DIY Agate Trash Bin

I fell in love with this $190 trash bin featured in the June 2012 Elle Decor, but I figured I could make my own. I finally got around to doing the project this weekend using a $3 Target plastic trash bin that I randomly saw at a thrift store.

I actually had bought a round bin for this project a few weeks ago, but realized after the fact that the project really only works on bins with squared off sides, or else there's no fooling anyone that that marbleized paper could be real sheets of agate.

I bought the paper from Paper Mojo for about $5 ages ago and used it in a frame for a while, which was pretty, but I was fine with giving it up for this project.

When you're ready to get started, look at your piece of marbled paper (I only needed one sheet for my whole trash bin), and figure out which pieces of the pattern you want to feature. Keep in mind that it looks best if you can alternate the direction of the swirl on each side of the bin.

 

Use just a pencil to trace out the sides while holding the bin perfectly still. Cut out the pattern directly on the pencil line. Your cut pieces will end up being a hair to big, which is just what you want - a little overhang.

Use a soft brush to put down a layer of Mod Podge (no need to prime or sand first - just a clean surface) and then carefully lay the paper piece down. The top edge of the paper should be perfectly flush with the top edge of the trash bin, but the three other sides should have a little overhang.

When the top edge is perfectly centered, use your hand to smooth out the paper. Make sure there are no air bubbles. It's okay if there is a little mod podge spillage on the sides, that actually helps the extra paper on the side lay flat.

 

Don't forget to crease the bottom edge under too. 

I let the pieces dry for an hour or two and then I sealed it all with a top coat of mod podge.

One lesson I learned for next time: use a light or white trash bin. The paper is pretty thin, so my finished project is a little blotchy with the black base peeking through. A white base would have been clear and bright though. Bummer.

Still love it though and am glad I tried the DIY route and saved the $190! Plenty of other places to spend that money these days. :)

PS If you love marbleized paper as much as I do...

Matches Cup

The pilot light on one of the burners on our stove is a little unreliable (even though it's been fixed a few times - we can't figure it out), so we have to keep matches on hand. I picked up a box of these green tipped matches at Target because I thought the color was cute.

The big box is less cute though and if I see it and have to use it almost every day, I think it should be cute! So I bought a few of these pretty mercury glass votives at Gracious Home and thought one would make a perfect match holder.

I remember seeing this idea in a magazine or blog somewhere. It's a two minute project (my favorite kind!). All you do is cut off a square of striking paper and glue it to the bottom of your cup. I use Magnatacalmost every time I need a glue!

My cup was a little deeper than the matches, so I put an inch or so of coarse salt at the bottom before filling with the matches.

Looks cute and works well too with the striking paper on the bottom. Also, my girls don't know how to use matches, but just to be safe we keep the cup back further where they can't get to it. 

Love seeing those little green tips! :) Much better than a lighter or big old cardboard box!

Marimekko Pillows

A few of you asked about the fabric on my hot pink pillows (seen here).

I pulled one of my favorite tricks here and used standard bed pillow cases to make pillow covers. These were Marimekko shams from the clearance aisle at HomeGoods.

Just use three of the already finished edges and then add your own zipper on the fourth (bottom) edge. Sometimes you can get two pillows out of one king-sized sham! These two pillows ended up costing me about $7 total, including the two zippers, and only took a few minutes at the sewing machine to finish.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! And if you're celebrating, I hope it's a very happy Easter or Passover for you and your family!

xx

DIY Ombre Basket

I have a fun post scheduled for tomorrow all about cleaning, where I'll also be professing my love for baskets. I have them all over the house and this one has been a favorite. It's sturdy and it holds its shape really well.

I've always wanted to experiment with painting one of my baskets. I thought about doing a big stripe, but decided on doing an ombre wash with some white latex paint I had. I think I would avoid using a glossy paint on this project - I used eggshell finish here.

The first step is to dry brush the whole area you want to paint.

Then really coat the bottom fourth. You want the paint to be really thick so that none of the basket shows through.

Then you just fill in the middle section and blend so that the white paint runs smoothly from thick to very thin.

My only tip is to not overdo it on the light parts. If you spend more than 5 or 10 minutes painting the whole basket, you're overdoing it. Then you just leave it to dry overnight and that's it! I was worried the thick coat of paint on the bottom might seep through to the inside of the basket, but it didn't.

There's such a great texture to woven baskets. It brings a beachy element to a room, which I like. But I really love the modern edge the white paint adds!

Custom Black Out Roman Shades

Every decorator has a favorite thing to see installed. I think mine is a toss up between new pillows (they really can transform a room!) and new window treatments. I was so happy with the way Joanna's roman shades just transformed her bedroom!

The white linen fabric with the cheery yellow trim has such a brightening effect on the room! The shades are also super functional. You know I am a big fan of making shades out of mini blinds and also glueing fabric on top of matchstick blinds. Both are great methods, but for this project I knew we needed something a little more permanent and hard-wearing, so I had my seamstress make the blinds. We had them blackout lined, which, beyond looking great and giving the linen a nice weight/drape, it's so nice for blocking out the city lights at night or the morning sun which always comes too early for us parents!

Custom shades are not inexpensive (that's why the DIY method can be great to keep around for some projects), but if you are using the shades every single day, I think the extra cost is justified. Joanna lives in a prewar apartment and her windows are extra, extra long so the cost was a little more than standard windows.

I had these exact shades priced out at the Shade Store for comparison to my work room, and they quoted me $650 per shade. Yikes! My seamstress did BOTH shades for several hundred less than that. So again, ask around. If you look on craigslist for a great seamstress, you can get custom work for a lot less than you might expect.

PS The mustard yellow vintage trim completely makes these shades for me. We bought the trim at JEM in Tribeca for just a few dollars a yard. They still have some left if you'd like to stop by and snag some for yourself!

My Parents' New Bedroom

Are you ready for a crazy amount of pictures?

Welcome to my parents' new bedroom...

You've come a long way, baby.


The drapes are really the focal point of the room. I love how they turned out. And the yellow Home Goods lamps really pop against them.

Someone asked why we didn't buy vintage lamps and just paint them yellow. The idea crossed my mind at one point, but between the cost of lamps, paint and new shades, I thought it was a better use of our time/resources to just spend the $39 on these. Also, I wanted a ginger jar shape, or something similar, with a smooth surface. Anything with more pattern or texture would have been too much with the drapery fabric.

The nickel alarm clock is from Target. The blue decanters are vintage and the tray is from IKEA.

Here's the other side of the bed. Do you spy the tins we spray painted from Home Goods? The side tables are painted in RL's Hopsack and the bed is RL's Smoked Glass. Many of you asked about painting the furniture here. It's always a good idea to prime and put a coat of sealer on furniture that gets a lot of use, like bedroom furniture does. Remember that the secret to a smooth and long-lasting paint finish is multiple thin coats with drying time in between!

The small sunburst mirror is from the Home Goods clearance section ($10, I think). The yellow rosette pillow is by Dwell Studio for Target.

The white duvet is from IKEA. It has a lovely pleated detail that makes it look more expensive than IKEA bedding usually looks. The quilted coverlet at the foot of the bed is from Home Goods.

We bought the down Euro shams on clearance at Home Goods and made new covers out of the Robert Allen yellow ticking stripe from Home Fabrics and yellow piping from Joanns. Mom was so sick of sewing that she decided not to put in zippers and just made envelope slips.

The botanical prints series is one of my favorite parts of the room.

If you'd like to purchase the same book we used to make this print series (Wildflowers in America), there are sellers on Amazon basically giving copies away. Some are only a penny, plus shipping. Not bad for 400 botanical prints! There are all sorts of gorgeous, colorful prints in the book. We went with yellow, white and blue flowers for our print series here.

We didn't finish this project before I left, so my mom just sent me pictures of this little footstool that she reupholstered in the subtle leopard print.

It belonged to my great grandparents years and years ago. I think my mom swiped it from our old family cabin. :)

In case you didn't notice, my parents' bed is really high off the ground and this small stool helps the little kids climb into grammy and granddaddy's bed for morning cartoons.

My Grandpa Russell made my mother's cedar hope chest, so it has a lot of sentimental value to us. It really needed a paint job though.


And I think the addition of some decorative moulding did just the trick to break things up a little. We also reupholstered the seat cushion with a soft floral. The pale blue bolster is from IKEA.

My parents' en suite bathroom got a serious make over too.


New paint on the oak cabinets (Zinsser primer first, then two coats of Martha Stewart's River Mist).

New black marble floors. Bath rugs from Home Goods.

A new shower curtain that my mom sewed using the Lee Jofa Hollyhock from Home Fabrics. I had her sew it extra long (about 85"). We re-installed the rod at the taller height. It's amazing how that simple change really opened up the room.

Then, of course, there was the mirror project. We hung this IKEA mirror on top of the old boring sheet mirror using 3M picture hanging strips.

It really took things to the next level and I can't wait to use this idea again in another project.

And lastly, here's the vanity area. My mom turned a second hand (and broken, I think?) dining table into a console table by cutting off the end and adding a pair of legs to the back. Looks great, right?

It used to be an antiqued white color, but we gave it a fresh coat of Martha's Magnolia Yellow. The little bench was purchased at a vintage shop for $12. We reupholstered the seat in a pretty damask that mimics the wall color.

Didn't the circle mirror project turn out pretty? I think it's sort of like a feminine version of a Captain's mirror.

The floral wooden appliques were purchased at Michaels and adhered with a little wood glue before painting.

We hung the mirror low enough to be useful while sitting and high enough so that you can see yourself while standing.

The photoless frames (whoops! ran out of time!) are from Home Goods, as are the blue lacquer boxes. The curvy gray box on the end used to be a hideous gold (from Marshalls clearance aisle), and I think it looks great now, painted in Hopsack. The tray is from IKEA and the other accessories are vintage.

Phew! That was a lot of photos! :) Last ones:

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of my parent's overhauled master bedroom. True that it was a lot of work to accomplish in a week's time, but we had so much fun doing it together.