Always Need A Table That Floats

Everyday when it is time to leave I grab my purse, search around for my keys, and head out the door. Then half of those times I get in the car, turn on the ignition, and end up having to come back in the house because I forgot my Ipod. (You know I can't drive too far with only a radio option.) I decided it was time to finally build an entry way table by the door. I'm slightly over having to look for my keys before I leave the house. So, to the lab I go. The area I want to utilize is not very big, and I didn't want it to be too intrusive into the space.

A full on table seemed like it would be too much so, I decided on a floating shelf instead. Now the only thing to do was figure out the shape. The obvious decision would have been a semi circle or rectangle but, I have to be honest both of those ideas sounded boring to me. I wanted visually interesting.....but still functional. So, I decided to do my own custom shape. I had some left over foam board in the closet. Since I wasn't putting anything too heavy on the table I figured this would be sturdy enough. I cut 2 pieces and glued them together in the angle of the wall. Then drew and cut out the shape that I wanted for the table.

Once the shape was done I cleaned up the edges and used paper mache to create a smooth surface for the top and sides. Now for most people this would have been it, but unfortunately it wasn't perfect enough for me. I went back and filled in any imperfections with paint medium and covered it again with poster board to get an even smoother and more perfect look. The completed project got 2 coats of semi-gloss spray paint. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the finish. It came out a lot better than I thought. However, I bet everyone figured out one thing. I didn't say I LOVE IT! Once it was done I started looking at it, and was slightly less than excited. I don't really know how I feel about it. The finish was nice, but it still wasn't as perfect as I wanted and honestly I'm kind of already over the shape. It just looks weird to me. I screwed the brackets to the wall, and placed the shelf on top. As I did this I realized that one of the brackets came out further than the shelf. Damn, damn, and SUPER damn! I leave it for a couple of days thinking maybe I'll be okay with it. At this point I really don't want to start over. Who am I kidding though...there is no way I'm going to live with this (And even if I was okay it, my slight OCD surely was not). I decide to just scrap it and start all over. This project = FAIL!

Entry way table ... TAKE 2

Alright people let's do this for real this time. I am not doing this a 3rd time so, this it it! This time I started with the brackets. I got these ones from IKEA. I wanted to make sure the shelf hung over the brackets. 

Next, I got a piece of poster board and free handed the table shape. Last time I was over it after the first day. This time I wanted to make sure I liked the shape long term. Glad I did too. I must have changed my mind like 10 times before I actually settled on this. I don't know why I didn't think of this the first time. 

Now that I settled on a shape, I transfer it on to the foam board and cut it out. As you can see I changed the shape one last time. *Shaking my head*

To cover the edges I doubled up 1 inch strips of heavy weight poster board and hot glued them around the outside. At this point I am feeling this shelf. Sooo glad I started over. I can't wait for it to be complete. 

Again, I paper mached the whole thing to create one uniform hard surface. I set it aside overnight to dry. Much to my surprise when I get home the next day it has warped. *Insert sad face here* Everything was going so well too. So, like most things I took to Master Google to find out what happened. Apparently as the paper mache and newspaper dried, the paper shrunk and caused the piece to bend inward. What a pain! *Insert angry face here* (You know they should really have emoticons on this blogger thing. Who doesn't have emoticons? Everyone has emoticons.) I tried to just put weights on it so it would flatten back out. This didn't seem to do the trick though. I decided to put another layer of paper mache and used weights to flatten it while it dried. 

So, while I wait I decided to make a mirror. I somehow wanted to bring the stripes from the other wall somewhere else in the room. I bought a wooden frame from Michaels and painted it with black and white stripes. Then I used a mirror I had laying around from another project I did awhile back. 

Back to the shelf. After the second round of paper mache it seemed as though we had soften the bend , but not completely gotten rid of it. The surface though mostly smooth still had a little ripple in it. It looks like I'm back to square one on how to flatten it and get a smooth surface on top. I thought for a little bit, and decided to try mat board. I guess it's back to Michaels. (You know I wonder if the people who work in there notice me, and how often I am in there.)

 I sprayed the whole shelf with spray adhesive, and pressed the mat board down on top. I then turned the whole thing over and weighted it so it could dry overnight. I used paint cans as weights and magazines to flatten the sides. I'm crossing my fingers that this will do the trick. 

I woke up the next morning, and the mat board was looking good. I cut off the excess and was quite impressed. The mat board wasn't hard to cut either. (I might be on to something with this mat board.) It's looking good now. I'm pleasantly surprised! I should have done this in the first place. Now, in some place the spray glue didn't get a good enough hold so I hit it with the glue gun to reinforce in a few spots. While the glue is drying I did a little clean up on the edges. At this point I'm loving it. Only thing....it's still a little bent so I need to figure it out.

After learning that the paper mache shrunk when it dried, I figured since I only placed it on one side it caused that side to bend inward. I decided to paper mache the under side and let it bend the other way. Smart thinking huh? I again used the magazine holders as weights to help hold it in place while it dried. 

2 days later VOILA! Perfect table and no bend. YAAAAAYYYY!....(Finally!). Now, it's time to paint. First, I spray painted the bottom. Since the bottom technically would not be seen I just gave it a light coat, so the color would blend. (Never know when someone will be crawling on the floor. Don't want them to get a surprise.) 

Once that was done I flipped it over and painted the top. I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in semi-gloss black. Now, let me just say if you are ever painting anything black, this is by far the best paint I have ever used. It gives the darkest most rich black look of any paint brand. Once it was painted and dry it was time to hang. I placed the shelf on the brackets and used some black electrical tape on the under side for extra hold so it wouldn't move. 

and...TA-DA!!

We finally have a floating entry way shelf. YES YES YES! (I know that sounds slightly inappropriate....It's kind of the exhilaration I feel though. So we're going to go with it.) Now, add in the mirror and this is the whole picture.

What do you think? I'm so excited, and officially LOVING IT! I just need to add an accessory or 2 and we're in business. The thought of no longer having to cross the room to get my keys, or forget my ipod on the way out gives me the warm and fuzzies. Now if only the rest of the office would come together this nicely. All in due time though.

On to the next project.....

A place for everything, and everything in it's place!

It's officially that time. I have been waiting for this moment. It's time to ORGANIZE!!!!! Woop Woop WOOP! In case you can't already tell, I LOVE organizing. It gives me an absolute high and sense of satisfaction. I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it! I firmly believe that an organized space leads to a peaceful mind. You can't relax when there is clutter around you. This space is extra special to me. It is my first time having an art space, and those of you that know me know how important and exciting this is for me. Now, I will warn you. I am a SUPREME organizer. My brain just functions that way. For most people organizing can be quite the daunting task. So, for those of you that don't find it so easy, I hope you get some tips and inspiration in the process to help with your own space.

Let the fun begin....

First things first we have to take everything out. I have 3 closets and half of a room full of art supplies and craft stuff. Before I organize it, I need to know what I have. 

You know after looking at all of it, it's really not as much as I thought. Well, on second glance maybe it is. I think it all depends on what angle you stand at. There are things on this floor I totally forgot I had. That also means my mind has gone through all of the things I want to make now that I know it exists.

Now that I know what I have, I need to make a plan and design for storing it all. If you plan the space beforehand it will be easier to fit it all together perfectly later. (I learned that from one of my YouTube gurus) As I took everything out I semi sorted and grouped everything into like categories. Putting it back shouldn't be so bad I hope. After looking at it for a while I decided to divide the stuff into 2 closets. 1 closet will have art supplies and materials. The other will have misc art pieces and items. You know that kind of sounds the same. Basically, one closet will have supplies the other one...all of the random stuff I keep in case it comes in handy one day. You never know, and would rather not have to buy. 

Now that everything is out, it is time to design this closet and put it all back. I did the "random" closet first. This was easy because there was no real design or "pretty" element here. Just stack it back in there and make everything easy to see and find. Absolutely no excitement here. The supplies closet was a different story. I thought about it for a long while, and watched several Youtube vidoes for ideas. I decided on a mix of drawers and shelving. I like things to be out of sight. The drawers I got from Ikea (Shout out to Herb for helping me get the box out of Ikea and to my house. I had trouble just sliding the thing across the garage floor. So carrying it out of the store would have been a total NO GO). I designed the shelving myself from Home Depot. I was going to just buy something, but it was hard finding the exact measurements. Therefore building seemed like the way to go. I also liked the idea of custom shelving because I can change the height of the shelves if I need to.

*SIDE NOTE -- I went against Ikea's instructions and did not brace the drawers to the wall. For those of you that have ever put together Ikea furniture they always suggest that you use a strap and anchor the piece to the wall so it does not fall forward. In the picture they show you the right way, and then the wrong way. However, I noticed something that in the wrong picture they show it not just falling, but falling from a person climbing on it. Now if you have children I can understand the importance of this. As an adult though, if you are climbing on your drawers...you deserve to have it  fall on you. Just saying...

Back to organizing....

With the drawers and shelves in place it was time to put the stuff back in the closet. First, I filled the drawers. Based on my categories I figured out what was going to go in each one. Paint Brushes, Paint tools, Other Paint, Letters & Stencils, Labels/Adhesives, Varnishes/Sealers, Markers & Pencils, and Glitter. Since the drawers do not come out I didn't put anything with small pieces. It's too hard to clean. Once the drawers were filled, I organized the items to go on the shelves. I took what was left and figured out how much space I needed for each item. This dictated the size of the boxes and height of the remaining shelves. This was a little harder than I thought. It was difficult to get the perfect setup and combination of boxes and bins.  It took a while but I finally got it all together. The final reveal....... (Insert the OOHs and AAHs now)

It's not a surprise but.......I LOVE IT!!!! It's so pretty and organized. I've gone in there a couple of times since I've finished just to marvel at it. I know some of you all are quite impressed, and the rest are thinking "That would never happen. I would have just bought a few big rubbermaid bins and called it a day!" I know I'm slightly OCD...and I accept this about myself. However, one thing I've learned about organizing is that if you make it look good, you're more likely to keep it that way. 

Now, before you ask I actually purchased most of the things in here. The only pieces I made were the specialty paper box, the ribbon box, and the labels. That's not a lot. Especially considering we're talking about me. The drawers like I said came from Ikea. They are part of the ALEX series. I spotted them months ago, and thought it would work perfectly for the space. There is one drawer on the bottom that I haven't filled yet. I did not pack the closet. I left myself room and space to grow. I do a lot of random projects, so at some point I will accumulate more stuff. The 2 boxes on top I got from The Container Store. I got these boxes a couple of years ago when my paint collection outgrew the bin it was in. The set came with 4 boxes all in varied sizes. I was actually only using 2, and totally forgot about the others. Needless to say that was a pleasant surprise. 

On the bottom of the closet is my sewing stuff and iron I use for making t-shirts. The 4 clear bins above that I bought on sale a while back from Michaels. I got 4 boxes for $6. I put most of my wood pieces and some other random supplies in them. On top of that are the other 2 smaller Container Store boxes. I decided to put my jewelry supplies in them. I will actually need to go back at some point and reorganize inside of the boxes. It looks a little scary in there. The 2 blue boxes were my most recent purchases. I saw these while wandering through Target. I loved the color, and had to have them. I have my rhinestones in one of these. (I'm thinking it might be time for another pair of shoes.) The little gray box is full of popsicle sticks. I mainly use them to mix paint. Pretty boring I know. You were probably expecting me to say I'm in here making a life size popsicle stick village with a working ceiling fan. Sorry, not this time. Above that is my ribbon box. This is one of the few things I actually made. I cut the bottom off of a shipping box I had laying around and covered it with paper. This might be one of my favorite things in here. Before, my ribbon and string was thrown in a bin all tangled together. It drove me bananas. It's nice to finally be able to see it all. 

On top I put all of my paper. I also made this scrapbook paper holder. Scrapbook paper usually comes in 12" x 12". Most storage solutions are big boxes that lay flat. It was hard to find something that stood upright, so I just made one.  

On top are things I don't use so often. On the right are my projector and light box, on the left are my gift wrapping supplies. I actually enjoy gift wrapping, but don't get the opportunity to do it as much as I would like. Christmas is right around the corner so we'll see. With everything in a place you can't forget the finishing touch....LABELS! I made labels for every bin and box. What's the point of having it organized if you can't easily tell what's in it. I didn't want them to all be the exact same, but still keep a cohesive look. 

So that's it. What do you think? If you're not sure scroll back up and look at the whole thing again. Isn't it fantastical! It makes me happy just thinking about it. I can't wait to go in there and do a project. I think I'm going to go start one right now. Until the next one....

No Projects On My Pretty New Desk

As of today my house is 5 months old. So much has happened around here in just a short period of time. I am excited to write this post for 2 reasons. 1. This is the last piece of furniture that I needed to build or assemble for the office, 2. Once this is done I get to ORGANIZE!  I have to say it is really starting to come together. More importantly it's starting to feel creative.

Decorative Transfer Sheet

Last weekend I finally built myself a new desk. Once I moved I decided to turn my old desks into work tables and build a pretty new one for everyday. Now, the original plan was not to build one...I was actually going to buy it (I know hard to believe). I saw a design I liked in IKEA. It was glass with a black design on the under side. I almost couldn't believe it. I found a piece of furniture that I like and nicely priced in the store! Unfortunately though IKEA no longer makes that specific desk top. So, in typical Tanaira fashion I ended up creating my own variation. This plan has actually been in the works for months. A while back I was at Michaels and saw these clear decorative transfer sheets. My idea was to use these and place them between 2 pieces of glass. Skip ahead to the present and I realized that I under estimated just how expensive table glass was. Who knew? Throw in the fact that I needed 2 pretty big pieces, it just seemed like the wrong road to go down. So, I changed it up. I still wanted to use my transfer sheets. Instead of glass I decided to build a solid desk, paint it white, and use the transfer sheets on top. I figured the black design on the white top would still give a really nice contrast.

Once the logistics were done, it was time to get building. I decided on a size of 48"x30". I had the guy at Home Depot cut 2 pieces of 2ft wide MDF to 30". I then glued them together and added an extra piece of wood at the seam for additional support.

Once the top was done, I needed legs. I actually found some nice legs at Ikea.

They were the exact style that I wanted. Only thing is they were a gray color. They had white ones, but they were all sold out. I didn't feel like waiting for the white ones to come back in stock so, I just got the gray ones and painted them. I was already painting the rest of the desk...what's 4 extra legs. With the legs attached it was time to glue the sides down and paint. The whole thing got 2 coats of Behr Ultra Paint in the color Frost. 

It ended up just the right size. Big enough where I don't feel cramped, but not so big that it starts to take over the room. With the desk base complete it was time to add the transfer sheets. I laid them all out and matched up the design. It took 12 sheets total to cover the whole thing. To protect the top I added a piece of acrylic. Now, let me tell you how painful this process was.  I would not suggest cutting acrylic sheets yourself unless you have to, and if you must WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES. The guy at Home Depot warned me. He said score it a lot of times first, and then put it on the side of the table and put pressure down to snap off the piece. I ran the blade across the sheet 15-20 times (twice as much as the instructions said). I should have done more, but I was being impatient. I snapped the piece at the scored line, but got an uneven cut. Boy did that suck. If I was tired and impatient before, to get the excess off was so much worse. At first I tried cutting, rescoring, and several other things. Nothing was working. My uncle suggested shaving it with a metal file. That made sense, but only lasted about 5 minutes. It was way more work than I ever cared to do. I saw hours of my life passing me by. Lucky for me though I have a dremel with a filing attachment. That did just the trick. I plugged it in, and got to filing. The whole thing took me a couple of hours. I had to take a break about 2/3 of the way in because I got a piece of acrylic in my eye. I knew better though. Half way through as I felt acrylic bits flying around, something said to me to go put my goggles on. I ignored the little voice in my head, and got shot in the eye. I've officially learned my lesson. So, once the piece was cut it was time to add the finishing touches, and then stand back and marvel at my handy work

I have to say once again, I am very happy with the turn out. I wasn't sure how I would feel being that it wasn't my original idea. It came out wonderful none the less. I've only been done for a week, but being able to have a separate desk and work tables is really quite nice. My only complaint is that it's heavy as all get out. Well I guess that's not a bad thing really. I just can't slide it across the room very easily. I think at some point I'm going to go back and reinforce the bottom for extra support. For right now though, I'm just going to enjoy it.

So this was the last "big" piece of furniture for the office. Now that it's done, it's time for the fun part to begin. I have been designing this room in my head for at least a year. Needless to say I'm so excited I could spit. (Insert very awesome happy dance here) So, stay tuned because this should be all kinds of amazing. Until the next project.

Coke and a smile =)

House stuff, house stuff, and more house stuff. That has pretty much been my life for months. As much as I enjoy it, sometimes it's good to do something different. I decided to take a break and paint something other than a wall. My boss got a promotion. Happy for him, but still sad to see him go. My coworkers and I decided to do a little something for him as a goodbye. We got him a gift card to Home Depot, made some dessert, and I painted him a coke bottle. 

I got the idea to paint coke bottles a couple of years ago. At the World of Coke museum, they have life size themed coke bottles designed by people from around the world. Last time I was there I thought it would be cool to design one of my own. Maybe not as big, but as big as I can get it. Fortunately for me they sell large bank coke bottles at the store downtown. I decided to paint a big one for myself. It took me awhile to get down the design. I must have changed ideas like 4 times. At one point I had so much paint on the bottle I had to soak the bottle in my bath tub to peel some of it off. (Definitely one my "How crazy is this?" moments) In my research I took an interest in the way Coca-Cola looked written in different languages.  So, I ran with it. 

For my boss I decided to make it a little more personal. He is a proud alumni of NC State. I knew that was the route to go.

It came out great! Definitely better than how it looked in my head. I was in here really concentrating over that wolf. We gave him the bottle last week, and he loved it! That's all that matters.

Back to house stuff.....

It's the little things (like kitchen shelves) that make me happy!

When buying a house you hope that you get at least 80% of the things on your list. After seeing my house for the first time I realized that it had about 95% of the things on my list, including a lot of things on the "would be nice to have" list. One of those things for me was shelves in the kitchen. Over the last year or so I have began to accumulate a lot of kitchen knick knack decor. The shelves in this house were perfect. It took a while to get them the way I wanted, but I think I have it.

This is the first set of shelves. They go from floor to ceiling 

First my teapot. For those of you who don't know, I am slightly obsessed with an artist by the name of Romero Britto. I absolutely love his stuff. I first came across him in a souvenir shop at the Boston airport. Then my friend Fatima told me he is based out of Miami. His gallery is on Lincoln Road (If you have never been, you're missing out). His pieces are so quirky and fun. I saw the teapot while in the airport, but ended up buying a mug instead. Funny thing about the mug is everyone at work always asks me if I made it myself. After I got back home I began stalking him on Amazon, and now I have a teapot. Fatima thinks I am slightly nuts because of the excitement I have when I see his stuff. 
Next, are the Campbells soup cans. They're special Andy Warhol edition from Target. Before you ask, they are filled with Tomato soup. I however, hate tomato soup and will never open the cans. Then we have my stuff from London. I love London, and can't wait to go back. We had stopped in a little boutique next to our hotel. They had such cute things in there. I thought the teapot was really cute, so I bought it. Like I said, fill your space with things that you love and you can't go wrong. Next to the teapot is a miniature of a London phone booth. I threw in a picture of my siblings and I. Below that are 2 more soup cans and my Love sign. The words Live Laugh Love actually came last. I had put all of the other pieces in, and wasn't sure how to tie it all together. One day I was at my friend's house and he has a big Cafe sign in his kitchen. Then the idea popped in my head. I got them on one of my trips to Michaels. I'm pretty excited about the turn out.

These are the other set of shelves. (I wanted one set of shelves and I got 2!) I decided to put my shot glasses in here. I had originally had them in the other set of shelves. However, once I stepped back and looked at it I wasn't really feeling it. So I swapped them, and liked it much better. Below the glasses are my cookbooks, and a bowl I got from Ikea. I've been wanting that bowl for awhile so I'm glad I found a place to put it. Now if I could just find something to put in it. Maybe that can be another project...What do you think?

Red Walls and Stripes

So, as you all know I have pretty much "finished" the living room. That means next on the list is THE LAB! *happy dance* The lab (as it will be referred to) will be my office and art space where I'll do all of my project. Basically, the command center of my house. I am so excited about this room words can not describe! I finally have an art space. No more destroying carpet, floors, and tables all over the house. So, first things first. Painting the walls! Being that this was my art space my main objective was that the space had to be creative. I want to feel inspired and happy when I'm in here. The original color was a yellowish tan color, and it is officially starting to bother me.


Office before

I have actually been thinking and designing this room in my head for awhile. I decided to go with red. I know bold color, but I've had a red wall before and loved it. I painted the room using Glidden Red Geranium. Now, if you have ever painted red walls before than you already know. Red is one of the hardest colors to work with when painting walls. I was not aware of this before I started though. Last time I don't remember it being quite so painful. I thought 2 coats and I would be done. HA! Fool on me. It took me 4 coats of paint! The problem wasn't so much the color, but it was hard to get an even coat. After the first 2, I took to Google and friends. So many scenarios. I got everything from 2 coats to 5 coats with some using a special tinted primer specifically for red. Oh and shame on Glidden for not making a paint/primer in 1 in a satin finish. That means I had to prime the walls first. That makes it 5 coats. I even read a person painting 4 coats, still not getting good coverage, and then starting over. Who knew that painting a wall could be so complicated. So needless to say, a paint job that I had planned in a weekend took me 3 weeks to complete. Then there's the clean up. Red paint on white trim is not fun. So, after all was said and done, and 4 coats later this is what the walls look like.

Now you know I couldn't just do red walls. I thought why not do something cool. I mean this is the art space. So.......drum roll

STRIPES!

Yes, I decided to do stripes. Years ago while watching HGTV, they did a segment on designers' homes. Genevieve Gorder had stripes in her kitchen. Ever since then I knew that I wanted to do stripes in a room. So, this was it. I LOVE them! They came out so much better than I thought. My floor however, is another story. It is definitely going to need some TLC.

I am sooooo glad that's done with. I hate painting walls. It is such a pain. The outcome was definitely worth it though. Now that the walls are done it's time to...DECORATE! *second happy dance and 1 handed cartwheel*. Stay tuned people. This is going to be fun. It's on to the next project