TayRose Design interior design owl Archives - TayRose Design interior design

Owl Inspired Theme Toddler Bedroom

12 Feb 2018

Craft Project, DIY, Interior Design Room, Kids Room, Theme Room

#floating shelves, #painted tree mural, #placemat, #vintage linen, custom, decorator, designer, DIY, Home Decor, Home Design, owl, pillow, TayRose Design, theme room

B4 and after owl theme room

Evolving from a nursery to a toddler bedroom is always fun especially when there is a theme involved. Keeping the budget in mind, the client wanted owls to be the theme. With purchased artwork as inspiration, owl pillows; shelf sitters; a tree mural and floating shelves were added to the design.

Inspired owl artwork

A new trundle bed replaced the crib on the back wall. White furniture and ruffled curtains coordinated with the bed and trim. That left a huge blank focal wall behind the bed, just prime for a hand-painted tree mural. What better place for an owl to sit than in a tree!

The wall tree had limbs that reached towards the corner of the wall with added white floating shelves and green painted mini birdhouses for a bit of whimsy. A metal owl wall art piece was painted white to match the tree. Painting the tree, hanging the wall shelves plus accessorizing was complete in a day.

Painted tree mural

Starting Owl Pillows

For one of the owl pillows, I found a pair of woven green rectangular placemats that I purchased for under $2 each. Walmart had some nice inexpensive assorted cottons that are sold in packages just right for small projects. I chose colors that would coordinate with the pink, gray and white color scheme going on in the room. Vintage linens and cut up discarded clothing were used as fabric as well.

owl placemat pillow layout

The placemats were sewn on the vertical for the pillow with a couple of small feet at the bottom. Felt eyelashes, a suede beak from an old jacket, and cut out fabric circles made up the eyes and feet. All the pieces were sewn to the front side first before sewing the seams. Due to the fringed edges, I sewed the seams just as they lay with right side up. At the top ear corners, with a needle and thread, I tacked a couple of small stitches so they would “pinch” together like little ears. The suede beak was hand embroidered showing the hand stitches for that ” handmade” look.

owl placemat pillow ear

I cut the border edge of my vintage linen into strips to sew together as the “tummy”.

owl placemat pillow tummy

For the feet, I made a quick pattern, cut out fabric , pinked the edges, stuffed with fiberfill and sewn to bottom seam. Sew around all the edges with about a 5/8″ seam leaving about a 5″ opening to add stuffing. After filling with desired amount of stuffing sew the opening close and voila, pillow done!

owl placemat pillow finished

Shelf Sitters

As for the owl shelf sitters….making the patterns for the first time was challenging and then filling them with rice found more rice on floor than in the owl!

making pattern for owl shelf sitters

A pink and white feather boa from the Dollar Store was cut and sewn as little tufts to the ears for some texture and fun. These little owls definitely like to “sit” and not be played with by little hands, so they were set up high in the branches on shelves.

Owl shelf sitters finished

In Conclusion:

All in all, this was a very fun project, lots of room for additional accessories as the little one grows older without having to change too much, which is great for the budget.

“Who” would like to try and take on a theme room and watch it grow? Ahhh…..very wise…..

Owl theme toddler room finished

Decorate fireplace wall “naturally” on a budget

large canvas owl photograph by Everet Regal

Before and after fireplace wall project

What to do? Our fireplace place wall was enlarged when we removed the ceiling and vaulted it, and after tirelessly trying to match the vintage stone below the mantle to no avail, we had to think about another budget friendly way to finish the space above. We thought of reclaimed wood, but that would require framing it and that would be very heavy and the ceiling is so tall we don’t have ladders high enough to get to the ceiling to secure any materials we chose.

So, for several years I just decorated the mantle with decor items, but they just didn’t fill the empty space above as much as we would have liked.

Mantle decor before revamping fireplace wall

Finally, I was browsing through my husbands photos online (he is a photographer and sells his art on Fine Art America here, https://everet-regal.pixels.com/) and found this picture of an owl in a grove of birch trees during a snow shower, and thought, “if this was enlarged on canvas it might just work on the wall over the fireplace”. I roughly sketched a layout I was envisioning, for I am so visual I need a picture…especially when trying to describe an idea to someone else…uh huh, need a picture!

Sketch of fireplace wall layout with owl canvas and birch trees

I showed my sketch and ideas to my husband who re-sized the photograph online to a larger size canvas that would be available to purchase, and we ordered it. (You can find where we purchased it here https://everet-regal.pixels.com/products/silent-snowfall-portrait-ii-everet-regal-canvas-print.html ) We chose the 33.5″ x 48″ size, but there are many sizes available as well as other mediums, such as acrylic, metal, paper, and it can even be printed on a shower curtain or pillows!

large owl canvas purchased for vaulted ceiling fireplace wall as centerpiece

But just hanging a large canvas art would not be enough for the wall, so I suggested we bring in trees to line up around the art so it really looks like the owl is sitting in the trees! First we had to find the white birch trees. A request on facebook from my husband had several people responding back with permission to go on their properties to cut what we needed. (Please ask first for we are NOT encouraging that anyone go and cut down trees where there are posted signs or on private property) Hubby went out several times walking properties that we were given permission to search and came back with several trees perfect for the project.

Cut birch trees brought in to start fireplace wall project

We chose white birch only because those type of trees were in the owl canvas, but one can use just about any tree-however, be aware that most trees have sap in them and will run more in certain seasons of the year- be sure to read up on whichever trees you choose. Also, faux trees could be used as well, whichever works best for you.

We were trying to decide how we would attach the trees to the mortar on the wall, and if there were ways we could bypass any wiring or nailing into the fragile mortar background. I thought if we put the base of the trees in a glass vase with a little bit of playground sand (my hubby thought to put the sand in) and cut the tops just enough so there was some tension pressed onto the ceiling, we wouldn’t need to have any nailing or screwing into the wall. We shopped for clear vases and there are so many choices with just as many prices, and we finally opted for some hefty weighted large glass mugs to do the trick. We found these at the Dollar Tree, and for a dollar, how could we pass them up!! https://www.dollartree.com/Brand-Name-Jumbo-Glass-Sports-Mugs-26-5-oz-/p412969/index.pro

Glass heavy mugs to use as vases for tree mantle project

We faced the handles towards the back of the wall, and lifted each tree up and snipped off the ends with enough tension to stay up secure to the ceiling. Since the ceiling is vaulted and at an angle, each tree had to be snipped at different lengths. I also found bags of black river stones at the Dollar Tree and used them to spread along the mantle top. https://www.dollartree.com/Black-River-Rocks-32-oz-Bags/p363671/index.pro

River rocks for fireplace mantle

We ended up putting 4 trees, 2 on each side of the canvas then filled in below with wispy branch clippings up against the wall. We also tucked in a full length tree branch along both sides of fireplace from the floor up, then cut used the cut of trunks to stick in decorative urns on hearth. The only hardware we needed was the nail to hang the canvas art. Now the owl in the photo canvas comes to life hidden in real trees and even the eyes follow you wherever you walk…so cool!

Starting layout of canvas and trees on fireplace wall

The canvas was really the only real cost in the project, the trees were free, the vases and rocks total were less than $20.00, so all in all, a very inexpensive project that has a great “wow” feature for the room.

There are so many natural materials that can be used for decor that make a great statement: large driftwood pieces, large canvases painted or printed, shells glued on mirrors or picture frames, live succulent frames, rocks ….the list goes on and on.

Especially if you find materials in your own yard, projects can be kind on the budget, plus, nature inspires art and fits in decor “naturally.”

Finished fireplace wall

Nostalgic treasures made from a cherished coat

Taylor

01 Jan 2015

DIY, Holiday, Repurposed

cat, collar, fox, fur, gift, ornament, owl, repurpose, reused, squirrel, TayRose Design, vintage

Christmas is a very special time of the year….people bustling to get ready for family and friends to share the day with, shopping to find that special gift, planning the meals with all the favorite passed down recipes, and most importantly, remembering the true Spirit of the day and rejoicing in all our blessings.

Vintage mink collar to be transformed into ornaments

A few weeks before Christmas, while visiting my Mother-in-law, she proceeded to tell us about a very special coat she had received one Christmas that my Father-in-law and daughter had picked out as a gift for Christmas many years ago. That coat was a warm wool that had a real mink collar and she felt like a Queen whenever she wore it….she also received a matching mink hat, boots and long leather gloves! Can you picture this back in the 60’s? Having 6 kids, this splurge purchase was very rare and so cherished! Well, as she told the story with a gleam in her eye, she handed me the mink collar that she had saved over the years…so cherished, and said to me, ” I know you can do something with this if you want it “. At the time, I was in awe that she entrusted me with this treasure, and we had talked a bit about making a hat out of it, but that idea just didn’t seem like enough to honor this piece of joy. So, I left still in a quandry….

About a week before Christmas while driving home I had an epiphany….I usually get a lot of ideas while driving, lol…I kept thinking about the story of the coat and how I’m sure all 6 kids must have remembered that coat and the memories of her in the coat…so I knew that I had to make something with that fur collar that can be shared with all the siblings…but what?

I had been thinking while driving about lugging down all the numerous storage totes full of Christmas decor from the garage rafters, and whether or not I was going to put up a tree this year, when the thought struck me….an ornament. I could make an ornament for each of the siblings using a part of the fur collar that can be brought out each year to remind them of how special their Mother felt with her cherished coat. All of a sudden my mind was racing with everything that had fur that I could hopefully create for an ornament….a squirrel, a cat, a fox, an owl…yes, yes, I think I can do it! I wanted each animal to have some meaning for each sibling (plus Mom gets to choose one for herself too of course!): one sister loves cats, another owls, my husband photographed a den of baby foxes for weeks, and the others all have squirrels that are fed at their feeders.

For 5 days I was sequestered in front of a table full of beads, fur, the gold wool collar scraps, felt, wire, embroidery thread, stuffing – making patterns and hand sewing ornaments. It took all my nerve to make the first cut into that beautiful collar, but once I saw the squirrel tail, and the cat face, and the fox tail and tummy, and the owl….there was only joy…time was my only enemy.

Since we were celebrating Christmas with my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law, I had to get at least their ornaments finished, the other siblings lived far away and I knew they would get them after the holiday. As I was working, I looked around at the table heaped with supplies which was the table in our family room….my patient husband making a small space on the corner to set his plate down…and I thought, I better make all the ornaments now, for I’m in the groove, the supplies are all here, plus, it will be a special treat for my Mother-in-law to be able to see all the different ornaments her collar has made, and have a hand in choosing which ornament goes to what child. Great! With that mission in mind, I proceeded to work fervorishly and was able to finish the last one after midnight on Christmas Eve….another blessing.

To go along with the ornament I really wanted to repeat the story of her coat somehow and I asked my husband, who is a very good writer…he doesn’t think so, but he is…if he would write a little poem that I could include with each ornament. I thought I would roll up the poem like a little scroll and hang on the ornament as a keepsake. My husband did not disappoint…the next morning there was a poem sitting on my computer when I woke up and it was just what I had envisioned and knew he could produce, and it went like this…

“We hope you’ll find pleasure, in this little treasure, his pieces from years gone by.

Although he can’t speak, he’s really unique, we want you to understand why.

He’s like no other, a part of our Mother, that put a gleam in her eye.

You just have to think, she was pretty in mink, in a coat that made her sigh.”

I told you he was good!

All I can say is that every long hour and bloody poked fingers from the hand sewing was worth it when I watched with drawn in breath as she gently unwrapped each ornament. I knew at that moment, that these ornaments were the perfect use for that cherished collar! Don’t you agree?

Now I can’t wait to hear from all the sisters after receiving their bit of nostalgia!

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Squirrel ornament made from vintage mink coat collar

Fox ornament made from vintage coat mink collar

Cat face ornament from vintage mink coat collar

Owl ornament made from vintage mink coat collar

Owls emerge from remnants

Taylor

16 Nov 2014

Art, Repurposed

fabric, Handmade, Home Decor, New York, one of a kind, owl, pillow, remnant, Taylor Regal, TayRose, unique

For the past couple of weeks, while trying to purge through piles of fabric remnants and trims, a thought came to me, why not take these remnants, and sew them up into “feathers” for owls to put on pillow covers and messenger bags. So, I drew up pattern pieces, and tried different ones as each owl emerged….I like the idea of each one being different, unique…taking on it’s own personality per se. I also love the concept of using up items I have laying around, spilling out of drawers, baskets, boxes up in my small sewing area to make room for other projects. I’m one for adding lots of detail…knowing unfortunately, that I will not be gaining any of my labor back when and if they sell, however, that doesn’t seem to daunt my efforts, for an item just doesn’t look finished unless some little detail is added (I’ve always loved accessorizing, so I guess this spills over into my designs)

Owl pillow from fabric scraps with buckles

Remnant Feathered Owl pillow

I love using different textures, and elements that make an item textural, 3D and with a little surprise thrown in…something unexpected.
I scrounge the thrift stores looking for feather pillow inserts that I remove from pillows and reuse at a really good price. Also, table runners make great pillow covers, or even messenger bags like the owl one I made that was found on the clearance rack with the jute loops just perfect for owl feathers!

Two owls perched on messenger bag

Old zippers transformed into the beak and eyebrows, embroidery brought black felt circles to bright eyes, and buttons added another dimension to the pillow.
I bought a slew of purse patterns on sale that I hope to use to help me to cut a straight line and make good use of the remnants I have waiting for a purpose.
I’m always jumping from one project to another, and for now, purses and pillows are a new passion for me…soon I hope to get back to jewelry making now that I have organized all my bits and pieces.
I was able to sell one of the pillows 6 hours after posted on fb, and so glad it’s going to a good home!
Hoping to get more purses made and up in the store under Shop tab and Accessories. Also selling some in brick and mortar shop in Liverpool, NY called “Inspired” owned by my friend and her husband. Read more!