#24...I heart faux bois

When I first saw the eclectic, cool, faux bois paneling in the bathroom of Shauna Alterio & Stephen Loidolt of something's hiding in here, I was totally smitten. The apartment was featured as a design*sponge sneak peek here, and also been featured on Etsy's There's No Place Like Here series.

Shauna and Stephen shared their instructions for making your own faux bois paneling via Readymade magazine online, (which is where my faux bois paneling project began,) however sadly, I can no longer find the instructions anywhere on Readymade's website. Shauna gave these simple instructions on design*sponge:

"we painted it using a very simple plastic “wood graining” tool from home depot. all you need is two colors of paint and this tool it’s so easy."

I found their instructions very helpful, however I wanted to share a few additional tips I learned while making my own paneling. My first faux bois project was to make paneling for my dining room window seat. You can see it below on the walls and ceiling of the window cut-out.

After installing my dining room paneling, I became obsessed, and made some for my guest room in my loft/studio space. (below)Here's what I learned while painting the paneling:

* Home Depot stopped carrying the graining tool in store, but you can still find it at many paint stores, or online here.

* Choose two contrasting colors. I chose navy/light grey for the dining room, and turquoise/light grey for the guest room. I opted for the darker of the two for the base, and the light grey to create the grain effect. Opt for latex paint.

* I purchased the unfinished paneling at Lowe's. First, paint the paneling in a solid base coat of chosen color. Then mix a 3 to 1 ratio of paint to water with the graining color to make a glaze like paint mixture. Making a glaze seemed to make the graining tool slide easier down the paneling, and extended the drying time of the top coat, allowing more time for working.

* Paint one panel piece at a time, and then immediately use the graining tool by sliding it down the board, rocking your tool back and forth as you drag. This creates the grain effect. Wipe excess paint off of the graining tool between boards.

* Alternate the direction that you drag the tool down the board...top to bottom, then bottom to top for the next board. This will help insure that your pattern does not look too similar for each board. Hang and admire!

#23...bud vase line-up

I love the centerpiece of glass bud vases displayed on the table in the above magazine shot. It is simple, and graphic and fun. Singularly, a glass bud vase isn't much to look at, but grouped they are something to admire. There is power in numbers.

I decided to recreate this look on my dining table. Digging through my vase menagerie, I found two bud vases that I liked enough to display. So, I headed to the Goodwill and the Salvation Army stores in my neighborhood and rounded up another 7 vases for my centerpiece. Each vase cost less than $2, with some costing as little as 30 cents. The total for my newly acquired old bud vases was $8.10.

I visited the flower market, looking for something with similar texture and size to the flowers in the inspiration photo. I purchased 9 yellow spider mums for $1.25 a stem, for a total of $11.50, and set about arranging them. This centerpiece cost less than $20, and has lasted for 6 days thus far. I'm excited to fill my vases with a new flower in a few days.

#22...watermelon basket basics

My Mom always carves a watermelon basket for parties, showers and summer soirees. It makes such a nice centerpiece that you hardly need any other table decorations. She's a pro at it, and although I have witnessed her making many a basket, I have never carved one on my own. For a Memorial Day barbecue yesterday, I decided to pick up the knife and try my hand at fruit carving. Although my basket garnered lots of compliments (pictured above), I think that Mom's basket (pictured below) still takes the cake!I spent about 2 hours carving and assembling the basket. (I did have help from my sister-in-law Jennifer cutting up all of the fruit, so I can't take full credit.) Here's how I did it....

First, cut the sides out of the watermelon to create the basket shape like this. Next, begin cutting and scooping the meat of the watermelon out to create the basket. I used a fruit baller and worked away removing the fruit in balls, which go into the fruit salad. The watermelon was really juicy, and several times I got an unexpected bath of watermelon juice while scraping the rind. I dumped excess juice out of the rind basket because I did not want the juices to heavily flavor all of the other fruit.
Cutting the zig-zag edge around the basket and handle was tougher than I thought it would be. I think that I should have used a smaller knife. My basket turned out looking a little like a jagged, toothy jack-o-lantern compared to Mom's perfectly formed zig-zag edge. I guess practice makes perfect.The final touch to the basket exterior is to cut a tiny hole in the basket handle and add a flower. I cut a flower from a weed-like vine growing behind my house. Because the basket needed to sit out for the duration of the party, I decided to fill it with fruits that do not turn brown quickly. My fruit salad consisted of watermelon balls, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple and grapes. The fruit options are endless, just remember that if you include a fruit that browns quickly, like apples or bananas, you'll need to include a citrus fruit so the juices can stave off the browning. I mixed the fruit salad in a bowl and simply filled the basket about 10 minutes before party time, so the fruit would be fresh and chilled.

#21...faux malachite finish

I am in the process of helping my parents update their dining room. We added this new buffet to the room, that I found at a discount retail chain. It 's perfect for the room, but when I got it, it had a big blemish in the wood on the front left drawer, as you can somewhat see below.
Initially, I thought that I could fix the blemish with stain, and I tried to sand and refinish the spot to blend it into the rest of the piece. It didn't look good, and was still very noticeable. Using the book Paint Effects Masterclass by Sacha Cohen, I decided to try a faux finish on the buffet to mask the problem. The book is filled with pages of how to paint various stone finishes and wood grain looks. I wanted to choose a finish that was fairly easy to complete and did not require precise painting skills. I settled on a Malachite stone pattern. Malachite is a green mineral stone with circular and ribbon-like patterning.

Since green stone would have looked a little out of place in the dining room, I decided to translate the pattern to varying shades of dark brown.

To begin the project, I taped off the cabinet and primed and painted the section that I wanted to faux with a latex cream colored enamel.

Next, using artist's acrylic tube paints from the art supply store, I squeezed out two different shades of dark brown into separate piles on my palette. Using two different brushes, I painted patches of the two browns over my base coat. I worked in about a five inch square at a time, so that my paint would not dry before I got to faux it. To create the malachite circular ribbon pattern I simply tore up pieces of index cards and dragged them over the wet brown paint in a circular, squiggly motion, removing some of the brown paint, revealing the pattern. The book explains how to do the finish in more detail, and shows detailed pictures of how to drag the index card over the paint. The finished look is not perfect, but natural stone patterns are irregular anyway. There is a definite hand painted look to the cabinet, but overall I like how it turned out. After it dried, I brushed an artists gloss varnish over the faux finish to shine it up, and make it look more like the actual malachite stone. The project took me about 2 hours to complete and cost less than $10 for the small tubes of paint and varnish.

#20...personality for elfa

I think that the elfa shelving system from The Container Store is genius. One top rail that mounts into the wall, and everything else suspends off said rail....what could be easier than that. It is perfect for people who hate to put holes in the wall, and people who hate measuring and leveling. I have two large elfa shelving systems in my house, and they hold an unreal amount of weight. Maybe it's magic.

The only thing I don't like about elfa is the actual shelves that the Container Store sells for the system. They are short, so you have to string a bunch together to get long horizontal shelves, and they are way too expensive (in my opinion) for veneered pieces of pressed particle board..(i.e. fake wood)

I have found a solution to this elfa shelf dilemma that is much more economical than purchasing the pre-fab shelves. I simply buy wood from the local home improvement store and make my own shelves. The only difference in using the elfa shelves and using wood is that you will have to buy some small wood screws and screw the brackets into the wood once the shelves are in place instead of using the pins that come with the pre-fab shelves and brackets.

elfa brackets come in several sizes, so once you decide on how deep you want your shelves and what bracket to purchase, you can buy planks of wood in the chosen depth. The great thing about stores like Home Depot is that most will even cut your wood to size for you for free.

Since the shelves are made of wood, they can be painted or stained to coordinate with their new home. There are so many options for what your shelves can look like. I have painted my shelves to match the color of my wall, as shown above and below.

I have also stained the shelves to match the floor.

And I have painted them an accent color like in this room. No two elfa's will ever look the same again!

#19...from butter knives to bracelets

I bought this beat-up old wooden silver chest* at the Goodwill awhile back. I thought that it could make a really nice jewelry box, and would be a fairly easy project. I ripped the guts out of the box and lightly sanded the exterior for good paint adhesion. I primed the box, and used an oil based enamel that I had leftover from a shelving project I did in my bedroom to coat the box twice.

* this is not my actual box in first photo, as I lost my "before" shot and had to pull one off ebay. My box did look exactly like this one though...I promise.

After painting, the box looked a little plain, so I decided to paint my initial on the top of the box using silver craft paints. I drew my "C" on paper first and then transferred it onto my box with carbon paper. I did not trust that I would be able to freehand a perfectly formed letter "C". You could also print out a letter from any font you like, if you don't want to draw it yourself. I added a new knob and pull to finish off the outside of the box.

Moving on to the inside of the box, I decided which pieces of my costume jewelry collection I wanted to house in the box and then set to work retro-fitting the box. I cut pieces of cardboard and used spray adhesive (use it outdoors) to stick some 1/4" foam or batting (also cut to size to the cardboard.) I then choose Amy Butler's Midwest Modern print for the lining. I wrapped the foam/cardboard pieces like a present, and fitted them into the box.

I wanted the lid of the box to house my pin collection, so I used some fabric scraps to make three strips that I wrapped across the front of the fabric and around the sides of the lid insert so that I would have something that I could pin to.This project took me about 3 hours to complete (not including drying time) and cost less than $35. I think this would make a lovely gift. Here is a breakdown of the materials costs.

old silver box: $10

1/2 yard of fabric: $8

foam: $5

seashell knob: $3 (on sale at Anthropologie)

pull: $4 (Home Depot)

cardboard: free, I cut up a box

paint & primer: free, leftovers

My box even has a bottom drawer!

#18...design*sponge

Today I am featured on the design*sponge blog in a "before & after" spot for a nursery I decorated and blogged about a few weeks ago. Thanks so much Grace for the props, and for posting my pics! Check it out here!