Room Design Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. 

Since I stopped taking online design clients last year, many of you have asked what other designers I would recommend.  One of them is Camila.

 

 

Besides being Hudson’s mom, she is also author of the beautiful blog, Effortless Style.  And, she just happens to be taking new online design clients.

 

 

I’ve always been drawn to Camila’s style because it’s colorful, livable, and fun:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re wanting to make some updates to (or completely change up) one of your rooms, her “style boards” are the perfect starting point:

 

  

 

 

 

 

Her style boards are valued at up to $1200 and she’s giving one away!

 

Here’s what’s included:

1. Floor Plan/ Furniture Layout: Mock up of where everything should go.
2. Furniture & Accessory Picks: Boards with product images, pricing.
3. Material Picks: Boards with paint, fabric, wallpaper options, window treatment options, flooring, hardware
4. Design Plan: Instructions on who to execute the look. (Includes notes for to achieve DIY projects, if applicable.)
5. Shopping Guide: List of links for all of the items that are needed to achieve the design plan.

 

(Style plans do not include kitchen or bathroom remodels.  Winner must redeem style plan within one year.  Once the client receives the style plan, they have up to two additional hours to ask Camila any questions or to have her make any tweaks, etc.)

 

And, since the holidays are upon us, Camila has offered to let the giveaway winner redeem their prize in the form of a gift certificate if someone on your list needs a style plan more than you do :)  (I would totally keep this for myself, but that’s just me. . .)

 

 

 

To enter, just leave a comment on this post letting me know what room most needs Camila’s help.  For an extra entry, “like” Effortless Style on Facebook and leave another comment letting me know.

(Two entries maximum, and please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.  I’ll choose the winner at random and announce on Thursday, Dec. 6th.)

 

Good luck!,

Holiday Craft Ideas (What We Made)

 

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I wanted to share the specific projects the guests at our holiday crafting party were able to make and take home. 

We set up three different “stations” based on the themes of paper, moss and nature, offering a couple of different crafts at each one.  What I like most about the projects is that almost all of them could also be used throughout the year.  Here’s what we made:

 

(Yes, we tore up books for these projects.  If it makes you feel better, they weren’t very good ones…)

 

 

 

The book page trees were one of the easiest crafts we did.  (And, I think they have a fun Anthropologie vibe.)  We pre-painted two sizes of terra cotta pots with spray chalkboard paint, and provided skewers in two lengths.  (I just bought inexpensive dowel rods, cut them to length and used a pencil sharpener on each end.) 

 

 

 

Once I was ready to start stacking the book pages, I first used pages torn in half, then torn in thirds, in fourths, etc., working my way to the top.  (We didn’t pre-cut anything.)  Older books work great because the pages almost fall apart when you fold them.

 

 

 

This is a super easy project for kids, too.  (Unless they try to stab each other with the skewers. . .)  Of course, they also think it’s fun to be able to tear up a book without getting in trouble.

 

 

 

 

We also made book page wreaths.  Simple?  Yes.  Time-consuming?  Double yes.  But, it’s a great craft if you’ve got a friend to do it with, time to work on it and lots of glue sticks.  We just used straw wreaths (with the plastic still on) and rolled each page into a cone, hot gluing them to the wreath in layers. 

 

 

I found that it was easiest to start by turning the wreath over, hot gluing two layers of longer book pages to the back.  Then, I flipped it over and glued shorter pages to the front in layers.  It may look a mess while you’re doing it, but you really can’t mess it up.

 

 

Mine is now hanging on the front of the bookcases in our office:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this station, everyone did their own thing, with the option of making a moss-covered wreath, trees, or topiaries.  Here’s what we supplied:

 

• Styrofoam wreath, ball and tree forms    
• A variety of pots and small urns
• A mixture of moss
• Embellishments like faux fruit and glittery styrofoam balls
• Rubb ‘n' Buff (to decorate the plain terracotta pots)
• Hot glue guns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since some of the other crafts took more time, we wanted to offer a station where they could quickly put together another project to take home.  For the “nature” station, we supplied several driftwood pieces, succulents, air plants, pinecones and hot glue guns. 

 

 

 

 

These make great centerpieces or accessories to set on a coffee table.  Here’s a similar one I did and dressed up for our holiday table:

 

 

 

 

What holiday crafts are you planning to make this year?

 

Our Christmas Crafting Party

 

Last week, I teamed up with my friend Carey to host a holiday crafting party a few days before Thanksgiving.  We had both seen an article about a similar party in this year’s BH&G Christmas Ideas magazine and thought it looked like great fun.  Carey has a cute design studio where she creates beautiful floral designs for weddings and events (check out her site here), and we were able to host it there.

 

 

 

The whole process was a bit of an experiment for us.  We each invited a handful of “guinea pigs”, all with different levels of craftiness, and set up three different stations with the themes of paper, moss and nature.  (We also set up a hot drink station and served mini-desserts at each table.)  Each guest was able to make and take home two different projects. 

 

 

Here are some photos from our fun night . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the specific crafts we did at each station (and what we learned).

 

 

A Holiday House Tour

 

I’m easing back into blogging today after taking several days off over the break.  I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  I had 102 things that I wanted to get done, and accomplished almost nothing.  Oh well!  I guess that’s how “breaks” are suppose to be. 

I’m working on editing the pictures from last week’s crafting party and will share those tomorrow.  In the meantime, here’s a fun Christmas house tour that I found over the weekend.  Hopefully, it will get you inspired to start decorating the house this week (unless you’re one of those overachievers that already has it all done).

 

design by Katie Rosenfeld, photos by Michael Lee

 

See the rest of the house here.

 

Thankful

 

I feel like we’ve already celebrated Thanksgiving.  This past Sunday, we had the blessing of seeing our oldest son baptized, and we also dedicated our babies during the service.  Afterwards, our friends and family came over for lunch.  It made me really happy to see our home filled with people who have been so important to our family.  It was a great day, celebrating a lot of answered prayers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m taking the rest of the week off, but I hope you have a restful, wonderful Thanksgiving!