HGTV!

I am a huge fan of HGTV and one of the most exciting things about having a house (yes, I said house) is having the chance to decorate it. Some of you know that I lived in a shoe of an apartment when I was in DC. A basement studio. It was cute. But I think that my living room now is bigger than my entire apartment (and I don't have to worry about loud neighbors upstairs). But in that vein, I now have more room to really decorate and buy things like throws and throw pillows, etc etc.

So my first project is going to be to make a headboard for my bedroom. The house comes furnished but once your furniture arrives, you can decide what you want to do with the furniture issued to you. Since I was living in a studio, I don't have much furniture. And, I've been playing with the idea of creating a headboard for my bed since 2007 (literally). My mom and I tried something and it was nice in theory but just didn't quite workout in practice. But these were motivations..http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/headboard-ideas-tuft-love/pictures/index.html


Anyway, so this time around, because my bed is literally a mattress, box spring and metal frame, I wanted to create something African-esque. I was inspired my friend, J9, who had these pieces of art woven out of banana leaves that she bought when she was in Burundi. Ethiopia is known for many things, among them basket weaving. So my idea is to have a three flat baskets woven and using those as art/headboard. Headboard art if you will. The actual pieces are called sefaids, I think. I went to a basket store this weekend and was almost overwhelmed with the selection (www.salemsethiopia.com). If you look at the last 7-8 pictures under the basketry section, you will see the flat types of woven art I am talking about. I think either three plain ones or ones designed with moderately neutral colors will give me the look I am looking for.


Hopefully, I'll post pictures later to show how this turns out. I also don't have a shelving unit in my bathroom so what I think I may do is use one of the bookshelves from my office (there are two) and get some nicely woven baskets to put all of my "bathroom stuff" in. Right now there is a 12 pack of Charmin and some feminine products just sitting on my floor. All of my body sprays, lotions, makeup, etc is just sitting on my dress, homeless and unloved. Again, pictures to come.