Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Toile Around the World, or the Living Room

I have had this fabric in a bag for over 2 years...I bought it because I loved it, originally planning to make curtains. Well, there wasn't enough to make curtains. And, truth be known, I found these fine tab top sailcloth curtains at Ross along with the fleur-de-lis curtain rods and it was a done deal. We also have these ugly, yet functional, bookcases I wanted to spruce up. So, after some serious motivation from two of my favorite blogs, The Nester (queen of window mistreatreatment!) and Notes from a Cottage Industry (she papered the back of her bookcase with pages from a vintage book) the fabulous toile from a few years ago came out of the bag. With some help from Stanleah, a handful of upholstery tacks, and my muscle man husband both of these jobs were done in less time than it would take to sew one curtain.

I almost forgot to take the before photo
Now doesn't that look much better?! I love it and now Muscle Man wants to paint these bookcases, which is FINE with me :)
Before
Tah-Dah!
I have a question for you...I read recently that Living Rooms are on their way "out" when it comes to housing trends, along with stainless steel appliances (which I am actually very happy about since we are about to replace some kitchen appliances and S.S. is hundreds more) Oh yeah, the question....how often do you use your living room?

10 comments:

  1. I thought I had left a comment here yesterday, I am going insane. Love your backs of the bookcases! I am on the prowl for something to back my hutch with and probably will use fabric because that's what I have. I'm gonna pop over to the cottage industry blog, I forgot about her!
    Thanks!

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  2. I love toile! I used the black and white Waverly toile for my family room and kitchen.

    We turned our living room into a study for my husband by adding french doors and closing it off. I have to say we use it much more that way--and we don't have to worry about it being a mess. When company comes, we just close the doors!

    -Julia K :-)

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  3. Hi, Tracey! I just wanted to let you know that I mentioned your blog and linked to your "Hula Bed" post on my Hooked on Houses site today. Thanks! -Julia K :-)

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  4. Hi Ms T, Love your book cases and your curtains. I am going to enjoy reading this, it will be my first nonpolitical blog.
    We have a living room that we rarely use. We thought about making the living and family rooms into a great room, then I started to look at furniture placement, it just wasn't going to work. But we still wanted it to feel more open and to get some light back into the family room. Mr. Bill put his wonderful brain and his sawsall to work, cut the walls down to half walls, created posts, put an oak cap on the halfwall. We still have a living room, family room, dining room but it all looks open, light and airy when you come in the front door. You can also see straight into the kitchen which means I have to keep it clean.
    Oops, I'm rattling.
    Hugs!!

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  5. I saw that about living rooms. We use our's to read in mostly. I also saw something about formal dinning rooms being out. We do use our dinning room. I love to eat at a formal table.

    I do love the toile...looks great!

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  6. Hey Tracey~I hopped on over here from paperjunc when I saw you had a post about toile. I just finished a similar post (I also mentioned the nester! Boy she is getting so popular!) Anyway, in my never ending deliberation of whether or not to toile my living room, which by the way, I am renaming "the library," because like you, all we do is hang out in there with our books, newspaper, bible study and coffee...and...listen to the piano. At any rate, your toile looks fabulous! Glad I discovered your blog...I'm off to add you to my blogroll. :)

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  7. I love the toile! I think I might even love it more painted!

    As for my living room--I couldn't live without it. I pictured ours as a rather quiet place that I could sit and read, then we put the computer in there, and now it's action central! Still, it's nice to have a place that's (usually!) cleaner than my family room to usher people. I also hadn't heard anything about stainless steel appliances going "out"--but boy! they should. What a pain keeping fingerprints off those things. I spied some copper appliances that were to die for, but I bet you'd have the same problem!

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  8. your bookcases look great! i found you from the nester.

    as for living rooms, i love mine. it is a totally me room with a pink couch and pink velvet chair, book cases, pretty shabby chic rug- and no toys:) i dont use it as often as i should, but we read there and drink coffee, and i love using it when friends visit.
    also, i agree SS is on its way out. my mom just renovated her kitchen with a fabulous brushed copper fridge, oven, and dish washer. and a copper sink. it looks amazing and much better then my ALWAYS fingerprinted fridge.

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  9. We never use our living room, especially when we have guests (isn't entertaining what a formal living room was designed for?!)! We spend all our time in our family room. And when we entertain, the guests are always in our kitchen! Our last house in California had a great room, and I loved it. Just one big room of kitchen, dining and couches. That's all I need.

    Your projects turned out great. Very inspiring.

    ~Heather

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