Thursday, July 23, 2009

hgtv eat your heart out

we are officially unpacked, which can be seen as either a good or a bad thing. GOOD: yay! this is my own place and i can feel settled! BAD: boo. now i don't have a massive project taking up all my time, and since i am stillll unemployed this means i'm starting to get very antsy & restless. i want an income. and health insurance.

but i digress. i've had some fun filling in some of the blanks in our new apartment with some before&after craft projects.

numero uno: the kitchen shelf

we have a random little open shelf above the kitchen sink. [have i mentioned how much storage is in this place? it's fantastic.] it wasn't so much ugly as it was just bare and open, so i wanted to do something to fill it in. before:



i went to joann's and found some discount retro-style fabric that i thought matched the rest of our funky kitchen [a space that also includes random wood-paneled countertops, a vintage -- or rundown -- oven and a stainless steel sink]. i cut out a big piece, sewed it together on my totally sweet new machine and put some cardstock paneling inside it so it stays put over the edge of the shelf. add a couple decorations and voila! the after:





number two: the turquoise mirror

i bought this little baby for twenty-five cents at a garage sale before we got married. i always thought it was such a cool piece, and it fit pretty nicely in our l.a. apartment. we never really found a spot for it in our pasadena place so it just sat propped up against the wall. b kept threatening to trash it in the move [a la the infamous blue chair] but i defended it all the way to utah. the before, all taped up for our project:



i've been so intrigued by the idea of bright colors [especially turquoise] lately, and was devastated that our new landlord refuses to let us paint the walls. so, i decided i wanted to paint this mirror instead. we went to lowes, picked out the paint, laid a couple coats on the mirror and then distressed it. a fun little diy project for me and b. here's the after...i love how it turned out:





now i'm on the hunt for a few more turquoise pieces to tie it in better to our front room. fun!

we still have a couple more spaces to fill in around here [a task that will hopefully be completed after a little ikea run tomorrow], and once that's done i'll put up pictures of the whole apartment. i'm sure you can hardly wait.

12 comments:

Jean said...

Oooooh, nice job!! I love both of these crafty designs. I could never think of something that cute (you know, you've seen me try to make cards, ha ha). Way to go!!

Leisel said...

Very nice! I am impressed.

megan said...

oh so jealous! I can't wait to decorate my space! ...when I get some :-)
oh the turqouise mirror, you know I'm in LOVE with that color!

dietcokegrrl said...

Wow--nice job! LOVE the mirror! Glad you are adjusting and making the space your own.

The Facks of Life said...

Fun! And super cute. I can't wait for more. In about 6 weeks I'll be doing home makeovers of my own. :)

Megan said...

So cute! You are so talented- you have the style eye- you can see it beautiful even when its not. Then you make it happen! I love it!

sachia said...

Turquoise is my FAV. Luv it long time!

JoLee said...

LP - that is beautiful. Great job! And our men always questioned why we spent hours watching HGTV, it's for reasons like this!

becca said...

hey, i read on a list online that 500 days comes to utah on july 31.

dana said...

LOVE the mirror! I've been wanting to do the same thing in the same color! Very cute. seriously HGTV...Lyndsey is HERE.

nichole said...

this mirror is AMAZING!!!

Lindsey said...

Shut up! That mirror is fantastic! I'm finding that I really like to accent with that color. Oh, and at Aroma for the luncheon, the hall where the bathrooms are had great big mirrors like that staggered all the way down the hall. Yours would be perfect in an arrangement like that.