DIY: Tapestry Turned Pillow

January 19, 2017 by Lucy Clare Spooner in Cool Hunting, DIY, Projects, studio, Weekend Warrior

A few lovely readers asked after the big pillow on my Charlottesville bed (as seen in my posts on the tiny shelf makeover and the postcard wall).

Isn’t it great?! In high school I picked up this old tapestry from a local flea market, then tucked it away in the depths of a closet where I found it a few years into college. I thought about putting it up on a wall, but what I really needed was a big pillow. Some inspiration...

I pinned this forever ago from Domino magazine:

Great teal bedspread from a post on House of Turquoise:

Love this as a cover for a sofa, too (via the blog Honey & Fitz):

This headboard is from the bedroom of Grace Bonney (of the great blog Design*Sponge):

After a bit of research, I learned that this type of textile is made by the Otomi people in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. There are so many options other than simply textiles: dresses, purses, you name it. And purchasing from certain sources also benefits the tribe--doing good deeds while beautifying a room!

Because I had a pretty neutral background (white bedspread and sheets, wood furniture, white walls), I thought this color-charged tapestry would give me just the right happy feel that I wanted in my room. I enlisted my dear mother to turn the tapestry into a pillow by sewing on a big piece of red duck cloth that we had on hand as the back and stuffing it with cotton.

I love projects like this that make such a big difference but are so simple to do—especially when we’re talking throw pillows! This can easily be replicated for small or big pillows, too.

A friend of mine was thinking of doing something similar in her new apartment, so I did a quick eBay search for Otomi tapestries where I found some great options, like this wall hanging:

Another wall hanging, very much like mine:

Placemat--could be made into a small pillow:

My favorite:

Of course, having a sewing machine is largely helpful for this project. Sewing by hand, using small stitches, would also work—just want to make sure that the stitches are set in from the edge of the fabric by about 1" so that the stuffing can’t peek through. (Do I sound like Martha Stewart?? YIKES) In retrospect, I would make an envelope pillow (great instructions from Jenny at Little Green Notebook here) and use a standard pillow insert instead of stuffing.

Or, of course, there are options to buy for yourself, like these from the same eBay search:

From One Kings Lane:

From the etsy shop mentioned above:

Pom poms!

Just used this gorgeous pillow from Roberta Roller Rabbit in a project and LOVE the yellow tassels:

Do you have any pillow DIYs you’d like to see featured on The Spoonful?? Contact me here or post in the comments below!

DIY: Postcard Wall

January 19, 2017 by Lucy Clare Spooner in Charlottesville, DIY

I have a habit of picking up postcards and other papers, especially while traveling. While studying abroad in Lyon, I amassed quite a pile of wonderful postcards which I loved too much to send away or keep hidden in a stack of papers. I also had, on impulse, bought a box of postcards based off of the wonderful Paris vs. New York book (and blog, here). With all of those postcards crying out to be used, I thought I would make a small-scale art installation in my college room (also shown here with the tiny shelf makeover), and the vast wall by my bed seemed to be asking for something wonderful to fill its emptiness. I could have just taped them up to the wall (like I did in my NYC entryway), but I wanted them to have more substance—I think my NYC entryway works because it feels like a massive bulletin board, but this space in my Charlottesville room by my bed wasn’t going to have the same feel.

I love the look of a bunch of similar frames (who doesn't?!). Here's an image from the wonderful Nick Olsen in last month's Architectural Digest:

All red frames from Elle Decor:

Bigger scale here from Elle Decor:

One of my all time favorite rooms by Tom Scheerer. Love the wood frames!

Yes. (Elle Decor again)

This collection of black frames by Steven Gambrel (a fellow UVA alum! Wahoowa) makes my mouth water:

And how great is this grouping by the revered Ralph Lauren? (Seen on Little Green Notebook)

But, alas, all of those frames would’ve been pricier than I was looking for in this project. What I really wanted out of the “installation” was a 3-dimensional quality with the postcards popping off the wall.

To achieve this 3-D look, I glued foam core to the back of the postcards and then hung them on the wall. Foam core board is super cheap—I got several boards from the dollar store and cut them down to be about ¼” smaller on all sides of the postcard. I recommend using an x-acto knife and straight edge when working with foam core; it's so much faster than scissors, which don't give a clean edge anyway.

I realized when I cut down the foam core that the white foam showed on the sides of the cards and was rather unsightly, so I grabbed some black craft paint and quickly covered up the white foam with black paint.

After the paint dried, I used rubber cement (which I prefer to Elmer's glue when working with paper because it doesn't wrinkle) to attach postcard to foam core board.

Because the foam core backing covers up the writing on the back of the postcard, I wanted to make a note to remind myself later where the cards had come from. I had some labels lying around, so I recorded the necessary details on the backs that way:

Then I hung them all up... ta-da!

Do you have any great DIY ideas to share? Contact me here or in the comments below... I'd love to share them on The Spoonful! And happy Labor Day!

Shoes and Ladders

January 19, 2017 by Lucy Clare Spooner in Projects, studio

I have an infatuation with heels (and it's justified: I'm 5'2"!). Though we live in the same city, I do not have Carrie Bradshaw's closet space for them (my apartment = Carrie's closet size... sniff, sniff).

... if only.

Welp, on to Plan B. This image has been in the back of my mind for years (literally... I think I pinned it right out of high school):

... and I had seen other ways that ladders were used for storage:

It's obviously not a novel idea... just last week I was in this fabulous shop in Brooklyn Heights, Collyer's Mansion, and snapped this picture:

I had looked all around for a vintage wood ladder, but they were pricier than I expected/wanted to spend, so I enlisted my long-suffering father for the task. Poor guy is doomed to be my workhorse forever.

I showed him the inspiration image of the ladder with shoes, drew a diagram of what I imagined in a ladder of my own, and the next thing I knew, he whipped this out.

Pretty amazing, right? And so much more special than anything I could've bought.

We had all the wood in the garage, most of it making up the shipping crates from our return from Saudi Arabia 17 years ago... it pays to be a pack rat! Details like that turn pieces in a room into stories.

And it doubles as a hanger for satchels and totes!

Even if the heels are gathering dust (city life and high heels don't mix), I love the vertical aspect of the ladder leaning against the wall. And maybe having them visible will be a reminder to stop buying them... flats are the way to go in this walking city!

DIY: Atlas Desk

January 19, 2017 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects, studio

The desk in my studio is one of my favorite DIYs that I've done. I needed something to fill in the vacant space opposite the sofa, and I always find that a surface upon which to stack assorted piles is supremely helpful and necessary.

My parents' storage room is chock-full of all kinds of furniture--lucky for me and not so lucky for dear old Dad who bears the brunt of reorganizing it! I dug around and resurfaced with a 20 year old Ikea-type white and sturdy table on rollers: a blank canvas. Perfect.

I remembered this great image I had seen on my very favorite blog, Little Green Notebook, a few years ago.

Check out that little Parsons side table covered in maps! It's from a room designed by Nick Olsen, who is just fantastic. He was nice enough to talk to me about the design field when I was in the midst of job hunting and soul searching and gave really helpful insight and tips about getting a foot in the door of the design industry (Thanks Nick!!).

Maps have always been my thing, and I liked the way Nick's side table drew attention and interest without being over the top. Another hunt through storage led to an old atlas book from the 80s, which I commenced cutting up into big, mostly uniform sizes for decoupaging onto the desk. (Smaller pieces would've worked too, but I was a bit pressed for time.) I picked maps from the atlas where I had travelled or lived, or maps that I found to be exceptionally pretty, like the ocean maps that I put on the ends of the table.

Decoupage is terribly simple and there are loads of how-to pages with a quick Google search--or just use the directions on the tub of Mod Podge (I prefer the glossy finish). After making sure the desk was completely clean, I took the atlas pages I had neatly cut and laid out where I wanted them to be placed so that all of the white of the desk was covered, trimming them to fit if necessary. I also kept in mind color themes while doing this: I tried to keep edges all white maps, ends all ocean maps, etc. This made the maps seem a little less haphazard to me. Then, one by one, I brushed on a thorough--but not over-the-top--layer of Mod Podge with a foam brush (I like using these cheap foam brushes when I want to avoid brush strokes), and I coated the surface of the desk on which I planned on applying the page with a layer, too. I think it's helpful to let the Mod Podge dry for a few seconds to get a little tacky, and then I started in the middle of the top (although I probably should've started on the back... less pressure in case I messed up!) and worked out from there, smoothing the pages as I went. I find that less is more when it comes to Mod Podge... otherwise it wrinkles the pages. After each page had been placed, I covered it again with another layer of Mod Podge to seal it and keep any edges from peeling up.

The edges were a bit tricky, but I folded pages to fit around the turns of the piece, making sure I really creased the folds. This needed more Mod Podge to hold, and I found that making the piece a bit bigger made it stay because it had more surface area to hold on to.

I followed the drying instructions on the Mod Podge container and then took the desk outside to spray on a layer of polyurethane... I prefer glossy here, too. (This is optional, but I chose to do it because I knew it would be in a high-traffic spot.) This--horror of horrors!--made everything wrinkle dreadfully! So I covered the piece with a towel and stacked heavy books high to force the wrinkles out, with success. Crisis averted.

That's it! I had a piece of glass cut for the top and have been messing around with the containers, etc ever since. I'd like a proper desk lamp and definitely need to hide those cords. And need a filing cabinet! The list gets longer! To be continued... :)

Tub Trays

May 10, 2016 by Lucy Clare Spooner in Cool Hunting, Projects

How great is this bathtub setup (via Remodelista and pinned here)?!

Screen-Shot-2015-11-08-at-12.06.27-AM.png

That wood plank across the tub makes me so very happy. Here's another one (via Hearth; I blogged about this bathroom here!):

Screen-Shot-2015-11-08-at-12.06.52-AM.png

These curved edges on this tray (via La Maison Douce) are especially beautiful (and perhaps more forgiving if bumped into!):

I was just in one of my favorite spots in Brooklyn Heights, Collyer's Mansion, and saw this great tub bar. I love its simplicity:

Of course, I also think this would be a terrific DIY opportunity. My girl Martha writes about it here.

Not too tough, right? And so totally chic. Now I just need a claw foot tub!

Have you tried this DIY? Do you have a DIY you'd like to see featured on The Spoonful? Let me know in the comments below!

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.01.04-PM.png

Workspace Goals

May 03, 2016 by Lucy Clare Spooner in Cool Hunting, DIY, Personal Shopper

Check out this gorgy-gorg workspace from Sarah Vickers. She and her husband, Kiel James Patrick (of the brand KJP), have amazing instagrams (@sarahkjp and @kjp) that are constantly inspiration-worthy--usually for clothes or lovey-dovey photos of the happy couple, but I found this desk to be divine! Every time I look at this photo, I see another little fabulous detail (don't miss the framed taxidermied bat in the upper right corner!). Here's how I would recreate this space:

I'd start with good L-shaped desk for lots of room to spread out (twine-wrapped table leg for a kitty scratching post is optional...):

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.22.07-PM.png

The contrast between the wood of the desk and the white of the cubbies is just great. These from Land of Nod would work well:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.18.31-PM.png

I'd switch the knobs out of the desk hutch with something brassy and fabulous like these:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.24.18-PM.png

... or these:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.24.10-PM.png

That striped chair is so lovely, don't you think? Here's a similar one from Serena and Lily:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.31.13-PM.png

Or this one in blue:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.32.14-PM.png

The biggest pop, to me, is the green on the walls. Paint is your friend! Benjamin Moore's Nile Green looks to be prettyyy close to the color above:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.39.14-PM.png

The white shelves in Sarah Vickers's photo look to be built-ins, which can get pricey. To cut corners, a good option is to put up shelves with brackets, like these from Home Depot:

Screen-Shot-2016-02-18-at-11.35.59-PM.png

The vintage Vogue cover is so great and a bit of red or pink will really pop against the green walls. A quick eBay search opens the door to so many options. Here are a few of my faves:

/1/2/3/

And now for the accessories! Because who doesn't need that taxidermied bat, amiright?

/1/2/3/4/5/

Have you found a picture of a space you'd like to see recreated on The Spoonful! Let me know!

DIY I'd Like to Try: Dyeing Sheepskins

March 23, 2016 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY

The one thing that might be better than a sheepskin is a dyed sheepskin. Justina Blakeney (pinned here):

Society of Wanderers (great name! pinned here):

Jenna Lyons's office via Little Green Notebook (pinned here):

Jenny Komenda's office (pinned here):

Jenny at Little Green Notebook wrote up a terrific step-by-step tutorial on how to dye sheepskins using Rit dye here, and it doesn't look too hard! (Jenny also makes everything look easy so...)

And then, of course, the options open up for other DIYs, like turning the sheepskin into pillows (via Elements of Style, pinned here):

Or even upholstering a chair! (pinned here)

I'm thinking this might be the makings of a great weekend project...

Have you tried this DIY? Do you have a DIY you'd like to see on The Spoonful? Let me know in the comments below!

Throwback DIY: Albert Hadley Walls

January 20, 2016 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, High vs- Low, Projects

Many, many years ago, before I even knew the name Albert Hadley, I pinned this image of a bathroom wallpapered in a print ("Fireworks") by the design great:

A quick design history lesson... Albert Hadley was one half of the design company Parish-Hadley--"the erudite yang to Sister Parish's freewheeling yin," as Architectural Digest describes him here--who brought about wonderful things in the world of interior design. His clients included the Rockefellers, the Astors, and the Kennedys, to name a few, and his signature lay in creating a comfortable room with some punchy kick to keep things interesting. Though Mr. Hadley passed away a few years ago, his legacy lives on in many ways--including this wallpaper!

One college summer, I decided my lime green bathroom needed a facelift (really wish I had a "before" photo!), and, remembering that great image, I decided to do a little Hadley-inspired DIY.

First things first: paint the walls. I picked a sandy off-white neutral; this bathroom gets very little sunlight so I made sure to choose a light color, without feeling too sterile.

For the "fireworks," I picked a high-gloss white, the whitest white; the glossiness helps the white stand out against the sandy background color. Once the wall color was good and dry, I mapped out my pattern lightly with a pencil, taking care to space the fireworks correctly. This is one of those steps that takes a long time but makes such a difference and actually saves time--and headaches--in the end!

Then I got to work! I found it important to have enough paint on the brush each time so that the fireworks didn't look too painterly (a look I often love but not here).

I'm still so pleased with the result, even several years after completing the paint job. And it was absolutely more budget-friendly than installing genuine Albert Hadley wallpaper! Maybe one day...

The Sophisticated Pom-pom

January 12, 2016 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects, studio

Hello! I'm back! I've kicked off the new year with a few little upgrades in my apartment; here's one of them. Let's back up a few months. When I was searching for ways to squeeze a little more storage space out of my little studio, one solution was to make the most of the under-the-bed storage. This meant simply using bed risers (yes, the same ones from freshman year dorms), which both gives me far more space and makes the bed so high that I all but need a running start to get in. :) Of course, I couldn’t leave that unsightly view uncovered, so I made up a quick and cheap bedskirt.

The beauty of making my own is that I could have a completely custom cover—it would be very difficult to find a bedskirt that I wanted in that length—for a fraction of the cost of having it made by an upholsterer. I used a painter’s drop cloth, one of my favorite sources for inexpensive, heavy-duty fabric.

I cut it to size, leaving extra room at the top to tuck in between the mattress and box springs. Then I hemmed it all around to prevent any fraying down the road. I left it just like this for a while; I kind of liked the simplicity. Then I ran across these bedding images and instantly became obsessed with this version of what I like to call a "sophisticated pom-pom":

From Mui Ma:

So simply lovely. Via L'Aviva Home:

Other color options available too (here):

And this from Urban just makes my heart sing:

I happened to have several samples of this trim (from Samuel & Sons) left over from various projects, which I negotiated to a spacing that I liked; the poms here are about 7" apart. (This city has some terrific trim stores, though: I've had great luck at Mokuba and M&J Trimming, but if you just walk around the garment district--especially 36th to 40th Streets between 6th to 8th Avenues--you'll stumble upon many other gold mines.) The trick for this look is to find BIG pom-poms. I also especially like these because they're not too white; they're actually the same ecru color as the drop cloth. Match made in heaven.

After spacing them, I simply sewed a few stitches on each to keep it in place and called it a day! From start to finish, this little project took all of 30 minutes, and I am so pleased with the result. The poms just make me smile!

I loved seeing so many of you over the break--and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to hear that you've been reading The Spoonful! So nice and I so appreciate it.

And if you have a DIY you'd like to share on The Spoonful, send it on over!

DIY: Tiny Shelf Makeover

August 17, 2015 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects, Uncategorized

One of my favorite things to do when redecorating a room is to see what existing furniture I have that can be reworked for a fresh look (like I did with my atlas-covered desk). During my last year of college I needed a small bedside table to hold a few necessities--namely, my ever-growing pile of books and a lamp with which to read them. I already had this little dresser with drawers that my grandfather had made years and years ago, which had been painted and repainted umpteen times. I had changed out his original knobs for these funky ones another time, but the drawers just weren't going to work for my books.

I liked the navy, so didn't bother painting it yet again. Instead, I took the drawers out and, taking care to keep the face of the piece navy (but apparently not careful enough--don't look too closely! A little painter's tape might have been helpful here...), spray painted the inside silver. I wanted something a little glitzy inside, but not too overboard. For the record, I don't always love to paint old furniture, especially pieces with sentimental value, but because this already had about five layers of paint on it, I didn't feel too badly.

With a little (okay, a lot; okay, he did it all) help from my dad, boards were cut to easily slide into the dresser as shelves instead of the drawers. I covered them in some wrapping paper I had laying around and reinforced the edges with clear packing tape--a great little trick to keep the edges from getting banged up, which you can't see unless getting very up close and personal! You can see where I was running out of paper and turned the stripes the opposite direction on the last shelf. Gives a little personality :)

Then I filled it with books! And a clementine crate, which fit perfectly, to hold odds and ends.

And that was that! I loved this makeover because I only used things I already had (read: free!), and it was so quick to do--and so functional! Here it is in situ in my old Charlottesville room:

What about you? Do you have any successful furniture makeovers? Contact me here or let me know in the comments below--I'd love to share them on the blog!

Unleash the Pollock Within

July 22, 2015 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects, studio

When I decided to move into a studio, I knew I would need to finagle a divider to define the spaces. It's nice both for myself and for guests to know the living space from the private or sleeping space, even though there's no wall between the two. entry left wall

Remodelista blogged about a few ideas here, and Buzzfeed has an article here. Here's some inspiration that I played with, too:

This room is just fantastic, packing a double punch with the dividers by using both curtains (attached on only part of the ceiling and not meant to be fully closed) as well as the screen/plant combo. Those herringbone floors... I could move right in.

Another screen. Wouldn't that be a fun DIY??

I love this screen because it doesn't obstruct the view or, more importantly, the light, but cues the separate parts of the room. (The rest of the image is a little froo-froo for my taste but how crazy is that wallpapered ceiling?!)

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 1.39.18 AM

Bookshelves are a fantastically functional use of space... especially airy ones like these that let light come through:

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 1.38.33 AM

Here's an example of very thin, narrow shelves that act as a divider:

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 1.38.57 AM

Great curtains (can you spy the Jielde lamp, like I talked about in this post??):

Another curtain divider here:

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 1.37.29 AM

I considered all of the above ideas before settling on the curtain, which I like because it's lightweight, lets sunlight through, and doesn't distract too much from the rest of the space. I didn't have the perfect spare curtain lying around, so I decided to make one myself. Keeping in mind something simple, light, neutral, but with a bit of glam, I thought a Pollock-inspired divider would be simple, quick, and have just the effect I was after.

I grabbed a clean, white, flat bedsheet from my mother's linen closet, some gold paint, and a paint brush. After laying the sheet out, I commenced to splattering. To figure out how best to splatter the paint, I studied a few photos of Pollock while working:

I liked how his pieces have both the drip drops of paint, as well as the longer lines that have been flopped down with the flick of a wrist.

Because I wanted plenty of light to shine through, I leaned toward more background, less paint, like this of Pollock's:

I also studied how Pollock made his paintings into fields ("field" refers to a painting, surface, expanse, etc that has no distinction between figure and ground), like these:

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 2.07.24 AM

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 2.07.11 AM

... and tried to do the same in mine by avoiding having either clusters of paint or expanses of white, as in this "during" photo of my own:

And finished:

Then I hung it up by attaching a heavy duty wire into the wall with screw-in hooks from the hardware store:

Later, I added a little black velvet trim to the edge to finish it. I would definitely recommend doing this before hanging up the curtain, but fabric glue got it to stick (would've been much easier if the sheet were lying horizontally instead of vertically!):

Now I need a chic little tieback and I'll be set! Stay tuned for a DIY on that to come :)

DIY: Extension Cords

July 10, 2015 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects

Hello and happy weekend! A few weeks ago I was in a new store in Brooklyn Heights called Collyer's Mansion (named after the compulsive hoarding Collyer brothers), where I saw these fantastic and oh-so-functional extension cords:

So much better looking than any other extension cord I've ever seen! The cord itself is wrapped with string/thread which makes it less prone to tangles. I just love when everyday, necessary pieces are made beautiful.

I immediately thought of the unsightly cords running through my apartment and had one of those "I could make that" moments. So I did, and here's how.

You'll need:

extension cord
string
scissors
binder clip
tape (I used gray washi tape, but regular Scotch would do)
patience :)

I had this neon string leftover from Christmas decorations that I had picked up at my local hardware store, and what could be better than a jolt of neon green for a little pick-me-up on such a pedestrian object?! Below are options in neon-y colors, but most any string would work for this project, like crochet yarn or standard package string. Good to keep in mind that thicker string wraps more quickly than thin--but I would advise against going too thick because it gets bulky.

I began by laying about an inch of string flush on the cord, cut end towards the expanse of cord to be wrapped, and started wrapping from the end with the plugs (I don't have pictures of this step--oops--but see below where I overlap with pink string. It's the same process!). I made sure to keep the wrapping tight and close together.

The hardest part was keeping the string from knotting on itself, but patience is key! I found that wrapping the cord once then pulling the ball of string through and around, and repeating over and over like that, worked the best to avoid tangles (and hair pulling frustration).

It took a few hours, but it was strangely soothing--and addicting--to see how far along I could get. I found myself picking it up for a few minutes here and there, like how one might with knitting or other handiwork. When I wanted to take a break, I secured the string in place with a little binder clip to prevent unraveling until I picked it up again.

At the end, I ran out of green and decided to switch it up with hot pink to finish it off. First I cleanly cut the green string and taped it to the extension cord using matching gray washi tape that I happened to have on hand:

Then I laid the new color on top and taped around it. I made sure that the tape was smooth to have a seamless transition and to keep it from being too bumpy.

Then I kept on wrapping! (Like I mentioned, this is the same process as starting in the beginning.)

When I got to the end, I taped the pink off, like I had with the green earlier, and wrapped over it again. I didn't cut it until the end, when I knotted it multiple times to keep it from coming undone. You can see where the end is doubled over:

By ending at the plug-in part (my extension cord vocabulary is lacking...), the tie-off isn't as noticeable because it's hidden when it's plugged into the wall.

Ta-da!

And since I had all that string left, I decided to do another cord!

Nothing groundbreaking, but I love the little details. And I think a little neon here and there is fun in any space. I find that neon can be thrown in with most any color scheme just because it's so crazy. And much better than the utilitarian extension cords from before, don't you agree?

Have you tried this DIY? Would you like to see another DIY on The Spoonful? Let me know in the comments below!

Lantern Upgrade

July 02, 2015 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects, studio

I must have lighting on my mind, this time in my entry. While I love the action on the walls, all that busy-ness can't distract me from the rather dreadful light fixture situation going on up on the ceiling.

I have this *lovely* habit of buying things--for a steal of a price, bien sûr--that I don't need now but will *surely* need in the future. Such was the case when I bought this gem at the local thrift for $10.

It sat in my parents' garage for a solid four years, but I didn't forget... and I think it might just be the perfect improvement for my little entry. I know it's seen better days, but some paint and Windex (and new glass and new chain...) will do wonders, I'm convinced. (Let it be recorded that the embarrassingly vast majority of items bought as "I don't need this now but I'm sure I might maybe possibly need it sometime in the indefinite and unruly future" have yet to be transformed. Maybe I'm turning a new leaf?!)

But what color to paint? Of course, there's ample inspiration to be found on Pinterest. Here's an example in a metallic:

Hello, red:

I'm a fan of how this lantern is a bit invisible, blending into the ceiling:

Can't go wrong with black (and a two-toned Dutch door never hurts, either):

Loving this updated take on a black lantern shape:

And another great shape in black (with another fantastic Dutch door):

Stay tuned for the upgrade process! Until then, I'll be reading up on how to become an electrician...

Page One

May 20, 2015 by Lucy Clare Spooner in DIY, Projects

Hello! I've finally bitten the blogging bullet after many years of procrastination. "Spoon" is my nickname, and a "spoonful" is what I'll provide: of design inspiration, of DIYs, and of my journey through life in New York City as an interior designer. I thought I'd make my entry into the blogosphere with another type of entry: to my apartment. They say a painting is never finished but merely abandoned--I'd say the same for my little studio. I moved to NYC one month shy of a year ago (!) and have really loved every second. One part I especially cherish about living alone is that the space is entirely my own and therefore mine to decorate as I please. My entry (which doubles as a hall and triples as a mudroom) was looking a little bare, so I turned it into an inspiration gallery of sorts and also outlined the door frames with subtle gold washi tape.

I had pinned (search "washi") bunches of washi tape inspiration images and felt like my own space could use a little glitzy uplift, so I headed to Paper Presentation (aka a small heaven of paper goods in Flatiron) and grabbed all of their gold washi tape (washi tape, if you're unfamiliar, is basically pretty masking tape, originally from Japan, that comes in every color and pattern imaginable). Then I stuck it up around the door frames! Simple. I wanted a bit of wall space between the frame and the tape to give more dimension, and I was careful to keep the spacing uniform throughout.

For the inspiration gallery, I started by rifling through stacks of pamphlets and assorted papers that I had found too interesting to toss. The clippings are of images that called me to look twice: gallery pamphlets, postcards, drawings of my own, cards from my dear mother, and even an exceptionally beautiful aquarelle bird from my favorite 8-year-old, the very talented India.

I started in the middle of the walls, at eye level, and worked up and down and all around from there, attaching the images with washi tape again. Using the washi tape lets me see how the pictures are stuck to the wall and gives a boho chic feel, I think--makes moving them around easier, too! Win-win. As I add on, I can even layer over top of the base layer of pictures. And now I have a reason to pick up all the fantastic postcards and flyers that vendors set out!

What I love about this is the way the pictures come together as a sort of wallpaper and how the bits of washi tape attachments give the images the freedom to flutter in the wind... which has been happening a lot lately because spring has finally sprung in this city.

Thanks for sharing my first post with me... and stay tuned for more Spoonfuls coming up!