chairs.. take two!

Or only get two!? ha ha ha!  Well, the new chairs came.. 2 out of 4.  Where the other 2 are, I have no idea! lol I am sure they will show up eventually.  I ordered them from a discount website that will ship things at different times quite frequently, so I’m not really thaaaaat worried, but still might make a phone call this afternoon to double check. ;)

If you ‘like’ my dearest someday facebook page.. then you may have seen the hints as to just what the replacement chairs were!  A few of you suggested that I go back to my long time love of the eames chair and add 4 of those, 2 on either side.. with the big nailhead trimmed brown ones that James and I both fell in love with.

SO I DID JUST THAT!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  Not really loving that there is only two of them at the moment.. but, oh my gosh you guys.. looooooove!  When I saw them this morning (we just picked them up last night).. I kind of giggled out loud a little bit! ha ha

I am loving how this completely random mix of chairs ..just works.  I can’t wait until the other 2 get here and we can take our scratched up whicker one out… still undecided on Harley’s tripp trapp chair, not sure if we will keep it at the table or not.  Probably will.  He still loves that thing!

I just can’t get over it.. such a run around to get to this point, but it just feels like this is how our dining area was meant to be all along!  ..and wow, what a deal we got!  My mom had emailed me, telling me that there were pairs of these chairs on beyond the rack (a Canadian discount site).. so I went and looked, and couldn’t find them anywhere!  Then, later that night I looked again.. found them in the clearance section/event!

In total, including shipping… they came to $520!!  That was what just 2 of the chairs we returned were worth!! COULD NOT BELIEVE OUR LUCK!  It was totally meant to be.

So content now.  Well.. I will be whole lot more content when the other 2 get here! ha!  I know they charged our credit card for all 4.. so they are out there somewhere, shipped or not shipped though, that is the question!

What do you think?  A bit of a better fit for both the table.. and our entire home?  I totally think they are! ..so much more ‘me’!  James has the manly chairs on the ends.. and I have my emses (knock offs lol) ..another positive side note, my feet touch the floor when I sit in them! ha  The other ones.. not so much. lol

by jennifer johner

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propeller and co ..some sneaks!

Hello everyone!  It has been a busy week here.. and since it is technically Tuesday, already into another busy one!  Ack!  Time is flying.  Which is a good thing!  It means the newest store in Grande Prairie is that much closer to opening it’s doors!

The decor projects in this space have been so so so fun!  It has been an amazing experience watching ideas unfold and actually take shape!  LOVING THIS!  I have some sneak pictures for you!!  In no particular order..

The awesome ‘glamour wall’ ..I used an overhead projector, traced and then painted in with gold metallic paint.. it glistens!  Tracy had this vision of the huuuuge word on the wall, with a beauty bar in front.. home of all things beautiful and girly… truly a glamourous spot!  Can’t way to show you a wider view!

Change rooms!  Coziest change rooms ever!  People aren’t going to want to leave! ;)

I saw this idea on Pinterest (of course lol) ..styrofoam balls with cupcake liners hot glued all over, fun little pouf balls!  They looked kind of lost hung individually, but grouped like this it is like it was meant to be!

I seriously have the best husband in the world by the way!  He came to the store with me on Saturday and did all the hanging of the paper lanterns.. lights, window frames (in the window for display.. can’t wait to reveal that too!) ..he did so much!  SO grateful!  He really is the only one who could possibly translate my ‘ummm.. can you move it over just a smidge.. oh no, too much… back again, the other way..” ha ha ha HA!   OR.. possibly the only one who would put up with it! hee!

SO many treasures!!!

These shots below are of the counter/counter top!  LOVED how this random hodge podgy idea unfolded into a reality!!  The sides are covered in a faux tin tile type look, then the edge of the countertop is bordered in black stained wood… and the top is covered in decoupaged music/book paper, then sprinkled with glitter.. and sealed, and then sprinkled with glitter again and again.  When the light hits it, it is pretty cool!

A sneak of some of the stock she has started to unpack. SO cute.  I can totally see these in Laine’s room! hee! ;)

I love that she found this piano to bring into the store for display… and I love even more that she randomly had these vintage music books in a box in her garage!  Perfect don’t you think!?

Chalk board wall!

Just some detail shots for now! ..not quite ready for full room pictures.  SOON though!  Tracy (owner of this amazing store) has found the most amazing pieces of furniture.. like the red sofa and chairs pictured above.

Ohhhhh gosh, I can’t wait to share all the details with you.. this place is going to filled with amazing treasures, both old and new!  While I was there the other day working on the counter, she was unpacking stock… and ohhhhhhhhhh WOW, I think I could buy one of everything! ha ha ha!!!

There is so much of this project yet to share.. I can’t wait!!!

by jennifer johner

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DIY Anthropologie-ish Curtains

Have you seen the gorgeous ‘wandering pleats‘ curtains from Anthropologie yet?  They are gorgeous.  So gorgeous, that I would love to have them in any room of my house… so gorgeous that they were part of the collection of inspiration images that I had collected for the decor of Propeller & Co.  ..they are soooooooooo pretty!  But but but.. they are also sooo pricey!

I had phoned the most local Anthro store (Edmonton) ..and they didn’t carry them, so that meant shipping and duty fees if we were to try and bring these in for the store.  Which meant likely close to $800 for what we needed!  Uh yikes.  Considering that the main purpose of these curtains is to cover up some not so pretty doors… um, that seemed a bit much.

I begged Tracy (the store owner) to let me make some faux ones instead of ordering.. I told her I could do it for soooo so so much cheaper!  It didn’t really take all that much begging (look at me, trying to make it sound all dramatic! ha ha)! ;)  So, off I went to deliver her with some curtains that would give her this look… at a ‘budget’ price!

I found a colour match curtain (was looking for cream) at Jysk.. for get this… $12.98 a panel (on sale from $29.99)… YES!  I couldn’t have even bought the fabric to make them from scratch for that price!  So, I bought the 4 that I needed for the doors (2 panels per door) and then an extra 4 panels for the ruffles!  8 panels came to right around $110 including tax!  Mission accomplished!  ..almost anyway! 

I just had to put them together! ha ha!  Which really, wasn’t all that hard to do!

First step was hemming all 4 panels to the right length.  After that was finished, I cut up the other 4 panels into 10 inch strips.  Cut cut cut!  Since I was leaving the edges of these strips ‘raw’ and I don’t have a serger.. I did a simple zig zag stitch up both sides of the strips… just to finish them off a bit.  I needed 8 complete ruffles (2 on each panel) ..and each ruffle consisted of two 10 inch strips sewn together end to end (each ruffle strip was double the length of the curtain panel.. lots of fabric to ruffle up!) ..so, that means sixteen 10 inch strips cut, zig zagged and then sewn together in pairs.

After that was all done, I pinned on the strips.. ruffling and gathering as I went along.  I pinned each end on first (to ensure I had enough to go end to end) ..then a pin in the middle… then gathered into ruffles between those points.  This helped get a more even ruffle throughout.  I just layer the entire panel out on the floor and pinned pinned pinned!  THEN came time to sew them on!  Which, was thankfully the easy (and most rewarding) part!

Voila!  Faux wandering pleats Anthro curtains!!

They turned out not too shabby hey!?  Not quite an exact match.. but they definitely have the same romantic and airy look/feel!  I looooove them.. I think I might have to make a set for Laine’s room, I have been on the hunt for something perfect in there.. and this just might be it!  Yes yes yes!!

I can’t wait to get them hung up in the store.. I will be sure to snap a few pictures to share here when I do! What do you think?  Did they turn out ok for a $110!?  I couldn’t have got any luckier though.. it was perfection when I took them up to the till and then find out they were on sale, we were going for budget friendly, but that totally tipped it over the top to just down right awesome!!  YAY for DIY!  Sorry Anthro.. I love ya, but sometimes a person just has to do what they gotta do! ;)

by jennifer johner

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well…

The new chairs came!  ..and.. drum roll…

I am undecided.  I love them, I really do.  But, here are my thoughts at this point.. first off, they are not cream… I know the description said ‘beige’ but in my head, the ones that we saw at the store were more of an ivory/cream.  This complicates things.

Our sofa set in the living room is a similar colour.. but more yellow-ish, which is making these look pink. They aren’t pink, but comparing the two.. they just look it.  This picture isn’t really accurate either.. had trouble capturing it apparently, cause they are a bit darker than they look above.  

James says we should just get a new couch.  MEN!

They are big.  I knew they would be.. but they are really really big.  I think a lot of this drastic ‘bigness’ is coming from the fact that our chairs we had in there before where so light and airy… the ‘big’ would probably not end up being an issue.  Might grow on me actually.

I love how they instantly made the dining room more sophisticated and I dunno.. grown up?

I am thinking that if the chairs stay, that the shelves have to go.. just too much happening or something. Maybe this could be my home for my beloved antler print!?  I sure would love to get that up on the wall!

Framed with a thick oversized frame.. rustic wood maybe?  This print is huge.. once framed it would fill that little wall at the end of the table quite nicely.

Other thoughts.. I like the end ones styled up with a bit of fur, can you see the one on the right?  That might be fun.  The brown end ones are staying for sure.  Love them.  Love love love them.  It is the side ones that have thrown me for a loop.  Instant thoughts when seeing them.. too dark (was picturing and fell in love with ivory/cream), big on the sides (but again, could work with that).. honestly, it is just the colour.

So, what to do about that?  Return the side ones and find a non-matching but matching set of 4 for the sides? Leave them and deal with it?  Buy a new couch!? ha ha  Get them reupholstered?  That seems kind of silly.   Stick the 4 ‘wicker’ chairs back in the sides for now?  Suck it up? lol

It was *this close* to perfect.

Here is a shot that kind of shows the colour difference between the chairs and the sofa (not a good shot for colour comparison, but it gives you an idea)… and also shows you how close they are to each other within the room, and why the matching but definitely not matching look isn’t working for me.  If only they were light like I thought they were! 

What do you think?  What would you do?  ACK.. so so so close!

by jennifer johner

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someday we’ll get new chairs..

That has been our mindset for a few years now.

You see, we have these dining room chairs.  They are pretty great.  I still love them.  James (my husband) does not.  He would probably love them a whole lot more if our cat also didn’t love them.  Our cat loves them so much that there are wide gaping holes in a few of them.  Yes.. yes there are. In fact, when we moved.. one of them went straight into the trash.. wasn’t even salvageable.  Cats and wicker chairs do not mix.  Or, maybe it is just our cat.. or just those chairs… I don’t know.

Either way, they have been on our ‘someday’ list.

Someday, I had dreamed of white eames style chairs (replicas most likely) with wooden legs.  I have always loved them.. always will.  Even though I love them so much, part of me knew that they might not be the best fit for our dining room (which is open to the kitchen and living room)… but, they were always the chair that I knew I loved.

Kind of like this..

Then, while taking my grandpa sofa bed shopping over Christmas.. we ended up at a Sears Home store.  To tell you the truth, I never thought I would fall in love with chairs from Sears.. call me a snob, whatever… but it happened.  We walked in, and my eye was immediately drawn to this table set up/display which was front and centre!  I didn’t say anything to anyone.. we weren’t there for us after all, right?  I knew they looked familiar though, and while wandering through the store I kept on thinking about them.

They were classy, elegant, statement making, and a bit rustic at the same time!

In the meantime.. James says he wants to go look at something and takes off for a few minutes.  Then, he comes back and tells me he wants to show me something.  Um ok I think.. wondering where on earth he is leading me. lol ..he keeps walking all the way back to the front door where the display was set up (did he see what I had seen!?).. and asks me what I think of the chairs.  UM YES!  Love them!  I hadn’t realized just how much I loved them until we sat there and chatted about them… and it was left at that.  We left the store saying.. someday.

Fast forward a few days.. we are now back home and relaxing around in our jammies, playing games, reading books etc.  Occasionally we bring up the chairs.. mostly every time we look at the ones we have. lol  Finally, I decide to go see if they were on the Sears website.. and yes!!  AND ON SALE! ..SALE ENDS THE VERY NEXT DAY!

ACK!  Crunch time.. do we, or don’t we!?

WE DID!

BUT, these aren’t them.  Well, kind of yes.. but mostly no. lol

Totally different then the eames knock offs that I was earlier obsessed with huh!?  It is the nail head trim that did it.. the sophisticated rustic look of them.

I should mention again that these are NOT actual pictures of the ones we ordered.  Why?  Well, this picture is prettier than the Sears version’s picture, and I like pretty pictures on my blog.  AND.. later into the evening after James ordered them, I realized just where I might have seen them before… cause I knew I had, and it was driving me craaaaazy that I couldn’t figure it out! Imagine my delight when I find them on the Restoration Hardware website… and how very delighted we were when we realized we got the look for a fraction of what these ones go for!  Oh yes.. we were destined for knock offs of some variety! ha ha!

Here are the ones that we ordered from Sears (on sale).. 4 cream (two for each side) and 2 brown leather (one for each end), just like they had on display in the store.  ..sorry about the inaccurate photos of the chairs.. but as you can see, Restoration Hardware wins hands down in the photography department. ha ha!

Since this has got to be the most long winded blog post about dining chairs ever.. I’ll wrap up with this… I HOPE THEY FIT AROUND OUR TABLE! ha ha ha!

Seriously.. wouldn’t that suck if they didn’t!?  Good news is, they are waiting to be picked up and hopefully… hopefully we will have them here tonight to find out!  They clearly won’t fit in my car, so fingers are crossed that James gets off work early enough to pick them up in his truck!  eeeeeeeek!  I am so excited/nervous at the same time!

Also.. yes, we are insane for buying cream chairs with 2 children in the house.  We will probably keep Harley’s tripp trapp around for him to continue using, ohhhhh who am I kidding… I am the one who always makes the mess! What were we thinking!? hee heee!  Like I said, I was sold at the nail head trim. ;)

Now on my someday list.. maybe, um maybe it would be cool to have at least one eames chair… pick a colour, any colour! hee heee!  

Keep your fingers crossed that these work out.. they have to right!?  ..we’ll find out soon enough! 

by jennifer johner

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