home decor

Art of Patron | Arts & Crafts Bottle Lamp

In The Studio

jvanderbeek_artofpatron_bottle_lamp-1I haven’t been accepting products for review or other blogging “opportunities” that have crossed my inbox over the last several months, but when I was contacted about blogging about the Art of Patron bottle art competition, it seemed way too far up my alley to turn away.

In short:

It’s a contest that encourages participants to use an empty Patron bottle and create their own unique piece of artwork. The contest runs through July 17 and nine people will be selected to receive $1,000, with the grand prize winner to be awarded $10,000. More details here.

So I said yes, and a few days later a couple bottles–one full, one empty–landed on my doorstep and the ideas started churning.

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Long-time readers may recall that we upcycled several dozen wine bottles for our wedding in 2013. Some were painted, others were turned into vases for centerpieces, and one even became my bouquet holder. In other words, I love working with bottles. And the iconic recycled Patron bottles, with their bubbly, slightly uneven surface, hold plenty of possibilities.

As you can see, above, I decided to make a lamp out of the empty Reposado bottle I received, preferring pretties that potentially serve a purpose to the purely decorative. Turning a vessel into a lamp can be a very simple project–kits are available at your local hardware store–but you know I didn’t take the simple route, right?

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With the bottle as the base and an octagonal shade purchased at Tuesday Morning for the top, Todd helped me find the right bits and bobs at Lowe’s to make up the main works: the switch (I opted for one with a pull cord over a button or knob), the “cage” for lightbulb, and the threaded tube that would form the neck of the lamp.

I had my heart set on a pretty, twisted lamp cord that would be seen and not hidden (the cord usually runs down the neck and exists the base unobtrusively at the back), so that was ordered from Color Cord Company. I ordered 12 feet to make sure I had plenty to wrap the neck of the lamp as well as the neck of the bottle and still have plenty for the business end of the cord. (I hate too-short cords!)

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Since I wanted the cord as a visual element, not just a working one, we had to alter the switch a bit. Todd drilled a 1/4″ hole in the base of the switch, on what would become the back side. Then we decided how tall we wanted the lamp to be and trimmed the threaded tube with a hacksaw, and secured the bulb “cage” and switch with some locking washers and nuts. I had been planning to secure the tube in place in the base with some silicone adhesive, but Todd came up with the idea of drilling a hole through a spare champagne cork instead. (Because I planned to use the original Patron cork as the lampshade’s finial!)

jvanderbeek_artofpatron_bottle_lamp_fairylights_frontandback

With those specifics out of the way, I got down to the decorating. It’s admittedly hard to see in the photos, but I spritzed the shoulders of the bottle with pearl and gold Glimmer Mist (the trick is to spray from almost too far away, otherwise you might end up with streaks and runs) and then sealing it with a coat of Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish to avoid any dulling reside from the mists. Then I filled the bottle with glass bead vase-filler and a string of battery-operated, warm white LED fairy lights.

Many fairy lights have AA or AAA battery packs to contend with, but they’re starting to make them with these flat-disc batteries, now, and that made it a much lower profile unit to glue to the back bottle. Now the lamp has both a regular bulb as well as a softer, ambient, “night light” effect in the base!

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The fringe I used on the lamp shape was definitely the most time-consuming part of the process: it’s hand knit looped fringe, made extra long and then trimmed to a uniform length. (I used the Single-Loop Fringe technique but did it as part of a knitted cast-on, so I could make as much as I needed and then stop, rather than have to start with a gauge swatch and hope the math was right!) I was able to find a yarn that was an almost-perfect match to the goldenrod color of the cord, so I consider the effort worth it (especially when you compare the cost of ready-made trim in the stores).

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I debated for a while what design to add to the plain shade. I considered screening or hand painting the Patron bee onto the larger panels, but I didn’t want to be that obvious, honestly! Instead, I used a gold pearl paint pen to dot a meandering bee-trail along the main panels, and a straight line down the smaller corner panels. Once everything was dry, the trim was added to the shade with Helmar Fabric Glue.

jvanderbeek_artofpatron_bottle_lamp-1I think the overall effect of the finished lamp gives it a very ‘Tiki’ feel, even if tiki drinks are usually the purview of rum. So I’m going to call this my TIKI-la Lamp, and plan just the right place for it on our bar!

If you’ve got a spare Patron bottle around (I can’t be the only one who hoards–ahem–holds onto interesting bottles when they empty), turn it into something awesome and enter it. You’ve got until the 17th!

 

A Touch of Steam

In The Studio

In a plan that makes sense somewhere in our brains but no where on paper, the one room in the house we have a crystal clear vision for is not the first room we’re planning to renovate. In fact, I don’t even think it’s in the top 3. Mostly it’s because the room in question is our dining room and, after scoring that great dining set, pretty much works as it is while other rooms are crying out for help.

November2014mixedmediachallenge

Still, when the November challenge for Gauche Alchemy was unveiled, my mind went straight to our traditional dining decor meets steampunk awesomeness plan and created a pair of copper-gilded sconces that will wait patiently for the rest of the room to catch up!

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To see how everything came together, make sure to check out my post over on Gauche Alchemy today. And then, if you want to make your own set, read below for what you need.

Parts & Supplies list for 2 Sconces

  • 2 wooden plaques
  • Paint (barn red and burnt sienna, in this case) and metallic glaze
  • Brushes and sea sponge
  • Chipboard gear shapes and pencil to trace patterns
  • Water-based adhesive & brush
  • Copper leaf & dry, soft brush
  • Glass varnish
  • Power drill with spade bits
  • 2 chandelier-based bulbs
  • 2 chandelier-style lamp housings
  • Copper pipe and pipe cutter
  • Copper pipe fitting (2 male adapters, 2 street-elbow joints, 2 45-degree elbow joints, 2 reducer adapters and 2 reducer bushings to nest inside the adapters–sizes will depend on your lamp housings, ours were 1/2″ for the pipe and the joints, etc. that fit)
  • Silicone adhesive for attaching pipe components

It helps if you have some basic electrical know-how–I left those bits up to Todd since he’s better at it than I am. One thing you do want to be extra careful about with a project like this is not to let any exposed wires from the lamp housing come into contact with the copper pipes and fittings. That would be bad. That’s also, Todd tells me, the reason we used 2 45-degree joints instead of a single 90-degree elbow, to put less potential strain on the wires.

While it’s a shame the sconces will have to wait to be hung (we plan to hard-wire them into a dimmer switch when we update the room) it’s nice to have something tangible to guide our choices as we find fixtures for the room over time. A lot of designers zero-in on a key fabric or pattern. I guess this in our key piece!

37 Home Decor | Bedroom on the Orient Express

64 Arts

Have you ever seen something that makes you stop in your tracks as your eyes widen and you lean in to get a closer look, utterly captivated?

That’s how I felt when I saw this picture :

Photographer: Hotze Eisma, from a Travel & Leisure article (I think)

Photographer: Hotze Eisma, for a Travel & Leisure article (I think)

Isn’t it delicious?!

For quite a while I’ve been “over” the current color scheme of our bedroom. It’s a watered-down version of what I dreamed up in my last apartment, kind of a Moroccan boudoir sort of vibe with deep reds and plush drapes, only when we moved in together I never got up the gumption to hang up the sheers over the boring off-white walls or even hang any pictures. And in the meantime the comforter that I searched high and low for is showing its age–the room desperately needs a makeover.

I’ll even show you what I mean.

The Before

The Before

Technically there’s nothing wrong with the room, it’s perfectly functional (if a bit snug), and we’re the only ones that see it and most of the time we’re asleep. So why the big deal?

I like having a pretty space to sleep in. A nicely-decorated room is relaxing to me.

So a course has been set, based on my inspiration photo and a few more I’ve found and added to the Pinterest board I created for the project. Thankfully the classic cars of the Orient Express are Art Deco (one of my favorite eras already) and inspiration abounds from that era and its subsequent revivals. And, of course, we’re still renting at the moment, so the walls will need to stay their current hue (I just hate painting only to repaint back to drab in the future), so I was searching for rooms that had the wonderful details that I loved but with pale walls instead of dark wood.

I love Pinterest for visual research, don't you?

I love Pinterest for visual research, don’t you?

I was able to create my color scheme using my original inspiration photo and the CoffeeShop Instant Color Bar action for Photoshop.

Our new color palette!

Our new color palette!

Of course, budget is worth a mention. Namely, my current utter lack of one what with the wedding coming up in a shade over 7 months and the economy not exactly doing our industry any favors. But, hey, that’s where I luck out, too–I’ve got some diy plans that just might make this makeover possible without too much difficulty or expense.

First of all, linens can make a dramatic change in a room. Take a look at the above photo and notice that the linens are pretty simple: solid linens and a striped blanket. The patterned section below is actually the sofa seat if I’m not mistaken, but I love the pattern as a box-spring cover idea, and can search out some fabric to accomplish the same task. And since we’re heading into Florida’s warmer season (we only get 2, you know–chilly and hot-as-blazes), a nice blanket will be quite enough and give me plenty of time to find something heavier by late-Fall. By that same token, I’ll be on the look-out for some curtain panels to replace the red ones currently closing off our closets; I can see more trips to HomeGoods in my future!

Thankfully, our bedside tables and lamps will work for this idea as is–just need to recover the lampshades in that divine dusty pink once I’ve got the rest of the linens sorted out. A quick search is telling me I’ll be more likely to find a blanket in a tan pattern (stripe or plaid) and be able to accent it with a pink throw more realistically than finding a blanket exactly like the one in the photo. I think I can work with that.

Now that’s the purchased portion, what was that about some DIY?

Todd’s dresser stand-in is high on my list. One of these days we’ll build or buy something more permanent, but until then I found my inspiration in this Stanhope Chest found on Joss & Main:

Stanhope Chest via Joss & Main

Stanhope Chest via Joss & Main

I have a hunch that some silver spray paint, nailhead trim, and faux leather strips can transform those Sterlite stacking drawers into something pretty spiffy and steamer trunk-inspired. The same applies to our current headboard. Under yet another curtain panel hides a rather country headboard but with a nice shape. I plan to trim off the posts at each end and cover the whole thing with faux-leather and nailhead trim. I’m still deciding if I’ll do the same to the foot board, though we could also remove it altogether (and remove my tendency to hang things on it in the process).

The window, I think, needs a pull-down shade to hide the horrible mini-blinds, and then maybe some sheer swags on either side–I may have enough canvas yardage in my fabric stash for the shade and the antique gold sheers I used on my apartment walls might work well for the swag; if so, that’s a few trips saved to the cutting table. I’ll be on the hunt for a trunk or bench that will afford some extra storage so I can finally empty those boxes hanging out in that space, currently. Add some artwork for the painfully bare walls (some panels painted and lacquered a la the inspiration board would be divine) and we’ve got ourselves a room worth dreaming in and about!

I’ll be sure to keep you posted as the room comes together.

Have you ever gotten the urge to redo a room? I’d love to see some before and after shots!
And do you have any tips for my room makeover?

37 Home Decor | Crazy For You: Crazy-Quilted Pillow Covers are Tops for Upcycling Fabric

64 Arts, Projects

Quilting is an age-old tradition of making lovely textiles from bits and pieces of fabrics. While many times these fabrics are purchased with a certain project in mind, quilting can be a fabulous way to use up leftover scraps or rescue fabric from clothes that are headed to a rag bin just because a portion is worn or stained. But a lot of quilting patterns require cutting certain shapes, which can make using those scraps a little tougher.

Enter the Crazy Quilt. Not quite a scary as it sounds, a crazy quilt is simply one without a set pattern. You can see the basics on my How to Crazy Quilt article (back from my eHow days), but the gist is you layer bits and pieces of fabric onto a foundation piece and create a fabric collage of sorts. Then you can embellish to your hearts content.

By the way: Not only is March National Craft Month, March 16th, 2013, is also National Quilting Day–why not give crazy quilting a try?

In our discussion of throw pillows last week I did, rather casually, mention making your own. This might seem like a big task if you’re not handy around needle and thread (much less zippers, button holes and the rest) but I can assure you it really is a simple process.

After all, one of the first things they seemed* to teach in middle school Home Ec. classes was how to make a pillow!

For today’s project I pulled out some crazy quilted panels that I started years ago. I’d been meaning to turn these panels into pillows for some time (yes, they are the same panels from the eHow article posted 4 years ago…they’ve been aging…like wine…or something like that). I finished up a bit of embellishment that had been pinned on (yes, for 4 years–look, it’s finished now is what counts) over the weekend and then whipped up these 2 throw pillows last night.

Two crazy-quilted pillow covers, all ready for snuggling.

Two crazy-quilted pillow covers, all ready for snuggling.

Now, here’s the thing. Even if we ignore the 4 years this project sat dormant, crazy quilting–just like any quilting–takes time and effort. I didn’t want to just have the 2 panels I’d made used up all at once. No, I think if you can put in a sincere amount of work on something and then stretch out its use you get way more bang for your buck, so instead of just trimming the panels to size and adding a back, I cut each panel into 4 and added some fabric from my stash to finish the pillow front.

Here’s a diagram of just how this worked:

This is one way to "sash" your way around a focal panel, the other is to cut 2 pieces 8.5" long and 2 pieces 15" long--it's a bit more straightforward on the sewing end, but not as pretty, I think.

This is one way to “sash” your way around a focal panel, the other is to cut 2 pieces 8.5″ long and 2 pieces 15″ long–it’s a bit more straightforward on the sewing end, but not as pretty, I think.

However you put together the front panel, the back panels are the real trick to quick throw pillows. What makes them so simple is the utter lack of zippers, buttons, snaps, or any other fasteners to fiddle with. Instead, you cut 2 pieces of your fabric the same size as your front panel (in my case I was using a 14″ pillow form, so my finished front and 2 backs are each 15 inches square (allowing for a 1/2-inch seam allowance all the way around) and overlap them to create a pocket fold.

Start by hemming one side of each of your backing pieces by folding over the bottom 1 inch, pinning, and sewing along the length.

Tip: I use corsage pins for just about everything--they're easier to grab and way easier to find when you drop one!

Tip: I use corsage pins for just about everything–they’re easier to grab and way easier to find when you drop one!

Then place the pillow front (right side up) on your work surface, and one of the back pieces (right side down) and fold that hemmed edge up about a third of the pillow length.

Folding the hemmed edge up creates a nice, soft edge for your pocket in the back.

Folding the hemmed edge up creates a nice, soft edge for your pocket in the back.

Do the same with the second pillow back, but coming from the opposite side. This way the two folded-back pieces overlap. Pin the whole sandwich together securely and sew all the way around the perimeter of the pillow case, using a 1/2-inch seam allowance.

The 3 layers are all pinned together to prevent slipping and now ready to zip through a sewing machine.

The 3 layers are all pinned together to prevent slipping and now ready to zip through a sewing machine.

Once sewn, all you need to do is turn the case inside out and insert your pillow form.

Showing both the front and the back of my finished throw pillows. The microsuede is incredibly soft and very durable, too!

Showing both the front and the back of my finished throw pillows. The microsuede is incredibly soft and very durable, too!

I used some navy blue microsuede I found in my blue fabric stash for the back fabrics, so while the front of the pillows are visually interesting, the backs are soft and petable.   If I wanted, I could add some fabric-covered buttons or even these Dorset Buttons (another of my old eHow articles) and have truly double-sided pillows.

For that matter, so could you!

How about it, are you up for some crazy quilting or simple pillow making? I’d love to see what you made!

Oh, and if you want one more bit of throw-pillow inspiration, check out the “shabby applique” technique I made up also back in my eHow days.

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*As evidenced by other students carrying them around–I took band instead of home ec/art.

Guest Appreciation: A Seat for Every Seat

64 Arts, Projects

With one foot still in carpentry we’re going to take a half-step towards the next art for this next project before fully immersing ourselves in

37 House Furnishings and Decorations

When we entertain it’s important that all of our guests have a spot—be it to stand or sit really depends on what type of gathering you’re having. As most of our get-togethers involve a meal or playing games (not of the sporty type), having seats for everyone becomes kind of important to the size of our gathering.

I’ve rented chairs for big parties, and happily do so since the cost is low and it saves us having to store them. We have a couple of folding chairs in the garage that we can bring out for the occasional extra keister or two, but they don’t sit as high as the rest of the dining room chairs, so it’s not the best solution for large family dinners.

Ergo, it’s time to make over my $3 chair.

My $3 side-of-the-road antique store chair.

My $3 side-of-the-road antique store chair.

I bought this chair from a little antique shop that’s no longer in business and, yes, paid a whopping $3 for it. The original plan was to clean it up (it still had a seat then) and use it as a spare chair in my sparsely furnished apartment. That didn’t happen, so it’s spent it’s life in multiple garages and storage rooms until the seat’s rotted out and it’s collected more cobwebs than I really want to think about.

So when I started stripping the antique school desk to refinish it, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, and save myself some grief.

Well, that’s not exactly how things worked.

After the first round of stripping and scouring, the chair didn't look that much different!

After the first round of stripping and scouring, the chair didn’t look that much different!

The first round of stripping and sanding barely made a dent in the paint and varnish combo on the chair, so then next weekend I tried again with a heavier stripping pad and even a scraper. I still only got partway through the finish and, by that point, I was so very over this process.

And I reminded myself it was only a $3 chair.

New plan! Screw the refinishing, let’s just paint the sucker. I started out with 2 coats of matte-finish spray paint in a dark brown as an undercoat.

After 2 rounds of stripping and scraping and sanding and 2 coats of paint, it sorta looks like where we started. Not for long!

After 2 rounds of stripping and scraping and sanding and 2 coats of paint, it sorta looks like where we started. Not for long!

That’s where things are right now, since the weather isn’t exactly cooperating—it’s been either too cold or too wet to get any more painting done, plus I need Todd to cut a new seat for the chair and fashion new braces for the legs.

(The brace being the cross-piece between the front and back legs. One was missing when I bought the chair, and we were unable to find any turned braced the right size or length to match, so we’re going to sub in a round dowel rod with the ends cut to fit the existing holes, and go from there.)

The pieces for the rest of the makeover: 3/4" plywood and 2 " foam for the seat, and a 1-inch dowel for the braces.

The pieces for the rest of the makeover: 3/4″ plywood and 2 ” foam for the seat, and a 1-inch dowel for the braces.

Once the new seat and braces are cut, the entire chair will get a coat of a light blue paint and then I’ll distress the edges so that the brown underlayer shows through a bit (like this project from Crane Farms, but not quite as distressed). I thought about using a crackle medium, but didn’t want something quite so shabby chique as all that. Instead I’ll go for simple distressing for a nice aged look.

Then I’ll seal it to prevent more paint than I want from coming loose.

I’ve also picked up some thick foam to cushion the seat with. I’ll cut it to the needed size and shape, bevel the top edges so it’ll look prettier, and then cover the seat with some plush, dark-brown microsuede (I’ve got an entire bolt of the stuff from another project that went nowhere).

Theoretically this chair will match the triptych I painted for the living room (of our last house) that now hangs above our television. The chair probably won’t live in our current living room, but at least it’ll look nice when we bring it out for guests (though I keep starting at a particular corner wondering if I could make it fit with the desk.

This is a rough mock-up of how I see the chair ending up. We'll see how close reality is to idea.

This is a rough mock-up of how I see the chair ending up. We’ll see how close reality is to idea.

Obviously I’m not done with this project, but I want to stay on track with the blog schedule I laid down for myself, so next week we’ll be talking about another facet of home decorating. Once the chair project is done I’ll post that update on the nearest Thursday.

Cool? Cool.