The Neutral Pillow Project

Whether you lean towards Scandinavian-inspired, Modern Farmhouse, or California Casual, everything light, white, and wood is in right now – and I love it!

While I’m always excited to incorporate new looks into my home, it takes some creativity to do this – we’ve had most of our major furniture pieces for a decade or more.

One strategy that’s easy on the budget and environment is to change out accessories like pillows. Here are some light and bright ideas that you can use to give your room a new look!

Admittedly, my “things I have in the house already” is rather extensive, but I’m still proud that I managed to make all these pillows with them.

Here are the links to a tutorial on making simple throw pillows and tutorials for the window seat pillows, including bolster and flanged pillows.

Starting with: Ribbon-embellished geometric pillows:

  • I started by sewing lengths of ivory ribbon onto a linen-like fabric in diagonal stripes
  • I then cut out panels to create a chevron or herringbone pattern for two bolster pillows to add a neutral accent to my teal armchairs
  • With the leftover sections of ribbon-embellished fabric, I created one more throw pillow for our living room loveseat

Mudcloth-inspired contrast stitching:

Neutral doesn’t have to mean boring! I took some plain canvas fabric I had and, inspired by the oh-so-popular mudcloth trend, cut it into panels and sewed it together with contrasting navy thread:

There are a million more ideas for sewing simple pillows to change the look of your space – and when I try them all, you’ll see it here!

“Jewels”

Kids’ Bath Grows Up – A Clean Slate – One Room Challenge Week 1

I’m really excited to be a Guest Participant in my firstĀ One Room Challenge! This is a great way to get inspiration and motivation for your home. For this challenge, I’ve decided to re-do our kids’ bath. It started out with a cute beach theme that seemed perfect when the boys were little, but now I am ready for it to grow up with them. Our new look features neutral colors, natural touches, and enough personality to stand up to three boys! Thanks for following along!

Fortunately, we renovated this bath when we moved into our house a few years ago, and all the “bones” are still good. Without doing a major renovation, I have a feeling I can still completely change our look! I’ve been so inspired by the clean palette of today’s most popular design styles – whether it’s “Scandinavian-inspired,” “California Casual,” or “Modern Farmhouse,” everyone – myself included – is loving white walls and lots of natural materials.

For week one, my task was make this room a blank slate! I took down all the decorations, touched up the existing vanity, sealed the marble, and got some help painting the walls from our friend Joe.

The new wall color is “Feather Down” from Benjamin Moore. I’ve used it in our master bath as well, and I love the warm neutral feel.

Here are a few “before” (or “old after”) and “after” (or “new before”) pictures. I am so excited to get to work rebuilding this space!

Go check out all the other exciting guest great projects over at the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge!

I hope you come back to see the rest of this room’s transformation!

“Jewels”

one room challenge logo

Simple Christmas Branch

Last year, we celebrated a fabulous and fun retro mid-century Christmas with lots of over-the-top colors and decorations. This year, I’m going in a different direction with a pared-down Christmas.

I was inspired by pictures of simple branches hung with ornaments. I was going to do this in addition to our Christmas tree, but I’ve decided to do it instead of a tree, and it feels very liberating! This idea is great for people who live in small spaces or just want to simplify.

Our overall look this season is Scandinavian-inspired with touches of gold and glam, and our centerpiece here fits tight in.

Enjoy!



Hope you’re feeling cheerful and warm this season!

“Jewels”