Ikea Goes Glam

Ladies and gents, I give you a rather sexy coffee table:

She came from humble Swedish beginnings:

Ikea Lack Coffee Table - $20

I didn't have room in my living room budget for a "proper" coffee table, but after trawling Ikea Hackers, I was inspired (especially by this similar Lack hack). I shelled out twenty big ones for an Ikea Lack and set to work giving her a face lift. Here's how...

You will need:

• An Ikea Lack coffee table
• Spray Adhesive (this might also work with wallpaper paste, but I haven't tried it)
• ModPodge
• Shellac
• Wallpaper (I used Laura Ashely's Oriental Garden wallpaper; thick wrapping paper would work too)
• A craft knife
• A paint brush
• Decorative nails (I used 3/8" nails with a nickel finish) or nail head trim
• A ruler
• A hammer

1. Spray

If you're buying a new Lack, this is much easier to do before you assemble it. Make sure your table is clean and dry. Spray adhesive all over the top and lay your paper smoothly over. This can be tricky, but if you have someone to help, one can spray and the other can lay. Use a paint roller or a credit card to smooth out air bubbles.

If your paper doesn't cover the whole table, you can still make this work by laying two pieces side-by-side and lining up the seams, like I did.

{Side note: On my first attempt, I used ModPodge to attach the paper to the table. Do not, for the love of God, do this. It dries too fast and creases and you'll be left peeling ruined paper off a very sticky table.}

2. Fold and repeat

Once the top is glued down smoothly, fold the paper along the edges, spray and press it down around the sides. Remove the table legs if you need to, tuck the paper underneath the table top and glue in place there too.

Reattach the legs if necessary.

3. The bottom shelf

Using a craft knife, I measured and cut strips of paper to fit the edges of the bottom shelf too. To attach these, the ModPodge worked just fine, and was neater than using the spray adhesive. It's subtle and hard to see in the photo, but I assure you it's pretty in real life. Give it at least a couple of hours to dry before moving to the next step.

4. Seal it

Use a paint brush to apply an even coat of ModPodge over all the wallpaper. Let it dry then give it another coat or two. When it's all had time to dry completely, use spray Shellac to seal it.

All this might seem like overkill, but since we have a toddler and I am almost certain things will get spilled on it, I didn't want to take any chances. As it is, I can wipe it clean no problem.

5. Add the trim

This final step was definitely a labor of love for me. I love the look of nail head trim, so I figured it would be the perfect finishing touch. I went to four hardware stores and three hobby stores and couldn't find it anywhere. Bah. Finally, in JoAnns, I found two boxes of  individual decorative nails. I was well aware that it could all go Pete Tong (wrong) if I tried to nail each one in myself, but I was impatient so I bought them anyway, and so began the long process of hammering every single nail in by hand.

Using a metal rule, I measured 13mm from the edge of the table to the center of the nail heads. It's not as hard as you'd think to get them straight and evenly spaced if you take the time to measure. And yes, I measured every single nail. Sounds completely tiresome, but I stuck Sarah's House on in the background and had some help from a little red headed fellow with a plastic hammer and it was actually quite fun.

I ran out of nails quite quickly and had to buy more - luckily, Amazon sells the exact same ones in a multi-pack. I ended up using I think 6 or 7 boxes of 36 nails.

Of course, if you just use a roll of nail head trim, this part would be a lot quicker (although it might not look quite as nice).

{The last nail goes in!}

6. Enjoy!

Cost break down (approximately)

Table - $20

Wallpaper - $0 (I'd already bought it for another project and only used a smidgen for this)

ModPodge - $10

Spray adhesive - $12

Shellac - $11

Decorative nails - $12

That brings the total cost to $65, but obviously I now have lots of supplies I can use again in the future.

It was a lot cheaper than the other options I was considering when I put together my living room design board...

Bungalow 5 Marco Side Table - $455 {although I'd need two of them, so make it $910}

Crestview Collection Mirrored Coffee Table - $639

...And it makes a nice addition to our living room, I think. :)

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How to Paint Horizontal Stripes

I am completely in love with the new striped wall in our master bedroom (I posted the big reveal here). It took a while, but it was totally worth it. It's subtle but fun and makes a huge difference to the room.

It's really not hard to paint stripes, but it can take rather a long time, unless you know what you're doing. Here's how I did it...

You will need:
Two colors of paint (I used Sherwin Williams Rainwashed and Window Pane, only a shade apart)
Painter's tape (I've heard very good things about Frog Tape, but I used Scotch Blue)
Drop cloth
Level
Ruler
Pencil
Roller (I've heard that there's less chance of bleeding with a foam roller but I used a regular one and didn't have any issues)
Good quality angled paint brush (I like Purdy)

1. The base color
If you are just adding stripes to an already painted room, this step is already done for you. If not, paint your wall and give it at least a few days for the paint to cure before you start taping.
Our bedroom was green, and I thought I might want green stripes (I could always retape and repaint later if I didn't love it, which is exactly what happened...more on that in a min), so I just skipped straight to the next step...

2. How many stripes?
First, figure out how big you want your stripes to be, and whether you want them to be even or not. Roughly mark out a couple of stripes to see what looks good in your space using painter's tape. Measure your wall and adjust your stripe width if necessary.
My wall is about 9.5 feet tall. I liked the look of alternating 8" and 11.5" stripes. Dividing the height of the wall by those measurements gave me 6 stripes of each color. It didn't divide exactly, so I decided to make life a little easier for myself and tacked on the extra fractions of an inch to the bottom stripe. I had a slightly wider bottom stripe but nice round measurements on all the others. It's not noticeable.

3. The first stripe is the most important
Start by measuring the bottom stripe. I measured 11.5" (plus that little bit extra) from the skirting board and made a mark. I did the same in intervals along the bottom of the wall. I then took my ruler and level and drew a straight line, using the marks as my guide, across the entire wall. (It would have been easier to use a combo level rule, but I didn't have one, so I improvised.)

This should show you whether your skirting board is level or not. If it's not, this line is going to be your guide for marking out all the other stripes, so it's really important to take your time and do it right.

4. Mark out all the other stripes
This is the bit that can take way longer than necessary if you let it. The easiest way to measure all the other stripes is to start on one side of the wall. Measure from your skirting board or that first line, mark the appropriate intervals, then tape out a small section of the line, making sure it's level.

So I marked at 11.5", then 19.5", then 31" and so on, all the way up the wall.

Then run your tape all the way from one side to another, matching up with the markings on both edges of the room.

{From here, I just unraveled the tape and walked it across the
room until I met the markings on the other side - not the best
photo but there was no-one else around to take a better one}

 Repeat until all your stripes are taped.

Update: Tip for Textured Walls

To avoid the paint bleeding under the tape, paint over it first in your base color to seal it. When that's dry, paint with the color of your stripes. It'll save you hours of touching up.

5. Paint the edges
As with any paint job, it's better to paint the edges (against the ceiling, other walls, and around windows or door frames) before you roller in the rest - this helps the brush strokes blend in better.

6. Roller in the rest and remove the tape
Fill in the rest and give it a second coat if necessary. Wait about half an hour so the paint isn't completely dry then remove the tape.

If you take the tape off too soon or too late, it's likely to peel the paint off, which might make you cry. Like this.

7. If you're not done...
After all that, I wasn't loving the green stripes. (If I did like them, obviously I would have painted back over the test patches I made before I started on the stripes.) I wanted a more subtle look, so I waited for the paint to cure (I gave it six days), re-taped to leave all the green stripes exposed, and repeated steps 5 and 6.
I picked up more paint, a shade lighter and tested it

There was still more contrast than I wanted (although it's not that obvious in the picture), so I mixed 2/3 of the lighter colour (Sherwin Williams Window Pane) with 1/3 of my original colour (Sherwin Williams Rainwashed). The result was more subtle.

I removed the last of the tape and ta da! So to recap, here is the before:

And after:

While I'm at it, here are a few other lovely striped rooms:

From here

From here

From here

Master Bedroom Reveal

This has been a rather long time coming, but I think I can say that our master bedroom is done, for now at least. There are a few things I want to tweak, and I might make some more bedding (with my mad sewing skills - ha!), but here it is...

{View from the living/dining room}

{The door on the left leads to the bathroom, the middle one goes to the walk-in closet
and the one on the right (which you can hardly see) heads back to the living room}

We bought our bedroom furniture about four years ago, with money that my grandparents had saved for me as a child. It was expensive, but it will last years and years (I hope).

{I'm debating adding drapes, but it would be an expensive
endeavor to drill into the concrete - not sure it's worth it}

{The mirror was a $60 Craigslist score}

{My side - I'm reading the new Michelle Moran - love her books!}

{J's side - we were 19 and 20 when that photo was taken!}

I'm a bit of an art lover (albeit a cheap one). The fabric painting over the dresser was a gift that my best friend brought back from a trip to Rwanda, and I bought the two photos from an artist who was selling them on the harbor in Dana Point, CA (near where my in-laws live). The bottom one is somewhere in Laguna Beach (which is where J proposed) and the top one is on Catalina Island (where we honeymooned and took our first family holiday after S arrived).

Hanging over the bed is a painting of Kingsand, Cornwall, a little fishing village where I spent summers with my family growing up. I love this picture - it was hanging in the living room but it looked a bit lost against the greige walls - it's much happier here.

The moth orchid was a Valentine's gift (I think) from J and the other plant is a type of dracaena, which are very good at filtering pollutants from the air according to the NASA Clean Air Study.

{The white thing lurking under the dresser is Richard the Roomba (robot vacuum) -
it's the only place he's safe from our little button pusher}

The painting took a long time, but it was worth every minute. The main wall color ('Rainwashed' by Sherwin Williams) changes with the light and looks green or blue depending on the time of day. The stripes took me a while but they're subtle and fun and they make the room, I think. I'll post more about that little project soon.

I haven't shown you what it looked like before, have I? Well, this was it when we moved in:

And this was it a few weeks ago (when I was testing paint colors):

It's much better now, don't you think?

Sources

• Paint - Sherwin Williams (the main color is 'Rainwashed' and the stripes are a mix of 'Rainwashed' and 'Window Pane')
• Furniture - Pottery Barn Farmhouse collection in 'Antique Honey' stain
• Lamps - Pier 1 Imports
• Duvet cover and shams - Z Gallerie Sophia collection
• Quilt - Target Global Home collection (no longer available)
• Blue pillows - Pottery Barn (only in stores, as far as I know)
• Pink bird pillow - Pier 1 Imports (no longer available)
• Pink and orange pillow - gift from my mother-in-law (brought back from South Africa)
• Baskets (under side tables) - Pottery Barn
• Plate on wall and bowl on dresser - Spanish pottery (brought back from a trip to visit my maternal grandparents, who live there)
• Book box (under orchid) - Z Gallerie
• Vases on dresser - the large one was a Goodwill find, the green one is from 1730 Outlet and the glass bud vase was gift from my paternal grandparents
• Crysanthemum vase (on side table) - Anthropologie
• Coaster and bowl (on side tables) - Anthropologie (coaster, bowl in stores)
• Stone picture frame - Habitat (no longer available)
• Mirror - bought on Craigslist but originally from Pottery Barn

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Score!

I got an email on Saturday informing me that Oak Brook Z Gallerie is moving and everything in the store is 60% off. I got really rather excited, thinking that maybe they would have my most favorite bedding ever for cheap...

Z Gallerie Sophia Bedding

I hightailed it over there that afternoon. I really should've taken a photo when I arrived just so you could appreciate the chaos. The place looked like it was being looted, the selection was pitiful and there were crazy people snatching things and yelling obscenities about mirrors (I might have been one of them). I had a sinking feeling that it would be a fruitless trip but I got stuck in anyway and ran walked swiftly toward a couple of big cardboard boxes that looked like they were full of pillows. I dug down to the bottom and then the heavens opened and Jesus handed me the very last Sophia duvet cover. (Okay, not really. But I did find the last one.) It was $169.95 and I paid $50. Eeep!

I also picked up a couple of these frames for S's big boy room - a 5x7 in green and a 4x6 in orange for $10 total (reduced from $27).

And a box, which looks like a book ($10 down from $25). Why? Because a) it's turquoise and b) I can use it to sort things. And I like sorting things.

I almost bought a mirror too but thought better of it (I have more than a few mirrors and half of them aren't even hanging on the walls yet). Then I extracted myself and nipped into Loft, where I picked up a cute outfit too.

On Sunday, I got a lie-in and some free time because J took S to the Children's Museum in the morning, then I went to another Z Gallerie and to pick up the matching shams and took a sewing class at JoAnns in the afternoon. Oh, and it was warm (finally), so I wore my new outfit. So it was generally a rather awesome weekend. Hope yours was just as good!