Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Yes, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even in my house.  We've got the decor up the earliest ever.  The kids are thrilled.  Im pretty happy it is done.  This is our second Christmas in our new home. Last year we decided to purchase a large Christmas tree for our great room.  Anything smaller would be dwarfed by the room.  I chose to do my "fun" decor in this area.  One new Christmas tree was enough for my husband.  We threw out our last tree as the "pre-lit" didn't light well anymore!  So I didn't get to put up my adult tree.  After going through the decorating process again this year, its confirmed in my mind - I just don't love the kids stuff in my main living area.  So next year Im doing the pretty adult decor in the great room, and the kids can go crazy with Christmas in the basement.
Here is a picture of our tree:

This is the adult decor that makes me happy:

I decorating multiple homes a year.  I have to say, Im not super anxious to do it.  I feel like I could do it with my eyes closed.  But I usually hire some fun talented women, and with Starbucks in hand we go to work and make it fun.  I recently got a request from someone close to me to decorate their home for Christmas - starting from scratch.  I found myself really excited!  I stopped and wondered why this excited me so much!  I realized that it is the designing that I love.  The dreaming up the scheme.  The challenge.  Here are some schemes I am thinking of:

The classic gold and silver.  I may try and add some crystal and mirror to the scheme.

Black, white silver and red.  Of course I would do my own take on this.  Could be quite stunning!

Ive always wanted to do a peacock coloured Christmas tree.  Love this colour!

Would love to hear your thoughts!  What colour are your decorations?

Over the years so many of my favorite ornaments have been hand made.  I feel like, for the most part, my crafting days are over.  Yet at Christmas my glue gun always comes out!  Advent Calendars are a great DIY.  Here is one that I made:

Here are some others I love:

Just a Girl Blog

The ever popular wreath!  Another easy and effective DIY.  Here are some of mine:

Hmmm.... I like feathers!

One year I must make this  I think it is simply gorg!

A trend this year is "the dip".  And why not your wreath?  The November issue of Style at Home featured this beauty!

Another trend that I am loving this year is the silhouette.  I can't get enough!  I just have to make sure I don't overdo it!  These stockings by Le Papier Studio are just too gorgeous.  You really should pop over to their site - all their stuff is gorgeous!

Get out of town!  These are too cute too:

In the end what matters most is making memories with our family, and celebration our Saviours birth.  Creating a beautiful atmosphere to do this in is a wonderful thing.  Just don't loose sight of why we do it.

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas (a little early this year)

Lisa

A little redesign.

I know Ive said it before, but I really do have the best clients.  Marilyn is no exception.  We've been in the same bible study for about 3 years, but its been delightful spending one on one time with her and getting to know her better.  And it helps when everything we brought her she loved!  She was so easy to please.

 Before:

After:

The change wasn't drastic.  Marilyn's tastes haven't changed, but it was just time for an update.  And like most design projects do; it snowballed!  It started out with her sofas.  The shabby chic damask was just not doing it any more.  The sofas were incredibly comfy.  We looked at new, but in the end chose to recover.  I had the new turned leg exposed for a classic tailored look.  Surrey Upholstery did a great job. We removed the wall sconces and filled in the art niche above the fireplace.  And then the wallpaper from Crown was the icing on the cake.

Added her lovely collection of Sid Dickens tiles, and voila!  Sid Dickens posted Marilyn's arrangement on their instagram feed - quite a compliment!  Oh, and we can't forget the drapes  Light, beautiful dupioni silk.  Ahhhh....

In the family room we updated the drapes and toss cushions that now coordinate with the kitchen.

A little bit of accessorizing and arranging....

New valances.  And lighting from Design Lighting

Coordinating bird drapes that make me smile.  And a LOVELY Robert Abbey pendant

A lovely little project for a lovely family.

I hope that you enjoyed my new blog format and website.  Would love to hear your feedback.    Ive got new facebook, instagram and pinterest buttons!  Yay!  You can follow me on all three.  Im loving sharing interesting finds, my latest projects and a bit about me and those most important in my life.  Thanks for popping by.

Lisa

fall decor

Happy fall.. or "autumn" to some!  Thought I would share some fall eye candy and show how it can be created on a budget.  Having said that... the bigger budget the better - ha!

Here is my front door.  I'll tell you a bit about it before I go into everything that is wrong with it :)   Every year I try to get a variety of pumpkins.  I spray paint my pumpkins different fall-like colours.  I often will just spray a bit of copper on my orange pumpkins.  Id like to collect the fake ones from Michaels, but they are quite pricey.  So I buy 1 or 2 every year with my 40 or 50% off coupons...

Now, I know my display is a bit small scaled for my entry.  Remember what I was saying about what is wrong with it?  Ideally Id love some of those large scale Restoration Hardware black lanterns sitting there. "Sigh".  Even a Superstore Lantern would suffice to match the small one already there.  Unfortunately at this time of year they all have skeletons on them - yuck!  Larger pumpkins too would be nice.  Like I said, you can create a gorgeous display on a budget, but the bigger budget the better :)



Monograms are always lovely - even on a pumpkin.  This is a pumpkin I collected last year from Michaels and drew our last initial on it.   I really do love it.


Now isn't this a fun project:  One I haven't had the energy for quite yet!  You'd definitely want a fake pumpkin for this one.  Wouldn't want to see all your hard work rot at the end of the season!



And our front door wreath:   Ive had this for years.  Adding things as pieces have fallen off!  My favorite part is the feathers that Ive put on it... just for something different.



 

Another awesome DIY:  I love this wreath.  I am hoping to do 2 for my patio doors.  I'll get back to you on that :)



 

 

And here are some vignettes Ive created in our house.  Mostly with things Ive collected over the years.  Sometimes Michaels will have fall foliage on a great sale, especially after Halloween.  Over the years Ive cut them and used them in different ways.  Plus at the grocery store you can pick up fall gourds and squash that fit with the scheme.  You can even spray paint them.  The gold mercury pumpkins I got at Homesense for $7.99 each!  I have a nice jar Id like to fill with candy corn, but I haven't come across any in bulk yet.















Superstore has got some good buyers on their team!  I love all their owls.  Owls have been so big in decor this last year.  The large one pictured here would be a nice addition to my front door!





These pumpkins are from Pottery Barn.  I just love them.  You could fill a little corner of your house with them or put them at your front door.   FYI, this doesn't fit into the "budget" category.  I bought some of these pumpkins from Roost for our church's fall display.  They are stunning!  Also shown below are some more goodies found at Pottery Barn.  Their fall faux squash are like none other.  They put Michaels to shame.  But you pay for it too.  And what a lovely fall table setting!







I hope you've got some inspiration.  But if seasonal decor is something that you simply can't or don't want to tackle yourself for your home, business or organization, let us know.  We have packages available where we will come and take care of it for you, whatever season it is.  Christmas is a popular time to have a little extra help to bring seasonal cheer to your home or business.  We'd love to chat with you about it.

Check out the Inspired Rooms blog for more great fall decor ideas.



I always like to hear from you too!  Don't forget to leave a comment.

Happy Fall!

Lisa

 

 

Cottage Life #2

Well it seems that my blog doesn't want to work, and Im not the person to make it work.  So, Ruby & Ink to the rescue!  They will be revamping my blog.  I plan to write more often and bring you some of my latest projects, and present you with the latest and greatest of the design industry.

So to end off my "cottage life" post, I'll show you a few pictures from our summer at our cottage.  As I said in my last post.  I hope you all had a great summer making memories with your family.  If you'd like to follow me on instagram, you can search the username: grapevine_designs.  Dont forgot to follow "Grapevine Furniture and Design" on Facebook where I post some of the great finds in my travels as a designer.



This is the octopus we caught in our crab trap.  This pictures show him swimming free



Island boys and captain Eston



Finnigan



Eli led a snake catching posse!  He kept them in the bucket.  Who knew one was pregnant.  We woke up to 2 more snakes in the morning.

Cottage Life

There seems to be a trend towards escaping the city for a slower pace of life during the summer.  Some escape to campgrounds all over BC, which was my summer fun growing up.  Days spent swimming and riding bikes, and evenings spent by the camp fire roasting marshmellows.   Others are fortunate enough to spend some time at summer house.  Either rented or owned.  If you own a summer home, its amazing for your kids to have a home away from home where they can grow up yearly and create life long memories there.  On the other hand, some choose to take that money and visit different places.  Exploring the world around us, and creating amazing memories that way.

My husband's family has a summer home on a small island on the sunshine coast.  There are no roads, stores or distractions.  My kids get my full attention.   One of my favorite parts is exploring the sea life.  We have watched snakes swallow fish whole, fish give birth, barnacles, oysters, clams and starfish come to life in our salt water fish tank that hold all our findings.  We've caught eels, rock lobsters, octopus, and of course lots of crabs!!!  Since getting to a store is quite a chore, we plan our meals carefully and bring what we need.  Then we catch crab, and get creative with our menu.  I often take time to make extra special meals, 'cause, well I have the time.  Here are some of the fun things we create in the kitchen:








And speaking of the kitchen, here is the renovation we completed on the kitchen of the cottage a couple of years ago.  One of my favorite renos of all time: (do I always say that?)

This is the before picture:



This is the after picture:  As you can see we removed the hallway and changed the entrance to the bathroom.



Here is the drastic transformation of the family room:

Before:



AFTER:



This year we completed the upstairs:

BEFORE:








AFTER:









All the trim and doors were replaced upstairs.  (It used to be dark brown plastic - yuck)  And the carpet upstairs was also replaced.

Where ever you spent the lazy of days of summer I hope you and your family created amazing memories, and had a wonderful summer.  Here is a few instagram pics of our summer.  If you want to follow me on instagram search the username: grapevine_designs.





This is the very large, very ugly octopus we caught in our crab trap.  He is pictured here swimming free!



These are Eli's snakes that he caught (with the help of his island snake catching posse).  One of the snakes gave birth!

Furry Finnigan cooling his belly on the rocks





Island boys and captain Eston