Love the Home You're With!
This twist on the famous Stephen Stills song resonates with us, especially today. Few of us have homes featured in shelter magazines—but we can still have a home that we absolutely love if we give it a little attention. Any home is a constant work in progress. It's never "done"—there is always something that needs updating, renovating or redecorating.
If your home feels tired to you, rethink where your furnishings reside, or how your rooms are used. That sculptural settee in the living room that’s never been comfortable? Reupholstered, it might be beautiful in the master bedroom where it won't be used for sitting very often. Perhaps a dining room would be more useful if it were also a library with built-in bookcases and a reading corner at one end.
Or a family with young children may find that their formal dining room should be converted to a playroom or a homework center, so the cook can keep an eye on the kids while working in the kitchen. Your home is not a museum. Make it work for you; it should evolve and change with the life you create there.
A personal story: a few years ago, Calico’s Jan Jessup looked for the perfect lamp for her master bedroom. While on a trip, she found a handsome neoclassic Lucite lamp and brought it home. But it was a little too tall—and the shade was a little too large. While contemplating packing it up to return it, she realized the new lamp was perfect for the living room...replacing a lamp that looked better in the guest room…replacing a lamp that was just the right scale and style for the master bedroom! After playing musical lamps, she learned that sometimes we have the perfect object already—it may just be in another room.
Following are other examples of spaces transformed by using some creative thinking plus Calico fabrics and furnishings:
How many women put up with a small corner of a kitchen “dedicated” to their home office needs? In this upstairs room, Ashley Wilson of Logan, Utah created a private retreat beneath a gabled roof. By adding built-in shelving, she has a spacious lair for work projects in a room that might have been left for storage—unfinished and unimproved. A thrift-shop chair was refinished and reupholstered with contrasting fabrics from Calico.
On Instagram: @athomewithashley
Ashley Wilson also designed a charming kitchen makeover in this narrow room. In an unusual move, she added a velvet settee against the stair wall with chairs on the opposite side of a long table—also a good backup prep area. Ashley chose a scenic wallpaper mural that makes the whole room seem like a floral garden in bloom.
On Instagram: @athomewithashley
In this double-duty dining room, Brianne Hunter of Utah has appointed one wall with bookcases and a reading nook. Calico fabrics were used for the custom cushions and pillows. This project was part of a recent One Room Challenge.
On Instagram: @briebuilds
Chicago blogger Nicole Regan (of Cedar & Rush) transformed a living room that came with built-in bookcases on either side of two windows. She borrowed Calico fabrics to try at home, mocking up a window seat custom cushion and accent pillows to make it both colorful and comfortable.
The palm print Charmont in Onyx from Calico is used on the custom Roman shade and repeated on pillows. The indigo print pillows are in Gulfport in Navy from designer Vern Yip’s collection. The custom window seat cushion is Liam Stripe in Kale.
On Instagram: @nicolearegan
Tim Maze, an interior decorator in Toronto, Canada redid his high-rise living room for a past One Room Challenge. To create a reading corner, he took a bedroom chaise that was in storage—and had it reupholstered with a Calico fabric and trim. “I couldn’t believe how different and how stunning the chaise looks with a new outfit!” he noted.
Stephani Buchman Photography
On Instagram: @designmaze_tim
The master bed in Tim Maze’s high-rise apartment features a custom upholstered headboard and rectangular pillow in Calico fabrics. The headboard spans the width of the wall to create visual continuity in a tight space. The three-piece design and construction of the headboard reinforced the symmetry, noted Tim—and allowed it to fit into condo elevators! Headboards are ideal for performance fabrics that are easy-to-clean in case of spills or accidents caused by kids or pets. “I love the texture of this fabric and how it adds a subtle interest in this largely neutral room,” he stated.
Stephani Buchman Photography
Tim found a vintage Saarinen executive chair with tacky D-I-Y upholstery and had it recovered for the bedroom. He chose a pale blue gray performance fabric with a suede welting from Calico. The soothing color pairing is perfect in the space, says Tim. [Note: a new Saarinen chair retails for $1,854.]
Stephani Buchman Photography
For several years, the Renovation Husbands, David and Stephen, have been lovingly restoring a Victorian house that had been stripped to the studs in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The parlor certainly had its challenges, with three bow windows in a round turret space. They recalled, “Our friends at Calico walked us through every step: pleat options, installation, measurements, fabric selection, you name it! The entire experience is unparalleled and eased all our fears of ordering custom window treatments.”
On Instagram: @renovationhusbands
Calico fabricated the plaid draperies and a Roman shade (fabric is discontinued, but other plaids are in stock). The draperies hang on pin-hooks from a wall-mounted flexible track between the windows, just below the crown molding. The draperies are stationary and not intended to close.
