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 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. 

DIY Upholstered Bench (from a Coffee Table!)

My latest Domino story is on page 52 of the summer issue and HERE online! Thanks for all your kind comments about the spread and for your support. I thought I would show you a little more background on the project today. We ended up shooting the story twice so I made two different versions of the tops. I'll show you the photos that Domino didn't run.

I found this coffee table at the Meeker Ave Flea Market in Brooklyn. It was stamped Dorothy Draper and I got it for only $10 because it was missing a top. Total score! The color of the stain was not my favorite so we stripped it using varnish remover first and a little bit of stripper.

This product worked pretty well to loosen up the stain and gel stripper helped to take the rest off.

The magic maker was using this Wood Bleach next. It does exactly what it sounds like it would do. It comes in a powder that you make a solution with water and use it to sort of clean the wood. The color lightens pretty quickly.

You'll definitely want to wear gloves for this part of the show. And working in a well-ventilated place is a good idea.

After the wood dried out, we waxed the finish and I LOVE the new color. It's still a little splotchy and dark in some places, but I like it.

I had some plywood cut to fit the top of the coffee table exactly at Home Depot and bought some high-density foam at Joann's with a coupon, along with some batting cut a few inches bigger than the plywood.

For the second try on the IKEA rug-binding, I did a tight whip stitch instead of the X's, which I think is a cleaner look. I used a large darning needle and some neon nylon thread from the hardware store.

Once the rug (which I had cut into three pieces and stitched in two rows) was finished, I lined everything up and layered the plywood, foam and batting under the rug and pulled everything back as tightly as I could while I stapled.

I stapled down the batting while I went too.

When everything was stapled down, I screwed the base to the upholstered top so there would be as small of a gap between the two as possible.

I love how the bench turned out! It was a cheap project and I love how I can use the bench in pretty much any space in the house. I layered it in front of a credenza for the spread and I've used it in our bedroom too.  We have been keeping it in the studio lately and I love the little pop of color from the thread. It fits perfectly under this DIY console table that I'll share later this week. :)

A BIG thanks to Michelle Herrick for the pretty photos in this post!

Painting Upholstery

I tried upholstery spray paint years ago with pretty good results, and I've been wanted to try painting upholstery with a brush for a while too. I got a pair of little white swivel club chairs a few months ago for $30 for the pair. I love the shape of the arms, but the fabric was pretty dingy and old. I knew I would want to reupholster these eventually, but I didn't know what room they'd go in and I wanted to wait to choose a color/pattern. These felt like the perfect candidate for painting the upholstery.

I followed these instructions and used textile medium and Valspar paint from Lowes which is actually acrylic paint. The color I chose was Sunburst Orange from Benjamin Moore. It's a bright, fun coral that's perfect for accent chairs.

The basic idea is you mix textile medium with really, really watered down acrylic paint (so you can buy craft paint if you don't have a huge surface area to cover like I did with two chairs). You spray the upholstery with a water bottle and then softly brush on the paint mixture.

You have to do several coats with drying time in between and you sort of have to find that sweet spot of even coverage and not too crispy from the paint. These chairs are a little stiff, but if you use a sanding block to knock off any uneven bumps and to loosen up the paint a little, it ends up feeling sort of like canvas. Not exactly like silk velvet, but not too bad.

I wouldn't do this with special chairs that you're going to sit in all the time or a primary use sofa, but it's a perfect option for accent chairs or (and maybe especially!) dining chair seats.

Have you tried painting any of your upholstery? How did it work out for you? I'd love to see any links if you've posted about it.