Yardstick Buffet Tutorial { DIY furniture }

{ Corner House }

On a recent link party at Under the Table and Dreaming, I saw this wonderful yardstick buffet submitted by Laura at Corner House.  I'm seriously in love.  What an inventive idea to take an old piece of furniture and give it such character.  Who knew yardsticks could be so beautiful?

On her blog, Corner House, Laura provides a ton of pictures and clear DIY instructions for this project if you'd like to make your own.  I've pinned this one to my Pinterest board - I must try to do this!

8 fresh looks for old doors { inspiration file }

I've been obsessed with old doors lately.  I'd love to try some painting and building techniques using old doors, but I don't want to over commit, so for right now, I'm sticking to pictures.  : )
Here are a few of my favorite repurposed door images.  Enjoy!

1. Make a bookcase and then organize your books by color!  { source:  Apartment Therapy }
2. Use a barn door as a backdrop behind your headboard { source:  Our Vintage Home Love }
3. Join a few doors and make a room divider { source: HGTV.com }
4. Go horizontal and make a cool table { source:  The Old Lucketts Store }
5. Paint with chalk paint and write a favorite quote { source:  Examiner }
6. Repaint it and create a headboard { source:  Martha Stewart }
7. Make a new kitchen table { source:  Fabulous Finishes }
8. Create an awesome industrial looking coffee table { source:  The Old Lucketts Store }

Framed Atlas Prints { inexpensive DIY art }

I know that maps have been a hot trend for a while in decorating.  I also love the contrast of a great black and white print.  That's why I was overjoyed when I found an old atlas from the 1930's at a local antiques store for only $10!

Here's the old atlas.  I've seen similar ones online in terrible condition for $50 and up!  This has so many maps inside, each image is about 50 cents a piece.

The atlas was chock full of country maps and city maps, and the oversize pages { 11x14 } made them perfect for framing in my left over 11x14 frames without a mat.

I didn't care so much what cities they were { I settled on Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York, & San Francisco } I was more in it for the graphic value.  

I usually snap up clearance aisle frames, frames from IKEA { when I can get there }, and discount store frames in the larger sizes whenever I see them.

I stared by framing just the black and white prints because I only had five frames.  I just love how they turned out.

The total project value was less than $10 per print for the map and the frame.  Now I have a new wall of goodies!  If only I could find a spare wall around here...

Repurposing industrial accents { inspiration file }

The industrial trend is still hot right now.  With a keen eye, you can find and repurpose industrial items into unique accents for your home at a fraction of the price.

Here is a favorite of mine.  A friend took this first picture while down in High Point, North Carolina visiting an industry trade show.  I love these old jugs hanging from the ceiling.

{ photo:  The Old Lucketts Store }

Now take things one step further and add a few interesting light bulbs and you have yourself a very cool light fixture.

{ photo:  Hudson Goods }

I love these vintage gym locker baskets.  They'd be great for storing just about anything that you don't want to purposely hide.

Restoration Hardware is now selling reproduction baskets and using them to store towels and bath supplies.

{ photo:  Restoration Hardware }

Here is a canvas pillow recycled from vintage tent canvas.  The pillows are 18" square and available in greens and beige.  At $55 each, they're a little pricey for my blood, but I'm sure you could visit a military surplus store or distress some canvas and come up with something similar.

{ photo:  Hudson Goods }

Here they are as accent pillows on a blue sectional.

Here's a wind turbine from on top of a barn turned in to a light fixture.  These get pretty pricey, but if you're handy, I don't think it would be too terribly difficult to add a lighting kit to an old turbine.  I have a turbine displayed in my house.  I found it at an antiques market and it's a few feet across and was $45. 

{ photo:  Barn Light Electric Co. }

Here are the lights installed over a bar.  Pretty cool looking!

{ photo:  Barn Light Electric Co. }

Do you have favorite industrial items that can be repurposed into something beautiful for your home?  Please share!

IKEA pillow cover made fabulous { inexpensive DIY pillow }

Thisweek the autumn weather has been inspiring me. We finally have some sunshineafter weeks of rain, tornadoes, and yes, even an earthquake a few weeks ago. Who would havethought Virginia would see all of this in a few short weeks? Well nature hasbeen testing us. And testing my patience as I try to find indooractivities for a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old.

Anyway, the new warm sunshine means perfect sweater weather and walking outsidewith the kids. We didn't get to the apple orchard this year.Usually it's an annual trip for us, but somehow we missed the apple orchard and hit the pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween.

Here is a tutorial for a new project.  I bought the supplies and IKEA and wanted to try to replicate some of the super-expensive throw pillows I'm seeing online and in stores.

For this project, I used the RITVA 20" square cushion cover from IKEA { $7 }, an INNER cushion from IKEA { $3 } and four fabric transfers from Avery { approx. $1ea. }.

I had an old fruit growing textbook from the early 1900's.  I scanned in a few of my favorite color plates, then touched them up in Adobe PhotoShop Elements.  Next I rearranged my design digitally so they were overlapping.  Since my pillow is 20" square, I needed to enlarge each apple to almost 8" square, reverse each image { according to the transfer instructions }, and printed them out on the transfer paper { below }.

Next, I cut out each apple, leaving a 1/8" margin around each image { don't leave any margin if you don't want a tiny white line around each apple } .  You can also see the smaller test copy I printed out for reference { below }.  Remember that your images are going face down, so when you arrange the apples to match your test copy, you will need to reverse the apples { unless you don't care of course! }.

Once I had an arrangement I liked, I used masking tape to keep the image from moving. I did a final check on my pillow to make sure the image's margins were okay.  { below }
 

According to the transfer directions, I heated my iron and started to press down around the edges of each apple to lightly set them.  I DID NOT go over the masking tape - it likely would have melted.  I removed the tape when my iron got to that spot.  Press firmly { I count to 5 } and then move the iron.  Test a corner by peeling back the corner of the paper.  You'll see that my yellow apple has transferred nicely { below }.

I focused peeling off one apple at a time { see below }.  After removing the paper, you'll see part of the apple is on the pillow and the other pieces adhered to the back of the other transfers.  Avoid ironing back over the ink that transferred already - I'm assuming it would stick to your iron and I sure didn't want to test it!  If I needed another press of the iron, I laid the transfer paper I just removed back on top and did another quick press.   

 

Here is my finished product, I hope you like it!

I'm assuming if you don't want the white lines between the apples, you could skip the 1/8" margin around each transfer.  

And a final shot of my digital printout and the final product!

I'm linking this project up to

11 things to do with an old dictionary { inspiration file }

Yes, dictionaries can be repurposed into beautiful objects of art.  Take a peek!

1. Decoupage a focal wall { source:  Apartment Therapy }
2. Whip up some paper flowers { source:  Junk Shop Bride }
3. Wear your words { source: Silver Trumpet }
4. Craft a wonderful wreath { source:  Just Drink a Coke }
5. Create some silhouette art of your pets { source:  Crafted Niche }
6. Transfer an image onto a melamine plate { source:  Black Barouque }
7. Make some quirky and lovely 3D art { source:  Celadon Home }
8. Make a beautiful butterfly mobile { source:  Royal Buffet }
9. Punch out some thank you or gift tags { source:  Crafty Clementines } 
10. Refinish a dresser { source:  Mod Podge Rocks } 
11. Print a vintage image out for some instant art { source:  Black Baroque }  

Lampshade transfer { inexpensive DIY shade }

I'm all in to transfers lately.  Mostly because they're an inexpensive way to make something ordinary, look beautiful.  My latest project was an image transfer on to a lampshade.

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I really get nervous, and lampshades aren't cheap if you mess up.  I saw a few tutorials about using Citrasolv, but I didn't go that route.  I started to freak out about the long term affects of having a chemical sitting on a shade that would be heated.  I've had some experience with Citrasolv and the smell is very strong.  Supposedly that comes out once you wash the item, but you can't wash a lamp shade and I didn't know how long the chemical smell would linger. 

I also wasn't too sure about the type of lampshade that would work best.  I love drum shades, but I worried that trying to get an image on a curved surface may distort it.

Anyway, here is what I learned about adding transfers to lampshades.  Please leave a comment and share if you have any tips too.

I started off with a very ordinary lamp shade that I got for $5 from a discount store.  The important thing here is that the shade is completely fabric.  There is no inner plastic liner in this one.  This was important to my success, and I'll show you my craft fail later in the post to prove it.

Next, I found an image on etsy and purchased a digital download.  I chose a bee motif from Graphique. I'm a big fan of their images, prices, and quick service.  I printed the image out on Avery light fabric transfer paper with my ink jet printer.

I cut around the image leaving about a 1/8" margin around the design.  I set my iron according to the transfer instructions and stuffed my shade with towels.  Heat and pressure are what makes the image adhere to the shade.  The towels give you a little extra backing and when you need pressure, and you can put your hand in and push from the back protected by towels.

Going slowly, I ironed on the transfer.  Pushing from the back and pushing down with the iron as much as I could, keep ironing until the paper is easy to pull off and the image remains { below }.  It will start curling and almost start to come off itself.  Take your time.  This takes longer than you think because it's tough to apply pressure.  I put a transfer on each side of the shade.  Here's a tip:  I started with an "all over" iron to set the design so it wouldn't shift.  I then focused my iron on a few inches of the transfer at a time and worked from one side to the other.

Now on to why it's important to use a fabric shade with no liner.  Here is my craft fail with a fleur de lis design.  I melted the shade liner { below }!

Here is my finished product.  The large inside areas on the image have a slightly different sheen due to the transfer.  When you turn the light on the shade, you cannot tell.  (Sorry I forgot to take a pic with it displayed on a lamp that was turned on). 

I didn't have, and haven't heard of, any issues with transfers on shades melting.  I wouldn't use a 120 watt bulb in the lamp just to be safe, but if the transfers require very high heat to set, I'm confident they can handle a 40 watt bulb over extended periods of time.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking this up to: