DIY Furniture

I'm going to take on furniture today, because they are so important in a home.
And sometimes it's hard to spot what will look good, what's worth saving, and what will be a lot of work.
It all depends on what you are willing to, and trust yourself to do, because everyone can reupholster a chair, giving enough time and the right tutorial.

And most importantly the will to do it.

First of all, don't look as the furniture as a whole, if you like a piece of it then you can use that in a more practical way, like this desk, you may not need a desk but this nightstand is one so cute, with minimum work.
See the blog on Sugarbeecrafts.

 Reupholstering a chair can often be hard work, but look how beautiful, elegant and different it can look with a little piece of fabric, but maybe a little bit more of patience.

You can see the tutorial on how she does it on centsationalgirl.

And it's often seeing the possibilities in the detail, if it has some custom detail, some fascinating lines or even if it's just box shaped, if you can picture it fitting in your room with another color, it's almost a must.
It's really amazing how much difference just white paint can make, and painting wooden furniture white is really trending right now, and sandpapering the edges to make the furniture look old is also a neat trick, but note that it looks better on dark wood, or painting dark texture before the white on top.

This is a huge difference on this rather plain looking sideboard, but the wood sometimes adds to much texture that sometimes it's better to tone it down and make it simple. and for the ones that aren't afraid of color could also have some fun with the details on the middle doors, or get handles in fun bright color.

Sometimes the wood can be the splash of color, mixing different wood types is a good way to reuse old materials, and it gives a lot of personality and has different texture on each wood type, just watch out for splinters and sandpaper everything down good, specially when you're handling old wood.

And don't be afraid of something different, in color choice, method or style, you can with the right attitude give almost any furniture the right personality for your home. This is a painted glass table top, and you can see how to do this on designsponge

Now let your personalities shine and turn this 

Into this.
What an amazing transformation, just by paint!
see tutorial on momentswiththemontanos

Have fun repainting old furniture and giving them new life !

un-clustering your bookshelf

I wish I had time to blog more often, but here we go again! 

Firstly, I want to talk about books, I love books, I love reading them but I don't like how clustered and unorganized they can get in the shelves.
Make your own book covers, maybe just some splashes of color that can bring a book case together and un-cluster it.

Or if you're not to much of a color-person, get some old maps or newspapers to have them the same color, and hand write the book titles on them so they'll be easier to find.

And it also matters if you don't have time or the patience for that you can cluster them beautifully, yes, that's possible.

Things like this I don't find pleasing to the eye at all, I don't want to check out the books, it's very un-welcoming to me. Everything is lined up and not one book is really put in a special place, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of thought being put into it to an outsider, even though the owner knows exactly where each book is.

It's cluster like this that makes me happy, there are a little bit of a color organization, but the books don't have to stack the same way in all the shelves, and put some character in there, some vases, statues, flowers or pictures, it looks like someone really loves their books and wants to make them as pleasing to the eye as they are to the mind.

This is probably hard to do, firstly there aren't a lot of books that come in so many varieties of color, at least not here in Iceland, you can make this yourself like with the rainbow books in the first picture, but it's going to be hard.

Having the books make a big picture is a great fun way to make the bookcase pop, like taking a picture of the family and gluing them on the ends of the books, it could make a really fun DIY !  

cement transformed

Hello ! And I'm sorry that I've been slacking, it's been crazy at work and inspiration hasn't been at it's best.
But I'll make up for it right now, I'll show you some youtube videos that I'm super excited about.
Firstly, there's a guy who's faking a stone wall and tree planks affect from cement.
This means that you can do this in your livingroom, bedroom, wherever you want different texture, and maybe make it a little bit more romantic.

Now, when I saw this I thought that he must have made these stencils by hand, and I still don't know if he did.
But I found this school/shop called Decorative Concrete Training, and they had this beauty.
Their website is terrible if you press "home", but in the link you can see the stencils they offer with many different textures.

So you can make your own, not exactly the same, but still very nice, maybe even better, depending on the project.

At betterpaths.com are more stamps you can buy online, there are some tree stamps there I like a lot.
And on that note I want to show you this video.

This is a great way to give your door some character, even some of your character, because no one makes things the same way twice by hand, plus you can't really see the difference between a real grain and a fake one.

 I think this lamp from Brigg looks gorgeous.
(and they also tell you how to do this!)

These concrete coasters would look even better with some stamps on them, or paint them, for those who are good with a paint brush.
see more about these coasters here.

 

And here's a site and a project I'll leave you with, I want to make this when I'll need a countertop.
With a wood grain in it and a glass top on it.
It's a plan.

And since this blog now is about tree, I found this on my facebook wall while making this blog, this is an artist here in Iceland that makes these wonderful paintings, and she just posted this, trying new things and painting her artwork on tree drumbs, Her art is called Helma ART and you can see pictures of her work.
Wonderful stuff.

paint-dipped

Hello again, sorry for no activity, I hope today's blog makes up for it.
Let's start with the paint-dipped trend, and how my favorite paint-dipped items look.

These spoons for example are so stunning, this is exactly what I think paint-dipping is about, connecting the old, with a new personal flare. Having different colors and even paint-dip your glasses to match like you can see here

Now, pinecones make a great decoration any time of the year, but to spice it up a little, dip them in paint and mix them in with normal ones or different colors, have half of the pinecone painted.

Originally found here

And of course, you should play with it and make it personal, I love this idea to make the paint drip up, by turning the pot upside-down, mix colors and have a good time ! 

Make the edges soft and feminine like ohhappyday.com did.

Or make it look like a fun mistake like seen on home-dzine.co.za

This is a wonderful way to decorate and I hope it will inspire some of you ! 

Nature, dinosaurs and wine corks

I like this idea a lot for a cute little artwork on the wall, maybe paint them different color, depending on what matches your space, and let your imagination control, pick something you find beautiful and is easy to get in your neighborhood, some people collect shells.

This may become a stepping stone in your garden, or even a beautiful bowl in your livingroom.

See the post here

I love this ! The tutorial is a little bit to basic though, so if you have any questions please let me know.
I think it'd be easiest to buy a light that has a battery, if you can't hide the cords that you would plug into the walls, if you have a battery powered one, you could hide it behind the canvas.
You can see it here

 This Rock runner is such a beautiful and easy DIY projects if you got flat rocks close to you or someone in your family collected them. They also make a beautiful doormat.

And it might be a fun idea if you got kids to let them color the rocks in different colors and make it a little bit personal.
See how here

Here's an easy one for parties, it makes a fun little summer theme to the party.

And here's one with fresh herbs mixed with water.

Another cozy cork idea, there's no need to throw it away, there's a lot of things that you can use them for, it's important to not throw away the things that can me reused, and specially things like this, it can give such a calming and romantic feeling to a room.

I want these candle sticks ! I loved dinosaurs so much as a kid, and it's just such a personal feel for me, but it's also so easy, bright color spray or paint, and some dollar store toys !

personalize is the key to romance

How easy ? 

These red lips would add a really nice and elegant flavor to a livingroom, diningroom or even the bedroom.

This would also be so romantic over the bed, it's also extremely easy, see the how to here, it's not in english, but the pictures show it really well.

You can of course make this in any size, so I'd make a big headboard with a word like "love" or something that means a lot to the people who sleep in the bed, maybe your names ?

This lamp you can buy here for 22$, and there is a how to on that page also, so maybe some of you DIY geniuses can make your own versions ?
How romantic to go to sleep under the stars every evening.

This I find adorable, you and your partner, you and your kid, or your kids if you got two, can make a heart together. It's really personal and that's what romance and love are all about.

I think this is romantic, rusty and old, maybe I'm just weird like that, but the bed tray is something I must make. This almost screams perfect.

A moss ringbearer pillow, it doesn't have to be a ringbearer pillow, it can be a decoration in your house, a DIY tutorial here, there are so photos though. I'm sorry about that, put please personalize, it makes everything romantic.

Honeycomb

I've been seeing a lot of DIY projects inspired by honeycombs lately, and since it's summer I'd like to show you my favorites ! 

Honeycomb smocking, it's a really easy tutorial, and it doesn't strain your hands as much as many other smocking tutorials do.
See tutorial here
If you have old curtains you'd like to freshen up, this would be a great solution, maybe a scarf.
I see some great ideas bobbling up in my head. 

Honeycomb shelves. These are precious, and you can make as many connect together as you want, have them randomized across the wall or just have one or two. I you've read my blog at all you'll know how much I love driftwood and pallets, so I'd suggest old wood for the part, just make sure it handles pressure, that it's not to old.
See tutorial here

Now, I know this ottoman tub has been given a new life, and it looks amazing, but as for me, I don't know where to get a tub like this, so I saw this as a great idea to recreate the shelves you see above, if you re-size the shelve tutorial you can make an ottoman out of old wood.
There's not a tutorial for this item, but you can buy it here, it's a little pricey, so if you decide to make this yourself hope you'll e-mail me the results, I'd love to see it, my e-mail is guffaakristins@gmail.com.

That's it for today, I'll be posting blogs at least on mondays and thursdays from now on.
And hopefully more. Like my Facebook page to see updates, I always post there when I post a blog.

PVC pipes and books DIY

These ideas are some that I feel that will personalize a bit more the small details in your home, so maybe we'll call it decoration tips part II !
Firstly the PVC pipes;

PVC pipes, there are some awesome things I found out you could do with those, like this candlestick, you could paint them to fit your room or make it stand out, either cold (when everything else is colorful) or vise versa.

Or as flower vases since it's summer, and the "Pretty Vase Collection by Francois Xavier Ballery" is in fact really pretty and a great DIY project !

I know this is a holiday craft, but I see so many possibilities !
Firstly, just as a work of art, in different colors and make some funky shapes out of it, constructions under a shelf or a table. storage for spices in the kitchen, for toothpastes and toothbrushes in the bathroom or to hold the shampoo, and I could go on and on.

Keep your laptop from overheating, and it just looks so cute !

And now to the books;

Personalized Iphone dock, it's so easy to make and it's a wonderful way to personalize your nightstand. Your favorite books or just some pretty covers, it's extremely easy to make like you can see here on Curbly.

This idea is made from a hardcover book, a 5$ lamp from IKEA and a rubber band, so extremely affordable, and with the right book, this can look super cool, if you have many books on a table, like in the picture, and have the "book lamp" in the middle, it can look really good.
See more here

Book planters, how cute is this !
See it here on homedit.