Home Design Cool

Hey hey laaaaadies! (And men. Hello Dad!) How are you this fine Thursday? Today I’m sharing a super simple project that solved an age-old problem for us.

See, we live in a neighborhood. Like, a real, suburban neighborhood with houses next to us. (That gives some people the shivers, I know.) Our bathroom window is one of those that doesn’t open. (And I still don’t understand why. Moisture issues I think? But wouldn’t it be better to be able to open it and let moisture out?) Deep questions people.

So this window has been a thorn in our side for going on nine years now. Of course we love the natural light, it’s great, cause the other light in that bathroom stinks. But at night I feel like I’m in a fishbowl – not so much because of our neighbors, but because houses across the street can see in.

Now, who knows if they can really see in, it’s not a short distance. But at night when I don’t want to be seen, I feel like I can be seen, so there’s lots of ducking and rolling. OK, just ducking – but I do it without even realizing anymore.

I know I could do window treatments, but I don’t feel like they look right there. And we have had blinds, but you have to climb into the tub to put them down:

See? Neighbors. No, I can’t reach out and touch them, it just looks like it.

Years ago I was looking for a solution to cover the glass on our pantry door:

I wanted something that would hide the food but would also let some light through (I installed rope lights around the inside of the pantry door).

So a few of you suggested regular clear contact paper and it worked like a charm. It was a total pain in the butt to install on those window panes, but it works PERFECTLY. (I shared how I did that here.)

There is window vinyl you can buy at the hardware store, but it is a.) expensive and b.) not always the prettiest. This regular old contact paper was a few bucks for a HUGE roll and will last me a very long time:

So anyway, I decided to use it on the bathroom window. Thing is, it wasn’t wide enough. To make it work I decided to cut it in three horizontal strips to kind of match up with the window panes. I just held it up and marked with a pencil where I needed to cut, then laid it down on the floor and used a steady hand and scissors:

Excuse me. A steady hand and scissors:

:)

I was going to try cutting it with my paper cutter to get a nice clean cut, but the piece I needed was much longer than the cutter. The lines aren’t perfect doing it with scissors but thankfully you really can’t tell.

It’s super easy to install this stuff – the trick is getting it on there right when you start. Just spray the window with water:

And if you’re smarter than me, wash the window first. I ain’t got time for that. ;)

Don’t be stingy with the water. Spray it on good. Then tear a bit of the paper off the end of the contact paper:

And line it up and push it on, over the watery glass:

Then you can start peeling the rest of the paper off the back and smoothing it out with  your hand as you go across the window. I thought it might be a pain to get it straight but it went on perfectly.

This is one of those rare projects that I thought would be easy and it was. Usually when those thoughts go through my head I’m in trouble. 

When the contact paper is on the window, you’ll freak out a little and curse me and yell hey Sarah I thought you said this was easy, this looks like crap!!

Relax. You’ll have bubbles, lots of them:

You’ll need something with a straight edge to smooth them out:

I just use a pan scraper. Just make sure it’s got a clean edge with no raggedy things that can tear or scratch the contact paper/vinyl.

Just smooth them out – this part takes the longest, but it’s not bad. This is why you want a wet window, so you can easily push all those bubbles out from underneath.

I installed three horizontally just because I figured vertically might look jail-like. :) It turned out better than I even expected – it still lets all the light through and I can walk around in my bathroom after a shower without ducking.

And everyone is thankful for that, just saying:

I took the old blinds down and that actually lets even a little more light in.

If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a window during the day, you know its nearly impossible, so forgive me that you can’t see more detail.

Here’s a before and after just to give you an idea:

 

Sometimes it truly is the little things that make such a big difference. My husband was SO excited about this small change, I don’t know why we waited so dang long to do it!!

Here it is at night, so you can get a better view of how it looks:

A private window, for pennies. Can’t beat it! I still have a TON of this stuff left, I’m on the look out for other projects.

Do you have a window that lets in light but you still want covered? This would be PERFECT for side lights by a front door, or maybe even glass in a door? (Allison put this over a window by her front door and it worked GREAT.) If we ever add glass to our front door I’ll be doing something like this.

I bet it would look great if you have glass doors on your kitchen cabinets too. You know, for those cabinets that aren’t perfectly pretty inside?

Oj oj oj (as they say in Sweden!), but what's not to love about the relatively new Danish brand Oyoy?! Led by designer Lotte Fynboe, Oyoy's vision is to design functional products using high quality materials in beautiful colours and shapes.

Oyoy

So many patterns and geometric shapes! Really lovely. It's definitely worth checking out their website here.

I am sitting nervously waiting to hear baby news from my wonderful friends David and Ullis who are in hospital on this stormy January day. Fingers crossed for you guys, thinking of you! x

Alvhem

There is something very cool and cosy about having a fireplace in the kitchen don't you think?! In fact I'll add 'kitchen fireplace' to my dream home 'must have' check list right now!

Hello there! I hope you’ll indulge me today while I show you something new to our home. It probably isn’t too exciting to most, but it is a piece that makes me so happy I can’t even explain it. :)

It’s actually a kind of weird how it came about. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say I have very little from my childhood. I have no toys, no Christmas ornaments – only pictures (that I treasure) and a small box of papers/trinkets from my entire childhood. All of it was lost along the way, (I touched on why a bit here), so everything that I do have means the world to me.

For some reason, a couple months ago, I started thinking about one item from when I was a kid in particular. It was a small cuckoo clock my parents got when I was very young – I don’t think there was a time when I didn’t remember it in our homes.

I have no idea why all the sudden I couldn’t stop thinking about this clock. I hadn’t though of it in about 20 years – it was the oddest thing. I had this deep ache for it though – it was just something that reminded my of my childhood. It was quirky and fun and symbolized good memories for me.

I thought about it for weeks and then dropped it. Until one day a couple weeks before Christmas when my Dad came by for a bit. We were sitting at the kitchen table and he starts telling me how he had a clock that he was going to have refurbished. My ears perked up and I asked him which one, and what do you know…he had that cuckoo clock I had been thinking about for weeks!! I thought it was long gone since the last time I’d seen it was in my Mom’s storage. All of that was lost a long time ago.

Could NOT believe it.

I had no idea he had “saved” it at one point years ago, and he had had it for about ten years – but it didn’t work and it was broken and dirty.

Seriously, freaky. I pretty much begged him for it, and I think he was surprised at how badly I wanted it. I just couldn’t believe that the one thing I had been reminiscing about for weeks was actually still around.

So for part of my Christmas Dad had it refurbished. He brought it down last week and I tell you what…I was just plain giddy:

I seriously could have cried. We hung it up and messed with it a bit (everything has to be just so for this to work properly).

I love all the detail in the wood (but not too much – it’s actually simple compared to some) and it was JUST as I remembered it. The roman numeral face:

And that little door for the bird to come out of course. :)

I anxiously waited for us to get it just right, and then Dad turned the hands of the clock to set it and that bird came out and did his “cuckoo”:

It filled me with JOY.

You know how when there’s a song from a certain time in your life, and you hear it years later and you almost feel like your in a time tunnel and you can close your eyes and there you are again?

Well, when I heard that cuckoo it took me back to a very happy time in my life and it was emotional, I have to admit. I spent that whole afternoon and evening hanging around the clock, waiting for that little bird to pop out. When it did I was JUST STUPID with happiness. I would do a little dance and would yell out to my son and husband, “DID YOU HEAR IT?? ISN’T THAT AWESOME???”

Of course they did…I just had to make sure.

Now when the Bub hears it and I’m not there, he makes sure to tell me how many times I missed the cuckoo. I love that he’s already in love with it and it will become a memory from his childhood as well.

Dad told me that my grandparents actually bought this overseas for him and Mom, so I talked to my grandma to find out more. She said they got it in 1977 (I was two), in Lucerne Switzerland. They bought one for each of their four kids, and as far as she knows, this is the only one left. Can you believe they traveled home with four of these in their suitcases?

My grandparents traveled often and to some truly amazing places, so I love that this symbolizes their adventures too. I’ve done a little bit of research on it and I believe it’s a Bucherer cuckoo clock. Like I said, it was a mess, so things like the chain and some of the woodwork were replaced and are no longer original. 

But it works and I feel like a kid when I get pull down those chains with the heavy pinecones on them every day, just like I remember my parents doing 30-(something) years ago.

It hangs on a skinny wall between our black doors in the basement – we have it down there so it doesn’t wake us up all night, and I just because I think it fits in perfectly:

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have this in my home – I’m so excited about it. I guess you could say I’m “cuckoo” for it. Ahhh yes…I went there. Did you have any doubt? ;)

Do you have lots of things from your childhood? Is there one item in particular that you miss and wish you had? Do you have a cuckoo clock that makes you dance around when you hear it every hour? :)

Bo-laget

I know I'm a little obsessed by it at the moment.....but I think I've decided on a white, grey and washed out pastel colour scheme for my new bedroom. I love H&M home's 'Linne' collection and the Bodie & Fou linen duvet cover in blue/grey. My other discovery is these simple and pretty candles from LET LIV. Oooo such little time, and so much decorating to be done!

Hey all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was GREAT – I got in a bit of shopping which is always fun. And by a bit I mean a lot. :)

My favorite spot this weekend wasn’t a store though – it was a thrift/antique mart like I’ve never seen. A friend told me about it months ago and said we should check it out. We met there Saturday morning and I didn’t have high expectations – I thought it may be fun to browse and be in and out pretty quick.

Well, I was wrong. It was AMAZING. Seriously, a thrifty decorating bloggers DREAM. It’s called the Indie Arts Vintage Marketplace (in Indy):

Holy cats. It was so much dang fun. It was at a local conference hall and we were there for hours…I think we finally drove away almost four hours later.

We were both in heaven, it was a blast. We were GIDDY. I took some photos along the way so you can see what we were so excited about. Bear with me, they were all cell phone pics and it was crowded, so I couldn’t get great shots.

The sale had a fantastic mix of shabby, industrial, traditional and antique finds – we LOVED this booth with the industrial lighted signs:

I’ve been planning on making one of these on my own (using a tutorial like Lindsay’s) but I couldn’t resist these metal versions – I picked up a star with yellow lights I’ll show you soon. :)

I thought this was a brilliant idea – this vendor takes old dresser drawers and turns them into rolling foot stools:

 

Isn’t that fun??

There was a lot of furniture – I loved that little school house bench:

I negotiated the prices down on almost everything I got, but I was surprised to see great prices on so much. (A couple booths were ridiculous, but not many.)

This sofa was HUGE and beautiful and was marked at $399 (and that was early in the day):

There were a TON of painted pieces too:

This black and aqua dresser had leopard print pulls – SO fun:

I loved this yard stick table too:

It reminded me of my friend awesome Traci’s bookcase table. ;)

If my house was twice the size I would have left with a LOT more. (So it’s a good thing I don’t.) I loved this ottoman – for some reason I was oddly drawn to it:

I loved that it was worn and soft – but it was a little too worn (there was a hole in the top).

There were a TON of vintage letters:

My girlfriend and I were totally bumming that our names didn’t start with “M” – that one rocked. :)

I thought this EAT sign was adorable with the way they made the “A”:

I thought the idea of building shelves into a big frame was genius:

There was a whole booth with just air plants – I have been looking for these forever! I was so stinkin’ excited:

I picked up a couple of them. Once I figure out where they are going I’ll share more about them. So cool!

This booth had a ton of art they made with vinyl – I thought the big fork, knife and spoon were adorable and would look so cool on a big wall in a kitchen:

That laundry sign was pretty cute too. ;)

I think my favorite booths were the ones with an industrial vibe. I was obsessed with this big metal basket and the leather medicine balls:

They were SO heavy!

At first I thought this big chunky chain was fabric, but it was actually made of bottle caps:

There were a TON of awesome industrial lights and accessories:

This big piece (part of a propeller? A vent?) was HUGE and would look so incredible on a big wall:

Or with a big round piece of glass on it, and make it into a coffee table? Ack!!

So what did we get?? Way too much. ;) My friend found a $30 wooden chandelier that we were both drooling over:

It may need to be rewired but that shouldn’t cost too much. It was gorgeous!!

She wanted a vintage sled to put by her front door and found one:

She found a few things to decorate the kid’s rooms, including this old Valvoline can and an adorable night stand:

I was so thrilled with each one of my purchases. My goal is always to fill our home with accessories that represent something about us  – and this fold up basket was just that:

It looks like a drum to me when it’s opened up, so it’s perfect in the basement! (Hubby is a band director, musician and composer, so music plays a BIG part in our life.)

And yes, that’s another placemat pillow.  :)

I have never seen a rosemary topiary – have you? I loved the pretty clay pot too:

I use rosemary to cook and the smell is amazing, so I couldn’t pass this up!

I think one of my very favorite finds of the day was my first purchase –- a gorgeous brass bowl for $10:

I’m a little obsessed with it. I just love the colors and the design. Stunning.

I got a few more things I’ll share with you soon, as soon as I figure out what I’m doing with them!

So I had no idea this Indie Arts event happens throughout the summer too – I guess nearly every month here in Indy? They have one more indoor date planned for March too! I was thinking it might be fun to get a few of local bloggers/readers together to go to that one! Anyone in? I may try to plan something, stay tuned!

Thing is, now we’re in trouble because we know about this awesome mart and it happens more than once a year. Next time I will have to exercise more restraint!

I love shopping places like this – you truly find one of a kind pieces that no one else will have. Do you have any local places you check out frequently? Any great finds? I’m still thinking about some of the items I passed up…