First off, friends, my apartment was featured on Apartment Therapy today. Abby Cook took photos that are way better than anything I can imagine taking, ever, so you should really check it out.

In the piece, I mention my hall credenza, that I sort of built/upcycled from kitchen cabinets. Thought I'd use today to talk about how I made it. Here goes:

Initially, my front hall (which is also a main wall in my living room) looked like this:

And it was fine, I guess. But it was also busy. And it started to annoy me. I turned the spines of my books backwards in an effort to create more calm, but it didn't really work. How could I store all the stuff I needed to store, while leaving plenty of room for people to walk down the hall? Closed bookcases? A shallow console? What?

I hunted around, but I couldn't find a piece that suited my needs ANYWHERE. Billy bookcases from IKEA (with doors) were an option, but I just didn't want Billys. Traditional consoles were too fat. So I decided to hack something together.

Here's what I used:
3 assembled kitchen cabinet uppers (Home Depot)
8 fence post spires for legs (Home Depot)
6 pieces of linking hardware  (two-screw pieces, 3 across each seam)
Long wood screws (to drill down into the legs from inside the cabinets)
White primer and white paint + a "velvet" roller
6 ring pulls (Lee Valley Hardware) to attach to the centre of each door

Once the three cabinets were linked into one big long piece, and the spires were drilled into and attached as legs, the thing was a behemoth. I needed help to lift it upright. But it sure provides a lot of storage.

I stocked in my books and whatnot and lived with it in its dark brown form for awhile until I settled on painting it white. I should have used melamine paint, but I didn't. I used regular latex paint and primer. And such paint can chip easily. (It already has, in fact.) But oh well. Melamine paint is too hard to work with/too stinky. I didn't paint the insides of the cabinets. Only the outsides.

The final touch was adding brass hardware to the centre of each door.

Here's the end result, as shot by Abby for Apartment Therapy:

SO MUCH STORAGE and it's all hidden away. And in my opinion, it doesn't look like a set of kitchen cabinets anymore.

It's fantabulous if I do say so myself. (And I do. I do indeed.)

A long while back, I posted about a project where I decoupaged some birds onto an old stool. Here's a photo to refresh your memory.

I was never perfectly happy with how this project turned out. I felt it needed more birds. Or that the birds weren't well laid out.

But it was good enough, and for a long time, I lived with it.

Then, thanks to a hot cup and a low attention span, I ruined it. I scalded the top of the stool and a big fat chunk of varnish, bird and paint tore away.

This gave me an opportunity to start again.

Using my handy-dandy oscillating sander, I stripped away the old decoupage. (I should have used paint stripper for this. I'm so lazy. Don't be lazy like me. Do things right and you'll save yourself heartache.)

I brushed on a new under-coat of black paint, then found, printed and carefully cut out a picture of a water lily to take the place of the lost birds.

Here's how it turned out:

I used regular paper and my home printer for the water lily. Again, not wise. Decoupage works a lot better with thick paper and inks that won't bleed.

I re-decoupaged the top of the stool with the flower. The thin paper wrinkled and I had major bubble problems along the way. I tried to solve these with a needle and patience.

The result is imperfect. If you look at the stool up close, you can see that the varnish isn't smooth and the flower itself is a bit blurred, but nonetheless, I am very happy with it. It's better than the birds, I think. The water lily has more impact.

I did the whole thing while watching a movie on a Saturday afternoon, so it wasn't exactly hard labour.

Have you decoupaged anything recently?

Remember when I wrote about wanting new dining room chairs and about how I'd decided on the (fake) Eiffel chairs from Kitchen Stuff Plus?

I never posted a reveal of how they look! So... that's what this is.

As you know, I'm no great shakes at photography, but what do you think? Good decision?

Well, I've decided. I bought four Eiffel chairs. Two regular ones and two arm chairs.

I never intended to do a mix, but Nate felt the arm chairs were more comfortable, and they weren't THAT much more expensive, so we compromised.

The lot should be delivered by early next week at the latest. I will be sure to take some pics in context so you can see what I've gotten myself into.

I have no idea if I made the right decision. But here's hoping. Cross fingers. And for goodness sake, leave me some supportive comments to ease my mind, would ya?

Okay, so I have a dining set. A complete dining set. As in, a set that came together. A matching set.

This is, allegedly, a design sin.

Now, I agree that most matching dining sets are ugly. The one above practically makes my eyes bleed, it's so ugly.

But my set is MUCH nicer. And in my defense, I inherited it. And beggars can't be choosers. Also, it was made in Canada, likely in the 1940s. It's a warm, aged colour. The oval table has two leaves in perfect condition, and while the caning on two of the six chairs is damaged, that's only because my friends are aggressive asses. Or rather, they have aggressive asses.

The buffet features roller doors and felt lined silverware drawers and all in all, it's pretty nice.

But it matches.

And that bugs me.

So, I've been thinking of getting some new chairs. I'm not sure I can justify this, either financially or practically, but it's what I'm craving. The caned chairs will have to go into the basement (which is problematic) or I'd have to sell them (more problematic still, both for emotional reasons, and because I find it hard to break ANY set, and especially since two are damaged).

But I'm still considering it.

I'm also dreaming about what NEW chairs would look best with the old table.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward Eames Eiffel chairs, either in white, or multi-coloured (which is to say, a different colour for each chair). What do you think? Authentic Eiffel's are out of my price range, but my lovely Twitter friend Janice (from Life Begins at 30) told me they've got knock-offs at Kitchen Stuff Plus right now. AND they're on sale for $60 apiece.

Do you have any other chair suggestions for me? I want something that provides contrast, that will be practical, and that will stand up to the occasional aggressive man-bum at a drunken party. Ideas?

I have decided to paint my bedroom dark. You weighed in and I listened and I decide to go for it. I have the colour all picked out. I'm going with Behr's "Night Shade" which, in practice looks like this:

No, not the colour on the left! The colour on the right! The DARK colour. (So dark.) (The image is from the Hostetler's blog.)

Oh man. I'm terrified.

Just to give you an idea of what it's going to look like, I'll show you a couple of things I've got already, like my IKEA furniture (from the Engen line - now defunct):

And here's a before shot of my bedding (or at least, some of my bedding) and accessories:

If all goes well, and I can get the room finished and dressed, I'll have a reveal for you next week. Cross fingers!

A couple of years ago, I inherited a lovely antique coffee table from my grandparents. Though not exactly my style, not exactly the right size, and not particularly suited to my decor, I've been using it faithfully ever since. After all, it's pretty. It was free. And it's one of the few things I got from the family collection.

But I've long harboured a desire for something different. Glass-top tables often annoy me (fingerprints!) but nonetheless, I thought a glass-top table would suit my space. I wanted that lightness. And the wood table, while not very large, was heavy as heck.

To be fair, I contributed to the heaviness by layering the table up with all sorts of dodads, as is my wont, but that's not really part of this story.

Let's just say I'm not what you'd call a minimalist.

Anyway, what I really wanted was a glass-top table, with a gold metal base. Something square. Something substantial, but delicate. (Actually, what I really wanted was my grandparent's OTHER coffee table, which they still have, which is glass, square, and on a gold metal base, and which I've coveted forever... sigh.)

And then finally, last week, I spotted this table at Goodwill:

It's a bit hideous, I know, but it was the right size and shape. And only $30! I was sure I could make it work. Alas... right from the beginning, things went wrong.

First off, between buying the table and picking it up, the glass top was smashed, and I lost my receipt and wasn't able to return it. I didn't really want to return it, but I was extremely frustrated. I had to order a piece of replacement glass, which added an extra $70 to the price, turning a $30 table into an $100 table.

Annoying.

But I persevered and set about my makeover. All it really took was a bit of spray paint and a steady hand. I felt if I could cover up the table's horrible green splatter paint job, I'd be all set.

The spray painting was actually very easy. I used my old standby: Krylon gold (for metal, wood, etc.) It's a nice colour, gives good coverage and dries FAST.

Here's the end result:

What do you think? Good makeover?

I'm heading to IKEA this weekend to help a friend with his new place. And I was just perusing the website to see what's new. I know I've already posted about new stuff realatively recently, but that was more than a month ago and there's even MORE new stuff available now. For example:

These sweet and summery GRÖNSKA cotton bags are only $2.50 each.

The industrial-looking FOTO pendant lamp, in off-white, is only $24.99. (Also comes in black and silver.) 

This orange MALM occasional table is $89.00. (It also comes in white.) I always thought the MALM lines would work well in a console format like this one. And think of the endless hacking options!

Oh IKEA. I love  you.

I'm noticing some new themes at everyone's favourite Swedish retailer these days. The new stuff is a little bit country. Lots of stripes and old-fashioned florals. And lots of blue. What do you think of it? Are you looking forward to the catalogue?

Once upon a time, I had a steamer trunk coffee table. This was back in 1999, at my student house in Kingston, ON.

The trunk was part of a decor scheme that included two royal blue futons, a barko lounger, twinkle lights, and a carboard cut out of Austin Powers' Mini Me.

Oh, and a poster of Sly Stalone. As Rocky. Natch.

I'm not sure where the trunk came from. It just showed up one day. I assume one of my roommates brought it home. It was blue. And very beat-up. But I was living on $100 a month for groceries at the time, so I wasn't in a position to turn my nose up at free furniture.

Anyway. I tell you this because I recently came across another steamer trunk (curbside) and I immediately fell in love and hauled it home. It's also blue and very beat up. The hardware is rusty, but other than that, it's in good shape and a little rust doesn't bother me. Adds character. Patina. (See my patina/poo post for more on that front.)

I'm thinking of using the new/old trunk in Pete's new place. I'm not sure he'll go for it, so I've been hunting down images of trunks used in similar applications.

What do you think of the steamer trunk coffee table? Is it passé? I asked this question on Twitter the other day and people seemed pretty positive about it, but I think a lot of the naysayers were just keeping quiet. If you hate it (or like it), by all means, speak up.

Image from Tommy Hilfiger.

From Seattle Magazine, by Kelley Moore. Photo by Tom Barwick.

I've been hard at work scouring the web for stuff for my pal Pete's new apartment (which I posted about last week). Here are some of the things I've got my eye on. Tell me what you think.

Craigslist find: grey velvet sofa. It's vintage. It's a pull-out. And it's only $100.

A hide rug. Ubiquitous, I know, but so what? This is a man cave.

At least two funky, vintage side chairs. I'm not sure these are the ones I want, but they're an option from Craigslist, selling for $274 for a set of four.

Here's another chair option from Craigslit. These black bad boys are only $105 for the pair.

And if I can find (or make) one, I'd like to go with a really rustic, industrial sort of coffee table, like this one from Etsy's brandmojiinteriors.

ANYWAY.

Regardless, I'm going to have to work around a few existing items. For example, Pete's rug, which is a sort of Persian-type thing, not unlike this:

And his vintage fire extinguisher, which looks like this:

AND, most importantly, his authentic musk ox pelt. (Yes. I said musk ox. Yes. I said pelt.)
As in, this:

Challenging, yes. But endlessly fun.

What do you think of my ideas for the man cave? Yea or nay? We spent a lot of the weekend painting the space, getting it ready for furniture. Alas, Pete fears bed bugs (who doesn't?) so Craigslist finds might be a bad idea, but regardless, ideas are percolating. I'd love some feedback.