June 2015May Richer Fuller Be: June 2015

6.29.2015

Oriental/Kilim Rugs in the Bathroom - Yay or Nay?

One trend that's caught my eye lately has been the use of oriental or kilim rugs in bathrooms. These beautiful flat-woven rugs can add a lot of punch and style to an otherwise pretty neutral space. They're mighty fancy for a bathroom though, right? (But maybe that's the point!) They mix beautifully with a lot of different styles - modern, traditional, shabby chic, farmhouse...which makes them quite versatile. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the look, but I did find some beautiful examples to share with y'all.

What do you think? Would you use a kilim or oriental rug in your bathroom?

{Tessa Neustadt}

{Houzz}

6.25.2015

July 2015 iPhone + Desktop Wallpapers {Free Download}

I feel like I say this every month, but man, June flew by! Maybe it's partly because we were living in two different places this month and had friends or family visiting every weekend? Earlier this week I realized that July was sneaking up quickly, so I knew it was time I share some new wallpapers with y'all. Next week is a big vacation week for many, so if that's you, go ahead and grab these downloads before you head out!

I love using these wallpapers as an excuse to get creative with my design skills and so each month's looks quite different from the last. This month I was inspired by a rug I spotted in a bold pattern with stripes going all different directions. I had a lot of fun coming up with these asymmetric stripes and decided on a whim to make some of them GOLD. How fun is that? I think these might be some of my favorite patterns to date.

As a nod to the upcoming July 4th holiday, I decided to go sorta patriotic and make one version in red and another in blue. I also chose a couple of different typefaces since I've had a few requests for more masculine versions of the calendars. ;) Scroll through the options below!

Click the link below the image that you'd like to download. Enjoy!

{blue + gold with script calendar iPhone wallpaper}

{blue + gold with block letter calendar iPhone wallpaper}

{blue + gold blank iPhone wallpaper}

{red + gold with script calendar iPhone wallpaper}

{red + gold with block letter calendar iPhone wallpaper}

{red + gold blank iPhone wallpaper}

{blue + gold desktop wallpaper}

{red + gold desktop wallpaper}

6.22.2015

Living Room Fireplace Wall Makeover {Take Two}

Remember how back in the fall I gave this lovely brown tile wall a makeover with (temporary) headboard wallpaper? Well, it turned out that that idea was great in theory, but it turned out to be an epic fail. No matter what I tried, the adhesive just never held well and the wallpaper started falling down in strips. Not ideal.

So back to the drawing board I went. One of my original ideas was contact paper, but I never jumped on it until I discovered the beautiful options Design Your Wall had on their website. I posted about my finds on Facebook and soon after got an email from Dennia, the representative for d-c-fix (who is the contact paper supplier for Design Your Wall), asking if we might be able to work together. My answer? Why yes! I believe we can :).

A big thanks to d-c-fix for helping me solve this problem wall once and for all!

I chose the Whitewood Matte contact paper, which has a very subtle wood grain look to it. This is not your run of the mill contact paper, y'all, it's super high quality. It's made in Germany, so you know they've engineered this product beautifully!

Dennia was kind enough to send me a simple installation kit along with the instructions for how to apply it.

I loved having the smoother tool and razor handy. No need to provide my own special tools. (If you're looking for the installation kit on the Design Your Wall website, you won't find it yet - it's hopefully coming soon!) Those two things, plus a metal-edge ruler were all I needed to install the product.

First, I wiped down the tile with Windex to ensure there was no dust or grime that would mess with the adhesive, then I went to town installing it vertically, one sheet at a time, all the way across the wall. I followed the instructions on the packaging and found it to be very easy to do - using the smoother tool made it so I really didn't have issues with bubbles. I did have to reposition pieces a couple of times to make them straight, but that was an easy fix. I left some overhang on the top and bottom so I could trim it precisely at the edges so it would look flush. On Dennia's advice, I also overlapped the pieces a little bit at the seams so there wouldn't be any gaps where the pieces joined together.

When it came to trimming off the excess, I found that the easiest way to keep the razor going in a straight line was to press a metal-edge ruler against the wall and run the razor blade in-between.

Then after that installation, I was left with a beautiful white wall with a subtle wood grain texture. I think it's fabulous!

I also took down our big, black box of a TV and replaced it with a vintage map of Martha's Vineyard. I'm actually thinking about leaving it there and figuring out another place for the TV since we hardly ever watch it. It's just kind of an eyesore with all these cords hanging down the side...I'd much rather look at pretty art instead.

The contact paper brightens up the room so much and frames that fireplace nicely. I know it's really difficult to see the pretty wood grain texture in photos, but trust me, it's there. :) I choose to leave the tile alone around the fireplace since it's wood-burning and I don't know how that adhesive would react to heat.

I'm thrilled with the quality and look of this contact paper from d-c-fix and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the market - renters especially! It's such a great non-permanent solution that can really transform a room. I've got about half a roll of contact paper left and now I'm thinking about other places I can use it in our home. Time to do some brainstorming!

*I was generously provided with a roll of contact paper from d-c-fix for this project. It was a pleasure collaborating with them, but as always, my good opinion of them is all my own! See the footer of this blog for my full disclosure.

6.19.2015

Lovely Links

Hope y'all have had good weeks! Mine's been crazy as we've been settling back into city life in Philly after being at the river for five weeks. That, plus a busy work week have left me exhausted. I am SO glad it's the weekend!

Before heading out for the next couple of days, here are my favorite finds from the past two weeks:

1 | One of my current fave interior designers, Studio McGee, wrote an awesome post about tips on how to pick white paint (trust me, it really is awesome!). Also, she just launched her fabric and pillow line that is gorgeous. You've gotta see it.

{Studio McGee}

2 | Want a simple DIY for the weekend? If you've got a chainsaw and some good sandpaper - oh and a big log - you can make an awesome side table.

{Sarah M. Dorsey Designs for eHow}

3 | How peaceful and serene is this bedroom?

{Front + Main}

4 | More interior design advice - this time from The Hunted Interior - on how to make your home feel cohesive. Good stuff here, folks!

{The Hunted Interior}

5 | I'm adding the wood-look tile in this bathroom makeover to my "dream list" for a future remodel! The look of wood, but the durability of tile? That's a win-win in my book.

{Centsational Girl}

6 | And lastly, an outdoor space because our new patio furniture is arriving this weekend! Emily Henderson killed it, as per usual :).

{Emily Henderson}

Happy weekend, y'all!

6.16.2015

Twin Bedroom Makeover Update {The Beds}

It's time for another update on the twin bedroom at the river house! Unfortunately, this will probably be the last one for awhile (sad face) since a few things didn't arrive on time and we headed back home to Philadelphia this weekend. We spent five weeks (!) at the river house and I'm feeling a little sad our time there is over for awhile. I'm really happy with the progress we made on this room while we were there - it's looking so much more fun and fresh with the new DIY'd upholstered headboards, pillows and table lamps.

As a reminder, here's where we started:

And here's the design board for the vision we had for the room:

As of today, one of the new beds has been assembled and I'm thrilled with the pop of color that ikat fabric on the headboard and the scribble stripe lumbar pillow bring to the room. We wanted those to be the focal points, and I think they certainly are!

We had this cute white bedside table already (no source, sorry!), but purchased a pair of new lamps from HomeGoods to replace the metal ones you can see in the before photo earlier in the post. They've got a subtle coastal feel with the driftwood-esque pieces on the base, but they feel modern at the same time.

P.S. Isn't that magnolia gorgeous? My dad snagged it off the tree in the front yard and I stole it for these photos :).

I talked a little bit about that fun fabric for the headboards last week (it's Premier Prints Sherpa Ikat Coastal from Fabric.com) and I'm digging it together with the scribble stripe lumbar pillow covers I ordered from Etsy. The shop is called Motion52* and they did a fabulous job on these covers - I highly recommend them. I love making pillow covers myself, but since we were at the river, I didn't have my sewing machine - oops! Etsy to the rescue.

This oval mirror is one we already had and I like the simplicity of it. The darker color grounds the room a bit too.

Here's one last full shot of this side of the room. Lookin' good so far!

With any makeover comes a snafu or two when it comes to sourcing pieces and having items delivered. We had our share and that's the reason I don't have a full room reveal for you yet!

One of our box springs still hasn't arrived (it's a mystery why they didn't ship together...), we're waiting on some cute bedskirts to ship, and my mom and I are on the hunt for a matching quilt to the one we have on this bed. We're keeping our eyes out for a few miscellaneous items as well. Real-life room makeovers take time and that's definitely the case for this one. I don't have an exact timeline on when I'll be able to share the full makeover, but I promise I will do it when it's ready and I can get down there to shoot some photos. I'm thrilled with the progress we've made so far! :)

Sources:

Headboards: Modway Region from Walmart
Headboard fabric: Premier Prints Sherpa Ikat Coastal
Lumbar pillows: Motion52 (fabric is Premier Prints Scribble Coral)
Lamps: HomeGoods
Bedside Table: already owned
White Quilt and Sham: Marshalls
Mirror: already owned

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6.09.2015

DIY Upholstered Twin Headboards {The Easy Way!}

I've got an update for you on the twin bedroom makeover at the river house! Little by little, pieces have been arriving for the room and today I've got an update on the DIY I'm doing for it: upholstered headboards. This is my third crack (and fourth I guess, since there are two twin beds in this room) at upholstering a headboard and this time I cheated. Yep, that's right, I took the easy way and it was SO worth it!

Want to know the secret behind this DIY? Purchasing an inexpensive, pre-made upholstered headboard from...you'll never guess...Wal-mart, and reupholstering it in a pretty, bold fabric. Y'all, this is the simplest upholstery project ever. If you've always wanted to DIY an upholstered headboard, but have been fearful of the whole process of building the frame and then adding foam, batting and fabric, this project is for YOU.

Supplies you'll need:

Modway Region Twin Upholstered Headboard*
Staple gun
Approximately one yard of fabric (mine is Sherpa Ikat Coastal from Fabric.com)
Scissors

Here's what the upholstered headboard looks like right out of the box:

Boring and white and perfect for this project. At $59 (crazy, right?), this pre-made headboard was pretty much the same price as the wood, foam and batting I would've purchased to make a headboard from scratch, so buying it was a no brainer. The fabric is really cheap-looking polyester, but it doesn't matter because I covered it right up with pretty fabric!

Upholstering this headboard was really straightforward. I started by placing the headboard face down on my fabric and lining it up on the pattern so it was straight and centered. Since this fabric has a repeat both vertically and horizontally, it was just a matter of shifting it around until it looked right.

Then I pulled the fabric from the edges onto the back of the headboard and added a single staple at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock.

I turned the headboard over briefly after adding those four staples to make sure the fabric still looked centered and straight from the front, then continued to pull the fabric taut and staple all the way around.

Corners can be a little tricky, but the two-fold method I use works beautifully and looks very crisp from the front. Here's how I do it:

First I grabbed the loose fabric right at the corner and folded it so that the excess is on the underside. I pulled that piece tight and laid it down flat at a 45 degree angle.

Next, while holding down that piece, I grabbed the remaining loose fabric and folded it under so that the fold at the top edge was parallel to the fabric that's already stapled down. I then laid that down flat on the piece I was holding at a 45 degree angle. I used one hand to hold it all together while I used the other to add a few staples to keep everything in place.

These are the key staple placements to keep those folds in place:

It's kind of like wrapping a present, but you have to mess with the fabric a little bit to get it to lay smooth and flat.

Then I trimmed the excess fabric off from the edges, attached the legs and voila, I was done!

Hello pretty headboard!

I love how they turned out. It was definitely worth it to take the shortcut with this project. The headboards really will be the focal point of the room with that zippy, fun fabric. Each one took maybe 30-45 minutes to do, so that means I whipped out two upholstered headboards in only a couple of hours - that's a winner in my DIY book! Even if you're not a DIYer, I encourage you to try this method if you're in the market for an inexpensive upholstered headboard (each one cost approximately $75 total). If you're feeling more adventurous and would like to build the frame yourself, check out my post on how to do that here.

I'll be putting the twin bedroom together this week. I can't wait to share the results with you soon!

Curious about the before photos and design plan for this room? Check out the intro post for details!

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