An Update On My DIY Tufting Technique!

Remember this cute little magenta velvet headboard I made for the girls' room when we lived in the loft? I finally got around to tufting the matching twin headboard before the Domino shoot so we could make the headboards the sides of a daybed for the playroom.

Like I've mentioned a million times before, we were in such a hurry to get everything done. In an attempt to make this project go a little faster (tufting isn't all that hard... but it can be time consuming), I realized that I could completely bypass the whole threading-a-button-through-the-headboard-holes thing by just carefully screwing a wide-headed screw down in through the hole I had made in the foam.

The only potentially tricky part is making sure you're putting the screw in the exact right place. I ended up screwing in pilot holes before hand, so I all had to do was find the pilot hole (blindly) with the point of my screw before using the drill to put in the screw.

It's important to use screws that aren't too long (unless you wont see the back at all) and that have a wide enough head to hold back all the fabric from the tuft. I used a little bit of high-loft batting and linen in the same magenta color to back the headboard and cover any of the screw holes.

This little trick saved me literally hours of labor time! And it looks great! I just used fabritac to glue in the buttons into the tufts and I think now it would be hard for even me to tell which headboard was the one I spent more time on! :)

Oh! I also wanted to mention another little tufting trick I discovered a week or two ago. My sister, Ali, is about to have a sweet baby girl (yay!!) and she wanted to redo her bedroom before the baby came. We made a tufted headboard and the velvet we were using was a little thick and it was getting tricky to make the fabric not look too lumpy. I cut deep grooves into the foam and that made a little pocket for the fabric to sit into AND it made it super, super easy to get the diamond shape perfect and nearly wrinkle-free every single time.

Just a few little tips in case you're hoping to tackle a tufting project soon! :)

DIY Geometric Cube Painted Floor

For the longest time, I've had plans to paint a geometric cube pattern on an exterior floor. I really hoped to get to do it on our balcony porch in Brooklyn, but we moved before the weather gave me a good chance to patch the cracked concrete. When we moved to the Valley house I thought this little back porch area we have just off the kitchen and living room would be the perfect chance to scratch that itch!

I ended up going with a tumbling block tile in the bathroom, so I wanted this pattern to feel different. I saved this image a while back and it felt like the perfect inspiration - the proportions seemed easy enough to recreate (which, WRONG. Triangles, you kill me!) and it seemed like it wouldn't be too crazy on the eyes when painted on a large surface.

The first step was cleaning the concrete. We used a power wash sprayer to clean the old concrete and then we tried to not step on it before we got the first coat of water-based porch and floor paint down. I ended up watering down the paint because I wanted the finish to be a little mottled or translucent, so it almost, almost looked like a stain instead of paint. I mostly just didn't want the solid, flat look of a painted floor. Not that I was trying to age it, but I also didn't want the floor to look brand new and I think the watery paint helped get that look.

Then Kate and I worked to tape out the beginnings of the pattern. We knew we wanted the pattern to be on the larger side, so we made the main criss-cross pattern 12" wide.

Then it was time to put our heads together and do some serious math. I don't hate math at all, but I can't remember a lot of what I learned in trig and calculus, but luckily my smart husband has a memory like a steel trap and he busted out some formulas that helped us figure out the right angles. The most helpful measurement ended up being the hypotenuse (which was a little under 27 and 3/4"). Once we had that line measurement, we could back our way into the distance between the other angles and lines and it was easy to mark and then lay down the diagonal lines of tape.

It felt a little tricky when we were in the thick of it, but it really wasn't all that bad. I think I was just nervous because I knew every measurement had to be spot-on perfect for the pattern to look right.

Somehow I can't find the photos of this part, but I divided the 27.71 hypotenuse number in half to figure out the dimensions of a diamond. I draw and cut out a diamond shape on poster board and used it like a stencil to trace out the smaller diamond in each of the larger diamonds. I also used a straight edge to make a line connecting the side point of the smaller diamond with the larger (you can see this in two photos down).

We watered down more porch and floor paint and filled in the shapes. We used Benjamin Moore's Titanium on the background, the white is Swiss Coffee, the yellow is Ochre and the darkest gray is Martha Stewart's Seal.

Kate and I have pretty steady painting hands, so I felt comfortable free-handing the lines, but it wouldn't have been too hard to tape off the small shapes one by one for perfectly perfect lines.

There were some spots that the tape pulled off the bottom layer of paint, but I think that had more to do with the concrete prep than the paint or the tape. I could have easily just touched up the lines and called it good, which we did to a little of, but we used a light hand there and even ended up lightly sanding the whole floor to take some of that new edge off. (again, that was a personal preference thing).

The result was just what I was hoping for. I know this floor is going to take a beating, so I didn't want it to look too precious from the get-go. We put two coats of porch sealer on top, and so far no big problems with scraping or flaking, even in this 115 degree heat! :)

I love seeing the pattern peek through the living room doors, and the girls love playing a crazy version of hopscotch on the pattern. We're excited for better weather too, when we can really start to enjoy the porch again and eat our meals outside. :)

DIY Yellow Curtains for the Playroom

There are only two bedrooms on the main floor of our house, the master bedroom and a large-ish room at the front of the house. For the first few months that we lived here, I used it as my office space, but it just didn't really work for some reason. Then I had the idea to move my office to the big space above our garage on the other side of the house and make the old office our playroom.

I had been a little worried that toys would end up migrating all over the house with this set up, where the playroom is right by the living spaces, but really, it's been so great. I love both the studio space and this playroom, which we only very recently decided to quickly decorate in time for the Domino shoot. We had been planning on doing Evie's room as the kid's space in the spread, but the playroom ended up being the easier space to photograph in the end, so we threw this room together in about seven crazy days! These yellow curtains were our jumping off point.

I wanted this room to feel girly and playful, and I thought pretty curtains were a great place to start. We had no time and really no budget to make fancy curtains though, so IKEA came to the rescue. I had actually picked up three packs of these white cotton Ritva panel pairs a couple months before (when the room was still an office) and I just hadn't got around to hanging them yet.

I almost didn't use them because I wanted the walls to be white, and I wanted the curtains to be a fun color to pop off the white. This image kept coming to mind when I was brainstorming colors. I only wish I had the budget to recreate these exactly!

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I figured it wouldn't really be a wasted effort to try and dye the IKEA panels because I wasn't able to return them at that point. So I picked up four bottles of RIT dye - two each of Golden Yellow and Lemon Yellow. It's not for everyone, or for every tub, but I felt comfortable with dying the panels in my bathtub. I tested the dye beforehand and there was no staining on the fiberglass, so I felt good about moving forward using my tub. It made the project and clean up about a million times easier than using a big tupperware tub (and I have a front-loading washing machine, so that wasn't an option).

I got three of the panels wet in the shower first (which helps the dye soak up more evenly) while I filled the tub with about six or seven inches of the hottest water I could get out of the tap. I added one bottle of each of the two yellow colors and about half a cup of salt. Once that was all mixed, I put in the three panels and while wearing long gloves, moved the fabric around in the dye bath for a good 20-30 minutes until the color looked bright and even. I turned on the faucet again, to cold this time, and let the dye bath drain and the cold water run on the panels until the water was close to clear. I moved the panels to a laundry basket and took them to the washing machine for a cold water wash on the delicate cycle.

I made a hanging station and let the panels air dry over night. And then I started again with the second batch of three panels and two more bottles of dye.

Then we ironed each panel well before hanging them over white fabric shades from Lowes (which were less than $20 for the 48" size!) and white wooden rings and rods, also from Lowes.

I love, love, love how these curtains turned out. Because I had bought the IKEA panels so many months before, it practically felt like a $12 project, where I just had to buy the dye. :) And I think the color combo of the lemon and golden yellow colors really worked out perfectly, which was sort of a lucky break.

I think when I have some extra time I'll add a thick or even black out lining to these to add some weight and a clean white backside view from the front of the house (though the white roman shades help a bit with that for now).

Have you had any successes with dying big projects like this? Have you used your tub or a tupperware container?

Reader DIY: Fireworks Wall Stencil

Hi guys! - Just a quick update for the locals planning to come to the Home Depot DIY Workshop tomorrow. I wanted to clarify that we won't be making the lighting DIY I shared last week, although I'd be more than happy to help you find and even make the structure tomorrow at the Tempe store on Baseline. The lighting workshop, which starts at 10:00 am, will be lead by the store's DIY workshop leader and I'll just be there to talk a little bit and mostly just hang out with you all! :) We'll be talking about using different types of lighting and bulbs in your home and sharing tips on how to switch out old lights for more energy-efficient ones. Hope you can come!

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I really love getting emails with links to your projects. Meghan Morrow sent me this stenciling project she did in her home and I LOVE how it turned out! Her husband is in the Army and they live on base, so they move a lot. She had been dying to use Albert Hadley's Fireworks wallpaper (made by Hinson, distributed by Donghia) in her home for years, but it didn't make any sense for them to invest in that kind of installation.

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House Beautiful

Meghan bought a quilting stencil at a craft store and made her own version of the pattern with a sharpie and an X-acto knife!

She mentioned to me it was a little time-consuming, but aren't the results worth it?

We've been working on a stenciling project here at my house and I can attest that it can be a little tricky to get crisp lines on every repeat. It seems like the secret though is to not use too much paint and to keep both the stencil and the brush very clean.

Remember that mirror project above? Meghan used this tutorial to make her own sunburst mirror. So many great DIYs in one place! I'm obsessed with her green curtains, too.

Check out Meghan's post for all the details!

DIY Leather-Wrapped Console Table (and a Milk Paint Mirror!)

Remember this citron yellow console table? I accidentally sawed a big line in it with my circular saw when we were doing the plywood floors in the studio (whoops!). Rather than toss the table, I felt like it could be salvaged with a little thinking outside the box.

There is a place in Phoenix called the Fabric Depot (it's in Cave Creek) and they have what looks like the best price and selection of leather hides in the Valley. Half hides are usually about $60, which is just about as cheap as my leather place in Brooklyn! Yay!

I picked up this black half hide there and when I got it home I saw this little brand or something with JM initials. Meant to be ours. ;)

The first step is to make a pattern of all the sides of your console table by flipping the hide over and tracing each piece out. (PS the old IKEA Malm console table would work really well for this project or the current Lack sofa tables seem like they could work well also.) Oh, and I spray painted the table black first in case there were any little gaps between the leather pieces in the end, hopefully they would be less noticeable.

I cut out the pieces and then used Fabritac to secure each of the pieces to the table.

It helps to use a glue brush to make sure there's an even layer of glue and no too-thick parts that will show under the leather.

It's most important to get glue right at the edge of the leather, so the edges lay flat.

I used these small brass escutcheon brads as nail head trim. I wanted the brads to be more subtle than traditional nail heads and these worked great.

We marked out the first row, but it was pretty easy to eyeball the right spacing (about an inch) after I got in a rhythm.

After all the nails were in, I could see that some of the leather had pulled a little bit and the edges needed to be trimmed with an X-Acto knife, which was pretty easy to do. (see the JM here?)

I LOVE how this one turned out. We were able to salvage a table that wouldn't have been otherwise usable with a big old saw mark right in the middle of it. The texture is so pretty and the little sparkle from the nails is just enough.

It's not perfectly perfect, but I think that makes it look unique and handmade.

I love how it looks with the DIY upholstered bench project.

Oh, and some of you recognized the old mirror we had hanging in the brownstone over the fireplace. I never loved the old finish and I've been itching to try milk paint for years and this seemed like the perfect application.

We picked up a bag of milk paint at a local antique store (Merchant Square) and added water to make the paint. I chose a creamy white color called Linen.

The paint is (not surprisingly) super watery, but it covers really well. The old finish on the mirror made the paint flake up a little, but I actually loved the effect. I didn't want the mirror to look newly painted anyway.

Sometimes I think it's easy to get nervous about painting something, but this mirror was not precious to me and I didn't love it as it was in the wood stain. There wasn't much to lose, and I feel like the risk totally paid off here. I love it now.

How was your weekend? We had a family reunion and it felt really great to switch gears for a couple of days! Also, it was amazing to catch up on a little sleep. :)

PS Pretty photos above were taken by Michelle Herrick.