Archive for the ‘guest bedroom’ Category

LEATHER HANDLE DIY

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

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FUN FACT:  We’ve been working on this house for five years and still haven’t installed handles on most of the original built-in storage cabinets or the closets.

Why rush it. No big deal.

Oh, except that now its been half a decade of living like filthy animals who routinely need to savagely pry open heavy drawers or wonky old doors with a screwdriver or any other available blunt object.

Time for change. Time for?

Leather. Pulls. For. Doors.

For months I’ve been messing around and field testing all manner of leather design bits and objects. Working out the kinks. Comparing materials. Picking finishes. Doing all the leather work. Leather working? Leather science? Leathering? Leathery stuff. The sort of stuff that recently culminated with the plopping out of this finalized prototype batch of simple looped leather+brass handles that make opening the closet easier and much more stylish than a screwdriver wedged in the crack.

Super.

OK. General DIY rundown time.

 

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DIY  |  LEATHER + BRASS PULL HANDLE

MATERIALS

Leather (mine = 1″ wide + 8/9oz + natural veg dye)
Brass Eyelets (mine = 3/16″ hole)
Brass Bolts
Brass Washers

TOOLS

Leather Hole Punch
Eyelet Setter
Hammer
Tape measure
Scissors
Sponge
Towel

 

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DIY BASICS TO MAKE IT    .    SIMPLE LEATHER PULL

1. Measure then cut leather to size. (mine = 1″ wide x 8″ long – final installed handle is approx. 4″ tall)

2. Lightly dampen cut leather pieces with a sponge to prep leather for hole punching. Towel off any extra moisture.

3. Measure and mark matching hole locations on both ends. (mine = 1″ interior from either edge + centered width)

*TIP: Make a template using an extra matching leather scrape to quickly and consistently mark hole guide placements if   you’re making multiple matching handles.

4. Align punch tool with the guide mark and carefully punch out the hole.

5. Place setter and hammer eyelets into each hole.

6. Loop leather strip in half and thread the bolt through both eyelets to prep for install.

7. Thread bolt through the hardware mounting hole, finalize leather handle placement, thread washer onto the bolt end and tighten both very firmly to secure the handle.

 

and then DONE.

 

*Optional Finishing:  I’ve been using a leather finisher on the overall handle and then finishing the edges with a slicker and Gum Tragacanth. Leave the leather raw, seal it, dye it, burn it – I don’t care. Do whatever works to finish things up to your taste.

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Basically the basic of basics. These finished leather handles work and look pretty great and are totally good to go for install.

Well, except that I haven’t been able to shake off this nagging need to rework and replace the current basic brass bolt set with different hardware that’s feels more unusual or unexpected while still staying minimal and unfussy.

Hey now, at least one closet is all functional for the first time with actual usable handles.

 

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OH WAIT. AND. BOOM.

Say hello, sexy hex detail.

This is what plopped out of all that and ended up being the hardware solution for my closet pulls. I’ve been testing these things out around the house and refining a few construction details, but who cares! I’m in love with this thing. The scale, the finish, the bit of unexpected handle detail is pretty much doing all those things my crazy brain was hoping for.

 

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CLOSET PULL SUCCESS.

Now onto make a ton more of these for the rest of the house and other design projects. Maybe someday I might even make some handle sets for CAMP? Ugh, hold it. Going too far into the future. Must focus on the now and the 34 handles I gotta make just to cover the rest of our closets and built-ins.

I’m a leather handle making machine!

Check back in five more years to see if there was any progress.

 

HEADBOARD 2.0

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

Ages ago I tried to deal with the great headboard shortage of the guest bedroom by getting a cushy queen sized Ace style pillow  headboard fabricated from vintage fire tarp, shredded foam and starry-eyed dreams. As discussed previously, the end product wasn’t exactly what was hoped for and rather than the perfectly formed comfy headboard I’d hoped for, there was instead a sadly saggy and overly deep lump of crap.

Sometimes things don’t work out.

Learning curved.

Anyways, the main issue with version 1.0 was that the shredded foam settled and began bulging out the entire form into a rotund beanbag style lump. So, to resolve that kink, I decided to reduce the headboards depth from 12″ to 6″ and had a solid piece of upholstery foam cut to fit and then stuffed inside.

Version 2.0 is firm and proud. No more sad shapeless lump with that solid 5″ thick foam form stuffed up in there.

FYI, that thick custom cut foam was kind of pricey at $98, but I tried to consolidate costs by having my local auto upholstery guy order the material as well as resew the upholstery form so it would fit snugly around the foam.

BEFORE

(12″ deep and saggy Version 1.0)

AFTER

(6″ deep and firm Version 2.0)

Version 2.0 is generally better and so much closer to the original design.

I’m just not sure if I’m loving it.

After living with it for a bit, some kinks have developed that need addressing. Simple changes like a softer fabric, smaller scale and wall mount would be a start. I’m just about fed up with the bed frames willy-nilly wandering and constant need for repositioning.

Version 3.0 might be heading in this general direction.

I spotted this skinny gray beauty at Anonymous Architects Eels Nest House during a photo shoot and haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Oh, so no big deal, but conveniently enough my master bedroom still totally needs a headboard.

Looks like version 3.0 is a go.

Well, you know. Eventually.

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.