bed will rarely be made for a good 3-6 months.

For now we have these ikea curtains and I'm adding in white roman shades from Sears. (wish me luck!- I'll let you know how they do.) (The curtains are super-light and are really summery-feeling but the price was right! ;) hahahah PS- IS IT WRONG TO BE JEALOUS OF CLIENTS??!! "custom shades, custom curtains, custom bedding.." hahah ;)

I've been using my Chinoiserie ginger jar lamp that I found on the flea market trip with Eddie & Jaithan last year. (I had been searching for one for SO LONG!!) I paired with with a modern linen drum shade from Target and it's not the perfect fit, but it's gotten me functional for now...

On the other nightstand, I ordered this beauty from Arteriors Home. It's about the same size and I love its modern juxtaposition against the Chinoiserie one.

It perfectly pulls the warm brown out of the wooden mirror I found at the Old Lucketts Store. (Sadly, no pic but this mirror is CRAZY.) It was the one splurge in the room (okay $250 but for me that's a splurge) and I'd had my eye on it for months. It's huge and hand-carved and really ornate--- again, I'm loving it against the modern lines of the ikea dressers.

Above the bed, I hung 2 of my botanical prints. At $1 each, they added the touch of nature I wanted in the room. (Found the frames for $1 each with bad art on them, and ripped pages out of a book I had for the prints.)

I found a yard of the PERFECT greeny-goldy ikat in the clearance section at Calico Corners. I'm having a large rectangular bolster pillow made out of it. (I 'd been stalking this fabric for a while... When I saw it in the clearance section for a few weeks, one day I finally carried it around the store with me- haha more like clutched it protectively to my chest- until it hit me that it would work in the master bedroom. yay!!!)

And finally on my list is this chandelier (below) with the same burnished brass as the bed. As you probably remember, I've been also stalking this one since last December. (oh please cross your fingers it's still there... I check on it every couple of months!!)

Anyway, when we get home from our trip, everything should be in & I'll take some after pics!!

I also wanted to say thank you again for all your kind comments & wishes--- Christian is doing great & we're off to his check-up right now!! He's healing so quickly!! (I'll do a little trip recap soon with some pics soon)

xoxo,

lauren