BALLOON SHADES

Another gorgeous fabric from Designers Guild Limited.  This one is called Caviglia, color Noir.

This is the master bedroom of a renovation I have been working on with Cara Clancy here on Coronado.  This is the second time I've made balloon shades with this exact fabric.  The first time was for Cara's own home.

The larger shade is 72" wide, the smaller is 36".  All are lined with blackout, which make them exceptionally heavy.  I originally wanted to split the larger shade, but Cara wanted no light leakage that would have occurred because it is one large pane of glass.  I have to admit, she was right.

This is to the right of the corner window, beside the bed.

The french door got a flat-stitched roman shade.  And the window in the hallway leading into the master bedroom also got a big balloon shade.

The roman shade half closed so you can see the fabric better.  As beautiful as these fabrics are, they are quite challenging to work with as the repeat is huge and not necessarily even.  There is no centering of one stripe with a mirror image on either side.  Still, it all looks lovely in the room.  And, as always, the most important thing is the client is happy!

EVEN MORE PILLOWS

Usually when I do a job through/for Cotier it is a custom order for a customer of the store and not for the store itself.  This time, however, I did all these pillows for display/to be sold in the store.

Most of the fabrics were left from other jobs, and instead of tossing them, the owner decided we should use them.

As I love to make pillows (seems obvious since I tend to post a lot of pillows!), this was a fun job.  It's also more interesting when there are just scraps of fabric available and more imagination and ingenuity are needed to make it happen.  Nothing like a challenge!

DESIGNERS GUILD PILLOWS

I've been working a lot with Designers Guild fabrics lately.  Cara Clancy, designer extraordinaire, uses them a lot in the houses she does.

This pattern is called Hiranya, color Fuchsia, and though I am not a huge fan of orange, the hot pink more than makes up for it.

This pattern lent itself well to the double flange style that Cara is so fond of.

One of the challenges with Designers Guild fabrics is the repeat is usually quite large and really works better in draperies, where the entire repeat is visible.  Given that, I still thought they turned out nicely.  And Cara loved them, which was the whole point.

SEA ART

This week's post is short and sweet.  Both of these 'works of art' were provided to me by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, respectively.

This is a piece of seaweed that I picked up on Coronado Beach.  I let it dry out.  I kind of liked the look of it better when it was still wet from the ocean, but I thought it still looked good enough to frame.

I carried this sea fan home from Cat Island, Bahamas.  I loved the purple color of it.  I had to break off its stem so that I could keep it flat.  (It traveled in a plastic bag inside my journal.)  Once I got back, I had to let this air dry for a couple of weeks, then it was ready for its new home.

Both of these frames are from Pottery Barn and have just a bit of space between the mat and glass to allow for something less than flat to be inserted.