DIY Tray for Spring

I have many many projects around my apartment and the weekends are a great time to get them done. I found this great wooden box (below) at a thrift store for ONE DOLLAR. Obviously when I saw it, I had big plans for it.

This is the box I got, except without the yuppie wooden toy fruit.

I wanted something fun and bright because Spring is coming! I can feel it, I don't care what that little varmint says about his shadow.

I got this pink called "Heart to Heart" at the hardware store for $3.99. Perfect.

I painted the whole thing even though I knew that I was going to put fabric down on the bottom. I gave it two coats.

I got this fabric about 2 years ago at Mood and I've been wanting to use it FOREVER. I thought that it would really make the pink pop. I cut it to fit the little wooden tray and....

Voila! I took a little spray adhesive and did a light layer before laying the fabric down in the bottom of the tray.

I replaced the other wooden tray I have with this fun poppy little one on my coffee table. I'll probably change the display on the inside but we'll see. That's what is fun about a little tray like this: It cost me about 5-6 dollars in the end and if I don't like it after a few months, I can a) carefully repaint it or b) switch it out and bring it back another time. For now I really love it though, it's brightening up my living room and making me think of Spring.

Have a Happy Monday!


Alicia B.

Living Room Decluttering Project

As I've mentioned many times before I like to collect stuff: small objects, books, design mags, vases, etc. This is all well and good but I have a minuscule living space so from time to time I have to reassess and make things look a little bit neater. This time, I had to take a look at my open bookshelf that is full of DVDs do something about it. I also have a huge chest full of fabrics in my front hall that is getting quite full so I decided to make a "door" for my open shelf.

I'd been dying to use this gorgeous Matthew Patrick Smyth fabric from Schumacher for something and thought it too neutral for throw pillows but for this purpose, it's perfect because it's subtle. The green is faded enough to coordinate with the green of my bookcase.

I love to iron! I had to iron it, then fold in the edges and make sure they were crisp and perfect before I sewed it into a rectangle to cover the bookcase.

Woo! Late night sewing!

I had to get these little hooks and screw them into the frame of my bookcase in order to hang my fabric panel up.

Next I had to put these little grommets into my fabric. Before you do this on your fabric, take a scrap and practice. You need to make a tiny hole about the size of an eraser tip in the fabric, then put the bottom half of the grommet down, put the fabric hole through it, then put the top of the grommet on that, take a hammer and whale on it. Funny moment: I did all that except I wasn't hitting the hammer hard enough so I had to go back to the hardware store to see what I was doing wrong. I wasn't hitting it hard enough so the burly hardware store guy just told me to "put some muscle into it."

How perfect does that little grommet look? I know. So.......

Here it is! (Don't judge my TV. Clearly I have other priorities.) I may still have stacks of magazines around but at least they're organized (Martha Stewart in one pile, Domino, Blueprint, and House and Garden in another etc). And whats that on the floor?

It's the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

I know this doesn't change the fact that I need to edit a wee bit in my living room/my life, but I think it simplifies that area of the room and and pretty fabric so what more do I need right now? Now I'm off to collect glass tiles for my project because I finished the floor plan last night! Modern is still not my preferred style but it sure is fun to see what other materials are out there--I'm learning a lot.


Alicia B.

The Furniture Joint

via apartment therapy

I just received an email announcing the new Furniture Joint website and it reminded me that I had had an intense desire to learn upholstery a while back. You might even say, I was jonesin' to learn the art of upholstery at The Furniture Joint. They offer classes there at the shop down town and I am dying to learn!

Maybe this will help with my sewing skills, as well!

This is Matthew Haly, the owner, who also has a book out called Matthew Haly's Book of Upholstery. THINKING I may pick that up as well!

There is just something in me that loves to do things on my own. After putting a lot of work into something (not just money), and looking at what you've made, it is an incredibly satisfying feeling. Reupholstering something can be quite pricey and perhaps if I knew a little bit about it, I could do some of it on my own--the simple things at least. Has anybody taken classes there? Fun?


Alicia B.

Foyer Wardrobe Makeover: Complete!

Finally I have completed my wardrobe makeover! After sanding, wood filler-ing, priming, painting, and decorating this wardrobe that used to house my baby clothes, it is finally complete and looks wonderful!

Here I am (okay fine it's Britney's face--thanks Ash.) modeling the wardrobe in my foyer for you. This is how it looked when I started.

It was in quite a state when we (thanks to my parents and friend Sarah) hauled it up 2 flights of stairs but it still had some beautiful detailing.

I repainted it and put some adorable wallpaper from Farrow and Ball in as drawer liner!

There was a key hole so I found and antique and got this gorgeous key tassel from Pindler in butter cream which I thought looked very beautiful against the pale blue that I had chosen for the wardrobe.

Since I don't have much space but I wanted to put one other element in the foyer, I found this perfect "ashtray stand" at an estate sale over the weekend and am using it as a plant stand. Don't ask me how Piglet got under the wardrobe but I have a sneaking suspicion that Lucrezia had something (everything) to do with it.

Here is the top of the wardrobe: three of my fave design books stacked with a pair of brass candlesticks, white enamel pitcher, spider plant and etched brass bowl filled with antique keys and a mirror LEANED against the wall.

And here it is! Not an amazing picture because it's a shallow space but I'm quite pleased with the results. I worked hard and had a lot of fun doing it. Nothing like doing all the work yourself (even though the bf did the wood filler part) to make a project feel very fulfilling. This wardrobe houses all my collected fabrics for projects, old drafting projects, and other design things that I need.

Alicia B.

Busy Bee= Alicia B.

SO, over the weekend I had my bff from college up and THEN my parents kindly dropped off my foyer wardrobe. It's in pretty shaky condition so I'm busily restoring it on my own! I even bought...wood filler on Sunday! Can you believe it? Anyway, I'm working on picking out paint colors for it! My inspiration is Italian painted furniture. I don't know why I'm so drawn to it but I find it sweet looking, and I like the antique look of it. The room above is one of my faves by Hal Williamson and is the inspiration for the chest. I'm looking at blues with a hint of green in them and a little bit lighter than the one above. I can't wait to show you pictures later on this week!


Alicia B.

Nobody Ever Suspects the Butterfly...

I just wanted to share this little DIY project I found on this DIY blog (thanks Kate!). If you wanted to really get into the butterfly trend this spring, here is something you could do! I must admit, I'm coming around. This blog, Finedivingchicago.com has really cute before and after pictures from furniture found in alleys, dumpsters, and on the street. I'm not going to lie, I've been there before (HERE) and sometimes you can find the best stuff. Then you can put your mark on it, and make it your own!


Anyway, this table went from a boring wooden table to a sweet nightstand with butterflies on the top! Did you see the sides of this table? The detailing is so beautiful. It sounded like a fairly low maintenance project and the results are so cute! Plus it involves decoupage, and that's ALWAYS a good thing. Have fun.


Alicia B.

DIY Grasscloth Tray

Over the weekend, I ventured over in the freezing cold to the Hell's Kitchen Flea market. Among other things, I found an adorable wooden tray! It had nice holes with slight curves on the sides and then ducks on the actual tray part. The only problem was that the ducks were ridiculously silly looking! As you know, I love DIY and I had recently read a very inspirational post by Eddie Ross HERE about fixing up a bland looking tray to make it look chic. Check out my project:

Since I'm not an 85 year old woman (or my older sister), the ducks didn't really appeal to me. I had bigger plans for this tray.

I took some grasscloth that I bought at Kate's Paperie and measured out the inside area of the tray.

Cut it.

And then I fit it inside the tray and voila I have a cute wooden tray! No ducks!

I know mine is quite different from Eddie's but they are different trays. The mahogany wood in mine wasn't conducive to a ultra chic croc skin finish of Eddie's. I can't wait to use it in my new apartment for serving drinks, bringing dinners from the kitchen to the dining table (2 feet away), or for vases/candles etc.


Alicia B.

Designers, make it work.

Patchwork sofas look ultra chic and diy in a recession.

I just read the most amazing and hope inspiring article ever (for the recession) in the New York Times today. It's called, Design Loves a Depression. Now, I know design blogs are all about pretty pictures, but you're going to have to read a little. We're smart people so let's do a little research, shall we? Anyway, the article is basically saying that even in an economic downturn, design thrives. It's one of the few markets that doesn't completely crash during a depression. Design gets more creative and less frivolous and lucky for us, the quality improves. Ahem, the Eames. They even said that the piece of rickety pressed cardboard that you might buy at a future date from Ikea or Target may just be better quality than in the past. Designers get creative at solving problems too. They see a challenge, like people not wanting to spend much money, and they work around it in creative ways. Yay! So, I hope this article is right. I love finding creative ways to save; I made most of my gifts for my family for Christmas (hotpads, photographs, headbands etc) and it was super fun!

So even if we're in for a rough ride ahead, we have good quality and creative design to look forward to. A neat sounding book they mentioned in the article was Livable Modernism: Decorating and Design During the Great Depression(above). Things are about to get creative.


Alicia B.

DIY Seat Cushion

Now that the semester is over I have TONS (a little) free time to do projects that I've been waiting to do for months. Today the project was to recover a seat cushion. My roommate and I found a pair of chairs at an antique fair--OKAY FINE we found them on the street, and fell in love but the fabric on the seat was horrid. We each found super cute fabric and made them our own. Check it out:

Here is the chair once we removed the screws from underneath and the seat part popped out. See how boring and ugly that fabric was? They def needed a make-over. That blue scrap is fabric that I was playing around with but eventually decided against it.

Here is the frame of the chair. It's in great condition and the caning is PERFECT!

After removing the ugly fabric, we put two layers of batting and then the fabric on top and took a staple gun and secured it on the bottom side all the way around. It's important to pull it very tight. My roommate (above) chose Amy Butler fabric, August Fields Coreopis Fields from Fabric.com.

Then put the seat back on the chair and screw it back into the frame! YAY, now you have a fun fresh new side chair.

This is the fabric I chose. Isn't it fun? It was so fun to choose the fabric and to see what fabric my roommate chose. They're so different!

I'm so pleased with my fun red embroidered linen fabric! I think I might stain the chair a darker mahogany color but that's another project for another day.

Glamour Shot.

Next stop is throw pillows or some other fun sewing project! HERE is a helpful website explaining how to do the above project. It's honestly pretty easy and I didn't need to read up on how to do it. I'm that awesome.

Alicia B.

DIY Lamp

Oh My God. I made a lamp. All by myself. Wired it up. No biggie.

So, I'm always seeing these really great jars, or bottles or other objects that I'd love to make into lamps. While I could always just take it to a lamp shop and pay for them to wire it up for me, I really wanted to prove it to myself that I could do it. AND I DID!! Apparently, you can just buy a lamp making kit at a hardware store and follow the instructions they give you. I did pretty much that, except I modified it a little. I guess I really wanted a challenge. ha. Here is basically how it worked!

I bought this amazing glass bottle at an antiques store in the country.

These are the parts that I was working with. That wire is brown silk wires--I didn't want to use the wire they gave me in the kit as it was that white ugly plastic kind. They give you different plastic plugs that you fit into the opening of the jar, then a threaded knob that goes inside, then a brass cap.

The next step is to wire up the socket. You just thread the wire though the hole, then wrap each side of it around these little screws inside. Then you put the rest of the socket back together.

Meanwhile, prepare the jar or bottle or object with the plug, threaded screw and harp fitting (eventually you'll put a shade on it so be sure you don't forget the harp part!)

If you're going to do what I did with the wire, then you need a separate plug too. Do the same as you did above with the socket, to the plug. Then plug it in...AND...

OMG IT WORKS!!!

Next, I attached the socket part to the rest of the lamp (it just screws in to that threaded screw I keep mentioning).

SLAM! You have yourself a very cool lamp! Here are the two shades I've been working with. One is a 13 inch linen drum that I got at Pottery Barn and the other is a 13 inch brown linen empire shade from Bed Bath and Beyond. I think I'm leaning towards the one above. What do you think?

Anyway, has anyone ever done this before? I was convinced that you had to be a licensed electrician to do it but no, you just have to be normal girl. Who is obsessed with lighting and wants to make everything into a lamp. That's all.

Alicia B.