Tag Archives: home decor

decorating inspiration

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reimagining my space. I love my apartment, but change is good and always fun to daydream about. When I was looking at inspiration this weekend on Polyvore, I focused on pushing my style a little bit and trying something new. I may not want to live with these styles in the end, but it sure is fun looking at them for a while.

rae's days polyvore home decor inspiration rae's days polyvore home decor inspiration rae's days polyvore home decor inspiration dark

The room with gray walls and pops of color is the most similar to how my apartment is now, but I think it’s the one I like the least out of these options. Which room would you pick? For more home decorating inspiration, follow me on Pinterest.

wedding present: embroidered hand towels

wedding present embroidered hand towels

I spent a while looking for some cute hand towels for a wedding present for my friend Jewels who loves to cook. And then I remembered that I like embroidering things.

embroidered hand towels

So I got some white hand towels and got to embroidering. I made three in different colors, so they can mix and match with their kitchen. Hopefully the new Mr. and Mrs. Panian can use these when they are eating dinner together! Congratulations, you two. I hope you share many wonderful meals.

embroidered mr and mrs towels

embroidery display update

embroidery display rae's days

I have finally added my latest embroideries to my embroidery display!

embroidery display

I am slowly but steadily filling the space above my bed. I love having them in my home–I love any handmade item in my home. I think it adds originality and personality, and I’m of course also proud that I made them myself.

display embroidery hoops

I’m getting quite a collection, and I’d love to keep going. I think they look lovely as a group. The whole is just as good as the parts.

cropped_MG_0927

I am working on a project to sew some of my favorite quotes and images from books. You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

small cool space

rae's days small cool spaces

I finished one of my 2013 goals of decorating my apartment to enter Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool Spaces contest! I’m so happy with my home. I am really proud of turning this apartment into a place I truly enjoy spending time in and showing off. Please stop by Apartment Therapy’s site and vote for my place and any others that you like!

couch

I love having a full size couch. In my old apartment I could only fit a loveseat, and it was a little too small for company or comfortable naps. Plus, I got to add some pillows that I made!

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adventures in spray paint

rae's days shelf before

I have this shelf by my door. I use it to hold my purse or shoes right when I get home. It’s the perfect size for the tiny space between my front door and my closet. And it was black, which was fine. But not great.

So I got some spray paint. And headed to a rooftop.

roof top view

This was the view. Not too shabby. Then I put my shelf on some trash bags and started spraying. It went pretty well for my first time spray painting something, all things considered. I did a few coats and touched up some spots where I thought it was needed. I used Rust-Oleum high performance enamel spray paint in safety yellow.

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pillow talk

rae's days couch

It’s finally time for Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool Spaces contest! I can’t wait to enter, but first I have a few finishing touches to complete for my apartment. One of those touches is these throw pillows.

throw pillows

I made them! Well, I made the pillow cases, anyway. The pillow forms I got from Ikea.

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home improvements

My mom is in town, and it’s been so great! She has graciously been helping around the house and that’s meant lots of cleaning and errand running, and also lots of huge improvements to every day life. I’ll post more of the whole apartment later, but check out the before and after of this not new but definitely improved bookcase!

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Huge difference, right?

this weekend

embroidery display rae's days

fabric rae's days

mirror rae's days

blanket rae's days

bed rae's days

No new embroidery this week, but I did update the display! My mom is in town visiting and the week was full of errand running and getting ready, and now that she’s here it’s full of fun. We are working on my apartment in between running around the city. I got some fabric to make pillow cases for the couch and bed. I got a new mirror for the bedroom that I hope to hang up today. I also got a flamingo blanket that #fatcat likes to nap under. Hope you all are having a great weekend! Doing a lot of work around here, hope to post some updates this week and get back to embroidery next Sunday.

Usually each Sunday I post the embroidery project I am working on to sew some of my favorite quotes from books. Let me know if you have any quote suggestions! You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

embroidery display

all on the wall

No new embroidery this week–instead I got everything I have already done ready to put on the wall above my bed. A few weeks ago I was struggling with what to do above my bed, and I think this might be my new solution.

To get the hoops ready, I first had to paint them.

painted hoops

Then I placed the embroidery back into the hoops and loosely sewed up the back. And then it was time to hang them up!

above the bed

#fatcat helped.

fatcat

It’s been really great to take a step back and see all the work I’ve done so far. I’m really proud of my progress as a new embroiderer and excited to see what I’ve made displayed in one place. I think I can easily add more as I keep going, which was important to me, too.

whole bed

Back to a new quote next week. After my vacation I’m really inspired and am excited to get going on some new quotes!

This is part of an embroidery project I am working on to sew some of my favorite quotes from books and post the images here each Sunday. Let me know if you have any quote suggestions! You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:

design question

I need help. (I mean, it’s not that serious, it’s a decorating problem, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.)

I’ve been obsessed with getting my apartment as close to finished as possible, and I’m a little stuck with the wall in my bedroom.

bedroom polka dots

Ideally, I’d love to hang an elaborately framed mirror above the bed, but I got a little skittish about hanging a heavy mirror in my rented apartment and also paying for a mirror. So I saw these very cheap black circle mouse pad and thought, why not? So I echoed what I did in my living room….

living room

…but in my bedroom. My worry is that it might look a little immature in my bedroom, where it’s large black polka dots and bright colors. On the other hand, it’s a cheap way to build on a polka dot theme and decorate the wall above my bed. What do you think, yay or nay? What else could I do there that will still let me keep my deposit?

Also, I’ve updated the living room since this picture was taken as well. I can’t wait til it’s ready to show you everything. Back to books and crafts and such later on this week, thanks for helping me get this out of my head and taken care of!