A Peaceful Bedroom

My daughter chose a color palette of powder grey, lavender and sky blue for her bedroom’s last makeover. As I mentioned earlier, this would be the fourth makeover since she was five. She’s nearly 18 now and wanted to make her surroundings peaceful and serene. The challenge in redoing this room was that the third makeover had made the walls extremely difficult to paint.

This was what I had to cover up. I had at least been smart in that only water-based products had been used on the walls. I had even found water-based Sharpie paint markers so that the writing wouldn’t bleed through the next layer. The biggest problem was covering up the paper images. Apparently, I really glued those things down. So rather than try to remove them, I decided to plaster over them. I have several gallons of various plaster products in my Stash and this was a great opportunity to use them. I’m not going to tell you what I used because they can’t be bought by the general public, and I didn’t use them the way they were supposed to be used and I really don’t want to give you people any ideas.

This is what I call “artistic experimentation.” I troweled on different products until I found one that gave me the look that I wanted. I ended up giving the walls a skip-troweled finish which I love. It took me a week to get the walls plastered and even. Once it was sanded and level we finally got to paint.

My daughter is still not ready to let go of the Whomping Willow mural I painted two makeovers ago. It originally looked like this:

Then I transformed it to this:

The idea was to make the mural look like an advertising poster for the Harry Potter exhibit opening at Universal Studios in 2010. One mistake I made was stamping those designs in the corners. I didn’t think about what the ink was made of and when I tried to plaster and paint over them, the ink kept bleeding through. It took about 5 coats, no kidding.

I didn’t like the raw plaster edges around the mural so I ended up cutting wood trim and attaching it to the edges. The bottom piece of trim actually has a small lip like a ledge. I faux finished the trim to match the mural, added some trompe l’oeil details to the top corners and lightened up the color of the frame so that it complements the wall color better. I’m really happy with how it came out.

We really lucked out on the day we went shopping for curtain fabric. We went to our local DAV thrift store and these sheets were just sitting there, along with a lavender sheet that I used as a dust ruffle.The curtains were cut from one twin size sheet and one queen size. I lined them with two plain white sheets to block out more light. I think I spent less than $20 on all the fabric. The rods and rings are from Target. I made the tie backs from lace, ribbon and fabric snaps out of my sewing stash. I absolutely love how these look on the windows.

My daughter got rid of a lot of stuff so that the walls would be sparsely decorated and less busy. This is the first room in the entire house that I haven’t added pattern to the walls in one form or another. It’s a new experience, but I think I love it.

Inventory used: 1 gallon faux stone

 

Fair Warning: You’re going to be jealous

I’ve never been one of those girls that like purses. Let me rephrase that…I’ve never been one of those girls that like traditional purses. I don’t understand why people like Coach, Dooney & Burke, Dolci Gabbana, etc (please forgive me if I’ve misspelled those, I don’t like them so I don’t know how to spell them). Categorically, I think traditional purses are too heavy, too flashy and too big. So when I need to get a new bag I pretty much drag my feet on the way to finding a replacement.

For about a month I have been dragging around a small backpack because I got sick of how big my last purse was. I didn’t put all the stuff in it that I actually need because I didn’t want to admit that I needed a new purse. If I admitted to the need I would have to actually shop for a purse, and I hate shopping for purses. I decided that maybe the best way to prevent one of those horrible shopping trips I could just try to make a purse. So the other night I searched Pinterest for “free purse patterns.” I found one I liked and found the time yesterday to sew it up. Warning: it’s adorable.

To die for, I know. This pattern is called the Phoebe Bag and is from Rebeka Lambert at artsy-crafty babe. I found her free pattern on Pinterest and it took me only 4 1/2 hours to sew, and I swear I wasn’t racing. The pattern and directions print out in 4 pages and the pattern pieces are the correct size, you don’t have to enlarge them at all.

The fabric I used is all from my stash. The only thing I had to buy was a magnetic snap closure. The lime-green flocked linen and the green damask print on the inside were pieces I picked up at Matilda’s Mouse Clearance sale last month. The cream tulip patterned fabric on the flap came from my friend Kate’s garage when we were cleaning it out. The bright blue, brown and green floral on the strap was a vintage piece I picked up at an antique store in Capitola when we were visiting Aunt Crystal’s beach house (aka: Heaven on Earth).

There are two pockets on the inside for my phone and my keys. The pattern was really easy to follow and I didn’t find any flaws with the design or the directions. I don’t consider myself an expert sewer at all, so if you’re tempted to try this, definitely jump in. I’m so happy with the way it turned out (obviously).

I know this post has nothing to do with painting, so thanks for indulging me in my stray from the main topic of this blog. I just think this bag is so stinking cute that I have to share it. So what did you do with your Labor Day?

Vintage Patchwork Curtain

Mollie Makes Magazine

Mollie Makes is my favorite magazine right now. It’s a British publication, but you can either subscribe (it’s my annual birthday present from my husband) or pick it up at Barnes & Noble. It’s not shown above, but it always comes with a little gift like a crafting kit or a spool of ribbon, it’s adorable. It has lots of crafting how-to articles, and highlights artists and stores both in Europe and America. I love it.

Anyway, in one of the issues this summer they showed an idea for making a patchwork curtain out of vintage handkerchiefs and napkins. I tried to find that image (I gave the magazine away) but I can’t find it, so sorry for that. The image energized me to make one for my studio.

Inspired by my husband’s aunt Crystal and her craftiness, I’ve collected quite a few vintage hankies, tea towels and napkins with the intention of turning them into pillows. Crystal makes these beautiful patchwork pillows out of vintage pieces and they’re so pretty. However, since my husband and daughter can’t deal with texture (don’t ask) I never attempted to make any. (I also noticed that some of my pieces were a little stained, which when you consider they’re hankies, is kind of gross and who wants to rest their head on that?) So I had a collection, but nothing to do with them. Then Mollie Makes gave me a new idea.

First of all, forgive me for the quality of the photos. I have photoshopped the crap out of these images. Taking photos of windows still has me baffled.

Anyway, this is the curtain I made from my collection. Making this up are tea towels, napkins, handkerchiefs and pillow case edging, all vintage. It’s nice because even though I mounted it all on a lining of sheet fabric, it’s still transparent enough to let the light in, but protects me from the searing afternoon sun that hits my window every day. I am not complaining about the sun in San Diego……it’s perfect compared to everywhere else in the world………I’m just trying to minimize the skin damage.

This is what they look like when they’re tied back. Again…adorable. I don’t know why, but they remind me of curtains in old Airstream campers. So cute.

I made tie backs out of embroidered napkins……..also……..adorable. I love them. I used up my entire collection, which fits the Destashio mission statement, so I feel pretty good about it. It didn’t cost anything, except time and backache from hunching over it while I pieced it together on my floor (no table big enough). So that’s another plus.

Well, that’s what I made last week. It was a bit of a brain teaser, but I love the results. Thanks, Mollie Makes!

What I did for love

Look what I did this weekend! It’s really not a big deal, but it was on that large stack in my studio called, “Crap I’ll make when I have free time.” I’m sure we all have those piles sitting around the house (and if you say you don’t we all know you’re lying). When I cleaned up my studio, the pile resurfaced so I refused to put it away. Believing that if I saw it every day, I would finally finish it.

I bought the front of this pillow at an antique store in Capitola, California, which is one of my favorite places to go. The pillow was tattered, but I thought I could separate the front from the worn out back and recycle it. I added strips of flannel to the sides to make it fit a 18 x 18 pillow form and then made the back out of a pretty blue fabric that I picked up at a thrift store. Like I said, it’s not a big deal, but it does look better on my couch than it did on the pile, which is now considerably smaller.

I made this for my daughter’s study area. Sorry for the lame picture, but it’s a hallway and tough to photograph. I found the fabric at Casa Artelexia, a Mexican decor store in Little Italy in San Diego. It looks like a French toile, but if you look closely, all the people are actually skeletons. The instant I saw it, I had to have it. It was $11 for a yard. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but when I was cleaning out the studio (you’d be amazed at the things you find when you clean) I came across this frame which I bought when my daughter was in Kindergarten. Ridiculous, I know. The pale bluish stain goes perfectly with all the wood stain in her new study spot, thus the bulletin board was born. There is a layer of cork under the fabric.

This isn’t a big deal either, but it feels good to get things off that pile, especially when all the materials are already here and begging to be used.

Good luck with your own pile and Happy Pinning!