Wednesday, April 28, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
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
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Six more wall shelving ideas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
In all we have 12 tips for decorating with wall shelves: Part 1 is 1-6, Part 2 is 7-12.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
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,Janwww.windowbonnets.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Besides the Window Bonnets, I also design and make 3" buttons for all sorts of occasions. My most recent was for an event called the Relay of Celebration--a walking relay of 30 miles by 4 person teams. Our team called the HavaCentury Sneakers was definitely fun. We combined the Lake Havasu of our home town with the "Over 50" age group we competed in and arrived at HavaCentury. Naturally I volunteered to make buttons for our team. But here is the catch. I am not an artist on paper or the computer, but I am a master at listening to my customers (in this case my other teammates), using the internets vast resources and electronic manipulation. 
My fellow "Sneakers" are all women of varied and interesting characters from the IRS tax advisor to the ex-military woman, to customer service rep, to the career professional. Naturally we had to have a great lady represent our team. So I found "the Girl." She appeared while passing through one of the many free clip art sites on the web.She eptimized our fun nature, celebratory attitudes and kicky style. But she just needed more. As I listened to Jackie, Debbie & Mary talking about what they wanted, I though for sure I was in trouble on this one. As a walker symbol she had to have sneakers, Jackie wanted a tiara, Debbie wanted lots more "bling", and Mary didn't like the dark legs, and I certainly wanted some big bold eyes with lots of lashes (like mine).
I had my work cut out for me. I had no idea how to do this. I have Illustrator but can only do the basics as I said I am not an artist with pencil or computer. But.... I do have photoshop so off I went to find the tiara, the bling, the sneakers and the eyes. Several days later and many searchs on the internet, I found all the required items and started transforming "the Girl." As I completed various parts, I showed them to the team. Wow, what a transformation. I present the final "HavaCentury Sneaker Girl!"We used her on our buttons, our shirts and our chase vehicle. In fact we had the award-winning chase vehicle decoration. Each of us did a part in the final creation. Jackie did the red sequined covers for the top lights and our eyelashes, Debbie did the tiara, Mary did the lips, and I did the eyes, side sneakers, and back sign, and my husband, Dave, did the "
sneaker hubcabs". See it below.
OK, so you are probably asking now what this all has to do with home decor, cornices, and all the Window Bonnets stuff. It just points up that you do not have to be an interior designer to do some really cool home decor. With just a minimum of tools, you can create great home decor, one of a kind artwork that makes your home the talk of the neighborhood. Tune in to next weeks blog for the whole scoop!Cheers,Janhttp://www.windowbonnets.com/
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
When you have reviewed all of your window treatment ideas and have determined that you want to decorate with cornice boards to solve that difficult bay window situation …try the magic bending piece available through http://www.windowbonnets.com/.
I feel this is the easiest bay window solution on the market. Just follow these steps to see how easy it is:
Measure from the bend in the wall to the edge of the window on both outside windows ( 1 to 2 & 3 to 4). Measure the center section from bend to bend (2 to 3). Add these measurements together to determine the length of the cornice you will need.
Subtract 32 inches from the total (the length of the two bender pieces you will need). The difference is the length of the kit you will need to order.
Once you have received your materials, take the bending pieces and insert a bracket in each piece about one inch in from both edges. Place the piece up to the wall in the desired location and bend the piece until the brackets are flat against the wall, mark the position for the screws. Mount both brackets for each bender piece. Now measure from the outer edge of each bender piece to where it will end on the other side of the window (basically 2 to 1 and 3 to 4). Then measure the distance between the two benders for the center section. Those are the lengths to build so your cornice will fit perfectly on its bender pieces and end where you design to.
Now pull the bend pieces off the brackets and assemble your cornice treating the bend pieces as straight pieces.
Decorate.
Mount the remaining brackets and hang your cornice starting with the bend pieces in the exact location you had them mounted in before. The fit and angles will be perfect.
Stand back and admire your creative and easy bay window solution. Cheers,
Jan
Window Bonnets
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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By Owner, Window Bonnets
Tucknology is the modern no-effort magic way to make cornice boards with no sewing, gluing or stapling your fabrics to the boards to complete the unique window treatment ideas you have in mind.
If you elect to use the Window Bonnets cornice kit, it’s so simple. The only talent you need is to be able to cut a strip of fabric lay it out on your cornice board base and use the magic tuck tool to complete the project. 
The cornice board form has precut grooves for the three pieces of fabric needed. Just use the tool to tuck the material into the groove and you are done. This works the same whether you want a smooth look, gathered look, pleated look or any combination.
You can enhance the look of your cornice by adding cords, beads, tassels, etc. that have the small bit of fabric attached to them (available at any fabric store). Just use your tuck tool and the precut grooves along with your tucknology skills to tuck the fabric part of the cord to the board. You can even use the back tuck groove for sheer curtains etc… its magic no rods or sewing!
That is Tucknology, no sewing, no special skills yet professional results.
Try Tucknology you will like it and it is a lot of fun!
Cheers
Dave & Jan Klatt
Window Bonnets
