Friday Finds!

Today I'm sharing a few of my favorite finds this week! (plus they are all on sale this week!!)

1. west elm wood tiled vanity/console
It was love at first sight for West Elm's wood tiled console every since I first saw it in their catalog. And when I saw it in store the other weekend, it was just as gorgeous as the photos. I love the idea of a console / vanity table because it's size and color makes it easy to move from room to room.

2. threshold ultra coral soft sheets, flat, fitted, pillowcase 
You know why I love these :) How stunning is the color!? If you're afraid to go bold with your furniture, try sheets! My favorite is folding my duvet or coverlet with the flat sheet about a quarter way down to show a pop of color.

3. threshold gold honeycomb accent table
If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw these beauties. (by the way I just noticed that I have 4 ig images in a row with either pentagons or hexagons, obsessed much? :) These accent tables could also go practically anywhere. In front of a sofa to hold a book or glass .. two in front of a bed. I love using furniture that can move room to room.

4. lucite tape dispenser + lucite stapler 
If you saw my post at Infarrantly Creative yesterday, you probably noticed those lucite office accessories. I love the extra glam that they add to my desk!

5. target threshold tufted ottoman 
What's not to love about this tufted bench!? The price is pretty amazing too! It could also be used in so many places!

Hope you have an amazing weekend friends!

ps Thanks so much for all of your feedback on my painting post yesterday! I'll be adding your new suggestions a little later today!

If you haven't seen my post at Infarrantly Creative yet, make sure to stop by! We're getting organized in my office!

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Wood in our house | to paint or not to paint

Updated 1.31.14 to add a few more options from the comments. 

Happy Wednesday! I've been thinking a lot about how we'll treat the wood in our new house (before tour here and here) .. I'm torn because I always thought if we got a house with wood, it would be the tacky wood wall paneling and we would instantly paint it all white .. The wood in our house is beautiful, but rustic, orangey and log cabiny, which isn't our style. 

SO this has left me thinking about what we should do.

Here's the room as is.

and a few options (roughly Photoshopped) The ceiling fan will be going .. but I left it in, so lets just look at paint.

1. Leave the ceiling as is, paint the wall beams white.

2. Make the ceiling a more neutral wood tone (less orange) paint the wall beams white. The labor involved scares me .. I'll have to do more research.

Also, I love the look of this, but it isn't realistic without applying new wood.

3. Paint the ceiling and wall beams white, leave the ceiling beams as is.

or neutralize the beams ..

4. Paint everything white.

5. Paint everything white and the walls a soft gray blue/green.

6. White beams, wood ceiling (added per barksandbaking comment, let me know if you'd like to see something and I'll add it, if I can :) 

7. Black ceiling beams and window trim, white wall beams and ceiling (added per danielle oakey's comment)

8. White ceiling, beams as is (added per lindsay z comment)

9. White wash the beams, paint the ceiling white

10.  Paint the beams white, white wash the ceiling

I know that painting the wood won't be for everyone, but in the end we have to follow our instincts and do what we love. Good thing we have plenty of time to think about it! If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear it! We'll be in Ohio till the end of March/April, then we're not sure where David's job will take us (hopefully to MD or closer!) It's hard not knowing, but we're making the best of it. In the meantime, we're busy making plans for our house and projects that will go our house!

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DIY Gold Geometric Lamp | Tutorial

When I first saw Land of Nod's Between a Rock and a Hard Place lamp, I instantly pinned it and put it on my wish list. 

What's not to love!? It's shiny (the facets amplify the gorgeousness), it's interesting - making a statement, but not over the top, and the size is perfect for a dresser or desk. 

At $79, it's not too expensive, but after mentioning DIYing it to David and getting him on board, we decided to go for it.

We were able to make each base for about $11.50!

Here's how we did it. 

First, David did a little research and we found out that the shape (12 sided pentagon) is called a dodecahedron. Then after a little more googling and brainstorming, he determined what angles would be needed (see diagrams below). Math is definitely not my strong suit .. so I'm glad that it is David's :)

The angles were pretty tricky to figure out (probably took about an afternoon), but there here in case you'd like to try it :)

Materials for 2 lamps:

1/2 sheet of 1/4" MDF (enough for two lamps)
Wood Glue
Wood Filler
Lamp Socket x2
Wire (we used an extension cord x2 and cut off the end)
Primer/Paint
1/2" Copper Pipe (3" section per lamp)
Threaded Lamp Rod
Nuts
Miter Saw
Sandpaper

First, David cut 24 - 6" squares (12 per lamp) out of the 1/4" MDF.  If you don’t have a table saw or sliding miter saw, have it cut into 6” strips at the hardware store.  

1. Using a miter saw, set the bevel (blade tilt) to 31.7° and the miter angle to 18°. 
2.  Put a piece of tape or draw a pencil line on the miter saw fence 3-3/8” (this measurement was determined from scale that we wanted, feel free to adjust) from the blade. The mark will be used to line up all of the pentagon cuts to ensure that all of the sides are equal. 
3. Make the first cut holding the 6” square straight on the fence. Rotate the piece so the cut edge is against the fence to make the second cut. Now that one of the angles is finished, line up the angle with the mark at 3-3/8” and make the third cut. Continue rotating and lining up the angle with the mark for the 4^th and 5^th cuts.
4. Finally, drill holes for the lamp assembly and the wire. Per lamp, drill a hole in the bottom side of one piece for the wire to exit the base and drill a 3/8” hole in the center of another for the threaded lamp rod to penetrate the top.

After cutting one, we then traced the pentagon on remaining 23 MDF squares.

After David cut out all of the pentagons, we started assembling. Ideally we would have made a jig as a guide, but since we were only making two, we glued, held in place till the glue set and then taped to help hold it in place. It worked surprisingly well! ** The final lower pentagon and top pentagon had predrilled holes for the wire and lamp assembly. Don't glue it all without those important holes! **

Prior to attaching the final pentagon on the top, we glued extra MDF to the bottom to give it a little extra weight. Then we attached the threaded rod to the top pentagon with a nut and ran the wire through the bottom hole and through the threaded rod. To finish the lamp base, we then glued the top pentagon on.

Since it's difficult to get the angle exact every time, we filled in the little crevices with wood filler (sanding smooth, once dry).

Next, we taped up the cord, primed and then painted with Rustoleum gold (apply in thin coats to make sure that it didn't drip). About three thin coats.

They got a little scratched while moving them to our new house, so I sanded and put another top coat on. Then I applied Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze, trying to get an even coat, I applied it too heavily and got some drips. SO I sanded and repainted again ..

The gold spray paint easily takes fingerprints, so I would recommend using a clear coat THINLY. I'll be applying one once the weather cooperates with me :)

The shades are from Target

Stencil available in my Etsy shop.

The elephant was a thrift store find. I picked up the orchid from Home Depot for $5 and the pot from Goodwill.

Total Cost:

1/2 sheet 1/4" MDF $6
Lamp Socket and Wire (extension cord with end cut off) $14
Spray Paint $3
Threaded rod, primer and copper pipe on hand

$23, $11.50 per lamp base. Not bad!

I'm so glad that we tried DIYing before buying! Though I think the real thing would definitely we worth it if you don't have a miter saw.

What do you think, would you give it a try?

--

P.S. Have you entered for a chance to win Delta Faucet's New Year, New Room Bathroom Makeover contest? It includes Delta bathroom fixtures, a $3,500 Lowes giftcard, a design consultation from ME and MORE!! If not, enter HERE!!

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DIY Gold Geometric Lamp

Hope you all had a great weekend! The weather didn't cooperate (cold and snowing constantly) so I didn't get the final clear coat on our latest project, BUT I couldn't wait to share!

Geometrics have been huge recently - and I think the the trend will only grow this year! I know I can't get enough :) 

Inspired by Land of Nod's lamp, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, we made our own version for just a few dollars! 

I'll be sharing a tutorial tomorrow, but first, here's a few photos! 

We moved my office around since we're working on some printer/paper storage now. I originally intended for the black and white stripe chair to be my desk chair, but it didn't fit in the coral desk - so glad that I found a good solution! 

I'm planning on keeping the x leg desk here, putting a new credenza (found one to refurbish on Friday!) under the mirror and moving the coral desk into the corner for my sewing machine. The lamps will go on the new credenza, but for now I'm loving them on my desk. They are so pretty at night, I'll take a picture a little later. 

We started these lamps over the Christmas break, so it's about time that we (almost) finished them. I did apply a clear coat, but it got some pretty bad drips (it needed to be applied in extremely light coats), so I had to sand and repaint - more on that tomorrow! 

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Black and White Chair | My Process + What NOT to do

Happy Friday! This week I was determined to finish reupholstering this chair and I did! (barely :)

This won't be a full tutorial, but my general process, my mistakes and what I'd do differently. Hopefully it will help someone avoid my mistakes :)

I started with this $9.99 chair from Goodwill. I knew that I didn't want to attempt the channeling, so I was planning on tufting instead. But it ended up not needing anything! (more on that later)

I tore off most of the foam and upholstery and spray painted the legs glossy black. I left the bottom cushion and one layer of fabric on for stability (I did layer a 1" piece of foam on top to make it extra cushy) 

Since the fabric (Sofia from Ikea) wasn't just a square, I took a large piece of paper roughly pushed it into the crevices, traced with a sharpie, and cut it out for my template.

I then used the template to cut my foam, (make sure that the foam is a little big, it crushes on the edges, you can always cut it down, but it generally works best a little big), batting (a little larger than the foam) and the fabric (larger than the batting)  *** make sure to cut it larger than you think you'll need. I cut mine almost too small in a few places and it made it hard to work with. You can always cut away the excess if needed.

I upholstered the seat first - it took a while, but it wasn't too bad .. the hardest part was working around the arms and the back supports. I kinda shoved the fabric down and pushed my stapler down between the cushion and arm so that the staples were hidden.

Moving onto the front of the back. I repeated the previous steps (template for foam, batting, fabric). I was having such a hard time getting everything somewhat smooth and tight because of the back supports (the legs ran all the way up). They were NOT easy to work around. ** If I was doing it again, I would have cut them off (in the opening between the back and the seat), pulled all of the fabric evenly/stapled (pulling up on the lower horizontal back support) and then reattached the supports (gluing and re bracing with a metal plate and screws). David ended up finishing up the part since I got too frustrated!! He's the best :)

We did add extra supports (made out of extra trim) so we could have the tufting in the center, but we didn't end up using them .. it got tight enough on it's own.

Here's another view of the support.

Next, we worked on the arms .. these were tricky to begin with, but even more difficult because of the stripes. Again, I got frustrated, so David helped with this too. We lined up the first black stripe - to get the fabric somewhat smooth, we couldn't make it all the way up the arm. So we cut it short and created a black stripe (ironed and folded under on the edges) out of the black fabric used for the cording and stapled in place. 

On the original chair, you could see the supports through the back so I added foam to hide them. 

On the back, for the arms, I didn't have enough fabric to make it to the end, so I pieced it together by lining up the stripe and sewing an extra piece on. Not ideal, but it worked. (after making two trips to Ikea for fabric, I wasn't going back :) Make sure to plan out all of your cuts and how you'll get it out of your fabric. When working with directional fabric, it's best to plan how you'll exactly use the fabric.

I stapled the back on and covered the staples with double cord welting (using Jenny's instructions) and glued in place with permanent fabric adhesive (be careful, it's stringy and will get everywhere). 

At this point, I started feeling a little better, it's amazing how finished it makes the chair look! You can use tape to help hold it in place if you'd like. 

To finish the edge I used an upholstery cardboard strip (thanks for the tip Julia!) and stapled in place. This gives a super crisp line!! Once done, I folded the fabric back down, stapled and covered with double cord welting. To avoid this extra step, I should have taken the seat cushion fabric all the way down, stapled, and covered with double cord welting. 

Finally, a few tips. Some are repeats from above, but important, so I'm listing them again :) 

1. Keep an iron handy. It helps to keep keep lines crisp and smooth out the fabric. 

2. Cut your fabric large, if it's too small it can be super tricky to work with - you can always cut it smaller.

3. Plan out how exactly how you'll reupholster the chair (plan your fabric cuts too) prior to starting. This one is tricky for me because I'm such a visual person, but I did make a fair amount of mistakes because I didn't plan well enough. 

Annabelle loves looking out the window here! I'm planning on making this coffee table into a bench (for the foot of our bed in MD but it will stay here for now since she loves it so much!) 

LOVE my new campaign chest found at goodwill! It's a little beaten up, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix. 

Finally, a few before and afters.

Such a transformation! Also, I was pleasantly surprised with the fabric from Ikea. It was a nice weight (similar to duck canvas), and looks like it should hold up nicely. 

I hope you have an amazing weekend!! Hopefully it warms up enough so I can spray paint (ok, it won't really be warm enough for a few months, but a little warmer than 0 degrees would be nice :) I'm SO excited to share my next project, it's a good one :) 

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