Grass Cloth

  The master bedroom has been an ongoing project.  It all began when I pulled a duvet cover out of the linen closet.  Wanting to add more color to the room to break up all of the dark wood furnishings, some of which were my from my childhood bedroom, I painted the night stands green.  I also made curtains and a boudoir pillow for the bed.

I have always loved grass cloth, and as luck would have it, Mom and D recently finished hanging it in their mountain home and had enough left over for me to line the built ins.

 Some of you have asked about the "how-to" on this project and I apologize for not doing a full tutorial, but I will do my best to tell you what I did.  First I measured the height of the opening with a measuring tape.  Then I used a right angled ruler to mark a straight line on the paper.  Because of the width of the paper and the width of the shelves, I had to hang two pieces of paper per shelf.  I first hung the wider piece.  I tried to use two sided tape, but it didn't hold.  So I resorted to my trusty glue gun and this worked like a charm.  Once the widest strip was in place, I cut a second strip the same height and placed it beside the affixed piece.  I pressed the new piece into the corner until it was creased.  With scissors, I cut the strip along the crease and this became the second piece to glue into place.

If that explanation makes no sense, please feel free to email me.

On to the styling...the shelves are filled with books, art made by friends, and photos that we have collected over the years.  A few of the white pieces that you see were spray painted to add contrast.  The lovely starfish that you see, was won on a giveaway sponsored by The White Flower Farmhouse

You can see where the seam is to the right of this picture.  I tried to position things on the shelves to cover the seam where I could and obviously didn't do too well here.  I love for our home to be filled with meaningful treasures.  This photo is one of a family vacation in Nags Head and the boys were feeding the seagulls. Now that I see this photo, I think the frame would look better white...stop it Rene.  The bowls were made by Dad.

Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few home and garden books as well as Dad's old furniture making books and tools that have found a home in these shelves.  In the basket you see shells from one of our trips to the beach.

I have always loved birds and have little signs of them throughout the house.  This pair of birds were bronze and I painted them white.  They look much better now.  The needlework is a blue-jay that Mom made years ago for my grandmother.  When she passed away it was given to me.  Then under the cloche is a hummingbird nest.  Mom found it this spring after a storm blew it out of a tree.  We have always wanted to see one of these little nests, but are sorry that it had to happen this way.

This light was also given a coat of white.  It used to be ORB.

If you noticed the window seat, in the second and fourth photos, I am still trying the get up the nerve to make a seat cushion.  I'm thinking navy with white piping or blue and white ticking...what do you think?  And those two little bolsters will need fabric any suggestions designing women and men?  The peach colored lamp on the chest of drawers will be updated too using this tutorial.  Sometimes I wish there was more time in the day...