Copy That
Make Your Own West Elm Day Bed
Ah-mazing!
I have long longed for not only one but two of West Elm’s iconic and graphic white day beds for our guest bedroom. But the $449.00 price tag I was not longing for. That’s a lot of pupperoni and these things right here - which I am also longing for. Someone tell my husband.
These beds are pretty versatile pieces that definitely don’t have to be used as beds. Check out this day bed turned sectional combination from the latest issue of Do It Yourself Magazine.
This DIY savvy homeowner, Kyle, just shortened the legs on her three beds and turned them into super stylish and cozy sofas. Love it.
And now thanks to the girl power (yes I just typed that) that is Ana White you can make your very own West Elm daybed – for much less than $449 plus shipping and sales tax. Cha-ching!
The plans are free and her site is great because in addition to showing you how to put the bed together she also offers detailed diagrams along the way with both shopping and cut lists so you have to do zero math. You can also download printable pdf instructions for each item. Cheapo West Elm beds, a new project and a pdf download – my inner DIY computer geek may explode.
How amazing is that? Anyone else doing the happy dance right now?
If you make one we want pictures!
We Swear We Didn’t Know
But for some reason we feel more accomplished now that we do.
What in the heck are we talking about? Our curtains of course.
We definitely have curtains on the brain around the Whited casa, with a few more posts coming your way soon about even better ideas for making your own designer-looking curtains. But in the meantime we had to share the designer version of our DIY bedroom curtains that we stumbled upon online this weekend.
For a refresher, here are our curtains which we made and hung ourselves without sewing a stitch. See how you can do it too by clicking here.
Here’s another view of the pattern, we purchased the fabric at Mary Jo’s Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC for about $8 a yard.
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was perusing some of my favorite blogs and stopped by Emily Clark’s blog for a minute. She’s a designer in Charlotte and we’ve talked about how much we love her style in this past post. Being the snoop that I am, I was curious to check out the images of her own home online and stumbled upon these pictures of her home office.
Doesn’t she have p-e-r-f-e-c-t, and oddly familiar curtains?
Because Mrs. Clark resides in Charlotte, I would bet that we even bought the fabric at the same shop – and that we’d be best friends if we knew each other in real life. Too far? Well you get the idea.
We love the white furniture, dark plum walls and fun colors she used throughout the room. We can’t handle the dark walls in our bedroom, as we’ve established, but her other furnishings give us high hopes for the big impact our little curtains could make. Be sure to check out Emily’s blog on the regular – it’s a super good one.
Photos: Emily Clark
Reader Shout Out: Chalkboard Rocks
Right after the holidays, you’ll remember one little lady who was super stoked about her Pottery Barn gifts cards and even mentioned trying to DIY some of the store’s chalkboard rock vase fillers. On a side note, I still have those PB cards burning a hole in my pocket. Yes, we are the weirdos that “save” gift cards.
Photo: Pottery Barn
I’m even more ready to keep savin’ those cards and to make my own vase fillers after receiving a message from one of our readers in Seattle – so exciting right that someone a million states away reads our little blog? Bernadette just made some of her very own, for way less than $4 a rock. And of course this project is totally easy peasy, but if you want a detailed run down check out her blog B3 Home Designs for all the deets.
Photos: B3 Designs
Didn’t these come out great! We’re so happy that Bernadette shared. Our pups have their marching orders now – to scour the back yard for smooth, paintable stones. Chop, chop guys.
Are you proud of a DIY project you’ve finished? Share it with us and we’ll be sure to shout it out here. Want to see what else you can do with chalkboard paint? Try this at home.
Copy That: A Breakfast Nook With Southern Charm
It’s been a few months since we’ve popped in with a new copy-cat inspiration room so we thought it was about time to share some more dining room love, since that seems to be our favorite room to copy.
Here’s some inspiration straight from the pages of Southern Living.
Why do we love it? Hello! Look how cozy but clean it is.
We love the bright light and white walls and cabinetry but the inexpensive and family friendly furnishings really make the room something achievable for anyone. Maybe we just love it so much because we have the same IKEA chairs in our dining room.
Here’s what we would suggest to get the look, adding your own built in wall bench and some DIY artwork.
- Lots of fun fabrics in yellows, greens and greys. We like the mixing of bold graphic patterns with florals.
- LERAN Pendant Lamp from IKEA
- Tuscan Urn from Pottery Barn
- Avalon Dining Table from Crate and Barrel
- Margarita Ticking Stripe Rug from Dash and Albert
- MAJBY Wicker Chair and Cushion from IKEA
Something to note that we’d also add? A cushion for the window seats. We love all the layered fabrics of the pillows but for real everyday use our bums would need some relief. We’d go for a wide pale yellow stripe. Also it’s hard not to have a window covering in our casa, so we’d add a white roman shade just for privacy but to keep with the light and bright theme.
Got a room you love and what to know where to find the same vibe? Send us a pic and we’ll get crackin’ on it – we love a challenge. Need ideas? Check out our other copy-cat mood boards here.
We Can See Clearly Now
We’ve been shopping around for awhile now looking for that perfect lamp to include in our guest bedroom. The lamp featured in our Better Homes and Gardens inspiration photo, check that out here, is the Zak lamp by Crate and Barrel.
As much as we love the Crate and the Barrel we didn’t love the $229 price tag attached to the the Zak Lamp. With no luck finding a copy cat at Target, Home Goods or World Market we started thinking more creatively.
It only took a few minutes to realize that we could make one of these puppies pretty easily – so that’s exactly what we did.
How’d we do it?
Step One: Find a vase that you can flip upside down and drill a hole through. We already had a drill bit specially made for glass and tile, and we picked up a large glass vase for $7.99 from T.J. Maxx.
Step Two: Once you’ve drilled through the vase, run a clear wire through the vase and out the the top of the hole you’ve drilled and attach a socket set to the wiring. We secured our socket set into the hole we drilled and reinforced it with super glue. The socket set and wiring cost $5 for both at True Value.
Step Three: Attach your shade and light bulb. We used the lamp shade off our living room floor lamp and then bought a larger shade for the floor lamp. A small shade will run you about $10.
For less than $25 we made our own version of the Zak Lamp that looks just as lovely. It is a more appropriate size for where it sits in the room – and we’ll be able to buy groceries for the rest of the month. Score and score.
Copy That: An Easy Breezy Living Room
We’ve moved on from dining rooms for this installment of Copy That. Today we have a living space that is a bit small, but comfortable and high on style – all while staying totally livable.
Here are our thoughts on making this room your very own. All of these pieces are really neutral and relatively easy to find. We’ve listed our sources but if we were going for this look in our home we’d totally hit up Craigslist and Home Goods before heading to the chain stores.
The board can only be so big, so we’ve left out some of the details that are still really important. This room has pops of sunshine in the oversized floral pillows and in the candle holders on the console table. The greenery on the dining table and console also give big impact. We’d totally grab those branches from our backyard like we did in this post.
The reflection on both walls really brightens up this room, so although we only added the full length mirror to the mood board, we’d also suggest a mirror at the entry way or if you are going for the EXACT look, a mirrored entryway bench and coat rack painted white. You can usually find these pretty easily on Amazon.
1. Paint Colors by Martha Stewart. Beach Sand for the walls and Avocado Peel for the doors. Blue ticking stripe fabric for the pillows, from Etsy. 2. Metal Floor Mirror from West Elm. 3. Alexis Ceramic Table Lamp from Pottery Barn 4. Willow Sofa from Crate and Barrel 5. Antique Bronze Floor Lamp from Crate and Barrel 6. Morgan Chair from Ballard Designs 7. Martini Side Table from West Elm 8. Channing Console Table from Crate and Barrel 9. Alexis Leather Ottoman from Crate and Barrel 10. Bamboo Roman Shades (just like ours!) from Amazon 11. Sisal Rug from Overstock
Gotta room you l-o-v-e but don’t know where to start looking for the goods? Give us a shout and we’ll hook you up with some ideas.
Photo: Robbie Caponetto and Rex Perry for My Home Ideas
