0 DIY Black and White Chevron Pillow

By Unknown | At 4:00 AM | Label : contributor , DIY | 0 Comments

Today we have a fun art tutorial from my contributor, Brittany! She is constantly coming up with great projects on her blog, brittanyMakes. I love a good pillow and especially a bold black and white one! This DIY has me swooning for sure! 

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 Raise your hand if you have a stash of the oh so classic black and white striped fabric. Who doesn't, right? Most times I'm at a loss on what to do with fabric remnants after I've finished a project. Maybe it's the hoarder in me, but I seriously hate tossing perfectly good materials - I'll think of something to do with them! And guess what? I'b here to share another pillow design! There are so many ways you can manipulate striped fabric and today I'm going to show you how to turn stripes into a chevron pattern. Let's go! Here's what you need:

• 1/2 yard striped fabric
• Kraft paper for template
• Angle square
• Ruler
• Chalk
• Piping (optional) - I used neon velvet ribbon!

 First thing you want to do is measure and cut your pillow template. I wanted to make a 20" pillow, so I cut out a template measuring 20"x20". Fold this in half diagonally. Lay the 90-degree edge of your angle square along the edge of a stripe on the front of your fabric. Then, take your ruler and place it at the 45-degree mark. I placed my folded template underneath my ruler as an additional guide (you actually probably don't even need the template if you have an L-shaped ruler, now that I think about it). Using your chalk measure 20" up for the first side of your pillow cover. Repeat this process for the second side, although you need to flip your angle square to the opposite 90-degree edge. Make sense?

Next, railroad both sides together. It is SUPER important to make sure the stripes align from top to bottom. I like to hold the fabric up to the light to make sure they align, then use like a million pins to make sure the fabric doesn't move when I sew it together. Now, the next step is completely optional. I wanted to add some flair to my pillow by turning some neon velvet ribbon into piping. My suggested method for doing this is to sew the piping to the front of the pillow cover first, then sew the back side on top of it. I recommend going very slowly when sewing the ribbon/piping. You can choose to add a zipper or do an envelope closure for the back side. This is a great zipper tutorial, and this is a straight forward envelope pillow tutorial.
 It looks pretty fantastic, right?? I'm totally guilty for making way too many pillows, but in my defense they're just so easy to make and can transform a space in a hot minute! Toss this bad boy on your bed and bam! Instant upgrade. Not to mention your friends and fam will oogle over your pillow and wonder where they can buy this oversized chevron printed fabric :P

Learn about all of my great contributors on my Meet The Team Page. 

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Hi! I'm Brittany from the blog brittanyMakes, where I journal my adventures in DIY projects ranging from everyday home decor to handmade jewelry, from tips in photography to stories of bulldogs, and everything else in-between.   I am a fierce accountant by day and a zealous DIYer by night.  I spend my time balancing my love for home decor and design with the everyday responsibilities of my corporate day job.  My main mission is to inspire my readers to do what they love, take risks, and above all, to exercise their creative muscles!

0 DIY Leather Camera Strap

By Unknown | At 4:00 AM | Label : contributor , DIY | 0 Comments

I'm so excited my contributor, Brittany is back with a new DIY! She is constantly coming up with great projects on her blog, brittanyMakes. I LOVE her latest DIY project. It would make a great gift! 

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Hello! It's me, Brittany! I hope you didn't forget me. I took a minute away to have a baby, but now I'm back and ready to share another fab DIY tutorial for you!

   

 Today's tutorial speaks to those who, like me, order way too much fabric for a project and then feel super guilty discarding scraps or remnants after using what was needed for the project. I usually tell myself 'oh, I'll find something else to do with this teeny tiny piece of leftover fabric", which never ends up happening and I end up with a slue of scraps that I don't know what to do with but continue to lovingly hoard. Anyway, today's tutorial is to show you something you can easily do with those scraps! I chose to use scrap leather left over from this project (you can also buy scrap leather from your local craft store, like Michael's), but you can easily alter this tutorial by using scrap fabric. Supplies:

• Scrap fabric or leather
• ruler
• scissors
• 2" brass D rings
• leather hole punch tool
• brass rivets

*I was able to get all supplies at JoAnn's

  

  STEP 1 | Cut your scrap leather/fabric. you want the sum of your scraps to measure 2" wide by about 36" long. I think the best length is anywhere in the 36"-40" range.
  STEP 2| Now, sewing scrap fabric together is pretty easy, but leather on the other hand... kinda tricky. My sewing machine is strong enough to sew through two pieces of leather, but yours may not. I chose to first lay my scraps facing wrong side out, sew them together leaving about a 1/4" seam allowance, opened up the scraps then folded the seam allowance out and sewed it down by hand using gold thread for added detail. *By no means do you have to do the first part of this step. If working with leather you can place the edges against one another and do the gold detail sewing like I did. Or, try gluing it! My seam is located where the strap lays at the back of my neck, and honestly it's a little gold detail I totally embrace.
  STEP 3 | Using your leather hole punch, punch 6 holes on each end of the strap, two rows of 3. My rivets weren't brass so I used Gold Leaf Rub n' Buff to turn them gold.
  STEP 4 | Using a little bit of strength, pull open your D ring and attach to your camera's strap joints.
 If you end up buying D rings that are not open, you will want to attach them with open jump rings.

 

STEP 5 | Fold the edges around the D ring and secure with rivets. That's it! So easy, right? I've already had people ask me where I bought my camera strap, and they're surprised when I say I made it! Not to mention a good gold and leather combo is a must have these days. So what do you say, is this something you'll try your hand at?    

Learn about all of my great contributors on my Meet The Team Page. 

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Hi! I'm Brittany from the blog brittanyMakes, where I journal my adventures in DIY projects ranging from everyday home decor to handmade jewelry, from tips in photography to stories of bulldogs, and everything else in-between.   I am a fierce accountant by day and a zealous DIYer by night.  I spend my time balancing my love for home decor and design with the everyday responsibilities of my corporate day job.  My main mission is to inspire my readers to do what they love, take risks, and above all, to exercise their creative muscles!

0 DIY Gold Dipped Bowls

By Unknown | At 4:00 AM | Label : DIY | 0 Comments

Last week Courtney, Danielle and I taught a class at Haven called High End DIY. Basically we shared our basic tips on making your DIY projects look high end and store bought instead of cheap and crafty. We each brought a DIY to share with our class. I decided to make these gold dipped nesting bowls. 

I wanted to recreate the look of these similar bowls seen at Alice Lane. 

Here are the super easy steps to make these bowls yourself.

Step 1 // blow up two balloons to the size you want and then apply strips of paper with modge lodge to the balloon. This step takes the longest because you need to apply lots of layers to get the bowl to be thick enough. I just used white printer paper with a foam brush. After the paper has dried pop the balloon and you'll be left with your bowl. I cut my edges down a bit so they were even. 

Step 2 // I used light teal paint to paint the inside of the large bowl and the outside of the small bowl.  I actually added white to the paint to lighten it a bit more.  

Step 3 // After the paint dries I added a thin layer of gold foil paint to the edges inside and out.  

Step 4 // I then took white puffy paint along all the edges. This part you need you to be careful about. The paint kind drips down the side so go slowly. I even kinda pushed it back up after it had dried a bit. Then apply the gold paint to the dots once it's dried. 

You can nest them inside of each other or just have them side by side. 

I also made a white bowl which I think is cute! 

This project literally is so easy and cost less than $5 a piece! 

0 DIY Octopus Art

By Unknown | At 4:00 AM | Label : DIY , house of jade , my work | 0 Comments

If you follow me on instgram (@kirstenkrason) you saw that Erin (@erin.m.morgan) and I recently installed a nautical playroom. It looks so cute and I can't wait to share all the pictures with all of you! Just like any project we had a budget to work with so we wanted to incorporate some DIY ideas.  Today I'm going to share with you how we took a shower curtain and turned it into art! 

A few years ago I bought this shower curtain for Jett's Bathroom. 

 

I've always loved it. The graphic is so amazing that it always seemed to me like there must be a way to turn it into art! 

When Erin and I started this nautical playroom design we decided to give it a try! 

Erin is much handier than me so she figured out how to put the art together once we got out to the install. Here are her instructions! 

The shower curtain was 72x72" so I wanted to leave 2" on every side to have room to wrap it over the wood. I went to Home Depot and got 2 2"x1"x70" for the top and the bottom of the frame then I got 4 2"x1"x68" for the sides of the frame and the middle supports. Home Depot cut the wood to the desired length for free! 

For the frame assembly I laid all the wood out with the 1" side facing up, and screwed each end of the side pieces and the middle pieces  into the top and bottom of the frame. 

I then ironed the shower curtain and laid it over the top of the frame.

 I nailed in the top first and then stretched it to where I wanted it on the bottom and nailed in the bottom. Then nailed in the sides last. 

I nailed about every 6-8". The nailing gave it a more industrial look instead of a staple gun which could get sloppy. It was super easy with 2 people, it took us about an hour to make it and hang it!

Thanks Erin for that easy explanation!

After they made the piece Erin and Lindsey just hung it up on the wall with a few nails.

It is seriously such a statement in the room! 

0 Last Week's Links

By Unknown | At 3:00 AM | Label : DIY , last week's links | 0 Comments

1 || I want this light fixture for my Living Room. I love it! 

2 || I can't believe you can actually make this table!

3 || This artwork is so cute. 

4 || Pretty sure I could find a spot for this side table in every room in my house. 

5 || I love this camping themed kid's room mood board. 

image via Samantha Kelly photography

6 || Lindsay posted the tutorial on how she made this DIY art from this bedroom makeover. 

7 || I bough this swimsuit last week and I LOVE it! So comfy. 

8 || I'm so glad I know about this steal of a pendant light! 

9 || This is a great Ikea dresser hack! 

10 || I seriously can't believe this mirror is such a good deal. 

top photo - How About Orange // bottom photo - August Avenue

0 DIY Copper Laptop Table

By Unknown | At 3:00 AM | Label : DIY | 0 Comments

Today we have another amazing tutorial from my contributor, Brittany! She is constantly coming up with great projects on her blog, brittanyMakes. I LOVE her latest DIY project as a new take on a sidetable!

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Today I'm sharing a tutorial that might look a bit difficult, but is actually one of the easiest projects I've done: a copper pipe laptop table!

   

 Copper is trending hard right now, and I swear you can whip up this table in under an hour and impress your husbands, your friends, even your husbands friends! Not to mention you could make yourself one amazingly utilitarian & chic portable work station. Let's get to making this thing, here's what you need:

• 8 x 3/4" 90-degree copper elbow fittings
• 12' of 3/4" copper pipe (I bought one 10' rod and one 4' rod)
• 1 x 3/4" tube cutter
• Scrap wood cut to 14" x 18" (I had a piece of wood cut to size at the hardware store)
• Wood stain of your choice
• Metal glue (I used liquid nails)
• 2 x clamps

I mimicked the dimensions off of this table, which measure 18" W x 14" D x 26" H. This means you'll need to cut:

• 4 x 14" pieces of pipe
• 2 x 18" pieces of pipe
• 2 x 26" pieces of pipe

STEP 1 - measure and cut your pipe  

 Pipe cutters are so amazing, you literally can cut a clean piece of pipe in two minutes! All you do is twist, tighten, twist, tighten, and twist.

   

 STEP 2 - Using some heavy duty glue, place a few liberal dabs inside the elbow fittings, and begin assembling the top and bottom bases. I let these sit for about 15-20 minutes to let the glue set. It actually takes about a full day for the glue to cure, so you don't want to actually use the table until the glue is completely set. While the two bases are sitting, go ahead and stain your wood. I just brushed on two quick and light layers. I chose a dark walnut stain, but this table would look great with literally any shade of wood stain.

   

 STEP 3 - Apply more glue to the elbow brackets and attach the legs to the top and bottom bases. To help these pieces set, I sandwiched the table between two heavy objects I found lying around in our garage.

   

 After your wood is dry to the touch, dab some glue on top of the corner elbows at the "top" base, and clamp your wood in place. A trick I learned to clean the red die from copper pipe is to rub the pipe down with high acetone nail polish remover. It literally wipes off in seconds! Make sure it's high acetone, I started using a medium acetone (pictured below) and it was much more laborious than it needed to be. Another trick to polish the copper is to rub it down in (wait for it....) KETCHUP! Seriously, I didn't photograph this step but you can make your copper bright and shiny with a good ol' bottle of household ketchup. Kinda makes you wonder what's in it...

The only difficult part of this project is patience in letting the glue cure. Otherwise, the assembly is a cinch and the outcome is a stunner!

     

 Now go on, craft yourself a laptop table. You'll get oohs and aahs all over the place, I promise.  

Learn about all of my great contributors on my Meet The Team Page. 

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Hi! I'm Brittany from the blog brittanyMakes, where I journal my adventures in DIY projects ranging from everyday home decor to handmade jewelry, from tips in photography to stories of bulldogs, and everything else in-between.   I am a fierce accountant by day and a zealous DIYer by night.  I spend my time balancing my love for home decor and design with the everyday responsibilities of my corporate day job.  My main mission is to inspire my readers to do what they love, take risks, and above all, to exercise their creative muscles!

0 DIY Glasstop Dining Table Tutorial

By Unknown | At 3:00 AM | Label : dining room , DIY , furniture | 0 Comments

Today I am featuring a tutorial by blogger Brooke from the blog Inside Out Design. She has put together an amazing tutorial on how to build your own glasstop table! I feel honored she's agreed to share this tutorial with my readers today! 

She was inspired by this table I posted from the Parade of Homes. 

Here's how she created the look on her own. 

STEP 1 //  We didn't have to construct the legs or the base ourselves- we were able to buy both from a site called tablelegs.com. They have pre-made table leg kits that come with the legs and base, and they have leg sizes for every size table, from coffee tables to dining tables. 

We ended up ordering a custom kit (they do those too!) because the size of our table was bigger than any of their pre-made kits. They were super helpful and someone from their site (I'm pretty sure his name was Charlie) even talked to me on the phone multiple times to help me make a final decision on the leg and base style that I wanted. I explained my design idea for the table and he told me options that would be able to support it. It made it nice when I ordered because then I felt completely comfortable with my choices. 

The legs and base came ready to assemble and even though putting them together looked pretty straight forward, Rob watched a video from the Table Legs site to get some tips for putting them together. The assembly was really easy and they came with all the holes for the screws and everything so Rob didn't have to do any pre-drilling before he could put it together. 

The wood of the table base and legs comes unfinished so you add your own stain or paint. I sanded all the pieces before Rob assembled them and then once he put it all together we stained it. 

STEP 2 // The wood of the table base and legs comes unfinished so you add your own stain or paint. I sanded all the pieces before Rob assembled them and then once he put it all together we stained it. 

I already told the story of the first stain we did here but in a nutshell, when we stained the legs and base for the first time the color didn't go on very well (completely because of our lack of experience with stain). We roughed it up a little with the sander and actually thought it looked kind of cool so I thought we might leave it. {More on that further down...}

STEP 3 // Meanwhile we ordered the wood for the top of the table from a lumber yard- I'd priced it up and we'd decided to go with poplar because that was the cheapest hardwood they had. I'd actually made sure to find out the pricing and type of wood we'd get for the top before we ordered the table legs and base kit from tablelegs.com, that way we could try to match the wood. TableLegs didn't have poplar but their closest option to it was soft maple so that's what we ordered the legs and base kit in.

I wanted a fairly thick top so we went with 2 inches. I didn't want mitered corners; I wanted it a little more relaxed looking so Rob cut the wood so that the two end pieces were about 3 1/2 feet long (41 inches to be exact) and spanned the whole width of the table and then the two pieces for the long side were each a little over 5 feet long (62 1/2 inches) and were flanked by the shorter pieces at either end. 

Basically they'd be put together just like they are arranged here on the floor:

 One of the things that the guy from the table legs site had helped me with was figuring out the measurements for the top so that we'd have a consistent-sized overhang all the way around the table between the edge of the tabletop and the base. I decided to go with a two inch overhang so it was super helpful to have him on the other end of the phone doing the math and letting me know exactly what the measurements should be for the table top size to make that happen. 

STEP 4 // Rob put the pieces of wood together for the top by drilling pocket holes for screws and by making slots at the edges where the wood would meet up so that he could use biscuits held with wood glue. 

First he would attach two pieces using the biscuits and wood glue:

Then he'd go back and put screws in the pocket holes.

 STEP 5 // While Rob was putting the top together I took care of staining the inside of the table base. We hadn't bothered staining it when we'd first stained the legs and outside of the base but with so much of the table top being open and just covered in glass, the stuff you don't normally see on a table (like the inside of the base) had to look good too since from certain angles when you're sitting at the table you'll get peeks of it. So I stained the inside and that's when I figured out that the stain goes on so much better when you don't follow the directions on the can that tell you to wait a minute or three before wiping it off- I wiped it off right away after applying it and it came out really nice and consistent. 

I put stain on the insides of all the pocket holes too so they wouldn't be totally obvious- I just used a small foam brush to squish the stain into the opening and then wiped away the drips. 

STEP 6 // Attaching the table top to the base was easy thanks to all the pocket holes that came predrilled in the base from the Table Legs place- we just set the top on the base and then after making sure it was lined up evenly all the way around, Rob put screws in each of the pocket holes and the top was completely secure. {btw I sanded the table top out in the garage once it was all put together before we brought it in here and put it on the table.}

 STEP 7 // At this point we put the drop cloths back under the table and I stained the top- and with my new-found staining skills that I'd picked up from doing the inside of the base, the color came out looking amazing. Super consistent and just the shade of brown I was wanting. (In some of the finished photos the color of the stain looks kind of reddish but it's not at all red in real life. I was super careful to choose a stain that didn't have any of my hated undertones for wood- red, orange, or yellow.)

So with the top looking fab and the base and legs suddenly looking- well, not- we lugged the table out to the garage so I could sand it down to bare wood again and start over from scratch. 

STEP 8 // I re-stained the base and legs using the same quick technique I'd used on the top- apply to one area and then wipe it off right away. I ended up doing I think about 3 coats to get the color to match the shade on top. 

After the staining was all done I gave it one last light sanding and a coat of poly-crylic to protect the wood. 

STEP 9 // Then we ordered our piece of glass. I can't even remember where we ordered it from but it was from a glass place Rob has worked with before (he's in construction). We had it cut to fit over the whole table top. We got a fairly thick piece for two reasons: one because I didn't want to worry about it getting broken if something got thrown at it since you never know what can happen in a house with two 3 year olds; and two, I didn't want to have to use those little rubber bumpers under it to keep it from sliding. I was hoping that if the glass was thick enough it would be heavy enough to stay in place on the table without needing those bumpers. Luckily that was the case- the glass is insanely heavy. It took Rob, my brother, and my brother-in-law to put it on the table and then it didn't move. So I have absolutely no fears of it sliding off the table. 

This was definitely the longest project we've ever done- it took months. Mostly because we didn't order all our supplies at once. Since everything we needed to build this table was fairly pricey, we didn't want to risk getting every thing at once and then having measurements be off and something not work with something else and then have wasted hundreds of dollars. So we started with the base and legs and then once that was put together we ordered the wood for the top, then lastly we order the glass. I'm really glad we did it that way because it gave us room to make any needed adjustments with the sizing of things and just gave us a lot more peace of mind and confidence when we'd put in an order for something. 

This was definitely not a cheap diy either. In all we spent around $1,000.00 including all the little misc things like stain, brushes, screws, etc. But that was our budget if we'd bought a table, and before we got started with building this one I'd shopped around a bunch of stores to check prices on similarly sized tables (room for 8), and a plain wooden table of that size would cost us right around a thousand dollars. Tables with glass tops were quite a bit more. So even though we could have saved ourselves all the trouble and just bought a regular wooden table for the same price, we couldn't have gotten something in this style (glass) for even close to that. So the cost of building this was definitely worth it to us to have the exact table that I was wanting. 

This is definitely, hands down, my favorite thing that Rob and I have ever made. I want our grandkids to be eating dinner with us at this table someday. 

And after months of working on it, it sure feels good to have it finished! 

Thanks to Brooke for sharing her masterpiece with us! Go to her blog to see more pictures!