DIY Design – MY CHICAGO HOUSE.

DIY: Photo Album

I really enjoy taking photographs and have been wanting to make an album for quite some time, after being inspired by MH Studios. While my album is not hand embroidered – although I would love to do that someday – I love the feel of the handmade paper my album is constructed from, and thought I would share my supply list and process steps for anyone else that is interesting in putting together a modern album too.

My album was purchased from TopDrawer in Chicago and is made by Lamali Paris

The most helpful first step tip came from a photographer friend who suggested I add all of my desired photographs into an album on Lightroom (or on iPhone) and cull them down from there. This significantly sped up the process of selecting photos. I started with a large album inclusive of all photos from a trip, and was able to quickly narrow them down to 150 photos. From there, I did edit my photos with a batch filter that I created on Lightroom. While I loved my filter on screen (a bit moody with a slight blue tinge), it felt a tad dark in print. I’m not entirely sure how to perfectly trouble shoot that next time, but I will probably spend a bit more time making sure that my subjects faces are brighter in my next edit, before I print.

I edited my photos in Lightroom and printed at Printique – very happy with the quality!

Album: the best albums I have found are by Bindewerk and made in Germany, but are available at Scriptura in New Orleans. I called the shop to place my order and they were so helpful. These albums are classic, wrapped in linen and have thin waxed paper sheets between every page to protect the photographs. They are beautiful classic albums. For this project, I found a special handmade and hand-bound album at TopDrawer in Chicago by Lamali Paris
Photo Corners (3 packs): Lineco Acid Free Ivory Corners, 252 / pack. Three packs provides corners for 190 photos
Photos: I printed 150 3.5×5″ photos and had room left over for another trip in my album. I used Printique printing service, which was cheaper than Artifact Uprising and had the best selection. I was very happy with the quality of the matte photos with white border that I chose
Micron 005 liner pen

I organized my photos into piles by “event” then put 2-4 photos in each page turn as a placeholder for photo corners. Once I identified where each photo would appear, I used the photo corners to pin them down. I put the corners first on the photo and then stuck them down. Given the handmade rough paper edges that this album has, I eyeballed the positioning, but for a “tighter” more formal album, a ruler would be helpful.

Using 3.5×5″ photos from Printique (150 prints), I fit up to 2 per page with room to spare

I used a Micron pen to write a note on each photo within the white border

I am happy with the 3.5×5″ sized photo prints and the way this album turned out. I am going to work on a Bindewerk album next for my son’s first three years, and our family trips!

DIY: Briolette Necklace

Inspired by the lovely Ivarene Gems and a box of briolettes I had in my craft drawer, I made a sapphire necklace and I haven’t been able to stop churning out the gems since! Here is my DIY for an easy [to make] necklace that is super special.

A DIY Briolette knotted necklace in process

Natural Silk size 2 thread (size 3 works, but was a bit tight for my beads)
~45 briolettes for a longer necklace, ~37 for something shorter (Etsy is the best place to find briolettes, or your local bead shop). My watermellon briolettes ranged in size from 3x6mm to 7x10mm
A hat pin or thicker needle
For clasp: 2 sterling thread protectors, a clasp, two small round beads, jewelry glue

Natural silk thread in size 2 is best for this project

Before we start, the main technique utilized in this project is tying knots with the aid of a hat pin (or thicker needle). This is a similar technique that is used to string a pearl necklace, but there is forgiveness in this project that doesn’t require your technique to be perfect (loose pearls isn’t a great look, but if you have some space between your knots and your briolettes your necklace will still look great). There are a lot of how to videos on youtube for pearl knotting that may be helpful to watch in advance, but generally the technique is to simply tie a loose knot (loop the size of a quarter), stick your needle into the open loop, pull the tail and use the needle to manipulate the knot into position. When the needle is tight in the loop, you can slide the knot up and down the string and position perfectly. OK, Let’s start!

The needle is used to position the knots. Tighten the knot around the needle before you pull it out

Step One: Begin by laying out all of your briolettes in the order you’d like them strung. I organized mine from smallest to largest to smallest (end to end).

You can also organize the briolettes by color for an ombre effect !

Step Two: Attach your clasp. Take all of your thread off the cardboard and wet the silk to get out the kinks (you can fully submerge). Thread one round bead (reserved for your clasp) onto the “needle” attached to the silk, then up / down the clasp protector and back down through the bead. Pull the string all the way through until you have a few inch tail, and utilizing the hat pin, tie a knot as close to the bead as possible to secure. Later, you will further secure this knot with a drop of jewelry glue.

Completed clasp at top of image. Tighten each knot down on the needle and use the needle to position

The tail of string shown on left is only a few inches long and will be cut off after the knot is glued

Step Three: Using the attached needle, thread all of your briolettes in the order you’d like them to appear. After they are threaded, I wrap the needle end of my thread around the card it came with to roll up my extra string. Do not cut the needle – we will need it later to finish the clasp.

Step Four: Once all of the briolettes are threaded, starting at the clasp, tie three knots in a row, positioning with the needle, then push down the first briolette. Tie three knots in a row, positioning with the needle, then push down the second briolette, and so forth, until complete.

Step Five: Once all beads are knotted in place, unroll the remaining string, thread the second round bead, then up/down through the string protector, back through the round bead and tie off a knot to finish. Use jewelry glue to secure each end knot. Once glue is dry, trim the thread close to the knot.

Finished piece, prior to trimming the tails

Step Six: Attach your clasp to each thread protector. Complete!

The end tails can be cut closer to the knots and glued down (mine were ultimately trimmed further)

Kitchen Update, continued

Removing stainless backsplash

We are working on a very minimum (read: less expensive) “renovation” of our kitchen. To save money we are keeping all appliances, all cabinets and only replacing the granite countertops, faucet, and stainless backsplash. We will have a professional cabinet maker (thanks, dad!) repaint/repair only the cabinet doors that have water damage and otherwise we aren’t making any other changes to the space. That is the plan. Our budget was <$15,000 for this entire project including labor, freight shipping on stone, materials, fabrication and new fixtures, but as of now I’m tracking to $13,500 total and that is my expected total cost (or less).

I found the stone at Marmi Natural Stone channeling Waterworks Prunella Keystone. The stone that I selected is called Calacatta Violette and is the same material as the Waterworks Prunella. We were able to make two, 2 cm, honed and cracked (yes, cracked) pieces work for our kitchen to save a bit of money. The slabs were shipped from Marmi and arrived at our fabricator Stone City (Chicago) last week.

Stone City just taped up the slabs for approval.

Slab from Marmi taped up by Stone City Chicago

I have done this entire project remotely and have seen nothing in person yet, only online pictures.

I have yet to see these slabs in person!

This weekend we attempted to DIY the removal of our stainless backsplash. It was honestly really tough! We got 50% of the way through which is great, but we had to call in some help for the second half. It is still not complete.

The stainless backsplash is in process of being removed

The stainless backsplash was glued to the wall and behind the stove it was loose. This wall is now completely removed. We used an industrial suction cup (for removing glass) to pull the stainless out. We also used a heat gun, but unclear how much that helped us. The wall behind the sink is not done. We couldn’t get that off.

It took 2-days to take off this backsplash and we did minor damage

Wow. My husband did a lot of work here. It was hard and time-consuming. But – it was “FREE”! Only one more piece of stainless left to remove. Theoretically, it should be easier because it is smaller and a simple rectangle shape, but it is glued down more, behind the faucet, and it’s currently not lifting up for us.

Paint scratch from removal that we will repair

It was frustrating to scrape the paint on the cabinets, but my dad assured me that this wasn’t such a big deal (we can fix it). We will have a professional tile this wall. I have not selected tiles yet! Please send ideas! The wall behind the sink will be a slab of the Prunella / Calacatta Violette marble. I’m leaning towards cream fired square tiles for behind the stove.

Kitchen Update

Slowly renovating our kitchen on a budget

One of our first projects after we moved into our apartment was opening up our kitchen by removing the overhead cabinets. The cabinets were wired for lighting and were heavy, but otherwise the removal was relatively straightforward. (That being said, my dad and husband did the heavy lifting so I was merely watching!)

The kitchen is relatively small so the overhead cabinets took up a lot of space and closed off the kitchen even more than it already was.

After: We think this made a huge difference in opening up the space!

The peninsula granite has a hole in it from where electrical was previously installed in the breadbox – slightly annoying, but certainly not unlivable. We’ve gotten great use out of this kitchen for just over a year, and I’m ready to upgrade within budget. I have had the hardest time justifying an upgrade in this kitchen given how timeless it already is, but with a tight budget we were comfortable moving forward.
Our current Rohl faucet is badly leaking, so we removed the regulator to allow the water to flow more freely (vs. spray in all directions) and found a replacement faucet from Devol Kitchens. I wrote about our new faucet here. It was much cheaper than alternative options in the U.S. by Rohl on build.com and we saved a material amount of money importing this faucet from the UK, including duty and shipping. We went with with a similar Rohl faucet in unfinished brass with a separate spray. We will DIY remove and install to save $450 (the quote we received from our fabricator).

Our new faucet from Devol Kitchens, by Rohl, in un-lacquered brass

We are planning to keep our current Shaw’s farmhouse sink and all of our appliances, replacing only the counters and backsplash with honed marble. When we were working on our bathrooms, I found a material at Waterworks that I really loved. The material has become relatively “trendy” now, but I really like it and generally my philosophy is that everything including gray / white eventually looks dated so I’d prefer to just do what I want today and “use it up”.

Inspiration counter from Waterworks Chicago and a slab from Marmi Natural Stone

After some google image searching, I found two slabs at Marmi Natural Stone that matched my vision and I’ve worked with them to procure our materials. We are working with Stone City in Chicago on the fabrication and installation. Stay tuned!

The den, plaid makeover

Plaid carpet install

The den has been in process for quite some time and not including the kitchen, the last room to finish, but we have a great base with the walls painted Railings by Farrow & Ball to layer on mixed plaid and cozy this room up! As a reminder, this is what the room looked like before we got started.

It is amazing to think that our cozy den was once a bedroom!

The first thing we did was paint the space and remove all traces of gray

It still makes me sad that the homeowner painted the entire home gray to sell it, just for me to immediately re-paint, but alas – the gray is gone, and so is the pink square that the mirror was hiding…

The carpet selection for this room was simple. I knew I wanted a modern plaid rug in a navy tone and was immediately drawn to a carpet from Stark that could be custom cut to fit the room perfectly.

From selection to installation, the Stark carpet was in place within one month

We had a couple of real-time decisions to make as the carpet was being installed. Namely, whether or not we left the “tail” of carpet alongside the fireplace and behind the door. While it is relatively “skinny” I decided to keep the tail as the door is often open and I wanted to see the carpet extend behind the door. I also did not want the door to get caught up on the edge of the carpet when opening and closing. After months of living with this carpet, I am happy we kept the tail.

We debated keeping this “tail” or cutting it short and decided to keep it

The addition of the carpet made such a difference in this room and I am so happy with it. It is a perfect compliment to the Railings paint color.

The carpet is a perfect match to the Railings paint from F&B

Still in process is a cornflower blue pull-out couch from Avery Boardman that will be delivered soon. Once the couch is in place I will select chairs from Chairish (or Ebay) to re-upholster.

Stark carpet in place, waiting for furniture

I’ve narrowed down the fabric to a selection of Colefax and Fowler plaids, pictured below. They all coordinate well with the couch fabric (below, bottom right), and the carpet. I’m debating introducing more than one plaid and am thinking about it all as a big mix and match project. It needs to coordinate, but it doesn’t need to match perfectly.

Swatches from Colefax and Fowler and our chosen couch fabric from Manuel Canovas, bottom right

Keeping in mind the art that we selected for the room, I am leaning towards the plaid on the top right of the image above for side chairs. The fabric has a sense of plum which helps to pull in the tones of the artwork and it feels like a better coordinating fit, to me.

Stephanie Hier artwork in the den, wall painted Railings by F&B

Once the couch is delivered and in place, I will make the final decision. I’m enjoying taking my time on this project!

Halloween Chic

Simple Halloween decor that is classic and spooky

Our Halloween decorations were all sourced from Michael’s craft store. We spent less than $100 and will use all of the decorations again next year. I wanted to bring in the “spooky” and “freaky” without making the decor too dark or sensational, and on a white bookcase it was impossible to make the decor too dark anyway, so I worked with what we had and even incorporated some of our usual shelf decor, that with the black fabric looked spooky too!

The hand mannequin that is always on our shelf looks spookier with the Halloween colors

I flipped all of our books so that black, white and red bindings were the only visible colors facing out. I removed all items from our shelves that were out of the color scheme and hid them below. I layered a combination of black fabric, black stuffing and faux fall leaves across the shelves with a mix of styrofoam (read: cheap) skeleton heads, black crows and a “bag of bones” nestled in a chicken wire box.

All of the books turned out or face forward were red, white and black / B&W

The black stuffing went a long way to elevate basic shelves to Halloween chic with the mix of faux leaves. Be sure to stand the leaves up in the stuffing so that you can see them from afar vs. simply laying them down flat.

Leaves standing up in the black stuffing add more color and texture than leaves laying flat

The crows were a fun addition to the shelves and we were able to tuck a few away in some “surprise” places throughout the house.

A crow perched atop the Sapiens bookcase

Each fireplace mantle was decorated differently with a combination of small pumpkins, white and orange, and more faux fall leaves. In total, I used four bags of the faux leaves and they went a long way. I took all of the extra leaves and piled them at the edge of the fireplace on the ground.

Out of frame is a pile of faux leaves at the base of the den fireplace

The dining room fireplace was decorated with faux leaf branches from Michaels and a line of orange and white striped pumpkins from the patch!

The faux leaves look real against the [real] mini orange and white striped pumpkins on the dining room fireplace

The dark Calla Lillies that we always have in our living room in their bone vases look perfect for Halloween! The white pumpkins are simple and sweet.

Friendly “Halloween” flowers in the kitchen

All of our mini pumpkins were purchased at the pumpkin patch. We bought 15 of these minis and scattered them through the house!

All of our pumpkins were cleaned before we placed them around the house.

While we will have to toss the pumpkins at the end of the season, all of the other decor can be stored for next year.

In our entry, we nested a bundle of dried corn against a cluster of larger pumpkins and more faux leaves

Happy Halloween!

Raleigh baby room surprise

I remotely planned a baby room design for my friend Meghan in Raleigh. You can see some of my planning here. Last night, while Meghan was sleeping, I made it happen in 4 hours. The best part about this room? All of the major ingredients to make it fabulous were less than $600.
As a reminder, this is what the room looked like before. It was basic – nothing particularly special about this room, but it is a room everyone can relate to. It is a basic bedroom!

A very basic baby room – the “before” shot

Meghan had recently carpeted and painted the room so there was a nice base to work with, but decorating wasn’t a first priority with the baby only 4-weeks away. The baby gender is unknown and Meghan wanted this room to “last”, so the design is intended to be gender neutral and sophisticated so it will be age appropriate for many years.
When working on a budget, the best way to make a big impact for less dollars is to hang a mural wallpaper. Lulu and Georgia has beautiful choices. I needed 2 rolls for this project. I began at 9PM and started with wallpaper.

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It was my second time installing wallpaper and I did it alone, so I trust anyone could do this. The paper is pre-pasted so all you need to do is use a sponge to spread water on the back of the panel, hang, and push out the air bubbles. The pre-pasted glue is a bit “slimy” in texture once it is activated, so you have some time to maneuver the panel and slide it into place so it matches up. I trimmed the base, top and around the outlets with a sharp x-acto knife and a straight edge (the same tool I used to smooth out the wallpaper).

After the wallpaper was done I worked on the curtains.

DIY Pom-Pom Curtains: The curtains are Threshold from Target. I bought pom-pom trim from Amazon and 1 roll of HeatnBond hem tape. This is all you need, plus an iron. These curtains were less than $50, TOTAL, for BOTH panels! All you need to do is iron the pom pom trim to the inside edge of the curtain with the HeatnBond hemming tape. I had to set my iron to a much higher steaming setting than the directions recommended, but that worked fine. This took ~20 minutes.

Iron on pom-poms, make fabulous curtains for <$50 total

The finished panel from the front. So beautiful and so easy and so inexpensive!

After I finished the curtains, I arranged the furniture around the edges of the room, accessorized with a $36 Lulu and Georgia Zeba pillow, a $48 trio of West Elm frames filled with my own animal watercolors and laid down a $163 Lulu and Georgia Nasra 5×7 rug.

West Elm gallery frames with watercolors by me

Lulu and Georgia Nasra rug, 5×7, brightens up the room and adds a nice extra layer

While I initially planned to make a DIY mobile, I found this Blabla mobile on eBay for $40, so I went with that given retail is $170+. Whenever I’m looking for something special, I always check Ebay first and I always bid under list. Even if the item is an auction item (and doesn’t have a buy it now option), I will message the seller and ask if they will take a lower price. Why? Because negotiating is fun! 😉 This one was listed for $60 and I got it for $40, muahaha.

My Ebay Blabla mobile is FAB and entirely handmade! Fits jungle theme perfectly.

I finished at 1AM. Surprising Meghan was the best, she loved it. 🙂

A 4-hour makeover, complete! Lulu and Georgia Mural

Jellycat doll, Pehr bag, Target Lamp, Wayfair chair, Lulu and Georgia pillow and mural and rug

Potter Barn crib, BlaBlah (Ebay) mobile, Target side table, DIY pom-pom Target curtain, Lulu and Georgia Mural

Paintings by me! Lulu and Georgia jungle mural

The drawer pulls we planned to update are delayed from China, but they are en route and will be mint green porcelain.

Love you Meghan and baby S to-be! Lulu and Georgia jungle mural

It was such a fun project and I’m so lucky that Meghan let me express all my ideas freely and completely trusted me with this room after a half bottle of wine. Love you Meghan, and baby S!

DIY: Rope Credenza

It’s labor day weekend and we’re making a credenza!

Once upon a time I set my eyes upon a rope credenza at a property that we visit annually on the East Coast. The second I saw it I thought, “I could make that”. And alas, the time has come. Our den walls are plaster so we cannot hide our TV wires within the walls. We will hang a Samsung Frame TV and hide the wires in a credenza. Since I was not originally planning on needing this piece of furniture, I wanted something simple and inexpensive while still appearing high end. I covered the entire IKEA Henmes sideboard in rope. (Naturally!)

Supply List: 1) IKEA Henmes sideboard, light brown, 2) 1,200 feet of 5/16″ Manila Rope, 3) Glue gun and glue sticks, 4) A paintbrush like this, 5) New knobs (optional) and longer screws to fit (rope requires screws to be slightly longer)

Pro Tip: This project took me 14 hours start to finish, so you need a weekend. I’d also recommend a very sharp knife and scissors for cutting the rope.

hemnes-sideboard-brown__0625358_PE692209_S4 — IKEA Henmes sideboard: $329

Mecox has some interesting rope covered furniture that serves as a nice inspiration for this project. While I won’t be exactly mimicking this piece, I liked it very much.

FNDR-2406-PAWLEY_0-760x700 — Mecox Pawley Abaca Rope Dresser: $1,875

The rope I am working with is from Knot & Rope supply.

1,200 feet of 5/18″ rope from Knot & Rope Supply

Beginning with the drawer fronts, work from the outside in to cover them in rope. Do the same with the top of the sideboard. For the drawers, I worked from the center out because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t covering the holes for the drawer pulls, but in retrospect I think this was a harder path. It was harder because I had to measure in from the outer edge to make sure I was starting in the right place.

Process if you begin in the center, and work out. I found it was easier to work outside in

For the cabinet doors and sides I wrapped the center section first, similar to the top and the drawers, but cut separate strips for the outer border.

Beginning at the outer edge, wrap to center, then cut strips for sides

I cut the rope with a Global knife that I will be taking to get sharped on Tuesday. Not to say it’s dull now, I’m just expecting that is possible…

Cut separate strips to cover the border edges

All the pieces coming together in the living room for assembly

After the credenza was assembled, I glued down the trim pieces.

I appreciate that I am did not go into too much detail here, but I am expecting the likelihood of some fellow-crafter following in my footsteps to DIY this piece is somewhere around 0% (rounding). So, please reach out to me if you do want to do this, and I can help guide you through.

Ikea hens hack, covered in rope with Samsung frame tv (waiting on frame)

I will have a piece of glass cut to top this off and help protect from dust. The knobs were replaced with cast iron knobs that I found online for $20. The Samsung frame tv will have a maple frame that is still on it’s way to us.

DIY: Bistro Table

Making use of the scrap pile…

Bistro tables are expensive and it is not hard to DIY. I made a bistro table for our kitchen and am very pleased with the results. This table cost ~50% less than big box retail alternatives, is custom, better quality and has beautiful marble that is superior to the box store choices. It also took less than 1 hour to assemble and required very little time to procure (all online, no in-person).

Supply list: 1) Marble / stone: I purchased mine at Stone City in Chicago by simply emailing, reviewing pictures and selecting for custom cut, 2) Silicon adhesive, 3) Piece of wood, 4) Bistro table base: mine is available here

Pro Tip: Marble from scrap is generally less expensive, as are straight cuts (vs. circle) to produce. This marble was from scrap and was cut to size in a 30″ hexagon.

First, I ordered my base (link above) and emailed the stone yard to get pictures of available scrap pieces.

This is the image that the stone yard (Stone City, Chicago) sent me of my chosen (by email) slab

The specs of this piece of marble is a hexagon, 30″ across the widest point. When the marble was delivered, I glued the wood to the base with silicon glue and let this dry overnight. The stone yard did apply mesh to the base of my cut slab so the glue would better stick.

Glue wood to marble, screw base to wood! (Do not screw base directly to marble)

Flipping the table upright is a 2-man job (eek, I did it alone) given the table weighs close to 125 lbs.

The last step is to simply peel back the protective covering and treat the marble for stain resistance. I love this little corner for weekend coffees in the AM!

Complete DIY bistro table with Frontgate chairs and Schoolhouse Electric lights

The table is very sturdy and does not wobble whatsoever.

A baby room, in Raleigh

Remote planning!

One of my closest friends is pregnant with her second and I was so excited when she asked me to help decorate her baby room! We don’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl so we are keeping this design gender neutral. I’m working remotely on this project until I fly to Raleigh in two weeks, so I have relied on photographs until then to plan and buy.
Here is the room today:

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The room is messy today so it will be easy to make this room look stunning!
This room is freshly painted Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, has new carpet and all of the necessary furniture is already in place from her last baby, so we are in a good place on furniture. However, we will add some accessories to refresh some of these pieces like new ceramic drawer pulls and a fun throw pillow for the chair!
I mocked up each wall of the room in photoshop using the exact Benjamin Moore color on the walls and got to “decorating”, virtually.

meghan 1 complete copy — New drawer pulls from Anthropologie freshen up dresser: $6.40 each (on sale)

The mirror we already had, so wanted to work that into the design. The drawer pulls here are from Anthropologie, but we ended up ordering our pulls from Etsy where they cost less than $2 each and were only $17.65 total for 7, including shipping.

Meghan 4 final — West Elm frames with art by me: $48 + Zebra Pillow from Lulu and Georgia: $36

These frames are a steal and with DIY art you can fill a wall for <$50.

Meghan 3 final copy — These curtains are from Pottery Barn, but we will do ours DIY

We already have a set of white curtains, so will DIY iron-on pom-pom fringe to jazz them up.

Meghan 2 final copy — My favorite – a wallpaper mural from Lulu and Georgia: $175 / panel (we need 2 to cover 12′)

This DIY mobile is from Etsy and is made with felt. We will make our own. The mural is from Lulu and Georgia and can be found here.

Meghan Baby FINAL — Mood board for the space including the Nasra Rug from Lulu and Georgia, $163

This rug from Lulu and Georgia is a really great price for 5×7 and will add a nice cushy layer to the room and brighten it up. So excited for this to all come together in Raleigh!