Recently spotted (and admired) on the Dutch blog Frivole: a DIY canopy hung from a branch over a children’s bed. This project can easily be replicated with a salvaged branch, two chains hung from a couple of hooks, and a simple curtain. Above: Susanne Otter, writer of the Frivole blog, made the canopy for her son Pepin and hung it over his bed. Above: Otter prefers the linen canopy to have a wrinkled look, which she achieved by removing the wet curtain from the washer and letting it air dry. Above: Ikea offers several tab curtains which can be used to hang directly from the branch creating a canopy. The Lenda Curtain is $34.99 for a set of two. Buy the chain and hooks from your local hardware store. As you may have noticed, we are obsessed with branches. Here are 203 Branch posts that may surprise you. Lamp fixtures, hooks, towel racks, handrails, all of which have been made by a simple branch. ,  ,  ,  , Fabric Wall Stickers for Little Decorators Lights Out: Sensor Light Switches

It has been a rough couple of days in the Hammers and High Heels DIY world.  Our Spare Room redo hasn't been going as well as we had hoped. #12 metal curtain grommetsWe were in the beginning stages of setting up my new dressing room.  spirella shower curtains ukBefore we took our trip to Home Depot for the supplies we looked back at my inspiration post to get an idea of what we should look for.  jcpenney blackout curtain linerWe thought these basic metal brackets and boards would do the trick, they had a similar look to the metal and wood shelving I loved from the inspiration photos.  softline pavilion curtains

They also were pretty inexpensive (lesson learned; low cost DIY isn't always the best idea). Even though we didn't think it was quite right, I started organizing my shoes on the shelves to see if it made our vision look any better and even put my antique dress form into place. sound asleep room-darkening backtab window curtain panelOur concensus... a classic case of the shoe not quite fitting right.ceiling curtain track dunelm It still looked like crap.  ready made curtains navanThe two main problems were 1- the shelves themselves, they just didn't look nice at all; and 2- the awkward huge space above the top shoe shelf.  So maybe we didn't measure and place them as we should, but we are also thinking that this wall shouldn't have shelves on it anyway.

The inspiration for this was right under my nose in my own blog!  I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!  So, I was looking back through some older blogs and found this picture in my Sights From Junk Bonanza post.  I thought, hmmm, I could do that with my beautiful Antique Dressform (the one Alex surprised me with) and turn it into storage for my belts and necklaces!  Not to mention it would double as decor as well! The only bummer meant we would have to take it out of our Guest Room.  It looked perfect where it was in our Guest Room, but I think it could only look better in our Spare Room since it goes along with the theme.  We also got some feedback from a recent Guest (aka my Mom), that the Dressform looked a little spooky when she woke up in the middle of the night, like there was a person in the room.  So, we are moving the beautiful Antique Dressform from its spot here in the guest room to the new Spare Room. Oh dear, my stomach is kind of in knots thinking about posting this and showing the mess, but I think it has to be done. 

Since part of our Spare Room project will be creating a closet space, I thought it was appropriate to show you what we are currently working with and why we desperately need the extra storage space. Back when I wrote the first post about our Spare Room I showed this picture of the doorway to the Spare Room from our Master.  Those cute doors to each side are our 'his' and 'her' closets.  They are pretty cute because they are original to the house and should never be changed; except there is nothing cute about a closet that measures 33" x 40"!!!!  That is one of our biggest complaints about living in our old house, NO CLOSET SPACE!!!! Now here is itty bitty closet #2 which is in our guest room.  There was no way everything could go in just one little closet, and it has been really annoying having to search through 2 rooms to put an outfit together!  So in this one, I mainly stuffed away sweaters, dresses, jackets, shoes, and purses up top. I always felt bad too if we had guest come that wanted to hang something up and they opened the closet to see this cluster. 

Other than those 2 closets I switch out seasonal things (like swapping the sweaters for shorts in the warm months) in a giant storage tote in the basement, doing anything I can to maximize the space! I think this photo does a good job showing how it almost doesn't feel like you are in a store. I Love all the details on the tables, sofas, and light fixtures.Closer look at another beautiful vintage inspired nightstand. I also liked the lampshade, I looked like they added lace over a plain white shade, great idea! This one was a mix of white and blue, all the fabrics felt so soft, cozy and rich, just amazing! Here is my last photo.  I have to show this bench that was at the end of one of the beds.  I would love something like this.. maybe Sadie could even sleep on it instead of hogging our bed... that would be REALLY nice! Hope you enjoyed the peek inside the Shabby Chic store! way  I think the cab driver and my coworker thought I was nuts for getting so excited, but I had no idea there would be a Home Depot in NYC!

Makes sense though, I guess people need Home Depot everywhere, but it just looked so fancy compared to the normal ones we frequent for our Home Depot Adventures.  I think all they are missing is the lumber department.  Here is a better photo of the one I saw located at 40 West 23rd Street.  Upon looking up this photo I also read that it has 3 floors, escalators, and a much higher end assortment of appliances, sinks, countertops, tiles, and well just about everything.  That makes sense for New York I'd say. Phew, sorry I haven't posted in a while, I was in NYC for the past couple days (which means I might have some fun store photos to post soon!). Here are those before and after pictures of our Spare Room with the new window treatments that I promised. So this was before, just after Alex put in the new flooring We blogged about installing our flooring a week ago and haven't posted anything about the Spare Room since.  Nothing is stopping me from my new closet/ dressing room, hehe! 

We were busy getting out and about picking out a few necessary items to continue our work on the space. I'm happy to report that we have gotten the window treatments installed and checked off our list! All on this very Tuesday night!  Yes, but I just had to share my excitement! My inspiration for the window treatments came from Beach Brights 'Chain Link Fence Curtains'. They looked great in the very long and narrow space on her screen porch, and I thought it was a great way to add more fabric/ texture to the room and even cut back on the 'echo factor'.   We picked up 2 of the Vagen curtain rods because they can extend to 12 feet and were only $9.99 each!  Since our room is so long (26ft total) it made sense to get the most bang for our buck and get the long curtain rods. For the curtains, I ended up choosing the Lenda ones from Ikea for two reasons. The first being that we already have a pair just like them in our living room and LOVE them, they are so neutral and have a nice texture to them (I never wrote a blog about them, but you can see them in this blog from November covering our slider doors). 

The second reason- price, you can get a pair of these for only $14.99, steal!!! Also, they are pretty large, last time I had to hem them since our ceilings aren't very tall. I was even able to make decorative pillows with the excess fabric that I cut off, I added them in our Guest room... Looking a little more fabulous?!?!  Getting there, oh, I forgot, we did pick up something on our trip to Architectural Antiques.  See that gold framed mirror on the floor?  That is what we brought home, thought it would be a nice glamorous addition to my dressing room space, and it was only $20!  I will get some before and afters posted this weekend when I will hopefully see some daylight! Hope to finally get my rolling racks too!Well, it is almost 10:30, this working gal needs to catch some much needed Zzzz's, goodnight! *** Project Parade at DIY Showoff!!!  Check 'em all out! Alex and I recently discovered antique and architectural salvage stores in our own backyard.  The Northeast Arts District is full of them! 

One of the stores we visited that we loved was Architectural Antiques on 14th and Qunicy.  We have been to a similar store before called City Salvage on First Ave in NE, but the size and amount of salvaged goods at Architectual Antiques was amazing!  Their website even shows Design Ideas for the antiques and even some of the case histories of the buildings they have salvaged. Alex and I stopped in to see if we could get any ideas for the Spare Room Redo.  We cruised around the store and took a few pictures.  I'm not going to lie, the prices on a lot of the items were pretty steep, but bear in mind that all of the salvaged items were truly pieces of history (Some more than 200 years old) and each piece telling a story all it's own.  Here are some of my favorite pictures... I though this wood booth may have been similar to what might have been in our kitchen nook? Antique vent covers, just like the ones from Amber and Ryan's cute 1907 Bungalow. Well it is Sunday morning, Alex and I are about to head to the ol' Home Depot to pick up a few things for the Spare Room.