Design. Create. Decorate.

Design. Create. Decorate.

Friday, November 27, 2015

DIY PomPom Twig Wreath

Welcome to Quince Cottage!

Holiday decorating is well underway here and we're hoping to share a few ideas with you this season.
Wreaths are a must at this time of year, right? And pompoms have never been more popular. Why not unite these two in a destined-to-become-classic decoration?
First you need to buy or make a twig wreath. We got ours for $3.99 each at Hobby Lobby.

Twig wreath © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
You'll also need florist's wire, wire cutters, and craft lights (we got our lights at Michael's), as well as AA batteries for the lights. These lights come in multiple shapes, we chose stars. We like the programmable ones that go on at a designated time and then turn themselves off six hours later.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
We bought a pompom-maker that creates four different sizes.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Hint 1: to make fluffy pompoms fast, use chunky yarn.

Hint 2: When you tie a piece of yarn around the middle of the in-progress pompom, leave several extra inches hanging loose. This will come in handy later. (See photo below).

For our wreath we used two different yarns and two different sized pompoms. We made three pompoms per wreath.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Put batteries in the box attached to the lights, then use florist's wire to attach the box to the back of the wreath. Next wrap the lights around the wreath.
Now, tie the pompoms together to make a cluster, and then tie the cluster to the wreath.
Finally, cut a length of ribbon to hang the wreath.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Here are some photos of the finished wreaths.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We hope you enjoyed your visit!

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent.
Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 
and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Buster and Daisy hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving!
They like Thanksgiving because it's all about eating and napping, two of their favorite pastimes.

Buster and Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Buffalo Check Wall Treatment

Welcome to Quince Cottage!

Half baths are often tiny spaces, and ours is no exception. The upside is that a few changes can create a whole lot of style.
So, with our builder basic bathroom, here's what we did:

1. We substituted a mirror with a Victorian painted frame for the plain oval mirror.
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
2. As you might have noticed we also substituted an awesome light from Ballard Designs for the standard fixture.

Here's the original...

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
This is a better photo of the fixture we ordered (photo from the Ballard Designs website).

Photo from Ballard Design website (not in our house)

3. We substituted a sweet thrifted hook for the standard towel ring (screwed it to a painted wooden plaque first). Then we added a cute vintage soap holder (which we use for a scented candle).
Here's the original towel ring, pretty ho-hum, yes?

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here are the new towel hook and the soap dish.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Now for the most exciting part!

4. We did a wall treatment on one wall. It's such a small room that doing this on every wall would have made the space seem claustrophobic and overly busy.
Our inspiration was buffalo check fabric, which we love!

Here's the How To:

1. Figure out what colors you're going to use. Because this is a small room (yes, we know we keep harping on that), we went with a 3-color, rather than 4-color check. AND to simplify things and help the feature wall coordinate with the other three walls, we used the existing wall color for the mid-tone. That color is Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. The other two are Olympic Anew Gray and Olympic Milk Paint. On my monitor these have a cooler cast than they do in real life. For an authentic looking buffalo check, it's easiest to work with a single paint strip and choose three colors from it. Or choose a white or cream and then two colors from a single paint strip.

Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray

Olympic Milk Paint
Olympic Anew Gray
2. Measure your wall. Figure out how big a scale you want the pattern to be and divide the wall vertically and horizontally accordingly. We wanted our squares to be "about" 12 inches. Our wall measured 83 inches wide, so we divided by seven, making seven squares that were about 11 7/8" wide. The wall was 100" high so we divided by eight, making the squares were about 12 1/2" high. Therefore, technically the squares weren't exactly square, but it's a small difference that isn't apparent to the naked eye, and it allowed us to have full squares over the whole wall. We ended up with a grid that was seven squares wide by eight squares high. You can choose to make the pattern fit the wall, as we did, or you can choose the size square you want and let the pattern end wherever it ends.

3. First we measured across, making marks every 11 7/8". Then we measured down and made marks every 12 1/2". Using a level and a ruler, draw faint lines with a pencil to connect the marks and create the squares.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

4. To avoid mistakes, label the squares with pencil to indicate dark, medium, light. Starting in the upper left corner, we marked dark and went across that row making every other one dark. Skip a row, then repeat the dark row. Continue to the bottom. Then, the square that is in the middle of a set of four darks should be light. (Starting with the second row, the first square would be medium and the second would be light, continue with this sequence). Tape off the first set of squares to be painted. You can actually see some squares have already been painted in these photos - Ron was too quick, or Rhiann was too slow with the camera...

Tip: use good quality painters' tape and remove it as soon as you're done painting that color.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

5. Here you can see that the dark squares have been done. Now it's time to do the lightest color.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
6. Ta daaaa! Erase any remaining pencil marks.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here are some more photos. Apologies for the grainy look-this room is...yes, TINY, and it was hard to light it and take photos in there without special equipment.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

So, what do you think? Is this a treatment you'd try somewhere in your home?

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. 
Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, 
and as though it wasn't born yesterday.

Daisy and Buster hope you'll come back and visit soon!

Daisy & Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet


Friday, November 6, 2015

Non-Traditional DIY Autumn Porch Decor

Hey there, welcome back to Quince Cottage!
Today we're talking autumn plaids. Everyone is mad about plaid this year, right? Well, we decided to take a slightly off-the-beaten-path approach.
Maybe we were inspired by some of the brilliant things Nature does in North Carolina this time of year.

 Roadside weed © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Toad on Sweet Potato Vine © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Beauty Berry © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
You can make jam from these, and use their juice as a bug-repellent.
Passion Flower Vine © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
That passion flower was growing in the weeds between our house and the one behind us. It also inspired another project we'll show you in an upcoming post. Pretty amazing flower isn't it?

As we've said before, we like to pinch pennies when we can, and by sewing your own pillow covers, you can too. It's pretty fast and easy if you've got a sewing machine, even if you hate sewing like Rhiann does. This time around we wanted to make a matching throw too. We bought the fabric at Joann Fabrics.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Being able to reverse the pillows by using a different fabric on each side gives even more options in terms of look. You can use snaps or velcro dots or just a basting stitch to close up the open side of your pillow casing.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
There's the throw in the photo below. Super easy to make using the leftover fabric from the pillows. On either end of the length of the berry plaid, Rhiann sewed a strip of the green plaid. Then she hemmed all the edges. Ta-daaaah! Done! Now we're not saying this throw will keep you warm on a frosty evening, but it adds a splash of color and continues the theme without breaking the bank.

© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
© Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
What do you think? Yes, we know, the porch floor needs to be stained. We're currently debating colors.

Of course it wouldn't be a Quince Cottage blog post without some doggy cuteness, so here you go...

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet
Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, and as though it wasn't born yesterday.