TOUR

This year Apartment Therapy returned with their "Small Cool Contest" for smaller apartment spaces. I placed in the top 10 a few years ago, and thought it would be fun to enter again, with my new apartment this time—albeit with little preparation, especially since I didn't learn about the contest until a day or two before! I didn't win, but it was fun to participate. Here's my latest home:

LIVING ROOM

I love the floor to ceiling windows here, and it's quite high, so I chose to bring the sky in with Benjamin Moore's Breath of Fresh Air, and the rest of the space is Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White. Sky and clouds! It has a wonderful effect in the daytime. The glass-legged desk and brass pulls are both from Amazon, and along with the Starck ghost chair, my workspace doesn't obstruct those views. An IKEA shelf and cabinet inserts with matching brass pulls create helpful book and art storage. The lavender poof was acquired on a trip to Morocco.

DINING

I love this china cabinet, filled with travel mementos and vintage platters. The dining chairs are Ballard Designs; the Saarinen-like table is IKEA.

LIVING ROOM

A trusty eBay credenza, vintage store lamps, and family pieces round out the living space.

BEDROOM

I was only able to paint the one accent wall, so the bedroom stayed bright white—vintage bamboo screens and a valence soften the effect a little. Almost all the furniture is from antique shops. The orange and white patterned fabric is by Vern Yip, and the throw is a Marrakesh find. A collection of brass pagodas found in Beijing rest on the desk (which doesn't fit the space, but I'm unwilling to part with it!).

BATH

A bit of black and white glam dresses up the bath, which includes towels by Nate Berkus and vintage boxes.

Thanks for coming on the tour!

SMALL ROOM DECORATING MAGAZINE

Back in January, Small Room Decorating shot my apartment - all 425 square feet of it. Photographer Helen Norman meticulously, and beautifully, documented every inch of the space (though not so many inches, to borrow a phrase from J.M. Barrie), while writer and stylist Charlotte Safavi brought in lovely, fresh touches with flowers.

The issue came out last week! I'm hoping to have some of Helen's beautiful photos to share soon, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of the spread.

Small Room Decorating is on newsstands now, at Barnes and Noble, Target, CVS, and Safeway.

The issue also features two of my favorite designers, the pattern-mad daredevils of Madcap Cottage:  John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon!

DIY LATTICE RIBBON PILLOWS

Effortless Style blogger Camila posted this fantastic pillow DIY, and I thought it was just a genius idea - and perhaps one that you didn't have to be a genius to pull off, since my craft skills are pretty much limited to anything that doesn't require precise measuring. I particularly wanted new pillows because, back in the Fall, I was lucky enough to have my apartment photographed by The Washington Post. But, when the photographs were published, I noticed something I hadn't seen before... the pillows and curtains didn't really match. They USED to match, but sun exposure had faded some hues more than others. And of course, once I noticed it, I noticed it every day. I really wanted to change my pillow covers, but without a major financial investment, so I decided to make my own.

Then:  slightly different shades (Photo by Katherine Frey).

Now:  I kept the emerald green ikat pillows, and made my own lime green ribbon lattice pillows, adding a leopard print pillow that I LOVE, purchased on Etsy. 

A close-up of the pillows.

Want to have a pair of your own? They're so easy to make! I used RITVA pillow covers from IKEA, for $7.99 each, and grosgrain ribbon. I decided to go with a bold pattern (surprise) using a wide ribbon centered more on the pillow, 4 inches from the edge. Without cutting the ribbon, I loosely laid out my pattern to try the look.

Take your time to get it right! I cut extra inches to fold the edges into the pillow seams for a finished look, and then wove the ribbons over/under, pinning them in place. I cut four 21 inch ribbons for the "square" part of the pattern, and four 19 inch ribbons for the cross pieces. ALSO:  the IKEA pillow covers were supposed to be 22x22, but were actually slightly different sizes. You may need to eyeball the final look, rather than relying on your measuring tape.

Tuck your ribbon edges into the seams as below, and be careful not to glump the fabric glue - as you can see, it will spot a bit if too much is applied.

After you've glued down each ribbon, take a toothpick and run a little glue under the edge of the ribbon wherever it bulges. This will keep it from rippling when the pillow is plumped inside. (I made these over Christmas vacation, so my Dad took some photos. He has requested credit as photographer :).

And here's the result!

I really have a thing for leopard, and was delighted to find this lovely pillow in the AriannaBelle shop on Etsy. It's great quality, and she shipped it quickly. I think it just makes the space. To tie the pillow into the look, I added a few more leopard touches, including Jan Shower's decor book, Glamorous Rooms, with its animal cover, and a cheetah-print lucite tray. I made the tray myself - you can find the DIY here.

TIPS and SUPPLIES

You will need:  
IKEA pillow covers, fabric glue, several yards of ribbon, a tape measure, toothpicks, and stick pins.

-Be very careful not to get any glue on the zippers when folding under end pieces of ribbon. A simple piece of masking tape over the teeth will do the trick.

-Even though it dries clear, fabric glue can "stain" through the ribbon, and show up darker when dry, so you want to avoid applying too much. Applying glue in a  zig zag worked best,  and was less prone to leave a mark.

-It's pretty nigh impossible to glue the ribbons without wearing the adhesive - I found that nail polish remover will get fabric glue off your skin (tip within a tip:  don't get a manicure before doing this project). 

For the full DIY, visit Camila's post. Happy crafting!

DIY CHINOISERIE ETAGERE

My tiny little apartment suffers from awkward corner syndrome. In 425 square feet, there are five doorways/doors, a bump out, and numerous soffits. Some of the corners even have corners. So, part of my challenge has been finding pieces of furniture that will fit the space. One such spot was an 11 inch deep corner leading into the closet area. I REALLY needed to use the space for storage, but without making it feel even smaller. An etagere seemed like the perfect answer, but all the beautiful vintage pieces I found were just too deep. So I decided to MAKE an etagere. By which I mean:  go to IKEA and alter something they sold.

Here it is! A Chinoiserie etagere.

IKEA makes this VITTSJO shelving unit for $70. The open concept and glass shelves would keep the space from feeling overwhelmed, and there was plenty of room to stack books. The only problem was the black color, which didn't play nice with my green walls.

So I broke out the Rustoleum...

And then emailed Danika Herrick, founder of the fantastic company O'verlays, to ask if they had anything that would suss up a plain iron shelf. A week later, these arrived:  greek key corners! 

BEFORE

AFTER!

Seriously, O'verlays are the best thing since sliced bread. "Transforming" my shelf required about 10 minutes, some gorilla glue, and masking tape (to hold the greek key pieces in place while the glue dried). I waited an hour for good measure, whipped the tape off, and enjoyed my new Chinoiserie etagere. The O'verlay pieces are paintable, so you could customize them to any shade. I was lucky that they were already white!

A "through" view of the shelf. I love how spacious it feels, without blocking the view into the living room.

Check out all the other amazing O'verlay patterns HERE, and you can find my greek key corners HERE. A few more patterns and ideas below...

An O'verlay pattern under glass, dressing up a plain hall table. They also look great over mirrors.

On an ikea chest of drawers (also, Danika painted that wall herself. She's very talented).

/Images/ my own/ black shelf image, IKEA/ O'verlay patterns, O'verlays/

DIY ROLLER SHADE

I should have called this the "PIY" - "Paint It Yourself" - roller shade project. A few months ago, I ran across this image on Pinterest, and was so taken with the playful trompe l'oeil design mimicking austrian shades, or as they're more popularly called, balloon shades. It looked fun, colorful - and easy to duplicate. And I desperately needed an inexpensive shade for my kitchen. To the Home Depot!

I'm a very impatient DIY-er (as you'll soon see), and I just dashed quickly through the store, grabbing an assortment of brushes and supplies. The shade itself is medium-weight vinyl, for a grand $7.95, and the paint is black tempera craft paint. I purchased several brushes and sponges to try, but the one that worked best was a super cheap one-inch brush. The coarse bristles gave a look very similar to the professional design above. My window was much shorter than the shade, so I rolled the shade out full length, and then marked out six equally spaced marks before painting the full swags. As you can see, I quickly smeared and splattered paint all over - lucky for me, this is not a project that rewards precision.

In about 10 minutes, I had this. 

And there we are:  a sew-free, $15 window shade in the kitchen. All it needs is a tassel! I'll get around to that eventually.

 I just hung up the wall decor too; the green tortoise shell is Nate Berkus for Target, and the green chair print is from Jennifer over at The Pink Pagoda. 

One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons, clipped from the magazine. I dream about the "Horn of Extra Square Footage" every Thanksgiving.

A few other "PIY" shade ideas - wouldn't snaky squiggles be fun?

Or, free-hand a little greek key, a la Dana Gibson.

/Images/ Blue and white shade, Casa de Valentia/ Black and white shade photos, my own/ Snake painting, Jacques Grange Interiors/ Greek key shade, DecorPad/

Or try wavering stripes, circles, or polka dots! The possibilities are endless. Happy painting!

AMBASSADOR FOR GREEN

Interior decorator, stylist, and blogger Valorie Hart recently put together a wonderful Guest Pick for Houzz on Kelly Green, and kindly included a scene from my (very green) apartment. Valorie's ideabook reminded me of how I originally came to paint my walls bright green.

It all started with this photo of a design by Miles Redd, featured on the cover of Veranda. Just as I was contemplating a bright green wall, Valorie was also inspired by the Redd design and set out to recreate the color, which she dubbed, aptly, "Miles Redd Green."You can read her fantastic post about the process HERE; she even custom-created the color with New Orleans shop Helm Paint, based on the shade. Valorie's post was the extra push I needed to go ahead with my crazy painting scheme. 

Determined to see it through (or at least, live with the consequences until I found time to re-paint), I went to Frager's Hardware on Capitol Hill. We started out considering a few custom creations, but actually settled on a paint color that already exited:  Hanging Vine, by Mythic Paint. Here is the result (Photography by Katherine Frey, The Washington Post).

All along, I had envisioned the green as a dramatic backdrop to my collection of blue and white; here's why. Very bland - the plates just blend into the walls!

At the time, I hadn't seen these great images of green with blue and white china, but it's such a winning combination, of course it's been done before! Every time I see it, I love the look more.

House Beautiful

Tory Burch

If you'd like to "go green," check out Valorie's Houzz picks HERE!

/Images/ Veranda/ Two, my own/ House Beautiful/ Tory Burch/ Houzz/

Finally, I hope that if you were in the path of Hurricane Sandy, all is well with you and yours. I survived a very long, very windy night, but thankfully didn't experience any major damage. 

Stay safe, and a speedy recovery to everyone on the East Coast.

LOCAL LIVING WITH THE WASHINGTON POST

Today The Washington Post featured my apartment in their Local Living section, and on the cover, no less!

The theme is "Tight on Space, Big on Style," and in a city where a studio apartment rental can run you more than a monthly mortgage (in normal America), it couldn't be more apropos. I'm grateful and pretty thrilled that The Post featured my little space in this edition. The article is chock full of small space tricks, and tips on organizing (whether your home is big or small). Read it up HERE. 

Photographer Katherine Frey beautifully captured the space, especially considering the challenges - she was crawling over furniture and into corners to get shots! Yes, the apartment is that small (425 square feet).

Also, don't miss The Washington Post's live chat Q&A, Home Front, starting at 11 AM Eastern! I'll be online with WaPo staff writer Jura Koncius, talking about small space living, vintage shopping, and answering whatever questions readers care to ask! Live Chat HERE. 

P.S. As an Ambassador for Green, I also couldn't resist entering Apartment Therapy's "Room for Color" contest. If you'd like to vote for me, just click HERE. 

/Images/ my own/ Katherine Frey, The Washington Post/