Why Must Fabric be So Expensive?

I’ve been on a mad search for curtains for the past week.


I found these at Pottery Barn :

..which I love, but do not love the price. We need two sets of them which means 4 panels, which means ~$450 – and that is not in our budget.

So, I decided they would be much cheaper if I sucked it up and made them myself.

Note to future self: When calculating how much fabric is required divide by 3 (3 feet in a yard) and you will not have a mini heart-attack next time.

I did NOT need 30 yards of fabric, I merely needed 10 (4 panels at 2.5 yards ea.). Which made the prices of fabric much more reasonable….rookie mistake.

Then I decided that maybe those curtains would make the room too heavy; too formal and not punchy and fun. I like punchy and fun, and I feel like curtains are a good place to do that. I found and fell in love with this fabric:

High Voltage by Schumacher

And then fell of my chair when I realized it was $90/yard (which would be DOUBLE the pottery barn curtains). I mess up sewing all too often to buy fabric that is $90/yard no matter how perfect I think it may be.
Back to the drawing board I went.

The Living Room Progress....

First up – the Fireplace room - the before shots

I painted:

 

WALL COLOR : BM Grey Wisp

TRIM COLOR : BM Simply White

And we bought a new couch :

 And just yesterday I purchased a rug to start helping anchor things down.  I went with this Jill Rosenwald rug because A) I love love loved it after this girl bought it and B) the designer is from Boston.

I’m searching for curtains still (those are leftovers from our apartment), a coffee table (or maybe not if we get our built-in shelves going and can stop using our coffee table as a TV stand), an interesting lamp and small desk.

 I also bought one of these for my ‘reading nook’ and am on the hunt for the perfect comfy blanket to casually drape over the side.  Unfortunately, it won’t be delivered until October or something like that – and yes; it is a legit brand new Eames chair, not a knock-off (I got a great deal through work).

And sorry for the mess - my life is messy and I made an executive decision not to clean up before I took any of these pictures.

I'm thinking of either some texture-y khaki curtains or maybe some silk silver ones - do you have any good curtain resources?

A House Tour....

Do you want a little house tour?
I thought you did -
*Please excuse the terrible picture quality, I was too lazy to adjust them :)

Lets start from the outside and work our way in -

If you come in the front door, the kitchen is to your left, the living room (which they used as a dining room) to your right.

I didn't like the feeling of walking directly into the dining room so we are currently using this as the tv room (the tv is against the wall on the left of the image).

It's also got a second connection to the kitchen.  The fridge is right behind that light switch - so convenient for snacks.

The other side of the tv-room/dining room has the access to the mud room and downstairs bathroom.

There is a huge window in the mudroom-

and stone floors :

This leads into the downstairs bath (1/2)

The previous owners took the mirrors/vanity cabinets -

If we come back through the tv-room we move into the kitchen.

And through the kitchen you can see the family room and doors to the backyard:

Lets step outside for a second -
We have a tall fence and shed :) Although you can't see it all, the backyard is a decent size (for our area) and behind the fence there is a swamp pond.  The lawn needs a lot of work - that is a boy job.

Okay, lets go back inside.

And head upstairs -

At the top of the stairs, to the left is the master bedroom, to the right is the upstairs bath and bedroom #2/office and straight ahead is what we are calling bedroom #3/guestroom.
The Master: (to get these three pictures I stood in the door and rotated from left to right)

Our bed will be located between the windows on this wall.

Next up, the bath -

It's SMALL.

Again, they took the vanity - 

And there are random fish tiles in the shower -

Right beside the bathroom is the 2nd bedroom and what I'm going to be using as my office -

The floors need work in here -

On the way to the final bedroom there are built-in storage cabinets on either side of the hall.  Although right now they don't really shut (also need work).

And thats it!
Well, half of the basement is finished - but it's boring down there (and filled with stuff)....we'll save that for another day.

The Family Room....I Love Built-Ins

This weekend was filled with loads of home inspiration searches, and I'm beginning to think I should have called this blog 'The Built-In Blog' because apparently I am OBSESSED with built-ins.

I want to install some type of storage to either side of the fireplace in our 'family room'.  The big question here, is can we somehow integrate the TV into this room?

Option a) over the fireplace -

traditional family room design by toronto interior designer c3d design

Option b) next to the fireplace (but it wouldn't be centered in the room)

traditional family room design by boston architect Frank Shirley Architects

I love that the TV can be concealed - but our TV is rather large (47" right now and the boy thinks its too small) and I'm not sure how exactly it would lay out in cabinetry yet.

contemporary family room design by san francisco architect Mahoney Architects and Interiors

traditional family room design by seattle architect Sullivan Conard Architects

Yes, I'm quite sure I dream in built-ins.