Finding Your Fabrics

Where to go to find fabrics? The obvious are places like Hancocks, JoAnne’s, Home Fabrics, and other discount fabric stores. All the major cities have a wealth of places not only for fabrics but also trims.

However, not all my customers live in large cities. Some, like me, are in small towns with few resources to fabrics. Recently our only fabric store that carried fabrics other than quilting ones closed so what to do now. Like I say keep saying “get creative.” Here are a few suggestions:

Wal-Mart, some have a fabrics section with a surprising variety including trims.

Look for drapery panels, J.C.Penneys, Big Lots, Wal-Mart, K-mart. You might be surprised what you find in the various nooks and cranny’s of these stores.

It may sound silly, but decorative bed sheets may be perfect for guest rooms, kitchens, and dens.

Then, of course, you have the internet. This opens up the world but my problem is that I need to see and feel the fabric. Most places offer to send you samples either for free or just $1.00 per sample. The high end fabric houses may charge from $4-$7 even 10 for sample, but generally speaking it is for a large 8 x 8, or 10 x 10 inch sample and the price on those fabrics can run up to $60 or more dollars per yard.
For some of the more economical home décor fabrics take a look at these sites:


In the meantime, open your mind, look about your town, you just never know when the perfect fabric will find you in an unexpected place.

Cheers,

Jan

Decorating with Wall Shelves--Part 2


Six more wall shelving ideas.

  1. Personalize a child's space. Hang a long display ledge with a plate groove above a crib or child's bed, but out of reach of the child. Place over-sized alphabet cards in the plate groove; spell out your child's name or a clever saying.

  2. Show off your prized possessions in a unique way. Install several corner ledges in the corner of your dining room or living room to display small, special items.

  3. Make reading more accessible to your children. Place display ledges that have a lip low to the ground in a child's room. Stack books on the shelf, so that the front covers face outward.


  4. Frame your entire room with shelves. Hang wall shelves near the ceiling around the entire perimeter of a game room or child's room. Place toy trains, doll collection, baseball collection or other memorabilia on the shelves for an instant "theme" room.

  5. Add a little sparkle to your decor. Place a deep wall shelf above your bar or high up in your kitchen to display your beautiful wine glasses or rarely used glassware. Reinforce your wall shelves into wall studs for extra sturdiness.

  6. Decorate in unexpected places. Hang a wall shelf above your doors or windows to display holiday decor, such as your collection of snowmen, ceramic jack o' lanterns or Americana.

Decorating with Wall Shelves--Part 1

In all we have 12 tips for decorating with wall shelves: Part 1 is 1-6, Part 2 is 7-12.
  1. Use wall shelving to create a unique, custom wall sculpture. Centersmall wall ledges above and below a larger shelf to create a circular "sculpture." Or hang four ledges of the same or various sizes in a column aligned on the left or right side, spaced approximately three to five inches apart.
  2. Use wall-mounted shelves as contemporary wall bookshelves. Hang five or six deep ledges of the same length on the wall approximately 10 to 12 inches apart. Or choose multi-tiered decorative wall shelves as another creative display option. Arrange a few books, vases and picture frames on the shelves for a very modern, clean look. Cover your books with simple, monotone paper for a uniform look.
  3. Create a low-cost blackboard in your home office, child's room or kitchen. Paint a wall or section of a wall with black chalkboard paint. Hang a wall ledge near the bottom of the chalkboard to hold colored chalk and an eraser. A great decorating idea for a child's bedroom!
  4. Hang a wall ledge above an unused fireplace as a makeshift mantle. Decorate your new mantle with coordinating candle holders or picture frames. Note: wall shelves are not recommended for working fireplaces.
  5. No fireplace? Hang a long, deep wall shelf above your sofa. This makes a great place to display picture frames and other table accents in your living room. For the holidays, decorate it with holiday stockings, evergreen garland, battery-operated lights and glass ball ornaments.
  6. Put a new twist on framed wall art. Rather than hanging your wall art, lean your framed art atop a wall shelf that has a lip. Arrange shelves at varying levels or hang a multi-level decorative wall shelf unit. For more visual interest, stagger your artwork so that one or two smaller prints sit in front of a larger piece. Be sure to install the shelf in wall studs, and reinforce large or heavy artwork by attaching it to the wall.

Cheers,
Jan

Decorating Without any Creative Skills

Last week I talked about my creative works with my buttons and showed you how I created our HavaCentury Sneakers mascot. Now let’s translate that to your doing some real creative works in your home. All you need is some paint, a projector and an image.

The mural shown above was accomplished without any true artistic skills. Here is what you do. Print off a copy of the image you want on your mural. In this case a tree. Determine where in your home and how big you want the mural. Use painters tape to mask off the wall area and paint on your background color. Let it dry.

Next get the projector, it can be rented if necessary, and project your picture onto the wall. Move it closer or farther away to get the image at the desired size. Now pencil around the edges of the tree branches and using a fine tipped brush, fill in the color for the tree branches.

Our example is very simple, but we have one Window Bonnets customer who actually did a picture of an old California monastery building!


There you go the magic of creation without a single artistic bone in your body! Amazing what a little imagination can produce. My customers are always amazing me!

Cheers,
Jan
www.windowbonnets.com

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