When you decide to update your bedroom, choosing new bedding is one of the most important choices that you will make.  Your bedding sets the tone and feel of your room, and it narrows your options for a color palette.

Obviously, many local stores – such as department and discount stores – sell bedding, but their selection isn’t very large.  You can find gorgeous bedding at boutiques, but you’ll end up paying boutique prices.  Thank goodness we have the internet!

One really great site to shop for bedding is BeddingStyle.com.  They carry 11 of the top bedding brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Marimekko and Vera Wang, and offer a tremendous selection within those brands.

I am helping one of my friends update a few rooms in her home, and BeddingStyle.com was kind enough to let me select new bedding for her room.  We chose the Embroidered Cane in Lime duvet from Tommy Bahama.  We are looking to add some color to her room, and I thought the duvet went great with the style of her bed.  The choice of the Embroidered Cane duvet was a good first step in the transformation or her room.

The duvet and shams arrived quickly, and I was immediately impressed by the quality of the Tommy Bahama line.  With three young children and a giant dog in the house, it’s nice that the set is 100% cotton and machine washable!

For a quick pop of color, I added a green velvet(ish) pillow and a flocked turquoise damask pillow from Target.  They aren’t going to be my “final” choice for the room, but they at least make the bed look a little more finished while we are selecting the rest of the items for the room.

BeddingStyle.com is celebrating 7 years in business and wants to spread the love by giving one lucky Living With Lindsay reader $250 in free bedding.  Cue the confetti, y’all!  I’m just so excited about this!

Which bedding set would you like to win?  Head over to BeddingStyle.com and choose your favorite.  Come back over here and leave a comment below letting us know.  I can’t wait to see what you select.  Good luck!

Find BeddingStyle.com on:
Facebook: Facebook.com/BeddingStyle
Twitter: @BeddingStyle

Giveaway rules: Giveaway open until midnight CST on 2/23/2012.  No purchase necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries.  One entry per person.  Open to US residents, 18 and older.  Winner will be randomly selected and notified by email.  If winner doesn’t respond in one week, another winner may be randomly drawn.

I have an addiction that I need to get off my chest.  It’s stronger than my addiction to Facebook.  Stronger than my addiction to Sons of Anarchy.  It’s even stronger than my addiction to coffee, which says more than you know.

My name is Lindsay, and I am addicted to decorative glaze.

It all started about this time last year.  I rehabbed an old dresser with a gorgeous yellow paint, but I thought it needed something more.  So, I followed Mandy‘s and Mandi‘s advice and got some Ralph Lauren glaze from my local dealer (heh, “dealer”).  He tinted it to Black Silk and the finished project brought me such a high.

As a gal recovering from DADD, I knew that I shouldn’t try it just for fun.  But, I did.  And then again (on a gray dresser).  And again (on a bed).  And again (on some frames).

At first, the rush I felt was at the newness of putting on the glaze.  I had to perfect my technique by removing the glaze with various combinations of wet and dry cloths.  I felt like an artist.  Then, I moved on from my gateway drug – wooden pieces – to a new world of glazing plastic and metal surfaces.

Now that my addiction has reached critical mass, I am simply unable to paint anything a single color without thinking that it’s dull and one-dimensional.  My fingers just itch to open that can of glaze (yes, I’ve only used about half the quart after all of those projects – it lasts forever).  I’m afraid I’m going to need to explore some sort of glaze related rehab.

Never glazed a piece before?  Here’s a quick run down on the steps involved.

How to Glaze Wooden Furniture and Frames

1.  Paint the piece your base color and allow it to fully dry.

2.  Load a cheap paint brush (like a chip brush) with glaze and dab it onto your piece.  I like to work in smallish sections of about 12 inches x 12 inches at a time.  Make sure you really work the glaze into any details or imperfections you wish to bring out.

3.  Lightly wipe the glaze with a wet (but not dripping) cloth.  You can use any sort of clean rag to do this.  I just buy the bags of wiping rags from Home Depot.

4.  With a dry cloth, firmly wipe away the glaze that is left standing on top of the piece (i.e. not in the details).

5.  Using a different wet cloth, wipe the surface again so that the glaze doesn’t look dingy.

6.  Move on to your next 12″x12″ section using the same steps.  However, when you are wiping, use clean areas of your various cloths.  I generally go through 3 sets of cloths for a piece the size of a tall dresser.

7.  Once you are finished and are happy with the results (keep adding glaze or keeping wiping off if you are not), let the piece dry.  I usually add a protective finish, such as a polyurethane, to my painted pieces.

8.  Marvel at your piece.  Wonder why you’ve never glazed anything before.  Become addicted.  Know that we are in this together.

Anyone else need a 12 step program?

Over the weekend, I was finally bit by the Pinterest bug.  I’ve had an account for a while now and had pinned a few things, but I found the whole concept very overwhelming.  I found it great for searching for images of specific things, such as eclectic dining rooms and instructions for how to wear an infinity scarf.

Through the Eye of French Design

What I didn’t like was that when I viewed things pinned by the people I followed, I’d get a random mishmash of recipes, pictures of baby animals, inspirational quotes, and more recipes.  It’s not that I don’t like recipes, baby animals and inspirational quotes (I do!  I do!), but it was too much of an assortment of random items and it kicked my brain into shut down mode.  I just couldn’t even deal with it.

I finally cried uncle on my Facebook page (Are you a fan? I’d love to be able to connect with you directly, so join in on the conversations!) last week, and I asked for help.  I got some really great suggestions – keep the things you pinned organized very well or else you’ll never be able to find them later – and lots of great people to follow.  I even started to find some of that decor inspiration I was craving.

Original source unknown

Then, the light bulb went off and I realized that instead of seeing everything that gets pinned by the people I follow, I could just follow their boards that deal with my interests – home decor, crafts and DIY.  Y’all it has changed my Pinterest life!  I am finally enjoying looking through pins and becoming inspired.

The problem is that I need to find more people to follow so that I can get more inspiration. This is where you come in.

We’re having a party!  If you are a pinner, please leave your Pinterest link (i.e. http://pinterest.com/username) below so that I can begin to follow you and add your pins to my boards.  Please make sure you leave your link within the link widget and not as a comment.  I love seeing the things that inspire you guys, so I’m really excited about this.  I also encourage you to click around to some of the other links and see if you can find some more people to follow.  See?  I’m bringing the world together, one pin at a time.

Olive and Love

If you aren’t familiar with Pinterest, my friend Beth at Home Stories A to Z has a great video tutorial to help you get started.  Just like with anything new, you have to spend some time looking around before you really “get” it.  It’s a great source of DIY ideas and inspiration, though, so give it a try!

Alright, friends.  Show me your pins!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on updating the powder bath in the entryway of our home.  It’s always been unremarkably boring, but since it’s the bathroom that a) you see when you walk into the house and b) our visitors always use, it was overdue for a little revamp.

I have a few more things to finish before I can reveal the entire room to you, but I must say that it is pure bold, vintage quirk.   Oooooh, that sounds like a perfect eclectic style mix, doesn’t it?  However, I do want to show you a fun little piece that can be completed in under 15 minutes.

Well, hello to you, too!

The floor needed a small, textured rug, but necessity didn’t mean that it had to be plain and boring.  The simplest process ever yields a “talking” rug.  Besides, who wouldn’t want a little greeting when they walk into a room?

How to Paint a Talking Rug

1.  Find a natural fibered rug, such as jute or sisal.  The rug I used is a 2 x 3 jute rug that I picked up at Cost Plus/World Market for $16.99.  As a side note, they have really great natural rugs for reasonable prices, so make sure you check them out when you are in the rug market.

2.  Cut your word out of vinyl and position it on your rug.  I used my Silhouette SD to cut out the word, but you absolutely do not need to have a craft cutter to do this.  You could trace your word onto a piece of sticky vinyl shelf paper (i.e. Contact paper) and cut out the stencil by hand.  The font I used can be downloaded here for free.

3.  Dab your paint onto the rug with a cheap chip brush, using a up and down motion.  The vinyl won’t stick incredibly well to the rug, so I wouldn’t brush the paint on to ensure that your brush won’t slip under the vinyl.  Any craft paint would likely do, but I am using Martha Stewart craft paint because it is really thick and creamy.  The color I chose is Wild Blueberry, which looks like a dark navy under the light in my room (remember that your lighting will effect your color choice!).

4.  Keep dabbing until your stencil is completely filled in and only solid color shows through.  For reference, it took me under 5 minutes to fill in my word.

5.  Carefully remove the vinyl and put your rug in a place where it can dry.  If you are in a hurry, you can use a hairdryer and it will dry more quickly.

I love my little “statement” piece and the fun that it brings my tiny bathroom.  If the paint comes off after a lot of wear, I could easily touch up the paint.  Or, for only $16.99, maybe I’ll buy a new rug and give it a new voice.

What say you?  Could you use a little unexpected greeting somewhere in your home?

Choosing a color scheme for a new decorating project is one of my favorite parts about being a home decor fanatic.  Your choices really set the tone for how the finished room will feel, so I think it’s incredibly important for you to love the colors you decide to use.  It’s a very personal choice.

As you can imagine, I get a lot of questions and emails asking for my help in selecting colors.  It’s a lot of fun to search through my fan decks and put together color scheme suggestions.  A lot of times, my choices are inspired by a “feeling” – the colors just feel right together.  Other times, I draw inspiration from textiles that I think are beautiful.  Regardless, it’s important to me that those colors say something about me or about you (if I’m helping you select a color scheme).

For example, the below Bike Lane Dress from Anthropologie invokes a light and carefree feeling.  You can see that I have chosen a color scheme (the colors are from the Glidden color palette) based upon the dress.  If this was to be a room in my house, I’d use either the Toasted Oatmeal or Soft Sapphire (if my room had a lot of natural light) on the walls, and bring the other colors in through accessories.  I might even steel Mandi’s coral dresser.

If you’d like to go a bit bolder, find some bolder inspiration.  I own (and covet) this bird print top from Old Navy, and it was only after I bought it that I realized it is largely in the same colors as the powder bath that I’m working on.  I’m sure you are thinking, “Oh, Lindsay.  That is crazy.”  But, I’m promising that it works and it works really well.  As you have seen, I have navy on the walls and am bringing the yellow and red in as accents.  I’m hoping to have the entire room finished in the next week or so, but you know how slow I am when I’m making design choices!

Traditional home decor textiles are, of course, a great place to draw inspiration, too.  A pillow, rug or curtain panel is a great place to start.  This Gazebo Cloud pillow from Tonic Living has a fresh palette.  If you wanted to put color on your walls based on this pillow, I’d suggest going a shade or two lighter than the Robins Egg or Seal Grey.  Or, you could do a neutral wall (maybe something like Glidden’s Oyster Shell) and bring in the colors through accessories and the one boldly painted piece that I think every room should have.

A fun duvet cover is perfect for pulling a new color scheme, and this Flourish Bird Duvet Cover from Urban Outfitters is no exception.  It’s also a great example of how colors can be inspired by a textile but not match them exactly.  As long as the shades you choose don’t clash with the textile or with each other, your blended color scheme will work perfectly.

As I’ve said, color choices are extremely personal.  They need to be based on YOU, not what you see in magazines or read about in blog posts.  They should fit your lifestyle, your home, your feeling about the you that you are.  You will likely notice that you select your clothes based upon those guidelines, and I have a feeling that your home textile selection would be no different.

MyColortopia, the other blog that I write for, has put together a little quiz that you can take to help you choose color schemes that fit your personality.  If you are reading in email or via a reader, you may have to click over to my actual blog to take the quiz.  It was pretty accurate for me, and it even suggested some colors in shades of purple and orange that I hadn’t considered but really liked.

How do you choose color schemes for your home?  What did the MyColortopia quiz say about you?

I have partnered with Glidden/ Akzo Nobel Paints to participate in the My Colortopia program but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I have been so excited about all the attention that my master bedroom has received.  Y’all are so sweet!  I just love it so much, and its been so fun to share it with you.

I’ve gotten many questions and comments about different elements in the room, so I put together a list of everything I could think of that would provide some answers.  If there’s anything I’ve left out or if you have other questions, please let me know and I will get you the answer.

Paint Selections:
Dark Gray – Behr Dark Granite
White – Behr Powdered Snow
Silver Metallic – Martha Stewart Living Precious Metals in Silver Leaf
Yellow – Sherwin-Williams Decisive Yellow
Light Gray – Krylon Classic Gray (spray)
Teal – American Accents Lagoon (spray)
Black Glaze- Ralph Lauren glaze in Black Silk
Bed Stain – Sherwin-Williams custom mix

Furniture:
Bed – custom handmade (modification of Ana White’s Farmhouse Bed plans)
Yellow Dresser – thrifted and refinished
Gray Dresser – thrifted and refinished
Yellow Chair – thrifted and refinished
Mid-Mod Bar Cart Nightstand – vintage and refinished
Industrial Cart Nightstand – vintage
Industrial Crank Table – found at the Round Top Antique Fair

Accessories:
White Duvet and Shams – Target
Gray Rectangle Pillow – Target
Teal Smocked Pillow – Mills Design Company
Gray Throw Blanket – Target
Teal Lamps – vintage
Lampshades – Hobby Lobby
Yellow, Gray and Teal Frames – thrifted and painted
Gray Curtain panels – Ikea
Top Down/Bottom Up Cellular Shades – Payless Decor
Black Wooden Curtain Rods – Lowe’s (allen + roth corner connectors for bay window)
Black Glittered Chandelier – thrifted and painted
Black Leaning Mirror – Ikea
White Dog Statue – Garden Ridge
Antique Gauge and Bottle Collection – vintage
Silver and Black Antlers – found at the Round Top Antique Fair

Related Posts and Tutorials:
Mastering the Master Bedroom {The Inspiration}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {Chevron Walls}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {the Handmade Bed}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {the Miss Matched Dresser}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {the Thrift Store Cast-Off Dresser}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {Updating an Outdated Light Fixture}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {Layered Frame Gallery Wall}
Mastering the Master Bedroom {the Reveal!}
How to Paint Perfect Stripes on Textured Walls
Covering a Self-Adhesive Lamp Shade
Auditioning for a New Nightstand
What to do When Temporary Shades Become Permanent
How to Display Industrial Gauges
Furniture Stain can be Grey-t
How to Stain Bare Wood
Finding the Perfect Piece of Furniture
Rehabbing a Tired Chair

Whew!  Just a little light reading for the weekend.