It's Great To Be Home

While there’s no shortage of inspired design out there in the blogosphere, I’m always thrilled when I run across a designer who creates interiors that look like they could belong in a friend’s home (albeit a very design-savvy friend). That’s why my latest design crush is on yet another Canadian designer, Michael Penney of Canadian House & Home.

He first caught my attention a few weeks ago when I ran across an online tour of his kitchen, but once I dug a little deeper I realized that I’ve seen his work all over the place! Seriously, you’ve probably seen and loved at least 10 of his interiors without even knowing it. Do these bedrooms look familiar?

{ The bottom two images are from Penney’s own home. You can tour his entire apartment here. }

I think my very favorite space of Penney’s is this fun and fresh apartment that he created on a serious budget:

Couldn’t you just move right in?

Armed with a little paint, wallpaper and ingenuity, Penney transformed a blank apartment into a swanky space with serious personality. He included great finds from thrift stores, Craigslist, Ikea and even H&M and the result is so unique – quirky, colorful and full of fun. I think my favorite feature of his design is the wallpapered plywood that makes a bold impact in both the living room and dining room.

Here are just a few tips to achieve Penney’s cheap but chic style:

Are you feeling as inspired as I am? Am I the last person on the planet to discover Michael Penney? Got any budget-friendly design tips that you’re dying to share with us? Go ahead and spill the design beans in the Comments!

Image courtesy of Canadian House and Home.

Window treatments can be one of the most frustrating {i.e., annoying} design elements in a room – you have to think about light control, privacy, expenses, style of treatment, fabric choice . . . the list goes on and on! One of my lovely readers is struggling with choosing window treatments for her family room, and wrote in a for a little advice. Here’s her note:

So I have a window dilemma – I think I want to cover the long window in our family room, but with what? I HATE vertical blinds – and that’s the only thing I’ve seen on my neighbor’s houses who have windows like ours. The window isn’t centered in the room, so I think curtains are out – plus I wouldn’t want them to go to the floor since it’s the playroom too. I can’t imagine finding pull down shades that would work since it’s soooo big. And I have a feeling any custom pull down blinds would cost almost a grand. I just don’t want to spend more than a couple/few hundred dollars…. Do you have any suggestions? Should we just keep it open? Do you think your readers would want to chime in? If not, that’s totally fine…just thought I would check with you since you’ve been so helpful in the past! { . . . } ~ Christy

{ P.S. If you haven’t already checked out Christy’s post about her family room makeover, you totally should – it’s awesome! Just click here to scope it out. }

In some followup emails with Christy, I learned that she wanted any window treatments to be functional so that she can completely cover the windows when she wants to. Knowing all that, here are some affordable ideas I came up with to conquer her large {and gorgeous} windows:

1. DIY Roman Shades. I’ve been dying to try this idea ever since Britt made them for her bedroom.

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The basic idea is that Christy would use a length of fabric that extends from one side of the windows to the other, and from the ceiling to the window ledge beneath the windows (treating the 3 panels of the window like one big window). Screw a cup hook near the top of the window frame on each vertical section of the frame (so you’ll have 4 cup hooks in all). Then sew four little rings onto the back side of the fabric panel to line up with the cup hooks – these rings will be used to pull up the shades and let in some light, so think about how much window you’ll want to expose. That’s it! Check out Britt’s blog for even more details.

Drop cloths {like the ones Britt used} would be a great affordable fabric that can be gussied up with ribbon, and the neutral tones would work well with Christy’s furniture – another alternative would be to use one long length of a punchy, graphic fabric like the ones below to play off the beautiful blues and patterns in the space {and remember that you might want to line the shades for extra light control and so that they’re pretty when you see them from outside, as well}.

From left to right, top to bottom. 1. Waverly Sun N Shade Lenox Horizon, 2. Woodland Delight CD4085-Blue Fabric by Paula Prass, 3. Waverly Ellis Turquoise, 4. Premier Prints Giraffe Brown/French Blue, 5. Premier Prints Trellis French Blue/Kelso Brown, 6. P Kaufmann Loopy Lou Robin’s Egg, 7. Woodland Delight DC4084-Blue Fabric by Paula Prass, 8. Shangri-La 3883-22 Fabric by 3 Sisters, 9. Pavilion Indoor/Outdoor by Duralee, 10. Waverly Sun N Shade Outdoor Fabric-Lovely Lattice Lagoon Fabric, 11. Invidgodk in Confetti, 12. Waverly Cross Section Charcoal.

2. Alternate Version of DIY Roman Shades. This version will let you have two different fabrics, like a neutral on the front and a pattern on the back. Instead of the fabric folding underneath itself, you would “button up” the bottom of the shade to expose the patterned fabric on the back of the shade.

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You can check out a more detailed tutorial here.

3. Faux Custom Roman Blinds. Custom blinds are expensive, so why not fake it? The Youngsters do it, and so can you.

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Believe it or not, these custom-looking bamboo blinds {above and below} are just a series of inexpensive blinds hung together to look like a single unit. Can’t tell, can ya?

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Just be sure to keep any cords out of the reach of little ones. And for a more polished look, you can always add a pair of curtain panels or a valance.

So those are my ideas for Christy’s naked window – what about you guys? Chime on in, we want to hear about your solution!

P.S. I loved reading all of your guesses about yesterday’s post . . . you’ll have to stay tuned to find out for sure! :)