DIY: Cheap & Chic Artwork

Ok I swear this is the last time I will write about the Chelsea apartment project. Unless you all twist my arm and want me to answer more questions! :)

 

In addition to yesterday’s DIY project I also received a lot of emails asking me where I purchased the large vintage subway artwork that was hung up in the living room.

 

 

Now to answer the question of where I purchased them leads to a DIY project, because I made them using a handful of things

 

I loved the idea of using vintage maps or postcards for part of the artwork in the room. Only problem was that I had seen them at Brooklyn Flea, which is only on the weekends and due to my time crunch not an option.

 

So I had to come up a back up plan!

 

One of my favorite shops in Manhattan that can lead to many hours of ohhing and ahhing is Kate Paperie. With a quick couple of links I was on their site searching their gift wrapping paper and found my solution.

 

Not only does Cavallini come out with beautiful calendars, but they also have gift wrapping paper, which is what I used. They were only $4.50 and if you join their mailing list you get 20% off your 1st purchase!

 

First thoughts were to then use mod podge and wrap them around canvas, but the canvas at my local craft store were a bit too pricey so I went with foam board instead! The week I went those two boards were onsale for $3!

 

Since my wrapping paper come looking brand new it didn’t give me that desired vintage effect. Heading down into our shop I found some left over wood stain and got to work.

The wood stain I had laying around was a dark walnut shade. Since it looked a little too dark I simply dipped my paper towel in a little water first and then dipped it in stain. Then it’s up to decide how much or little antiquing you want to do with them.

I wanted them to look like they had been dragged through the NYC subway lines so I went to town with the stain!

 

I then let it dry. Next step was applying it to the foam board. If you have spray adhesive you can use that. I had wallpaper paste laying around so I used that instead.

 

<

p>I then brushed glue all over the backside of the paper and simply applied it to the foam board. The plus of using wallpaper paste is that you are easily able to left it right off the paper and adjust it as many times as you like.

 

I then smoothed out all the bubbles and let it set!

 

My foam board was a bit larger than the paper so once it was dry I needed to trim the excess off with an exacto knife.

 

Because you are using foam board and not canvas you may find that your board will curve a bit and not lay flat after having the paper applied to it. To fix that problem we simply tacked nails into all 4 corners. Not only did the nails help in attaching it to the wall, but it made the board nice and flat!

 

You are then finished!  Here is a reminder of the finished product and a full view of the living room area!

 

 

The project was super easy and came in at around $10 !

 

Author’s note: I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still having computer issues! My laptop died last week and still hasn’t decided if it wants to wake up again. In the meantime I’ve been using my Mom’s laptop, but there seems to be something wrong with it, because it keeps freezing. Hmm maybe technology is mad at me or something?

 

This has made working, blogging, commenting, responding to emails super difficult these last two weeks. So sorry if I’m behind on responding to you or if you haven’t received any blog comments from me! Commenting on blogs is one of my favorite things to do! I’m so sad that all my computer issues have made that a rare occasion these last couple of days. I hope to be back in action super soon!

 

Hope you all understand!

 

xoxo,

Camila

DIY: Custom Matted Frames

A mini gallery wall that I made for a recent project spurred lots of comments and emails.

You all know that I love a good DIY project and I always love sharing my experience so here goes!

The lovely ladies that reside in this Chelsea apt have a very narrow and very long hallway! Filling it with a massive gallery wall, would have been very expensive and I didn’t have it in the budget.

Before:

 

After: Close up shot

 

 

So what’s a girl to do? Well this lady went searching in the basement for discarded items that never got just used with old projects and found a cool mirror made out of recycled magazines!

 

Now since the walls are so massive I needed some additional pieces to add to the wall. After a quick trip to the Dollar Tree I came home with these frames with actual glass not plastic!!!

 

 

 

Next was a trip to JoAnn’s to pick up some fabric and mats with a 5 x 7 opening.  You will also need spray adhesive and a fabric rotary cutter. I already had those items at home.

 

Now to get a more custom and add some glam to my dollar store frames I used the fabric  to wrap around the mats. It’s super simple and really adds something special to the picture.

 

First step is to cut a piece a piece of fabric that extends about half an inch past the mat so that you have fabric to fold over. I used tacky spray, which requires you to spray the piece first and let it sit for a couple of seconds before adhering fabric.

 

Then you can start folding the fabric along the edges and adhering it to the mats.

 

Make sure you fold a nice corner!

Once that is complete the next step is to work on the inside of the mat. Again make sure you leave a bit of extra fabric so that you something to fold over the mat.

This is what it will look like after you cut all sides:

Now you need to make an additional cut to ensure that the corners will fold properly.

 

* Try and get as close to the mat as you can without cutting into the mat!

Once that is done you are able to start attaching the fabric to the mat. Because you spray the majority of the mat in the first step it will mostly likely just stick right away! If it doesn’t then simply spray adhesive again and let it sit for a couple of seconds before applying fabric.

Here is the mat all complete:

Here is a close up of the frame with a picture:

 

Since the mirror had many different colors I decided to go more neutral with the pictures and get them printed in black and white. They add a whole other dimension to the frame and my clients loved it!

 

I know a lot of designers/decorators don’t like putting personal pictures in a space, but this is a clients home and not a designer showcase so I think personal photos in small doses are a nice touch to a room!

 

This DIY project can be done with any size mat and your choice of fabric! If you have a designer fabric you love, but don’t have the money to use it for window treatments or upholstery then using them for a mat would still incorporate the fabric you like into the room on a budget!

 

You can use personal photos or if you are on budget go onto Vintage Printable and print out some artwork for free! The possibilities are endless!

Before & After: Folding Chairs

By now you all must know about my latest project.

Thanks for all the sweet words and comments about it! I really appreciate it! You’ve made me a very happy lady.

 

I’ve received many questions about the dining room chairs and I’m here to share all about it!

Since I had a small budget, but still needed to get some sort of dining room set up I needed to think creatively.

 

Originally I had searched craigslist for dining set options, but came up empty handed. I thought of buying something new at IKEA, but it would have eaten up the majority of my budget.

 

I went to many many many thrift stores, but the dining set options were still pretty pricey. All of them at least $100 and sets of chairs were coming up at $60.

 

I finally found one thrift store that had 4 matching chairs at 5.99 each! A dream, right?

 

Only problem was that they were folding chairs and not exactly chic.

 

Here is a shot of one of them all cleaned up:

 

My first thoughts were to slipcover them, but due to my lack of sewing skills and no $$$ for my seamstress I went another way and turned them into this:

 

For my first trick I simply spray-painted them brown. I wanted to go with a wood look and had originally tried to gel stain, but that was a bad idea that had me outside the next day standing everything down for spraypaint!

 

Because the majority of the chair was being covered in fabric I only had to spray paint the frame of the chair and if overspray got on the seat it wasn’t a problem! I let it sit overnight to fully set.

 

Next step was attaching some quilting batting with spray adhesive to the top of the chair.

 

Author’s note: If your husband comes in and complains that you are going to be putting spray adhesive all over the floor because you want to do this indoors and watch re-runs of Rachel Zoe. Simply remind him of who actually cleans those floors and then just place a plastic bag on the floor to humor him! :)

I used a tacky spray so it needs to sit for a couple of seconds before you place the batting on top!

I secured it to the top first and then loop it back from the bottom and cut off the excess.

I then made sure to add a little extra spray adhesive to make it stick. You could either have it overlap a bit like picture above or just meet at the seams, which I did as well. Both worked.

 

Same steps for the seat of the chair. Cut batting to size and spray adhesive. This time I secured it first to the top then sprayed the main seat of the chair.

After securing it onto the seat I made sure to secure it to the bottom side of the chair as well.

I then repeated the above steps a couple more times or two episodes of Rachel Zoe and voila we were finished with that step.

Next step is attaching the fabric. I of course had to pick a fabric with a zig-zag which is not very forgiving so my cuts needed to be straight!

 

Authors note: To make sure you are cutting straight give yourself a marker on the pattern. For this cut I knew I would be going through the bottom of every point and I kept it straight!

I then simply folded over the sides so that I would no exposed edges that could fray and started stapling away.

The seat is the easiest section to apply fabric to because you can simply flip it to the back and staple away and no will see a seam.

 

Authors Note: The wood was a bit tough so some of the staples didn’t go in fully. We then had to take them outside and hammer them down a bit. It really was no problem and only added on a couple of minutes to the project.

To do the top of the chair you repeat the steps from above, but in this case a seam is going to so show. Depending on where you start applying the the seam can be at the bottom and semi hidden or on the back.

After securing the bottom of the fabric and stapling it onto the frame I tucked in the excess fabric from the top and used my glue gun to seal it!

You are now almost finished! To head the staples showing I took out the glue gun again and some ribbon trim and went to town!

This was a super easy and inexpensive project!

The chairs were each 5.99

I only need 2 yards of fabric a 8.99 a yard

Spray Adhesive – was in my craft closet

Quilting Batting- was in my craft closet, but the cheapest I have found is at Walmart.

One roll of ribbon- from local craft store- AC MOORE

Glue Gun- was in my craft closet

Staple Gun/Staples: was in my craft closet

Spray paint- 2 cans. I find them the cheapest at Walmart

 

I think if you check your home you’ll see that you have a lot of the tools already to put these DIY project into affect. The same can even be done with a metal folding chair! Instead of staples use a glue gun the whole way!!!

 

After finishing my project I took a little break and was going through the mail.

 

I stopped in awe when I spotted this:

at  fabric folding chair at Anthropologie for $198 per chair!!!!

 

Talk about crazy!

 

Use my DIY steps above and produce your own folding chairs! You can mix and match the fabric like Anthro did above or use the same fabric like me! Add ribbon trim or nail head trim. Spray it a neutral shade or go for a punch of color! The possibilities are endless!

 

Please remember to share pictures with me if you try it out yourself! Check out other DIY projects here

Reveal: $350 Chelsea Apt

Hi All,

 

Sorry this reveal is a bit delayed. I swear I wasn’t doing it for dramatic effect. My laptop is still on black out mood so this little lady went to her Mom and Dad’s and snagged their laptop.

 

This project was a bit different than most. First off I was dealing with 3 clients not just one and one of them was my sister.

 

The girls have already been living in the apt for over a year and finally decided to reach out for help to take it from college dorm to ladies in the city.

 

Since they are all still relativity new in their careers living in a very expensive city my budget was small, which meant I had to be creative and use many DIY projects to get my look accomplished.

 

I hope you all enjoy it. I had a great time putting it all together. Granted I’m not going to lie that it wasn't all happy, happy, joy, joy. Sunday while I was at their apt doing the install I almost broke down in tears. Everything was taking longer than expected, we forget key ingredients like nails for the artwork and had to make a mad dash to Home Depot.

 

Before shot of living area:

 

After shot of living area:

 

Due to our budget the furniture had to stay. The ottoman got a whole new look with my little touch of animal. This time around I went with leopard!

 

With the help of my mom I also decided to make the curtains myself to keep costs down.

The fabric was my steal from a designer warehouse sale. Only $5 for all that fabric. The bird print on it was a big hit! Plus it had a little touch of pink in one of the birds that I carried throughout the rest of the room.

 

The living area is on the small size so we went with a simple gallery wall with a large mirror to keep the wall uncluttered.

Everything on the gallery wall was a thrift store find. The biggest hit had to be the mirror and my vintage scrabble letters that got framed with the girls names and Chelsea, New York.

 

Originally I was going to get vintage postcards for artwork, but due to time constraints I went a different route and mounted vintage subway maps instead. It was super inexpensive projects! * I will be posting steps later!

 

The french doors also got a dose of burlap for added texture and cover up the lining of the existing curtains.

 

Before shot of opposite wall:

I swear the busted chair was just like that. I did not stage it!

 

After shot:

This has to one of my favorite parts of the room. We added chalkboard paint to the fronts of storage cabinets. This made a huge difference! The girls are excited to start jotting notes down on it plus the black just helps everything pop!

 

Flanking the cabinets were stools that I found curbside on trash day. The striped fabric added another dose of pattern and extra seating for the small area.

 

Before shot of stools:

The artwork on the walls along with the mirrors are all thrift store finds!

Since I already had my dose of animal print and stripes I knew I needed to add another favorite of mine and give these girls some pets with some foo dogs!

 

 

Before shot of dining area:

My biggest design challenge was the dining area. Dining sets are expensive and craigslist was not my friend this time around. I couldn’t find a thing. All of the dining room chairs were already on the way out so they headed for the trash. The matching table (not pictured above) was still in good shape just not appealing to the eye.

 

Enter some amazingly chic fabric with another dose of pattern and some Oops paint that was a dream come true and we have a dining area that I am completely jealous of.

 

 

 

Ah I just love the dose of girly glam with my pink table! While it came out looking great it was my biggest problem. The poly top coat didn’t feel like drying. Sunday morning the day of the install it was still tacky. We had to run out and get heaters and put it in a room with a humidifier. A tip we read online to speed up the process. Talk about stress.

 

The chairs were also hard to find, but I came up with a fab DIY project that took my $6 chairs from blah to stylishly chic! More details on that to follow.

 

 

The girls needed storage below the TV. The old piece they had completely screamed college! I didn’t have much left in the budget, but lucky for me that IKEA was having a massive Columbus Day sale so my $100 table was on sale for $29.

It was too wide and tall so Jon came to the rescue and cut it size. We painted the top and skirted the bottom to hide all the cables. Voila they now have a server and I was even able to prop it with an original piece of artwork from one of the girls mom and some stylish books as well.

 

These lovely ladies also have a very long and narrow hallway. I used a little bit of my budget to spruce it up!

 

Since I was running low on pennies I used a mirror from another project that never got used and decided to fill the wall with some memories.

 

I have a fun DIY project for the frames as well. I will be posting it later on as well.

 

I hope you all enjoyed the new look! My clients loved it. I was met with excitement, shock and even tears of happiness.

 

The space looks larger, more adult and let’s not forget PRETTY!

 

I will be following with posts on all of my DIY projects so that I can share the wealth.

 

Remember if you are in the NY tri-state area or would like help via E-decorating I’m your gal. Please email for rates! I love a good challenge!

Check out other before and after's at Metamorphosis Monday