this before and after comes from d*s reader luna, who was tired of staring at her “dirty, used up” ikea step stool and decided to fix it up! she repainted the unfinished wood with a glossy white and then used mod-podge to attach sheets of japanese paper she bought at paper source in san francisco. the result? a totally cute, totally personalized piece that embodies my favorite thing about ikea furniture: the endless possibilities for customization that exist. thanks for sharing, luna! (image above via AT)
October 30th, 2008 - 09:00am
a few months ago i finally threw my hands up in the air and admitted i needed some help pulling our house together. no one likes a whiner so i’ll spare you my complaints about oddly cut-up rooms and slanted floors and just say that my brain had run out of design ideas. enter, carl and russell of repop ny. carl and russell started offering re-design services (using mostly your own furniture) out of their brooklyn shop and after hearing rave reviews from robin at the clinton hill blog i decided to try it out. [painting above by zoe pawlak]
after an initial visit the guys picked up on the fact that we have a lot of orange accents in the house (something i didn’t even notice) and decided we should really run with that, seeing that i’m not afraid of bold color. after talking paint shades and lighting, i left for a day of meetings and came home to find carl finishing up a total transformation of our kitchen.
before, our kitchen was a sad little white room with nasty cupboards (above), patchy walls and absolutely no storage space. but carl and russell brought in color (benjamin moore’s ‘tomato red‘ to be exact), a fantastic vintage mini sputnik, new shelving from ikea and turned my sad little room into a vibrant space that is now my favorite in the entire house.
it’s still a tiny room and pretty hard to photograph so i did my best to schooch against the walls and get some wider shots. so, that’s it! i just wanted to share our little mini makeover. thanks to carl and russell for all of their help- sometimes it really pays to admit when you’re stumped and work with people who have great ideas. stay tuned for our living room makeover next.
[image above: my diy peg board pot rack, knives and dish rack- after]
[image above: the best "after" shot of the overall kitchen i could manage (we have a very narrow hallway). turk is lounging in his favorite morning sun spot]
[image above: sputnik lamp from repop ny, shelves from ikea]
October 23rd, 2008 - 01:00pm
audrey romano’s home tour was a huge in august so i was excited to see some updates she’d recently finished. we all fell in love with audrey’s boston terrier but unfortunately the pup decided to make two of audrey’s green west elm pillows his own. so rather than lose them all together, she decided to salvage the fabric from each pillow and use it to update her vanity stool and a handmade wooden stool she felt was a “little too country” for her before. a few staples later audrey had updated seats and managed to save her pillows from becoming personal play toys for edward the boston terrier. thanks to audrey for sharing!
[image above: audrey's west elm pillows before]
October 23rd, 2008 - 12:00pm
this furniture makeover comes from the team at non fiction design collective in columbus, ohio. they’ve taken on a classic and added a modern great spin. a few months ago the team found an original eames chair in a nearby dumpster. it was covered in paint and damaged badly, so they decided to strip it down to the original fiberglass and tile it with hundreds of hand-pressed porcelain buttons. the negative space was then filled with flexible grey grout. it’s definitely a unique look, and not for everyone, but i love the way they they’ve taken a classic design and made it their own (i’d love to use white grout and do a colored tile that makes a nice ombre effect). thanks for sharing, nfdc.
for another take on custom eames chairs, click here.
October 20th, 2008 - 09:00am
kim from conflicted thimble sent over this fun before & after. after finding this ottoman/stool at a goodwill store she painted the frame and upholstered the top in a tufted toile fabric. such a fun makeover. click here for kim’s full post and more process photos.
October 15th, 2008 - 12:15pm
i’m in the middle of trying to create a tiny office space in our bedroom so i’ve been trying to find pretty filing cabinets that fit the rest of the room. i haven’t found anything yet but when i saw d*s reader abha rao’s file cabinet makeover i decided that a diy project was the best way to get the custom look i want. abha was looking for some filing solutions but couldn’t find an attractive version that would hold everything necessary. so abha picked up a deep 4-drawer filing cabinet on craigslist and 3 rolls of gift wrap from paper source and decided to decoupage the entire thing. the photos are a little murky but it’s easy to see what a change abha’s work made. i love the idea of making such a sad office staple into something fun, colorful and personal. great work abha!
if you have a before & after furniture makeover you’d like to share on d*s just shoot me an email with your pictures right here.
October 9th, 2008 - 01:00pm
it’s always nice to see how a bold coat of paint can liven up an older piece of furniture. d*s reader shirin painted this vintage trunk a gorgeous bright red and it now brings just the right pop of color to her room. thanks for sharing shirin!
[stay tuned for a new diy project at 1!]
October 2nd, 2008 - 11:00am
