Salt Lake has a local home tour every August called the Parade of Homes.  This picture is from an entryway of one of my favorite homes last year.  Everything in this picture is just so perfect, so sexy.  I wish I had jotted down the designer’s name down so I could give credit where credit is due.

     I’ve always thought this chair was okay.  It’s not my idea of gorgeous and it’s not particularly comfortable.  It is however well-made and it does fit in well with everything in my home (yes, I have had it in every room at one point or another).  It is now in my family room.  I added this pillow last week and now I can’t get enough of it.  I am amazed at how much a little tweak can change a whole room.

     Here are just a few of the photos I am planning to frame and hang in my living room.  All of the photos are of nature scenes and mostly taken on family vacations from the past few years.  There are a few more shots I have in mind to take.  I’ll post a shot of the final product.

     I went to Ikea last Monday and bought some material for drapes for my son’s bedroom.  I love buying material there.  If you haven’t checked out their fabric section it’s worth a look, especially if you’re in the mood  for something funky.  I made and hung the first panel.  I’ll finish the other one tomorrow but I just love the material so much I couldn’t resist posting a photo.

     Here are some pictures of the same basic paint treatment.  All you need is some painters tape, a pencil, and a level.  To paint the high stripes I used the top of the door as my guide.  For the lower stripes I used the bottom edge of the window as my guide.  For this first room I used two colors, blue and green. 

     I started with white walls.  I started my first line level with the top of the door.  After I had used my level to draw a line all the way around the room I put my first tape line up so that the top of the tape was on the pencil line.  After the first tape line was up I measured down eight inches and drew another line around the room with the level.  I placed the second tape line so the top of the  tape was on the pencil line.  I used one inch tape in this room.  When I was done with the second tape line I painted above and below my tape lines blue and in between green.  When the paint was dry I took off all the tape to reveal the white lines.  The walls were textured so I used an artists paintbrush to straighten the lines where the paint had bled under. 

      In this second picture, I used three colors, tan, brown and blue.  I started with white walls in here too.  I lined my first line up with the bottom of the window and taped my fist tape line so the bottom of the tape was on the pencil line.  After the first line was taped, I measured eight inches up and drew my second line.. I also lined the bottom of the tape on the line.  I used two inch tape for this room.  When I had the tape up I painted brown below, tan up top and blue in the middle.  These walls were smooth so I had minimal touch-ups.

      In this last room,  I started with tan walls and added red stripes.  I again made my first line even with the bottom of the window sill.  I used two inch tape above and below the lines to better keep the red inbetween the lines.  I placed the top of the tape on the pencil  line.    I measured up one inch and drew my second line with the level.  I used one inch tape lined up so the bottom of the tape was on the pencil line.  After that was all taped, I measured up three inches, drew my line and taped so the bottom of the tape was on the line.  I measured up one inch and drew another level line around the room.  My last line of tape was a two inch tape.    Before I painted the red I painted between the tape lines the same tan that was already on the walls so the tan would bleed between the lines and not the red.  After the tan I used a tinted primer so the red would go on more evenly.  Then finally I painted the red and took the tape off.  Nice clean straight lines.