Jersey Shore, Baby!

First of all, I am so happy to be included in this fab group of hot-in-2012-designers featured on Elledecor.com (and a little mention in this month's issue too!). What an honor!

Second of all, today I'm thrilled to be reliving the glory days of suburban living! I've rented a mini van and my friend and I will hit the road for some antiquing down the Jersey Shore (a mecca of midcentury furniture shopping). Technically I'm on the clock and working, but I hope to snag some pieces for myself while we're out hunting. I've been going hard for a while now and I think some shopping therapy is just what the doctor ordered!

Here are some of the pieces I'm planning to scope out today.

PS One of my personal rules of decorating: Have at least one piece of mid century furniture in each room, but no more than 50% of the total pieces can be midcentury unless you really (and I mean REALLY) know what your doing. (e.g. Jonathan Adler) To get a good mix, everything else in the room should be either super old and trad or relatively new and either trad or quirky. As much as I love midcentury stuff, if you break the 50% rule, it gets all I Dream of Jeannie/Dick Van Dyke/Bewitched really fast. You know what I mean?

Have you been antiquing on the Jersey Shore? I'd love some can't-miss recommendations!

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Reader DIY: Animal Bookends and Brass Figurines

Ooh! I love this Reader DIY from the adorable and talented Cassie at Hi Sugarplum!

Cassie figured out a really inexpensive way to make cute book ends and brass-looking table top accessories (HERE and HERE).

She picked up random little toys and figurines from thrift stores, hobby shops and the dollar bin at Target and spray painted them!

She super glued the painted figurines to flat rocks and made really cool, unique bookends.

Cassie did a similar project using (my go-to) Rustoleum in Brass from their metallics line.

PS Their gold color has way too much pink in it, but the brass is a lovely bright yellow. It really looks like brass, right? I'm thinking a trip to the Homegoods clearance section is in order!!

Cassie spent less than $5 on each of these. Little projects like this that cost almost nothing are so great. It's a nice way to get a fun look that you don't have to commit to. If she wants to change these out for something else later, there's no reason to feel bad. I love it.

Thanks for sharing, Cassie!

If you have a DIY project you'd like to submit, please email jenny (at) jennykomenda (dot) com.

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Boxed Acrylic Framing

So, speaking of framing big pieces of art, I'm just about finished with the framing of those panels of hand-painted chinese wallpaper I talked about here. But I thought I'd share with you some pretty pictures from reader Eliza's house. She has really great taste. She's promised me a house tour sometime soon and I'm waiting for her email with bated breath. The photos I've seen so far are beautiful!

When I posted about acrylic framing last, Eliza emailed with these images. She mounted some Barbara Barry wallpaper with spray adhesive to thin particle board from Home Depot, which she had cut to size.

Eliza's framer, Nicole, from Rose City Framakers in Madison, NJ, was able to frame these panels of wallpaper in acrylic for a little over $100 each. That is a great price considering the size of these panels!

Nicole made a little frame inset on the back to help prevent bowing in the particle board and the acrylic.

Isn't this a pretty look? Makes me want to get my rear in gear and finish that wallpaper project! :) Can't wait to share.

An Inexpensive Way to Hang Big Art

I love oversized art, but it's a challenge to find an affordable way to hang/frame the art. I really wanted to do a large photo of the ocean or the sky over Joanna's bed, sort of like this one:

artist's site here

We felt SO lucky when Max Wanger snapped this beautiful photo for us while he was on vacation at Martha's Vineyard. I love the pretty colors and it has a really chill, soothing vibe about it.

Max was kind enough to print the photo for us, but if you are looking for an online print shop, I've used Wizard Prints and U Printing before with great luck.

We considered getting the photo professionally framed but in the end we opted to save the $400 and go for a really inexpensive option.

I got a smooth sheet of plywood cut down to size at Home Depot. I especially loved the striped edges.

I used a poly/stain combo to finish just the edges and then a screwed two D-rings to the back of the board.

Then I used acid-free scrapbook tape to mount the photo right to the plywood. We used removable tape (it comes in permanent too), so Joanna still has the option to have the photo professionally framed down the road.

We spent about $20 for this project. It worked really well for this space since we didn't really need protection for the photo. It would work similarly well for hanging above a big piece of furniture like a console or credenza. You just want something in front of the art to prevent bumping into it.

Do you have any tricks for framing large art on the cheap?

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Oil Slick Lamp

I have a thing for old, quirky lamps. Great-looking new lamps are so expensive and vintage lamps are usually crazy cheap and way cooler, so I opt for the latter in my life. Sometimes they need a $10 rewiring job and 99% of the time I'll want/need to replace the shade, but I still think vintage is the way to go.

I found this lamp with the rainbow glaze at Junk in Williamsburg. I actually saw it there a couple times and passed it up. But the more times I saw it, the more I needed it. I think it was $20? The funny thing was as soon as I carried that lamp out of the store, a dozen people asked me where I got it. #winning. Even the hipster guy at the shade store asked me if I would sell it to him. But, it was just too perfect for Joanna's room.

The cool shade guy helped me choose this black semi-transparent organza shade. Feels so edgy, right? We used a clear Edison bulb in there since you can see through the shade.

PS I kept thinking the lamp reminded me of something and the other day I realized it was the art in the Ruffalo's bedroom from Domino back in the day. Such a great room:

PS How to line the inside of drum shades with metallic paper.

PPS I just started a Facebook page for LGN. Still working out the kinks, but I'll love you forever if you Like me? xx

Campaign Style Rast Hack

I never get sick of seeing all these different ways to hack the IKEA Rast dresser! Molly from Molly Madfis Designs emailed me her latest project and I think it turned out really great.

Molly said she searched and searched for a campaign piece to put in her dining room, but coldn't find the right one in the right size. She was inspired by all the Rast hacks floating around the internet and thought she could make her own campaign dresser.

Molly patched up the old knobs holes, painted the dresser and drilled on these flat corner plaques. Then she measured and drilled new holes in the center of each drawer for these brass campaign style pulls from Ansaldi and Sons.

I actually prefer the proportions of Molly's hardware to traditional campaign pieces. The smaller corner plaques look perfect here. And wouldn't a pair of these would look so great as night stands?

Thanks for sharing, Molly!

DIY Tufted Headboard

I've made a couple of diamond-tufted headboards now (Joanna's was only my second though) and I feel like I have a pretty good sense of the easiest DIY approach now. For another tufted headboard tutorial I did, check out this post. I would say any upholstery job involving tufting is sort of an advanced DIY, but is this project definitely doable (maybe even fun?).

Gone are the days when I spend hours mapping out and drilling holes in plywood! I've been using pegboard and it is PERFECT for these headboard projects. Cheap, lightweight and sturdy enough. You'll be hanging the pegboard on the wall so it's okay that the board is not completely rigid.

I had Home Depot cut down the board for me, so it was just the right size for Alex and Joanna's queen bed. The holes on pegboard are 1" apart. You do have to do a little math and mapping out to figure out your button placements, but once you have the formula down, it's just a matter of counting it out and marking the holes with chalk.

I had three rows of nine buttons and two rows of eight for a total of 45 tufts. (!) I wanted a lot of tufts though, so you could do less. I think it's a good idea to look at inspiration images first and count the buttons on that headboard and estimate the spacing you'll need for the look you're after.

I purchased my 3" upholstery foam at Joann's with a 50% off coupon. I definitely recommend using exactly 3" foam for this project. Otherwise the headboard will look thin and cheap. An important note - you only need enough foam to cover the top two-thrids or so of your pegboard. My foam was 24" tall and my pegboard was 40". The bottom part without the foam goes behind the bed.

So, to mark out your foam, lay the pegboard down perfectly on top of foam and use your registration marks and a sharpie.

One of the secrets of getting deep tufts is removing the foam where the buttons go. My method is pretty lame - I just use a paring knife to cut a hole around the registration marks. You just grab the foam bit, twist and pull out.

You'll fly through this step. It's a fun and easy one.

See how the foam only covers the top two-thirds or so of the pegboard?

Secure the foam to the pegboard using spray adhesive.

And lay down a sheet of high-loft batting on the top of your foam. The fabric goes on top of the batting.

**EDIT: A quick note about fabric. I used two yards of SOLID color fabric for this project. If you want to use a pattern (which I don't really recommend for tufting, unless the scale is super small), you'll have to piece together two or three panels of the fabric so that the piece is wide enough and so that the pattern matches up and runs the right way. Better yet, just use a solid fabric :) You can run the fabric horizontally (called railroading) and just get two yards and call it good.

PS You really will only need two yards for a queen size headboard. I was worried that the tufts would take up lots of extra fabric. Not at all. Maybe an extra couple inches total were needed for the whole headboard.

Here's the part where you'll need lots of buttons. You can buy button making kits and refills for just a few dollars (I used the 5/8" size). It does take some time to make all the buttons though, so this would be a good place to enlist the help of a friend and get it done assembly style.

Using a long upholstery needle and doubled up upholstery grade thread (NOT the all-purpose stuff! This thread is more like twine), triple knot your button, and find your first button hole.

From the front of the headboard, push the needle through the fabric, batting, foam hole and pegboard hole, all the way out the back.

Pulling out and down as tight as you can, put a staple into the pegboard over the thread. But still keep pulling that thread to keep the tension. Put in a bunch of staples with the thread being pulled in different directions to secure that button in as deep as it can sit.

And your first tuft is done! You always want to start in the center and work your way out horizontally.

Be sure to leave the edges for last. I found it was taking me about an hour per row in the beginning. By the end I had it down to 20 minutes a row. Honestly though, my fingers were absolutely throbbing at this point! I busted this headboard out in a night and it would have been better to split up the tufting part into two nights, just to give my fingers a rest :)

Like any upholstery project, there is something to be said for keeping a soft hand and sort of artfully playing with the fabric. Especially when deciding where to place the button in the fabric and in getting the fabric to fold right. Play with the fabric and it will work with you. It's absolutely begging to sit in a diamond shape if you help it along a little. :)

Once all the tufting is done, you'll just need to finish off the edges. Don't just roll the fabric back behind the pegboard and staple it down. The key to nice looking upholstery projects is all in the lines. Minimize the bumps and wrinkles! The fabric, especially along the edges should be flat and smooth. To make the edges of a headboard smooth, fold in a line going straight out from each tuft toward the perimeter. The fold takes care of all the excess fabric so that the edges can be smooth and taut and ready for you to staple down on the back side.

To finish the bottom of the headboard, where the foam ends, just push your staple gun up under the foam a little and run a row of staples along the whole front bottom. Then pull the fabric down over the bottom edge of the exposed pegboard, neatly fold behind and staple back, like you did with the other three edges of the headboard. And that's it!

We screwed three D-rings into the back and used a couple Wall Dog screws in the wall to mount the headboard.

You can see in this shot how the foam only starts above the mattress. This way the mattress sort of sits into the headboard.

PS The camel linen is from Gray Line linen, from their Warsa line (only $9 a yard and it comes in all the colors under the rainbow).