TheDesignFile

Great deals await post-holiday shoppers

2011-12-26T08:00:00-05:00

If you’re like me, you think about Dec. 26 as a day for Christmas returns, relaxing and maybe picking up a sale item or two that Santa didn’t bring. But the days after Christmas are a great time to shop for your home. Furniture, dishes and pillows are on sale – just like clothes, toys and electronic gadgets. So yesterday, I thumbed through some of the newspaper sales circulars to see what great home items you can buy today for cheap. Lamps Plus is having a great sale. Check out the gorgeous crystal Possini pendant at right. It’s marked down now to $299 (from a regular price of $349). It is a show stopper! Here’s a sampling of what else I found: Top row: Loft...

Merry Christmas ... from your long-lost blogger

2011-12-25T18:21:08-05:00

Merry Christmas! As we celebrate one of my favorite holidays, I need to offer a huge apology to all my regular readers. For the past month, I have essentially disappeared from the blog world. There are lots of reasons, most of which are boring. But primarily, I have been working hard on another, unrelated website and just became incredibly distracted. A few of you know that last summer I switched jobs. My new post – at a small liberal arts college near Indianapolis – has me overseeing student journalists. The kids cover state government and I edit their stories and mentor them, as well as write stories when they are not available. We have our launched a new website – www.TheStatehouseFile.com – for our operation...

Sunday roundup: An IKEA trip, windows & more

2011-11-27T11:05:12-05:00

With Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to start decorating our homes for the holidays. My husband has started working on our outside lights but I must admit I haven’t done the first thing inside. Over at A Beach Cottage, Sarah made her annual pilgrimage to IKEA to load up on new holiday décor. Sarah has some great photos of her IKEA trip and shows off the fun stuff she brought home. The post made me want to run right out to IKEA – if only it wasn’t two hours away! Here’s what else to check out this week: The Telegraph has a “modern nativity set” that looks like a set of blocks. Hmm. It Needs More Glitter has a series of posts about holiday department...

A simpler, more casual Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:00:00-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re all having a great day and a wonderful time with family and friends. We’re having a houseful, as we typically do on Thanksgiving. Normally I get out my china and silver for the feast. But this year I was going for simple and easy. I showed you yesterday how I made my herb centerpiece. It was really the inspiration for a less traditional green color scheme. I also told you earlier that I didn’t have the brown or tan tablecloth I wanted. So I decided to try a sheet set. I bought a twin-sized tan sheet set for $9.99 at TJ Maxx and it was the perfect size for my two tables. Then I layered on a piece of green...

An herb centerpiece for Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T22:53:13-05:00

I wanted to do a quick Thanksgiving-eve post on my centerpiece. I admit to not having great pictures and the project not coming out quite as well as I expected. But the truth is, sometimes it’s fun to show the imperfect projects too. I was so in the mood to do a lighter, more casual Thanksgiving table this year and seemed to be repeatedly drawn to photos of tables featuring live plants. So I decided to use this bamboo, footed bowl that I purchased at Goodwill earlier this year (it was part of one of my displays at The Couch Show) to plant some herbs. The bowl is really not intended to be a planter so I tried to line it with cling wrap, which...

Buy Hoosier handmade for the holidays

2011-11-21T23:46:22-05:00

Rather than fighting the crowds at the mall on Black Friday, consider instead buying some Christmas gifts from a locally-owned shop or the DIYers and crafters in your community. Those of you who live in and around Indianapolis have a perfect opportunity. The Hoosier Artisan Boutique is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds. The fair will feature 50 Indiana artists selling handmade goods that will make fabulous Christmas gifts. There will be art, textiles, children’s clothing, jewelry and more. I went to a similar event a few years ago and it was so fantastic. I think I’m just going to make it to this weekend’s Hoosier Artisan Boutique. We have a Thanksgiving event on Saturday but I’m confident...

Sunday roundup: Great projects for your home

2011-11-20T10:58:28-05:00

Shelly Leer over at ModHomeEc makes a great point in a post this week about how she does more spending to get ready for Thanksgiving than she does on Black Friday. That’s so true for me too! In her post – Thanksgiving Rewind: Recycled Inside Out Pillows – Shelly recommends some revamped pillows to make your home seem a little updated. “New throw pillows could do wonders and are always a good decoy,” she says. This post tells you how she took some thrift-store clothing and turned them into these great pillows. Here’s what else to check out this week: Hoosier Homemade has some great ideas for a kids Thanksgiving table. If you’re going to have some little ones at your celebration, you don’t want...

Getting creative a sheet for a tablecloth?

2011-11-19T13:00:44-05:00

It’s just days until Thanksgiving and I headed down to our basement storage this morning to pull out my brown table cloths when – oh no! – I realize I don’t have any brown table cloths. Seriously. I thought I did. But it turns out, I was thinking of brown cloth napkins I have. I have a burnt orange table cloths. I have white ones. I have black ones I used last year. And I have some patterned ones that are not appropriate for Thanksgiving. But no brown. However, I have a table scheme in mind that I don’t want to alter. So do I go out and buy two new table cloths? I hope not. They can be so expensive. Instead, I’m going to...

New Reclamation shop is packed with treasures

2011-11-18T11:36:32-05:00

Last spring I told you about a great new shop in the SoBro neighborhood of Indianapolis called Reclamation. What I didn’t tell you then was that owner Elizabeth was being pressured out of the building she had at 49th and College (a foreclosure dispute involving the building’s owner, not her) and was on the hunt for something new. Last night, I attended the grand opening of her new – and much larger – space located at 5335 Winthrop Ave., just south of 54th Street and right around the corner from the ModHomeEc studio where I take upholstery classes. The new Reclamation is not just a shop. It’s really a sort of antique mall with a number of rooms and hallways connecting individual sellers. But it’s...

Place card ideas for a casual Thanksgiving

2011-11-16T19:11:36-05:00

Long-time readers know that I stress every Thanksgiving about making nice place cards. I know it’s a silly thing to worry about, but I love for my table to look beautiful – plus I have a few folks at my dinner who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and I want to keep them apart, at least until dessert is cleared. So I’m on the hunt. Earlier this week, I told you in my post - Rethinking the Thanksgiving table – that I want to go more casual this year, rustic maybe. With that in mind, here are a few ideas I’ve come across. At right is an easy one from Better Homes and Gardens. “Simple imagery and fanciful lettering marry on this...

Rethinking the Thanksgiving table

2011-11-14T23:59:02-05:00

My husband and I are hosting Thanksgiving again this year and although our group will be a little smaller, I still need to come up with a centerpiece idea. For several years, I did essentially the same thing – a long narrow line of grapevine garland with some pumpkins and berries attached. Then I tucked in fall leaves and gourds, some of them real and some fake. Then last year, I decided to try a black and white Thanksgiving table. It was a great change for me. I went with a simple black tablecloth, my silver and white china and some grey and white napkins. Then I spray painted a bunch of candle holders, mini pumpkins and gourds and acorns bright white and scattered down...

Sunday roundup: Kitchens, tool talk and more

2011-11-13T08:00:00-05:00

The talented folks over at Young House Love spend much of their time showing off the cool projects they’re doing in their own home. But they take time out to recognize great rooms in their readers’ homes as well. That’s the case with the gorgeous kitchen remodel shown at right. This is one of the after photos in a post about the redo of a kitchen in a 1948 ranch style house that belongs to reader Kathryn. You’ll have to head over to Young House Love to see all the before and after photos. But I’ll promise you it’s worth the trip. Plus, you get to see the progress going on over at writers John & Sherry’s house as well. Here’s what else to check...

A friend inspires a look for faux fur chairs

2011-11-12T23:27:42-05:00

A friend recently contacted me with an idea about covering a chair in faux fur. Of course, I was all for it. I immediately hearkened back to a project I featured earlier this year from The Nesting Place. You have to check out how The Nester created this striking fur chair. And I see now that fur chairs are becoming something of a trend. Check out this one from Pottery Barn Teen. The Furlicious Desk Chair is $299. And then I saw this antique slipper chair covered in white faux fur from wildchairy on Etsy. “It has been upholstered using old world techniques combining coil springs that are 8 way hand-tied, horse hair and organic cotton,” the Etsy description reads. “I don't use foam or...

An afternoon upholstery break: Boudoir benches

2011-11-11T14:41:21-05:00

On a whim last Saturday, I popped into the ModHomeEc studio in Indianapolis to see if I could catch my upholstery teacher Shelly Leer to ask some fabric questions. Instead, I found a class in progress with Shelly teaching a couple students how to make a “boudoir bench.” I was intrigued enough to stay and take photos to share with you today. Unfortunately, I missed the very beginning of this one-day class and so I can’t show you the “before” – which were some basic wooden frames that Shelly and her charming husband Ed built before the class. But you can see the frame in the photo below. When I arrived, Amy (above) and Laurie (below) were covering their wood frames with Dacron. They already...