Tag Archives: diy

New life, new desk!

Easy crafts for lazy people: Marimekko inspired plant pots

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a DIY project! My latest adventures with a paintbrush resulted in some cute clay plant pots with a design inspired by Finnish textile company Marimekko.

If you’re new to this site, I’ve been doing this series called Easy crafts for lazy people. It’s all about the fact that I’m really into doing creative stuff, yet incredibly impatient about getting to the end result. Sometimes I’m willing to sacrifice a spotless end result, just to get there faster. However, in the hands of someone capable of more diligence, these ideas could give even better results!

Here’s another one of these projects. We just recently decided to green up our place (finally!). Being the novices we are to the world of plants, we started out with some species that are easy to care for: ferns, herbs and succulents. I couldn’t help myself. Instead of getting the 4$ pre-enameled pot covers, I had to get the plain ones, knowing that their blandness wouldn’t last for long.

This is the type of pot we had to start for:

This is what the end result looks like:

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Cheap art: 9 tips on how to decorate without breaking the bank

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Everyone wants to have pretty things on their walls but most people don’t have the money to buy expensive works of art. This lack of funds does not have to mean that you can’t own nice, original art to display in your house.

Here are 9 tips that I live by in order to decorate without breaking the bank.

1. Buy drawings instead of paintings

Drawings are much cheaper to produce then paintings, so the price tag goes accordingly. Some artists specialize in drawing, while others will sell sketches and preparation studies that were done for future artworks.

Where to find some on the Internet: numerous Etsy shops like Old Passion, Amelia Herbertson and Teva Gallery. The Untapped Cities Shop on Society 6.

Where to find some in person: Decorating stores, Art Galleries (In Montreal: Galleries at the Belgo Building)

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Furniture makeover: the dresser

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These last few weeks I’ve been busy working on my home’s decor. I have been gluing, stapling, painting and mod-podging almost non-stop. I’ll be sharing the results of these makeovers with you, because many of these are drastic and I’m quite proud of how they came out.

Let’s start with this dresser.

It was given to me by a former work colleague who was moving back to France. Even though it looked quite worn out, I immediately saw it’s potential. Besides, who says no to free furniture ?

For months, I left it as is (it was a neutral brown shade). Then I put a few coats of white, thinking it would fit nicely into my decor. Alas, I was still not satisfied, finding that it lacked character and looked unfinished.

After weeks of searching for inspiration, I was just about to give up when I saw a photo of a room with a color scheme not unlike that of my living room, in which one of the pieces of furniture had been painted a pretty shade of light blue.

I haven’t been a fan of baby blue since I passed the age of 12 and stopped liking boy bands and Kangol hats, so I was quite surprised that I liked it in this context. Figuring that I had nothing to lose that another coat of paint couldn’t fix, I went out to buy a few bottles of acrylic paint, along with some easy to install handles.

Here’s the dresser in mid-makeover process:

And here’s the final result:

I’m really happy with how it looks. Oddly enough, I think that if I saw this dresser in a store, I’d find it too classical, but in my decor, it really fits.

The process itself was easy but I’ll recap it for you if you want to do it yourself:

– I started with a coat of white primer. Let it dry (in my case, for many weeks)

– Chose a shade of blue (I used Americana acrylic paint in Baby blue DAO42). I used 4 bottles.

– Got 3 handles at the hardware store. Installed them.

That’s it! No sanding or varnishing was required but it may be in your case depending on the texture and use you will make of the furniture. I’ll let you be the judge on that!