Social Gracious

Mitchell Gold Look Alike Shell Artwork for the Master Bedroom

Remember my inspiration for my master bedroom redesign above, it's a Mitchell Gold ad from last summer. It included this really cool shell artwork behind the bed. I loved it, but of course couldn't figure out where it came from. Even if I could have, I wouldn't have been willing to pay what it cost, I'm sure. 

It looked to me as if the shells were Spiny Oysters, or spondylus. I thought, of course I could spray paint a couple of those babies, frame them and slap them up on the wall. My first task was to find a couple spiny oysters. They are not exactly easy to find but I sourced some from ebay and the seller is actually located not too far from me so they arrived in a days time. These shells are not inexpensive as far as shells are concerned, for large spiny oysters expect to pay about $15.00 each.

The next step was to find frames, initially I chose two inexpensive frames I thought were wood, but they were some sort of non solid material that evaporated when I painted them, bad idea. I went back to Hobby Lobby with a coupon and bought two white wooden frames, lightly sanded them with steel wool, then painted them with two coats of gloss white paint. I also used white mats from Hobby Lobby, the associate there assured me that the back of the mat would also be white but it wasn't. I was too tired and lazy to go back and buy a big piece of white cardstock so I spraypainted the piece of cardboard that came with the frame gloss white too, and stuck that behind the shells.

For the shells, I painted them in three layers, and I hesitated to paint them, they were such a pretty color naturally, but I had a look I was going for, right? I started by priming them in grey primer. Then I painted them with two coats of gloss white. I let the frames, shells and backing dry overnight. Then I used a glue gun to adhere the shells to the backing.

Finally, I put the whole thing together, as you can see there is no glass in the front. I used Command paint hanging strips to put the whole thing up. It is pretty heavy so there are 4 strips on each piece of artwork. The dog approves, he is supposed to stay ONLY on the cover at the bottom of the bed, sigh.

DIY Thread Storage

 

Storing Thread Artfully

We are just about finished with the bedroom redesign and I struggled with what to do with all my thread that was lying about on the thread organizer on the floor. I need it easily accessible but it's not really attractive sitting on the floor next to the machine cabinet. I really wanted to make a thread tidy out of driftwood like this cool one, but alas, Ubergeek balked, saying it would be an incredible amount of work, and he is NOT retired you know. So I decided on something similar to this pretty framed one, and I'm happy with it.

 

Mine is quite a bit larger than the inspiration, I also chose to paint the thread tidy a cool blue, to contrast with my Sherwin Williams Sea Salt walls and the reclaimed barn wood frame. The frame was a damaged custom order from Hobby Lobby, so it was $10. I think it looks kind of driftwoody though, which is perfect since it reminds me of the sea, rather than a barn. I used Command Picture Hanging strips to hang both, one inside the other so no holes in the wall.

The fresh for 1960 sewing book and sewing table with machine stored inside were my grandmothers. I love that the machine stows away when I'm not using it.

Diva had fun organizing the thread in sort of ROYGBIV order, then she put it all in a box mixed up and gave it back to me. At least it occupied her for 20 minutes.

 

DIY Terrarium Tutorial

 

Terrariums have been popping up everywhere lately, at Lowes, Target, in people's homes, and on Pinterest. Succulents, long the $1.00 plants at WalMart are suddenly hot hot hot! About a year ago, on a business trip to my favorite hotel, the JW Marriott Indianapolis, I saw them at the concierge lounge, and they were gorgeous. At the time I pondered making one on my own, but just didn't think I'd have the time or materials. Lo and behold, tutorials and materials are everywhere now and I am ready.

If you are going to make a terrarium here is what you will need:

Pea Size Pebbles

Charcoal

Sphagnum Moss

Potting Soil/Cactus Soil

Glass Containers

Cute Plastic Animals: Optional, but if you have kids, there are plenty around so why not use them. Dinosaurs in particular look at home in terrariums, don't you think??

Plants: Usually succulents work best. So far I have had good luck with tiny succulent aloes, tiny asparagus ferns, hens and chicks. I have found a good selection at Lowes, and sometimes Walmart.

Most of the supplies can be found at a hardware store or Target. If you have trouble finding the charcoal, check an aquarium or pet supply store. You can use leftover glass containers from flower arrangements for larger terrariums or large recycled jars (spaghetti, relish) for tiny terrariums perfect in kids rooms, to surprise your neighbor or on a teacher's desk. If you are not too embarassed  you could walk your dog on recycling day and eye your neighbor's recycling bins, not that I personally would ever do that.

To make the terrarium:

1. Start with a thin layer of pebbles at the bottom, this helps with drainage.
2. Add a thin layer of the charcoal, it's OK if it mixes some with the pebbles
3. Next a thin layer of moss
4. Add your plants, gently breaking up the soil around the roots. Fill in the the rest of the layer with dirt, you don't have to pack it tightly, just gently tamp it down. Generally speaking your layered pebbles, charcoal, moss and soil should take up 1/4 to 1/3 of the container, but don't stress if they take up more. As you can see, some of mine I just couldn't help, and they are still cute and alive.
5. Water just a tiny bit, maybe a shotglass, or espresso glass or two full a week, that's it. DO NOT OVERWATER

Voila! You will now be the envy of all your friends. I warn you, once you start making them, you won't be able to stop and you'll have all the supplies. I started as a project with the kiddos but kept making them long after they lost interest. They make great inexpensive gifts and end of year teacher gift giving time and Mother's Day are approaching!

 

My Favorite Terrariums

 

 

Mid Century Modern Chair Makeover Reveal

Remember the cute little mid century chair I found for $20 on Craigslist recently? I blogged about it a couple months ago, excited to get started on yet another project. Here's what it looked like when I found it:

I spent hours stripping it, sanding it, then I sealed and stained it in one step with Danish Wood Oil in Medium Walnut. I found a really nice Fabric at Boca Bargoons, it had a water stain right in the middle of the roll. It retailed for $75 a yard, but I got it for $6 a yard with the stain. I bought what was left of the roll and there was plenty at the beginning of the roll for the chair, and at the end for an ottoman and I could just throw out the water stained part.

I was not up for the reupholstering part, since the chair needed to be completely restuffed in addition to recovered. I sent it out to a local upholstery place, and they did a great job! What do you think?

I am still refinishing a table and ordering an ottoman for the bedroom, the bed is finished, then I'll be ready for the big bedroom reveal!

Modern Bedroom Makeover Dreams

Back in May I took a weekend trip with my sister, on the plane ride a luxury living magazine was in the seatback pocket. I flipped through it and this ad from Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams just jumped out at me. I love it! I tore out the ad and have been dragging it around with me for inspiration ever since, at one point it was taped up over our bed. Thankfully I found an online version of the ad since it was pretty mangled. The bright green walls aren't really my thing, in fact my sister and I immediately decided that a blueish, grayish, greenish would work better.

Imagine the walls in Benjamin Moore's Bird's Egg paint and these similar ottomans recovered in a turquoisey fabric, plus some accents in gray. I found a very similar white platform bed, which is wood, not leather, preferable for dog hair and cat claws. Oh, and 86 the white shag carpet, I'm thinking a sea grass rug.

The only issue I'm having is finding similar nightstands, the ones in the ad are the Beau Chest and Nightstand. I love the clean lines and nod to mid century modern design but the nightstands / chests retail for about $1000 each. That is not happening, so I thought, how hard can it be to find a rectangle box with three drawers and a square box with one drawer? I could easily find a cool chrome base to attach, and voila, a copycat. Not so much, I have scoured the internet, Craigslist, Ebay, and nothing remotely similar that is reasonably priced had appeared.

This week  I contacted Frank at Woodvisions to see if something similar could be made, maybe even with reclaimed wood. He is supposed to get back to me with a price next week so I'm looking forward to that. In the meantime if you have any suggestions, please share!

Mid Century Modern Chair Makeover

This little chair is a $20 Craigslist find! It's got great bones, but needs some serious assistance in the makeover department. I'm not sure of the origin of the chair and it does not have any markings or stamp, anyone want to guess who made it or have something similar?

We are embarking on a master bedroom makeover, this chair will be perfect in a corner by the window with an ottoman. Just the place to curl up and read! It's an easy DIY project, comfy, clean lines but the upholstery is ragged, the stuffing is worn and elbow grease will do it good. The nice thing about this chair is that it is super comfy for a short person like me.

First I took off the old upholstery, Diva helped me, with a little tiny screwdriver and her own needle nose, I was so proud! What lie beneath was not pretty:

I needed to take some of the upholstery off in order to strip and sand, but that stuff was yucky underneath. It's not horsehair, it seems to be some sort of wood material and it stunk. Once the upholstery was pulled back I stripped it, fine sanded it and finished it with Danish Wood Oil.

After the wood was refinished, it was off to the upholstery shop to have it reupholstered in a gorgeous grey velvety material I found for a song. Boca Bargoons sold it to me for about $6 a yard although it retails for $75/yard; there were only 5.5 yards left and right between yard 3.5-4.5 was an unusable yard due to water damage. That was fine with me since the chair would take about 2 yards and the ottoman less than 1; I will still have leftovers for pillows!

 I'm intending to make a little square ottoman using the leftover fabric, a square piece of plywood and some legs from Uncle Bob's Workshop. Can't beat a $7.50 ottoman!

The upholstery shop gave me a 1.5 week timeline, so I should be able to post the after photos soon! What do you think?

Do It Yourself Stained Concrete Floors

The Renovations Continue

Again I have been absent from you readers, but not without good reason. Our master bedroom has been the final frontier for a very long time. It suffered in silence with matted down builder beige, original carpet. Threaded through with dog hair and dust, we long ago gave up on it. Our other carpet we have replaced with hard wood or tile. We have wanted to get rid of it for so long but we have tightened our purse strings of late and so more hard wood is out of the question.

In the last few years more and more restaurants and retail outlets have been making use of stained concrete floors. They are attractive, durable and practical. We really like the look but never thought it was something we could do ourselves. Then someone told us about DC Surfaces in downtown Jacksonville. We called, then took a trip out to their showroom. Their salesperson, and a do it yourself customer with pictures of his last project on his phone, convinced us that we could do it. We picked up the materials, which cost less than $300 and headed home.

Honestly it wasn't totally goof proof. We mixed the overlay too thick, so we ran out Friday night and had to buy more. That slowed us down by a day which meant we couldn't seal it until tonight. The steps are basically, two layers of concrete overlay, two to four layers of spray on acid stain, neutralizer spray/scrub/vacuum then seal. All this is over about a three day period.

Applying the Overlay

 
After the Neutralizer

 
Applying Sealer
The sealant brings out the color and richness

Ta da! The sealer has to cure for a few days before we can move furniture back in but we are essentially done. UberGeek and I love do it yourself projects and this was probably one of our favorites. Not a lot of money, big impact and relatively little time compared to putting in hard wood, which was AWFUL. I anticipate it will be a great surface for dogs and cats, although we will probably have to put down a throw rug or two for our tootsies in the winter.

Our Modern Home Office on a Dime is Finished, Almost

 
Before

We have surfaced from beneath the rock we have been hiding under, finally. Last night we were up until 1:30 AM putting together furniture from that low cost, high style mecca, IKEA. I love their stuff, but there is a reason it is so cheap, you can buy something that is 8 foot by 8 foot and it comes is a 4 inch by 4 foot box. It will have 250 pieces, all including wooden dowels, screws and other insanity producing items. Together UberGeek and I groaned, sighed and extremitied our way to a fresh new office.  

We started out by putting on a fresh coat of paint Friday night. I chose Valspar's Garden Path from the signature collection. It's a really springy green color I thought would make us feel energized and add some light to the room. A second coat was applied Saturday morning. We chose IKEA Expedit bookcases and desks that attached. I purchased a used Hon commercial quality lateral file cabinet from Craigslist as well. I wanted black, but the only one I could find at a cheap price was a putty color so I spray painted it, now it's perfect. We wanted to eliminate clutter on the desks as much as possible so I purchased a metal rack from IKEA made for the kitchen area for $1.97 and some coordinating plastic bins that hook over it to hold pens, scissors etc. There is also a hanging basket for sticky notes or mail. Less than $10.00 for the whole system. Above it I hung a cork board that I had covered in some inexpensive fabric, also from IKEA, to add some instant artwork and attractive storage for paper lying about.

Kristie's Spot

The best part is yet to come; my sister is a photographer and she has agreed to shoot pictures of cool green things for the wall, limes up close, etc. I can't wait to see what she comes up with. In the meantime the walls are a little bare, although we are in the process of finding frames for our diplomas. Neither of us have ever framed them, sadly enough. UberGeek also wants to frame and hang his Microsoft Industry Solutions Award which has been wrapped in plastic wrap in the garage for years now. I was happy to smell that the cat had not decided to pee on it. We even went outside and picked a couple daylilies, rosemary and society garlic to put in vases on our desks.

So now we finally have friendly work areas in the office for our work from home days or nights when we decide to put in a few extra hours, which for both of us is quite often. At least we will be able to sit near each other, although we always sit in silence when we are working. Usually our habit is for UberGeek to sit on the couch with his laptop and for me to sit in the office on the desktop. I wonder if we will be in closer proximity now?

We still have a little work to be done. We need to purchase a couple of office chairs, we ran out of time when we were in IKEA last time. Also, there are a few boxes and drawers to be assembled and curtains to be hung. Overall though, we have made a great start in our new space.

 
UberGeek's Lair

A Modern Home Office

Redesigning the Home Office

 

Last week I read a design magazine, and in that design magazine was an idea for the color scheme I wanted in our home office. Having removed (and sold) the almost ten year old cluttered, junky furniture, various knick knacks and computer books for programming languages that no longer run on today's operating systems we decided it was time for the next step, Ikea!

Off we went to pile the minivan high with boxes of unassembled furniture, 99cent trendy wastebaskets, $4.99 desk lamps and other fabulous finds. After an evening of bargain hunting we loaded sleepy children back in the van and began the two hour trip back to Northeast Florida.

Tonight was the night we began painting and I was really excited for about the first thirty minutes. Then I was ready for the work to end so I could go to sleep. Between Ubergeek and I we knocked out a coat of paint in less than an hour and we plan to put on a second layer tomorrow. For now, sleep.