Invisible Bookshelves

You've all seen these invisible bookshelves, right? The books stack horizontally and and appear to just float on the wall.

They look really cool, but they can cost a bundle.

Fortunately, they're easy and cheap to make from simple L-brackets.

A bit of careful measuring and making sure they're level, and you're ready to start stacking.

Just make sure they're well anchored to the wall!

***** It's so nice to see so many visitors to this post. If you're wondering where I've gone, I'm now writing over at HappySimple

I hope you'll stop by and say hello!******

Once Upon a Mattress

I think we've already established that I will go to extreme lengths to keep things out of the landfill.  Case in point - our mattress.

It was second-hand when we got it (but clean, I assure you).  We slept on it happily for many years, but when we moved to Sebringville, we decided to move up a size.  Which left me with the dilemma of what to do with the lovely, queen-size foam mattress.

With the help of a serrated knife, it became the cushioning for The World's Easiest Sofa.

When we moved here, I used the back cushion for our new headboard and made a narrower version of the sofa for our office.  Which left me with a length of leftover foam.

Now this piece of foam really owed nothing to anyone.  It had been saved from the landfill twice before.  I could, in good conscience, toss it.  Alan rolled it up to make it easier to transport, and inspiration struck!

The duct tape held everything together long enough for me to sew a cover for it.

Pinning the bottom was easy - they went straight into the foam.

And, voila!

 

It's a little wabi-sabi, which is fine with me.  It makes a very comfy spot to rest my feet.  And makes good use out of something that would otherwise have been wasted.

 

 

Show and Tell Week, Anyone?

Well, that didn't go very well, did it?  With everyone else starting the new year full of fresh resolve and big plans, I guess I decided to go in the opposite direction.  Always the contrarian....

But I was busy over the holidays, getting the house ready for overseas guests.  So this week I'll show you pictures of what I did.  I hope you like them!

When we finished our bedroom, there was one blank wall.  It's too close to the foot of the bed for any kind of furniture.  Even hanging pictures on it could be hazardous.  But its blankness taunted me.

So one day over the holidays, I took paintbrush in hand...

Paris.  In the Spring.

And us on a plane, winging our way there.

It's good to dream, no?

 

Build Your Own Closet

Alan and I have been working on the closet over the last couple of days. 

It was pretty easy to build - just a few bits of lumber, an old wooden extension ladder and a shelf.  Here's the photo essay (scroll over the pictures for explanations):

Hmmm.... These pictures make it look like Alan did the whole thing himself.  And, while I'm happy to give him the credit, I did help!  Plus, I took the pictures...

Some of you may be wondering how big the finished space is.  It's roughly 10' X 13'.  It's certainly not huge, but as I see it, extra floor space just means extra cleaning, right?

Easy Home Made Shower Curtain

As promised, instructions for your homemade shower curtain.

Start with a flat sheet, size double or bigger.  The nice, finished top of the sheet will be the top of your shower curtain.  One finished side hem will be one side of your curtain  (so easy - half your work is already done!)

Measure the width you want your curtain to be (front to back of tub plus a bit for fullness).  Add one inch and cut the sheet to that size.

Measure the length (from a little below the shower curtain rod to a few inches from the bottom of the tub), adding two and a half inches.

Fold up and press a half inch on the unfinished side of the shower curtain.  Then fold and press it again.

On the bottom, fold up and press a half inch and then two inches.

Sew these hems in place.

I made the ties at the top of my curtain from the side hems on the parts of sheet I cut off.  Just cut the hem close to the stitching.  You will have an unfinished edge, but because it's so close to the line of stitching, it'll hardly fray at all.

Cut these strips into sixteen inch lengths.  You may need to fold and press a couple of extra ties, or (as I did) use a scrap of ribbon to make up enough ties.  I needed nine ties for my curtain to hang nicely without huge gaps.

Fold each tie in half and stitch the mid-point near the top of the curtain.

For easy spacing of the ties, sew one at each end, then one in the middle.  Then find the mid-point between the front tie and the middle and the middle tie and the back one and attach ties there.  Then add ties mid-way between each of those ties.  This adds up to nine ties and you don't have to do any actual measuring (I can never get the math to work out)!

Then you just tie your curtain onto the curtain rod and you're done!

A word about liners - they aren't necessary.  Seriously.  The plastic they're made from is one of the most poisonous substances mankind has invented to date.  A plain cotton shower curtain will keep the water from spraying all over your floor.  If you have hard water (as we do), add a good glug of vinegar to the machine when you wash your curtain and any staining or crustiness will go away.

I love a project like this - clean, green and cheap!

On Vintage Indie

I have a new post up on Vintage Indie.  A quick little project from my kitchen.

Alternatives to Wallpaper

I will state openly that I'm not a huge fan of wallpaper.  Sure, it can be beautiful to look at, but when its time is up, there's all that stripping and then the disposal....

Not for me.  I just can't justify the design benefits from an environmental viewpoint.

But sometimes, paint alone isn't quite enough, either.  You may want something really special for a particular wall. Or, as in the case of my new living room, you need to cover something ugly.

Former owners put panelling up in our living room.  Badly.  I can tell, at a glance, where all the studs are.  And you're just not supposed to be able to do that in a finished room.

One possibility would be to rip it all down and start again.  But does our local landfill really need more stuff?

I've been working with papier mache for many years, making sculptures and bowls.  And I really love the look of a piece when all the paper is on it but I haven't yet painted it.  So I decided to go for that look in my living room.  I'm cutting lots and lots of articles out of newspapers and gluing them to the wall.  It looks a little dark as-is, so once the glue's dry, I give it a wash of thinned down white paint.  I'm liking the way it looks so far.

It'll take awhile to complete the room, but the cool thing with this kind of project is that you can do it in stages without tearing the whole room apart.

You may not be as crazy about the printed word as I am.  But you could try maps, or pages from a gardening book.  Stamps scattered randomly across a white background.  Different colours of tissue paper.

Once you start to think about it, the possibilities are endless.  You'll end up with a one-of-a-kind wall, that's easier on the environment.

Have fun!

 

Canning Jar Holder

Sorry if this looks funny. My computer has decided to take the summer off, so I'm working in Blogger, on my husband's computer. And I almost remember how!

I have a couple of these old canning jar holders hanging on my deck. They make great candle holders. But then I thought to myself, hmm...

Yup! They'd work in the bathroom to hold shampoos, etc. Or maybe in the kitchen, holding fruit or spice jars.

I didn't take a picture of one actually in my bathroom because we're trying to sell the place and I can't go putting extra holes in the wall.

Not even for this blog....

Easy Re-usable Place Cards

We had a dinner party Sunday night.  And I used these place cards.

Just second-hand tiles I picked up at the Habitat ReStore.  I chose plain white because it goes with anything.  But there are lots of funky colours available. 

Write peoples' initials with an erasable marker.  At the end of the evening, wipe them clean and put them away for next time!

Design Sponge Finalists

The Design Sponge DIY Contest finalists have been posted.

Sadly, I didn't make the cut.  Well, with five hundred entries, it was a bit of a longshot.  Do go have a look at the twenty that made the list, and vote for your favourite.  Though it might take a day or two to narrow it down to just one...

My entry?  The "wallpaper" in my living room, made from bits of torn paper, theatre tickets, gift wrap and tissue paper.

A Planter on Wheels

Work on the bedroom continues.  Right now, we've got plaster drying.  Which, exciting as it is for us, may not be such a thrill for you.

Thankfully, there's Flickr...

I love this idea!  And the fact that the pram is such a lovely shade of green makes the transition to planter seem like a natural!

Franklin seems to agree!

Photos from shnnn's Flickr stream

Bits and Pieces Week - Magnetic Board

Apparently strange things are happening on the internet. Hotmail is down. And I can't open Windows Live Writer. So I'm doing this post the old-fashioned way... in Blogger.

The more sensitive among you may want to cover your ears.

As we chip away at the new room conversion, I'm able to do a few smaller projects.

This piece of ceiling tin was part of a box lot from the auction last summer.

When we moved the dough fridge upstairs, there was an awkward moment resulting in broken glass in a framed photo at the top of the stairs. Fortunately, the mover wasn't hurt. I took the photo out of the frame and thought.....

So now I have my new magnet board. It will hang above my desk, once the room is done.

Out of trash comes treasure.....

Privacy, Not Perfection

I love light.  And this time of year, I crave it.

For the most part, our apartment is very bright and airy, except for the hallway.  Stuck in the middle of the space, it gets very little natural light.  We're doing what we can to improve the situation.

This past summer, I found a pair of french doors at the auction.  Paid less than twenty bucks for them.

Alan painted one of them this week and hung it in the bathroom doorway.  It lets lots of light through. 

For privacy, I decided to glue tissue paper to the glass.  It's a much more environmentally-friendly option than those plastic films you can buy.  When we had the bakery, we had a big, glass-doored fridge.  I needed to obscure the contents of one side, so I bought a roll of that film.  The fumes from the off-gassing were really horrible.  Never again.

The tissue paper works, with a few caveats.  It's very susceptible to damp, so should really only be used on an interior window.  And in this case, I applied it to the outside of the door, so steam won't damage it.

I thinned down some white glue till it was the consistency of milk.  I painted each pane of glass with the glue and then carefully put a piece of tissue paper on top.  Went over it again with the wet brush to get out any air bubbles.  This can only be done once, otherwise you run the risk of putting holes in the paper.  But don't worry, once the glue is dry, you can brush over it again to really seal up the edges.

I did end up with a couple of small holes here and there.  Fortunately, the glue and water mixture frosts the glass on its own.  If it looked really bad, I'd just clean off the glass and try again - not hard since the glue is water-soluble.

If I lived in a house with small children or pets, I'd put a couple of coats of water-based varnish on top of the paper for protection.

 

 

Painting Stairs

Our bedroom renovation is stalled until our favourite handyman can come in and have a look.  But that doesn't mean we haven't been busy!

Alan very kindly took over the painting of the stairs (I thank you.  My back thanks you.). It's time-consuming, but fairly straightforward.

You just have to remember to do it in two stages.  Otherwise, you'll be trapped.

 

I've been busy, too.  But my project isn't done yet.....

I'm Not Sure I Like This

Having been totally inspired by Restoration Home, I decided it was time to tackle the empty wall space above our banquette.  I needed storage for platters.

We had some old palettes in the basement.  The constraints were that the plate racks be high enough that people could sit on the banquette without whacking their heads.  But, they couldn't be so high that Alan couldn't reach the platters.

A palette cut in half seemed to fit the bill nicely.....

Until I stepped back and looked at the finished product.

I've been driving Alan crazy ever since:  "Is it too cutesy-poo?"   "Is it too formal?"

He keeps saying, "Barb, they're palettes!"

I thought about it a lot and I think that when a wall or a room is sitting there in its bare and pristine state, anything is possible.  But when you actually get around to finishing it, well, then it's done.

And apparently, I hate that.

Anyone else have this dilemma?

 

A New Use For An Old Door

After much boring discussion about resale values and blah, blah, blah, we decided to keep the guestroom as a guestroom and turn the current construction zone into a great big bedroom.

I brought this old door home this summer, as part of a job lot from the auction.  Didn't really know what I was going to use it for - table top, maybe?

It works nicely in the guestroom as a sort of catchall/decorative piece.

Right now, we're sleeping in there, on a mattress on the floor.  But when the real bed moves back in, I'll attach a shelf at a convenient height.  And then it will be a nightstand, as well.

 

Drawers

This little set of drawers used to be a really ugly nightstand. I cut off the ugly bits, painted what was left and changed the hardware. Hung on the wall beside the bed, they make a nice nighstand that's easy to clean under.

I'm also thinking, how cool would they be tucked into a set of shelves? The possibilities are endless!

And if you're wondering how I made that picture so big, head on over here

Hanging Curtains in an Old House

I'm assuming here that you know the basics of hemming and finishing.

What I was taught when making curtains is to measure carefully and make perfect, right-angled rectangles of fabric. This assumes, of course, that we live in a world where all buildings are square and straight and true.

This may be how it is when they're first built, but over time, gravity takes hold. Things shift and settle and warp (I am just talking about buildings, right? I mean, that won't happen to me, will it?). Hanging your perfect rectangle of fabric in a window or doorway of an old building will make it look like you don't know the first thing about sewing. Here's what I do.

I take the careful measuring and sewing process to the point that I have a curtain that's the width I want it and several inches longer than I need it to be. My favourite hardware for hanging curtains are those metal rings with clips attached and copper plumbing pipe for the rod.

I put the curtain rings on the curtain, slide it onto the curtain rod and hold it up to my window. Sometimes, hanging the rod evenly on the window will give you a curtain that gaps or just doesn't hang straight. You might have to fudge it and hope no one notices.


Once the rod is where you need it to be, you can measure for the length of the curtain. I like a nice hem on the bottom (I make a lot of my curtains out of old sheets and use the existing hem for the bottom). I line this up where on want it - along the window sill, say, or, on a closet, the floor. Adjustments in length take place at the top of the curtain, where it hangs from the rings (this can be a time-consuming, labourious process, but it's worth it. If you don't take the time, your curtains will bug you forever).

Once you have the curtains to the size and shape you want and the bottom is hanging nice and straight, you can hem and finish the top.


It's not quite how they taught us in Home-Ec, but it works.

Have Yourself A Rusty Little Christmas

We weren't going to do a Christmas tree this year. We often skip it if we aren't hosting a big Christmas party. And this year we couldn't get it together to do that. Bad, disorganized blogger....
But when you spot a rusty, abandoned tomato cage in the basement, and you're me, well...

Let's just say inspiration strikes at the oddest times.

The decorations are my collection of salt and pepper shakers. They're fun to collect, but I don't want to look at them all year long.

You'll have to trust me when I say that it looks much more festive when lit.

Well, don't we all?

Great Big Balls!

My approach to Christmas decorating tends more toward the One Big Gesture school of thought than the Million Tiny Treasures approach.

It's purely personal taste. I'd just far rather spend my decorating time drinking rum and eggnog than hanging things on trees. Plus, I'm allergic to pine needles.

So when we moved into our current home, I was thrilled to see that the previous owners had left their soccer balls behind. I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

Several layers of newspaper and glue later, I was ready for a final coat of festive Christmas wrap and a coat of varnish to make everything shiny.

Voila!
Sorry about the picture quality. I should probably have gone outside and taken it from there. But see all that snow? That means it's COLD. And, for today at least, I'm allergic to that, too!