white to bright

I received an email a few weeks ago from the team over at Charish, a great online store that makes it fun and easy for design lovers to buy and sell vintage furniture, decor, jewelry and accessories to one another. Their shop exclusively features curator-approved treasures in a full-service and trustworthy environment. Its a pretty cool concept with really great stuff! Anyways, they asked me to create a design board for a room revolving around one of their great rugs, taking something from "white" to "bright". Here is what I came up with..

Chairish.com design board by katie-machin-mortensen featuring indigo home decor

Almost everything here was found on Chairish.com I love it!
I would install these floors in heartbeat! I love that they have a warm and cool feeling to them, and they can go with both gray and beige.. The paint is Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. I've used it in 2 of my houses and love it!

I love, LOVE this rug!  I was drawn in by the blue but loved how the other colors played off of it! You, know me, I love a good slipcovered couch, so of course I had to add one, but not in boring beige, but in this awesome blue!  I love the lines of this couch, its livable but has major style! Its a piece that can adjust to new color schemes with a simple change of the cover.

I wanted a coffee table that was transparent, there is no point of having such an awesome rug if you can't see it.. so I found this antique brass and glass table..  not only is it gorgeous, but the glass corners are rounded.  Perfect for a house with small kids!  I went more retro with the side tables next to the couch.  I wanted to warm up the space and add some interest with the wood.

I found these great lamps to sit onto of the side tables.  I love the shape of the base of the lamps, it give the space a little whimsy.

Next I found these fun blue and cream print chairs!  I love a good print and its a great way to add interest to a space if you are nervous about committing to a print on a couch!  Between the chairs I found this little table with fun legs.  I thought they tied in well with the blue lamps and gave warmth to the space. and of course, you can't forget a lamp for it..

Across the way I added a tall back settee and pouf.  You can never have enough seating in my book!  Plus in my mind its a big room...

Next come the pillows!  Lots of fun colors and prints that tie into the rug.. I also added a pop of green to it too!

As for the walls I love to find old vintage prints and use them as art work.  And Chairish has plenty of that!!  Here are a few that worked well with the rug and added lots of interest to the space! I also found these ( 1,2,3,4) prints that I could not pass up!  How fun are they??

And so, there you have it folks.. This is what my blank space would morph into if given $$$$ to play with!  I absolutely love how it turned out!!  Thanks to the team at Chairish for the fun opportunity to let me create a space from their amazing site!!  Go see for yourself!

Aloha!

Well, I am finally ready to face reality that we don't live in Hawaii and that I won't be spending my days on the beach with my family every day.. Boo! But I am happy to be home and getting back to normal. I think..

Kona, you have our hearts! We spent 10 fun filled days doing absolutely nothing! and we loved every second of it!

We are just about finished wit our little fixer upper! I am putting the finishing touches on the main floor right now while the basement gets an overhaul.. I can't wait to show you the before and afters! I really love this little house of our and what it has transformed into. Its crazy what a little imagination and guts can do!

I am starting back to work on Monday, but I get to teach a class today at the South Jordan Water Conservation Park to a bunch of awesome people who want to learn more about what I love to do! I've got a full class and can't wait to share my love for the "slipcover craft"!

I also want to remind you that I'll be teaching a more in depth class on how to slipcover furniture next Saturday. You can find all the details here. If you are wanting anything slipcovers by me, feel free to contact me. Right now I am book till about the end of February. I hope you all have had a great start to your 2015! I know I am excited to see what it has in store for me!

Wrapping up

Its been a spell since I have posted but its not for the lack of work, in fact I have been swamped and I am just now getting a chance to post about it. It has been a very busy last few weeks. Work, holidays and my husband wanting us to move into our little house before Christmas.. Did I mention its about 80% ready, ya. So I've been trying to figure out how to deal with that. When I say 80% I mean one of the 2 bathrooms is functional (well almost..), the laundry room still need to be finished (ya, I can't do laundry) every interior door needs to be hung,and a ton (like a TON) of finish work that still needs to be done. My husband wants me to start getting slipcovers and drapes and decor up, but I refuse to until the rest of the cabinet doors are hung and the paint buckets and tools are ALL out of the family room. Oh and new windows get installed.. The list goes on and on but never the less, here we are. Still in an adventure. But man oh man, the transformation is incredible!! And yes, I am gonna keep you waiting for pictures.. ha!


We had a great Christmas! Even if I had to do 8 loads of laundry at my moms house on Christmas day, but hey, it got done.. Plus we all got some new clothes, soo thats fired up! Here is my little family on Christmas day, in front of our little tree that got put up on Christmas Eve, whew! I did not think we'd make it.. and if you look behind the tree, you'll see a lovely collection of tools. Santa did not bring those.

Of all the goodies Santa left under the tree, the $2 umbrellas were the fav.. I may need to rethink my strategy next year.. all in all it was a fabulous Christmas! I hope yours was fantastic!

This is what I had to finish the week and half before Christmas. My cute client just moved here from the Bay area in June and needed a bunch of stuff done and of course I was happy to help! Here is a shot of her family and dining area. She wanted the green chair and a half, ottoman, floral sitting chair, parsons chairs and curtains made.

She wanted a french country vibe so we added pops of blues and red in to go with her rug, it all tied in pretty great but she said the next thing on her to-do list was painting the whole house.. Yikes! here are the before and afters of the furniture.
Chair 1 went from a shabby chic floral to a fun pop of blue and neutrals!

It just looks so bright and happy! This is the green chair and a half

The green toile was country and all, but lets face it, its not cutting it! So we slipcovered it an a neutral with a small cream floral print. It gives it a facelift and ties in with her curtains. She did not want to have the ottoman match so she is on a fabric hunt over the holiday break.
We also slipped her dining chairs. They were from down east (Pottery Barn parson chairs) and were just a plain beige before, nothing special, but boy did she amp it up with the fabric and trim she chose! I really love the red and robins egg blue combo and it looks fabulous in her home!I added a 4" band on the skirt to break up the pattern and tie it all together. I love how they turned out!

I made her a few pillows to throw on her white couch too!

She has not sent me a picture of her curtains yet, they were massive panels for the window behind the couch. I can't wait to see it all together! After the holiday we will be finishing up the ottoman and a bunch of pillows. But for now, this is what ya get!

I also did a glider for a lady out in CA. I get a lot of inquiries about this glider I did for a fabulous designer client's own nursery, pretty great, right?! Her glider was pretty old, but luck for me my mother-in-law had basically the same one! I was able to have her send me fabric and then fit my mil's chair. This is what it looked like on hers..

I love how it changes the look of it because lets be honest, gliders are just awful to look at! Now it looks a little more inviting plus, with kids you can just throw the whole thing in the wash if it gets dirty!

I am taking a break until January and trying to get my little house in order, well the best that I can for now. If you want anything slipcovered, feel free to contact me, I can put you on the list. I also have a few spot left in my January Slipcover workshop! If you can't make this one, don't worry, Ill do a few thru the year! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a fabulous New Year!

Perfect!

I Today was going to be the "perfect" day! I had it aranged so that I could get mucho stuff done today.  Both kids dropped off at school. My kindergartener would go play with Her favorite Aunt and cousin after school.  Heck, she was even going to pick her up!  That means for me, I have from 8:45am till about 2:45pm to be as productive as an be!  Getting a morning ride on my horse, because the weather we are having is marvelous and I know the days are numbered...  Next, off the my work space to finish up a few projects and start more and then, start chipping away at the Christmas shopping.  Perfect day! 

But alas.. It was almost too perfect.  I got to about 11:00am on the schedule when I got a call from the school, my 2nd grader has a high fever and he does not feel good. So now, everything must wait! Luckily my little guy was just a little warm, nothing a soup and time with mom and a little snuggles can't fix;). These are the moments that as a mother, I would never trade!  Nothing is better than being needed by your children or loved ones! So today turned out to be not so "perfect", but absolutely positively PERFECT!

I am sure that yesterday's activities of hauling my poor kids around after school to do drop off and an outing at IKEA had nothing to do with his fever.  I am sure of it;) So here you are, #1... This cute little settee was a $45 find on ksl.  My client saw its potential, and not was she spot on!  Here is the before

Pretty cute! Well she washed up some natural linen, which I love and had me add a box pleat skirt to it to kick it up a notch!  I love how it turned out!  She was thrilled at the results as well.  So thrilled that she sent a picture to the lady she bought it from!!  

#2 on the list was dropping off 4 dining room seat cushion that I made for a client who bough a few of my chairs.  She wanted a white cushion with a gathered skirt and big fat ties.  I really love these seat cushions! 

Soo fun!  She moved her other chairs over by the fireplace, they look so good together!

#3 I also covered these two little ottomans for a cute friend!  She was ready for a change, and a change is what she got! Before

After!!

They look fantastic!  I ran Velcro under to keep them secure and now she can pop them off any time for a quick cleaning!

I am pretty h booked up they the first part of February, contact me if you are wanting to get on my schedule!  I still have a few spots left in my workshop for the end of January.  I hope you all are getting you shopping done, cause I sure am not!  Not at this rate anyways...

All ruffled up

So today is a very special day for our family, Laker, our oldest is getting baptized! I can't believe he is 8!! I feel really old... I am soo proud of him! He is such greta kid and a good example to his sister. Man, what would I do without him???

Ladies! watch out!!

On to slipcovers.. One of my clients contacted me about a chaise lounge and a little ottoman/stool for one of her clients bedroom. She found the chaise at a thrift store, but wanted it to be taller. She grabbed some bed risers that added another 5"-6" to the chaise! Bed risers are amazing, they can fix anything! She wanted the slipcover to have a nice full ruffled skirt, I was worried the fabric would not cooperate, it was embroidered. But no need to worry, it ruffled like a champ!! Here is the before

Id say she scored on this find! Especially now that its slipcovered... I did a 1" blind hem on the skirt and matched up all of the stripes! I really loved you it turned out. Its like its calling you to come on over and take a nap on it!

She had me do the same look on her little stool, and boy oh boy, I had not a swatch of fabric to spare!

I love how they both turned out! There is something about a good ruffled skirt that makes me happy!
I still have a few spot open for my Slipcover:101 class. Contact me if yo are wanting to come! It will be super fun and you'll walk away with a finished slipcover made by YOU! Plus you can come in your "comfy" clothes and 2nd or 3rd day hair, no judgement here..

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy turkey day! I hope everyone has a fantastic day with family and loved ones, I know I will! I am super thankful for my little family and all of our many adventures!

We may be a bunch of nerds, but they are my nerds!

Yesterday I had a client come pic up her pair of wingback chairs and ottoman from my workshop. She lives in Roy but her daughter commutes to Spanish Fork every other week for work. So we arranged the drop and pick up around her schedule. I had never met my client in person, just thru email. When I met her yesterday I just fell in love with her!! For the short time that we met she was a hoot and you can tell that she and her daughter have a lot of fun! She had sent her daughter with down with one of the chairs, ottoman and fabric. When I started on it I was hoping that she had enough fabric. We never discussed it, all she said was she has fabric ready to go. Well she had 3 12x24 drop clothes and let me tell you, I used every last inch of it for her slipcovers! Talk about a Thanksgiving Day miracle! Here is one of the chairs before:

She wanted a simple box skirt that hung about 1-2 inched off the ground. It turned out quite excellent! her daughter said that the chairs had been reupholstered but they were not matching fabric wise.. Now she'll have a nice matching set with an ottoman! You can't go wrong with good old drop cloth!

My client absolutely loved them!!

Also, I am teaching a Slipcover 101 Workshop January 30-31, 2015! I have 3 spots available! You will be learning how to make a slipcover for your own chair from start to finish! If you are wanting to do it but don't have a piece of furniture, go check out your local thrift store, they always have something and for cheap!! The cost of the class is $500 per person, it includes lunch both days and a kit to help you make slipcovers! Contact me for more info! I can't wait! Ladies, tell your husbands its a great Christmas gift...