Here’s a real, live, high-end design for less.

We got fantastic feedback on the story about Marsh & Clark’s elegant and contemporary powder room design for the 2009 San Francisco Decorator Showcase.

I was thrilled when Stephanie Marsh Fillbrandt wrote me about another version of the room they recently completed. Here’s the new room:

Photographs by Elisabeth Fall

As you’ll recall, the original room featured an incredible stone mosaic in artful swirls that crawled up the luminous Venetian plaster walls. Warmth was brought to the room with a custom-built, cantilevered, wood vanity.

Another client adored the design.

“The client wanted ‘the same bathroom’ but did not have the budget to replicate our original design, so we updated the look with more cost effective materials,” said Stephanie.

Details from Stephanie:

• Paint on walls is Benjamin Moore Grey Cloud in a satin finish, instead of Venetian plaster.
• Fun center light fixture (the company is no longer making this, but we have had it custom made for other projects).
• The new light cast a glow on the wall which actually gave the walls the appearance of Venetian plaster.
• Custom tile floor with swirl pattern inlaid.
• Custom cantilevered, wood vanity but this time from mahogany rather than the more pricey machiche wood.
• Matching wood wall mirror, instead of antique mirror.
• No tile detail on wall and no custom art window.

The new design cost about sixty percent less than the original.
 

What do you think about the new powder room? Have you ever been inspired by a more costly design that you emulated for less?

You know that one friend you have that leaves a trail of merriment wherever she goes? You know the one who can somehow smile and laugh when she’s stuck for an hour on a stalled subway train?

I just met two of those people.

Seattle-area Interior Designers Piper Salooga and Sara Eizen have fun with what they do. At their latest Home Accessories Swap they scanned the crowd for toilet brushes, and had their referee whistles at the ready in case of a decorator pillow fight.

Thankfully feathers didn’t fly. “It’s a whirlwind. But, everyone was really good-natured and must have read our rule ‘No Bullies Allowed’,” said Piper.

With their design events series called ReDecor Revolution (formerly Sit + Sip), the design duo shows locals stylish and fun ways to go green.

The Home Accessories Swap idea came to Sara one day when she was clothes shopping. She thought, “I need clothes and I don’t have much money to spend. I had heard of clothing swaps and wished someone I knew was having one.”

That’s was the lightbulb moment. She zipped off to meet with Piper and said, “Why aren’t we swapping home accessories??” Immediately Piper agreed and they went to work planning their first swap.

In their Seattle design firms, Piper’s Natural Balance and Sara’s Nest, they often show clients how just a few new accessories can freshen up a space. Thing is the pieces don’t have to be new—just new to the client—like what they’d find at a swap.

The swap meshes perfectly with the designers’ green motto: Reduce, Reuse, Restyle. “Rather than dump it, someone’s junk is someone else’s treasure,” said Piper. “And it’s a local event, so people don’t have to drive far.”

“Every level of green makes a difference. Complete sustainability is complex. But once you take that first green step, you feel more comfortable.”

About the swap Sara added, “Besides being green it feels so great to clean out and refresh our spaces and get something to turn us on.”

For their most recent event, about sixty enthusiastic swappers showed up, re-usable shopping bags and laundry baskets in hand. For the first hour, people dropped off their three or more items, and were allowed to preview other’s items and “plot their attack.”

Shoppers queued up and were released to enter the swap in timed rounds, based on the time they first arrived at the swap. The designers draped people with colored Mardi Gras beads for the Red round and the Blue round.

The event ran as smoothly as a pair of silk draperies, thanks to the designers thinking through in advance the logistics, and providing swappers tips and rules, like:

• Plan beforehand what types of accessories you want, and bring a shopping list to target your hunt.
• Bring masking tape and a Sharpie to claim larger items you find at the swap

Swappers knew the list of acceptable items:

• Absolutely: Lamps, vases, table linens, small furniture, rugs.
• No Way: Exercise equipment, large furniture, electronics, anything broken or damaged, and–ahem–no toilet brushes.
• There’s more—read the full list here.

The designers were thrilled with the quality of swapping merchandise: “We got a really neat shaker martini set, and someone brought a Persian rug,” said Piper. “We have been so pleasantly surprised — Sara and I are amazed at the varying styles.”

And it was good for business. “I have new client that came from the swap,” said Sara.

So homes were freshened, landfills left alone, and merriment spread. Surprisingly, one woman found a vase that’s a perfect match for a treasured set of vases she had at home.

And thankfully, not a toilet brush in sight.

Here’s a video News report on the swap.
 

What do you think of the Home Accessories Swap concept? Do you think you might organize a small-scale swap for your friends and neighbors, or a larger community swap like Piper and Sara did?

Quilts are in style.

I’m glad because truth is for me, they never went out. Quilt designs are a comforting link with our past, and today’s quilt artists are incredible. (If you ever get the chance — drop in on one of the large quilt shows like Pacific International and you’ll see what I mean — awesome artistry and craftsmanship.)

I’m especially smitten with the bold, graphic color play of Amish quilts. Just about the best Christmas presents I ever got were two vibrant Amish wall quilts—straight from Pennsylvania Amish country—that my husband had custom-made for me. They add such life to our great room.

I’ve wanted to create some home decor designs using quilts as inspiration. I thumbed through my quilt books and decided rather than stitch a quilt, this time I’d try my hand at painting one. Painting would allow me to make a more detailed design than I have the patience to sew, and I could mix whatever colors I want for my design.

At the same time, our ottoman was talking to me. Screaming actually. “Hey over here! It’s me with the maple syrup stain on top, from when you let your groggy nine-year old eat pancakes in the living room.”

The idea was born — I would paint an Amish-inspired quilt in contemporary colors, to reupholster and resuscitate my ottoman. Waa-hoo! Fun for me and a fab DIY for you.

Here’s what I made:

And here’s how. I started with this:

I used a white, cotton/poly blend canvas and traced the shape of the old ottoman top on my fabric. I decided on the Sunshine and Shadow quilt pattern. For my ottoman’s size, a grid of 1″ squares would work well, so using a carpenter’s square and pencil I measured and drew grid lines.

This book below provided me great inspiration in Amish Quilt designs. You can also find wonderful designs online. With graph paper and colored pencils, I tried different color combinations that would complement our decor.

I was careful to pay attention to the relative value of the colors—dark, medium, light—that is the key to getting a striking, graphic effect with the Sunshine and Shadows, and other Amish patterns. And for our room in comparison to other dark textiles, it was important that the ottoman still feel somewhat light.

The small sketch is the scheme I arrived at: purples, greens, brown, tan and a nice dose of off-white. I would later tweak the placement of a few colors, but this was the plan.

I bought small bottles of matte-finish, acrylic “soft fabric paint” from the craft store. For my scheme, I was able to use colors straight from the bottle except for two colors that I custom-mixed.

I broke out my good, large, flat-tipped watercolor brush. That was a huge help when painting the colored squares. Here’s the painted quilt in progress:

It took me several evenings to finish the painted quilt. Here it is:

After drying overnight, I was ready to upholster my ottoman. So I laid the painted quilt fabric over the ottoman top’s foam and plywood layers; then I got to work.

This job called for my trusty Craftsman electric staple gun. Bought it years ago when I reupholstered a couch and it’s still going strong. A heavy-duty manual staple gun would probably also do the trick. (Oh and like Norm says, wear your safety glasses.)

I wrapped the fabric around and centered my design. Like recovering any seat cushion, I started by putting a staple in the center of each side, while yanking the fabric taught with the other hand. Then I just continued on around yanking and stapling each side, stopping just before each corner.

I folded the corners and stapled like this.

I trimmed the excess fabric and yippee! Ottoman top complete.

Now all that was left was to screw the ottoman top back to its legs. A nine-year-old can (and did) do this step.

Voila! I’m thrilled with it, and how it sparks up our living room.

The fabric paint seems sturdy, but I might finish the painted quilt top with a protective coat. Can I get a matte-finish, water-based polyurethane that will work well on fabric?? What do you think?
 

Have you used quilts, or quilt designs in your decor?

Challenge Update

Hey Design Junkies — Have you been over to our RoomsByYou Custom Home Textiles Challenge yet? Just a couple days left and someone’s going to run away with a great prize of custom, print-on-demand bedroom textiles.

So give it a whirl — click and drag designer patterns and colors to create a virtual room for the teen in your life. (And don’t worry if you don’t have a teen — go ahead and create a room for a pretend teen.)

Here’s the room that Stella Fortuna designed:

But hurry! You need to submit your design by Midnight Pacific, this Friday, March 5 to be eligible for the prize of beautiful a custom duvet and Euro shams of your choice—for your teen or for you.

Have fun; we can’t wait to see your entry!

#IDzinechat is Born

Last night there was a bit of a party. A fascinating, chatty, colorful party. And this Design Junkie attended in her pajamas.

You may know that besides producing HomeWorkshop.com, I report on interior design and decorating on Twitter (my Twitter name is @HomeWorkshop). It’s been an incredible venue to meet other design-crazed homeowners and design professionals.

Now back to last night.

Two women planned a little shindig. North Carolina-based interior designer, Wanda S. Horton (Twitter name @WandaSHorton) and design and furniture industries social media pro Leslie Carothers (on Twitter as @tkpleslie).

Wanda and Leslie’s idea was this event where professional interior designers, specialists, artists, craftspeople and retailers from all areas of all home design, could gather virtually with consumers, in order to answer as many questions as possible, and to share
design tips.

For free.

So last night at 8 pm Eastern, I signed in to Twitter and searched on the special hashtag created for the event. #IDzinechat. (A hashtag is a way to quickly see all the “tweets” (Twitter entries) related to one topic.

A few designers including Wanda were online, as well as some homeowners. Right on time, a question rolled in:

Where do I begin a room from scratch?

An answer magically appeared:

• Start with a carpet and pull colors from that.

And another:

• We start with the artwork and go from there.

The next query:

How to finish a basement wall system?

• Put stylish wallpaper on the inside back of shelf sections.
• Better yet cover with wallpaper removable inserts, for easy updating.

Ideas were flowing, and more and more people came to the party.

Then keyboards and fabric samples began to fly.
 

There was talk of Eco-design…

and Feng Shui.

A retailer got instant direction from the field on current hot colors in baby rooms.

Sources were tweeted, and photos of projects. Links to helpful articles and blog posts were shared (yowzah!).

And everybody had an opinion about what to do with the darn TV:

• Some had great ideas for working it in over the fireplace.
• Others said okay, but here’s how to camouflage it there.
• Still others asked why the heck we are still hanging the TV over the fireplace, and hey a decorative cabinet is a better way to go.

Tweet of the evening was awarded to designer @kimberleyseldon:

“u don’t need face lift – u need table lamps”

(I’m off to buy more table lamps first thing tomorrow.)

I admit it’s not the simplest thing to follow a Twitter group conversation. Picture a cocktail party—a big, hip, happening one with the best decor of course—where you are privy to ALL the conversations at once. The key is to smile and jump in when you are interested and have a tidbit to add. (That and to wear hot shoes).

And tools like TweetDeck can help you follow along.

What was the best thing about #IDzinechat?

People met. However briefly, contacts were made. Designers met homeowners and vice versa. Retailers met design pros. And designers met other designers.

It was a friendly neighborhood gathering and (thankfully) with little of neighbor Herb pushing his latest multi-level marketing product.

People came to the party with a genuinely helpful mindset. And this blogger enjoyed
the decor.

So the first #IDzinechat is a wrap. We showered our hostesses with compliments and are plotting the next party. This time you’ll all be on the list.

Get shopping for that hot pair of slippers and I’ll see you there.