Picture courtesy of House to Home

Yet somehow, when done right, a room painted yellow can be very rewarding. Yellow is most often found in Kitchens and home offices as it can uplift the spirit, promote focus and increase productivity. Having said that, muted yellow tones likes sand and ochre, are quite at home in any room.

Acid yellows can come off quite cool in a room and pair nicely with metals while warmer yellows, with a hint of red or brown, look stunning with a variety of wood tones.Yellow’s complimentary colour is blue and can look fabulous when kept on the softer side of things. When looking for the right yellow in a room I recommend painting a small area or test piece to see how the colour is effected throughout the day between natural and artificial light. Keep in mind when the room will be used and pay particular attention to how the yellow presents itself during that period.

Yellow also looks great with greens, oranges, steely greys, browns and blacks.

Picture courtesy of Style at home

The easiest way to add bolder yellows to a room is through accent pieces like drapes, throw cushions, decorative items or small pieces of furniture.

Much like the natural world, our homes can only be enhanced with even just a touch, of yellow.

Even though I loved it, the Restoration Hardware desk was way out of budget and really was far too large for our particular application. But from here, I had an idea of what I wanted and I was off and running (ok, walking…not a lot makes me run these days). I went to a local used building supply store and found some super cool corbels that were removed from an old building. For those that don’t know (I did not know myself when I started this search), but a corbel is a structural, sometimes decorative item found on buildings and can be made of wood, metal, stone or other materials.

This is an example of a concrete corbel.

The corbels I found were made of wood and were very simple in design. Something to keep in mind when shopping for corbels, is the height. I wanted mine to be typical desk height so I had to ensure that the ones I found were the right measurement from floor to desk surface. It just so happened that I found the perfect pair of corbels. Right height and right paint color. I did not have to do a thing to these beauties other than mount them on my wall.

After mounting the corbels to the wall I had a piece of glass made that would become the desk surface. I chose a fairly thick piece of glass and made sure it was tempered so it would be safe. I then topped off the desk with a phone and computer and we were set. Because I was trying not to take up much floor or visual space, I added a simple lucite chair.

The corbels were $75.00 a piece and the glass was $120.00. I purchased the chair for around $80.00. This corbel desk stayed well within budget and was definitely less expensive than the Restoration Hardware desk, however, arguably not nearly as ornate.

I love the look of banquette seating in the kitchen and our galley style kitchen was the perfect configuration for it. Of course, we were hoping to accomplish our new kitchen banquette on a tight budget which often leads to creative thinking and reusing materials. We decided a twin captains bed frame would be the perfect solution for size, storage needs and budget restraints. We found a bed frame at our local Salvation Army store for $30.00. By using a captains bed the drawers were already in place and eliminated a lot of work right off the bat. We created the bench by cutting off the back aft of the bed (the side without the drawers) to the desired depth. We (now know that when I say we, I mean my husband) then built a frame on the floor that the seat would sit on. The frame was built the same height as the kick plate under the kitchen cupboards. We also added bead board that would run the length of the wall behind the seat and took it to counter height to create a uniform look.

This is similar to what we started with.

This is what we were finished with.

This project turned out great and we were able to keep costs way down by staying away from a custom build. To complete the job, we purchased a piece of foam and had it covered in a durable material that could be wiped down daily, as we have two children and this bench would see it all, from glitter glue to Play Doh to red wine on card night. The extra storage is perfect to hold craft supplies that are easily accessible. We purchased new hardware to match the rest of the kitchen and threw in a few throw pillows.

We were so happy with the way this banquette turned out that we decided to buy another used captains bed frame and build a window seat in our office/spare room. The bed itself was too short for the space we needed so my husband built little side tables on either end to sandwich between the wall and the bed frame. Again, the bed was cut to the desired width to create a bench and a frame was built for the bench to sit on. We chose a durable material that could be machine washed in the washer, but this seat did not require the constant wiping as did the one in the kitchen.

The beds were less than 50 bucks each and the material covered foam seats were less than 100 dollars each for all the materials and professional sewing job. The sewing job included piping all around on both sides and a zipper on one side to remove cover completely for washing. We painted the seats with existing paint. Kitchen banquette was painted in Benjamin Moore Cloud Cover to match the kitchen cupboards and the window seat and side tables in the home office/spare room were painted in Benjamin Moore Cloud White.

Extremely happy with the end result!

I purchased this  lovely ornate picture frame from the local Salvation Army store. I fell in love with the details and size of the frame immediately and knew that a quick lick of paint would turn this tired looking frame into something stunning.

Here is the frame in the condition in which I found it.

I painted the frame in an off white colour. One coat was all it took as I knew I would be distressing the frame. After painting, I used a coarse sandpaper and scuffed up the frame, focusing on edges and highly patterned areas.

After painting the frame, I was ready to focus on the cork board. I had an old mirror backing kicking around that I decided to use, but you could also use a heavy cardboard as your backing. I then cut the board to size, keeping in mind that I would be covering the entire board with material. I purchased a roll of cork and spray glued it onto the backing. Cork comes in different thicknesses so make sure you grab a thick one for stick pins. I then centered my material on the board and stapled it in place.

Now, all that was left to be done was inserting the material covered cork board into the frame, attaching some heavy-duty picture hanging wire and voila…a Parisian inspired cork board.