My updated mantel {fabric wallcovering tutorial}

December 5, 2011 by Sharon 4 Comments

I spent this weekend trying to get caught up on some DIY projects that I was in the middle of so this week you will have two tutorials coming your way from the Magpie house. Today, I am going to show you my mantel update. We have a beautiful, huge mantel with lots of trimwork but it has been pretty blah for the nearly three years that we’ve lived here. When I stumbled across some beautiful fabric while putting together a few updates for my friend Emily’s kitchen, I knew it was the answer to my ho hum mantle. I needed a pop of color and the texture of the fabric is fantastic!! I used Robert Allen’s Les Fauves fabric in Grassland. You can find it here. I had considered wallpaper but I didn’t want to buy an entire roll for a 4×4 ft square. I ended up only using about a yard and a half of fabric which was drastically less expensive! And another plus is that when I grow tired of this, all I have to do is pull the fabric off and wipe the starch off the wall with a warm washcloth. Easy peasy!

Here is a picture of my mantle before.

Pretty boring, huh?!

Here is the after….

Much better isn’t it?! I love the bright color and the texture! I replaced the mirror that was on the mantel with a painting that I had in the other room because it had lots of gold and yellow.

And here’s how I did it….

You will need a bottle of spray starch, painters tape {to hold the fabric up while you are working on hanging it} and a paintbrush.

You will need to measure the area of wall that you are planning on covering and cut it out {I left approx. 1/4 inch extra on all sides just to be on the safe side. You can cut that off later with an exacto knife}.

Once your fabric is cut, you will need to tape it up to the wall and start spraying or painting the fabric with starch to adhere it to the wall. Make sure that you do not stretch the fabric too tightly while you are hanging it because it will draw up unevenly when it dries.

Once it was dry, here is what I had to work with….

Once the fabric had dried, I trimmed the excess off with an exacto knife….if was much easier to trim off once the fabric was dry and stiff….I tried it both wet and dry. I wanted a good clean cut because this fabric is heavily textured and the edges fray easily.

Here are some more after pictures because my new mantel is so purty!

This was a really easy and inexpensive project that had big impact. I am really pleased with the results…I also sewed some pillows in coordinating fabrics and I’ll show the finished room to you soon!

Linking up to:

Home StoriesA2Z

Filed Under: Decorating Problems Solved, DIY, Uncategorized, Walls Tagged With: DIY, fabric wallcovering, inexpensive decor, mantel

Online Design Inspiration Board

July 15, 2011 by Sharon 2 Comments

My sister moved into a new apartment. She wants to redecorate it but is very limited in what she can do. The carpet is kind of a hunter/teal green color and it has to stay. Here is the room before…carpet first…these pictures were taken on a phone so they are not the best quality but you get the idea.

And here is one that includes more wall.

My sister can sew and is very crafty….and if you can sew or know someone who can, I almost ALWAYS suggest buying home dec fabric to make your own window treatments. You get a much more polished look. Here is what I came up with….

I suggested that she paint the walls a soft gray color and went with fabric that was in the same color family as the carpet to keep the eye moving with some pops of orange for fun. I am going to do another board that is more traditional for her but I couldn’t resist posting this one so that you could see that you can still have a modern room and work around things that you cannot change….like hunter green carpet and working to minimize the features you don’t like.

People tend to have an “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to decorating. There is no reason that she cannot have a chic space on a very small budget working with the room that she has. That being said, here is one of the suggestions that I had for her….note that the green carpet doesn’t look so dated when it’s paired with more modern elements.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Decorating Problems Solved, Online Design Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: inspiration boards, online design services

Chairs get a facelift

April 6, 2011 by Sharon 5 Comments

These oversized chairs started out life in our family room but when we updated our family room we swapped them for a slipcovered sofa in our formal living room. Here is a before picture:

Every time I walked by, I felt like I had been transported to Smurf land. Blue walls and denim chairs….ugh! I knew Mr. D.I.B. would probably kill me if I told him I wanted to repaint this room. The ceilings are monstrously tall and it’s no fun painting up that high. Soooo, the only solution was to recover the chairs. I was going to make my own slipcovers but I happed to run up on a good deal on some Sure-Fit slipcovers so I didn’t have to make them (Thank Goodness!! I was not looking forward to finding time to sew.)

Here is the after….much better!!

By the way…do you see my bee pillows? These are the ones that I ordered from SaSea on Etsy.

Here’s the other one that I got.

I am eventually going to work on some new curtains for this room as well….another project to add to the list! :)

Happy Decorating!!!

Filed Under: Decorating Problems Solved, DIY Tagged With: slipcovers

Online design services

March 19, 2011 by Sharon Leave a Comment

For those who have not seen my online design tab on my navigation bar, I am helping clients pull their rooms together with online room design services. These can range from going over your existing furnishings and accessories and finding a paint color that will work with everything while taking into account natural light, scale, mood, etc all the way to a full room design package. Here are a few examples of inspiration boards that come with some of the packages. These inspiration boards come with a complete source guide as well as detailed notes to help you execute the design plan on your own time and as your budget allows.

And here is a full room design with furniture arrangement solutions:

If you are interested in my design services you can get full details on my “Online design services” tab.

I have quite a few projects in the works that I will be posting about soon so stay tuned!

Happy Decorating!!

Filed Under: Decorating Problems Solved, Uncategorized Tagged With: online design services. inspiration boards

Pretty-fied digital picture frame

February 18, 2011 by Sharon 8 Comments

While I am working on my laundry room, I thought I’d post a little project that is super easy and fast and makes a big difference.

These days, almost everyone has a digital picture frame. Mine was very ugly with a plain black frame. You’ll have to use your imagination on this post because I forgot to take a before picture. Here is the frame without the black edging. The black frame was sitting on a 5 gallon bucket in the backyard with a coat of spray paint at this point. Oops!

Here is the back of the frame so you can see how I detached it. It’s just like any other picture frame.

I put three coats of the spray paint below.

And…here’s the finished product.

Way better!! Much less electronic superstore-ish and much more chic and clean looking…if only I had a good before picture to compare. Oh well, you can imagine. (There’s my sweetheart sitting in our favorite place on earth…)