A fresh and colourful take on traditional

Bright yellow walls, grahic patterned curtains and stripes add some pretty bold and playful touches to this other wise fairly traditional home in California. Julie Goldman of J.Latter Design took things up a notch. Several notches really. 

More from Julie here in case you missed it

Yellow curtains

Now you don't see this every day - statement curtains in a bright lemon yellow. Not for those neutral loving folks. And to make them even more IN YOUR FACE they are hung right at ceiling height so there's even more curtain. This is pretty ballsy. I think I dig it. By Sarah Wittenbraker. 

What do you all think? 

Minimalist beauty

there's something about long linen curtains puddling on concrete floors.....

there's something about a random chair in a corner sitting on original hardwood flooring...

there's something about an unmade bed and an almost bare wall...

Stunning. Line Klein.

Little projects around my house

I didn't really know what to blog today and since there are a couple of new little projects around my house I thought I would just share that today (a sad day I might add - we're heading to my sister's cottage with the family to help close it up for the winter). Aside from the cat house and new paint job on my desk, I did more painting and some fabric dying which I had never attempted before. Fabric dying was quite the experience. Since I don't have a big laundry sink I'm grateful to have a backyard with half dead grass where I could make a mess without harming anything. I have had a very large piece of white linen in my fabric stash for several years that I have been dying (pun intended) to do something with. I decided I would use a piece of it for a curtain over my desk and another for a seat cushion for a chair in my bedroom. So off to the fabric store for some black dye. All they had was 'black velvet' which I assumed meant a light black. I tested a couple of strips of fabric - one bundled up tight and wrapped in rope, and the other I dipped right in. 

I opted for bundling up the fabric and wrapping it because I wanted it to look really odd with faded parts. Unfortunately not knowing what the frig I was doing, I bundled it too tight and there were too many light spots, and the fabric didn't turn out dark enough. So I had to do it all over again. 

After a second bath in the black dye the result was perfect! Much more subtle and dark but not too black. While I was at it I added all of my vintage doilies that I had dyed dark grey a while back but they turned out too blue. 

After washing and hanging them to dry, I balled up the fabric and left it like that for a while because I LOVE the look of wrinkled linen. 

In reality the lighter parts are not as bright as in the photo above. It turned out pretty awesome. My doilies are still fairly blue. Ah well. I have wanted to stitch them together into a table runner for ages but never got around to it. 

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A couple eye-catchers

I spotted the following photos on the website of New York design firm Carrier and Company and had to feature them here. I was drawn to the window treatment in the dining room. It's super casual and works so well in a rustic/country setting. And I have such a strong desire to find a really large industrial sink when we rebuild our house. The sink in the bathroom below is SO cool! (Jo blogged this firm back here).