sisal rope art + 3 current obsessions

This post is going to be a bit all over the place, so bear with me! First of all, I attempted to add some height to the room (as I conversed about in the comments here) by doing this project from design*sponge. I really like how it turned out! I have to say though, she wasn't kidding when she said it takes 4-5 hours. It's definitely not a do-it-in-one-day project!

I ran out of rope before I could finish it, but I plan to add more swirly designs to the rope leading down to the "Hello" as soon as I have time. In the next day or two I'll be sharing a super fun craft project that my sister and I collaborated on. We took one very long maxi dress, cut it in half, then .... you'll have to wait and see;) Until then, I'll leave you with a few of my (current) favorite things!

1. Vera Neumann: I've wanted to buy this book since the minute it came out, and I finally treated myself and bought it a few weeks ago:) Now I want to start collecting vintage Vera table and bed linens!

Her designs are just so fresh and happy.

I've had this Vera image/quote as my desktop background on my laptop for ages!

2. An Abundance of Art: I think the organizer/neat freak in me has always said "Don't clutter up the walls. That's bad". Which is funny because I love the look of walls filled with interesting art. I had a bit of an epiphany not long after reading this post full of pictures of Kate and Andy Spade's home on M Crooked Letter. I wrote a comment saying how I wished I could have their art collection, and a few days later I thought, why can't I?!

Ever since then I've been snatching up frames with reckless abandon, and filling them with something I love ... even if it's just a family photo or a little sketch that only took me 5 minutes to draw.

3. Eye-Catching Textiles: While I don't think my love for white walls, all-white bedding and neutral furniture will ever change, my love for accessorizing everywhere with bold textiles just grows and grows.

Wouldn't this Vera Neumann tablecloth look amazing as an upholstered headboard, or even framed as over-sized wall art?

Love this navy ikat lampshade. So modern and vintage looking at the same time.

Okay, so this last example is a bit over-the-top for my tastes, but it still rocks. Go maximalism! (But only when it comes to decor).

my coffee table monster

If you're just joining us, I blogged here about my plans for a coffee table/ottoman creation, and here about this coffee table I bought from Pat's.

The hardest part of the entire project was finding the perfect fabric. I finally found what I was looking for at Anthroplogie in the form of these clearance-sale table runners!

I wanted to chop them up into a new design, so I started by marking the shape of the table top in tape. (My friend's dog Katie was having a playdate with Jemima, thus the large golden retriever in the pictures)

I experimented with different patterns for a while, which was trickier than I had imagined! Once I found one I liked, I cut the fabric accordingly, then bonded it together using iron-on hem tape, then reinforced it by hand-sewing using a very (intentionally) sloppy stitch. But more on that later!

I experimented with button layouts, marked the spots and drilled the holes.

I also gave the legs a good sanding to make it look a little more worn and vintage.

After I upholstered it, I trimmed it in a thick black trim, then did more sloppy hand-stitching all the way around the trim.

Next up, tufting time! I love to tuft:)

One last look at the before ...

 And the after! It's not 100% done, because I'm having a very hard time finding the perfect casters for the feet. They're all either too big, or too tacky! But you can imagine it with little copper wheels all on your own, I'm sure:)

I'm making a colorful-rug-blanket-caster-wood-ottoman-coffee-monster

This coffee table cost us about 28 dollars. We bought it on Craigslist and spray painted it a nice aqua-ish color, and it's lasted about a year or so. But now it's time for this little table to be on it's way, and I have very big plans for it's replacement!

My idea for it is all in my head, and a bit hard to explain, but it's going to be a bit like this ottoman from Little Green Notebook...

a bit like this chair from Anthroplogie ...

a bit like this cushion platform from Urban Outfitters ...

And a lot like something out of Flea Market Style, an amazing coffee table book that my bestie Jilly gave me last year for my birthday:)

Stay tuned to see how (or if) it all comes together:) And check back soon because I have a lot more home projects going on that I'll be posting about soon!

I'm back and ready to blog!

As you may have noticed, I took a little week-long break from blogging. I hope it wasn't too painful a separation for you! LOL;) I have a lot to catch up on, so forgive me if this post is a bit all over the place!

You may remember my little friend Jigsaw, from a few posts back.

I am currently in the process of re-covering him in this print from vintage printable. Will it decrease the terrifying-ness that is my paper mache project? I don't know, but here's hoping! And speaking of vintage printable, does anyone know what happened to it? It seems to be down. I'm gonna cry myself to sleep if it turns out it's been taken down for good!

I have a funny pixie-cut related story for you guys. On Saturday afternoon my husband and I went to South Beach to chow down on some delicious fish tacos. You have to be 21 to get in, and when the guy was checking IDs he looked at mine, then looked at me and said "I gotta be honest, you look wayyy better with short hair". Which was nice of him to say, but sort of hilarious because of course I look better now, my driver's license picture is ATROCIOUS! Don't believe me?

AHHH!!!!! Told you.

 If anyone tries to tell me I'd look better with long hair, at least I know I can whip out my license and instantly change their mind! And if by chance this post is making you crave fish tacos, but you can't get them where you live, you can always tide yourself over by making these:)

In other news, the adorable Mina from Bohemian Vintage was kind enough to ask me to participate in her 10Corners feature! Click here to have a look:) Another feature I've been meaning to mention forever is my interview with my blog-buddy Alaina from Recycled Interiors. Click here to check that out! Thanks Mina and Alaina!

And finally, you all know how head-over-heels I am for this little guy ... well, he has a sibling on the way, and my sweet sister-in-law called me on Friday to tell me it's a GIRL! So excited to meet my first niece (on my family's side) and fall every bit as in love with her as I am with her big brother:)

So that's it for today, but I have lots of fun posts coming up this week, so don't be a stranger:)

After posting my post o' whiny-ness, I decided to forget about the logistics for a while and just focus on the fun part: the decor and general look of the room! I'm no Polyvorina, but this is the little board I threw together as a source of inspiration for myself, as well as a sort of "blueprint" I can reference to make sure I'm staying on track. I also dug around the internet for pictures of some cool home offices, and here are a few of the images I collected from design*sponge's "best of offices" post.

But back to the logistics, yesterday we were driving through an alley when I spotted a long, skinny plank of wood propped up next to a dumpster. I screeched for my husband to stop the car, jumped out to get a closer look, nodded my head decisively, and hauled it home. 

The length of this board is only 2 inches longer than the length of table/desk I'm searching for, so it's absolutely perfect for testing out various furniture arrangements before we actually buy or build a real desk. All I had to do was prop it up on two tray tables and start snapping pictures. It's a faux-desk!  

My first order of business for furnishing this room is finding a bookshelf, though. A few days ago I dumped all of the books out of the suitcase (where they've been stashed since we moved) and onto the guest bed. This was a bad call since that's my favorite place to sit and write/read blogs, but I'm too lazy to move them again so I just work around them:) Hopefully we'll find a cute bookshelf soon, because it's not quite as comfortable a spot with all these books sliding into me!

Although the view from the window is lovely:)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a bookshelf that looks something like this for a reasonable price:

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday! And I also hope you aren't completely sick of hearing about this guest bedroom/home office yet;)

inspiration photos and some updates

I've been a bit slow at posting this week, but I did make a few changes to white waxflower! I've updated the "my style" section, the "meet mary grace" section, added another entry to the "crafts" section, and added a FAQ page. I have a few more FAQ I need to add, and please feel free to email or leave a comment if there are more questions you'd like me to answer! Most of the email questions are people asking where we bought stuff in our house, and I'm sure I left tons of stuff out, so speak up if you want to know where something else came from!

I've mentioned a few times that I make all my own cleaning products, and I've gotten a few questions about that. If I answered them all on the blog, it would take up the entire FAQ page, so I've been thinking of making a video tutorial showing how I make everything. Would you guys be interested in that, if I were to make one? Let me know!

And just in case you don't have it, my email is whitewaxflower@gmail.com

being a copy-cat

I loved this post from BrynAlexandra so much, that I'm taking some of the pictures she used and sharing them with you here. We've got a guest bedroom that has a small bed, a dresser, and a chair, a dust ruffle, euro sham pillows, and bedding! All it needs is a headboard and some art. But after reading this post, I'm thinking I want to let the headboard be the art.

I'm not a fan of lots of red, but this one would be perfect in a green or yellow.

I really, really want to know where to get that fabric.

Love the shape of this headboard.

This room is so perfectly boho-chic. I wanna live in it!