It’s All Around Us
A short poem of inspiration by Sally Evans
I surround myself with beauty.
I seek beauty in this world.
I see the hurt, the pain, and the broken spirits.
Yet below the surface, I see beauty in the
essence of the soul.
This summer I plan to look for some furniture at resale shops and possibly estate sales, etc.
The problem is, right now, there are several rooms I want to re-do and even though I know it would be best to focus on one thing, like our bedroom makeover, you never know when you will see a great piece for another room.
So, I am trying to make notes about what I can refinish or upcycle or refresh and what I might want to replace.
I’ve had my eye out for quite a while for a new bed or headboard. I’ve looked at all kinds of styles and nothing ever seems to be just the right thing. I don’t really know what I’m looking for and figure I’ll know it when I see it.
This morning, I was looking on the HGTV website for a show I haven’t seen in a while called Rate My Space with designer Angelo Surmelis. It doesn’t appear to be on at the moment but they have pictures and videos and even full episodes on the website.
The idea of the show was that homeowners would upload pictures of their spaces and people would vote on them. They would choose one with a low rating and redo the space.
The homeowners were asked to choose 3 rooms that they liked, and tell what they liked about them as inspiration for Angelo to re-do their space.
This is a great way to start defining what you like and need. Ideas and inspiration are everywhere! And HGTV is a fantastic resource for home and garden projects..
You can look at magazines, at the library or bookstore, websites and blogs, friend’s homes, stores, model homes, etc.
This morning, I browsed through several pictures of headboards and beds in professionally design rooms and still didn’t see anything that I wanted but it really got my ideas flowing.
I realized that I could use what I have and make something far more interesting than anything I can find to buy.
I like the idea of texture and something neutral that hopefully we won’t get tired of too quickly. I wanted something unusual but don’t want to spend too much. I also want to create some art that will hang above the bed so I don’t want it too busy.
I’m going to experiment with using metal foils and embossing them to cover parts of the wood headboard, while leaving some of the wood exposed. At least that is what I think I’m going to do.
I have several projects that I plan to do in the bedroom and I’ll share them with you as I go.
As always, whenever I get inspired, there is usually a flood of ideas, not just one. So I had ideas for the living room, the family room and our bedroom with some easier less expensive fixes than I first thought.
I love it when I can move things around or change things from one room to another to give it a whole new look.
I can’t do all my ideas and projects at once so I have to be content to write them down, save pictures, make sketches, and keep them in mind.
After all, I also have jewelry to make, a garden to tend, and delicious recipes to try too!
Even though I got a bit sidetracked from my bedroom makeover, it helped me to redefine things so that I can narrow down just a few things to look for when I am out.
I’m making a list of furniture and measurements that I can keep with me in case I run across something great.
Of course inspiration can also come from completely unrelated sources but sometimes starting with the obvious is helpful.
How do you find inspiration?
I am going to be sharing my master bedroom makeover as I work on it in stages.
I have wanted to redo the bedroom and give it a new look for a while now.
Where to start? That was the question.
When I was out shopping at Denver Fabrics for fabric for a polar fleece jacket I made, my sister was out and we took a little stroll through the home dec fabric.
That’s when inspiration hit! We found this fabric below.
It is a beautiful combination of a soft shale brown, ivory, and a soft aqua blue green.
It has small embroidered squares cascading with twists and turns.
It has a geometrical pattern along with a sophisticated, whimsical feel.
Sometimes I find I have color periods where I gravitate toward certain colors and this one is grabbing me.
Maybe I’m in my Blue Period because I’ve also been buying some navy blue clothes….go figure!
We found these other coordinating fabrics, a lovely sheer with blue and brown circles appliquéd, a fabric with irregularly shaped circles, and an ivory fabric with taupe and ivory embroidered squares that was on the sale rack.
We picked up swatches of everything but the sale fabric to bring it back and see if it would work.
The colors looked great with my existing wall treatment, which is a soft yellow faux finish so that means I don’t have to repaint. Yeah!
With swatches in hand, I found the perfect match for the bedding on sale so I went with it. I’ll show you that in another post.
After getting my husband’s ok on the new look, I went back to buy the fabrics.
The plan is to create some pillows, simple curtains, and some backing for the chairs, and a tablecloth. Along with embellishing some pillow cases.
This first decision of the color palette and fabrics is the starting point and inspiration for the rest of the decisions that will come.
I’m not going to worry about having the whole plan figured out. Furniture, accessories, and artwork will be figured out as I go. It will give me the opportunity to make things and play with ideas.
This is first phase of an ongoing project. I’ll share the process as I go with you and give you some ideas of how to personalize your own space.
Jewelry Artist. Fine Artist, and Creativity Blogger
