Category Archives: Design and Drawing

Some last minute darning

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This post is from my work collaborators on the new project that we are so eagerly wanting to show you….

“Before we send our final pieces out to be photographed for the website, there is some last minute darning that needed to be done to some of the pieces. This one is in a gorgeous green brocade fabric. We love how it’s looking and hope that one the site and blog is up, you will love what we have done with it too!”

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What is keeping us busy!

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We are working on a new blog…

Why? You may ask. Shouldn’t we be working on this one and focus on growing it? Well-that’s a fair point. That is also in the works, and we have some very interesting conversations scheduled with some cool folks that bring an edge to design. But that aside, let us give you a bit of background on what ELSE is going on….

A while ago, in “Quiet Time is Over” we announced that we are working on a new start-up. The new Blog that we are working on is for that….makes sense, right?

We are launching a new benefit company that will help showcase the works of artists and craftsmen and help give them a platform to display and sell their works. Now you may think that the internet provides plenty of opportunities to do that. Yes….but some of these guys are not technology savvy, and do not have the resources or skills to comprehensively market their product.

So WE will help them Curate and Quality Control their work, and finally help them bring it to a sale–sounds like fun? Yep! It is! It’s also a LOT of WORK!

Below is our “Photo Studio”-Using makeshift products to photograph some of the products. Then its Photoshop/Lightroom and finally it will make its way to the Blog (more on that soon).

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Hugs!!

The DIY of the Chest

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On Before and After you saw the pre and post DIY of some colorful drawers/chest from IKEA. These were relics from previous apartment moves, and some cheap sale items from the “As-is” departments. I was looking for ways to customize my furniture because I hate to waste things so I went online, looking for inspiration. After much searching I found Lindsay.  Her DIY prowess and ability to make things her own amazed me and I decided to do something about my chest of drawers/cabinets.

So using her tutorial here, with a few modifications of my own (below) I made my IKEA my own for the kids room.

What you need to know:

  • You dont need a large work area to do this, only a dedicated one you can keep closed especially if you have kids, pets or both. Why– To keep them safe from fumes and keep fingerprints off while the paint dries. We gave up our bedroom and shacked up with the kids. This is what our room looked like for a week:
    Workshop for DIYMy desk during the DIY
  • COVER IT- its worth the time saved in clean up afterwards.
  • GET ADVENTUROUS- it can always be changed. Paint is cheap.

What I changed from Lindsay:

    • I did not take my furniture apart. It was old and would not have been able to take the disassemble and reassemble process very well. I figured if I used enough masking tape I would be able to keep it contained to where I wanted it. And if it was not visible then it did not matter anyway.
    • We bought a sanding attachment to our drill and went right into it with a 180 grit paper but on a slow run. It will take just enough off, and fast.
    • We used B.I.N PRIMER with Ultimate Stain Block. Its a bit more expensive than the one that Lindsay used but dries in 15 minutes to the touch and 45 minutes for another coat. We left it to dry overnight anyway and did 2 coats of primer instead of one.
    • We ROLLERed on everything with a 4″ foam roller– Primer, Paint and even the final Polyacrylic protective coat. I just dont like brush strokes…! The small parts were finished with a 1″ or 2″ foam brush, but I got pretty good with using the roller so turned it in different ways to get a smooth finish.
    • Another thing about the roller-If your roller is not running evenly be BOLD and dip in the primer/paint/polyacrylic again. Also make sure you scrape the paint off the stick and handle each time you change the foam attachment. That helps!

Rollers and Trays
Drawers and their rollers

  • 2 and sometimes 3 coats of paint as needed. I watered down the paint a bit to make it easier to apply, but the final coat was with thicker paint. Always leave paint, even quick dry paint, overnight to dry.

Thats it!

Environs II

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So as StyleSponge suggested, Good design does deserve good pictures. Here is an updated version of environs plus more gorgeous details.

My Blogging Nook: This room has undergone several iterations to become this space. In one of its previous “versions” the permanent fixtures in this room used to be a drafting table with a “tubelight” (an longish tubular light, about 3 feet in length, something that is mostly found in this part of the world), a drafting table and a house lizard. My constant companions through the nights of work. I think it looks much better now! Although the wall does transform into a writing desk…:)
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Some accent detail and wall textures in the background.
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Better? You bet.
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Always more fun + promo code

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Did you know that you could print your own little books for as little as $2.00 a piece?
Did you also know that you could purchase a set of ISBN codes for about $10.00 bucks if you wanted to “self-publish” your little books?
And did you also know that you could drive those books around wherever you go and hand them out to whoever you know, for free. Cost of driving around not included. The assumption is that you are going there anyway!

BUT, it is better to have someone else publish your book even though it is much cheaper to do it yourself. WHY? Because it makes you look cool! It makes you look like someone who others want to publish and who others want to read.

AND WE ALWAYS SAY: If it needs to be done, let the professionals do it. (It keeps them employed!)

AND THAT IS WHY: We are signing up for the 2012 Sketchbook Project!!!!! Yay!!

It includes a “World Tour” of the books. Never you mind that the ‘World’ extends only as far as Canada in this case (London and Melbourne are for local entries only).

Yeehaw!

PS: You can use the code ADDAFRIEND when registering to get $2.00 off your order. Consider that our gift to you!!!