For The Love Of...Bamboo

Okay I admit it. I love bamboo. Fabric, furniture, accessories, you name it and I'm interested. Over the past couple of years I've collected quite a bit of this stuff in my home because it looks good everywhere.

I know you're wondering "Tara, where did this obsession come from?". Well I recently came across some childhood photos that I hadn't seen in forever. This is our kitchen booth in the house I spent most of my younger years in. Look at that wallpaper and light fixture. And yes I'm a little overly excited in yellow.

And our family spent a lot of time at this place sitting in those awesome chairs.

So here is rundown of my bamboo pieces. I made four of these frames using plain pine frames from Target, river cane cut to size and gold paint with an antique glaze.

This is a huge 31" Paul Hanson lamp found at Goodwill for $3.20. I need to repaint the base but holy cow what a steal. I found a pair of these exact lamps on ebay for $400.

This thrifted tray was purchased for $1.

These chairs were found on Craigslist already in this incredible pattern.

Also a Craigslist find for $25. I spray painted the chair Valspar Plumberry and had the cushions professionally made in Ralph Lauren's Sand Leopard print fabric.

Six dining room chairs from Craigslist (notice a theme here?) for around $250 were spray painted Rustoleum's Heirloom White.

And finally a silver bowl with bamboo handles that was my mom's. We use it to hold the remotes in the family room.

Bamboo brings wonderful detail into a space without looking too feminine. Also since we live in a smaller house bamboo chairs don't block the line of sight which help rooms appear more spacious. Thank goodness with some patience great vintage pieces can be found!

Lilac Campaign Dressers

Remember when I found these beauties of this shopping trip?

Well I decided to tackle them this past week. It was time consuming so I broke it down into steps and tried to knock something out everyday until they were finally completed last night. It only took 30 minutes to pry off the hardware with a handy steak knife.

I decided on the color Enchant by Sherwin Williams. It's the third color down on the paint strip.

For supplied I used Zinsser Cover Stain primer because it sticks to everything. I love Sherwin Williams ProClassic because of its durable finish that doesn't require a topcoat. Finally a little Rub n Buff was needed for select hardware pieces.

My dining room turned into a makeshift painting room after pushing the furniture to the wall. This is after the first coat of primer.

I waited a full day before applying the second coat of primer and two days between the two coats of paint. Here is one of the dressers before all of the hardware was put back on.

The handles were cleaned up after soaking in ketchup which worked great. Oddly the discs and brackets were not solid brass so I applied Antique Gold Rub n Buff to them for a decent match to the handles.

Here they are sitting pretty still in my dining room. I couldn't help but style it a little with the makeover lamp and tray to see what it might actually look like in the girls room.

The second coat of paint goes on the walls in the girls room today so hopefully the dressers will move upstairs this weekend. Once the new curtains are hung along with a few more updates their room will be done. Come back next week to see the full reveal (and better pictures)!

Paint Chip Art

There are many amazing paint chip art projects floating around and I was interested in creating my own. This piece and this piece were my main sources of inspiration. Just so you know I don't scoop up tons of these paint strips at the hardware store. I only pick up two or three occasionally when making my usual run to the store. I do buy paint from these places so I'm okay with it.

Only a few supplies were needed to get started. The large hole punch was $11 with a 40% coupon and I purchased a $4 brown bamboo frame from Goodwill that was spray painted Heirloom White.

The stack of paint strip samples probably took about 9 months to accumulate.

After punching out the ovals in the colors I was interested in I did a dry run to see how I liked the layout. This is what I ended up with after playing around with the pieces.

I then carefully stacked all the pieces in order by layer and set them to the side. Rub n Buff was applied by finger on the particle board insert that came with the frame. About a half hour later I attached the ovals with glue starting with the outer layer. It definitely helped looking at the picture of the dry run to remember the placement of each piece. Here is an upclose shot of the antique gold backround with the paint chips.

Some Mod Podge was brushed on to only the ovals to add dimension to the finished piece. Here it is hanging on the living room wall.

What's great about this project is customizing the colors to fit your decor. I was looking for ways to add a little berry or pink to the space and this fit the bill. Now I have to figure out what to do with the leftover paint chips that were punched but not used...

Glossy Lamp Makeover

Recently I found this lamp at Salvation Army for only $5. The double gourd shape was gorgeous and I just knew with a new coat of paint it would be perfect for the girls room.

I read this great tutorial on how to spray paint a lamp and decided to go for it. First the cord and socket were covered with plastic bags then taped off.

I decided on on Rustoleum's Universal Paint and Primer in One because it has great adhesion properties and the white color is a true white without being too bright. Three thin coats sprayed a few minutes apart were needed to fully cover the dark brown lamp base. This project was started just as the sun was setting so the white looks a little different by the third coat.

First Coat

Second Coat

Third Coat

While painting two bugs landed on the lamp. I worried I'd have to sand and add another coat the next day. I waited until the next day and lightly brushed them off. Luckily there were no marks so I then finished the lamp off with two coats of Rustoleum Clear Gloss. These coats were a little thicker to make the lamp as glossy as possible.

Here it is up close. Look at that shine!

Topped with a plain white barrel shade is fine for now. I'm on the lookout for some fun trim to add once I have a better idea of where the room is going colorwise.

Shopping Thrift Store Style

Last Saturday I visited a small thrift store that I'd never been to before . Wow it was full of great accessories. The entire store was 50% off which made the prices hard to pass up. There were many more items I loved but didn't want to spend more than $10 so this is what I ended up with.

Look at these 5.5" tall alabaster horse bookends for only $5.

And these zippers were only 25 cents each.The original price is still on the packaging for 65 cents. Any guesses to how old they are?

The upholstery fabric was 1 yard for $1.25, milk glass dish 50 cents and hammered brass planter $2.50. The entire purchase came in only at $10.25!

I also stopped by Joanne Fabric and spotted this textured fabric in the remnant section.

In person the blue is a tad lighter, almost like a denim blue. The fabric is 66" wide and I purchased the entire 3.5 yards left for a total of $13. Once hemmed it will be a perfect tablecoth for my formal dining table with both leaves. Or I might be tempted to use it in the kids rooms upstairs.

Anyone else come across some crazy deals lately?

Ribbon Trim Pillow

I love ribbon trim on pillows. While Greek key is one of my favorite design details it's a little too complicated for me at this point. I decided on a simple border to add to a dropcloth pillow cover. The ribbon was a deep teal 7/8" from Michael's purchased at 50% off for $2.

Now to be honest I attempted this a year ago using one continuous piece of ribbon and hem tape. From a distance or after a few too many glasses of wine it looked okay. But up close it looked like this.

I've washed it a couple times which led to the corner peeling up. And don't you love my um...45ish degree angles? Embarrassing.

Well I wanted to redeem myself from that debacle and this time was going to do it right. I started by cutting a fabric square to cover my pillow form. Then I cut 4 equal pieces of ribbon roughly one inch shorter than the lenth of the fabric.

Two pieces were matched up and I marked a 45 degree angle using a white pencil, ruler and the lines on my sewing matt.

The ribbon was pinned and sewn together on the marked line.

This was repeated three more times carefully measuring where the next ribbon would attach so each side was exactly the same length. I was left with a perfect square which was then pinned onto the dropcloth fabric.

After that it was easy breezy. I sewed down the inside then outside of the square trim taking my time so the stiches were straight. Each edge was then finished with a zigzag stitch to prevent fraying. I decided on an envelope back so 2 pieces of fabric were cut with the one exposed side of each piece hemmed. Then the 3 pieces of fabric were pinned right sides facing together to create a 4" overlap on the back.

It turned out so much better than the first time. With this one I don't have to tell the kids to stop picking at it.

Now there are two matching ribbon trim pillows, just don't look at the one on the right too closely:)

On a side note during this project my daughter asked for a piece of scrap ribbon. 15 minutes later I walked into the office to find this.

All on her own she stapled the ribbon to the edge of a large piece of paper then colored the rest of the blue border with various crayons and markers. She insisted on also making a pillow so we stapled another piece of paper to the back and stuffed it with crumpled scraps. Of course she had to add a smiley face to make it a "Happy Pillow". Here it is after she personally styled it on the couch.

Her pillow making was by far my most favorite part of this project!

Rescued Painted Toy Shelf

Our town like many others has Amnesty Day once a year (or two depending on garbage company) where residents leave large debris, garbage and just stuff they don't want anymore on their curbs. This turns into a free for all for pickers, scrap metal collectors and anyone interested in some free furniture. I saved this ottoman from the dumpster already and also found this scrappy little shelf. It's a simple structure and looks like it was slapped together quickly.

I had asked Mike to build something similar to house our sons trucks. While this wasn't exactly what I had in mind, it was sturdy and required zero effort on my husbands part. Which meant it was perfect. Obviously it had been well cared for - um not. Look at this detail, how could I pass it up?

This was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of some free labor so my son started wiping off the grass, dirt and general grossness that had accumulated on the shelf.

A power sander was used to smooth down the rough edges followed by a quick wipedown with an old damp t-shirt. I opted to skip primer and use paints already on hand. Some SW light grey, a sample pot of Valspar green and turqoise craft paint were mixed together. After the first coat there wasn't much paint left so I applied a second coat to just the top and sides.

In person the color looks similar to the kids jewelry dresser I painted except the shelf color is a little softer due to the added grey paint. While it would have been nice if it was a little longer and deeper, more importantly it is short enough to fit under the roll arm of the couch. It also provides a spot to set something down while sitting on the couch. And it was free. I love free.