Shabby Nightstand Update

I haven't posted much in while have I?   I've been really busy with home reno since we moved in here last year, but I haven't wanted to take pictures until it's 'done' and there's still so much to do. I think it might never be done.

Anyway so I painted this nightstand.



I've had this nighstand for a while; I picked it up for $20 on Craiglist. I liked it that it was small enough to fit in our narrow space, and it had a handy shelf and drawer. But it was plain blonde laminate and very boring.

When I was looking for ideas I saw this end table project. Pretty great right? I also happened to have a piece of wood that I 'reclaimed' from our storage space- the previous tenants had left it there when they moved. I had no idea what it was but it looked pretty nice.

 

It was originally a long narrow board (sorry I forgot to take pics), maybe it was a shelf or something.  I cut it in half and then Gorilla glued both pieces on top of my nightstand after I painted it, and filled in the gap with some wood filler.  You can sort of see the seam here.

My inspiration was more white/modern, but I'm not so modern and I didn't really want white.  I've been ogling this cool coffee table every time I go to the Galleria, so I almost did turquoise too, but like everything in our house is aqua or teal or turquoise.

I looked through my much-too-full box of paint samples and decided to go with Benjamin Moore Apple Blossom green, a color I almost used in my bedroom.

 

I thought it was too much for a whole bedroom, but pretty cute for a lil nightstand right?

I made plaster-of-paris chalk paint, so I wouldn't have to prime.  That stuff is pretty great!  Definitely understand why the blogosphere was nuts over it, it's so easy to use and thick and chalky.  I guess you're supposed to use furniture wax, but I finished it with oil-based poly, because I had some, and I thought the yellow color would make a nice antique-y look.

The little trim is from my favorite moulding store and also stuck on with Gorilla glue.  The knob is from World Market. I'm not sure it works but it's good enough for now.

Here it is in my bedroom:

   

The mismatched nightstands are a little weird but the ceiling is actually slanted so I think the height difference works.  Half tempted to paint the other one green too but it's actually nice wood, so maybe not.  Also I have so much else to do.  Let's just leave it weird for now...

Painted dresser

Hi people! Wow, it has been so long since I last posted, google has changed their posting tools. I am a bad blogger.

But I've still been doing a lot of crafting for my new place.

I got this little dresser/nightstand thing from a friend - it was just plain wood, and boxy. I thought it would a great thing to try painting. I've been enamored of decorate painting on dressers since this picture by Laura Gunn. Hers is nicer but she's a professional painter or whatever.

I used a bunch of house paint samples that I had lying around, and I painted it on my new patio:

It goes great in my aqua-red-white-gold office.

(This picture is awful. There is not enough light in this room yet, so I had to use a flash. Funny story: when I moved, I somehow lost the plates that hold a pair of wall sconces that I planned to put in this room. I keep hoping they'll show up, so I haven't bought new lights. But they haven't shown up. And it is dark. SIGH. )

I put in some antique blue milk glass knobs. Again terrible picture. So dark. But trust me they are adorable?

Please send me some sconce-wall-plate finding vibes, and I'll try to post more stuff!!

Tour of the Living Room, Part 3: This Time It's Personal

Charlie loves to take things out of things. He also loves DVDs.


He is truly his father's son. I am truly not enamored of a pile of DVDs strewn all over the floor.

Solution: the bottom shelf of our DVD storage shelf is now devoted to shiny toys, for him to pull down with impunity.


This bookshelf was originally a white crappy bookshelf, but now it's a white crappy bookshelf that I painted dark and light blue. Don't worry, by the way, this really tall and heavy piece of furniture is anchored firmly to the wall with earthquake straps.


Speaking of resurfacing living room furniture, I got bored of my coffee table and decoupaged the bottom of it. I love it now.


This was surprisingly easy -- I just lay down three sheets of nepalese Lokti paper (from Continental Art Supply, they have a huge selection of decorative paper and awesome service, my favorite local art store), stuck it on with Mod Podge, and then sealed it with polyurethane.


Isn't this paper beautiful? Happy accident, it also matches my coasters.

Tour of the Living Room, Part 2

Time for more living room crafts, with host Charlie the flying baby.


Geoff took this photo, that's why it's all artsy.

If your monitor is really bright, you might be able to see to the left of the adorable cherub, behind the TV, there's a fun wall hanging.


I bought one of those college dorm room "tapestries" at Bed Bath & Beyond one time for a film shoot. I decided I liked the fabric but I'm a little too old for pinning trippy fabric to the wall, so I mounted it on canvas stretchers like in this tutorial. Enormous, 48" canvas stretchers are from Dick Blick.

This is a great way to cover a lot of white wall, and cuts down the glare behind the TV.

I had some extra from the borders, so I turned them into bolster covers (see here) and also added some trim to my curtains.



Main curtain material is Liz Claiborne Lilly Meadow, and the the curtains are installed with grommets, just like the ones in the nursery.

Everything's Coming Up Ultrasuede

Sorry! I've been bad again! Don't forget I have this adorable excuse.


I've actually been doing a surprising amount of crafting, just not much that's blog-worthy or geeky. But hey, I'm going to post some of them anyway. Here's Charlie's favorite:


I made a new cover for my memory-foam-not-bean bag. I bought this chair from a company that doesn't exist any more, and my cats went to town on the original twill cover, so it needed to be replaced by something more durable.

I made the cover by tearing apart the seams from the old cover and using it as a pattern. I even re-used the original zipper.

It is the most comfortable chair you can imagine, and as you can see here, Charlie loves it.

Look, it matches my futon!


I actually wrote a letter to the company that made this futon cover and asked them if I could buy some fabric off them. They sold it to me, at cost!

Since I had a little extra, I made some straps to help keep the futon cover from slipping down. Because I hate when futons do that.


They attach with buttons, in case you want to try to hold up a futon mattress of your own.

Q: Where Have I Been?

A: Exiled from my computer, since it was parked in Charlie's room. But now I've moved it to my bedroom so I can use it while he sleeps. His room is now totally his.


And he owns it.


"What's going on??"


I can't hang anything on the closet doors as they are plastic, so I attached a Doctors Without Borders free map to them with bright blue painters tape.

The plates on the wall are printed with Norman Rockwell images; they are antiques from Geoff's grandmother. The night light is Ikea.




Geoff's quilt from when he was a baby, my mobile, and a beautiful Baby Mod crib from Walmart.


There is a whole lot of Totoro in this room.


Even hiding under the telephone.




I need to get a basket or something for his cloth books that don't fit in the sling - does anyone have a good storage solution for these?


The image on the left is from Etsy vendor mere designs, the wood blocks in the middle came from Finland via Geoff's same worldly grandmother. And the numbers on the right are my own design.

Yummy Cashmere Pillows

Pillows from old sweaters made the blog rounds a while ago, and they seemed so cozy they've stayed on my mind. I found the softest cashmere sweater at the Salvation Army for $3; it had some small holes so it was begging to be repurposed. Since I wanted two, I decided to make the back of the pillow from fabric in my stash. Here's how.

Supplies:
1 14" pillow form
1 large sweater
2 square of coordinating fabric, 14" (seam allowance included)*
1 rectangle of coordinating fabric, 14" x 7"
2 1" buttons

*a tip from House on Hill Road: pillow cases look better if they are slightly smaller than their pillow forms.

Placing one 14" square on your sweater as a rough guide, cut a square out of your sweater larger than 14".


To keep the sweater from warping, sew the sweater to one square of fabric, then cut to size. You can keep this step if your sweater is fairly sturdy.

Fold over hem at the top of the other fabric square and sew down. Cut triangles out of the corner of the rectangle, 3" from the corners, and discard. Hem edges.


Evenly from the edges, add two buttonholes to the corners of the formerly rectangular piece. Pin this piece on top of the hemmed square so that it forms a new 14" square.


Sew the buttonhole side to the sweater side, right sides together, turn right side out, add buttons, and presto, you have a ridiculously cheap cashmere pillow. It's hard to capture how delightfully cozy and soft these pillows are... just look at this pile.



Mmmm... cashmere.

A Better Book Sling

I wanted a book sling for my baby, who no, cannot read yet, but still... they are cool. I liked the size of this one, but all the reviews said the fabric was terrible. I ordered it, and yes, the fabric is indeed terrible. The picture hides it's terribleness well; it feels like it is made out of a disposable raincoat.

However, that is easily fixed.

Before:


After:


I used a home decor fabric called "Square Knots," purchased at Joann on Black Friday. So easy. The sling is just a bunch of squares sewn together. Without a baby it would have taken an hour or two. With a baby... it took several days. So it goes!

Easy Painting

I had a baby shower on Saturday, hosted by my friend Vanessa. Vanessa is always complaining that she doesn't have enough art on her walls, so I wanted to make her something as a thank you gift.

I got this gorgeous frame from my grandmother-in-law (she was throwing it away!) and I knew it would match her furniture, so I decided to use it. I also knew I wanted to do something with leaves, since their apartment is very green and natural.

I was going to paint a leaf, or stencil a leaf, or use a leaf as a stamp, but I decided to just cheat and stick a pressed leaf directly to the canvas.

I pressed leaves from outside our apartment building under a pile of cookbooks -- who says you don't need cookbooks any more? Can epicurious.com do this??


I picked my favorite leaf from the pressings and painted it black-brown. Hard copies of newspapers are handy. Can latimes.com do this??


When the leaf dried, I mod-podged it to a canvas I had painted green with my new friend, the palette knife.


I used heaps of Mod Podge, but it still dried clear.


My little mixed media art project.

Nesting?

"Hey, aren't you having a baby in like three weeks? Where is all the cool nursery stuff you should be feverishly making?"

Sorry guys, I've been delinquent with the picture taking. Here's some nesting.


I inherited this cool antique rocking chair from Geoff's grandmother, who rocked Geoff's dad in it when he was a baby. It was beautiful, but a bit uncomfortable (look at those skinny spindles!


I bought some foam at Joann Fabrics, and used it to make a cushion form.


I also bought some cute fabric. I love this excuse to buy cutesy fabric, guys. Upholstery fabric was on sale at Joann, so I splurged. It's expensive, but so sturdy. Look, bugs!


I used the foam as a pattern to cut the fabric, adding a seam allowance. You could also use batting to stuff your cushions, but I wanted something firmer.


You could use ribbon or string to make the ties, but I think fabric ties look much better. They are a bit of work. I cut six rectangles out of quilting fabric (the upholstery fabric was too heavy to turn easily), each one 20" x 1.25", and sewed them in half, using as tight a seam allowance as the feed dogs would allow.


You need a loop turner to turn them into straps. It's tricky with the loop turner, but impossible without it.


I turned again to my trusty buttonholer. I love that thing! I threaded the straps from the bottom cushion through buttonholes in the top cushion to attach them neatly.


And that's it. As soon as I put the cushions on it, the cat claimed it for his own.


He's too cute to move... I don't know what I'm going to do.