Styling Bay Window Sills
However, it turns out this feature that we loved about our house is also one of my greatest design challenges. Plainly put, bay windows can be a huge pain in the butt. A while back I wrote a post on different ways to dress a bay window.
For all of you who are in the same boat as me, today let’s talk about what to do with the window sill of a bay. If you’re lucky, your sill is low enough to add a cushion and pillows and call it a window seat. BAM. Done.
However, if your bay is like mine, the sill is so high that it makes sitting a little awkward. My bay window sills are the about the height of a sofa table.
This is what our windows looked like when we first moved here before I primed and painted right over that gorgeous peachy pink tile and orange trim.
Here is the living room bay this past Christmas. (It’s in desperate need of new lamps but I’m having a hard time committing to any.)
I don’t do much with the bays in the dining room, but this one behind the couch just begs for a little vignette, especially during the winter when the garden is not in bloom. Today I’m changing this space up for spring and thought I’d share with you some inspirations for decorating this awkward space.
One thing is for sure about Pottery Barn: their stylists are masters. Since moving here and contending with my windows, I’ve noticed that PB is keen on a couch placed in front of a window, with a well styled sofa table in between.
Notice the PB stylists vary the height of objects and often use fresh greens or flowering branches in their displays.
Do you have a bay window and if so, do you decorate the space?
Wish my family luck that there is anything to eat for dinner tonight, because this is way more fun than food shopping!
xo, Lisa
Why Plants Are Great In Design
{Dracaena is a great plant for blackthumbs – I have had another one for over a decade and have managed to keep it alive through the newborn years, vacations, and outright neglect.}
PLANTS ARE GREAT FOR SPACES THAT ARE GOING THROUGH A TRANSITION
My poor living room has been in a holding pattern for some time. I have some plans for it, but in the meantime a big leafy plant makes the room feel so much more cheery, and fills it up. I recently picked up this fern at Trader Joe’s. I know ferns can be a bit finicky but it is absolutely thriving in the living room window.
Like the dieffenbachia in the dining room, I haven’t found a proper pot for this plant yet – it’s just sitting there all humble in it’s plastic pot, on a dinner plate, minding it’s own business whilst being all fabulous.
Garage Organization | Razor Scooter & Ripstick Storage
Over the years I think I have tried everything to keep my kids’ toys and sporting goods coraled, and if you have kids I’m sure you have too. While the amount of toys in our house have dwindled as the kids have gotten older, a couple things the kids have used consistently through the years are their Ripsticks and scooters. (Do you know what a Ripstick is? It’s kind of like a skateboard but it bends in the middle. I have yet to master it.) At 15 even my oldest will still use these on the driveway when he’s goofing around with his friends. Do your kiddos love them too?
Go outside and play. Forget texting and Instagram and YouTube for half an hour. Get some exercise. Actually interact and laugh with your friends in real life. The scooters and Ripsticks and balls and bats and lacrosse sticks – I am glad to have all this junk crowding my garage because I want the kids to get outside and be KIDS.
The thing about Razor scooters is that they don’t lean very well. If you put them up against a wall they slowllllly roll away from it and fall over. We tried leaning the scooters in our bike rack that is similar to this one:
Garage Organization: Skate & Ski Storage
Our garage is not going to win any beauty contests, but with a little organization this utilitarian space has become really functional for my family of five. This year I’ll be sharing with you some inexpensive ideas that allow us to store all our junk AND park our cars in here.
Let’s start with winter gear, shall we?
I hung the coordinating poles right from the skis too. Now no one is knocking leaning skis over or making life threatening climbs up into the rafters, and even better, MY CHILDREN HAVE NO EXCUSE TO LEAVE THEIR STUFF LYING AROUND THE GARAGE WHERE IT CAN GET RUN OVER BY A CAR OR TRIP THEIR MOTHER!!!!
In this picture below a snowboard is leaning against the wall, but I found a way to hang those too! Check out this post on how I mounted a snowboard on the wall of my son’s room – this little trick would be great for a garage too as it allows you to hang and remove the snowboard easily.
Ikea Wall Light Hack
The gooseneck of the Arstid is similar to the Shades of Light sconce, and I thought the lampshade that came with it could possibly be reworked. At the time I did this project the Arstid only came in this silver finish but now Ikea also sells the same light in a brass finish so all you need to do is revamp the shade!
IKEA WALL LIGHT HACK – HOW TO APPLY AN ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH
Start by removing the fabric from the shade. Work carefully so you don’t dent the plastic shade base.
Some of tape that holds the fabric on at the top and bottom is stitched at the seam – after clipping the stitches it’s easy to remove the fabric tape and material. The plastic shade base is attached to the inner metal frame with stitches also, so be careful not to clip those stitches.
After removing the fabric from the shade base, a bit of adhesive residue remains at the top, and a lot at the bottom. Goo Gone on a paper towel will take off the bit at the top, but is impossible to remove entirely from the bottom of the shade. The photo on the left below shows how apparent the adhesive is after being spray painted, so I went to plan B – cover up the adhesive at the bottom of the shade with painter’s tape.
Place a long piece of painter’s tape on your work surface and slice in half with a utility blade so the strip of tape is only about 1/2″ wide, then place it over the adhesive and wrap it over the edge of the shade. Use your thumb nail to smooth out any wrinkles. This gives the edge of the shade a more finished look when painted.
Next, spray paint. If you didn’t score Ikea’s brass Arstid and are painting the body of the light, cover the lightbulb socket with painter’s tape before spraying all the components with several light coats. Make sure to spray your shade’s inside as well as out. Hold your shade over a lightbulb to see if you have given it good all over coverage, otherwise when you turn on the light you will see imperfections.
“Antique” the gold finish. After everything was dry, I gave all the pieces an antique brass finish like I did on the ping pong ball curtain rods. A tiny bit of black acrylic paint is all you need to tone down the bright gold of the spray paint (right) and give it a little more dimension (left).
To apply the black paint, wet a paper towel and ring it out so it is just a bit damp, then dab the paint on it. The dampness gives you more time to rub the paint on and then off the piece. This is especially useful for applying acrylic paint onto a painted metal surface (like the wall lamp base). On metal too much water makes the paint sit on the surface of metal in little droplets, so jump a slightly damp paper towel is all you need to make the paint easier to work with but not so thin that it won’t stick to the surface.
Wipe the paint onto the piece, and then wipe off to leave a sheer residue of the black over the gold spray paint.
Note: the paint really clung to the tape at the bottom of the shade, and was near impossible to remove. I ended up respraying one shade, letting it dry, and then went VERY LIGHTLY on the tape.
The 3 little stitches that hold the plastic lampshade base to the metal frame at the top are still visible after painting the shades. I thought this, along with the visible tape at the bottom of the shade, would bother me, but once the lights are mounted to the wall those imperfections are barely noticeable.
Install the cord cover. I used an inexpensive plastic cord cover with an adhesive back that I spraypainted along with the light components. For an upgrade you could use a real brass cord cover.
What do you think?
If you like this Ikea hack, don’t miss how I used these same wall lights along with metal planters to make these lights for my daughter’s room!
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