Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Murky stinky gross - ick!

So, a couple of years ago, I was trying to find myself the perfect rug for the pennies that I could afford.  I saw a rug on overstock.com but they don't ship to Canada!  Blasphemy!

It was more of a lime colour.  In hindsight, I'm glad it didn't work out.

So, instead, I resorted to desperate measures.  I tried to spray paint a pattern on an old, some-what soiled rug.  However, the white didn't show on the rug.  Insanity insued.  I used HOUSE PAINT.  So the rug looked alright but felt like a pumice stone (yet, I will tell you, that with great disappointment it did not leave my feet silky soft).  And now, after two years with all the crud that had gotten stuck to the stiff paint it looks something like this:
 The blurry ghost in the right corner is my boyfriend's lovely thumb.  It looked a lot better with the couch on it but I've given that away to charity.


I was on www.allmodern.com and saw some uber cute rugs however none of them fit my budget or the space that I'm moving into:






So, the winning rug is (da dadada!!!!!!!)....


Yes, it is from CL and YES! I'm going to dye it yellow.  Apparently you can put fabric dye in a water spraying bottle.  I'm gonna give it a go this weekend.  Pray for me.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Light and flight

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do about my light fixture for my new place.  Here are some gorgeous pieces that are giving me inspiration:

Prototype by Karl Zahn




Encalmo-Stamen Pendant
Normann Copenhagen 


 Louis Poulsen - Coconut Pendant Light
I want something minimalist but won't fade into the background.  I don't want it to look "ikea-ish" and it shouldn't be fussy.  I have a light fixture right now and I love it but it's a bit small.  I'm thinking about framing it with the metal frame of a larger rice paper lantern.

Another project in the works?  Yes?  YES!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Arrghhhh... I hate the waiting game

I made an offer on an apartment and it doesn't look like the owner is very motivated to sell.  I need a place before I'm homeless!

Okay, I need to de-stress and think happy thoughts.  I saw these Victorian style chairs on Craigslist for $40 each.  Yes, the colours are atrocious.  But it was a great price and they had really great bones.  And they were still in excellent shape.  So, I decided I would transform them into something I would love.

They were ugly ducklings:
I can't remember who made the chair that was my inspiration but it took me a while to find this water resistant, stain proof Waverley pattern at a decent price (Thanks JoAnn's!  It was worth going to across the border for!):
Then I spray painted them a shiny black and refinished the edges with trimmings.  Voila!