Kitchen Banquette Progress, New IKEA Finds, The White Vase Challenge, & More…

Hi guys! I’ve got a little bit of Saturday randomness coming your way with a few goings-on around our house, answers to some recent questions, a couple of new favorites at IKEA, and The White Vase Challenge. First off – my finally-getting-around-to-doing it kitchen banquette! I’ve had the materials for this project for months but kept putting it off because I was convinced my first experience with using nailheads would end in disaster. I finally got the headboard upholstered last week and while it’s definitely not perfect, I’m pretty excited about how it turned out:

I still need to upholster the seat portion (the top half of it is going to be covered in fabric and nailhead trim) and get a cushion for it (I’m having one made for me – that part’s well beyond my skill set!) but hopefully I’ll have the whole thing done in the next few weeks.

Switching gears, thanks so much for all of your comments and emails about my spring home tour – several of you asked for more details about getting the look of a lemon slice lined vase without killing your flowers:

The key is to use a vase within a vase – not only does it keep the water your flowers sit in separate from the lemons but it keeps the lemon slices sandwiched snuggly between the two vase layers instead of floating loose:

Also be sure to add water to the portion that houses the lemons – it helps them stay fresh and last longer.

And one other little tidbit before moving on to the IKEA finds – I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how I print out the online printables I buy on Etsy (you can see my favorite printables in {this post}). I actually like printing them out at home best, in part because it’s easiest and cheapest but also because I often play around with the color. Many printers (including mine) are finicky about printing on heavy card stock so my solution is to print out the printable on regular paper, spray a light coat of spray adhesive on the front of a sheet of card stock, lay your printable on top of it, and smooth it down to adhere the two sheets so you have a nice, sturdy print instead of something flimsy and hard to frame:

On to IKEA – have you guys been lately? A bunch of new products caught my eye on my most recent visit, including these SATSUMAS plant stands – so cute! The decorative ladder turned plant stand is my favorite:

And I’m loving several of their coming-in-April products too, including these VARDAGEN pots with copper rivits on the handles (if you love copper accents, you can check out more of my favorite copper pieces {here}):

IKEA’s also getting in a bunch of new rugs – this colorful TILST rug would be adorable in a kid’s bedroom:

I’m hoping to make another trip up to IKEA before the end of April so will let you know what else I find!

And finally, I wanted to share a fun little Instagram challenge that I was part of this past week. I joined 15 other Instagrammers in a White Vase Challenge in which each of us shared our own unique take on the white vase. I went simple and classic with a simple ceramic pitcher filled with tulips, ranunculus, and snapdragons:

And wow, you should see the arrangements that my Instagram friends came up with! To check them out, start on my Instagram pic {here}, hop over to the Instagrammer I tagged in my caption, find her white vase pic, and then follow the tag in her caption, etc. etc. until you’ve seen all 16 pics and end up looped around back to my post. Definitely a fun way to celebrate the start of spring!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! I’ve got a post coming your way on Tuesday with some of my favorite pillow projects and a few of my favorite bloggers are sharing theirs too. See you then!