Archive for the ‘guest bedroom’ Category

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.

 

RUGGY AGAIN

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

As alluded to earlier, I’ve been continuing that experimentation with rugs thing by picking up this vintage kilim for the guest bedroom off Etsy for a sweet $75.

Handmade and thinly flat woven, this sassy rug has a nicely worn texture and great asymmetric pattern in a neutral deserty palette that seamlessly fits in with everything else around this place.

Duh. Of course. All things browntown are welcomed with here with open arms.

Unlike the other colorful rug I’m continuing to struggle with in the living room, this one is a definite keeper and will likely end up in the go-to rotation of props I enjoy using for styling stuff.

Too bad this blanket just ain’t working and the bed is still is a mess. I’ll eventually regret that bit of laziness seeing that internet photos live forever and occasionally come back to haunt you.

Oh well. That’s still one sexy ass rug.

Mmmmmm.

So brown. So very beautifully brown.

Hey dogs? Please don’t destroy it, you crazy unpredictable beasts!

FIBERS

Monday, February 27th, 2012

BOOM.

Suck on that.

Dreams do come true.

So much fiber-y art has entered my life recently that it’s like a Cinderella story made of dusty yarn from the 70’s. Beautifully lush stringy old yarn.

With the loss of its chandelier, the dining room has been going through a slow transformation that includes – obviously – new lighting and just maybe a new dining table? Possibly thinking about going for some custom style action? ‘Cause I’m fancy? Or super picky? Or whatever.

Yuppers. Big dining room redo. Eventually.

Till then, this gigantically glorious wall hanging will have to hold down the fort.

Whoa whoa whoa. Slow your roll.

Tell me you didn’t think this was the only fiber art wall hanging thing happening around here?

No. Way.

Because when I get obsessed, I get obsessed. Perhaps you noticed that little ‘s’ in the post title?

DOUBLE BOOM.

In your face.

It’s like this thing is so crazy good that the frame can’t handle it! Not at all! Stupid frame!

All that beauty is overflowing with goodness. Jute-y ropey goodness.

Try to ignore the messy bed and that seemingly new ‘rug’ like rug on the floor. I’m apparently such a busy lady that I can’t be bothered to make my bed for photos or discuss this ‘rug’ situation. But don’t you fret lover, that ‘rug’ will be covered in a forthcoming post.

For now?

NO distractions from the fibers.

With these two transcendent works of aesthetic textile-ish glory installed in the dining room and the guest bedroom alike, I believe we’ve finally reached the limit of fiber art the house can safely hold. No, wait, I’m wrong. There’s still that Don Freedman piece, which now lives in the kitchen and that other simple weaving in the hall. But who’s counting? Not you.

Don’t count them.

Just. Don’t.

So. Provenance? AKA, where did these come from?

The dining room behemoth was once owned by all around super nice person Kathleen Ryan, who emailed me a few photos after reading about the great fiber search. Of course I fell instantly in love and we then worked out a mutually beneficial trade. By the way, trading vintage stuff is probably my favorite thing in the world to do. I can happily deaccession something I no longer have space for while someone else gets to do the same. Win win!

The guest bedroom’s sassy ropey weaving was found some time back during a trip to Palm Springs. We went out for a little shopping fun and stumbled on this baby at a consignment shop in Cathedral City. I grabbed that sucker off the wall and never looked back.

 

FIBERS!