Fave Etsy Finds: Indian Blockprint Fabrics

One of my favourite new discoveries on Etsy has been blockprint fabrics direct from India. A few weeks ago, I shared some of the fabrics I recently ordered, and since then I’ve placed orders for many, many more. These fabrics are hand-made, feature gorgeous colours, and can bring a great, eclectic and layered vibe to any space.

One caveat, these fabrics are mostly cotton-based and tend to be quite thin, so without backing them, they’re great for lampshades, tablecloths and (lined) draperies. If you back them, they can be great for pillows too. Oh, and did I mention how affordable this fabric is? Most below range between $8-$12/yard… for hand-printed fabric!

Let’s jump into my favourites (most of which I’ve already purchased):

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight

And as for some ideas for your new fabric, you could DIY a ball pillow or sew a throw pillow with a zipper, or even make no sew cafe curtains or diy no sew placemats. Tell me, which one of these fabrics is your favourite and how would you use it in your home?

Round-Up: Affordable & Chic Sconces

I’m sourcing sconces for a few projects currently and came across so many chic, yet affordable sconces that I had to share. All these sconces are under the $200 mark, but many are far lower than that. I’m loving all the mixed materials and interesting shapes that push the envelope a little bit further and could pack a punch of style in any space.

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight

Affordable outdoor rug round-up

We’ve spent two summers in our house and it only took me until this week to order an outdoor rug for our patio, despite knowing it would go a long way to making the space feel more complete. So, I finally sat down and hunted for an outdoor rug, my criteria:

  1. It had to be soft to the touch. So many outdoor rugs feel plasticky, and I wanted this rug to feel great on bare feet (more like an indoor rug and less like a beachmat).
  2. It had to be affordable. I just can’t justify spending a lot on a rug that will take a beating from the elements. I set my maximum at $400, but most of the below rugs are $260 or less.
  3. It needed to be large. I could have gotten away with a 5×7, but it would have felt undersized, so I really wanted an 8×10 that would fully encompass our outdoor seating area.

Here are the rugs I tracked down that met all the above criteria and look great! Scroll all the way down to the bottom for the one that I ended up ordering (PS it arrived today and it’s so soft).

Affordable outdoor rug roundup

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six

I’m loving the pattern in the first one, the stripes in the third rug, and the vivid colour in the sixth rug, but we ended up ordering the second rug and can’t wait to add it to the space this weekend.

And, if you’re looking for even more outdoor rug options, check out Sarah’s outdoor rug round-up for lots more!

My favourite way to style a bed

When it comes to styling a bed, I almost always use the same formula: four standard pillows, with one oversized lumbar lying across the front. For me, less is more, and the fewer pillows required to get my bed looking put together early in the morning, the more likely it’s going to be made! At the end, I’ve rounded up my favourite oversized lumbar pillows.

I love the more modern, streamlined look of stacking the sleeping pillows.

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Trending: Sculptural Furniture

Last week, when the new seasonal CB2 collection went live, I was immediately drawn to all the sculptural furniture. There’s something so sophisticated and elevated about a piece of furniture that looks like it could have been carved out of a block of stone or wood. Now, I can’t stop thinking about all the places where I can introduce more sculptural furniture in my own home, perhaps starting with a new dining table. So, I’ve rounded up some of my favourite pieces that straddle the line between art and function, and some inspiration for how to use them in your own home.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq8lI8iA7Kl/

Stylish Flushmount Lighting Roundup

We all dream of having a house with super high ceilings, where every light can be dramatic, but sometimes that just isn’t the reality. If you’re like me and your house has standard ceiling height, you likely are constantly on the hunt for good flushmount lighting. In the past year, we’ve sourced new flushmount lights for two bathrooms, one closet, one hallway and a sunroom. Now that we’re in full swing with our Master Suite, which requires four flushmounts, it’s about time I shared a roundup of my favourites to make your life easier (it’s time to banish boob lights forever).

When it comes to flushmounts, the things that are most important to consider are:

1. Drop from the ceiling and overall scale

Depending on where the light fixture is located, getting it as close to the ceiling as possible can keep your ceilings feeling taller. Read dimensions online carefully to ensure adequate clearance. Also, consider the scale of the fixture, where sometimes flushmounts can look a bit too petite in a larger room if they aren’t proportional.

2. Number of light bulbs

The more light bulbs in a light fixture, the more likely you are to get a ton of brightness. If this is the only light fixture in the room, this matters more than if it’s one of many lights. If you have a single exposed bulb in your fixture, I love using a metallic tipped light bulb (like this in chrome or this in gold) for both added cool factor and to keep the light from blinding you if you happen to look directly up into it.

3. Shade material

Keep in mind that depending on the opacity of the shade, that will inform where the light exits the light fixture. For instance, you’ll get great light dispersion with a fabric shade or glass enclosure, as opposed to a metal shade, which will focus the light downwards. Also consider the type of room your light fixture will be placed, where you don’t want a fabric shade in a room that has a lot of moisture (e.g. the bathroom).

4. Don’t be afraid to add a ceiling medallion

We’ve done this twice in our house so far and love the look. Sometimes it’s for utility purposes (centering a light without needing to make drywall repairs) and sometimes it just adds a little extra something to a room or to a less impactful light fixture.

And here we go, these are for the most part fairly budget-friendly.

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01: Nina Flush Mount | 02: Bell Flush Mount | 03: Foster Flushmount| 04: Capiz Flushmount05: Classic Tapered Flushmount | 06: Conifer Flushmount |07: Cubic Flushmount | 08: Domed Enamel Flushmount | 09: Scupltural Glass Flushmount | 10: Fuller Flushmount |11: Wyatt Flushmount | 12: Drum Flushmount | 13: Broche Light |14: Turner Flushmount

We used light fixture two in two separate rooms in our house so far (the closet of the guest bedroom and the guest bathroom). Four is in our main floor bathroom and fourteen will be in our master suite (we intend to spray paint it black).

The hunt for the perfect shower curtain

Back in November when we revealed our guest bathroom for the One Room Challenge, I didn’t actually believe we’d finish the room within the challenge time frame, and all my brain cells were taken up by the hard finishes in the space that I improvised and borrowed the shower curtain from our downstairs bathroom for the shoot.

Since then, I spent months trying to find the perfect shower curtain for our drop-in tub. Which, let me tell you is no easy feat. The options on the market for extra-wide shower curtains are few and far between. I actually ordered two before I finally landed on the Goldilocks of shower curtains… which ended up needing to be custom ordered (this one—it was a bit of splurge, but I couldn’t find anything else that was wide enough and long enough).

Here’s the new curtain:

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Compared to the placeholder I previously had in here, it’s so much better.

Let’s back up for a second and answer the question of why we opted for a shower curtain over a glass enclosure:

  1. This is a small bathroom, so the ability to keep the curtain open actually gives us a lot more space when we’re standing at the vanity
  2. We installed a soaking tub in here, so being able to take a long bath without feeling glassed in is more relaxing to me
  3. Glass is expensive! We wanted to give a curtain a go in here first, to see if glass is actually necessary.
  4. We kept a tub in this bathroom for resale purposes, so we could in the future appeal to families, and a non-glass enclosure seems the most family-friendly for bathing kids.

And now for the attributes of what makes a great shower curtain (in my books, at least):

Luxe feeling fabric.

The reason why several of the previous curtains didn’t work out is that they felt plasticky to me. It’s easy for a shower curtain to go wrong, and so many of the options on the market don’t feel high-end to the touch. This is actually a fabric you touch ever single time you shower, so make it feel nice and luxe. Look for fabrics with 50% or lower percentages of polyester. The one we ended up with is Matouk’s Birdseye Pique that feels amazing when you grab it, despite having  some polyester in it, which is what makes it more easy-care and durable.

The right length.

Previous photos of the tub in here drive me crazy because the curtain is so obviously way too short. We were running low on ball chain to hang the curtain from so we did as best as we could, but I always knew it wasn’t quite right. You want your shower curtain to almost graze the floor, where possible. The taller the curtain, the taller your ceiling’s going to look, so make sure to nail the height. You don’t want it pooling on the floor because that’s a tripping hazard and you could end up with the fabric sitting in water or getting quite dirty, so make sure to hem it if it’s too long.

Hang your rod nice and high. Just like window curtains, you want to elongate your space. In our bathroom, we forgoed a rod in favour of a wall-mounted track that added some unexpected detail to the room, but kept our curtain high. If you hang your rod nice and high, your standard 72″ tall shower curtain will be too short. Depending on your ceiling height, you should be looking for 84″+ curtains.

Simple look.

Think about how you can use a shower curtain to elevate your space – just as beautiful fabric elevates any other space, it can help make a bathroom feel high-end. White is always a good idea, as is a rich, grey linen. I also love the addition of an embroidered border detail to amp up the glam. I do find that patterned or kitschy curtains become tired fast, so stick to the classics.

Here’s a round-up of the extra long shower curtains I came across in my searches that weren’t extra-wide, but I desperately wished came in the right size:

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  1. Diamond Matelasse Curtain 2. Pebble Matelasse Curtain 3. Embroidered Border Curtain 4. Italian Hotel Stitch Curtain 5. Jacquard Shower Curtain 6. Vintage Washed Belgian Linen Curtain

Trending: Burl

For years, I’ve been obsessing over the organic visual texture that burlwood brings to a space. I can’t get enough of the natural pattern and love that while it’s become trendy (so, it’s more easily sourced), it still hasn’t reached Homegoods levels of full-blown trendiness.

And if you have ever wondered ‘what is burlwood‘? It’s actually made from the burls (the large lumps) that grow on the trunks of trees when they’re under a lot of stress. The burls are cut off the tree, but the tree doesn’t need to be cut down to use the burlwood. Typically burlwood is applied as a veneer to the outside planes of a piece of furniture.

I love that burlwood adds an edge to any space, but is also quiet enough that it’s easy to mix in. For instance, in this vignette, it adds a heavy dose of organic warmth, but the rounded shape of the burl stool contrasts nicely with the very graphic painting.

 

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Gina Julian on Domino.com

 

This console table is everything in Noe Dewitt’s NYC apartment.

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In this entryway, the burlwood console table brings depth to a high-contrast neutral space. The vintage rugs also add to the layered look.

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Make an entrance ✨#burlwood #antiquerugs #frontdoor

A post shared by jenkins interiors (@jenkinsinteriors) on

I’ve been obsessed with this dining room by Pencil and Paper Co. for months – while there’s a lot of pattern going on in this room, the lines of all the furniture are actually very simple.

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Pencil and Paper Co.

On a more traditional piece of furniture, the burlwood complements the rounded curves of this vanity without adding other ornate carvings to the wood.

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Daryl Carter in Elle Decor

In my house, I have a mix of vintage and new burlwood pieces, and I love that each one feels unique because the pattern of the burlwood is never the same. Below are some of my favourites that are available in stores right now (several of which I own, namely the trays in both sizes and the boxes).

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  1.  Trays 2. Nightstand 3. Dining Table 4. Boxes 5. Coffee Table 6. Side Table 7. Mirror