Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category

HEADBOARD

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

The problem with having a queen size bed and a penchant for vintage furniture? The apparent lack of queen sized headboard options pre-1970 or affordable new headboards that aren’t completely terrible. So, this meant for the past four plus years we’ve been riding headboardless against cold plaster walls while our pillows continuously crept into that seemingly bottomless pillow-eating crack and pretty much everything was terrible.

Enough is enough.

After staying at The Ace awhile ago and enjoying the comfort of their cushy headboards, I thought, “hey, I can DIY a big pillow thing for a headboard. Look how warm my head is! Look how my pillow stays in place! This is the answer to all my problems!”

Then I remembered how much I hate sewing. (So much)

Good thing my favorite crotchety canvas fabricator dude LOVES sewing and also had some vintage fire tarp laying around, you know, the exact same stuff I used for those sling chairs.

Um, I call this DIY delegating? I mean, I’m so happy I hired someone to sew this, but if you love to sew, the shape couldn’t be simpler. So…anyways…

I gave him some dimensions, a few reference photos and about $100 and he made me a giant box pillow headboard type thing out of used fire tarp in about a week. After getting CRAZY expensive quotes on solid foam, I ended up ordering 30 pounds of shredded foam (at about $1 a pound – FYI) to stuff it with. Then, boom, giant cushy headboard.

The dimensions I went with are:  72″w x 28″t x 12″d.

Even though I overbought foam for the calculated cubic feet needed to fill those dimensions, it didn’t end up being enough foam to stuff the thing tightly…and…maybe…I regret how deep I designed this thing to be.

It’s too deep!

At 12″ deep, the whole headboard bulged out way more in the middle (once stuffed) than I had anticipated. This bulging situation also ended up pushing the bed way too far off the wall. So, I am going to have my canvas dude fix it to be way less deep. Like 8″ instead of 12″. So, that means the foam thing won’t be an issue?

Yup? I think.

Narrower means it’ll be plenty stuffed and closer to the wall and then all will be right in the world. Hooray.

For a first run prototype, this worked out alright in the end. Admittedly, there are some kinks to fix and I would like to try making another one of these in a different type of fabric for our master bedroom.

Say what? Fire tarp isn’t super soft?

Nope. Not at all.

But it looks AWESOME.

Funny thing is, for all it’s issues, I just can’t get Iggy off this thing. He is in love with it. IN LOVE. But Bowie? Well, he’s not so convinced and prefers to stick with itchy kilim pillows.

What a nerd.

Headboard version 1.0? Still a bit buggy.

Version 2.0 in the works.

All in all, if you have a bed and no headboard this could be a nice solution. It’s totally customizable, totally affordable to make (or have made) and totally soft on your noggin.

COLOR DIPPING

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

If you saw Emily Henderson’s blue office makeover or Cassandra’s red red redo on Coco and Kelley, then it’s old news that it’s Sherwin-Williams National Painting Week. I’m celebrating paint and painting and paint related things with a bit of DIY and the funnest of yellows, Fun Yellow.

DIY? Say what.

Here’s what: Burl. Jute. Color Dipping. Magic.

Lets do this thing.

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MATERIALS

TOP
2 – wood tops/whatever you’d like to use. *I used two slabs of vintage redwood burl I found on Craigslist, but you can use anything your heart desires. Like maybe burl? Oh, wait.

LEG
6 – 1/2″ x 10″ galvanized steel pipe
6 – 1/2″ galvanized floor flange
1 – jute twine
1 – paint *I used Sherwin Williams Fun Yellow

TOOLS
1 – drill
24 – screws
1 – glue *I used Gorilla Super Glue. Why? It was already here.
1 – masking tape
1 – small paint brush

HOW TO

1. Screw the steel pipe (or nipple – if you prefer the hilarious technical terminology) into the flange.

2. Squeeze a dollop of glue onto the base of the threaded part of the pipe and attach the end bit of that jute twine.

3. Wrap jute twine around the entire length of the pipe. Yes, it’s boring, but really doesn’t take that long.

*Be sure to keep the twine slightly taut as you wrap and also as you’re wrapping, it helps to push the wrapped twine down towards base for even coverage.

4. Finish wrapping the length of the pipe and cut the twine.

5. Tuck the loose twine bit into the pipe and secure with a spot of glue.

Now you have a fully jute wrapped leg. Hooray.

*Smart person tip: notice how the twine actually wraps over the pipes rough threaded end in order to protect delicate floors and such? Be nice to your floors!

6. Measure 3″ down from the foot end of the pipe.

7. Tape around the pipe horizontally at this 3″ mark.

8. Dip the securely taped leg into some paint. Like yellow maybe?

*Smart person tip: Stuff old newspaper bits or paper scraps into the leg hole so it won’t fill up with paint and drip forever.

9. Brush off any excess paint drips with a small brush and lay the leg down to dry.

10. Once the paint fully dries, go ahead and remove the tape slowly and carefully to keep the paint edge crisp.

Repeat and repeat and repeat all of those steps as needed.

FACT : tables need more than one leg. Crazy, but true.

Look at you, you sassy finished legs. Hey now.

OK, now that every leg is jute wrapped, color dipped and thoroughly dry – then what happens?

Well, these babies can’t wait to hold stuff off the floor.

The time is now.

Lets go nuts.

Screw the finished legs onto whatever top you’ve scrounged up and then repeat and repeat and repeat. Do I need to say that the screws go through the flange holes? No, but I did.

Anyways. Boom. Legs. Done.

Now you have the power to transform anything into a table. Use it wisely.

Look whose all screwed on and ready to be a nightstand! You legs! That’s who!

Go get in the guest bedroom, you silly gooses.

Adding these custom dipped boots of color to the jute wrapped legs helped float the nightstands off the black wall and wood floor in all the best possible ways. The final tables turned out way better than I’d dare hope, which is great since I’ve gotten incredible tired of looking for nightstands.

All my problems? Solved.

DIY accomplished. Done and Done.

Even notoriously pretentious Iggy-pup is impressed. He also asks that you ignore that new headboard situation happening. Details soon.

Oh, so just in case nightstands aren’t your jam – no worries, my feelings aren’t that hurt – methinks this project can easily be customized to anything and everything you’d like to wrap in jute or color dip. Like your friends? Neighbors? Or maybe something more practical, like taller legs for a dining table?

Color boots for everyone.

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For more color fun, check out Amanda Hill’s project launching tomorrow over at Recycled Consign and Design. Thanks again to Sherwin-Williams inviting me to participate and helping sponsor my project for National Painting Week.

 

LEGGY

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

I picked up this hunky bit of burl some time ago with plans to rip off those too tall and weirdly sad peg legs that had been slapped on it. This chunk of redwood burl is everything I’ve been dreaming of in a coffee table, so I wanted to do something spectacularly special and possibly brassy for the base?

So, of course I gave up after a few weeks of failed ideas and worse attempts at brassy greatness by throwing some basic hairpin legs on this puppy.

Come on.

Sometimes you’re on eBay and you’re fed up and you buy some 12″ hairpin legs and call it a goddamn day.

Three legs with three screws each and boom, done. No more stressing out about legs.

Now it sits at the right coffee table height (about 15″) and these new hairpin legs don’t actually offend me. I like the contrast in materials and maybe I’ll eventually figure out how to get some brassy ones on there. For now, this is working out great.

ADMIT IT. That’s some good wood.

So burly.

The living room is still going through some changes, so pretty please let’s all agree to just ignore the layout. Focus on that chunk of amazing wood. It’s growing on you. You like it.

Burls.