★ House of Many Hues ★

Hoarding Light Bulbs

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:44:45 +0000

The other day I was relaxing with one of my magazines (not sure which one) when I came across an article on Bunny Williams. If you don’t know who Bunny is, the easiest way to explain it is that she is to interior design what Martha Stewart is to food. Anyway, the article was discussing her habit of buying and stashing away light bulbs – like hundreds of them. I was intrigued. She wasn’t alone in this movement of what appeared be a mad dash at buying up what seemed to be not so unusual looking light bulbs. Were these light bulbs being discontinued? There were two particular bulbs that were discussed. One was a crown bulb – these are the light bulbs you sometimes see at restaurants. They look like a regular light bulb dipped in silver. The second was a soft pink light bulb made by Sylvania which apparently gives off a beautiful and warm light.

I dug a little deeper and found out something some of you may be interested in – especially since lighting is important in design. Apparently there is a newer Federal Energy standard that plans to phase out certain incandescent light bulbs (such as clear, soft and frosted ones just to name a few) over a period of a couple years. OMG. The time period for this phase out was suppose to begin January 1, 2012 (that’s like now) through January 1, 2014. So why not just make energy improvements to these bulbs? Reason is that these bulbs would never be able to meet the new standards. Gosh, I hope the movement isn’t going toward compact florescent (I hate the lighting from those bulbs!). Anyway, these energy efficient standards are nothing new (except to me) and are sweeping across the world. One guy from France complained that the soft pink light bulbs were no longer on the shelf and difficult to find.

The mention of a pink light bulb sounded so charming that I did a quick search and found some of the Sylvania ones on Amazon (here). I placed my order and now wait for my magical bulbs. Who knows, if they are as fantastic as they sound, I too may horde a few. Hee, hee!

If you’re interested in learning more about this energy standard and how it may affect you, I found a good overview here.

Images: Budget Wise Home

Curtains and More Curtains

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:02:59 +0000

Prior to the start of the weekend, I promised myself that I would finalize the fabric for the sofa I’m about to get re-upholstered. I finished all of my experiments and was satisfied with the results. So I grab the credit card and placed the order! Yay! The fabric should be delivered in about a week since it was a special order. The cost of the fabric was nearly $400. But before you cringe at the price, I did order a high end commercial grade fabric. There were MANY options available that were much cheaper, but my hope in using a commercial grade fabric is to never need to re-upholster this sofa again. Time will tell.

Once I got the sofa fabric out of the way, I felt energized to work on my basement windows that have desperately needed some dressing up. I know I have mentioned this a few times before and never seem to get anywhere with it. I somehow found myself stuck with what to do with two of the four windows. Many months ago, I bought two double rods and put them up on the windows that face south. I was really lucky and came across some garage sale finds – linen curtains that were the right size for these rods and the right price – $1 each. And that’s as far as I got. Well, I’m happy to say that not only a decision was made but orders were placed. The two east facing windows will be getting 2” faux wood blinds in white (you’ll be surprised where these are coming from), while the south facing windows will get the top rod (of the double rod) finished off with some velvety curtains. Have I mentioned how much I heart velvet?

If you didn’t already lose all respect for me when I mentioned the Tori Spelling book I purchased, then I might be walking on a very thin line when I tell you that I bought the blinds from Wal-Mart. After doing some research on 2” faux wood blinds, the reviews from the Wal-Mart ones rose to the top. Over and over I read how people had purchased more expensive blinds from other sources and found these to be superior. The blinds have a 4.7 star rating out of 5 with 200+ reviews (you can check it out here). Pricing was also a plus at $39 each – an unbelievable price for windows that are rather large. Then for the icing on the cake – shipping to my house for both blinds was only $2.99. Did I win any of you back?

Sources:

Sofa fabric – Decorative Fabric Direct

2” Faux Blinds – Wal-Mart

Velvety Curtains - Curtain Works

Images: House of Many Hues (CurtainWorks Ad)

Massage + Magazines

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:20:18 +0000

Hello peeps! I hope that your week is coming to a wonderful close. I know mine was rather busy but I did manage to have one day where I spent time on myself. Not often does it happen that I set time aside with no husband, no kids – just me. Part of my me day included a massage and what a treat it was. Danielle, my assigned masseuse, worked on all the knots in my upper back and kept a Zen like atmosphere for me throughout the session. Her soft words reminded me that it was time to relax and enjoy. I also managed to hit up a used book sale at my local library and load up on books (even some audio ones), magazines, and CD’s. Some titles included were Martinis, Food & Home Entertainment Cookbook One, Moving On, some House Beautiful mags, and more. I’m ashamed to admit that I did also buy Tori Spelling’s latest book. Stop, I can hear your disappointment and judgments. I’m not trying to justify the purchase but for some reason when watching her tv show, Tori &Dean, I am continuously intrigued by her candid honesty and the dysfunctional life she leads – just like the rest of us. Let’s just file this book under ‘Entertainment’, shall we? Nevertheless, I discovered for the first time that my ‘me’ day was spent 100% guilt free. This has NEVER happened since having kids.

OH my, do I love the table on the cover of this House Beautiful magazine above. I think I’ll be curling up with this one tonight – an awesome find at the library for only .25 cents.

Images: House of Many Hues

Adventures with Fabric

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:50:14 +0000

My latest project involves performing experiments on fabrics by intentionally spilling liquids on them. Why would I do that you ask? Well, I shall tell you. A few years ago, I bought a down-filled sofa off of Craigslist for $300. Before ever physically seeing the sofa, I knew I was going to be in for something special. When we arrived, we drove up the driveway to a home (estate) that must have been worth in the millions. I’m not joking – at one point I thought we were at the wrong house. Why would these people post anything on Craigslist? This gorgeous home boasted 9 bathrooms and over 8,000 sq. ft. Ok, back on topic (I could go on about this home). Once we got the sofa to home, I was able to trace its origins to a super high quality line. With the information I was able to gather, my guess is was that it was originally purchased for thousands of dollars. It’s got beautiful lines that are classic and ever so solid construction. However, while the fabric is durable and in good shape, the color does not go well in my home (I kinda knew this buying it). So now I am working on having it re-upholstered and selecting the right fabric is tricky.

If you’ve never researched upholstery fabrics, you may not know that the majority are non-machine washable – not so great when you have two kids under 4. In fact, many even stated that only “non-water solvents” are to be used when cleaning. What are non-water solvents? Does that mean dry-cleaning? I contacted one of the upholstery manufacturers and asked, “So what happens if you spill water or juice on your fabric?” Silence. I guess no one has asked her this question before. She didn’t really have an answer (or want to say). She did mentioned that it might leave a water ring or that the fabric could shrink. I then asked, “What if I machine washed the entire fabric before it’s used for re-upholstery?” Again, no real answer. So I’ve setup a series of experiments in which I spill various liquids (that are likely to spill) on my sample fabric. I’ve left the spills to sit overnight and so far the results are quite favorable. But the ultimate test will be running it through the wash.

Some of the fabrics I’m exploring are from:

1. West Elm

2. Pottery Barn

3. House of Fabric

4. Fabric Guru

5. Inside Fabric

Images: House of Many Hues

Furniture + Updates + More!

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:07:09 +0000

There has been a lot exciting things going on the last few weeks at the House of Many Hues home! I’m not exactly sure where we left off so excuse me if my updates are a bit all over the place.

After much thought and many quotes, we have decided to hold off on getting a deck this year. We could have changed up our design, reduced the overall size, switched to a cheaper material all to reduce the cost but my husband said something one evening that made a lot of sense. “Let’s enjoy our patio this summer and not give up on what we want”. And so, I’ve decided (for now) to let it go and save up the additional funds to try and build the deck we want next year.

I believe I’ve mentioned before that at one point many years ago I use to refinish wood furniture. I have never really been able to completely let go of the satisfaction of watching a piece go from grungy to gorgeous and so I’m back in the game! This has been on my mind for some time but due to transportation limitations (we do not have a pickup truck) I was never able to easily rescue these pieces. While we didn’t buy a truck, we did purchase a trailer which works just as well and was a much cheaper solution. I plan to post these beauties on the House of Many Hues Facebook page (here) which I finally got around to setting up! In addition to furniture, I will be posting home related items for sale – some of which are from my home. So if you have some time or are curious, stop on by!

(The pic above is my latest buy. I am undecided on which lampshade to use but I’m leaning on the one in the picture).

I’m also working on the next House of Many Hues Newsletter (if you missed the last one, you can still check it out. It’s located on the right side of the site). To ensure that you don’t miss out, make sure to sign up with your email (top right side of the site). I want to send thanks to everyone that sent supporting words regarding the Newsletter. One suggestion that came up a few times was that it wasn’t long enough and that they wanted more material! To be honest, I was a bit worried that the Newsletter was on the longish side so this makes me feel a little better. Anyway, for now the format will stay the same.

Ok, that’s enough updates. How are you doing?

Images: House of Many Hues

And the Giveaway WINNER is….

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 02:31:51 +0000

Today is the day that the winner for the book giveaway is selected. Thank you all for your emails, submissions, and kind words! Using the random number generator, the number 6 was pulled. Our winner for the [the nest] home design book is… (drum roll) … MaryBeth C!

Thank you for all your continued support!

House to Home Bedrooms

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:16:19 +0000

Hello Peeps! Oh my, was this weekend ever so busy and dramatic! Not to mention, the week hasn’t been any different. I don’t think that we’ve had one this jam packed in a long time; with activities going all the way up to late Sunday evening. Much of our time has been spent preparing our previous home for leasing out. While I think we’ve accomplished a lot, I don’t feel very rested. To make matters worse, next week is also filled with tons of appointments and things to do. Ugh. So is life. And so my mind has been on bedrooms and the fantasy of just laying around and doing nothing. Here are some sleeping beauties…

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter the House of Many Hues giveaway! Take a look here.

Images: House to Home

Blog Spotlight – Hilda’s Hem

Kristina @ House of Many Hues — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:19:59 +0000

I came across one of the sweetest blog’s the other day and just had to share. Hilda’s Hem is a fantastic inspiration blog that is invigorating and includes such topics as flea markets, crafts, cakes, and sweets. The blogs author Sofia Brolin, is authentic in her writing and demonstrates talent in her designs and photography. The website is named after her grandmother Hilda and so the blogs name translates to Hilda’s Home.

Sofia also runs a shop at Barntavlor where she sells personalized children’s paintings.

Images: Hilda’s Hem