By britt on June 29, 2009

1.Chalkboard drawers, LivingEtc, via Perfectbound; 2/3. Two cheap runners = One great rug, by Elsie Marley, via Perfectbound; 4. Sheet metal table, by Design Mom

5. Linen tin cover, by Elsie Marley, via Each Penny Pretty; 6. Paper-covered magnetic board, Martha Stewart, via Creature Comforts; 7. Numbered Glasses, Martha Stewart; 8. Button Magnets, Martha Stewart [these would also be good as thumbtacks]

9. Ikea Hack, Penny People Designs; 10.Aalto-ize your Ikea Frösta stool, by Martha and Tom; 11. Fabric-covered knobs, A Field Journal
Some of these are from a little while back. I’ve been collecting them and storing them away in bookmarks and emails to myself, for a rainy day. It’s actually beautiful weather, but lately I have been feeling rainy, creativity-wise. Putting this post together has got me thinking about all sorts of things I want to do. Thank you to everyone who shared their great ideas!
Do you know of any other good tutorials for the home?
Posted in inspiration, links | Tagged DIY, ikea hack, martha stewart, tutorials |
By britt on June 17, 2009

I must really have a thing for soft, fabric jewelry. First, the t-shirt necklace, now this. I have been admiring these leather necklaces by Handle & Spout for quite some time. Can I use the “imitation is the sincerest form or flattery” line again?
What you need:
Leather piece - approximately 12″ x 12″(if you are in Vancouver, check out Dressew for cheap leather in various sizes. I got a 24″ x 24″ piece for $7)
This template, printed out on heavy cardstock (The image is 300dpi, and when printed will be 3″ wide)
Utility Knife (like an x-acto knife)
Scissors
Needle & thread (matching your leather)
Instructions:
After you have printed out this template on heavy cardstock, cut it out with your exacto knife. This is my paper template (as you can see, my utility knife is not so exact):

Now on the back side of the leather (the rough side) trace your template in pen, like so:

Cut the shape out of the leather with scissors, making sure to cut just inside the pen marks so you don’t have any lines showing. To cut out the center, fold it and make a little snip with your scissors and then cut (like the one below). I tried to use the utility knife and it looked really rough and found scissors to be more accurate.

Continue cutting out the leather shapes until you have a bunch. I used 36 pieces to make a longish necklace, but it totally depends on how long you want it to be.

Fold one piece in half so the smooth side is on the outside. Then push half of the next piece through the hole as shown:

Now fold the second piece down and continue fitting them together:

Keep going, holding it up to your neck until it gets to be your desired length.

For the closure, you could do something fancy like a snap or a button. My necklace is long and I can just pull it over my head, so I folded the last loop over my first one and stitched it closed:

I feel (and look) pretty awkward about posting a picture of myself here, but so you can see the length of the necklace, and the size of the links, here it is:

Notes: You could also buy a leather jacket from a thrift store and cut it up. If you didn’t want to use leather, a good quality felt might look nice (just not the cheap stuff - I think it would end up looking like a kindergarten project) or you could use two fabrics fused together with double-sided fusible interfacing.
Click the thumbnail below for a full-sized version of the template:

Posted in projects, tutorial | Tagged leather chain, leather necklace, white leather |
By britt on June 15, 2009

Ruffle headband tutorial

Quick braided headband

Knotted headband tutorial
All these beautiful headbands were created by Rachel of Heart of Light. The top one looks like something you would pay $40 for at Anthro or J Crew. I love it.
via For Me, For You
Just want to say that I have posted a few of my tutorials on Instructables including a variation on my recycled t-shirt necklace. You can see them here, and even download the PDFs, if you are so inclined.
Posted in inspiration, links |
By britt on June 9, 2009
Posted in home | Tagged salvage yard, salvaged wood |
By britt on June 8, 2009

Left: Urban Outfitters. Right: Mine.
Eerie. I just posted my pillow last week, and UO just listed their version. I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought that Arren’s idea was worth replicating. The collective consciousness at work?
Posted in inspiration, links | Tagged colored toile, toile, toile pillow, urban outfitters |
By britt on June 8, 2009

On Friday night we had such a delicious scallop ceviche that I just have to share. It was my first time making it, but I’ve had it many times before. Sometimes I find that the lime in ceviche is overpowering, so I used the juice of one orange along with two limes. It was much more mellow, but still so fresh. I threw in some ripe mango, chile peppers and fresh cilantro. The scallops were sliced as thin as I could, so they “cooked” very quickly. It only sat for about ten minutes. We ate it with slices of toasted baguette and thin slices of avocado. So good. And I didn’t even have to turn on the stove or oven in our hot, hot apartment.
I got the idea from this list of 101 meals that can be made in ten minutes, which is a must-read. These are my kind of recipes - given in one sentence. Sometimes I just want the idea behind the dish, not exact quantities and timing, and these are really fantastic ideas.
Posted in food | Tagged lime, orange ceviche, scallop ceviche |
By britt on June 5, 2009

Toile. I think it’s one of my favorite words. Twahhl. The fabric can be rather matronly, though. A few months ago, I saw a toile pillow in an article on the Canadian House & Home website featuring Canadian bloggers (article has since been removed). It was in a really great shot of Arren Williams’ home, and said pillow looked like as if it had been colored in with highlighters. Very tongue-in-cheek. You can see the photo here, on Arren’s blog (scroll down). I emailed him to find the picture, and he told me that he had used highlighters. Fantastic.

I had bought half a meter of toile from Chintz & Company. So I got some highlighters and set to work. Coloring is very soothing, by the way. I was worried about filling it in too much, but I can always add to it. Here it is on our sofa:

I’m working on another (different) pillow but I think it goes quite well with the print we have above the sofa. The print is by Jessica Ritter and it’s called “Beneath the Surface”. We got a great deal on the Gus Modern sofa. It was the floor model at Koolhaus. Our apartment is still feeling a little sparse but Ryan and I are making a coffee table (more on that later), and I’ve been looking for some sort of rug.
Thanks to Arren for the great idea!
Posted in home, inspiration | Tagged colored toile, toile pillow |
By britt on June 4, 2009
A few days ago, I saw this article on Sunset (via AT) about Lotta Jansdotter’s apartment. The space is 725 square feet, and she uses the space very wisely. One of the things that stood out to me was that she transformed an oversized closet into a bedroom. I want to do it! Our 700 square foot apartment has a very strange layout, with one large window at the front. The bedroom has a frosted glass partition so it gets lots of light still. Here’s how we have it set up now (please excuse the diagram):

The kitchen is all lined up along the wall, which puts the “office” pretty much right next to the sink. Awkward. Especially when we both work from home. So here’s what I want to do:

Our full-sized bed fits in the storage room. Just. It would literally be a bed room. Maybe with some wall shelves and hooks. I would move our dresser into the closet, which is actually pretty big and underused. One benefit of moving the bed back there is it would be pitch black. I sometimes have trouble with insomnia and it would help to have a completely dark (and quiet!) room.
And then we could have a real office! It would be glorious.
What do you all think? Should we try it?
Posted in home |
By britt on June 2, 2009
You may notice that my blog looks a little different. Or, you know, a lot different. As a client, I might be a little demanding but Ryan is pretty understanding. Together, we’ve been doing more work as Theory Design and it seemed time enough to get this site up to snuff.
I think we’ve put together a nice new look and I hope you all like it too.
Posted in links, projects |