Fun Junk Antiques in Rome Contemporary Hexagon Pillows :: Free Sewing Pattern Getting Kapok Why Kapok in Zafu Meditation Pillows DIY Bedroom Bench Back-to-School College, Teenage & Kid Bedroom Decorating Sophisticated Zafu Pillows in Paris French Design Inspiration from Paris Beach Cottage :: Craft, Diy, Home Decor :: Linky Party DIY Luxury Stairs DIY Scrappy Lampshade Kitchen Island :: Paint Makeover Free Paint for Your Home Decor Projects Hopeful Home Contemporary Italian Bedroom Furniture Organizing with Baskets: 10 Styles You Can Make Own Recycled Tire Swing Kids Furniture Adirondack Chair Plans Recycled Bottles, Designer Lamps Unusual Upcycled Kitchen Storage 2 Best Gift for Fathers Day 50+ Cool Recycled Crafts for Earth Day – part 2 Eco-Friendly Bath Mat – DIY How to Make a Lovely Garden Bench this Spring Fancifully Cascading Flower Lamps & Screens  (from recycled plastic water bottles) DIY Modern Room Screen for $30 Decorative Handmade Floral Sunburst Pillow Tutorial Design Trend: Recycled Wool Sweater Lamp Anthropologie for Less: 5 Decorating Craft Ideas



Fun Junk Antiques in Rome

Fun Junk Antiques in Rome

Last week, we stopped by this fun and funky antique store in Trastevere, a favorite downtown area in Rome. This antique shop is a rare breed. It reminds of American lifestyle fashion furniture stores which also sell  (vintage) Oriental furniture. Such shop is a rare find in Rome. What makes this shop more special is [...]


Contemporary Hexagon Pillows :: Free Sewing Pattern

Contemporary Hexagon Pillows :: Free Sewing Pattern

: this hexagon designer pillow pattern reads like a nature mosaic. Something soulful about handmade pillows that have such attention to painstaking detail. It’s an exquisite sewing pattern and it’s free.   By centering 6 identical petals, the master seamstress team at Sew4Home has orchestrated yet another winning design.   They share the sewing tutorial [...]


Getting Kapok

Getting Kapok

How Much Kapok Do You Need ? Depending on the exact measurements you’ll choose, for a zafu meditation pillow like this, you will need approximately 2.5 lbs. of kapok.         Where to buy quality Kapok?   At Carolina Morning. I’m excited to announce our new affiliation with Carolina Morning. The folks there [...]


Why Kapok in Zafu Meditation Pillows

Why Kapok in Zafu Meditation Pillows

Pin It Last New Year, I posted a tutorial on how to make your own Zafu Meditation Pillow, as meditating is a wonderful New Year resolution.     To sit comfortably while you meditate you really must have a zafu. If you haven’t made one of these pillows yet, now is the perfect time to [...]


DIY Bedroom Bench

DIY Bedroom Bench

A winning tutorial: easy, fast and gorgeous. Pin It Some bloggers are amazing, and this is one of them:  Carry from ‘Two Friends, Two Cities’. She created this lovely bench from start –to – finish in just 2 hours for the tiny budget of $65.  I actually just bought this exact same bold marine blue/white [...]


Back-to-School College, Teenage & Kid Bedroom Decorating

Back-to-School College, Teenage & Kid Bedroom Decorating

This article on ‘College, Teenage & Kid Bedroom Decorating Projects & Ideas’  finishes the ‘Back-to-school Ideas’- week, however, during September we’ll add a few more individual back-to-school ideas, as they pop up in our minds.     College Room, Teenage & Kid Bedroom Ideas Child Bedroom Furniture Stencil Plan This article contains free templates and [...]


Sophisticated Zafu Pillows in Paris

Sophisticated Zafu Pillows in Paris

Those of you interested in ‘new age’ type DIY/Crafty projects, sure have seen my Zafu meditation pillow pattern. The prior version was in a simple, calm misty forest green; the pillow well-designed; the pattern illustrated and detailed. Yesterday, just off the Champs d’Elysee, Paris, I spotted a ‘happy’ version of this zafu pillow. All this [...]


French Design Inspiration from Paris

French Design Inspiration from Paris

Sharing my secret: I’m in Paris!!!!   Instead of craft & DIY tutorials, you’ll find world-class creative inspirational photos to help you develop your own DIY and craft ideas… for the next 2 weeks!   Some of the articles will be a single brilliant idea (I’ll be calling these articles ‘Creative Ideas from France’, while [...]


Beach Cottage :: Craft, Diy, Home Decor :: Linky Party

Beach Cottage :: Craft, Diy, Home Decor :: Linky Party

Time to get ready for the beach, and to slowly start transforming our home into a lovely beach cottage….    I’ve starting early this year in getting my beach gear out. The weather simply has been so beautiful that I simply have to do so. Look where I was last week, on the Italian coast in [...]


DIY Luxury Stairs

DIY Luxury Stairs

Some people just do things very well. Miriam & Daniel, i.e.  the couple who are the proud owners of this stairs make-over, did things* very well, and the results is a luxury stair case, that’s a jewel in their home.  (*Even their tutorial is done very well, and concludes with a list of tips befitting [...]


DIY Scrappy Lampshade

DIY Scrappy Lampshade

So cute, I wish I would have thought of that. Lindsey of the Pleaded Poppy made this 100% recycled lampshade that is just glorious to look at. This lampshade will befit any room, depending upon fabrics chosen/remnants found in your stash. All you’ll need is scrap fabric and an old lampshade frame.   The lampshade [...]


Kitchen Island :: Paint Makeover

Kitchen Island :: Paint Makeover

This before/after story is a little inspiration for us all. The story goes: dream, and just begin, and the results will be lovely… I mean: Love the smokey teal color of this unique one-of-a-kind kitchen island. It’s funky, it’s stylish, and with the new teal makeover, it’s now also classy chic.   The BEFORE Or [...]


Free Paint for Your Home Decor Projects

Free Paint for Your Home Decor Projects

If you want to do a test run of a paint color scheme, or just do a simple stencil painting project, then this paint freebie is exactly what you’ve been looking for.     Free Paint Sample Kit, with $5 Lowe Discount Coupon You can choose from ‘ooos of rich, beautiful colors to receive a free [...]


Hopeful Home

Hopeful Home

Halloween in Fall …. lots of scary things & fear about (In N. America, that is; Here in the Italian country side, we’re mostly celebrating All Saints Day & All Soul’s Day, the days after Halloween; Literally none decorates her house for Halloween, except we do)…. Well, with all this fear & scary things around, [...]


Contemporary Italian Bedroom Furniture

Contemporary Italian Bedroom Furniture

Believe it or not, but my husband told me, he wants this… Yes, we are definitely becoming influenced by Italian design and living style. Have a look at this video.                 It’s taking the term ‘hide-a-bed’ to a new level! Tell us what you think of these fabulous [...]


Organizing with Baskets: 10 Styles You Can Make Own

Organizing with Baskets: 10 Styles You Can Make Own

How to use baskets when organizing your home?   Organizing with Baskets & Bins Howto My first tip is that baskets are best used in sets, I believe, grouped rather than stand alone.   This gives them that orderly, organizing effect that we’re after, to create a comfortable, yet functional, clutter-free home style. My second tip [...]


Recycled Tire Swing

Recycled Tire Swing

This blog article brought cherished back childhood memories when Stephanie featured her DIY Recycled Tire Swing!  Oh, how I adore this!  Yes, I’m under the table and dreaming….. Ahhhh!      I grew up in the big city, so every summer, my parents dropped us kids off at a local farm for a few weeks of [...]


Kids Furniture

Kids Furniture

Pin It I did something new. I made a HOUZZ idea book. This idea book focuses on kids furniture & creative kids bedroom ideas, as that appears to be a key topic of discussion in our wider family these days.  I guess, summer is not just for lazing around at the beach or doing crafts [...]


Adirondack Chair Plans

Adirondack Chair Plans

You can find them in fun beach resorts, fisher man villages, both romantic and nautical-themed B & B’s They’re so comfy and so beautiful….: Adirondack chairs!     Want one? How about making them yourself for your own patio or elsewhere, outdoors ?  Adirondack Chairs are  durable.  This is why grandma still has hers…  Yes, [...]


Recycled Bottles, Designer Lamps

Recycled Bottles, Designer Lamps

Inspirational post, showcasing different styles of designer lamps made eco green from recycled soda bottles.

Never knew being green could look so good.


Unusual Upcycled Kitchen Storage 2

Unusual Upcycled Kitchen Storage 2

Remember that I showed you this unusual storage cabinet last Friday as an inspiration for you to bypass your conventional notion of what ‘matches’ and what doesn’t?

 

I promised that I would come back with some extra unusual kitchen storage ideas, that would help you to do away with even more traditional design rules and notions of what constitute proper storage…..


Best Gift for Fathers Day

Best Gift for Fathers Day

I have given you free Fathers Day Cards plus free bookmarks to download as my presents for your Dad. Now it’s your turn. Here are ideas for you to find him a ‘real’ gift. For the free ‘Fathers Day Cards’- series I identified 10 different type of dads, and designed a card for each type [...]


50+ Cool Recycled Crafts for Earth Day – part 2

50+ Cool Recycled Crafts for Earth Day – part 2

Happy Earth Day everyone. Hope you enjoyed the recycled craft ideas for desk accessories that we posted yesterday.  Today, we want to show you Unique Furniture * Home Decorations from Recycled Materials, as part of this series of 50+ cool recycled crafts for Earth Day. This simply means an extra 50 green craft ideas, as [...]


Eco-Friendly Bath Mat – DIY

Eco-Friendly Bath Mat – DIY

Recycle & Be Creative.   How about doing something back for Mother Earth: … like an eco-friendly home-decorating craft?!   Here’s a fun and eco-friendly project to make a rug to enliven your bathroom.   Towel Rug Pin It Give Old Towels a Second Life Transforming towels into super soft, eco-chic bath rugs.   How-to [...]


How to Make a Lovely Garden Bench this Spring

How to Make a Lovely Garden Bench this Spring

Spring is here and it’s time to sit outside again.  One of the things on our agenda this year was to create some more magical secret spaces in the garden.  So, I shopped around for a somewhat regal design garden bench, that we could paint.   How to Make a Wooden Garden Bench This is [...]


Fancifully Cascading Flower Lamps & Screens  (from recycled plastic water bottles)

Fancifully Cascading Flower Lamps & Screens (from recycled plastic water bottles)

Want to be inspired to do some eco-design? I just came across this British artist, Michelle Brands. She turned plastic water and soda bottles into light catching flow, akin to a fabric, say.  The bottles appear as very pleasing 3D flowers.  I love this look particularly for a whimsical kitchen lamp, girl bedroom or a [...]


DIY Modern Room Screen for $30

DIY Modern Room Screen for $30

A good room screen divides your space nicely, hides your stuff comfortably, and leaves that spacious, breezy feel in your room.  I found one that does all that it’s supposed to do. Love this screen? It (the matte grey version) retails for $520 online. However, you can make it for $30.  Tiny budget, nah!? Cassity [...]


Decorative Handmade Floral Sunburst Pillow Tutorial

Decorative Handmade Floral Sunburst Pillow Tutorial

Looky! These decorative floral throw pillows made with felt at The Purl Bee are unique and contemporary. Good for a bed, good for a couch. The best thing is that I haven’t seen them anywhere else yet. They are … original! I dubbed them as ‘sunburst’ pillows.   Don’t you think they are quite summery [...]


Design Trend: Recycled Wool Sweater Lamp

Design Trend: Recycled Wool Sweater Lamp

Knitting is not only ‘IN’, its’ ON. It’s as hip as ever, and it’s IN our house. I’ve already shown you it’s ON the wall and ON the floor. Here are some easy craft ideas on how to get your knitted goods ON the lamp, ON the vase, ON the pillow, ON a bowl and [...]


Anthropologie for Less: 5 Decorating Craft Ideas

Anthropologie for Less: 5 Decorating Craft Ideas

  Apartment Therapy is starting to be ‘like me’ once and a while.  Today, I looked at the Anthropologie January 2010 Catalog through their eyes, and this is what I found: 5 contemporary craft projects to make your home Parisian & splendid!  For those of you who are not fortunate to live near an Anthropologie [...]


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