At my house, the accessories are breakable. Highly breakable. I collect vintage milk glass, slag glass, and depression glass. I have living orchids curving delicately over my nightstand. My pet fish lives on a low coffee table, in a vintage glass bowl.

It's not a kid-friendly space.

My sister, however, has two small children who are (for lack of a better word) a bit willful (read: wild). And as such, her house has almost no accessories. Her few breakables are hidden away or gathered messily on high shelves, and her surfaces are either bare or strewn with papers. Her house is about practicality, and about foiling her children's innate need to break anything and everything of value she might get her hands on.

So I resolved to help her out. Why CAN'T she have a few glam accessories? Things that look pretty and posh? Sure, teaching the kids to be less destructive would be a good step to take, but I didn't want to set my sights too high. So instead, I set about looking for some posh-looking accessories that could stand up to the chaos.

Here's my first effort: a totally kid-friendly, totally-unbreakable, totally budget table orchid.

Let me tell you what this orchid display is made of:

It's 100% Dollarama.

Materials

1. A large plastic salad bowl (any solid colour you like).
2. A foam craft ball.
3. A bread knife and tape (you probably have these items already).
4. 2 or 3 fake orchid stems.
5. 2 packages of decorative moss.

The whole deal should cost approximately $7.

Instructions

Step 1: Using the knife, cut the foam ball in half or 3/4. (You're just looking to give it a flat side.)
Step 2: Place the flat side of the foam ball down on the bottom/middle of the plastic bowl. Using tape, secure it to the bottom of the bowl. Don't worry if the tape looks ugly. You won't see it once the moss is in.
Step 3: Drive the orchid stems into the foam ball. If the stems are too long, but them down with scissors or wire-cutters. (OR, just bend the wire stems back and forth a bit at the spot where you want to cut - they'll break eventually.)
Step 4: Fill the bowl with moss, covering the foam and the bottom of the stems.
Step 5: Bend the orchid leaves down so they are horizontal across the surface of the moss. And bit and bend the stems of the fake flowers in a way that looks good to you.

Done. You have a pretty, glam-looking accessory that your kids can knock to the ground with abandon. Sure, the moss will go flying, but that's an easy clean up. This is an unbreakable, creation, in my opinion.

Next, I wanted to draw your attention to the pressed glass bowl that you see on the arm of the chair in the first photo. Pretty right? Let's take a closer look:

On the left is a little depression glass dish, on the right is the bowl I was talking about. Glam! Sparkly! Posh, pretty and ... plastic.

That's right, plastic. I bought it for 99 cents at Goodwill.

If that's not a kid-friendly accessory, I don't know what is. Can't wait to take these items over to my sister's house to test them out.

Know what I've really been into lately?

Pheasants.

All sorts of pheasants. Regular pheasants, wild pheasants, golden pheasants. Pheasant salt and pepper shakers, pheasant earrings, pheasants on plates and glassware.

It's kitschy, but I'm obsessed. Not sure why. I've just got pheasants on the brain.

 

I have no idea what's wrong with me. The whole "put a bird on it" thing hasn't seemed to dampen my enthusiasm at all. And objectively speaking, pheasants are kind of ugly... aren't they?

Besides that, I already HAVE several. A couple of yellow ones are sitting on my coffee table right now.

Not sure what to do about this, or even why I'm sharing with you. Any members of pheasants anonymous out there? Wanna commiserate?

If you know me, you know I love homes that look lived in. I love homes that invite one to flop (on a sofa, into a chair, on the floor, etc.). Homes that are cluttered, imperfect, and real (although, to be fair, "perfect" homes can be real too... just not for me. I'm too messy.)

Back in 2010, I did a post entitled Imperfection is Beauty: Christmas in the real world. And today, I'm doing something similar. Only this time, instead of featuring holiday-ready homes, I've gathered a small collection of living room shots from Flickr (all credited and with creative commons licenses in place).

These are living rooms I believe in. I can imaging flopping down in each and every one of them.

Can't you?

__By TomBorowski on Flickr.

Flickr has changed a lot since I started using it back in 2005. And now, with Pinterest and whatnot, it's a lot less popular than it used to be (even though it does different stuff), but I still love it. I feel like Flickr still gives me access to all sort of fun images I wouldn't see otherwise -- in particular, the real-deal stuff that hasn't been all the way around the web and back already.

Besides the obvious homeyness, the thing I like about the pictures above is that I hadn't seen them before. And I doubt you had either.

Anyhoo. Keep on being real, my decorating friends.

I spent a lot of the recent holiday watching television.

Shameful? Maybe. Fun? Indeed!

I am a TV junkie. Nate is more picky. Together, we burned through season one of The West Wing (a great show, all around), and then alone, I watched some less-laudable stuff, like The Mentalist marathon on Bravo (bad Jenny) and a few episodes of the ridiculous, but strangely amusing, Rosanne's Nuts.

Sometimes, I'll watch a show just for the set. If a good set designer worked the background, I can enjoy even the worst canned ham telly. I'm weird like that.

Anyway, in honour of good set dressing, today I shall share with you a collection of images featuring the sets I've loved (regardless of the quality of the shows themselves, on which I will not comment further.)

The Mentalist: Jane's sofa area. So comfy looking. And I love that throw. If I lived in a loft, I'd copy this look.

White Collar: Neal's apartment. I love everything about this place. EVERYTHING. Set designer Sheila Bock can come do up my house anytime.

Will & Grace: The main set of this show is an oldie, but a goodie, designed by Melinda Ritz. Apparently, it's still on display at Emerson College in Boston.

Brothers & Sisters: I thought this show was a real stinker, but man-oh-man did they have some beautiful sets. This is the Walker family living room, designed by set decorator Bryan Venegas.

Sex & The City: While the second-wave feminist BS of the show now makes me cringe (it feels so dated) I still love Carrie's old apartment (before the horrible makeover they did in the movie).

_Anyway. That's enough of that.

Lots of fun stuff to come now that it's 2012. I have a whole bunch of posts in the hopper, and my house tour with Apartment Therapy should be posted later this month as well. Excitement!

P.S. Some of these set pictures were hard to find, and I don't have the names of the photographers. I've linked to the source sites where I found them. If anyone wants to send me more info so I can credit more correctly, I'd appreciate it.

Whatever happened to the Pete Project?

It died. But in a good way. The big plans died, but Pete is ensconced in his apartment, which is the mirror image of my own in layout, and right next door to boot. And it is lovely and cozy, but it's not a modern, tribal, man cave. This is probably a good thing.

This happens sometimes. The initial vision gave way to the realities of the budget, and we had to make room for curb-side finds, inherited IKEA pieces, and a bunch of culled from parental basements and the like.

Pete really took care of the whole thing himself. And it turns out, he's quite a stylish fellow.

Anyway, just because the project didn't go as planned, doesn't mean you don't deserve pictures. So pictures ye shall have!

Let's start with the "before" shots:

And now, much more importantly, the AFTER pictures:

How cute is that giraffe? Pete's sister Ruthie needle-felted that little guy by hand. I'm in love with it.

Truly, the whole project was Pete's doing. He had little-to-no help from me. My one contribution is the Windsor chair in the living room - a classic piece that goes well with Pete's slightly rustic style. Let's all give Pete props from his super low-budget, super cozy, super cool new home.

Okay. I know I've dawdled on this, but it's finally time to reveal my new(ish) dark bedroom. If you remember, I was hesitant to go dark at first, but it's now been several weeks since I completed the painting and I have to say... I love it.

Special thanks to everyone who encouraged me to go for it, especially Amy at ABCD Designs.

I know you want to see it, but let's not dive right in. Let's start with my inspiration: the peacock feather. I woke up one morning thinking of peacock feathers and that's where this whole thing started. At first, I wanted to paint the room green. But that seemed impractical, or less livable, so I decided on a deep blue, like the very centre of the feather's eye.

I chose Behr's "Night Shade" #740F-7. On the chip, it looks near-black, but on the walls, it's a lovely, deep blue with a forest green undertone. It looks different in different lights and at different hours of the day, so I feel like it's a living colour. Like it can breathe.

My walls are textured - very old and bumpy plaster - so I chose matte/flat 'paint+primer in one' for coverage that would hide imperfections.

Here's the before shot. (We lived with the room this way for about two years.)

When I committed to this makeover, the first thing I did was reorient the furniture. I moved the bed from the back wall to under the window. Now, when you walk into the room, you see the bed on your left and a straight path to the back wall on your right. Here is the reoriented furniture, before I started laying on the new paint:

Next, I got painting.

Working with a dark colour is emotionally daunting because initially, it looks like... crap. I was terrified after my first (patchy) pass, but after three solid coats, I felt a lot better. Next, I had to consider If I would paint the doors and trim.

I decided to paint everything (except the ceiling) because I wanted the finished room to feel calm. The dark colour made the white doors, baseboards and moldings pop, but I didn't want pop. Pop was the opposite of what I wanted. So on went the paint. (I even painted the light switch  and electrical plates.) The result is a completely uniform envelope. Very serene.

So... are you ready for the reveal? I'm not much of a photographer (as you know) so it was hard to get a shot that does the room justice, but here goes. This is a shot from the doorway:

Next, take a look at the view looking straight in from the hall (which you can compare with the similar before shot, above). You can see the painted doors and frames on the right. Don't mind the cables. Still haven't sorted those out. You can also see the way the sunlight on the wall makes the paint look brighter.

I love how the dark walls make everything feel special. Every piece of art, every object, stands out like a bright spot in a dark sea.

Next, take a look at our bedside tables. They are symmetrical, but not perfectly symmetrical. The paintings are from the late 1970s, and were originally sold by a local artist at the Canadian National Exhibition. The blue velvet drapes are from Value Village. The lamp is IKEA. The birds are a DIY makeover project I posted about recently, and the brass plant pots were inherited from my grandparents.

On Nate's side, you can see one of my Budai figures (Goodwill), a vintage marble elephant (probably a former book-end), a bit of my midcentury orange floor lamp ($5 at a UofT prof's estate sale) and Nate's weird little nose thingy that holds his glasses.

The back wall, which used to house the bed, now features my clothes-storage wardrobes.

On the smaller wardrobe, I've displayed my collection of hand-thrown pottery and unusual vessels. (Plus weird bits and bobs like ceramic birds and marble eggs.)

I've included hits of green (in the throw at the foot of the bed, for example, shown below), and in the plants, as well as some teal notes (in the Birk's boxes on top of the wardrobes) to stay with the peacock theme. As for the orange and rusty accents... that's just what I had on hand.

The best part is that both Nate and I are sleeping better. A cozy bedroom is good for that.

Anyway, there you have it. I went to the dark place and it welcomed me with open arms. The rest of our apartment (with the exception of our tiny bathroom, which I made over in chocolate) is near-white. And this is cliched, but the bedroom now feels, in contrast, like a little jewel. It's currently my favourite place in the house.

So if you're considering going dark, I say: do it. Be bold. It's so worth it.

Back in May, during our east coast road trip, I found these lamps at the Value Village in Fredericton for $1.99 each (including shades). They're a sort of white glass and I thought they'd make for a good (and easy) makeover. Here's the before:

I covered the white bits with tape and plastic wrap and spray painted the shiny metal bits flat white.

Then I hand-painted the paper shades with some left-over wall paint. Notice the brush strokes? That wasn't working for me, so half-way through, I switched to using a small foam roller and had much better results.

Here are the finished lamps. For the moment, they live on the buffet with several other white pieces, and my grandmother's tea set.

Decent little project, right?

It's more than a month away, but Halloween is already in full swing in the retail sphere. I know this because I popped in to Dollarama this morning and was assaulted by a full aisle of spooky, mass-produced paraphernalia. Pretty intense.

But I love Halloween. (Spooky Halloween, not sexy Halloween, but let's not get in to that.) And In my mind, no one really does it better than Martha. Here are just a few of the projects I've seen her do that I think can be mimicked with supplies from the dollar store.

Actually, just tooling around the Dollarama gave me a lot of original ideas as well. Their Halloween stock seems particularly good this year.

I think really successful holiday decorating is about doing creative things (and sometimes, cutting corners by using pre-fab materials). I never like to do anything that's straight out of the box, if you know what I mean.

This year, though, there are almost too many options.

What are you thinking about for Halloween decor this year? (Or is it too early to be thinking about it at all?)

Sometimes I think I only want to have kids because I want to decorate their rooms.

There, I said it.

Kid's stuff is just SO CUTE. And I see things I want to buy for wee ones ALL THE TIME. But I can't. Because not only do I not have the space. I don't have the spawn.

(Now, before you flame me, let's note the following: 1. I'm kidding (kinda). And 2. You probably had some selfish reasons for having your kids too. So there.)

Anyway. I was in my local Goodwill the other day and I saw an awesome little mid-century modern desk, with a world-map top. It was kind of like this:

Here's a different, similar one:

I would have bought it in a SECOND (only $20!)... if only I had a kid.

Here's some other kid stuff I've been eying and/or wanting to make:

A teepee or tent like this one made by Lindsay over at the Little House Blog

The LEKA CIRKUS mobile from IKEA:

Or this EKORRE rocking moose (also IKEA)

And for art, maybe I'd frame up some of my favourite vintage children's illustrations, like these, from Kartusch (Serendipity Books) by Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James. 

Or perhaps something a little less intense? Like these French Barbapapa illustrations!

And while we're talking books, I'd stock the shelves with all my favourites!

And I'd throw in some truly classic toys, just for good measure.

Yes sir. I would have a darn good time doin' up a baby's room.

Of course, then I'd be stuck with a baby. And who needs that?