What’s more fun than window shopping with a barrel of monkeys? Invading a fabulous little gift shop in Nashville with Katie Bower and recording three items that we think you can DIY yourself! We threw together this little ditty back when we ran into each other during our Dallas road trip (after putting together this video series about the hotel where we stayed). Of course the shopkeepers at Social Graces (our official new favorite haunt whenever we find ourselves in Tennessee) were amazingly sweet to let us come charging in with our Flip video camera in tow. And here’s what we found (watch it below or right here on YouTube):
So whaddya think? Any favorite projects among the bunch? Any other simple DIY decor ideas that you guys might be putting on your to-do list? From ribbons and burlap to spray paint and stenciling, we’d love to know what you have on the agenda.
Psst- Check out Katie Bower’s amazing casa right here, and next time you’re in Nashville see if you can convince her to meet you there.
Where do you get all your time from? You seem to achieve so much!!
Hmmm, good question! We definitely work on the blog 24/7 but we love what we do so it usually doesn’t feel too much like work. We’re just sure to have our camera (and video camera) on hand all the time to capture inspiration wherever it pops up, and since it’s my bona fide full time job and John’s pretty heavy-duty part time job we work long days, nights, weekends and even holidays to keep our little blog baby going!
xo,
s
Yay. I love it. I just wish I lived closer so I could go shopping/diy seeking with you both!
Thanks for sharing!
~k
It’s amazing how you girls find these things. I’m addicted to both of your blogs and you have made the learning curve of decorating so much easier for me, And AFFORDABLE! I just saw the painted bottles and knew exactly where I could put them in my house along with the supplies that we have just sitting around waiting for me to do something with. Thanks for the inspiration!
sorry this isn’t related, but i have been looking all morning for the web site where you can plug in a brand and name of paint, and it will generate matches in different brands, and the percentage to which it matches. i hae used it a lot, and cannot find it for the life of me! do you know what i am talking about?!
Hey Jessie,
We’ve never heard of it, but it sounds like our idea of a good time. Do share the url if you end up hunting it down! Maybe someone else who knows of it will chime in? Here’s hoping…
xo,
s
Thanks Ladies for the video! I love that burlap monogrammed pillow! I adore custom pillows and have sewn one of my own down filled with some fabric I picked up and hope to try the burlap too! :) I hope you’ll keep these videos coming!
Try this:
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Paint-Brand-to-Paint-Brand-Color-Match-Conversion-p/convert.htm
Bumeoli! I know the videos are new and great for you, but I miss the photos! Most of the time, I only have time to check out the blog in snippets while at work. Poppin’ in for a quick read is fine, but it’s totally not kosher to be watching streaming videos at work.
Maybe someday I’ll catch up…
Hey Miranda,
We still publish over ten posts a week full of photos galore, so just think of our weekly video as a little bonus that you can check out after hours. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hi, I loved the video and the bottles!
I’m passing through an extreme makeover in my living room and this idea will be used to me.
Show you when it’s ready!
Bye
Oh my gosh I love that store- I just visited Nashville and spent waaay too long browsing. Plus, the owner is a KY girl like myself :)
jessie –
I have come across http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Paint-Brand-to-Paint-Brand-Color-Match-Conversion-p/convert.htm
before, but it is not a free service. Does the site you came across offer the service for free?
Fun stuff, y’all!!! You know, I’ve been thinking about working out my own crest on burlap to cover the two chair seats at each end of our kitchen table. The chairs are caned and somewhat french-looking (although, no where near antique or valuable at all). I was thinking that the burlap seat might really swank ’em up. I know how to stencil onto fabric, but I’m not at all sure where I could snag a stencil with our monogram (M) that had this vintage french flea market look to it. Ideas for resources??
XO,
Jacci
Good question Jacci! We would recommend making your own stencil with cardboard or acetate sheets. Just print out a cool initial or font from Google or even Microsoft Word and blow it up at Kinkos if you have to. Then trace it onto your acetate or cardboard and carefully cut it out with an exacto knife. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Looks like a fun little shop! We have one kinda like that up here in Fairfax, VA called ‘the nest egg.’ I plan to go stalking soon for some DIY ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Well, couldn’t really afford expensive curtains for living room so bought the cream eyelet curtains and then bought brown wide ribbon tape and made a border down the length which looks really good and gives them a slight edge.
Janis
Ooops – should have said I bought the curtains from Ikea which were really cheap – about £20 so around $38 you would pay.
I live in Franklin which is right outside of Nashville. Why have i never heard of this little shop? I must go! Can you tell me where exactly it is located in Nashville? I couldn’t find a website.
Thanks!
RM
Hey Rachel,
You can see the website url at the end of our video so that should help you find the shop’s location. We also think we remember it being in an area called Hillsboro Village. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I’m not sure if this is what Jessie was talking about, but it sounded similar and I thought it might be useful to someone. If you visit http://www.colorcharts.org/ccorg/default.aspx, you can plug in the color you want and it gives you a percentage match of other paint brands. Just type in your color in the “search” box, then click “match this color.” I used it when I was trying to find something similar to a Farrow & Ball color. Hope it helps!
Very cool! Silly question on behalf of makeup junkies everywhere – what kind of eyeshadow do you wear Sherry?!
Hey Lindsay,
I actually get that question a lot. It’s the Organic Wear makeup line sold at Target by Physicians Formula. I don’t recall the name of the colors (and it’s not on the packaging) but the compact is made of paper and there are two colors of eye shadow inside that are shaped like leaves (one is light and pearly and one is darker and mocha). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I’m sooo glad you featured the ceramic glass bottles – I have a collection of old glass bottles I treasure-hunted in Boston Harbor (an awesome, amazing area to find sea glass, old china and assorted turn-of-the-century medicine bottles washing up on shore). The clear bottles don’t have any collector’s value, but they would look GREAT painted and grouped together… looks like I’m going to have to drag the hubby off to HD again for more paint!
Also, I love the idea of stenciling burlap, but pillows don’t go with my decor so I think they would look great cut and placed in old vintage frames.
Thanks for the inspiration (but I have to get back to work!!)!
Yay! So glad ya’ll got to hang out in Hillsboro Village while you were in Nashville! It’s a really fun little area. Also glad Social Graces so gracefully let you film in the shop…I went in there looking for wedding invites last year and got no help from a snobby and rude saleslady. Needless to say, I haven’t been back since, thanks for the video of great stuff I am missing out on! Maybe time to give them a second chance…
that’s one of my all-time favorite stores! glad you guys found it while you were in nashville. more eye candy there than you can handle!
In a totally unrelated but bargain hunting theme…crate and barrel outlets are having their mega-sale on dining room table and beds, all for $150 each! We have an outlet here in Alexandria, VA and the bf and I just picked out a great dining room table, a king size bed frame (the bento), and a queen size bed (the palati)…all of them retail for between 1000-1900 in stores. They are bringing in new things every day and the sale is going on till the end of the month!
Love the bottles. I recently clipped a photo of those bottles from the pages of Ballard Design catalog, thinking I could DIY them myself!
I LOVE the “LOVE YOU” burlap pillow. I MUST make that!!!
This is in response to Jessies quest for a paint calculator;
Is this the site you are lookig for?
http://www.colorcharts.org/ccorg/
Such a pretty store! Thanks for sharing. I like the burlap pillow with the monogram. I remember seeing burlap pillows at Pottery Barn too and it seems like burlap would be very easy to DIY a pillow with in terms of stitching and such.
LOVE the videos – your editing skills are amazing!
Sorry for the crappy spelling/typing, I’m having a stay home from work because I feel like crap day…
Anywho…This is how to use colorcharts to find a match.
Where it says “browse colors by category”, choose paint & stain. Find the manufacturer that you are interested in colour matching, find the colour, then click on “match this color”, a list will pop up with the most relevant matches and their manufacturer, formulations and color name.
Hope that helps :)
I’m going back to bed now.
I just love love love the bottle idea. I’m thinking of pulling the wine bottles from the weekend (is it bad we have more than two empty wine bottles from the weekend?) from the recycling bin and hop to it!
You girls are just too cute! As always – love the creative ideas. I’ve found since I’ve been reading both YHL and ABP I see so many mundane items in a different light, suddenly they can all be painted white, or grouped together on tray and be super chic – thanks for helping my house become a far cuter version of itself!
I looked at your “how to” section about hanging curtians and we did “high and wide” etc in our twin’s bedroom. We were NOT able to hit a stud for the curtain rods/bracket, and actually didn’t try. My two year old then pulled the whole thing off the wall. They were mount correctly as far as I can tell. Now we have holes in our wall we are trying to patch. No we do not let our twins run wild, and Dean weighs less then 30 pounds. Can you please advise on how to make this sturdier then just mounting into sheet rock or what do you do??? The curtains hung were backed for enegry effeciency. We did use a middle mount. We used four panels for our window. It didn’t even look all that sturdy when we hung it and I was waiting for the day our kids pulled it down. We plan to hang more curtains, but I don’t want them all being pulled down or falling down. I am really wondering about durabilty in your “how to.” Can you help??? I know you don’t have kids yet, but it realy changes everything…including how you look at your home and how you hang things or mount, or etc.
I VERY MUCH enjoy your site.
THANK YOU.
Curtains in post above… We DID use the little mounts or screw things for Home Depot, or wherever that were for the correct pound-age, etc. We have upgraded to 100 pound mounts…I think we inital used up to 60 pounds. Like I said, it still appears not so sturdy. Should I blame my husband??? (just kidding.. sort of…)
Hey Andrea,
There are things called “anchors” sold at home improvement stores for just this use. That way if you’re not drilling into a stud you can make a little hole in the wall and hammer in an anchor and drill right into an anchor. Works like a charm. We use metal ones for super heavy things like our shelves in the dining room and plastic ones for all of our window treatments. I’m sure if you go to Home Depot or Lowe’s you can ask someone to direct you to the anchors and select the perfect ones for your project (it helps to bring the screws you’ll be using so you can get anchors that will fit those screws). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
What a great video and such a cute store! You girls look like you have so much fun shopping. I wish I could come too. Makes me want to shop! We should have a shopping carnival…ok, can you tell I’m couped up in my house today.
Thank You – We DID use the anchors…and they were metal. We are kind of stuck I guess… since we now have a HOLE that is now patched, where the ANCHOR was pulled out. I think I will go back to blaming my husband!!!! : )
After patching the hole with spackle I’d wait about a day or two for that to set and fully dry. Then drill a much thinner pilot hole (spacing them a bit wider on the ends so you have new wall to go into) and use smaller plastic anchors this time. I have no idea why the metal ones pulled out though- maybe because the hole drilled for them was too big? The idea is that the anchors are so tight they have to be hammered into the hole, so if they slide in and out then your curtains will come crashing down! Good luck…
xo,
s
THANK YOU for the advice. I think operator error is the problem on this one!
I think the bottles would look great grouped on a plate as a centerpiece on a dining room table! Also, you could stencil some numbers on them, or even little monograms… could be totally cute!
Sherry, do you ever wear your hair down? :)
Hey Ana,
Yup, check it out in this video and this post. Can you tell I get that question a lot? Hehe.
xo,
s
Tangentially related to painting bottles – Sherry, what advice can you give about how to paint decorative objects a glossy white (or matte white, or cream, or what have you)? I love Jonathan Adler’s white ceramic animals but not the price tag, so I’ve been collecting animals I like that are already painted and glazed. Do you recommend the Rustoleum Universal All-Surface spray paint for this? Just one coat? How do you paint all the surfaces, even the bottom, without marring the rest of it? Thanks for any light you can shed!
Hey Lisa,
Good question! I would get a “gloss” high quality spray paint (Rustoleum All-Surface works) for that ceramic sheen. It may actually take three thin and even coats instead of one thick one (you don’t want gross drips, so slow and thin is the way to go). As for the bottom, I would sit the object on a big piece of cardboard in the yard and spray everything but the bottom (waiting ample times between coats) and then the next day flip it over and spray the bottom if you’d like (be careful that the paint doesn’t drip and ruin the rest of the object though). I might not paint the bottom for that reason (since you don’t see it when it’s on display) but it’s totally your call. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I love the bottle idea but I’m going to try something a little different. My dad went on this collecting spree about 10 yrs ago for pasta and oil in bottles…that phase has passed thank goodness, but he has all these empty clear glass bottles in the basement. I’m going to try pouring paint inside them so they keep the sparkle of the glass but are colored like the inspiration. Definitely an outside project though! Thanks for the ideas :)
yeay! i’m a nashville girl (that worked in hillsboro village for about 5 years) so this makes me happy. :-)
I love the bottle idea! I snagged some old fashion Coke bottles from a restaurant a few months ago, and I finally got around to spray painting one of them a bright pink. The color was pepto-bismol-esque, but otherwise it looked great! I think I’ll do the next one in a metallic color.
I love the pillow that says “Love you” – I actually just covered a pillow in burlap. I may have to try it.
I love your videos. You guys are just so cute. Those were some awesome DIY ideas! Thanks for sharing! I think I might want to give the bottles and pillow a try.
I just finished up some faux-mercury glass pumpkins! My next big DIY project is my living room. ;)
I love the glass bottles idea! We have a huge bar in our basement and we are currently renovating it. My boyfriend loves to hold on to our empty liquior bottles. But with this new idea, I can’t wait to start this project. Good job, ladies!
LOVE the burlap pillow idea, I may just have to whip up some of those babies!!
I think I’d free hand most of the ‘swirly’ on the pillow with a Pigma pen. I’ve written on my quilts with them and they make a nice thin line and are non-acid/archieval quality. The brown ones look very antique – like the pillows in the video. I can never get even lines that thin when I hand cut stencils.
Another option is to make an iron on from your chosen clip art using the kit that is sold for quilt blook and tee shirt transfers (though depending on your base fabric, this might not work – better on muslin than burlap IMHO).
I love your videos – they’re always so helpful and fun. But I’ve just gotta say, girlfriend needs to dump the chewing gum before cameras roll! It’s distracting!
I like shopping for cool diy accessories. I made oil lamps from Patron Tequila bottles. I painted some of them with transparent glass paint. They came out pretty awesome. There are a lot cool liquor bottles out there these days. I like the Patron bottles because they have a Mexican glass look to them.
Hey Dianna,
Those are great! We wished we could comment over on your blog about how much we loved them but we didn’t figure out how. Is there a way? Anyway, so glad you sent the link!
xo,
s
In response to Lauren’s comment about the Crate and Barrel sale, has anyone else heard of this?
I called the Crate and Barrel Outlet store here is Dallas and they didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.
Anyone else score any tables/beds for $150?
Sherry, thanks for the question. Our website is new and this helps us know what we have to do to make it easier to navigate. Blogs are easier for commenting, but you can make comments on our website. Scroll to the bottom of the oil lamp page and click the green box to make a comment or click contact on the navigation bar top left corner of the page to e-mail.
Love your site, I found it though BHG. You were chosen as one of their favorite bloggers to make over an out door space.
Good to know Dianna! Thanks!
xo,
s
There’s only one problem, the video wasn’t long enough. I have been saving clear glass bottles and now I know what to do wit them!
I LOVE your blog! I Just discovered it a couple of weeks ago and have been really enjoying going through all the videos and pages.
I think you should do a video about garage sale finds! I absolutely love garage saling… maybe it’s a Canadian thing? haha. Anyway, it’s nice to know someone else loves goodwill as much as me! I’m only 24 and my friends sometimes look at me like I’m off my rocker! anyways, thank you for posting! :)