Have yourself a merry little MODERN Christmas!

Christmas is a fun time of the year to highlight your modern decor with a mod decorated tree!

Nothing quite says mid century Christmas than a silver tree! A vintage aluminum tree would be amazing, but since those are a little hard to find, for now I will use my silver tinsel tree. I have decorated it with red and white ornaments...handmade red and white polkadot bows, glass candy cane ornaments, red glass spiral ornaments and much more!

My mom's black and white Christmas tree is amazing! Check it out! She has a 7ft artificial white tree and has decorated it with some beautiful black, white and silver ornaments. She has quite a bit of "bling" on her tree too, which is really fun...reinstone word ornaments, black crystal sprays, and glittery high heel shoe and handbag ornaments. Lovely!


I think this black and white look would also look great with a real flocked tree if you want to have a real tree in the house! Growing up, my grandmother always had a real flocked tree in her house and it was awesome. For many years she decorated it only with purple bows and purple glass ball ornaments...an awesome modern look!

In keeping with our color schemes, both my mom and I wrap our gifts exclusively in corrdinating wrapping....paper, ribbon, bags, etc. It is so much fun to be on the hunt for a new paper or roll of ribbon that coordinates with our trees...such a great feeling when you find something new! The coordinating wrapped gifts under the tree really complete the look!

Happy New Year!

Create your own pop art!

One of my favorite art projects in my house is my Marilyn Monroe pop art feature wall in my home office...check it out!


I found these Marilyn photos on wooden plaques at TJ Maxx for under $20 each. I thought that they needed a bold color background so that the black and white photos would really "pop" off the wall. I put my old chrome and black futon in my office and thought that a bright red would add some life to the room...perfect! Measuring and taping off the rectangle shape was the hardest part of this project and takes some time so that your rectangle looks centered on the wall and has nice sharp edges.

Measure...tape...paint...hang photographs...done!

Looks kind of Andy Warholish to me...love him!

I think this same concept would be really cool with personal photographs or portraits in black and white...imagine using a vintage b&w photo of a family member, portraits of your children, fun photo of your pet, etc....lots of possibilities! Give it a try in your house!

Vintage Find: Amazing mid-century artwork!

Let me introduce you to my new amazing vintage artwork! I recently purchased these these 3 pieces at Furniture Lounge in downtown Urbana, IL. I'm not sure about the background or history of these particular pieces, but for some reason I think they are from the 1960's. They are teardrop shaped wooden plaques painted with images of bottles...the turquoise blue on the plaques matches the walls in my dining room PERFECTLY! They were meant to be mine!

I have an awesome black & white photo of my grandparents' old diner in my dining room currently...the wooden plaques add some great color to the space and look amazing flanking the windows in that room! I also love how the natural wood border of the art pieces tie in with the hardwood floors and my kitchen cabinets...perfect!

Vintage Find: Haeger Potteries Lamp

A little trip yesterday afternoon to my favorite store, Furniture Lounge, and I now have some great new vintage pieces for my house! I scored two tables, a lamp and some artwork...all amazing mid-century vintage items.

Love, love, love this lamp! The base and shade were sold seperately and my mom put the two together for an awesome pair. The base is a vintage Haeger Potteries lamp made out of light yellow ceramic and black metal. The shape reminds me a bit of a lava lamp! The shade is made out of fiberglass and has abstract swirls of black and copper all over it with black plastic cord whipstiching on the top and bottom. Don't they look great together!?!




The lamp now sits on one of the new tables...a two-tiered black metal table with smoked glass on top of both tiers...lovely vignette!


Stay tuned for another post about the vintage artwork I scored...

Gerty wins!

I entered for a giveaway on my friend Abby's blog....and....I won! I am soooo excited!

Lucky Fiona donated a dog collar and leash for Abby to give away on her blog. These collars are awesome! They use really fun and fashionable vintage fabrics to make both collars and leashes. The hard part is going to be choosing which collar to pick for Gerty...so many great fabric choices!

Check out Lucky Fiona and get your pup an adorable new collar!

Decorate your dog crate!

Love your dog...but not the look of their dog crate in your house? I'm sure I'm not alone on this one...

Solution: drape a decorative custom fleece blanket on top!

No-sew fleece blankets are super easy to make and the fleece section of your local fabric store is loaded with solid and pattern choices of fleece material. Lots of possibilities! The only materials needed are two pieces of fleece and a pair of scissors. Inexpensive! If you have never made a blanket like this, check out an instructional video here.

My mom and I took on this project together, each creating blankets to go on the top of the dog crates at our houses. We both decided to go with a whimsical dog bone print and a solid black on the reverse. Dog bone print certainly isn't for everyone though....if the whimsical look is not your style I think a pattern & solid or two different solids that coordinate with your room would be great!

Crate and blanket at my house:



See how much Gerty loves her little cave!


Two crates and one big blanket at my mom's house:
Notice how the black and white dog bone pattern coordinates with the black and white buffalo check curtains in the room.



If you make your blanket big enough to cover all sides of the crate, you can completely hide the crate if you ever want to!



A fun and easy project that camouflages your four legged friend's home and gives them a cozier place to rest! Another great thing about this project is that the blanket can just be thrown into the washer and dryer if it gets dirty!

Appliance Quick Fix

One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong

The white dishwasher in my kitchen stuck out like a sore thumb with all of the other black appliances. Instead of buying an entirely new dishwasher I opted to purchase new black panels to update and coordinate. A quick phone call to the Lowe's Appliance Parts & Accessories Hotline (1-800-476-8160) and a few days later the panels arrived. For only about $60 I think it turned out great. See for yourself...

Before:

After:




I absolutely LOVE the way all the black appliances match now. Such a coordinated look for only a little money!! Gotta love that!

Gotta Love Fiestaware!

Could anything be more fun than Fiestaware!?!? I don't think so!

So many colors, so many possibilities! I started collecting Fiesta about 8 years ago with my first purchases of a few place settings. I am now the proud owner of 12 place settings each in a different color and many other coordinating serving pieces and accessories. The classic style of Fiesta looks good in both contemporary and traditional kitchens. I have opted for collecting pieces in a wide variety of colors, but that's not for everyone...picking two or three different coordinating colors would be a great way of incorporating Fiesta into your kitchen too! The folks at Fiesta keep you on your toes with the introduction of new colors and the retirement of older colors. The newest color was introduced late last year and is a dark brown called "Chocolate". It would look great as an accent with the Ivory for a crisp look or with Tangerine or Turquoise for a punch.

My 12 place settings:
(From top: Juniper, Chartreuse, Cobalt, Peacock, Sea Mist, Cinnabar, Yellow, Periwinkle, Pearl Gray, Rose, Persimmon, and Plum)


This is my stove and several Fiesta accessories....mugs on a mug tree, chartreuse tea pot, persimmon salt & pepper shakers, yellow spoon rest, persimmon utensil crock and an apricot napkin holder. I just LOVE these colors together!



I absolutely love these Fiesta "Diner" plates and am regularly hunting on eBay for more pieces with this fun 50's design!

Round Reflections

Round mirrors...wow...the possibilities are endless! Be creative! I was inspired by the circles on the bedding in my guest room to add round mirrors to the decor. I went with a random pattern and think it turned out awesome!

All of the mirrors came from Target and were very reasonably priced. The large mirror is an 18" beveled mirror and was $19.99. The other 7 mirrors came together in a set also for only $19.99. The large mirror is big enough to actually be functional. I had been challenged with what to put on the walls in this room for a long time and I am very happy with the mirror grouping...gets me a little closer to "finishing" this room!

Other round mirror ideas and inspirations:

• cb2 has a 5 mirror set framed in aluminum...very cool. Check out the room view pictures for some creative ideas. This one is my favorite...so orginal!
• Target also sells a 9 piece mirror set that are all the same size. Very cool look.
• A vertical grouping idea:

Vintage Lamp Transformation!

This 1960's lamp is the coolest! My mom found it at a vintage store in downtown Champaign called Carrie's. It was in need of some updating though...the wiring needed re-done, I needed a lampshade and the brass elements didn't go with my decor either. The folks at Tepper Electric did the re-wiring and ordered the perfect tall, black shade for it. I then spray painted the brass parts silver to go with my room a bit more. Check out the transformation:

Paint prep:


After:





I absolutely LOVE the finished product! (Though I wonder if I would love it even more if the silver color was a bit darker...more like pewter?? Hmmm...) The yellow, blue and orange are the perfect colors and it adds a lot of vintage flair and drama to the room! See what fun it can be to update an old item to make it work for your space. Give it a try!

Warhol pop art!

You either LOVE Andy Warhol's artwork or you HATE it....well, I am one of those people that LOVE it! The simple images and vibrant colors are what attracts me most to his work. He was able to take many ordinary images and make them look extraordinary....a Campbell's soup can, a Coke bottle, a gun...and photographs of people such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O, and himself! You will even notice that I added a Warhol art application to the bottom of this blog...it will rotate different Warhol pieces each time you log on...hope you enjoy it!

I recently saw these mini appetizer plates at cb2 and had to get some! I bought 3 of the 4 colors they make. They are about 5 inches in diameter and made of melamine. The best part is....they are only $1.50 each....that means I got 3 of them for under 5 bucks! Awesome deal! I set them on clear plastic plate stands and created a small display on my dining room built-in hutch along with a white vase. Such a fun little display...and it was cheap enough that I won't be too hearbroken to take it down someday and replace it with something new.

Great magazine!

Atomic Ranch is a fantastic magazine focusing on mid-century architecture...1940's-1960's ranches and modern homes. There are tons of great pictures of exteriors and interiors of many different homes in each issue. It is so fun to take a peak inside other people's houses to see how they have interpreted mid-century design and of course "borrow" ideas from them! One of the things I love the most about the magazine are all the advertisements for great stores and companies focused on mid-century decor and accessories...anything from 1950's style numbers for the outside of your house to shops specializing in mid-century modern artwork...the best part is that most ads list a website that you can explore! I highly recommend this magazine to mid-century design lovers...such great inspirations! I have also just discovered that they list links to their advertisers on their website...check the list out here!

Fun & Cheap Art!

This is one of my favorite art projects! I purchased a duvet cover from IKEA for $15 and used it to create these four art pieces. All we did was cut up the duvet cover into four different pieces and then stapled them to canvases...super easy and fun! The living room had all white walls when I bought the house...after I made these art pieces I knew that they needed to be on a colored wall in order to "pop"...gray was the perfect choice with all the elements in the room...I absolutely love how this turned out! Modern planters can also be hard to find...I found this one at cb2. They come in 3 different sizes and I have one of each size...the one in this picture is the middle sized one.