#346...my easel wall

One wall of our loft space is very long and windowless. It serves as a screening wall for our projection TV. Part of the blank wall, directly across from the bed (see it here) is my painting corner. I hang my canvases directly onto the wall, which serves as my easel. This part of the loft is cluttered, and a little lackluster, so this weekend I decided to clean it and make my painting area  more of a focal point for the corner. Here is my painting area before....

I reoriented our workout stuff to other areas of the loft, and hung a bunch of large scale artwork around my paint area to frame it. Here it is after.......

My paint supplies were a bit unruly.....

before

So, I decided to house them in this wheelie cabinet that I made over a while back.

after

The artwork consists of a few pieces that my sister Sarah did during art school, a vintage fabric fish panel that I stretched onto foam board, a few abstract paintings by me, and a blown up photo of a Ferris wheel that I took at the beach last summer.

#345...sarah's kitchen

My youngest sister Sarah moved into a cute 1950's apartment a few months back. I've been helping her decorate. Here are some pictures of her small, but really charming kitchen. I made the roman shade and sink skirt from this Echo shower curtain that I found at HomeGoods.

#344...candy's chair set

My Mom's friend Candy asked me to makeover some old office chairs for her. Here are a few before shots of the chairs and a side table that came with them. They looked straight out of a Dr.'s office waiting room.

Candy picked the fabric fabric for her chairs, and left it to me to decide what to do with the wood sides, which were in marginal shape. Here is the after........

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I decided to paint the chairs in Benjamin Moore's sea haze, which is a soft gray, giving them a more modern look. I really love how it looks with the cream and black fabric. I painted the chairs using a satin finish oil-based enamel. For the table that came with the chairs, I decided to make it coordinate with the chairs, but not match them exactly to take away some of the office waiting room feel of the coordinated set. Here is another before of the table. 

...and here is the after

I cleaned the wood sides with orange oil and painted the top in a stripe pattern. To create the stripe, I painted the top in the sea haze color and then used tape to create the asymmetrical stripes. Next, I painted the cream color over the stripes and pulled the tape off. It took a few coats of the cream, and I usually rip the tape off while the paint is wet each coat, let it dry, and then re-tape over the stripes before adding another coat of the top color. If you leave the tape on and let the top color dry, you run the risk of pulling off the paint when taking the tape off. It is easier just to re-tape the pattern for each new coat of paint.

I really like how this set turned out, although if it were mine, I think I'd break up the table and chairs. The table is large and boxy in scale for the size of the chairs, and I think it would work well as a small coffee table, sofa end table, or even bedside table. I like the chairs paired together and think I would put a small round table like this or this between them as a grouping.

#343...embellished denim

I was cleaning in my attic and came across this denim skirt that I embellished a few years ago to wear to a western themed party. I put my own spin of western on it, by adding tie dye ruffle trim, and some top-stitched Chinese silk patch pockets. The skirt is from the GAP via a thrift shop, that I cut it off to my desired length. I thought about getting rid of it, as it is a little too costumey for normal wear, but it's growing on me, so I'll keep it and  maybe even wear it out this summer.

#342...rolling storage bin

I picked up this beat-up blue storage cube at the Goodwill for about $8. It was originally from Target, and the top comes off providing internal storage. It has been in my attic for quite awhile. I decided to give it a face lift and try using it for additional storage in my laundry room/bathroom that is still under construction. I recovered it with a "glasses" print oilcloth by Japanese design company Echino. I ran out of oilcloth for the top, so I paired it with a leftover scrap of vintage Waverly fabric from my stash. It took very little sewing, and a lot of stapling. I added the Rill caster from Ikea to make it mobile.

#341...cubby wall

In searching for built-in bookcase ideas for a client, I found this cool cubby wall of display boxes, which I'd love to build in my house to display my thrift store pottery collection.

via

#340...ryan bingham

Last night, we saw Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses at Josabi's in Helotes....

....say that three times fast