Outdoor Furniture, Patio Furniture and more!

We are so excited to have Pat Sloan guest posting on our blog today! Pat Sloan has been creating since she was a child.  From the first shoebox dioramas to sketches for a fabric line, there has always been creative energy flowing.  When she tried her hand at quilting in 1985, she never looked back.  Now, owner and founder of the quilting design and publishing company Pat Sloan & Co., she has published over 20 books, more than 100 patterns, nearly 10 fabric lines, and has had her work featured in major quilt magazines.

Pat first began sharing her knowledge through her publications, workshops, and lectures, but as expanded her reach through social media.  She has built quilting yahoo groups, forums, facebook communities, and even the group “Quilters in Second Life” for quilting enthusiasts using the popular virtual world, Second Life.  Also interested in beading, painting, and paper crafting, Pat’s overall passion has always been to help others harness their creative energy.

Today, we posted tips for creating a sewing and crafting studio on her blog.  So, she perused out site for what she would use to decorate it!

I’m so excited to be asked to guest blog today on CedarStore.com!  This summer I was part of the Kathy Peterson “Create your own Adirondack Chair” Designer challenge. The challenge was not only fun to do but really showed how easy it is to create your very own CedarStore.com Adirondack chair to fit your decorating style. We had some really amazing chairs come out of the challenge. Mine sits on my front porch and is the official porch visitor chair!

I thought it would be super fun to tell I would ‘Decorate’ that new ‘pool house studio‘ that is over on my blog today.. you know. The BIG ONE! I need lots of great stuff in my studio so I can design and sew and store a few things.

First I’d have to have a nice sitting area. I’ll use it to entertain guests. I’ll sit there to design quilts, and it will be a great place to take a coffee break and read my favorite blogs.  I’ll choose this wicker seating for my studio. I love that the set has a matching love seat, table and extra chair. I think I can do amazing designing in this! Plus I can have friends over to stitch … sweet!

This stack of quilts is currently in my dining room and they really need to be ’shown off’ properly.

I’ll add a Quilt Rack in the corner with my newest quilts displayed.  I’d pick a dark stain to go with the seating area, don’t you think that will look nice?

But you know there are more quilts than on the chair. And of course I have quilts in progress too.

So I think I’ll add a cedar chest to the studio. My living room and dining room are mission style, so I’d like this mission style chest in case I want to move it into the house someday.

Now I need to fix up the functioning part of the studio. A desk for the Sewing machine and maybe another for cutting fabric. CedarStore.com has a ton of table ideas but this one is nice and compact. It is their potting table. I think sewing machine on one table and another for cutting will work out great!

We always need more storage right? I think this classy Cedar Buffet will work for an ironing station and storage, plus I could put an inspiration board on it.. what do you think?

They also have some great Red cedar drawers. You can build your own unit to fit what works for you.  I have a lot of wool and this arrangement would be fabulous for storing it.

The drawers will be perfect for the fabric I now have in baskets. The best part is that you can build it to suit your exact needs, love that!

And of course I’d need a beautiful fan for my studio! I’ve been in love with ceiling fans and have never owned one, so I do think my ‘fantasy studio’ will have a fan like this.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how a Quilter would use CedarStore.com items to build a fantasy studio! Please come over to my blog and see how easy it is to create that studio. Then sign up for my newsletter at my website and join me at Facebook!

Tags: adirondack chair, cedar buffet, cedar chest, kathy peterson, oak chest, pat sloan, Pool house, potting table, quilt rack, red cedar drawers, wicker seating

Okay.  Halloween is over.  The ghosts have gone back to their graveyards, the vampires have returned to their coffins, the witches have left town on their brooms, and the Great Pumpkin has, once again, left Linus Van Pelt alone and freezing in his oh-so-sincere pumpkin patch, wondering where he went wrong. 

Now comes the scariest part of the year – the holidays.  Yep.  We’re facing two full months of Christmas commercials (I saw my first one before Halloween) and decorations.  In fact, the malls are already fully decked out, and Thanksgiving is still three weeks away!  Worse yet, many houses will be ready for Christmas by the middle of the month.  That’s a shame, too, because fall decorations are gorgeous; so, even though the Halloween stuff has to go, leave the cornstalks, haystacks, and strings of orange lights on your gazebos, fences, trellises, arbors, and pergolas, until after Thanksgiving.

When it comes to getting gifts, however, there are times when it makes sense to shop early.  Usually, these are cases in which you want to get someone something extra-special, which has to be ordered in advance, like, say, one of our stunning cedar chests.  That will definitely make a spectacular gift; but if you want to be sure to have it there for Christmas, now would be a good time to order, as it takes four to six weeks for delivery.  Of course, it will be well worth the wait.   

At CedarStore.com, in our ‘Home Accents’ section, we have the most magnificent selection of cedar, oak, and cherry chests, along with some dazzling steamer trunks, which can be finished in several lustrous shades of stain, and double coated with lacquer.  Available in all styles and price ranges, they will not only be among the most outstanding gifts you could ever give, but they will surely be the most cherished and enduring as well.   

Besides our cedar chests, we also offer breath-taking jewelry boxes, jewelry chests, armoires, toy chests, and silverware boxes, many of which ship in two weeks or less, and all of which will be shipped free.            

So, you can either throw yourself into the fray to get an ordinary present, or sit leisurely at your computer and choose an extraordinary gift that’s bound to become a treasured heirloom.  Hmm – it sounds like the case for a cedar chest is open and shut.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Tags: cedar chest, cedar chests, cherry chest, hope chest, oak chest