Tag: houseplants

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Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 2

 

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read our last post on my attempt to propagate my fiddle leaf figs (Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1), you can find that link here.  That post explains how I got started with my fiddle leaf figs. The following post is the follow up to how my figs did and what worked/didn’t work.

I originally started with 2 fiddle leaf fig clippings. The larger of the 2 didn’t make it. The smaller one however, thrived. While they both sprouted root buds the smaller clipping kept growing into full long roots and the larger clipping didn’t make it past the buds. Slowly all the leaves fell off and we had to chuck that one. I treated both clippings exactly the same: same water, same sunny location, same plant food. The only difference I can figure is the size. Perhaps the larger clipping was too large to sustain the size of the clipping and continue to grow in just a bowl of water. Lesson learned: start with smaller clippings next time.

More on the smaller clipping now:


Almost a month after I put the clippings in water I had a couple roots and a handful of small root buds on the smaller clipping.

3 days later, I finally got around to planting the clipping in soil. I just used a generic brand soil/fertilizer combo and planted the little clipping in this small pot.

Once the clipping was transplanted to a pot, I moved it outside to my front porch. It was still under roof, but I kept it on the edge of the porch so it would still catch some water from a heavy rain and get good indirect sunlight and a tiny bit of direct sunlight during certain parts of the day. I transplanted it in early May and the rain around here didn’t hit hard until June, so I just occasionally watered it. I didn’t follow a schedule or test the soil. I probably watered it maybe 5-6 times for the first month- and about 3-4 of those waterings happened just in the first week and a half. I’m admittedly no plant expert, but I just figured this guy was used to living in water, so I didn’t want him to get too dry in the soil.

And I guess my logical thinking paid off (or maybe it was just dumb luck) because exactly a month after transplanting it, I had a NEW leaf!

I was so excited to see that little leaf poking up through the middle. Finally, I had some proof that this little plant was actually growing! It seems like the leaves on these plants come in pairs and a day or two after this leaf poked through we saw a second one.

We went from 4 (original) leaves to 6! These leaves popped through in early June (which I heard from a gardener friend is prime time for growing fiddle leaf figs). Shortly after these leaves popped up, the rains came and this guy got so much water he probably didn’t know what to do with it- or maybe he did, which I why (after literally not touching this plant for the entire month of June) we got 2 more leaves!

The new leaves are a lighter color than the original dark green ones. So you can really see how much has changed since I first cut this little clipping.

I’m planning to let this guy grow a few more leaves and then try him inside as a house plant and see how he fares. In the meantime, I checked our large outdoor mature fiddle leaf figs (the ones that I cut all these clipping from) and they have new growth too, so I figured now might be an opportune time to propagate a couple more clippings.

Here we go again! Happy propagating friends.

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How to Choose a Style and Color Scheme for your Home

When it comes to home decorating, most people have a style that they gravitate towards and most people decorate individual rooms with similar color schemes, but should you have a house-wide color scheme and style?

Maybe you should.

While there may be some legitimate reasons to have a room with a different color scheme or style (for example: kids rooms and nurseries or specialty rooms like a theater room or kid’s play room may have some different style/color needs that exclude them from following your house-wide color scheme), for the most part you should stick to a cohesive look. Having significant variations in decor/color/finishes can make your home seem choppy and feel smaller than it really is. Especially with the open-floor plan trending high on most priority lists, a house-wide color scheme and style is even more noticeable and needed.

When you’re looking into buying your decor/textiles/paint colors or considering bigger more permanent renovation projects like changing the floors, cabinets, light fixtures or other major renovations, having a color scheme and style in mind is key to making sure that the decisions you make for your home now will be good decisions for future buyers as well as your future self.

Coming up with an idea board and color scheme for your home is a great place to start.

First, consider your house. Does your house have a style already? Maybe you’ve settled into a 1920’s Victorian. Your mid-century modern pieces probably won’t be welcome there. Victorian houses typically look best with darker wood tones and rich colors like maroon, navy, and maybe some green with off-white accents. The fixtures usually have an antique style with black iron or brassy finishes. They are usually chock full of character and intricate woodworking details. Vintage rugs always pair nice with this style- although I may be a bit biased because I’m convinced that vintage rugs will go with any style.

Some houses may not have a distinct style in which case they are more of a shell to infuse with your own style. The good thing about those houses is you’ve got a clean slate to work with. The bad news (sometimes) is that the more generic houses that are flexible enough to work with any style usually lack the unique character that most people love, but you can always add character pieces in! Other houses may have a subtle style that can be changed by changing colors, finishes or fixtures.

Whether you’re looking to flip or just lovingly inhabit, you’ve got to have a style in mind. Once you’ve determined your style, start pulling together some ideas for an idea board. This is a great time to incorporate Pinterest. You can search on your specific style and/or colors that you’d like to incorporate and get a feel for the vibe you want in your own home. Here’s an idea board example of a modern beachy style perfect for houses near the coast- or landlocked ocean lovers. Someone with this idea board would be looking for most all neutrals (tans, grays, beige, greige – yes! that’s a thing). They would accent with lighter wood tones or vintage or weathered wood pieces, anything white (or white-washed), woven textiles, linen fabrics, and lighter blue tones or anything that pairs well with those. You could accent with a little bit of navy or coral or even bright red if you wanted a more bold look- but not all three.

Consider the more permanent/semi-permanent features of your home. Do your floors and cabinets go with the theme you’ve picked? If not, consider if you plan to change those or if you may need to change some of your ideas around to fit with your current fixtures.

Here’s a mid-century themed board. Mid-century houses are usually accented with medium wood tones, gold or brass fixtures, tapered legs and always the starburst lighting. This is usually a style relegated to houses built in the “mid-century”- think 1940’s to 1970’s occasionally the 1980’s and while this is a pretty distinct style, you can usually infuse this style into a more generic home with mid-century decor and maybe a few added character touch-ups. Commonly used mid-century colors include mustard yellow, dark orange and olive among others. A common trend these days is the mid-century modern style which combines the mid-century board (below) with more modern elements.

Once you’ve got your idea board, pull out some specific things to help define a template for your home theme. What type of wood tones will you have? What temperature will your neutrals be? For example, do you like the warmer tans, beige and cream colored or off-white neutrals like the farmhouse idea board below?

Or would you prefer cooler toned neutrals like pure white and shades of gray? Make a list of your top neutral colors as well as the accent colors or brighter colors you plan to have in your home (if you’re planning for any). And then use your idea board as a guide when you’re picking out new decor or paint colors. This bright bohemian board is almost enough to convert my style. I just love the fun and bright eclectic patterns mixed with the crocheted hammocks and Pom Pom decor. And of course bohemian style isn’t complete without house plants.

For our house theme, we’ve got a industrial modern meets mid-century modern vibe going on and I’m gravitating towards black and white and cool grey neutrals. We’ve got a giant camel colored leather sectional from Restoration Hardware that lives in our family room which is really the heart of our house so the camel color is part of our home decor board. In addition to our cool neutrals, we’ve accented with navy and an occasional pop of yellow- because yellow is just the best color ever! We have a mix of finishes from black industrial-style metal finishes to stainless steel finishes in our kitchen and then a handful of the more mid-century gold accents as well. We’ve installed some light hickory hardwood floors with lots of variation from light to medium tones and we plan to install more downstairs eventually. We also want to add in some polished grey concrete floors in our family room and some fun cement tile accents- probably black and white. So I use this idea board as a base for our home decor purchases and any new finishes. That doesn’t mean we don’t ever go outside of the box. For example, my daughter’s bedroom is a fun cotton-candy pink with grey and white accents. And since our sports/theater room houses our old dark brown and tan sofa and chairs, that room has more warm tones to coordinate with the furniture. Also, the sports room has actual football field turf on the floor which isn’t really part of our idea board, but it makes for a fun (and super cheap) floor covering for the (mostly) football-themed room. Remember when I mentioned those exceptions above? There will always be some. But for the most part, our open-spaced living downstairs, follows the rules for our intended style and color scheme.

Here’s our home idea board complete with pictures of our actual home and decor as well as a few “dream” items.


You’d be surprised at how much an idea board like this helps when you’re browsing the throw pillows at Target and trying to decide if they will go well with your decor or not.

How do you keep a cohesive look in your home?

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Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1

I love fiddle leaf figs! I have heard they made very hardy indoor house plants and I just love the way they look. I love them so much, I wouldn’t be unhappy having one in just about every room of my house.

The problem? They are not cheap! You can get a really small seedling for around $20, but most medium-sized plants range anywhere from $60 – $160. And considering how many of them I want, $20 a piece isn’t really a viable option either. So about a month ago I decided to try to propagate them.

Let me preface by saying that we were lucky enough to have 3 HUGE fiddle leaf figs planted in our backyard before we bought it. So we’ve got some figs to work with. This is a shot of our fiddle leaf figs. They are way too big to transplant and bring inside – no we don’t have 20-foot ceilings.

But with so much plant to work with, I thought I’d try my hand at propagating! I am no horticulturist, but I have heard that some people have luck putting clippings in water to get roots started. So I tried that.

I cut a pretty big clipping because I thought that if I could get it to sprout roots it might be better to start with a larger plant. However I have also had luck  with just a single leaf sprouting large amount of roots over the course of a few months. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow-up with care and maintenance on that little leaf and he didn’t make it in his pot once he was relocated. This time I took 2 of these clippings and put them in vases and filled them with enough water that the stems were submerged about 3-4 inches up the stem. I’m hoping that maybe a larger clipping will be a bit hardier than the small single leaf clipping I tried before. I kept them on my kitchen table which is about 4 feet away from a large south-facing window. So they have a good amount of filtered indirect sunlight throughout the day.

Here’s a photo of the 2 clippings in their vases:


Since planting them just a little over a month ago, I have changed out their water a few times to keep it fresh and I have added 2 tablespoons of this plant food that I just happened to have sitting around:


This stuff came with my AeroGarden that I got for Christmas last year. (The best thing for growing indoor herbs and veggies)


After exactly 1 month of being in water, I already had root buds!

This was the smaller clipping after 1 month:

And the larger clipping after 1 month:

I’ll keep you posted with the progress as they continue to grow. Here’s to hoping they will one day look as good as this one!

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A Bold Entryway Makeover

When we first moved into this house, every single wall was painted in this flat beige color.

I am definitely a fan of neutrals (although I usually prefer cooler tones like crisp white and light grey) but this bland entryway was a little too neutral for me. After tackling all the must-have projects on our fixer-upper (i.e. furnishing it with appliances, new AC, new windows, updated electrical and plumbing) we were finally able to work on the fun stuff – PAINTING and DECORATING!

I’m naturally drawn to light colors. I like when rooms feel bright and open, but with this small semi-sequestered entryway room that led into the rest of our bright and open house, I really wanted to go for a bold entrance. I toyed with a bright color. I also considered neutral walls and painting our antique piano yellow (or another fun eye-popping color like that), but I was worried I might regret painting the original wood on our piano, so I decided to go bold with dark walls instead.

I settled on a dark Navy with an eggshell finish. We used Sherwin Williams “Pitch Cobalt” which is kind of a grey-ish Navy. I almost always opt for a Satin finish with paints, with an occasional semi-gloss or high-gloss if I’m going white because it brightens the room up more and is easier to keep clean. But since I was going so dark in here, I thought it would be nice to keep the shine down and let the color speak for itself – so eggshell it is!

I added some greenery to our piano (plus a couple floor plants) because you can never have too many house plants! More on our house plants here.
(Note: in the previous picture, you can see more greenery than usual on the piano. I’m in the process of attempting to propagate some clippings from our fiddle leaf fig trees and I forgot to move them off the piano before snapping the “after” shot. They don’t normally sit there though. I’ll share more on how that goes later!)


Chair: All Modern

We framed the window with these sweet white curtains from All Modern and they are the perfect contrast to the dark navy walls.

We used gold/brass accents on everything and kept some of our costs down by getting our curtain rods from Target. They weren’t exactly the style I wanted, but they were about $100 less than the ones I loved from West Elm, so I was happy enough with these. We picked the “brushed nickel” finish which doesn’t match the gold exactly, but it’s close enough that you can’t tell without closely studying it – and we don’t know anyone who is 10 feet tall, so I feel confident that no one will be putting their face up to our curtain rods anytime soon.

We replaced a silver, outdated wall sconce with this one from All Modern. In the “honey gold” finish.

I painted this thrift store entry table with some light grey paint that was leftover from our master bedroom renovation.

That white umbrella holder we snagged on sale from All Modern.

As well as this round mirror.

And my favorite spot in the room is the corner that houses these framed photos of our girls. It’s the first thing you see when you walk in the door, and there’s just nothing better than being welcomed by squishy little sleeping babies am I right?

Photos by Petal & Vine Photography.
Gold frames from Hobby Lobby.

We still have a few more things on our dream board for this room including: recovering the old chair in the corner, buying a new entryway rug and getting a new front door, but we’ll take that one day at a time.