Tag: teal

Interior Decorating

Pillow Talk

Jessica Smith

I mentioned in my post yesterday that one of my areas of focus for my living room is adding punches of color. I have set my sights on finding the perfect pillows for my mint couch that aren’t just some shade of mint or gray. It’s been a challenge because the mint couch has a dingy gray tone to it that is incredibly noticeable when next to bright fabrics.

Pillows

I spent some time in Photoshop to try to get a better feel for how some of these pillows will actually look against the couch. Here’s what I came up with:

Option 1 pulls in some navy, green and coral. I love the poppy pillow and I think it will look really nice with the mint and teal chevron pillows I already have on the couch. I also like that the base of the pillow is white, so they are bright. I love the navy pillows, but since I am trying to brighten the space I think I’ll stay away from these for now.

Couch_Option1

Option 2 is just the poppy pillow. It pulls out the grays in my other pillows and makes the poppy pillow the true statement on the couch.

Couch_Option2

Option 3 adds in a pillow with no mint or teal at all. *Gasp* And I like it! I like that both accent pillows have flowers, but not in the same way.

Couch_Option3

Here’s a bunch of the other pillows I “tried” on the couch. I love each of them, but not on the couch (and certainly not together). The pillow in the center is the one I was originally going to purchase, but once I “tried” it on the couch, I’m not so crazy about it anymore. Glad I pillow tested.

Couch_Option4

My last option is buying two of the poppy pillow. I think I’m going to buy just one first (it comes in many different sizes from this Etsy shop) to make sure I like it in person. If that works out, I might add additional pillows.

Couch_Option5

As silly as it seems, I actually think having the coral on the couch is going to change the room a lot. If I learned anything from my class, it’s that color can make or break a room. Time to get my colors just right!

Furniture

Before & After: Sewing Stool

Jessica Smith

I’ve got some really exciting news to share today: I am starting to sell my furniture pieces at a local store in Howard County called A Slap of Paint!  #HoCoArts

A Slap of Paint is located in the Savage Mill, a historic textile mill turned into boutique shopping mall and basically one of my favorite places ever.

I cannot even express how excited I am for this opportunity. SO EXCITED! I have been a crazy lady on a mission to find pieces in need of some love and boy have I found some gems.

Take this lovely sewing stool, for example. This piece was too cool to pass up, but was a hot mess. The vinyl top was a goldenrod yellow with a big ole black stain on the top.

Here’s the before:
Stool_Before

After some white and teal paint (I mixed flat white paint with Paint Minerals for a chalk paint finish– this stuff is awesome!) and some gold fabric paint, I turned the ugly-duckling stool into this beauty.

After:

Stool

Home Improvement

My mint tiles

Jessica Smith

OK, guys. I have a new obsession and that obsession is Restore. Habitat Restore, to be exact. And it is amazing. AH-MAY-ZING!

My neighbor first introduced me to Restore in Baltimore and then Restore came to Columbia! Are we lucky or what? (Hint: The answer is yes!)

I go there pretty often now and had to share my newest find: Mint Green tiles!

{A Smith of All Trades} Tiles_Dirty Tiles

I scored about 50 of these beautiful tiles for $.25 a square foot. Yes, $.25! I paid $4 total 🙂 Love it!

As you can see in the photos from the store, the tiles were pretty dirty. I scrubbed the tiles for over an hour and they cleaned up beautifully.

{A Smith of All Trades} Tiles_Clean Tiles

Neither of those photos do the color justice, but this one is a better representation:

{A Smith of All Trades} Tiles_Color Shot**drools**

You might be wondering why I bought tiles? Well, for my birthday gift next month we are going to redo our master bathroom.

Here’s a couple of not-so-hot pictures of our bathroom. It’s teeny, so it’s hard to get the whole thing in one shot.

Out bathroom looks a little different now with a shower curtain and a few pieces of art hung on the walls. But it’s nothing spectacular.

Here’s what I’m thinking….

{A Smith of All Trades} Tiles_Sketch

Yes, it’s a sketch. And yes, this will likely change. But anyway… I am thinking a faux wainscoting treatment to the bottom half in white with a neutral color on top. We’ll replace the vanity to get something a little larger in the space, update the medicine cabinet and the lighting…. and then add the mint tiles as accent tiles. Like I said, the final product probably won’t look a thing like this… but this is my inspiration for now.

{A Smith of All Trades} Tiles_Bucket

And for $4, I was willing to take the risk that these beautiful tiles will fit into my not-so-final master plan.

Happy Tuesday!