F&F: Fashion Fridays, Aerin Lauder a style icon in the making

I have never been a big fan of Estee Lauder cosmetics, but I am a truly fan of her granddaughter endeavors in fashion and interior design.

She has coming out at the end of this month her book: Beauty at Home. Mine has been already pre-orded, and yours?

Some imagines gathered around the Internet to end a nice beginning of the weekend.

Her book that will hit bookshelves, and coffee tables very soon.

 Her simple and elegant style

 Aerin headquarters in NYC

 Aerin Lauder for Lee Jofa fabrics

 May I have that gold console, pretty please?

The essence of Aerin: simple and sunny

Stripes and florals: yes, please!

Do you get happy when sometimes decor purchases just fall in together as a well though puzzle?

Well, it was how I felt today when I put the Thibaut stripes wallpaper I had bought a while ago on ebay,  and an amazing Sharon Kessler fabric adquired at my most recent DeBois haul.

The plan:

Wallpaper the lower portion of the dining room walls, and replace my not so fancy paper curtains to some snazzy roman shades.

What do you think? Do you like/mix prints with stripes, either on your fashion or home decor?

Stripes and florals:

Fabric detail:

Hasta la vista, paper curtains!

Before & After: A charming little Varanda in the concrete jungle

On my stays in Sao Paulo, I try to fit some time to go to Bello Quilt and get some sewing classes. So far, I have done pillows (12 and counting) a duvet cover for my son's crib.
Currently, I'm working on more pillows and some roman shades. I will try my best to do some photo tutorials.
Cida, the owner and teacher,  is an amazing teacher and friend, and very perfectionist! Her bags, children clothes, quilt covers are just works of art!

My last project was to replace my Ikea outdoor chair covers for something more colorful and interesting!

Here is the result:                        


BEFORE:

 AFTER:

The fabrics are outdoors fabrics that I bought here in Sao Paulo in the garment/fabric district. I still have plenty left, if anyone is interested it costs $25.00/yard.

Upholstery inspiration

Every time I need to clear my mind from what I call "dementia inducing bugs", aka, life roadblocks, I stop by an amazing Design/Decor store, at walking distance from my house.

Think airy sun rooms, beach/country house style. Every time I'm there I need to control  my impulse to steal the keys, and move in at the first opportunity.
It was here that I fell in love with upholstery, as well. All the sofas, pillows, chairs, benches are so well made, I have to leave my credit card at home to avoid any impulsive purchase.

Today I decided to stop by to ask the owner, Lauri, this gorgeous, with amazing taste woman, if she could provide her upholster contact information. I have do improve my upholstery skills pronto!  I may become soon an upholster apprentice.
Hopefully, very soon I will have a mini version of Stony Run Home.

Some pics of their goodies, saved immediately to my inspiration files!

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Before & After: Chinoiserie at best!

Before my adventures into upholstery, and with the help of many youtube and blogs tutorials, I decided to put to some good use an amazing Bassett McNab's Tea Garden fabric I purchased from FHG (fabric holly grail, aka, DeBois).

I had already seen the impact and use of the wallpaper of the mentioned fabric:

                 

Room by Gideon Mendelson as seen at House Beautiful

After many theories in how to make a headboard (thank you Rachel and Sara), I decided to take the plunge and go for it:

Add amazing fabric:

Some plywood and MDF:

Et voila! In less than 3 hours (matching the fabric was the most difficult of all tasks):

There is still a lot to do before I unveil the final product: my blue guest room. I still need to use the remaining fabric to do a roman shade for this room, add a rug, paintings, and a nifty chair I just purchased from Goodwill!

Linking my DIY project at The Pink Pagoda

Before & After: "Almost perfect" and I am fine with it!

I love evenings... So much, that I have trouble going to bed at night. I prefer staying up reading and spending endless hours on Pinterest. However, due to this last "addiction", my mind is filled with ideas (please read grand ideas, zero-how-I-will-translate-that-to-real-life).
To add to those grand ideas, I have become a fabric hoarder.  Since reading at the fellow Baltimorean blogs design par Deux and Pigtown Design about the "fabric holy grail" that is Debois Textiles.
My furniture hoarding "enabler/feeder" is an amazing store in Hampden filled with great pieces and people David's on the Avenue.

This is an example of one of my most recent adventures into the needles and thread ruthless world...
You mix a great chrome black leather, tarnished with a few cigarette burns:

With 2 yards of Windsor Smith for Kravet, Mandella fabric, and you get:

An awesome, almost perfect bench! 

I must thank Rose from Nifty Needle that with loads of patience and trust on my poor, almost non-existent  sewing skills, lead me through my first upholstery project!

It's not perfect at all, due to being short of fabric I was unable to align the patters, and will not win any Martha Stewart crafty honor badge in a million years.

Beijinhos, MY.