‘On The Set’ Design: “The Holiday”

So as I was thinking of the movie The Holiday again, I thought about why it’s one of my favorite movies. I mean, it’s a chick flick, and as much as I love a good “boy meets girl, awkwardness ensues, boy and girl live happily ever after” movie, I usually go for the mystery thrillers, and action movies. So why did I love The Holiday so much? Well, not because of Jude Law, the “I wish that was me” plot or the charming little english children. It’s the amazing set designs and scenery. I’ll share with you why I love this movie more every time I see it.

Set 1: Amanda’s Los Angeles House

I love this set for the reason that this amazing and clean contemporary style of design, usually isn’t what I go for. I’m one that goes for more natural colors, with bright accents, a fresh country look with a modern touch. But the stainless steel and grays of the kitchen, whites of the livingroom and clean lines all over add an organized and fresh look that I can’t get enough of.

The Kitchen in “Amanda”, Cameron Diaz’s Los Angeles home. It’s bigger than most houses. The cold steel and black cabinets, and stone floors seem industrial, while the cream colors of the chairs, the buttery walls, and red apples warm the place up and add a homey feel.

The fantastic living room. With the off white wing back chairs and matching couch, dark woods with clean contemporary lines, and numerous amounts of lamps, it’s straight out of a magazine.

Amanda’s Bedroom. Remember the blackout blinds that were remote controlled? King size fluffy bed? I do.

Another view of the living room, looking into the front hallway.

Set 2: Iris’s Country Cottage

This set is definitely my favorite in this movie. The charm, the flea market vibe, and the cottage shabby chic of it all is just so very cozy. I love the dual fireplaces, the stone walls, and the wood floors, and most of all, the plush fabrics. A place I could very well see myself settling into.

The outside of the “Rose Hill” cottage. English countryside, stone fence, rolling pastures. What else could you hope for?

The entry way of the little cottage. It’s kitschy, full of mismatched collected items, and the walls are full of assorted framed photos and prints, yet it all flows together wonderfully.

This room is kind of overflowing with furnishings, accessories, pillows and books, which may make the room seem crowded, but i’d still love to just curl up on the ottoman with a book in front of the fireplace any day. This set kind of reminds me of the set of the Gilmore Girls. I’ll save that for another day…

Here’s another view of the living room.

The beautiful and tiny charming bathroom in the cottage. With the painted floors, stone walls, and furniture style wash area, this room just screams charm.

The tiny kitchen is just adorable with it’s painted cabinets, stone fireplace, and multiple accessories. This flea market-meets-shabby chic look is easily achieved and at a low cost. It does take time, and dedicated collecting though.

The bedroom in this delightful cottage is bright, and airy. The white ceilings open up the room, and match perfectly with the white trims and metal bed frame, while the natural wood beams keep room in tact with the rest of the cottage’s natural elements.

The little back porch/ book room has just as much charm as the rest of the house. Not a detail was spared with the floor to ceiling books, antique rug and cozy throw blanket.

Set 3: Graham’s Mill House

Jude Law’s character “Graham” has a decent size mill house that’s equal to the stylings of Iris’s cottage. It’s got a beautiful driveway in the front, all stone. He claims to have a cow in the backyard making me think that there’s a barn or a pasture in the back of the home.

The front of the amazing english Mill House.

The front entry of Graham’s house. There are even brick stairs to add to the old english style of the home.

A view down the front hall into the sitting room.

A view down the other hall into the kitchen. Original stone floors, french doors, and wood furniture style kitchen cabinets make this set feel like it’s been around since the turn of the century.

A view into the kitchen of this awesome English house. I love the stone cooking area.

The office/ reading room in Graham’s house. The choice of decor is very cool for a single dad.

I think that the designer of the set did an amazing job with every last detail of the room, and I can only hope to aspire myself to be such a versatile designer. I hope you enjoy my little set tour, and there will be more to come! Any suggestions of your favorite movies are welcome, and I will happily “tour” that set as well! Happy viewing!

To Live and Dye…

So I decided to dye an old coat I had laying around black that was previously cream colored. I wanted to give it a new life, and had an old packet of “Rit” fabric dye, so I thought, what the hey? I followed instructions on how to use the powdered dye, filled a dish tub of water, and dunked the wet coat in the water, stirring for about 30 minutes, as directed. Since i’m not one who minds getting her hands dirty, I decided to just reach in and rinse the coat out, as directed, before washing it in the washer. The process of doing so left my fingers and fingernails gray and stained like a mechanic, or drug dealer you see in the movies. (I recommend rubber gloves.) After washing my new “black” coat in the washer with a small amount of laundry soap, and drying it in the dryer, my new coat looked almost… purple. And there were a few less then colored spots, and the back of it looks almost, well, acid washed or tie dyed… I think it looks pretty cool, since the cream threads didn’t change color, nor did the buttons, and it’s a multi colored/ gray-ish/ purple looking coat. All in all, If you want a black coat, buy one. I still think that the dye process was fun, seeing clothing change color, and I wouldn’t be against dying something a brighter color, like yellow, or green. That may turn out just fine! Like an old set of sheets, or white t-shirts. But for now, I’ll do without the black fingers.

Happy dying!

Organize Those Old Bags!

If you are like me, you have an overwhelming collection of shopping bags from the grocery store, and just shopping in general. I love to sew, so I found a way to keep all those plastic, paper, and fabric bags sorted so they aren’t shoved under the kitchen sink anymore….

All you need is about 2 yards of fabric, matching thread, and an old wooden hanger (best for support.) If you have a sewing machine this is a fairly easy project, and can be as complex as you like it to be, with adding other fabrics, pockets with pleats, and stretchy elastic tops.

Here’s my finished product. I’ll tell you how I did it all!

You’ll want to find a piece of fabric, something sturdy, I used canvas. You can also use anything strong enough to withstand ware and tear. The first piece should be cut it to the width of a hanger, (about 14-16″ wide) and as tall as you want it. Mine’s almost the height of the door, (about 5′) and wide enough to fit paper bags folded in half.

Then you should figure out how many pockets you want to have. I needed 4. One for paper, one for plastic, one for my shopping bags, and an extra that I ended up using for paper that we like to either put in the grill or wrap glass for moving.

Make sure you leave enough room for hems. I cut the fabric the width of the sorter, and was able to fold the sides in easily to attach to the base piece. You can sew the pockets to the tall piece in any fashion you like. I hemmed the top of the pocket, then sewed the bottom to the base piece, then sewed up the sides. I then ironed each piece to make sure it laid flat.

I made one of my pockets with a drawstring at the top, since I ran out of elastic and my original plan was to make one pocket with an elastic top to hold plastic bags. This pocket works better for old newspapers than plastic bags though!

To fit the top to the hanger, I had to fold the sides in just a little bit, since the hanger was a little more narrower than the bag sorter. All I did then was fold it over the hanger, make sure it hung straight, then sew it onto the hanger. You can use a flap with  buttons if you don’t want to sew it right to the hanger too.

I bought a Command sticky hook to put on the inside of our laundry room door to hang the bag sorter.

Once I hung the sorter, all I had to do was fill it with bags! I was able to clear out a large area under the kitchen sink too! I love to be organized…

Done! If you like to sew, you’ll find this project is pretty easy, and will help you stay organized! Happy sewing!

Upcycling- A Hot New Trend

I came across a new term today while I was browsing one of my favorite sites, Apartment Therapy.  Wickepedia says that “Upcycling” is “the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value”.

So Upcycling is like recycling and reusing put together. You don’t throw away items, but find creative ways to repurpose them in your home, or sell them/donate them so someone else can. I don’t think there are too many “useless” materials here on this planet, I mean sure there’s garbage like wrappers, broken glass, old apple cores and food scraps, and things that should be thrown away/composted, but with many old products, Upcycling is a great option and is something that we all can incorporate into our lives. I found many items that have been “Upcycled” and would LOVE to share them with you for a little inspiration.

Here’s a neat way to reuse a ladder as a bookshelf. I’m sure there’s heavy duty bracketing involved in this installation.

I love the idea of using a dresser as an island in a kitchen. Not only is there adequate storage for all those pesky little kitchen items, but you can top it off with a piece of laminate or natural stone for a clean fished top.

This one would take some skill… Someone took old glasses and made them into a really cool pendant light.

Here’s one of the MANY ways you can re-use old wooden crates.

Here’s a cute little way to keep ribbon organized and make it easy to dispense.

I love this one! Using little teacups to keep a medicine cabinet organized.

You’ll want to put a backing on the shutter if you want to use it for a letter organizer like shown here so your letters don’t slip through.

Here’s a way you can make lanterns for magical looking outdoor lighting. You can hang them from a tree, a fence, or set them up in the yard. There’s sand in the bottom to make sure the votives sit up straight, and collect the excess wax.

Old doors add charm and are a great way to decorate. Use them as a headboard, a chalkboard organizer like the one above, or room separator.

I like this idea of adding a mirror, and some hooks to use as something you check your self out in on the way out the actual door.

I LOVE the idea of using an old door as a headboard. It would even look cool with some wall hanging sconces wired into the sides for night time reading. Make sure to sand out  an old door and refinish so you don’t get splinters!

You get a piece of glass cut to fit and you can make yourself a really neat table top.

I hope you got some ideas here for how to re-use, I mean Upcycle some of your old cast off items and create something new and awesome. Happy Upcycling!