Hour Tour: Melanie of Plum Cushion

Melanie is the lovely lady behind Plum Cushion (where all your designer pillow dreams come true). She has an amazing eye and I am thrilled to share photos of her gorgeous home with you today. Sources are listed below, but feel free to leave questions in the comment section.

Thanks, Melanie!!

Living room:
Wall color: Verdigris Mist, True Value
Sofa: 'South Beach', Schumacher
Green chair: vintage (hand me down, from mom - reupholstered)
Pink chairs: Gussy Chairs (Etsy)
Bench: hand me down from Hubby's Aunt & Uncle (I just reupholstered it in Kravet's "Passage" in aqua)
Cocktail Table and side tables: Craigslist, professionally lacquered
Console: Craigslist, I painted it Verdigris Mist (the wall color) but in high gloss
Secretary: Craigslist (massively-lucky find)
Framed art: marbled paper from Paper Mojo (I got the idea from LGN), "Blonde Girl in Gray" - original watercolor from Wm. Gangol, purchased on eBay
Draperies: custom, flamestitch fabric purchased on eBay

Bedroom sources:
Wallcovering: Waterhouse Wallhangings (purchased on eBay - and they still have it! )
Bedding: Pottery Barn 'tile print' in orange
Pillows: Chiang Mai Dragon (from Plum Cushion) ;-)
Pelmets: Made by hubby and me, following the instructions on LGN
Flower Mirror: GR Hedges

Bathroom:
Striped wall treatment, hand applied (wow was it a job!): All Behr paint. I may be able to scrape up the colors used but I don't have them all in my online file. (please comment if you need these)
Valance: Imperial Trellis

Kitchen:
Wall color: Midnight Dream, Behr
Table: Craigslist, professionally refinished
Chairs: Craigslist, painted
Rug: vintage, Turkish, purchased on eBay

Workroom:
Wall color: Valley Mist, Behr
Rug: West Elm
Painting: Original Oil (also a hand me down from my mom)

New Blue Outfit

The silver-leafed cabinets are going to get some new clothes this week. Like I mentioned, the idea was for the cabinets to be an icy blue, (they are currently painted Benjamin Moore's White Ice), but the sunlight in our apartment is so funny. It changes dramatically all day long and most of the time the cabinets look pretty white actually. It's nice, but there is a lot of white in our loft (walls AND floors), so I was hoping the color would have read as a little more blue than it does most of the time. I wanted a pale blue, but not as icy and with a *hint* of green.

Then I did what I should have just done in the first place. I picked up a $3 sample pot from Home Depot. I probably should have picked up a few colors while I was there for comparison's sake, but as soon as I saw the color chip for Martha's Sparkling Brook, I knew that's what I wanted for the cabinets.

I tried a sample patch on the top left corner of the cabinet on the right. I love it. It's similar to the old color, but different enough that it will be worth painting the cabinets again. It's definitely more of what I envisioned in the first place.

Then I ran across this image of Ashley Whittaker's living room today, and I think this is the inspiration my subconscious had all along. Decision confirmed.

Domino

Oh! And how could I possibly forget:

Elle Decor

(Speaking of Mr. Hadley - I'm dying to go to his Sotheby's auction today and bid on that amazing Serge Roche mirror.)

Mirrored (Silver-Leafed) Cabinets

Remember this post? I found two vintage fretwork cabinets for a steal at Everything Goes in Staten Island a while back.

To sass them up a bit (and to give me some hidden storage), I silver leafed the inside of the existing glass panes.

The original wood (it was sort of a fruit wood?) was not so pretty and I knew I wanted to paint it out. While I actually really liked the contrast of the dark color of the wood against the silver-leafed glass, we don't always have the best sun light in our apartment, so I needed to go lighter with the color. I also needed something in the cool color family to balance out the gold tones of our yellow striped rug.

I ended up painting the cabinets a pale icy blue (Benjamin Moore's White Ice OC-58), but I think I'm going to change the color this week -- more on that later.

I love how the panes look kind of like antiqued glass now. You can see very blurry but not true reflections, which makes me happy to know I won't have to actually watch myself when I'm parked in front of ridiculous reality shows (or when I'm doing my Tracy DVD's! Yikes). Huge upside.

Another upside is that fingerprints are a total non-issue here like they would be with traditional mirror panes. I can't see any of the Evie-sized smudges at all.

P.S. Do you see a little sneak peek of the navy buffalo check I'm considering for our dining chairs?

Honeycomb Mirror in Action

I finally bought the Pier 1 Honeycomb mirror a few weeks back and I'm loving it! Here's a beautiful home in a recent issue of Southern Living that features the same mirror...

I am obsessed with this over-sized lumbar pillow on the sofa!

Scans via Fran's beautiful blog, Green Street. Don't forget to check out the rest of the images from the spread!

Cloud Photography

I was so happy when Amber emailed me a month or two ago to introduce herself. I LOVE her style and her blog is quickly becoming a favorite.

Look at Amber's last great project. She went outside and took photos of pretty clouds and had one of the images blown up for $30.

She framed the image in a large IKEA Ribba (no mat here, which is key to making it look like expensive modern art).

Go check out Amber's blog if you haven't already. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do!

Yellow Acrylic Tray

I need a tray just like this. Any ideas? I thought CB2 has something similar a while back, but no-go.

via NYSD

P.S. What do you think of the mirrored kitchen counter tops here? Gorgeous! But, I wonder how practical?

Give Away: $100 to Lewis and Sheron!

I use Lewis and Sheron all the time and can completely vouch for their online customer service skills. That doesn't mean I'm not totally jealous of all you lucky Atlanta readers that can visit L&S in person!

The easiest way to spruce up your home is to introduce a new fabric with some pillows, a little stool or bench or some new drapes. L&S is giving away another $100 to one of you readers. Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you would use the gift card:

Josef Frank fabrics are bright, bold and...expensive.

Get the look for less with this cheery botanical.

I love the damask on these wing chairs. I think the less graphic, more washed out look is nice.

House Beautiful

Here's an upholstery weight substitute fabric:

Tobi Fairley used this green geometric for these great wing backs:

Red on red trellis sort of reminds me of David Hick's La Florentina.

I will never not love this little skirted zebra ottoman featured in Cottage Living and this fabric is a dead ringer:

Toile can be really sophisticated in the right space (like this Paris apt featured in Elle Decor, via Habitually Chic). This inexpensive toile is a good choice.

Paisley feels really fresh to me right now.

This red floral is an inexpensive Chiang Mai Dragon look-a-like.

I love arm chairs in a pretty suzani print.

Kravet's Lutron in this mushroom and teal colorway is a more subdued way to take on a big pattern and some color.

This inky, dark print would be as kid and pet-friendly as it is stylish on a piece of furniture:

Enter to win $100 to Lewis and Sheron by visiting their website and leaving a comment on this post with what fabric you would chose and what you would do with the yardage.

Contest closes Sunday, March 28 at midnight. The winner will be chosen at random and this post will be updated with the winner's name.

Good luck!

***CONGRATULATIONS to Arlynn! We'll be in touch with your gift certificate! Thanks!!***