Throw Pillows | It's Great To Be Home

Napkins & Placemats & . . . Pillows?

October 23, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

On Monday, I teased you guys with a little sneak peek of our den which has undergone a bit of a transformation. While I’m not quite ready for the big reveal (whew, there are still a lot of things to do!), I thought I’d show you guys how I jazzed up the sofas and added lots of color to the room.

I knew that I wanted new throw pillows on our sofas – the old Pottery Barn ones were fine, but I’d tired of the tan and red color scheme and started craving something a little more exciting.

See? Nice, but nothing to write home about. But I knew that I didn’t want to buy 7 brand new pillows, which could easily have run at least $200 – ouch! So, I got a little creative.

I was at Crate & Barrel the other day picking up a wedding gift for a friend when I spied these funky napkins and matching placemat. It was instant love, and I knew they could be transformed into some awesome pillows for our den. I stopped by the fabric store on the way home and snagged some gorgeous teal linen, and then I got to work!

I spread the project out over a couple of nights and made 4 20 x 20 pillows and a long 12 x 36 lumbar pillow for the oversized chair. I’m thrilled with how they turned out!

Here’s how you can whip up a brand new look for your space with just a few napkins and placemats:

1. Take stock of what you already have. I priced out new pillow forms for my pillows and they ran about $10 a pop! I did find a better deal at Ikea ($2.99), but I didn’t want to make the 45 minute trek to our local Ikea. So, I just reused the old pillows and covered right over them! They look just the same as new pillow forms, and it saved me some dough. And when it comes to fabric, look through your stash of napkins, placemats, and leftover fabric to see if you have anything that you could turn into a pillow cover – not only will it make you feel awesome to find a use for your old fabric, but it can keep some extra coin in your pocket.

2. Snag your fabric. In my case, I didn’t have any fabric or napkins on hand that struck my fancy so I bought some new goods. When I bought the napkins and placemat, I already knew that my pillows needed to be 20 x 20, so I was able to make sure (before I bought them) that the new napkins were the right size to cover my pillows. And have a little fun while you’re at it – pillows are a great place to take chances since you can make them so affordably, so play around with pattern, color and texture!

3. Put it all out there. In the case of the lumbar pillow, I knew that I was going to use both the placemat and some of the teal fabric to create the pillow cover. After I split the two sides of the placemat apart using a seam ripper, I laid one piece of the placemat across the middle of the original pillow cover – that way I could measure how much of the teal fabric I would need for each side.

4. Pin and sew. Once all the pieces were cut, I just pinned the teal fabric to each side of the placemat – at that point, I had two long strips, each constructed out of teal fabric then the placemat and then more teal fabric. Then I used my sewing machine to create the seams and connect the teal fabric to the placemat. The next step was to sew the two long strips together to create the pillow cover – you’ll want to pin the pieces together with the finished side of the fabric facing in:

5. Flip it. I sewed each of the 3 sides of the pillow and about a third of the way across on each corner of the fourth side – when I flipped the pillow cover right side out it looked like this:

The whole reasoning behind leaving part of the fourth side open is that it lets you put your pillow into the pillow cover without having to sew in a zipper. Alternatively, you could create an envelope enclosure, tie the unfinished side closed with ribbons, or close it with buttons.

6. Finish it off. Now you can go ahead and shove your pillow into the pillow cover! The last step is to hand sew the rest of the fourth side closed – and now you’re done!! Go enjoy your fabulous new pillow.

So there’s my quick tip on how to DIY your way into a spiffed up new space. Got any tips for us?

This post is shared with DIY Day on A Soft Place to Land.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful

August 3, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 22 Comments

How is your outdoor space looking these days? When we first moved into our house, the back patio was a sea of Astroturf and prison bars:

And even after we took down the bars, scraped up the Astroturf, and demolished the little brick wall, the covered patio was cute but could use a little jazzing up, don’t you think?

(As you can see, this pic was taken before we laid new sod in the backyard.)

I love the wicker furniture and the outdoor rug does a great job of anchoring the seating area, but it’s just not too exciting. Or, I guess I should say, it wasn’t too exciting! Take a look at that baby now!

Mmmm, I love it!! And the best part is that this total transformation was super easy – I’m talking 15 minutes.

All I did was add a pair of curtain panels from Ikea, as well as two Ikea throw pillows. Not too shabby for under 70 bucks, right?

It was super easy to hang the curtain panels – no curtain rods or fancy supplies needed! In fact, all you need are a few nails, a hammer and a ladder. Here’s how I did it:

1. Fold’em. My curtain panels were super long and super wide – and they were lined on the back (pretty fancy for Ikea, right?). Since they were longer than I needed, I simply folded down the top of the panel about 4 inches. Then, because I wanted my panels to look pretty from both the patio and the backyard, I just folded them in half length-wise. That way the pattern is visible from all sides! I didn’t worry about the panels becoming too skinny – I simply wanted them to frame the patio to give a little visual interest, so they didn’t need to be super wide or even functional. Just pretty and fun.

2. Pleat and nail. Now comes the fun part! Our patio is covered, and there’s a little soffit that hangs down right at the edge of the patio (you can kind of see it in that first picture with the curtains). I decided to hang the curtains from that soffit, so once I was up there on my ladder I just started nailing! I began on the inner edge of the curtain – closest to the brick – and nailed right through the fabric (and all the folds) with a pretty long nail. Then, since I wanted my curtains to be rather narrow, I folded the fabric back over itself and put in another nail about 1.5 inches from the first nail – this created a little pleat in the curtain that resulted in a pretty fold. I kept pleating and nailing until the whole curtain was secure, and that was it!! Super easy!

As for choosing the fabric, I saw these curtains at Ikea and just went for them. I knew they would work perfectly with the greens and browns in the patio furniture and the outdoor rug, and the pattern is summery and fun but could also work in the winter. But we’ll see, maybe I’ll switch it up for winter!

And for those of you that are interested, Ikea also sells a track system that would be perfect for installing functional outdoor curtains – I bought it myself to add some mosquito netting, but it turned out that our patio is pretty mosquito-free!

I’ve been really pleased with how the patio turned out – it really feels like an extension of our home and is a fabulous place for morning coffee, entertaining friends, or just kicking back and listening to the birds.

What do you guys think? Have you created an outdoor room at your house?

P.S. I’d like to give a big shout out too all the lovely readers that swung by the open house at the flip yesterday – Lucinda, Kristina, Desiree, and Jen, thanks so much and it was awesome to meet you!!

This post is shared with DIY Day on A Soft Place to Land.

Turns Out You Can Have Too Much Green

March 26, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

I’m ashamed to admit it, but the floor in our den is naked. We used to have a beautiful oriental rug in there (on gracious loan from my parents), but it recently found a new home in our dining room. After a few weeks of cold tootsies, I went out on the prowl for a new 8 x 10 rug to cozy up our den.

After searching for awhile, last week I read about how the nifty homeowners over at Young House Love got an awesome deal (i.e., $34) on a snazzy, striped jute rug for their kitchen from The Company Store. This information got me all atwitter so I decided to check out The Company Store to see if it has any cheapo (yet awesome) 8 x 10 rugs – turns out they do!! I immediately fell in love with these babies:

These “Mirage“ rugs are an absolute steal at $143 for an 8 x 10 (plus $25 shipping), and the cotton rag material is casual yet chic and perfectly soft underfoot - I knew one of these gems was going to be mine. But which one??

I have a slight obsession with the color green, so I was instantly drawn to the chartreuse rug – but the rust rug is an awesome shade of orange and the red rug would coordinate perfectly with the throw pillows from Pottery Barn that we already have in the den. See?

Such a serious decision!!!

After much debating and convos with the hubby, I decided on the chartreuse. I know, the red rug would have matched the pillows, but I’d been wanting some new pillows so the chartreuse rug presented the perfect opportunity for a little updating. Now I just had to wait a week for this spunky guy to be delivered!!

This fun package was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday:

After I snipped it open, the kitties couldn’t wait to get their little paws on it – here’s Lexie waiting to pounce on her big fat brother:

Of course, I soon realized that what looked like a springy, cheerful green on the website photo was semi-blinding in person. No worries, I’m sure it will calm down once it’s in place under the tan couches, right?

No such luck. Too much green is too much green.

This sucker is going back, and I’m sad – such a great deal!!! I haven’t lost hope for The Company Store, though – now I have my eye on some of these fun (and ridiculously cheap) goodies from their Clearance section – all under 50 bucks!!

: Wire Stools

: Adirondack Cushions

: All-Weather Wicker Ottoman

: Contemporary Lanterns

: Contempo Table

: Mercury Glass Candleholders

: Metro Storage Bench

: Retro Ogee Rug

: Tribeca Storage Ottoman

: Urbino Ottoman

: Cancun Table

(Ok, so that last one’s not under $50, but it’s pretty darn close – only $58, and how cute for a patio!!)

Had any similar “whoopsies” where the item that arrived didn’t quite match the picture you had in your mind? Hopefully I’m not the only one to make that mistake . . . What do you guys think – am I making the right decision by sending the rug back? Got any ideas for a rug that would look great in our den? Can’t wait to hear what you think!

Images courtesy of The Company Store.