Sweet Something Designs: camp

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Logan's Room: Vintage Camp

If your children are anything like mine, they are 'into' everything. Dinosaurs, cars, Thomas, and a whole host of other toys and characters. So picking a theme isn't always easy. You want it to be fun and functional, with plenty of storage, a place they can call their own without going overboard. If I had to call this current look anything, maybe a loose camp feel?

I've been working in Logan's room trying to get things more organized and editing clothes and toys before school starts next month!! Wow! Where did the summer go???

Logan's room has always been vintage based and when he was super young I had picked out 'Lil' Cowpoke' fabric as an accent. Now that he is older, a little more mature look is in order.
This is a dresser my in laws gave me. I was thinking of painting it, I even feel a little silly showing you, but I didn't do anything to it except polish it! Once it got in here, the light pickled look was great and even seemed to be the same shade as the burlap pennant garland...so it made no changes whatsoever. Shocker.

Two vintage lamps that I picked up (new shades from Lowe's), they add a lot of light and height. I did a collage over the dresser consisting of things I've collected over time, all vintage except for the black frames. I put some of Logan's blocks in the old print block tray, old license plate, a watercolor from the flea market, matted and framed. I made his name banner a while back, it use to hang over the window, but I decided to try it over the collage for some layering. Not traditional kid's art, but I love the mix and there is growing room...I'm sure I'll pick up other things along the way.

We moved Logan into a twin bed (from a race car bed), especially after I found a twin head board and foot board. Literal curbside find. I couldn't believe it. The wood was pretty dried out and washed out and I decided to freshen it up with paint. I kept the linens pretty neutral, i.e. no character bedding. Mostly navy and orange. Vintage camp blanket (you've seen that blanket used in tablescapes :) Navy comforter from Walmart, ticking pillow I made a long time ago, striped pillowcase and euro sham from West Elm.

Here is the before of the spindle bed:

And after three cans of black spray paint:

I ordered this rug from Overstock and I absolutely love it.

It is described on the website as being southwest, but I think it looks like camp/vintage. I really love how it picks up all the colors in the map wall

I found this orange metal chandy at a flea market in Bella Vista, Arkansas a couple of years ago. It's got to be from the 70's....Justin put it up for me a while ago. It looks pretty campy doesn't it? :)

The only thing I'm waiting on is this fabric from fabric.com, as soon as it comes in, I'll be making curtain panels. I would also like to find a small round side table to use as a nightstand, something wooden.

Other than that, I think we are pretty close to to done!

Joining Emily A. Clark

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Happy Camper Tablescape

Calling all campers!

I always liked going camping as a kid, didn't you? As a teenager on into my adulthood I could be found camping from any where from Williamsburg, Virginia to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to Hatteras Island. Those were the days, and even though those days have past, I still love the idea of a bonfire and lawn chairs even if it's only in the backyard.

I was inspired to create a "campesque" table scape when I found a vintage camp blanket earlier this summer. I snatched it up, knowing that it would be perfect for this time of year. The yellows reds and oranges are a perfect a September pallet. I really love the festive colors and fun pattern.

My place setting consist of wicker chargers, yellow plates, and red and orange salad plates.
For every ones names, I used river rocks that I painted with Chalkboard paint, just like Pottery Barns version, much less expensive though. They really are fun, and Logan really loves them.

For the centerpiece , I did a couple of different things. Just to show you how to change things up with the same pieces. Here is a great looking hurricane with pottery base. Or is it?

The hurricane is actually a glass cloche that I flipped over. I flipped the pedestal bowl over too, it was a lucky fit . This is a Pottery Barn bowl I recently found thrifting, it was a lucky find. :)

I used gourds, pumpkins, pine cones, and berries to fill the cloche. You will see a third version further down.

So are you wondering about my napkins? I made them, yep, you heard me right, I sewed. My grandmother (she was a seamstress) must have been helping me from above because I actually didn't mess them up and my machine didn't freak out. I can't believe I made them , and they are reversible. Holy cow!

I used the floral fabric on all four and the polka dots and plaid on the backs.

I really love the floral print and it coordinates really well with the camp blanket, so I used it for the front of all the napkins.

and it also led the way to introduce red poppies and sunflowers, two of my faves!

I put the sunflowers in red spray painted tin cans (from the 4Th of July) How campy is that? :)

and I used tin cans spray painted orange for the flatware (they will eventually be jack-o-lanterns :)

Here is the third version of the flipped cloche, filled with a little bit of sand for weight and a candle and berries. I really love it like this. Also, I almost forgot, I took the ugly rubber guard off of the cloche and it left a gummy residue that I couldn't get off, so I glued some grograin ribbon around the glass to hide it. I like how the black looks with the striped ribbon too.