Posts Tagged ‘How-To’
Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on
22 July 2010, with 3 comments so far.
In the last few years, industrial designers have continued to push the boundaries of material and texture towards creating amazing new home decor products made from things that were previously impossible. But, many of these designs rely on expensive machines and manufacturing techniques that have kept them out of reach of the average DIYster.
So, it’s always reason to celebrate when some clever soul comes up with a project that rivals those high-end efforts. And, oh boy, is this DIY woven wood lamp one of ‘em. Strips of wood veneer (available at woodworking shops, or as edge-banding at your local home improvement center) are wrapped and glued around each other, housing a single bulb powered by an IKEA Hemma cord set.
Just be sure to use a low-watt bulb, and then bask in its warm, wooden glory.
[Via: Poppytalk: DIY with Bookhou: Woven Lamp]
Tags: diy, How-To, lamp, wood, woven
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Uncategorized on
13 July 2010, with 2 comments so far.
A quick bit of mid-century trivia from Make It! Mid-Century Modern, a How to Guide:
The word mobile conjurs up two images: the tinkly contraption hanging above cribs in nurseries ‘round the world, and the work of Alexander Calder….His early experiments with wire sculpture and kinetic toys eventually led to his famous kinetic sculptures, dubbed by friend Duchamp as mobile, meaning both “movable” and “motive” in French. Over the next decade, Calder perfected his articulating mobiles, capturing the realtivity of weight while exploring the movement of wire and steel in time and place.
So, see? The mobile fits in your fresh-modern lounge just as well as it fits in your nursery. And…da dum da! They’re totally easy to make at home.
Heather from Dollar Store Crafts whipped up this geometric guy, taking her inspiration from JennSki’s print of a mod mobile. She used some fancy cuttin’ software contraption, but it’s nothing that a trace and pair of sharp scissors couldn’t handle.
[Via Dollar Store Crafts]
Tags: How-To, mobile, paper
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating on
25 June 2010, with 5 comments so far.
The whiteboard is a brilliant tool for capturing ideas, making lists and leaving reminders, and facilitating brainstorming and education. But, it leaves A LOT to be desired in terms of aesthetics, and we’re pretty sure it won’t be winning any home decor or design awards anytime soon.
Unless one came up with a dry erase board that could serve double-duty as a piece of wall art once you’ve erased your final to-do. Well, one has done just that, Brittni from Paper N Stitch.
“I am constantly writing notes and messages to myself to help me remember what I have going on for the day. But my office is also my bedroom, so an ugly dry erase board is just not an option….I wanted something that could pull double-duty, and that’s when I came up with this…an idea for a pretty dry erase board that serves as wall art when not in use.”
[Tutorial: Double Duty Dry Erase Board]
Tags: How-To, organization
Posted in Decorating | 5 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating and How-To on
4 June 2010, with 1 comment so far.
Some of my favorite DIY projects are those that are really quite obvious and nearly anyone can do, they just needed some thoughtful individual to put two and two together and take photos along the way.
So, add this super quick and easy painted glassware tutorial to your “I should have thought of that” list, and then go grab some glasses and brushes, and whip some up!
Catherine from The Beat That My Heart Skipped says,
“I collected up a bunch of spare glassware, including bottles and glasses, and decided to give them a lick of paint on the inside. I was quite surprised by the results. If you use a similar palette for the different containers, and try to use glassware with different textures on the outside, the result is a set which is matching in tone but varied in texture. Which—I think—looks pretty effective. Also, using [matte] paint looks great because when you paint the inside, the glossiness of the glass really shows, which makes for another interesting contrast.”
We would have to agree!
[Get the whole tutorial at Catherine's blog: DIY Pastel Painted Glassware]
Tags: glassware, How-To, paint
Posted in Decorating, How-To | 1 Comment »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating on
28 May 2010, with 3 comments so far.
Psst… have you heard? Clouds are the new moustaches, which were the new cupcakes, which were the new owls, which were the new bird silhouettes, which were the…. Whatevs. Clouds are cool, and they bring a fine element of the outdoors and some playfulness to your home decor.
To get in on the nimbusness, try this quick and easy DIY cloud rug how-to from Lifeflix.
“I purchased a yard of “Grey Shaggy Pile Faux Fur” fabric from this ebay seller (they also have a website). At first I was afraid the fur was too long, more hairy than puffy… but now that I’m done and the rugs are in place, I love the way they look and feel! Keep in mind that because I painted my floors using paint with an eggshell finish, I didn’t need to attach a non-slip backing to my rugs. Depending on what type of floors you have, you may need to add some sort of anti-slip pad or stickers to the bottom. Ikea sells really cheap anti-slip pads.”
The trick seems to be in Fray Check, a liquid seam sealant for fabrics, available at the craft store.
[How to: Faux Sheepskin Cloud Rug at Lifeflix, via Creature Comforts]
Tags: cloud, clouds, diy, floor, How-To, rug
Posted in Decorating | 3 Comments »
Posted by claire to Decorating and Furniture on
27 May 2010, with 14 comments so far.
Ever since Garth and I suddenly had a large new house to fill with furniture, I have been trying my hand at upholstery. My first attempt was a five-dollar chair we picked up at a garage sale. I found that carefully removing the original fabric from the chair and noting the order in which you had to remove the fabric seemed to be the key to a successful job. Keeping the fabric for any given area in one piece when you remove it automatically provides you with a pattern to help cut from your new fabric. I recently tackled another chair reupholstery project and followed this same logic.
We stumbled on this new chair at a thrift store several months ago and I fell in love with it. The curvy back and button tufting is great, and reupholstering it didn’t seem like a task that would be too impossible as long as I was attentive with my chair dissection.
Our living room is painted a bright shade of green and I wanted an upholstery fabric with a fun print that could hold its own against the green walls. I decided on this Alexander Henry tattoo print in an upholstery weight—I liked the quirky print and the colors went well with artwork I already have hanging on the walls. To determine how much fabric I would need, I consulted an upholstery chart and selected a similar chair. Once the fabric was cut and I was back home, I realized that the white and gold wood of the chair just wasn’t going to sing with the new fabric. I would have to paint the chair as well.
Before I could paint, I carefully removed all the fabric from the chair and masked the areas I didn’t want to paint. I primed the wood with a spray primer and headed off to find the right paint color.
I like to use spray paint for a job where I want to avoid brush strokes and this was one of those jobs. A local gallery stocks a wide assortment of high quality spray paints with waaaay more color options than the hardware store. The brand I used, Sabotaz 80, turned out to be really excellent spray paint. Sabotaz is a medium pressure spray, which means the paints comes out evenly and smoothly and when buying a can you are given two different spray caps to help control the size of the spray area. I was very impressed with how easily I could control the paint and how evenly the color was distributed. Next time you have a spray painting craft get your hands on some of this!
(more…)
Tags: DIY upholstery, How-To, reupholstery, spraypaint, tutorial, upholstery, wing chair
Posted in Decorating, Furniture | 14 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating and How-To on
14 May 2010, with 4 comments so far.
The jar lid screwed to the underside of a shelf is a popular tip for space-saving home organization, but the goal there is usually to see and access what’s in the jar itself. This through-the-table vase by Tomokazu Hayakawa offers a fresh spin—hide the jar under the table and use it to nourish floral blooms.
Simply screwing the jar lid to the bottom of the table and then drilling a hole through the table and lid (the post suggests IKEA’s Vika Furuskog) makes it simple to support a single flower, or several in series.
[Read more at IKEA Hacker: Table Vase]
Tags: flower, How-To, ikea, ikea hacks, illusion, table, vase
Posted in Decorating, How-To | 4 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating on
12 May 2010, with 7 comments so far.
Each time I visit the MoMA Design Store, I’m always taken by these Spectrum Mobiles by Swiss designers Brigitta and Benedikt Martig-Imhof. And every time I say, “Someday, I’m gonna make something like that.” And someday, I will. But, Jordan Ferney has beat me to it, and shares a great how-to ’bout how she whipped ‘em up!
Her design uses 1″ vellum strips which she feeds through a sewing machine, leaving an inch of thread in between each.
Follow this link for the whole tute: DIY: Modern Colorful Mobiles
[via Creature Comforts)
Tags: Color, diy, How-To, mobile, moma, paper
Posted in Decorating | 7 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Kitchen and Organizing and Storage on
13 April 2010, with 4 comments so far.
Once the kitchen cabinets are full and the countertops cluttered, where else is there to go but up?
Tight on space and budget, an unnamed IKEAHacker created this spirit-and-glassware storage center from IKEA’s ASKER dish drying racks, hung on an ASKER rail, with a few wine glass racks suspended below.
“Constrained for space and renting (so not wanting to make big holes in the wall) I decided to hang everything I could in the kitchen. This included hanging pots and pans over the entrance to the kitchen (careful to hang the small ones over the passage to permit passage for up to 6′3″), and the Asker suspended liquor bar hack.”
[Asker Liquor Bar Hack at IKEA Hacker]
Tags: bar, glasses, hacks, How-To, ikea, Kitchen, liquor, rack, smallspaces, wine
Posted in Kitchen, Organizing, Storage | 4 Comments »
Posted by Chris Gardner to Decorating and Gardening on
17 March 2010, with 4 comments so far.
Air plants, aka bromeliad tillandsia, are epiphytes, which means they don’t need soil, because they absorb water and nutrients through their leaves. A ten-minute soak in water once a week is all these little guys need to stay green and spiky.
Which means you’re no longer tethered to bulky, soil-filled containers when getting your greenery up in the air. Modish offers a sweet how-to for making an air plant chandelier using glass votive globes and linen thread. As project author Renee Garner explains,
“Sprung from a train of thought somewhere between John Giacomazzi’s chandelier and the numerous terrariums all over the web, I was inspired to create a simple chandelier of air plants for Mabel’s room…Give them a good shake after watering so the water doesn’t settle in around the base of the leaves; the collected water will cause rotting. Semi-monthly fertilizing is also recommended for making baby plants and for flowering. After the soak, I just use the water on the other houseplants and no one feels left out. See more great tips for caring for them here.”
Oh, imagine the possibilities. Nature is a wonderful thing.
DIY Air Plant Chandelier
Tags: air, How-To, plants, terrarium
Posted in Decorating, Gardening | 4 Comments »
