Let's All Copy My Friend Aimee!

My friend Aimee has a great house.  Do you have those friends who, whenever you visit them, you end up staring at things in their house, wondering how you can copy them?  Yep, that's Aimee.  And to top if off, she lives three doors down from me and has a three-year-old daughter named Lulu who Nina loves to play with.  She also feeds me coffee and cinnamon toast when I go over to her house for play dates.  What's not to like?

Anyway, I've been wanting to show you some of her ideas.  This one below is my absolute favorite!  Aimee and her husband used to live in a 200 year old house in Connecticut, and when they renovated part of it, they kept this old window.  Now that she lives in a new house, she still wanted that "old" feel.  So she took this window and filled each panel with...you're not going to believe this...scrapbook paper!

Doesn't it look like an old patchwork quilt?  The colors in the window tie the whole room together, which was her point.  I just love this idea because it could work in any room in your house where you need a "big" piece of artwork but don't want to spend tons of money.

Some other pretty touches that Aimee has used in her house:  This wreath hangs on her pantry door, a colorful way to warm up the kitchen and break up all the cabinetry.

Aimee has a pretty stack of vintage linens in her kitchen too.  She thinks they look like a big old mess, I think they look charming!

Don't you love this barn star?  The candles next to it are the perfect height, too.

Aimee just has pretty touches like this throughout her house.  I love the fake greenery that looks natural but doesn't require maintenance and watering!

She covered this builder's grade chandelier with some fun and funky material.  Even added the trim on the top and bottom of the shades.  Doesn't look like a builder's grade chandelier now, does it?
I just love it when I find ideas that make a big difference in decorating, but don't force you to max out your credit card.  I hope some of these ideas in Aimee's house can work for you! 

Have a great weekend! 

P.S. Thank you so much for all of you who gave me links to sewing blogs, websites and tutorials.  Now I can safely say I will spend my weekend looking through them all, getting ideas for things that I may someday have the skill to complete!