Posts Tagged: DIY

Decor

I Totally Made A Table

OK, so here's how this small miracle happened. First, I bought a kitchen island. Then the kitchen island arrived and I didn't like it, and it also didn't function the way I needed it to (meaning as a sort of counter/bar), because I had neglected to notice that there was a piece of metal right there in the spot where a person's legs were theoretically supposed to go.

So I looked everywhere online, and everything I found was either not my style or too expensive or too clunky or too something, until I happened upon a Pinterest photo of an Urban Outfitters counter-height table with legs that looked like plumbing pipes. It was about $80, and exactly what I wanted. It was also not available anywhere on the Internet at all, except for via one Etsy vendor who was pretending that it was vintage (it is not) and selling it for around $400. Nope.

Then I looked at the picture of the table more closely, and realized that the legs that "looked like plumbing pipes" were actually...plumbing pipes. Like, the kind that you can get at a hardware store. I started thinking that I might like to try making something like that myself, but couldn't figure out what to do for a tabletop...until I remembered that several months ago my friend Alisa had offered me a gorgeous quartz remnant - white, with sparkles - that I'd declined because I had no idea what I would do with it.

DIY Projects

Last-Minute Fourth of July DIY: Super-Simple Paper Lanterns

I have officially decreed today - Sunday - to be the Fourth of July, because the actual Fourth of July is on a Tuesday and having two days to recuperate after Fourth of July festivities sounds like a much better idea to me, especially since I'm the one throwing the party. But since I only decided this on Friday, I was left with next-to-zero time to prepare and/or decorate. Enter: these ridiculously easy (and cute) paper lanterns.

What You Need:

  • Construction paper in whatever colors you like (this project doesn't have to be Fourth of July-themed, obviously)
  • Scissors
  • Stapler

What You Do:

DIY Projects

20 Cool Uses For That Old Pallet You Found By The Dumpster

20 cool ways to use upcycled pallet wood

Many years ago - around the time when I brought my first very small human home to live with me - I swore to myself that I would break the habit of dragging other people's trash into my home and using it to decorate...but...I mean, does dragging other people's trash into my yard count?

I think not.

I therefore have permitted myself to begin developing an obsession with old pallets that rivals The Great Mason Jar Obsession Of 2010-13.

Crafts for the Uncrafty

What To Do With All Those Mismatched Teacups

My mom - like many, many moms out there, apparently - has always collected teacups, and over the years she's passed off a handful to me as "gifts" (a.k.a. "things she has too many of and no room for"). Which means I, too, now have a lot of teacups. Some of them are family heirlooms and belong safely tucked away in my china cabinet, but others are just...teacups. I have no special attachment to them, but they're not the kind of thing you toss in the garbage, you know?

Enter Mollie's grandmother, Shotzy (which, if you're wondering, means "Darling" in German, because of course it does). Shotzy loved having a perfectly matched table, so whenever one of her teacups broke, she passed on the rest of the set to one of her granddaughters.

(Is all of this not the most charming thing you've ever heard?)

DIY Projects

DIY Reconstructed Denim Midi (Or Maxi, Or Mini) Skirt

My son's expression here kills me. ("What. Is my mother. Doing.")

Remember the post I put up the other day about Kendall Jenner? The one where I talked about how she made me want to own confusing things? Well, one of these things was a $430 denim midi skirt. Which is clearly a ridiculous thing to purchase, when - as I said in the post - you can DIY this so easily.

And then I realized...I mean, I don't really know if you can DIY it so easily. Because I've never actually done this. It just looks easy.

Crafts for the Uncrafty

Suddenly Surrounded By Makers

There's no friend like a friend who's willing to paint with you.

I was on the phone with Francesca the other day and we were talking about my solar fountain project and my mortar brick project and the park strip redo and the bananacakes and all the other things that you can find on Ramshackle Glam lately in the category of Awesome Things I've Never Done Before, and she said, "Huh. So...you don't really have to come up with ideas for your website anymore. You can just hang out with your friends."

This is true.

DIY Projects

Make Your Ugly, Boring Wood Look All Cool And Reclaimed: Video

OK first: my apologies for the not-so-hot sound in this one. I was sick and all blah and there was construction going on across the street and we accidentally left the camera on autofocus so it makes a little click-click-click sound throughout and excuses excuses excuses I know I know. Sorry.

That said, I had to post this anyway because it's just the coolest-looking effect (the before and after photos are here, if you missed the post earlier this week), and I wanted to show you just how simple it is. And you don't need to coincidentally have ugly support beams in your house - you can use this technique to create anything from an incredible-looking dining room table (like this one) to your own sliding barn door.

DIY Projects

How You Make Your Ugly, Boring Wood Look Like Gorgeous Reclaimed Barnwood – For Just A Few Bucks

how to create a faux distressed wood effect with paint

The poles in front of our house have always vexed me. They're ugly - just blah wood that's been painted white - but they're also necessary, being as they sort of...hold the house up. We're getting towards the end of our full exterior makeover - which I'll be posting later this week, as soon as I finish up the last few details - and over the course of the process I've toyed around with a few different ideas for what to do with them. I didn't want to paint them an accent color, because they're not particularly attractive and don't really need to be "accented," and sure, I could just paint them the same color as the body of the house...but eh. They felt like an opportunity to do something cool.

I considered "wrapping" the posts (basically covering them with pieces of nicer-looking wood), and even dragged a bunch of barn wood boards home from Home Depot, but ended up realizing that even if I could make this look good, the wrapping would create a weird gap at the top of each post. And then I also realized that the boards were too narrow, and dragged them all the way back to Home Depot, and got frustrated and decided to try something else.

That's how I found myself standing in front of my bathroom door - the sliding barn wood door in our bathroom.  You know, this one:

DIY Projects

Use As Directed

In wake of yesterday’s garage-cleaning insanity (and in light of the fact that excuse me those corners were terrifying and I cleaned them anyway), I thought I’d whip up a little present for my husband. “Generous” is baaaaaasically my middle name.

DIY Projects

The Mortar Wash (Or “German Smear”) Experiment

The hideous, bright-orange brick on the exterior of my house has always vexed me: what to do about it? I mentioned this to my friend Erin, and she said oh, why don't you try a German Smear?

...See, to me "German Smear" sounds like a porn that I don't want to see. (Or maybe that I really, really do, depending on my mood and whether I've eaten recently.) Or maybe an extremely delicious sandwich. But probably not something I want to have happen to my house.


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