Instant Art in Fabric Framing...

If you're like me you have probably a few piles of favourite fabrics in a cupboard, box or sewing room somewhere. Ever thought about all that gorgeous fabric, or tablecloth, that might be - one of these two things...

a} much too nice to cut up [It feels so awful to cut up something so pretty even for a lovely cushion!] OR

b} just didn't know what to make out of it because you might not have had enough to keep going...so it continue to sit there?

Here's a thought - so why not think about framing it?  It's  a quick and inexpensive project that I love, it can bring instant colour, a custom look to your decor, and can be a great update to any room in your home! And depending on your fabric's look - can be for a living/ dining space,  a master bedroom, home-office or a child's room... the possibilities are endless!

Creating Simple Fabric Artwork

In its most simple form, you can just cut a piece of fabric to fit a frame, stretch and affix it to a cardboard backing, and place it in a mat and frame to create instant artwork. In order to choose the perfect spot to cut the fabric, use the clear glass from the frame itself as a guide. Slide the glass around the fabric until you find an area of the pattern that fits perfectly in the frame, then trace around the glass and make a marking on the fabric. Add a half inch [a couple of centimetres] to all edges to allow for affixing to a cardboard backing board, then cut out, mount and frame.

Alternatively you could also stretch the fabric over an inexpensive canvas - purchased from your local art&craft or variety store, and securing each side as you stretch the fabric over the canvas with a heavy duty staple gun. Make sure you check if your fabric has a directional print and you hang it accordingly - or it could be upside down!

This is something that you could try this weekend  for an instant wow!

Enjoy,

Miguel Flores-Vianna

images via canadian house and home, hub pages, elle decor via little green notebook, down & out chic - southern flourish, anne becker

How to Decorate with Style & Colour...

Just this week I was asked about what would my hints & tips be for readers on when styling/decorating their home... here's what I believe and where possible implement with all my clients -

"....Often the most successful home interiors are the ones that combine [personal] style whilst still allowing you to feel instantly comfortable and welcoming to your guests. How is this achieved? By choosing personal objects that have special meaning as your pivot point - then layering the colour & décor style around it. The object might be from a holiday – an overseas trip, an exhibition, or a family heirloom - such as a special vase, or a bowl, a decorative textile piece, an artwork/ print, or a simple collection of shells from a beach walk. These are items that you can build your colour & decorating style around, taking into account any existing furniture & finishes that you’re keeping. By looking at the colours in the object you can then create a balanced colour palette of your own - complete with the main colour, accents & highlights [tints & shades].

By carefully editing what could realistically ‘work’ and what won’t - just means that you don’t have to use everything in your home all at once to create a cohesive look. Flick through your favourite interior magazines and really look at how that room has been styled - they haven't used everything, just a selection. If you have a number of items you want to use think about ‘theming’ them and ask yourself if they invoke a mood or theme such as ‘beach-coastal’ feeling, do they have a ‘contemporary modern’ feeling, do they have an ‘Asian’ influence. Building a style mood board of images from your favourite interior magazines with these colours, and looks can help in narrowing this theme down. When you have identified what theme it is check your room aspect – are you facing north, south east or west? Then look into the types of [paint] colours and the feelings you get from these colours. For example if you want a warm & cosy feeling steer away from cool blues, cool greys & cool greens. If you have more than 1 theme – then try to keep it aside for another decorating project, and carefully store away any items you won’t be using for another time.

By building your colour & décor style around something personally special, it ensure that the space will have more meaning to you and will also provide wonderful conversation for your visitors. Most importantly – you have to live in your home, so make sure any colour, surface design or finish is something you will love to live with even after the ‘trend’ has passed. Make it timelessly classic for you – to your tastes and your budget..."

Enjoy,

Here's a snippet of a great web , facebook & tweet forum I came across on the fabulous [Canadian] House & Home website, where they asked people to contribute their ideas on Spring Decorating... but these tips could really apply to the whole year round!

Organize Before You Decorate

1. Group Collectibles Together

Find an area for knickknacks to prevent clutter throughout your home, suggests Twitter follower Jordana (@WhiteCabana) from London, Ont. She lined up her Eiffel Tower models on a shelf.

2. Get Rid Of Things You Don’t Need

Stop hoarding items that you’ll never wear, or that don’t suit your decor style. As Michelle Cortizo (@cortizointerior) of Boston, NY, says, “I love to start by editing in my closets and then work my way out.” If this doesn’t sound appealing to you, Tidy Solutions (@Tidysolutions) of Newfoundland suggests “opening windows to allow fresh air to flow through and make cleaning fun.” Just think of it this way: cleaning and reorganizing will give you peace of mind, and a fresh, new look for spring,” adds Nathaniel Ross (@MATTERandORDER) from Chicago.

3. Arrange Books By Colour

[this is one of my all time favourites - it makes such a difference!]

Facebook fan Dajana Fabjanovich suggests using books as part of your spring decorating, especially displayed in similar colour groupings.

Change Fabrics

1. 
Use Neutral Linens

As Susan Abramson (@Susan_Abramson) of Toronto Designers says, “Add a bit of 100 per cent linen, all in neutral tones, to update any interior.” The lightweight fabric can be used on pillows, placemats and tablecloths.

2. Switch Out Shades

Make use of the longer daylight hours. The Savvy Bee (@TheSavvyBee) from Cleveland, Ohio replaces her dark bamboo shades with white linen ones to let in more light.

3. Dye Cloth Materials

“If I can dye it, I change the colour,” says Catherine Dianne Mini Jacques, one of our Facebook fans. She starts with white items and a box of RIT dye to update what she already has.

Add Splashes Of Colour

1. Revitalize Seating With Slipcovers

Facebook fan Renee Sylvestre-Williams says “you just have to go for it” when it comes to colour. She has a red slipcover on her couch, which really pops in her otherwise neutral home. Lee Lee Padovan agrees: “I have different slipcovers for my sofa which I change with my mood. I love homes with lots of white and small hits of colour."

2. Select Colourful Pillow Covers

One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to update your home is to make or buy new pillow shams for your throw pillows in patterns and bright colours. Chanele C. (@designBLISSinc) in Toronto, Tiffany C. (@TiffanysToyBox) of New York, and Edyta Czajkowska (@EDYTAANDCO) all recommend this idea for its big impact. Facebook fan Justine Taylor also suggests changing your tablecloths, recovering lampshades and sewing new drapes.

3. Hang Artwork And Display Objects

CasaCullen (@CasaCullenMDF with wallpaper panels. There’s a great Editor’s DIY in the April 2011 issue on hand-painting and displaying dishes, too. Facebook fan Debbie Comartin also shared a great idea: change the matting on a framed print to an accent colour in the room or from the picture.

Facebook fans Catherine Dianne Mini Jacques and Charlene Vidal both switch-up accessories to change the way a room feels based on their mood and season.

4. Paint A Room Or Accent Wall

Weekender Design (@Weekenderdesign) says spring is the time to paint, as you can finally open your windows and add colour. Vanessa Gibbons Gammel agrees: “It’s very inexpensive and can completely transform a space. You can change it when you tire of it and add in accessories to complement it.”

5. Give Life To Old Furniture & Accessories
Adding large doses of colour doesn’t have to mean a big cost. Charlene Vidal and Justine Taylor, H&H Facebook fans, suggest purchasing second-hand items such as a side table, lamp base or wooden chair. “Small pieces can be easily sanded, primed and sprayed with your new colour crush,” says Justine. Charlene adds, “When you’re tired of them and want to create a new look, give it away or re-donate it.” (Try senior design editor Cameron MacNeil's step-by-step instructions for colour-blocking vintage furniture and Joel Bray's techniques for paint-dipping accessories.)

Kayla Gale, another Facebook fan, also likes to add colour through furniture: “An elegant, vintage-inspired deep purple bed frame will create more bedroom drama and character than a purple throw. It's not something that everyone would be brave enough to do, but that's what makes it surprising and unique to your home.”


Bring Plants & Florals Indoors

1. Use Real and Faux Blooms

As Dena Kareotes Arendt (@iNSIDE_iDEAS) from Chicago says, “Display real (or faux) blooming branches in a tall glass vase. Instant spring regardless of the weather outside!” Earlier this year, style editor Morgan Michener shared some great examples of how to incorporate real and faux flowers into your home.

2. Create A Herb Garden
Chanele C. of Toronto invests in new plants, especially herbs, as they are both pretty and practical, adding life to meals.

3. Place Floral Accents In Every Room

Many of our readers like to add fresh flowers throughout their house. Anne Kootenays of British Columbia (@ddreamsbyanne) buys potted bulbs that she later plants in her garden, while Dane Caldwell (@2hounds) buys “heavenly scented and colourful spring flowers, like tulips and hyacinths, along with flowering dogwood branches.”
Neil Gazmen (@ngazmen) adds: “To me, spring is about life and rebirth, so I try to add flowers or plants to every room to remind me that warmer days are ahead."
Fresh bouquets can get quite costly, but Colleen Crummy-Tatum has a budget-friendly solution: “I buy a cheap bouquet at the grocery store and split it up around the house. I use funky vases or little tiny port glasses lined up for flowers like mums — which makes the one bouquet fill my entire home. Lily Ninkovic Ellis uses her own boxwood clippings in vases almost year-round. “I love hitting local thrift stores for fresh finds, like vintage bottles and tins,” she adds. Paint glass jars, vases and containers in varying tones of the same colour, as seen in this online video, for a cohesive look.

 

 

images via canadian house & home, brabourne farm, elle decor, country living, tumblr

Cluster Wall Art...

Following from my earlier post on 'Scale' I am in the midst of adding to my cluster wall art in our upstairs landing area, stairwell, and sorting out multiple frames [degrees, certificates & the like] in our office. The office framing is proving the most tricky as I don't want the walls to feel like they are con caving onto the workspace, so key elements of placement and scale is critical here, whilst dealing with regular height ceilings - higher ceilings would be far more helpful! What I did come across on Canadian House & Home, by Meg Crossley's post, was this fabulous image of a work space with a very workable wall art cluster as captured by Cape Town photographer Jac de Villiers. I am further inspired to keep going at it!! I hope to post something soon of the outcome... Stay tuned!

Image from Canadian House & Home

Playing with Scale...

I came across this recent article posted by Meg Crossley of Canadian House & Home, and thought it was really quite useful - not only because of the gorgeous image from Meg's files, but mainly because at some stage or another we all look at hanging our favourite art work or print and often wonder if that is the right space or wall for it - will it be to big, will it be lost and too small...

I am currently hanging a lot of frames in our office, and prints at the moment so I find that any info can always be educational...at some stage you'll delve into your memory bank! Hope this helps you get on with that hanging project! Enjoy x

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Article - March 24, 2010, 'Playing With Scale' by Meg Crossley
Something that gets talked about a lot by House & Home design editors is scale. This is mainly because we are often producing some kind of story that requires bringing in a lot of furnishings from disparate sources in order to create a “room” — without having time for it to evolve slowly, the way decorating a real room would. So we are working from instinct, asking questions such as: “Is this lamp going to be too tall?”, “Is this side table going to be too short?”, or, “Is this chair going to be too big?”
Still, some of the images I like best in either our own mag or others, are those that involve messing with scale.

This shot is one of my favourites and has been sitting on my desktop for ages. With the framed artwork being twice the size of the chest of drawers it hangs above, I am sure this is breaking every old-school rule about scale, yet it works.
For playing-with-scale novices, there are a couple of tips to been gleaned from this photo. The artwork is graphic, sure, but still subtle and simple in both its colours and content. Big and quiet works in a way that big and loud would not. Also, take a look at how it’s hung. A wall space border of about 8” (I’m guessing from sight) surrounds the artwork on top and both sides — using the beam on the left as an indicator of where that area ends. So, they are keeping it even. And despite it hanging over both sides of the chest in terms of width, they are keeping the overhang even, too. Lastly, the art is the only big thing in the room. It’s not an Alice in Wonderland room full of very big pieces, therefore it’s more of a statement piece.
And we in the design business love statements.
For more tips on hanging art, see our Art Advice Guide.
Photo credit:1. Unknown source: Help! Does anyone know where this shot comes from?

Image from Canadian House & Home