Mixing metals

You all rock! I loved your responses to the bed making post. :) Thanks for the leads on sheets that fit the monstrous mattress – I’m going to check them out!

I get a lot of questions about what’s kosher when it comes to mixing metal finishes on hardware, light fixtures and faucets in houses.

First of all, I must say (again) – if you want to have 15 different finishes in your house, go for it. Seriously – if you like what you have then ENJOY. It’s YOUR house! Do what makes YOU happy.

Some in the “biz” say you should stick with one and only finish only for everything. So if your knobs in the kitchen are brushed nickel, the faucet, light fixtures, everything should be the same. But I find that can get a little bit monotonous. I think mixing them up a bit can be a very good thing. (And that may or may not be because my house is in a state of “mixed” right now.)  ;)

I currently have three finishes throughout our house – shiny brass, oil rubbed bronze and brushed nickel. I am not a fan of the shiny brass, and I am happy to announce (from the rooftops!!!) that we are shiny-brass free when it comes to the light fixtures:

Pffffffttt…brass. You are dead to me.

OK, that’s a little harsh. Brass…I highly dislike you! Don’t let the door smack you on the booty!

I’ve also been working on replacing our brass door knobs with beautiful, dark oil rubbed bronze (ORB) knobs for the past six months or so. YES – it’s been a long process. That’s a story for another day.

But once those are gone, I will be free of the brass.

Can I get an AMEN?!

Anywho, I still count the shiny brass as one of the finishes in our home because we do have a few doors knobs left to replace.

Otherwise, we have a mix of the brushed nickel/chrome/stainless finishes (I group those together) and ORB. The chrome I am not a fan of anymore – it’s starting to give me brass-like hives. We only have it on a few of our sinks, so for now I’m able to handle them.

For NOW.

So the million dollar question -- can you mix metals within one room?

I say YES, abso-posi-lutely you can. In our kitchen, I chose ORB knobs and handles for the cabinets:

And I sprayed the light fixture in ORB spray paint to match:

But most of the appliances are stainless, so when I picked out the new faucet, I went with that finish, and I LOVE IT:

I wanted it to pop off the black sink, and it does beautifully.

As a side note, let’s check out the before shot I have of our sink from last fall, and the after one more time:

 

Look at the difference! Sigh. Happy face. Hearts. Eyes flutter.

Our family room has a dark brown finish on the ceiling fan, and I sprayed the vents with ORB spray paint to match:

I also spray painted the brass bars on the fireplaces in the family room and the bedroom:

I did not use high heat paint, and it has still held up great!

I have really been digging the look of brushed nickel lately. I think it looks so classic. I used it all OVER the Bub’s room redo:

(Target propeller sprayed in brushed nickel.)

I used it on lamps, accessories, frames – and it looks FANTASTIC with the navy and white:

When it comes to light fixtures, I still prefer the darker tone of ORB – I think they make more of a statement hanging in all of that empty space. Most of our lights are the darker finish now:

 

But we picked out brushed nickel light fixtures for our foyer and staircase when we built our house:

And I LOVE the actual fixtures, I just wish they were darker! The light in our foyer is much bigger than this one, and I would really love to just have them taken down, spray paint them, and then put them back up. But to that, we’d need scaffoldings and lotsa lotsa cash to pay someone brave enough to do it.  ;)

And if we’re going to pay that much, I’ll probably just replace them, and not mess with taking them down, painting, doing the hokey pokey and putting them back up.

Side note – anyone have a clue how to change a light bulb in these things? I guess we’ll be waiting till they all go out. :)

We still have brushed nickel lights in two of our bathrooms, including the master bath:

In our master, I’ve gone the ORB direction with the towel rods and light switch covers:

So I think the brushed nickel does look out of place. But so do the chrome faucets. :) But all of those will get replaced…someday. They are about 1,793 on the list. It’s a long one.  ;)

Our son’s bathroom has the same light, but I worked with it and went with the same finish for the toilet paper holder, towel ring, etc. So who knows if it will stay or go – for now I’m completely happy with it.

So you can see, we’re all over the place around here. :) My goal? I’d love to have (at least most) of the light fixtures and faucets in the oil rubbed bronze finish. I’d love to have little extras like vents, thresholds and railing brackets in the darker finish as well.

I am drawn to that dark, lovely metal tone – some say it will go out of style one day soon, but I think it’s a classic, traditional finish. (Remind me of that in ten years, umkay?)

If you are starting from scratch or want to get your finishes more cohesive – there are a few tips to follow:

• Knobs on cabinets and dressers are the “jewelry” of your spaces, and you should have fun with them. Do whatever you love!
• Light fixtures should be fairly consistent – but it also very much depends on the look and decor in the room too.
• Our faucet finishes are mixed, and even when I’m done replacing them all, they’ll probably still be. :) That’s another one that depends on the space.
• Ideally, door knobs and hinges should be consistent throughout the the house. But we’ve been living with a mix of ORB (lurve) and shiny brass (ick) for months, so do as I say, not as I do.  ;)

Most importantly -- keep in mind the style of your home and your decorating – as long as you are true to yourself and what you love, anything will work. :)

So how many finishes do you have in your house? Do you stay fairly consistent or are you in constant transition like me? What’s the metal for you? Nickel? Antique brass? Oil-rubbed lovely?  :)

 

Thanks to my new advertiser!:

**I’ve got a great giveaway coming up this weekend! Stay tuned!

Catalog living

Well heya! How was your weekend? I spent a few hours today completely wasting my time on a project – it’s one of those that just was a total FLOP. But as hubby always reminds me, at least I know now that it didn’t work, and I won’t always wonder. ;) Gah. (More on that later!)

When things don’t go right with my projects, I often take solace in a little luxury – taking a few minutes to browse my home decor catalogs. I LOVE catalogs.

I don’t subscribe to any home decor mags, don’t follow any “real” decorators and only know of luxurious fabrics like Kravet and Scalamandre because I worked in the decorating “biz” for a couple years. Now, I can’t remember the names of half of the fabric books I searched through every day. :) But that’s OK -- I am already sufficiently overwhelmed by all of your amazing projects I see out in blogland. (My head is swimming!)

Catalogs bring me a different kind of inspiration – very similar to model homes. I could spend a whole day walking through decorated models. LOVE.

I’ve told you before that most of the time when I’m taking pictures for this blog, the crap is chucked out of the shot, or cropped out. ;)  Sometimes I push everything out of the way, take the picture, and it’s not till later that I notice little things I didn’t get to:

It’s like a Where’s Waldo of sorts. But with me, it’s find the toy, or my latest favorite – the bag o’ chips:

I love me some sour cream and onion!! ;)

I personally think the stagers at Pottery Barn are some of the most brilliant I’ve ever seen. I open that catalog and ooh and ahh – every space just feels warm and lovely and gorgeous.

I keep saying I’m going to find a vignette I love, then try to copy it with what I have. But then I start studying a bit more and realize I don’t have a branch to casually perch on the mirror:

How fantastic does that look? But in real life…hello?? A branch hanging off the mirror? Ummm, I wouldn’t even be able to look at myself! ;) (I kid, I kid!)

The more I break down the photos, the more I don’t quite get it.

If you look even closer, the paper menus scattered on the wall would look positively redonkulous in our house. And the one on the left, that looks like it fell off the wall? Do you know how many anonymous comments I’d get that would be all, “Um, your huge paper handwritten menu fell off the wall.”

And I’d be all, “Uh, DUH. It’s supposed to be like that!”

Yeah, not happening. But it looks OH so right in the catalog.

I think part of the reason I love the pages of the Pottery Barn catalog is that it looks like whoever lives there is ready to party at any second:

Fresh grapes for your guests? Check.

Fifty-two bottles of wine? Check.

Bread stuffed into glass? Check.

And why didn’t I think to have a olive oil tasting party?:

Can I admit something here? For one hot split second, I thought -- “Wow. I must have an olive oil tasting party!”

NO, I must not. What the ?? I mean, I love olive oil. With some pepper and salt and some yummy dipping bread ---- yummmm…

But I am NOT going to have an olive oil tasting party.

Even though Pottery Barn makes me want to.

There is always something missing from catalog pictures…it’s the little imperfections. The personal touches. I adore this wall, but in our house, at least half the frames would be filled with faces:

And the gourds on the bottom would be replaced with basketballs. That’s what our decorative baskets store.  ;)

But really…aren’t they dreamy? Really. I get lost in catalogs. They are such fantastic inspiration – for FREE.

Recently, I came across a fairly new site and I knew from the second I saw it I’d have to share it with you all. Many of you have probably already seen it, but if not, check out Catalog Living -- it is hiiiiilarious!

The author of this site has created fictional owners, Gary and Elaine, who live within the catalog pictures, and she pokes fun at the beautiful photos we drool over.

Just try not to laugh:

“Sure Gary’s out of town, but I’m perfectly capable of
starting a fire in the fireplace by myself, thank you very much.”

 

“If you go to Game Night at Gary and Elaine’s,
you can count on playing at least a few rounds of Wood Fish.”

 

“While Gary and Elaine were in the kitchen getting popcorn,
the brave yellow sweater attempted its escape.”

 

“Oh that?  That’s my Wish Plant. 
It’s where I clip pictures of people who I want dead.”

 

ACK!! I. love. it!! So freakin’ funny! The author is actually a actor/comedian named Molly Erdman:

(source)

Does she look familiar?

She’s the woman in the Sonic commercials:

(source)

Those made me laugh out loud. :)

Are you a catalog lova? Do you drool over the perfectly poised photos like me? As much as I love to look, I still don’t know if I could live in these rooms – but it won’t stop me from trying it out! (Just with Thomas the Trains scattered throughout and cat hair tumbleweed floating by.)

What are your favorite home decor catalogs? I drool over PB, Restoration Hardware and Ballard Designs. Any good ones I’m missing out on?

Showing off Emily

Hello peeps! I’m kicking off my “Show Me Off” series today with a blogger I know you’ll be spending a couple hours catching up on (if you haven’t already!) So just let the kids and the hubs know they’re on their own for dinner tonight. And maybe breakfast tomorrow. ;)

Emily at Decor Chick submitted a few projects that were a tuggin’ at my little decorating heart and I couldn’t wait to share them with you! And no, it wasn’t just because I liked her blog name so much!  :)

If you’ve been around these parts for one hot second, you know of my deep, abiding, bordering-on-obsession love of molding. Seriously. Sometimes I think I need a support group. By now I’ve brought so many of you on board, we’d have a nice little group going.

Emily and her Dad (LOVE when the Dads help!!) took this blank wall that was pitifully begging, “Please dear owner, please please put some molding on me?”:

And with a few boxes, added mucho character:

Love that she filled in the wall with more photos too – it looks fab!

For more on this project, go here.

She found this little media cabinet at a thrift store:

Then took the doors off, added some beadboad wallpaper and some accessories, and how pretty is that?:

That little lamp inside totally makes it, don’t you think? It’s so warm and pretty!

For more on that one, go here.

Emily saw a William’s Sonoma knock-off idea over at Get Your Martha On (I adore that blog name!) who got it from somewhere else, and so on. (The beauty of blogland!)

The inspiration was this fab hurricane:

 

So she made these, for TWO BUCKS EACH people!:

Umm…hello, that is awesome. I am envisioning these in my house filled with leaves and acorns for fa…… oops. Almost said it. Not gonna.

Anyway.

I’m totally making some! :)

For more on how to make the hurricanes, go here.

Emily attacks some painting projects I’m not sure I would attempt. Well, maybe I would, but there would be a whole lot of crying. And whimpering.

She took a dining hutch she had for years:

And painted it, beadboarded it, accessorized it and got this gorgeous result:

I love love love that she used frames and other decor in the hutch – thinking outside of the box my friends. It looks FAB!

For more on this project, go here.

Pretty awesome, eh? Thanks for kicking off this shindig Emily!

Would you like me to show off one (or more) of your projects? If so, send me all of the pictures/links/info I’ll need, and email them to me at simplehomeinteriordesign (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject line “Show Me Off!”

I’ve had quite a response, so bear with me – it will take a while to get to all of you talented Squeezies!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

Faux faux good

OK, get ready. I may offend some of you with this statement, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…

I USE FAKE FLOWERS.

And greenery.

:)

Sue me, but I don’t mind a little bit ‘o faux.

I don’t as much of it as I used to – but I still use a little bit throughout the house. And come fall --  fake flowers in warm luscious colors spit up all over the joint. :)

Lately, more than florals, I’m loving the herb/fern look I’ve seen all over lately. I am finding that they are such a great way to fill empty space inside of stuff. I found this little cutie at Michael's for $1.99:

I didn’t care for the clay pot it came in, and it wasn’t quite tall enough, so I just took some wood scraps, stacked them underneath the pot, then wrapped the whole thing with some fabric:

It looks lovely on our new Craigslist dresser. (So glad you all love it as much as I do!)

I recently took a thrift store find and filled it with some wild and crazy ferns that I adore:

Those look real, don’t you think?

Well, I was at Pottery Barn the other day returning a few little things, and imagine my glee when I saw warm and lovely fall decor all over the place!

What the what? Who said what? Hmmm??

I mentioned fall? ME? And you’re surprised? :)

Sorry, I am just stating a fact so that makes it totally OK to say the F.A.L.L. word, umkay?

They had a whole line of pots with herby/ferny goodness that I was lovin’. Of course I can’t find the exact items on their site, but they were a long these lines:

One was a HUGE topiary ball on top of a clay pot –- and I LOVED it. I did not love the price -- $40. Sheesh.

So I was a thinkin’ and I remembered a post I saw over at Melissa’s place from foreva ago – and off to Hobby Lobby I went!

I didn’t look up her post before I did this, but when I just went back to read it, I did mine almost exactly like she did hers. She’s brilliant. ;)

I grabbed two of these ferny-looking jobbies in the greenery aisle at Hob Lob:

They were half off, so $8 for both. AWWW yeah.

I had a humongo foam ball that I never used for another project, and a pot I use for various projects:

I did have a clay pot just like the Pottery Barn one, but I didn’t like it so plain. I saved myself a little painting time and just used this one.

There’s no need to even cut off the sprigs – just pull them off:

And just stick them into your ball spray painted blue (so you won’t see the glaring white) cause you were too lazy to find the green or black paint:

:)

I mean come on. You can’t get easier than that. It’s too cute!:

It’s got some oompf, eh? ;):

The Pottery Barn version was ooompfy too, so that was the look I was going for. If you don’t want your topiary so poofy, you can cut each greenery piece in half (more on that in a sec).

It looks great from that side, but from the other side, it looks like this till I can get back to HL:

Kind of like business in the front, party in the back you could say? ;)

:) This one is half bald cause I did a smaller version first, to see if it was going to work. For the smaller version, I took each sprig and cut it in half:

I cut the top part so each one had enough of a “stem” to stick it into the foam.

Then I used a teeny tiny foam ball and just stuck them in here and there:

I plopped it on a little iron vase that was a thrift store find last year, then placed it under a cloche I got a few weeks ago while shopping Midland Arts and Antiques with my pal Beckie:

So so TOOT, as our son would say. :) For me, both projects were only $8 total, (well, $12 when I go back for one more bunch of greenery), but that’s because I had the foam – but if you use a coupon or watch sales, you could still do this for el cheapo.

And just about anything would serve as a container – anything looks cute patoot with a big fluffy topiary ball on top.

So are you a faux lover? Kinda? Just a little? A lot? If you’re not, please be kind to us faux-lovahs. :) I would love to have only real flowers throughout the house year-round, but alas, that is money I could be shopping Goodwill with.  ;)

** I am linking this one up to Marty’s Summer Cloche Party!