Almost There: decor

Showing posts with label decor. Show all posts

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Inspiration: Green & Gold

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

- Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)
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Thursday, January 16, 2014

One of my favorite reasons to post on here (and largely why I started Almost There) was to help inspire. Whether you had your dream house/job/life or not I wanted to show people that you could still be happy with DIYs, inspiration boards, and spotlights on creative, awe-inspiring sites, products, and people. Going into our third year, I hope Almost There is still fitting that bill!

Today, I want to keep the streak alive and INSPIRE you with a wonderful site named Minted!

Minted is the world's premier marketplace for independent design. Our mission is to find exceptional artists and designers all over the world and bring their work to consumers who appreciate great design.

What does that mean?
It means you have a site filled with a plethora of eclectic and unique designs for all occasions (special or just because) that will delight the eyes and warm the hearts of designers and design lovers alike.

Now, let me show you three reasons I'm currently in love with Minted.

Birth Announcements

Maybe it's because Holli Anne is expecting that has me super excited about Minted's Birth Announcements but I think they are just adorable! With customization options galore, you can make your announcements as personal as if you had designed them from your laptop at home and, as Minted does best, the design selection is ample (and precious)!

Je T'aime bebe | Hatched Egg Shell | From the Nursery | Welcome with Love | Browse more...

Journals

I'm a writer so, of course, I'm going check out the journal section of Minted! Oh boy are they adorable! Each design has a customization option (again, a wonderful Minted feature) so making your journal uniquely you while keeping the design integrity intact opens up so many cute possibilities. No matter your tastes, the journal section has pages and pages of different styles whether you're more drawn to photography, illustration, or a combination of the two!

Hello Love | Chalkboard Dreams | To the Happy Family | Browse more in Journals for Women...

Art Prints

Dear goodness.
Be still my heart.
I can't help but love 85 percent of what's in the art prints section of Minted. Again, a lot of eclectic, bright fun pieces! AND you have the option of various sizes and framing! Always a bonus if you ask me!

Rainbow | Peony Bottle | St. Paul's Cathedral, London | Art wall board | Browse more...

There's plenty more to love about Minted so I'll make more posts about it, I'm sure. For now, these three sections of the site are my favorites, though, I spent a good amount of time browsing the others!

If you love design, pretty things, and affordable, customizable decor then I suggest you check out Minted.com now!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

HELP: Painting the bedroom

Brown blinds.
My decorating Achilles' heel.
Maybe they are the reason I've been shying away from design posts lately. I just can't get them out of my head.

What am I talking about? Well, it's time to paint the bedroom and, under other circumstances (sans blinds), I'd be pumped as all get out. It's not that I don't like the color brown. I mean, these blinds that run throughout the house are actually a dark brown--three shades away from black (and a color I can work with). So, I guess it could be worse. I shouldn't complain, I know, but every color scheme I wanted to go with didn't include brown. This is the reason for my decorating distress.

Simple solution? Take them down and get new blinds.
Negative, Ghostrider.

These blinds were here before me and expensive. Plus, as far as a blind's function goes, they are brilliant. In short: They are here to stay (at least for a while).

So, instead of NEVER painting the bedroom, I am having to come up with alternate color combos. It isn't such a daunting task as I assumed but I still am stuck.

Current Bedroom Deets
Tray ceiling
White baseboard
Permanent dark brown blinds
A lot of black decorations (picture frames & TV stand)

What colors I love
Teal
Blue
Light Gray

I've really considered the scheme in the picture above, but as you see, I've had some reservations with it as well. See, I have a tray ceiling to deal with. So that means I need to paint that sucker as well and I really don't want it to be a dark or bright color. That's why I want to it to be either light gray or white.

So here are the three options I've come up with:

1. An accent wall of color (hopefully a teal or blue) and the rest of the walls a gray or white as well as the tray ceiling.

2. All walls painted a color and the tray ceiling a white or gray. (Probably white so it can compliment the trim.)

3. Half walls! Paint the bottom half of the room a bright color and the rest (including the tray ceiling) gray or white.

So, there are my options. What do you think? What would YOU do?

Help!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

All images can be found on my Color make me go OH! board and tracked back to the original owners.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

DIY Fun: Festive Acorns

Okay, so maybe the phrase "festive acorns" doesn't immediately grab your attention. I'm sure you weren't at work today or just lounging and then BAM you wanted some festive acorns in your life. But maybe you DO need them!

In honor of Thanksgiving I've made the trek home to have some family time, which means that my craft supplies have also taken a vacation from me. They are tucked away at home, probably hiding from Milo (that cat loves him some crafts to gnaw on)! However, when I first got here I noticed that we have no Thanksgiving-y decorations around the house. Well, I had to change that.

So here is a DIY project that is easy, affordable and produces cute/fun results! I want to go ahead and apologize for the glare and odd lighting on some of the pictures...It's vacation, right?

Festive Acorns
Two small, glittery faux acorns
One large, chalkboard faux acorn

Materials Needed--All can be found at Hobby Lobby

Papier-mâché eggs (I only got three since we are so close to Thanksgiving and I don't have more time to decorate)

Chunky Yarn (I suggest a bit bigger than what I actually used...less spiraling)

Tacky Glue
Three Paint Brushes (Or you could be bad like me and use the same one, just wash it thoroughly after each use...remember, I don't have my craft box with me so I'm limited with what I have)
Glitter (I used gold and silver)
Hot Glue Gun + Glue Stick
Chalk
Then you could get...
Any paint color of your choice (I went with black)
Clear Chalkboard Coating
OR
Chalkboard Spray Paint

(Did I also mention that the only stretch of fabric I had was this very loud and distracting chevron? But I had to improvise with my makeshift workstation!)

Now let's start!

If you went my route and got Clear Chalkboard Coating then I suggest you start on the big acorn first.

I'm a big fan of the coating versus the spray. The only reason being is that you can paint the area you want to chalk with any color and then use the coating on top of it to make it chalk-safe. I decided to go with black paint to make it feel more chalk board-y...plus I realized I didn't have another color when I got home!

First take your big egg and mark off the top area that you don't want paint to get on. I suggest a tape that isn't intense so it won't take off the paper of the egg when you remove it. I used some really funky duct tape that isn't that sticky. I'd suggest washi or painter tape.

Now paint the bottom of the future acorn and let it sit and dry while you move to the glitter ones.

Get your Tacky Glue and a paintbrush and spread the glue around evenly on the bottom of your future acorn. Then take your glitter and sprinkle it on while spinning it in your hand. My step mom isn't a big fan of lots of glitter so I tried to ton it way back so you can still see the original paper of the egg.

Do this to both eggs and let them dry while you return to your chalk egg.

Now it's time to paint the Chalk Coating on your dry egg. Paint this coating vertically. Then let it sit for an hour.

Then comes the yarn-spinning part where you make the top of the acorns. Find a starting point at the very bottom of the acorn's top that will cover up the parts of the egg not glittered. Use the hot glue gun to dab some glue on that spot and then put the beginning of the yarn on it. Let it dry and then wrap the egg in spirals until you make it to the very top. You can make a stem with the yarn but I liked making a little loop, using the hot glue gun to seal it. This part was my least favorite if only because my patience level varies depending on my caffeine intake...and I hadn't had my coffee.

After you make the tops to both glitter acorns (or an hour has passed), paint another coat of the chalkboard coating horizontally. Then the directions say to let it cure for 24 hours before actually writing on it with chalk, but I COULDN'T TAKE IT! I wrote on it after only four hours and it seems fine?

It's fine.

Do the same technique as before to complete the top of your chalkboard acorn and you should be done!

I finished mine but it was so dark that my pictures looked odd and we didn't have time to look for the nice bowl to put them in as a centerpiece, but I PROMISE they look completely adorable in person. Not to mention that you can totally draw all over one with chalk!

I hope you liked this DIY and happy early Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Oh My Pillow #1

I am addicted to DesignLoveFest.com and check it daily. (Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?!) Well today they made me happy again by having this post about Zara Home! Now, I have decided recently that I have an immense like for throw pillows. Example: The other day I went to Hobby Lobby for some paint and walked out with two Ikat pillows instead! So, of course I had to browse!

I hadn't heard of Zara Home until then but immediately fell in love with their unique pillows. Naturally, I had to make a post of my own with my favorite pillow picks!

Enjoy!