Spring has sprung in Melbourne, so it seemed fitting to feature QAQ's cutest decorative screen design, the delightful 'Butterfly'. A charmingly simple design of six flying butterflies, this screen would look lovely painted in a pastel color and hung on the wall of a little girl's bedroom, so I made it an excuse to use the silliest font I could find and to indulge in all things princess/fairytale/pastel and take a look at a few colorful DIY girl's bedroom ideas!
'Butterfly' is a very niche design for us here at QAQ and we have no customer photos of it installed, so to convey what it would look like, I shamelessly Photoshopped it here for you to imagine it in color on a wall! As with all our designs, 'Butterfly' could be cut in any size, color, or material to suit your decorative requirements. It can be wall art, a privacy partition, a pergola roof, a garden screen...anything you like!
Butterflies are a symbol of youthfulness and innocence, so decorating with them in clever ways can make any room fit for a princess. You can paint them on the wall or make them with paper, or, as a mommy blogger from House on Ashwell Lane did, you can purchase handmade butterflies from Etsy and make your own flying butterfly collage.
Girl's bedrooms need not be all pastels; though young girl's are often drawn to lighter colors, other, bolder, or more neutral color schemes abound like the two in the bottom pictures shown here. Hands down, they are still very girly, very cheerful, and very delightful! Here are some DIY ideas for young girl's bedrooms that I adore:
Using a mere 50 (!) yards of pink tulle, Krystal from the DIY blog Sassy Sanctuary created this adorable table tutu, featuring a satin bow wrap and painted table top. She also covered two cheap children's folding chairs with polka dot fabric. See her post for the complete tutorial on how she cleverly made all of this.
Blogger mom Deanna from Shady Tree Diary created this delightfully simple and colorful solution for a place to store her daughter's stuffed animal birds within sight but out of the way. She features a complete tutorial on how she put it together on her lovely blog.
Sarah from DIY blog Creative Ramblings made her little princess this pretty white canopy with a pair of sheer curtains. She was determined not to do any sewing to make it too, and so cleverly found a way. She also made the damask print headboard for her daughter's bed, which is also featured on her blog.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief foray in the pretty realms of little girl's bedrooms. For more DIY ideas and bedroom photos, see our Pinterest board 'Butterfly' Screen Design.
Thanks for reading!
Now I'd like to hear from you!
What little girl's bedroom idea did you like most? :)
Cheers!
~Christine
Elegant and calligraphic like music notes, QAQ's 'Music' decorative screen design features lovely wavy lines, curves, and scrolls. It's a versatile and modern design that would look beautiful as wall art or on a door. Music lovers, read on! Here we feature music rooms, re-purposed musical instruments, and musical-themed products inspired by this design, and, thanks to a lesson in Photoshop I took just last week, I can show you what this screen design might look like installed in actual rooms!
If 'Music' were cut in compressed hardwood in a standard 1200 x 600 cm size, it might look a lot like this when hung on the wall. Wood would suit a more traditional styled home like this retro one for a warmer, more antique look, as would rust-colored corten, both of which could also be installed outdoors as they weather well.
If it were cut in a mild steel or aluminium, it could be powder-coated a number of colors to suit the color scheme of your home, like this stairwell in white and light gray.
Powder-coated mild steel or aluminium have a beautiful glossy, sleek finish that could make 'Music' look great in a very modern styled home like this one. If you love black and white, you could also have it cut in lightweight integral p.v.g which comes in either black or white with a glossy finish.
Now let's indulge in all things music-related for the home!
There is often the issue of storage for those who collect old vinyl records. IKEA cubical shelves seem to be the ideal solution for larger collections, but for a smaller collection you could either have a rotating display of all the covers on narrow shelves as in the top middle picture, or purchase small or cart-size vintage style wire record holders on eBay, like the one on the top right. These can be spray-painted bright colors to make them stand out and look even more retro.
Musical instruments make beautiful decorative objects, so rather than have them hidden away, display them cleverly on the wall, use amps as tables, or, if they are very large, prop them up against a mantle or larger piece of furniture. If you prefer to keep them in their cases, you could create small tables by stacking the cases, or make an organizing stand like the one in the bottom right-hand picture, so that all the cases are displayed neatly in a vertical row.
If you happen to have or find old musical equipment or instruments, you can re-purpose them for your home so that you can continue to enjoy their lovely shapes. Take the covers from cases or amps and turn them into cabinet or fridge doors, turn them into light pendants or lamps, or, if they are really old, plant flowers in them and put them in your garden.
Perhaps the easiest way to create a musical theme in your home decorating scheme is to purchase old musical sheets and re-purpose them in crafty ways throughout the home. Use them for stationary products, gift-wrapping, to wrap vases and candles with using Modge-Podge, or create a musical sheet table top or dresser like the ones below. For a complete tutorial using Modge-Podge to create something like the beautiful dresser below, see blogger Miss Mustard Seed's how-to guide. To make a bouquet of the beautiful music sheet roses shown below, see a complete how-to guide on the blog 100 Layer Cake.
Whether designing a music room for listening or for playing, there is no shortage of clever ways you can incorporate musically themed decor to make a warm, inviting, inspiring space. Here are some of my favorites that I came across online:
QAQ's 'Grapevine' decorative screen design evokes sunlit patios, alfresco dining, and golden skies over expansive vineyards. Although this design may be iconic for our Australian lifestyle, I've indulged here on the decorating style of the wine growing regions of Tuscany, Italy, where rustic, old world charm created a classic style over the centuries that has grown to curl its elegant tendrils far beyond the Italian border.
This is a style that begun many centuries ago in the poorer regions of Italy, where people lived simply in homes with walls built with rocks, where furniture was basic and sturdy, and the kitchen was the heart of the home and of deliciously simple cucina povera, 'poor cooking', which is as famous now as are the Tuscan wines.
Today the decorating style reflects these rustic, old-world origins. Tuscan style homes feature rock walls and fireplaces, large, exposed timber beams, tiled or stone floors, and a distinctive color palette that reflects the sun-baked Tuscan landscape: warm, muted jewel-tone colors, and earthy neutrals, especially reddish brown, burnt orange, cream, and pale peach. The furnishings these days can be quite lavishly carved, and are often heavy, sturdy pieces in warm, dark shades of wood. Filigree wrought iron or dark antique brass fixtures, lighting pendants, wall decor, and table decor are iconic for this style, and are one of the easier ways to evoke a Tuscan home if you live in a more modern home without exposed brick or timber features.
One of the essential aspects of a Tuscan home is an alfresco dining area. This is where QAQ's 'Grapevine' decorative screens and panels could be installed to create backyard privacy or to enclose the sides of a newly constructed pergola, which is one of the key features to creating a real Italian style outdoor living area. You can find many DIY guides on how to build a pergola yourself over a weekend, or you can buy them ready-to install from many outdoor furniture and hardware stores. Once the pergola is up, then you can begin to grow your own grapevines or other trellis-vine plants to eventually create a verdant ceiling of green shade to dine under on warm sunny days while you sip your Tuscan wine or fine Italian espresso.
Though a modern home can be decorated in a Tuscan style, its important to keep all the furnishings and decor consistently traditional, as any one sleek modern piece of furniture could ruin this old-world aesthetic. Windows should be dressed with at least a valence to soften the modern lines, and floors should be dressed with a few thick, patterned rugs to make the space look more rustic and inviting. Here are some Tuscan-styled products available within Australia to get this look:
Hope you enjoyed today's post! If you did, please leave a a comment and let me know what you think about the Tuscan style--is it for you? ;)
To see more Tuscan styled homes, products, beautiful photos of Tuscany and any 'Grapevine' decorative screen installations (should we ever get photos of any in the future--its a rare one!) see QAQ's Pinterest board, 'Grapevine' Screen Design.
Ciao!
Christine
If you're in love with colorful, eclectic decorating styles, you'll love this post and you'll love that it will lead you to find even more eye-candy and a giveaway, so read on!
This being our lucky 13 decorative screen feature post, I'm proud to have now presented all of QAQ's top 12 most popular, most featured designs, and am now sailing into the less-traveled territories of our lesser-known, quirkier patterns. The downside to this is that I won't have as many installation projects to show you how these screen designs look in real life when they are installed, but the upside is that I can get even more creative with ideas and suggestions on how the screens can be used, and what kinds of interior or exterior decorating styles it would suit, and how.
The bold, energetic, and slightly kitschy 'Fireworks' design presented a real challenge for me at first, but it quickly made sense to tie it in to the explosively colorful, bright, and eclectic style of decorating that I've already been curating around QAQ's baby laser biz, Rezal Home Decor and Jewelry's Pinterest boards. Rezal is currently an eBay store where we sell laser cut coasters, wall decor, craft components, custom products, and jewelry, mostly designed by yours truly. First, let's look at the 'Fireworks' decorative screen design:
Here's 'Fireworks' cut in standard size (600 mm x 1200 mm ) aluminium, installed on a white electric light box, here in the reception lobby of QAQ headquarters. You can have any one of QAQ's designs or a custom design of your very own made and installed on a light box in either white light or colored light in this size, available through QAQ.
When it comes to colorful kitchens, I see two main approaches: 1. The kitchen itself is mainly white or neutral but has been decorated with extremely colorful furniture and decor (the choice for renters) or 2. The kitchen cabinets and walls are painted or wallpapered in bright colors and tiles. The first approach would suit a collector, especially someone who loves vintage tableware and decor. The second approach would suit you if you love a lot of color, but not clutter. A lot of different colors like this certainly can make a home look cluttered at first glance.
It really takes a bit of boldness to have a home that is this colorful. Most home interiors are fairly conservative when it comes to color, then there's a middle tier where two or three colors are used again and again, but homes like these are more rare and so much more rainbow-- the home of a true color lover. Someone who is not afraid to paint a coffee table bright yellow, walls an ombre rose to white, or to fill the walls with an eclectic mix of colorful prints and photos. Homes this colorful are people who are very comfortable with their gender and who love to feel alive.
For a colorful outdoor area, you could buy a set of used outdoor furniture and paint it bright colors, or, if you are prepared to have a dry storage area nearby, you could simply have an assortment of colorful cushions, throws and pillows ready to pull out for when you entertain. One of the fastest, cheapest, easiest ways to add color to an outside living area is to take terracotta pots and spray-paint them bright colors to bring out the colors of the flowers and surrounding greenery.
This week I'm giving away a set of Rezal's colorful coasters to one blog reader who comments and tells me what their favorite color is so that you can have an even more colorful home! You can choose ANY coaster design you like from Rezal's eBay store. The giveaway is open to anyone wherever you are in the world. The winner will be announced Friday morning on QAQ's Facebook page, so be sure to follow us there and check back on Friday to see if you've won!
To see more colorful, eclectic interior decorating photos and any installations of 'Fireworks' that come through, follow QAQ's Pinterest board 'Fireworks Screen Design' OR follow Rezal on Pinterest for 24-7, all-around decor and product pins full of color to the max!
Hope you enjoyed today's post! Comment if you did, and be sure to tell me your favorite color!
P.S.: Mine is purple!
Cheers!
~Christine