Throw Pillows: It's All in the Mix

Have you heard the Exciting News!? Adventures In Creating is nominated for an Apartment Therapy Homie award! I'm so thrilled! I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd pop over and cast a vote. I feel like the little blog that could!! Thank you thank you!!




So as you may or may not know I've been slowly but surely fixing up our living room. Here are some progress pics:


Initial Plan

Some Progress:

Curtains & Credenza

Coffee Table & Rug

The last big thing I need to do is reupholster the orange chairs in a neutral beige fabric. In the meantime I bought some throw pillows that were on super sale on Fab.com for the couch. 

I like how they break up Big Brown (AKA our couch) and I'd like to add a few more. I also want to get some for our lounge chairs. My problem is that I would like to bring in another accent color so everything isn't either brown or blue.

So I've been debating what sort of fabric. Another large geometric in another color? A colorful pattern? A solid? WHAT?! With so many choice and patterns it's a hard decision to make. So I found some guidelines and thought they were helpful. Turns out there are a lot of ways I could go about this.

1. Large Geometric Pattern + a Solid. The neutral background helps break up the bold pattern and color.

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2. Theme- here the theme of Tribal brings the look together. 

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3. Mixing small and large patterns. In this room they used the same large geometric in 2 different colors, and used a smaller geometric pattern to bring them together. Then the same colors are placed around the room.

Or below a large pattern is paired with a neutral, more textural pattern.

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4. All different patterns, all same color. Here different patterns are mixed together but because they are the same color with a neutral background it works.

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5. All Florals, all the time. Somehow mixing lots of floral patterns together seems to always work.

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6. Opposite colors and bold patterns. Here we have contrasting colors of blue and gold. The bold black and white pattern along with a neutral background helps bring the two together.

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7. Just make it work- as Tim Gunn would say. I'm not sure how these people made these patterns and colors work together but it sure does look good. So I guess when in doubt just break the rules and go with it!

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Now that I have lots of ideas and dream of a throw pillow wonderland- I still have one issue. My husband loves to but his big dirty man feet on my nice pillows! And sometimes even take naps on them if I can't catch him in time. So while I want to add a few more nice pillows to our room I still have a husband and child to contend with.

My best solution has been to keep an old pillow close at hand and try to remind them to dirty that one up instead of our nice ones.

Do you contend with "others" messing with your design plan? How do you feel about throw pillows? Are you minimalist- one or two does the job or maximalist- the more the better?

Pillows for Con's Room

When I was decorating Con-Man's Room before he was born I was inspired by some of the work in the book by Amy Butler "Little Stitches for Little Ones". (Love her fabric!)

I had high aspirations of making several things in the book, the diaper bag, clothes, blocks, ect, but ended up only making this cat pillow from some remnants I had from his bedding.

It was one of the first times I've followed a pattern and I think it turned out pretty good! I hand stitched his mouth and ironed on the eyes. Con- Man loves it and sleeps with it every night.

I also made this patchwork pillow with some other leftover fabric. I think they look good together.

Warming Up in the Cold

I love looking at home decor, and I love a good deal. So I frequent websites like West Elm and Crate and Barrel to see what is in season. Then I head on over to some of my favorite discount stores websites to see if I can find similar products for a better price. 

I wanted to add some more wintery/ fall items to our home but didn't want to spend a lot of money. It doesn't take much to make a difference so I fouced on things that are easily changed from season to season. Here are some things I found.

Warm furry blankets from West Elm$120

Urban Outfitters Option - $58

Bed Bath and Beyond furry goodness- $39

West Elm cozy crochet throws - $69

Target option - $30

Brighten it up with West Elm Metallic Print Pillows - $29- 34

Urban Outfitters alternative - $24

Target - $19

West Elm Crochet pillow and large scale metallic print pillows - $29- 34

 

Urban Outfitters Velvet Crochet Look Pillow - $24

Target Large Scale Print - $24

Suprisingly a lot of the pillows I found were about the same price across the board. So if you love those expensive pillows from West Elm it might be worth shelling out the extra $3-4.

Or you can always make some of you own pillows like I did.

Happy Fall!!





Further Fallification

Since I had such a good time decorating for Fall last week I thought I do a little more this weekend. I've seen a lot of these crocheted pillows around this season and liked them a lot, but as usual I wasn't digging the prices.

Like these at Pottery Barn:

I hit up my local thrift store and found this sweater instead. It was only $3 and in really good shape. 

I still had the sewing machine out from when I was making Con-Man's costume, so I got started right away. I used my existing pillows as a guide to make a pillow cover out of the sweater. I simply laid the pillow inside the sweater and cut around the edges of the pillow.

Then I pinned it and sewed it up! Pretty simple.

Since I want it to be a slip cover I can take off for the spring I didn't sew it completely closed, only loosley hand stiched the opening shut.

Finished! This doesn't take to long and makes a big difference from the spring green I had before.

I was hoping to make at least 2 covers out of the one sweater but there wasn't quite enough fabric for both my pillows. So I'll have to do some more searching and find a second sweater similar to the first one I found. 

Hope you're all having a fantastic fall!

Linking Up to The CSI Project!

Pillow Form

First of all I would like to thank these awesome ladies for featuring me this week. I was so excited!
Crazy Domestic featured my picture hanging technique.
Crystal's Craft Spot featured my stenciled end tables.


Thank you so much!


In my Vintage Chair Rescue post I mentioned that I made the pillow for it. I thought I would go into a little more detail about it today. We've already seen a way to make pillows using batting, this way uses a pillow form.

First either use an old pillow you have but want to change up, or buy a new pillow form. I had one lying around so I just used it. I scored the fabric on clearance for only $3 a yard for outdoor sun resistant canvas! Woo hoo!

Next measure the width of your pillow and add an inch. Then cut he length and multiply by 2.5 and cut your fabric. 

Or if you do "fuzzy math" like me, lay your fabric over the top and bottom of the pillow; right sides together then pin it close to the edges.

Sew it all the way almost all the around leaving about 1/2" seam allowance. Leave an opening in the bottom to insert your pillow in.

Turn the fabric right side out and insert the pillow.

Next fold the raw edges in on each other, pin and sew closed.

And viola! You're done! This only took me about 30 minutes for a custom one of a kind pillow.

Linking up to the

Upholstery Pillows

First off this week I wanted to thank Kim at seven thirty three blog for featuring me during Creativity Week. I was so excited and honored!


In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to recover some pillows that came with my couch; well we had company in town again this week so unfortunately I didn't get around to it. But one of my readers, MalPal, was telling me about some pillows that she had recovered with fabric from a chair she got from the thrift store. So I thought I would invite her to be my first guest poster!

Hello Rachelle, 

 I have a simple easy craft that anyone with a sewing machine can make.  My daughter found a chair cover at the Good Will a few years ago.  It was in her car trunk while she was at college for about a year, then ended up at the bottom of her closet.   She recently got married and moved out leaving her closet for me to clean out.  I picked it up and was going to re-donate it back to the Good Will but had second thoughts.   I wasn’t sure why she picked it up, why she liked it or even what she wanted to do with it.   As I looked at it I realized what a pretty fabric it was.  

The texture is really a nice weight and the flowers have a beautiful stitch.   So I decided to make pillows for her hand me down couch to try and spruce it up.   I was quite surprised that the fabric as ugly as it looked as a huge piece when cut down to pillow size was quite nice.

I lay the fabric out on the floor to see what size pillows I could make with it.  I found that I could make the pillows 16 ½ “ with the fabric on the front and back.   I cut the pillows then stay stitched all around so that they would not fray.   

Then I put right sides together and sewed a ½ “ seem all around (I was trying to make them as large as I could).   I left one side of the pillow with an opening about 4” wide.   Just enough of an opening for my hand to go in and out with the stuffing.   I used 100% Polyester Fiberfill I got from Wal Mart (you can also use shredded foam).  I pulled the fabric through the opening and ironed the seams flat.  

I stuffed the pillow using a little poly fill at a time.  It is easier to adjust it so that it doesn’t clump and become lumpy.   I really stuffed the pillow full so that when you start sitting or leaning on it the pillow will keep its shape.  I used pins to close the opening so I could sew it shut on the machine.   You can also stitch it closed by hand if you like.   Pillows are so easy to make and don’t take up much time.  I liked the pillows so much I am going to see if there is enough fabric left to make me some.   I will most likely have to back the pillow with a matching fabric since there is not much left.   This is another way to stretch your fabric.

Thanks Mal Pal    



Wow! Those turned out great! What a good idea to reuse old fabric. Anyone else score some GoodWill deals lately? I'd love to hear about great ideas from other readers as well!