DIY – Page 6

Blue Bench Pillows

Published on July 18, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

Before heading out to Minnesota, I made a stop at Joann’s just to see if there was anything I should know about. Luckily, our Joann is liquidating their stock because they’re moving stores soon. So, I stocked up. Because hoarding fabric is fine, but hoarding cheap fabric is even better, right? I got a few quilting weight fabrics, a mustard yellow vinyl, a few zippers, and a fun blue geometric print.

Because the blue was the heaviest, I decided to use it for outdoor pillows. Ten or so minutes later, following this method, I had two new pillows for our bench.

Along with the blue, I bought a tangerine floral print, but I’m concerned about using the quilting fabric outside. The original pillows are still there.

Certainly, it’s a small change, but I’m liking the new color. I’m still hoping to add a contrasting color, like orange.

What’s your favorite orange fabric? Or your favorite patterned fabric? Do you lean toward geometric patterns or floral prints?

Un Homme & Une Femme

Published on July 11, 2012March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode30 Comments

As I mentioned yesterday, the main bathroom isn’t finished, but that’s not stopping me from working on finishing touches. I could resist making art for the back wall. A large piece of art at that. For bathrooms, I try to stay away from anything with eyes, because that just seems creepy to me. Who wants to feel watched while doing your private business anyway? So, I thought up bathroom appropriate art, but nothing felt perfect. I didn’t want anything frilly. Nothing too fancy. Nothing to compete with the patterned shower curtain. But something bold, simple, and most importantly, fun. Then, it came to me. Why not make an over sized version of the classic man/woman signs to mark commercial bathrooms? It’s bold. It’s simple. It’s fun. And bonus, it was easy to make.

I started with a 2 foot by 3 foot frame I had sitting in the basement. For my background, I painted a large piece of paper I had on hand navy blue. An internet search gave me photos of the signs, so I made a design in Photoshop, printed it to plain paper, and used the designs as a template. Then, I cut a man and a woman from card stock. A few piece of rolled tape on the back held my people in place. Popping it in the frame instantly made it look more chic and cheeky than the standard bathroom sign.

It certainly adds a dose of fun to the bathroom. Best of all, it cost me under five bucks for materials!

Would it be too much to hang one of each of these vases over the toilet?

In other breaking bathroom news, Ben grouted the shower. Crisp white grout is nice to see. Once we, ah hem, Ben installs the faucet set, we can shower in here. Yippee skippy.

One of these days, I should wash that mirror.

So there ya have it, cheap, funny, eyeless bathroom art. What do you think? Too commercial feeling? Just the right amount of kitsch to add personality to the space? What do you have on your bathroom walls?

Coral Crush

Published on July 10, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode14 Comments

Our main bathroom remodel still isn’t done, so most people aren’t using it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t work on storage. Being drawerless in the bathroom, wait, that came out wrong. Without drawers in the vanity, I have to get creative with hidden storage. So, I took to Pinterest to see what fun I could come up with. I saw neat tutorials to make soft sided fabric bins, creative hard sided boxes, and even considered a rope covered box. Ultimately, I decided to combine a few ideas to make something perfectly suited for our bathroom. So, I started by cutting a large box to fit inside our small linen closet because I couldn’t find a pre-made box to fit the same.

Of course, cardboard boxes are ugly. Luckily, I’ve been hoarding fabric lately, so I pulled out a yard of light gray duck cloth. I didn’t have a long enough piece to completely wrap around the box, so I cut one strip 12 inches wide along the long end of the fabric. To cover the back, I cut another small 15 inch wide by 12 inch tall strip to piece together. With my long strip taped in place, I marked the corners.

Using those small marks, I sewed the smaller piece to make a box slip cover.

Because I was feeling lazy, I used Gorilla tape to hold the fabric in place along the underside and around the top edges.

It seemed too boring, so I dug through my paint stash until I found a bottle of coral acrylic paint. How ’bout some stripes? After measuring and marking two-inch wide strips, I taped off my edges.

And used a sponge brush and pouncing motion to paint near the edges and filled in the middle.

Pulling off the tape is such a fun part of painting. Especially when the lines are crisp. I had some rope on hand, so I marked two holes to create a handle. Using a screw, I rotated through the fabric and cardboard to make the pilot holes. Stuffing a pen through widened the holes enough to get the rope through. Simple knots on each end hold the rope in place.

Now I’ll have to find a white or gray vinyl to line the inside. Right now, it holds bath toys and we’ve got room for other ugly junk.

I’m really surprised at how sturdy it seems, but we’ll see how it holds up over time. I think I’ll add fabric to the bottom so the shelf doesn’t get scuffed up when it’s pulled in and out. Gotta hunt down a good-looking clothes hamper and maybe a few wire baskets. Or maybe I’ll get all DIY on the hampers arse and make something myself. Who knows. Until then, tell me about your bathroom storage situation. Do you prefer drawers, cabinets, boxes, open shelves?

Bow & Arrows

Published on July 9, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

After deciding to paint the backs of the entertainment center yellow, I decided to add pops of yellow in the living room to tie everything together. My first focus, pillows. Redesigning the blog inspired a pattern. Flipped and repeating arrows.

Of course, I had to make the design. In Photoshop, I altered the background design for a more suitable stencil. Enlarging, beefing up the lines and shortening the overall design gave me a good base.

I opened a new page, copied, pasted, and rotated the arrow design 45 degrees. To make a repeating design, I duplicated my arrow layer and flipped it horizontally. When I like the placement, I merged my two arrows together and duplicated that layer, this time flipping the design vertically to make this design:

Printing to plain paper gave me my template. I had transparency sheets on hand, but you can pick up a package at an office supply store. Taping the template to the underside of my clear sheet made cutting a crisp design quick and easy.

Once I finished cutting my stencil, I gathered my fabric supplies; yellow duck cloth, fabric paint, a foam brush, paint tray, and my new stencil.

I’d suggest marking both the center of your fabric and the center of the stencil. Making reference points for a repeating pattern would be a good idea, too. Eyeballing this design wasn’t difficult, but a more intricate design might be. So, remember that when making a stencil. Then, starting at the center, I worked my way toward the edges.

Fortunately, the fabric paint dried quickly, but I did cut the edges of my stencil to make overlapping easy.

After the paint completely dried (about 20 minutes later) I cut two pieces of yellow fabric to make an envelope closure style pillow. Now we’ve got a completely custom pillow on the couch.

Time to start thinking about curtains, but that could be an entirely different post. So many options, so little time. What have you stenciled recently? Walls? Pillows? Maybe you’ve been sewing? Whatcha making? Or are you starting curtain planning? Let’s discuss.

Cut Out Map

Published on June 28, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Personal art is something I love having in my home and something I really enjoy making. Last year, I made a cut out map of Savannah, Georgia, where Ben and I honeymooned. Patricia from PVE and I traded art, and she requested a map cut out of New York. Well, I’m at it again, this time with our home town. It started when I decided to clear some of our junk from the basement. After hanging the Savannah cut out in the living room, I looked around at our bare walls. Specifically, these matching bare walls on either side of the dining room doors.

Wanting to prominently display my hard work, I decided to make the Savannah cut out a set. I complied images from Google maps to map out our town. After piecing the pages together in Photoshop, I adjusted the size until I had my design perfect. To save ink, I made a street overlay, which is just a new layer that I trace the lines over.

If you want to make your own cut out, it would be easier to take your map to a print shop (even Kinkos, now FedEx Office), enlarge it to the size you want, and print it on plain paper. Basically, I’m lazy and cheap, so it is easier for me to make the overlay, divide it into 8 by 10 print sheets and tape my papers together, like this:

I use that printed design as a template by taping the edges on top of my nice paper. Then I cut. And cut. And cut some more until my fingers hurt and my hand cramps. If that doesn’t make you want to try this, I don’t know what will. Haha.

At first, the boys colored next to me while I worked. When they get bored, I’ll take a break to play with the kids or clean up the house and come back to it. Honestly, I don’t know how long this took because I worked on it when I felt like it and when if was convenient. Maybe six hours total for a 14 by 18 design?

Once my design is completely cut out, I carefully peel back the template. Because I already had one framed map, but not another frame to match, I bought two 22 by 28 inch plain wood frames from Hobby Lobby for 35 bucks thanks to a 50% off sale. Not the prettiest frames, but spray paint can fix that.

While at HoLo, I bought two sheets of mat board to cut a new mat for each frame and a sheet of dark gray paper to back my map. And here’s the newest art addition in our abode.