Office Space

Posted in Design Challenges, Design Projects, DIY, Mood Boards, Redecorating by Mallory

I’ve been keeping a not so little secret. I teased it earlier this week but it’s time to confess: we revamped our office… in January. Jefe had been working from home a lot and apparently had been really discontent with the state of our office. So on MLK weekend, he sprung on me that he wanted to redo the office. I hadn’t even gotten to finish the plans I had for the office and we were already redoing it! Luckily what he wanted was in line with the overall plan I had for the space. But with all that said, we spent our holiday off work driving all the way to Torrance for a coveted desk we had to have…

As a little refresher, here’s what we were looking at last fall:

New Office Mood Board- Nov 2014

And thanks to Jefe’s impromptu redecorating request, here’s what we’re looking at:

We had already purchased the rug from Pottery Barn over Christmas thanks to their annual sale and that desk is the major purchase from our day of impromptu shopping. It required contacting no less than 5 local World Markets to find the one we really wanted (the floor model we saw was just too wobbly and beat up to consider taking it home). So we drove the 45 minutes to Torrance and got the only one left in the greater Los Angeles area.

During the redecorating discussions I also convinced Jefe to examine and remedy our currently too-short cord situation so that we can shift over the Expedit with the TV to accommodate an armchair by the window and floor lamp; his girlfriend needs a reading nook! While at World Market we spotted this chair and I’m pretty anxious to add it to the soon-to-be vacated corner.

Now, let’s talk desk chairs. The day we went shopping, after we had secured the desk, we made a quick stop at Target. Much to our surprise they had a gorgeous grey linen dining chair with nailhead trim for $85. DONE. I was stoked to find something so beautiful within our price range. I thought it was too good to be true.

Fast forward two months and our desk is going strong (minus a small nick that I’ll cover DIY solutions for in another post) but our desk chair, not so much. Apparently you get what you pay for:

Neither of us have any idea how or when that happened. Needless to say I insisted on returning it. Jefe was skeptical as it had been two months and he didn’t have his original receipt. But I insisted. One quick trip to Target later and we had our $85 back. Lesson: never doubt the Target return policy… but be weary of their furniture!

As the chair was DEFINITELY an impulse buy, we hadn’t checked the reviews, which turns out, are quite mixed. So I did a little digging and after some inspiration from Ellen’s Design Challenge, I decided to give Wayfair a try.

We really had liked the look of the nailhead chair but also knew it had to be sturdier than the Target version, have a slightly larger seat (as the one we returned was admittedly a little small) and have a chair seat height of 19″. That’s a LOT harder to find than you might think.

But after a full week of research, I landed on this beauty which we are currently awaiting delivery:

I can’t wait to finally see it in the space. My only hesitation is that it might be TOO close to the Oscar arm chair we want. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

For now, we’re still using one of our dining chairs at the desk until the new one arrives. Not ideal, but it will do for now.

So what do you think? I’m really loving the vibe the office is giving off. A traditional, masculine study with a few feminine touches.

2Feb2015

My Funny Valentine

Posted in Design Challenges, DIY, Life Stuff by Mallory

Valentine’s Day. A day full of love, romance and scattered rose petals or a made-up holiday perpetuated and capitalized by the greeting card and flower industries? I admittedly fall somewhere in the middle. I think it’s a crock to make such a big deal about February 14th. I do, however, appreciate the sentiment behind it so whether you choose 2/14 or another one of the 364 days of the year, it’s nice to take some time out of your day to show your significant other a little extra love.

Somehow I literally forgot to post last year’s budget-friendly Valentine’s Day recap so here we are. With 12 days left to make your plans, here’s how Jefe and I celebrated last year in hopes of giving you a little inspiration.

To start, for the last 4 years, Jefe and I both agreed “we’re not doing anything.” And every year without fail, we’ve both done something for each other. My gifts have varied, but Jefe has been pretty standard with beautiful flowers (thank you 1-800-Flowers!) He’s not a romantic flowers kind of guy so it’s always a pleasant surprise when they show up, always at the office.

Don’t throw away the box! Repackage them for the trip home and no spills!

Last year, I was a little strapped for cash so I had to get creative and turned to Pinterest for budget-friendly inspiration. There were thousands of options, some cute, others VERY tacky, but the things that caught my eye the most – food. They say the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? Since VDay last year was on a Friday and Jefe would have just gotten home from a trip to NYC, I decided I’d make him his favorite for dinner – steak.

Dinner was a simple enough gesture though that I felt I needed to kick it up a notch. So dessert was to be my special surprise. Thanks to my Pinterest inspiration and Jefe’s unfailing love of root beer floats, I came up with this adorable little tag:

Then I attached the tag to a 4-pack of gourmet root beer (the vanilla ice cream patiently waited in the freezer.)

But that still didn’t seem to be enough so I whipped up a batch of brownies (Betty Crocker to the rescue!), pulled out a heart-shaped cookie cutter and went to town. A treats box with gift tag later, and I had a great little set up. To top it off, I grabbed one of our drinking straws, cut out a red heart from construction paper with 2 slits and added it to the straw.

With the places set though, the table looked a little bare (notice the vast void of blackness at the top of the picture).

So I scrambled around the house for a few accessories to jazz up the space: flowers swiped from the bookshelf, votive candle holders stolen from another shelf, and I pulled out our fancy candle sticks.

I stood there staring, wishing I had a non-holiday table runner to really finish it off. That was when I remembered Sherry of Young House Love fame (R.I.P. tear….) had previously used scarves to finish off a few spaces. Next thing you know, I was rummaging around for my red infinity scarf and voila!

All in I think I spent about $30 between supplies from Michael’s (gift tags, string, treat boxes and heart cookie cutter) and the grocery store (brownie mix, root beer and ice cream). So you don’t need to get too fancy just to spread some extra love. It was a bit cheesy, but I didn’t care and Jefe certainly appreciated the effort (and the brownie/root beer float mega dessert he had later that night!)

Head on over to my Pinterest page to see some additional ideas that caught my eye for your own VDay inspiration!

14Nov2014

Sledge is Back… Again!

Posted in DIY, Life Stuff by Mallory

For those readers still sticking with me, thank you! I know it’s been awhile; the day job has taken a bit out of me the last few months but the flip side is all of those hours came with a long-awaited promotion!

But I’ve missed all of you and my little design projects. So there’s definitely going to be more to come in the next few weeks, especially with Christmas right around the corner!

For now though, here are a few little teasers:

Another quick fall update to our dining area. I saw that great footed bowl at Target a few months, but couldn’t bring myself to spend the $40 on it. Flash forward to 2 weeks ago and it was $10.95 in the clearance section. Bam! New bowl for my gourds. Jefe knew he couldn’t fight it. Home decor on clearance is my Achilles heel.

Trader Joe’s has been selling some knockout fall bouquets the last two months. For $8 I can get two of them that are overflowing, pop them in my glass pitcher and I’ve got a beautiful, full fall arrangement. The yellow candles are also from the Target clearance section for $1.99 for a set of 2. I may have grabbed more than one pack…

I’ve got a fun DIY dry erase board coming your way that is perfect for any Boston Red Sox fan in your life (yes, that is Green Monster Green for those wondering). Jefe got this as one of his birthday presents this year. Instructions to follow (along with our plans for the very unfinished office).

And last but not least, a little preview to my first holiday project of the season:

Will have more for you guys next week!

12Feb2014

Share Your Heart

Posted in Design Projects, DIY, Life Stuff, Weight Watchers by Mallory

Last night I ducked out of the office (before it was even dark!) and headed over to West Elm for one of their DIY workshops. This particular event was Valentine’s Day themed – crafting paper hearts to be sent to St. Jude’s Hospital where they will string them all together in an attempt to create the world’s largest paper chain! And for each heart we created, West Elm donated $1 to the hospital.

The actual crafting was free and they provided all of the supplies. While there, I met some great people including a group of visual merchandisers for Macy’s, West Elm’s store manager and CJ, a stylist who runs their Instagram, @westelmla.

There were also some great-looking refreshments, but as I’m still sticking hard core to my Weight Watchers plan (down 3 lbs so far!), I opted to just capture it on film.

So let the crafting begin. For my first heart, I knew I wanted it to be purple-themed in honor of my childhood friend Jill and all the kids like her at St. Jude’s. I started out with a giant sheet of purple tissue paper. I started doing a little ripping for a “rough edge” and needless to say, the finished project is not my best work, but I think the kiddies will like a heart option that isn’t pink or red.

Next up, I snagged the roll of gold tape about as fast as I could and some letters for a little Jefe + Sledge action (that’s Geoff & Mallory for those new to the blog). Of course, I opted for stripes.

And lastly, I came across this ribbon at the bottom of a supplies bucket and knew exactly what to do with it – a little Kate Spade inspiration for a sickeningly sweet, picture perfect pink heart.

So that about rounds out the night. Here’s a little hint at what this store’s portion of the paper heart chain will look like strung up in St. Jude’s.

If you want to catch some of the other hearts created, check out West Elm LA’s Instagram feed or search for their hashtag: #shareyourhearts.

23Jan2014

Gobble Gobble DIY

Posted in Design Projects, DIY, Redecorating by Mallory

As promised last week, we’re going to do a little time traveling here on SWS and travel back to the days of yore – holiday season so that I can recap some of my fabulously festive projects for you. Today I’m sharing with you the little last-minute DIY burlap runner I whipped together in the few days before Thanksgiving.

This idea came to me when I realized that my new, lovely fall-themed Threshold runner from Target probably wouldn’t make it through Turkey Day unscathed. It also didn’t look like it would hold up well through a cycle in the washer, so I decided that I needed an alternative runner option for our holiday table. Enter free burlap fabric I had stashed in a drawer for the last year.

I knew I wanted something Thanskgiving themed and after seeing more than my fair share of “Give Thanks” signs across Pinterest, I decided to make my own. As my painting skills are seriously sub-par, I headed to Michael’s for some stencils provided by the god of craft, Martha. Her stencils are pricey, so I searched for one with the highest likliehood of reuse, whipped out my coupon via iPhone, and dolled out $31 to the cashier (note: this was for ALL supplies purchased). Now, I realize that this is $11 more than I paid for the finished runner I purchased at Target, but I really was looking for a one-of-a-kind piece that I made myself and the supplies I can reuse for many projects to come.

Had there been more time this holiday season, I would have attempted to hand-make most of my gifts included a few of these bad boys for family members, but as we all know, December was a BLUR this year.

So, down to the nitty gritty. First, I took one look at my burlap and knew it needed finished edges. I used this tip (and overall DIY as a base) from Inspired By Charm and for the first time managed to cut a clean edge with the this type of fabric.

Then I whipped out my handy no-sew hem type (who has room for a sewing machine anymore?!) and really cleaned up those edges.

Half-way through I also realized I *might* want to iron the rest of the fabric – just keeping it real folks.

And it wasn’t until I had already done 2 corners that I realized I should be paying a *bit* more attention to detail, and decided to neatly fold the ends to give them a more finished and professional look. (Did I mention it was VERY late at night when I finished this?!)

Once I had the finished edges, I decided on my stencil design which I didn’t want it to look like a stencil – I chose to use a small brush to connect any lines. When planning the spacing, laying the stencils out side by side left too much space between the letters in particular. So I traced them on to a piece of paper with the desired spacing and laid them out.

The blue painters tape represents both the horizontal and vertical centers of the burlap.

With that done, it was time to pull out the paint. I kept the pencil tracing versions for reference and moved VERY slowly. We don’t want this looking like a craft project, now do we?

Once I had the middle painted, I decided it needed just a little more punch, so I pulled out another stencil to finish the ends.

(Ignore the pulled thread in the middle of the fabric. A casualty discovered too late in the game to stop crafting…)

After a few hours dry time, I had myself a new table runner!

On Thanksgiving Day, I was a bit preoccupied cooking an entire dinner for Jefe’s family to do much decorating, but I did manage to throw together an acceptable table setting. At the time I was so busy and decided that ironing the table cloth was not worth the added fuss, but now that I see these pictures, I’m quickly regretting that.

Kudos go to Momma Sny for the turkey place card holders courtesy of the Dollar Spot at Target. Dishware is Ikea 365 (5+ years old) and the napkins and water glasses were new from World Market.

The menu included a brined, 16 lb. turkey (World Market’s Turkey Brine has done me well twice now), Momma Sny’s sweet potatoes, some mashed potatoes with a touch of garlic, stuffing, Jenny Hobick’s Bacon Green Beans, homemade cranberry sauce, my grandmother’s secret recipe apple pie and 2 pumpkin pies from Magnolia Bakery. We capped it off with some fabulous wine and some VERY tired feet on my part.

(secret Snyder family recipe apple pie, before baking)

So naturally the next day I did what any sane person would do after spending the previous day on her feet, cooking a meal for hours on end: ventured to Disneyland for Black Friday!

Sledgehammer With Style

Hollywood marketer by day, design blogger by night.

Tag Archives: DIY

Office Space

My Funny Valentine

Sledge is Back… Again!

Share Your Heart

Gobble Gobble DIY

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