The Painted Lady's Emrald Eyes

There's some freaky sci-fi excitement that comes from putting words on the internet. It's out there for the world to see, but I feel private and intimate because I'm at home. (And no one is reading this!) Oh the danger, to treat it as though it were my journal, and yet the world can see!

Enough sillyness, I've finally started a new project. I feel bad for "The Painted Lady," she's going to be so jealous of "The Duchess of Bedroom."



SO she needs some work (a little like The 'Real' Housewives of you-know-where). But she has neato hidden drawers and jewely for hardware. I fell hard.

The Duchess is going to embody all fabuliciousness bestoed on her from Furniture High (or I'm high and no one should use paint this bright for ANYTHING).

Essentially the how to goes :
1- Find a fabulous, solid wood oldy but a goody. This one is circa Farah Fawcett was the hottest thing.
2- Remove hardware. This is good place to give organization a shout-out. Separate and lable everything, you'll be happy you did. I put each drawer/door hardware in a separate baggie and labled them. Mi Esposo labled all the drawers. So post-paint was a breeze.
3- Sand sand sand, first fine then super duper fine (I did 150 then 220). My power sander has been "borrowed" by a friend so I did it by hand. My wrists, which are about as sturdy as Montgomery Burns', were hecka sore the next day, so maybe use a power tool or a tool you can trick into doing it for you.
4- Paint. I was in a saucy mood, so i bought bright paint. My rationalization was "everything is white, everything is white, everything is white" I felt like a crazy person in a padded cell.
White will always be my fav for fabrics, but I need some snap crackle. I wanted something to go with a reclaimed wood heaboard on the to-do, I can't think of anymore excuses.
It was risk, it's "Peacock Tail" from Behr. I woke up on painting day with huge regret, wishing I had gone for a soft gray (you know, white's slightly dirty cousin). But I charged ahead.
Two coats, plan on it. Even with my primer-build-in promise, it took two, it ALWAYS takes two.
5- Don't be me, give your stuff time to dry, I never do. I live in a teeny apt and you-know-who won't let me in his garage, so I went with no voc in the living room with the slider open. I had to get my cr@p out of there ASAP. Put your hardware back, find that tool from ealier and have it move your dresser (I HAVE to get me one of those!).

The love dungeon is in upheaval, so it wouldn't be fair to The Duchess to do her grand reveal in there, but I'll give you a teaser and her Maxime shoot will come out when the headboard is ready.

Painted Lady

It seemed wrong to talk about the hutch behind its back. She came to us a hippy horror, wood knobs and all... but free. Yes. Nothing sweeter, and solid, thick, heavy deliciousness that comes with scoring an outdated but quality piece. Her glass was murky greenish-brown, glazed with some kind of awful thick stuff.




















Sand paper, primer, 1 whole gallon of paint (it needed 2) and she was lookin’ pretty good. I couldn’t replace the hinges so we got new knobs to match. She was close, so close. I couldn’t figure out what to do about that u-g-l-y glass. Replacing it would be spendy, but I considered punching a design through thin metal or fabric. When I went to clean the paint off the glass, miracle upon miracle—the glass came clean! Beautiful, clear retro colored glass was hidden by half a century of grime. Really a magical moment. So here’s our painted lady. We’ll be sad to see her go (but love to watch her leave. teehee) Moral of the story? Paint is good, really good.

Dining Desk

We don’t have an office, and won’t anytime soon. My dining room looks like this:

I might be exaggerating a little.

We’re selling our hutch. Though it’s come a long way and we’ve grown to love it, it is completely impractical for our needs. What we need is a desk, that lives in our dining room and doesn’t look like a desk.

Sideboard for dining room, to double as office space. Apothecary inspired?

So the idea is that the side would have a desktop hinged, comes up, dining chair slides underneath and you have an instant desk. Office things are stored in the “sideboard” out of site. Also, maybe one of the drawers is a filing cabinet? And there are drawers at the top for storing table cloths and such. I can keep my polish pottery collection on top (2 pieces is collection right? Well it’s a start) Or on some floating shelves above, maybe real rustic reclaimed looking ones… Okay I’m getting carried away.

So the inside looks a little something like this:







These top drawers are for linens, left is filing cabinet, middle is baskets for office supplies, right is laptop shelves.

Options for the front include apothecary:












OR, and now that I look at it I’m leaning more this way, something a little more modern:















OR we could always go somewhere a little more whimsical like so:

















Well the plan is a little schizophrenic, but I can't build till after we move next month so there is still some time.

Clock, To Buy or Not to Buy...

Last year, I tried to revamp a free clock my husband brought home from the trash seven years ago. I sanded and painted the cromed plastic, but was not in love with the now-even-cheaper-looking clock. I came across this tutorial http://alchemyjunk.blogspot.com/2010/01/pottery-barn-clock.html and had some scrap wood from a corny beach sign I had made from scrap (so this was like re-recycling) and set to work.
I loved the result and felt like quite the artsy lady, but wanted the clock to work. I disassembled free hideous clock, but the mechanism wouldn't fit.


I tried to frankenstien the thing, but ended up drilling throught the back of my masterpiece, trying to fix it and ending up with a goth look that I was not going for in my country dining/living area.


I was in mourning for quite awhile, and shopping for clocks was painful. I finally bought this clock. I know. My husband said "You bought THAT clock?!" He only says half of what he means to so the translation is "Seriously! After a year of not having a clock because you were holding out for the perfect clock, after you made your own clock, after you ruined our perfectly good clock THATS the clock you come home with!?"


Look. A clock mechanism is expensive and I have yet to come up with a good solution for how to make my own clock for less than $50, so this is my next best idea. I love the funky design, but the best part is you can customize it, making it your own "hand-made" item. The white frames have the number printed all over them, and they're magnetic. Once you take one off, the number underneath is paper and you can replace it with anything. The clock itself is metal so I'm envisioning removing the frames alltogether and putting on my own magnetic or vinyl numbers. So for now a clock is definitely a "to buy" item, but making my own operational clock is still on my to do list.

Simple Headboard

I have followers! Love you guys, and thanks for checking out the blog. Sunny weather is great for projects, so here's something to inspire you.

Headboards are expensive for a good reason. They are challenging to make, but give a much more finished and “high-end” look to a space. BUT you can make your own if you’re up for it.

An easy place to start is a simple, rectangular, fabric covered headboard. Look for a material’s list and approximate cost for the project at the end of the post.

To make this simple headboard, cut or have your hardware store cut the plywood and 2X2’s down. Use 2 in. screws through the front of the plywood to attach the 2X2’s (they should make a frame on the inside of the plywood and be flush with the outside edge of the plywood). Wrap the batting around the headboard and staple on the back. Wrap the fabric around the batting, pull the fabric tight and staple on the back.


(I know the pics are bad bad bad. I made this many years ago and this is a cropped pic of the headboard)

I did not mount my headboard, but know they sell kits to mount them to the wall. Alternatively you can make it tall enough to drill holes towards the bottom, and use nuts and bolts to attach the headboard to the bed. I’ve always had mine smushed between the bed and the wall, no hardware necessary.

Materials:
1 4X8 sheet of plywood
3 2X2’s
2” wood screws
Batting
2-3 yrds. fabric
Power drill with screw driver attachment
Stapler (heavy duty, like for upholstery)
Staples

Cost:
When I made this headboard, it cost me $60. Fabric is a major expense, so searching clearance at fabric stores or waiting till you have a coupon is a great idea. I reused the plywood base later on to make a more challenging headboard, so it is reusable.

I’m traveling the next three weeks, but will be helping to make a tufted headboard while gone, so I’ll have step-by-step pics and tutorial for that in about four weeks. Have a happy summer and happy headboard building!

In The Begining...

We all want an inviting customized space to call home. This has been a great challenge for me as a student, parent, and long-term apartment dweller. At Hand-Made Home, I'll show-and-tell my mistakes, frustations, and ultimate step-by-step successes.