William Morris and Adding to the Gallery Wall

Long time readers may be asking; gallery wall, what gallery wall? The last time I wrote about it, I hadn't finalised it, and then, when I did, I didn't take any pictures.

I wanted to include my re-constructed slip cover on the sofa in the pictures for best effect.

But I never put the slipcover back on the sofa.

Because I never finished reconstructing the too-big store bought slip cover.

So, things have looked like this for a very long time.

Sorry for the poor photo. I took it late at night.

It didn't feel right.

One night last week, it hit me: it wasn't balanced. That tall torchiere to the right (usually closer to the sofa) just didn't have the chops to balance the wall hanging. And, as is usually the case in decorating dilemnas, diagnosing the problem suggested the solution. A tall column of something to the right would likely do the trick, I thought, but what?

Picture frames, obviously: and I had three in the basement.

I thought about searching on-line for some botanical prints, but it's summer and the sun just happened to be shining. I headed out to the back yard to snap some pictures of the flowers on our cranberry bush.

They were gone. When had that happened?

So, I found some others and then played around with them in pic monkey.

I think this is wild dill weed.

 A marigold, obviously. Planted with the tomatoes.

 I have no idea. A pretty purple weed everyhere.

I had them professionally printed. Then, I mounted them on black cardstock and slipped them into black frames and hung them on the wall.

Um. No.
No. no. no. no. never. no.

We need whitish mats. Stat. Out of cardstock. I made a prototype. I was astonished to realise I didn't have to do anything to the photos.

sorry about the red: that's a reflection from my shirt in the glass.

In fact, they look even better.

On the wall:

and in the room:

Now, on to that slipcover.

Wait a sec. Didn't Jules post about her "Salon wall" for the William Morris project last week?

Am I simply following in her footsteps?

If so, lead on, Jules...it's working for me!

The Bathroom Curtains

Back when I let my bathroom sink backsplash tiles be the boss of me, I sewed together a rather Nemo looking panel for the bathroom curtain.

dowstairs bath circa 2007

After installing the white tile around the tub last winter, I wanted a change. I found these tea towels and put them up temporarily. I loved the horizontal stripes.

I decided I wanted the sofia fabric from IKEA in Navy and White.

I was going to attempt to make my very own inside mount Roman Shade.

from Martha Stewart

I went to Ikea to pick it up in March. Not in stock. I checked the web site every few days to see if any had arrived--and I stalled on doing much of anything in the bathroom until it did.

Then, one day in late May, my computer said there was some in stock. I rushed down to the store only to discover that though the computer had said there were "three pieces, " that was not enough to actually have in stock, on hand, to sell, as it were. The salesperson said, so sorry, it's being discontinued, don't ever expect to see it again, and basically, well, get over it.

So, with reluctance, I tried.

I found these amazing curtains on-line.

source

I decided to copy them using what I had on hand: those tea towels and a drop cloth.

I bleached the heck out of the drop cloth and bought 5m of navy ribbon. (about $5).

Ta Da!

Oops.

Don't mind the uneven stripes at the top, that's not the oops. I had the panels done up differently to determine whether I liked the length of the tea towel on the left or the right.

Nooo --as soon as I snapped this picture I realised the whole thing was too short--it looked something like a girl's pinafore with her petticoat peeking out!

Let's try that again:

(I was so pleased to have finally finished them, I forgot to put on the finial before I snapped the picture!)

Ta Da!

I think the double navy ribbon at the bottom gives it a jaunty nautical air!

Not bad for $5!

Linking to The Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors. Lots of inspirational projects there!

Grace Note: Carnations in the Foyer

I've been in something of a funk lately. I don't like to post when I'm in a funk: I tend to whine.

So, instead, I bring you this bit of prettiness, via Pic Monkey.

William Morris and The Bathroom

We have been working on our tiny downstairs bathroom since November 2011. It took us an unconscionable 12 weeks to tile the area around the bath tub. It's taking even longer to finish up the "little" things.

Little things like painting it.

OK, so not exactly a small thing. I didn't want to buy new paint for this room, even though I wanted to use something darkish, like Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore.

lonny

Isn't that gorgeous? (Though to be fair, that's not Hale Navy.)

This is the boss. I figured that as long as I could come up with a colour that's already in these tiles, I'd be OK.

(I still like these: I just wish I hadn't bothered with the yellow/orange ones. I've decided to ignore them.)

In keeping with our goal to spend as little money as possible, I decided to mix up what we had on hand into a "dark blue-grey."

I stirred and mixed and tested and still I managed to create....wait for it.... purple.

Can you can see the purple right by the green frog tape by the window trim?

I adjusted things mid-stream, remixed a bit, and declared myself satisfied. I'm not, of course. I really want either a navy or a really dark indigo.

 

We sent out the mirrored door on the medicine cabinet for a new mirror.

And so of course, I couldn't paint that until I got it back.

I know that many would love the patina of the original fifty year old mirror, but I didn't. Not in the bathroom. I don't need age spots on my mirror when my ageing eyes are hardly able to see those scary straggly grandpa brow hairs of mine (even though they're huge!) (They seem to be appearing with alarming regularity, now, too!)

I painted all the woodwork: baseboards, window trim, door trim, the third coat over the bath tub area and deep breath, the door. I don't know why, but I dragged my feet on that one.

Can you see how yellow that door is in comparison to the trim? That is BM Cloud White on the door and BM Simple White on the trim. The entire bathroom was painted cloud white which next to our new tile just looked old and yellow.

The above picture was taken the last day of April. I finished the door (and all that trim painting) on the nineteenth of May. Yes, nineteen days to paint the door. One side of the door.

I've cleaned hinges, hung hooks and towel racks and I was waiting to post this until I was absolutely completely done with the room.

See that hole in the wall by the floor next to my chevron painted toilet paper holder? Good. You'll be glad you did.

But it is dragging itself out, of course. What's left?

Two very small, very teeny, very tiny things:

1) Spray painting the heat vent cover.

It goes over that hole in the wall by the chevron painted toilet roll holder. Aren't you glad you saw it before so you won't have to scroll back up, now?

and

2) sewing a new set of curtains (though I do love these tea towels. I wish I had bought more of them.)

Rain has been to blame for the former, and the second...well that'll be a whole post by itself. Maybe by next WM Project Day. Fingers crossed.

Linking to the William Morris Project hosted by Jules at Pancakes and French Fries.

Laundry Room Challenge

I love a challenge: and this is it!

My laundry room, last week.

It's come a long way since just last year:

basement: pantry and freezer area to the left, laundry room to the right.

But since we put up the wall panelling last fall, we haven't done much else except insulate the mudsills (That area right up under the rafters, ours are all pink or blue styrofoam--whatever the previous homeowners left for us.)

I've not had proper light, nor tidy storage for months! Not surprisingly, I was struggling to keep up with the laundry.

So, in honour of Home Storage Solutions laundry room challenge, I decided to take mine on.

messy supplies

As the article points out, there are several sub-functions to doing the laundry. The author helpfully listed them:

•  Space for major appliances of washer and dryer (fortunately, check)
•  Storage for laundry supplies (a mess, above)
•  Area for pre-treating and soaking items, for stain removal (nonexistent)
•  Drying area (for those clothes or other items that don't go in the dryer) (nonexistent)
•  Laundry folding; (check) and
•  Ironing  (check; upstairs)

As I don't have a laundry sink, pre-treating and soaking items in the laundry room is a challenge. Currently, I hand wash things in a dish pan upstairs in the bath tub. (Not good for my back, really.)


I did stack two dishpans on the table next to the washer to hold my cleaning cloths which I bleach--and I guess I could put items treated with stain remover in them too--if I ever thought to treat them more than five seconds before they go in the washing machine!

I used to have a long cord suspended from the rafters for drying clothes. I hated it. It was just a clutter catcher and everything on it just got in my way. I really, really wanted to buy something like this:

(PORTIS from IKEA)

It isn't even all that expensive! But, as ever, in the interests of frugality, I decided to see what I already had on hand: and so I invented my own.

Essentially, it's three (cheap) towel racks mounted onto two boards with shelf supports.

Here it is on the wall:

It kind of reminds me of the Starship: Enterprise.

I cleaned up the mess of laundry supplies:

Bottles of fabric softener, a box of powdered chlorine bleach and several spray bottles of stain removers whose nozzles were missing or broken--all of it stuff I don't use--as you can tell by the build up of dust and dirt on them.

I called up my mom and asked her if she wanted them--and she came and took it all away. Hooray!

I put up shelves to hold what was left. Yes, these too were "on hand" --the shelf brackets used to be in the bathroom and the shelves in the kitchen.

When I tracked down the light to put it up, hubby and I discovered that the switch was broken. I ran to Home Despot and found a new switch for $6.98.

So, the laundry room is now pleasant and functional once again.

At the beginning of this transformation last fall, I posted this inspiration photo from chez larsson. Then I sort of forgot about it.

from chez larrson

Cool beans.