Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » 2008 D*S DIY Contest: VOTE! [entries 17-20]

[Note: Today we'll be posting the top 20 Finalists in the 2008 D*S DIY Contest. Four finalists will be posted an hour from 9 am to 1pm. Once you've seen the top 20 click here to cast your vote. Details on today's voting process are right here. Entries 1-4 are right here, or on page two of the blog]

17. Jane’s Lace Bowl

Description: Jane repurposed an old doily into this beautiful lacey bowl. She “mended” the old doily using masking tape and paper (sewn on with my sewing machine) and added some embroidery, buttons and other bits and pieces to create the finished bowl.

18. Suzanne’s Wall Mural

Description: Suzanne created this DIY mural on her bedroom wall. The sloped shape of the walls on either side of the bedroom window ’seemed to lend themselves to a forest mural’ so Suzanne painted the forest and then created separate paintings of forest creatures to be hung amongst the branches (including an owl with glow-in-the-dark eyes!)

19. Abigail’s Cork Trivets and Coasters

Description: Abigail designed a trivet and coaster set made from reclaimed wine corks. She cut the corks into thick slices/discs and then stitched them together with two quick stitches. Each cork yielded about 8-10 slices depending on length and it took about 80 slices to make the trivet and two coasters. She arranged them so that they ‘formed a nice geometric pattern that played w/negative space’.

20. Kelly’s Craft Belt

Description: A senior fibers major at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Kelly created this home crafting utility belt using vintage men’s suit pockets and vintage sheets for the sash and bindings. She wanted to create a product for environmentally conscious crafters and says ‘long live DIY!’ [photos by Brad Wenner]

wow. this was a tough one. my compliments on all of the wonderful work everyone has completed. what an inspiration to finish all of my own diy projects around the house!

i’ve cast my vote and am anxious to see who wins!

there are so many great projects here. but i love the cork trivets.! such a beautiful design and i love DIY projects that make use of otherwise discarded items. way to go abagail! i’d love to exactly how you got such clean perfect cuts with the cork.

I loooove Suzanne’s wall mural and Kirsten’s suitcase dog bed is very cool, thats one lucky little daschund. I have a whole bag of wine corks too that I have been saving for no particular reason so Abigail’s idea is a great way to use them up.

wow, i’m actually disappointed by the entries. i was looking forward to some inspiration, but i thought that a lot of the ideas were recycled. i do love the murals but i think the projection idea has been done to death.

I was expecting to see more bona-fide furniture, but then I realized many of the re-upholstery projects of late have been featured as before/afters…so maybe that accounts for some of the surprises here. For me, I liked the change of pace and the wide variety of projects! But my fave is the wall mural…hoot! Hoot!

Personally I was looking forward to more modern designs. To get any of these ideas really fit my apartment, I would need to make very big changes by myself. I did though, really like few of the entries. The frozen glass looks stylish.

For further improvements in this or similar contests, I think more stylistic variation should be included. Also products meant for children, dogs etc. really limit the amount of entries to vote. Safety regulations and the actual usability needs to be checked carefully. From at least one of the products I can immediately see, that it won’t keep its shape in use. Should people be adviced to vote for the looks or the idea and how well it works for real? 500 entries would need a whole council to select the 20 candidates, in order to take every aspect into consideration.

Please do not be offended by my comments, overall I enjoyed the contest very much.

In all fairness, and since someone pointed out that Habitat was selling a hook very much like the one in the finalists, a doily bowl is featured in this month’s Country Living. They have an article on interesting crafts to do with oild doilies. See picture #2.

grace,
i think this was a big success no? i just tuned in and am delighted to see the comments area turned into marketplace, turned into bazaar! it´s one of the great things about design,- that people get so passionate about it. i think that is wonderfull and exiting. exspecialy because all the topics covered by these discussions, safety versus aesthetics, function, original idea or copied, recycled materials or not…. all of these are the very things that fulltime designers think about every day. and by looking at all the diy, some of them excell in maybe one or two or even all categories, – you appreciate a little bit more what designers do! so in the end, everybody wins;)

Wow, I think people need to take a CHILL pill, a big deep breath-in…out. It makes me so sad that so many people took such a negative tone to this contest! This was supposed to be fun, enjoyable, and informative right? And the crib…I’m so glad she placed! That is her own project she shared and for people to downgrade her parenting skills because of it?? Very sad. Way to go Grace for the well worded responses and the way it was so gently, yet appropriately handled. I especially appreciated that you kept your own thoughts and ideas that started this website and didn’t let others sway the finalists chosen. :)

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