craft studio Archives

Tag: craft studio

15
Oct
2014

A girl and her sharpie – aka how I brought Cole & Son wallpaper into my budget :)

categories: craft studio, mural, paint, Weekend Warrior

Hi again! See, I told you I’d be back 🙂

So, when we last met, I introduced you to my Larry, my DIY fail. I also mentioned that I had already redone the accent wall in the craft studio, so today is a reveal post/mini-tutorial. If you guys want something more in-depth, let me know and I will elaborate with a full-blown tutorial for you.

Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I have a rather long-standing tradition of falling in love with design elements that are WAAAAAYYYY out of my budget. As much as I love those design elements, I also kinda love a roof over my head, food on my table, and, um, my marriage. All this means that I can’t blow my budget no matter how much I love a given table, rug, lamp, etc. But ask anyone who knows me, and they will probably tell you I am ~~stubborn~~ determined (and resourceful). Luckily, I am also not afraid to take risks with paint. Here’s why:

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Oh, Cole & Son, your wallpaper is so pretty, so my style, so…FRIGGIN’ SPENDY! I first saw this wallpaper on Anthropologie (a website I only browse when my wallet is safely in the other room where I will be too lazy to fetch it), but at almost $200.00 a roll, it just wasn’t going to happen. So, I decided to DIY it. After looking on the internet, I found a bunch of birch tree stencils, but nixed these immediately since they didn’t really nail the original wallpaper. Plus, I thought it might hurt Larry’s feelings if I tossed him aside, only to do another stencil. Y’all know I couldn’t risk that, haha. Further searching led me to this post on Apartment Therapy, though, and I knew instantly that I was close to a solution.

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Finally, looking over my Pinterest boards, I found this pin of Vintage Revival’s gold sharpie wallpaper.

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Cue the lightbulb moment: gold sharpie + hand drawn trees = the perfect solution to my craving for Cole & Son wallpaper.

And here it is!! Pardon the less than ideal nighttime photos and the “storage unit chic” look this room is still rocking – it’s coming along, but it’s not done yet.

Here’s a quick description of how I did it:

First, I pulled up a picture of the original wallpaper on my tablet so I could refer to it as I went. This was super helpful in keeping the look uniform and preventing me from getting distracted and just doodling on my walls (not that that was EVER a concern…at all).

Next, I sketched out the tree and branch outlines very roughly in white chalk. I also added in some knotholes. I used the standard schoolhouse stuff that you can get at the dollar store and was perfect – not only did it show up really clearly on the navy walls, but it also came right off the with a damp sponge when I was done.

I then took the thinner of my two sharpie pens (I used both the medium and fine tip oil-based paint sharpies in the gold color), and drew roughly horizontal lines across the trunk of all my trees to fill them in. I spaced these about 1/3″ apart on the main trees in the foreground, and wider on the skinny trees in the background.

Next, I took the heavier point sharpie (medium) and filled in between the lines with a combination of lines and dashes. I tried to keep the pattern fairly regular between adjacent lines, but vary it overall so that nothing looked TOO uniform.

Finally, I used the fine point sharpie to add extra dashes on the one side of the tree trunks, to make them look more shaded and dimensional. I also added some fine branches and leaves at this point, and added the Doctor’s and my initials in one of the knotholes for a personal touch.

All in all, I think I went through about 4 fine tip sharpies, and 3 medium tips. I got all of them at Jo-Ann Fabrics, and used 40% off coupons, so all in all I spent around $15.00 for the whole wall, not including the navy paint. If you add that in it’s probably more like $30.00. Regardless, my DIY job was MUCH more in my budget that the $200.00 original. As an added bonus, I got to do it in my chosen color combo, and I kept the Doctor happy 🙂

So there you have it – the basic breakdown of what I did to create my own personal golden forest. Feel free to comment with any questions you might have, and if enough people ask, I will do a full tutorial with pictures of each step and such.

Till next time,

Sarah

12
Oct
2014

Meet Larry, a DIY fail

categories: Uncategorized

Hey there! Remember me, the girl who hasn’t posted in, oh, forever? Sorry about that, y’all. Yes, life had been crazy. No, that’s not really a good excuse. I really am sorry for all three of you who have missed me (ha).

Moving on, let’s talk walls. The craft studio walls, specifically. Apparently, I’m on an accent wall kick at the moment (see here), so I couldn’t possibly just paint the craft room walls a single color and leave it (oh, the horror of making my life simple, right?) No, I knew – I just KNEW – I wanted the far wall of the craft room to be an accent wall. So, I decided to paint it navy. This of course meant taping off trim, since such a dark color shows every friggin’ wavy line. Have I mentioned how much I LOATHE taping? If not, it’s alot – as in “I’d rather be cleaning my toilet – with a toothbrush” alot. Yeah.

Anyway, I painted the wall, and it looked like this:

please pardon the mess...just keepin' it real people — please pardon the mess…just keepin’ it real people

Oooohhh….AAAhhhh….shiny, pristine, gorgeous navy wall – Bra-VO, past Sarah. We’re done right?

Darn that past Sarah, she’s never content. Apparently I drank the crazy Kool-aid that day, because I decided it needed more. I wanted something with movement, something quirky, something modern, something GOLD, dangit! So I turned where we all turn for inspiration, the internet. That’s where I found this:

"Origami Crane" by DIYstencils — “Origami Crane” by DIYstencils

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It was quirky, it had movement, it was modern, it (could be) gold, and…it was cranes. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with cranes, I just have no real desire to put them all over my walls. So I decided to design my own stencil (no problem, past Sarah said), cut out said stencil with my Silhouette Cameo (easy peasy, she said), and stencil it – perfectly aligned – on my very old, very cattywampus walls (I am beginning to lose faith in past Sarah’s judgment at this point). Did I mention that there’s a window on this wall? And that it isn’t completely level? Yeah – sometimes I amaze myself with how brilliant I am. Ugh.

Here’s the thing, though. Once I get an idea in my head, I’m kinda like a dog with a bone. I just can’t let it go. So I decided to try. Now, I have a particular love of elephants, so I decided to sub that in for the crane. I found an origami line drawing of an elephant online, and used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to turn it into something my Silhouette could cut. Here is the finished stencil (I used quilter’s plastic from Jo-Ann fabrics to cut it from). Y’all, at this point I was SO EXCITED. I couldn’t wait to try it on the wall. Like this. Ta-da!!!

And a close-up, because I’m nice that way…

It was right about this moment that I realized four important things:

1) it was going to take a LOT of math to make everything line up visually given the crooked walls and window – I am NOT a math person.
2) almost every remaining elephant on the wall was somehow going to be cut off by either the walls, ceiling, floor, or window frame.
3) My stencil didn’t want to bend around corners.
4) I didn’t want to cry.

So I decided to admit defeat, and go with something I can freehand (which is actually already done, so look for another post sometime around Tuesday – really, I promise).

So why am I even posting this? Why put my failure out on the internet for all to see? Well, to demonstrate that we all make mistakes, and sometimes DIY fails happen. But you know what? That’s okay because we learn from it. Plus, now I have a super cute elephant stencil that I already have great plans for. I think I’ll name him “Larry.”

Till next time,

Sarah

10
Aug
2014

Craft Studio floor plan

categories: Uncategorized

One of the very first things I do when I decide to tackle a room redo is a floor plan. It’s not nearly as fun as, say, shopping for accessories, but it is a foundation for the whole room and thus a necessary evil. Now this isn’t always a formal thing – sometimes I can just stand in a room and mentally place the furniture (that was what I did with my living room and it worked out fine). Some spaces need a more in-depth approach though, especially if they are overly large (master bedroom) or small (craft studio). This room in particular presented a challenge because:

1) there is an awkward jut out for the closet that makes the entrance feel cramped even with nothing in the room
2) there are two huge windows (yay!) on two very small walls (boo!) that I really wanted to leave as unblocked as possible.
3) I have alot of craft/art stuff, so I need to squeeze lots of storage and work space into a very small room.

Now when I say small, I am not kidding – the room is nine feet long and ranges from ten feet at its widest point to just under seven at its narrowest. It’s smaller than my walk-in closet! Couple that with the door and window placement, and it’s a challenge to say the least.

My first step was to sketch everything out to scale on my computer – there are a bunch of ways to do this online, but I used my old standby, Adobe Illustrator. I just happen to be really comfortable with that particular software (yay for graphic design backgrounds), but it doesn’t matter what method you use. Even pen and paper is fine (that’s what I used to take down the measurements) – the important part is to get it into a form you can play with. Here is my illustrator plan, sans furniture:

Next up was to create furniture blocks to represent any large items (furniture, shelves, rugs, etc. ) that are going in the space. Remember that you don’t have to get the overhead silhouette perfect. Plain old squares are fine, as long as the square represents the maximum dimensions of the piece. In my case this was especially important since I was using furniture that I already had (read more about my $100 budget here), so I couldn’t feasibly buy smaller scale furniture specifically for the room. If you are using paper, just cut your furniture blocks out of another piece of paper so you can literally move them around. If you are going the digital route, just create a new layer for your furniture. In the craft studio, I had two desk options, a chair, and a shelf unit that I knew were staying.

After that, it’s all about moving things around and filling in the holes with new pieces if necessary. Have fun and play around with placements you might otherwise not do. Because it’s digital (or paper), there is no heavy lifting involved, so it makes sense to figure out the best layout, even if you have to move things around a bunch of times.

Here are some of the plans I came up with – the pieces I own are in blue, and the new additions are in yellow. You will see I also kept a running total to the bottom of what I would need to buy so I could see at a glance where each plan would put me in my budget. I also added some notes at the bottom for my reference so I could remember what I was thinking – my ‘lil pea brain only has so much room!

After looking them over, hemming and hawing, and sleeping on it, I am down to options 2 or 3. As much as I love the idea of having one long, glorious expanse of counterspace at my disposal (option 4), it would involve alot more buying, which would eat into my budget for cute accessories (for shame!). Plus, options 2 and three give me both room to leave an easel out and a standing desk for my computer – something I have been wanting to do for awhile to get away from being so sedentary.

Stay tuned for a post on the colors/mood board for the craft studio later this week, as well as a closer look at the light fixture I talked about here.

Till next time,

Sarah