Manolo for the Home

I’ve been in a really crafty frame of mind lately since I mastered the basic functions of my hand-me-down sewing machine. Making one thing (let’s say a cute tote) puts me in the mood to make something else…usually something a thousand times more complicated, like a new sewing machine table. What it all boils down to is that I spent my entire morning looking at online tutorials instead of, um, working. Luckily, I can pass along the fruits of my not so laborious labors to you.

I found an especially simple DIY table tutorial in the pages of the WaPo Express, courtesy of Julia Beizer and her fiance, Tom. All you need is a table, a whole mess of beer caps, some wood bits for the trim, a little glue, and a tub of epoxy. Oh, and some time, because each 1/8″ epoxy layer takes two days or more to dry.

According to Julia, this rumpus room appropriate table is simple to put together — which is good for lazy DIYers like me. It can also be pretty inexpensive, depending on the beer you prefer and the table you choose. In fact, the priciest part of the whole works may just be the epoxy, which costs upwards of $20 per pint!

I’m bummed out today because I just found out that I recently received my last ever issue of Blueprint . Apparently, I’ll be receiving Martha Stewart Living in its place. Waaaah. Why does this bum me out so? Because Blueprint was one of the few mags I could rely on to show me stuff for the home I could actually afford. Sure, it’s fun to browse through House Beautiful with it’s $10,000 couches and $800 lamps, but I get a little discouraged when I can’t afford to implement any of the ideas!

One of the best ideas I ever came across in Blueprint was easy, free, and pointedly logical. Summing it up, the tip read: “Why are you keeping your “good” stuff hidden away? Put it out around your home where you can enjoy it!” I can admit that I’m guilty of having both everyday stuff and nice stuff. While keeping some stuff hidden away, like the good towels for instance, makes sense because you want them to look new when guests come over, there’s plenty of stuff that can take a little wear and tear without changing much.

So what did I keep hidden away until fairly recently? A beautiful full set of Dirilyte flatware in the Empress pattern, for one. What was the point of owning it if I was still using a bunch of mismatched, hand-me-down forks, knives, and spoons? Now my kitchen sparkles every single day. There was also a beautiful khokhloma table that my grandparents brought back with them on a long ago trip to Russia — I found a nice spot for that in my already red office.

The point is, life is short, so we really ought to live fabulously whenever possible. If you entertain a ton, then I suppose there’s no reason not to switch out the workhorses for the show horses because both will see plenty of use. But if you’re like me and prefer that parties take place in other people’s abodes, there’s no reason to keep all that good stuff hidden away. I’d wager that there is at least one beautiful thing — a wine bucket, a candy dish, a footstool, a tablecloth, or a pitcher — that you’re saving for some future day when the right company happens to stop by.

What I’m trying to say is that YOU are the right company. You deserve to eat your microwave burrito off of fine china with the most beautiful of silverware. No one need know that the coffee in your silver coffee pot was made with instant coffee crystals. Similarly, why nibble pricey French pastries off of plates you bought at the Wal*Mart if you have something better right there in your kitchen cabinet? Why put the aromatic teas you love so much in any old pot when your gram’s silver is languishing in the cupboard?

Bust it out! Use it! Trust me when I say your home will be all the more beautiful because of it.

While thinking about rooms that don’t click yesterday, I was reminded of the fact that it’s easy to spruce up a room with a new piece of furniture but not always financially feasible to do so. Case in point: Moving into our new home meant spending a lot of time figuring out how we could use what we already have in new ways.

One way I’ve accomplished that involved refinishing furniture in various ways. A lot of people stay away from projects like that because they think that it will be difficult or complicated, when in fact that’s a completely erroneous assumption. How easy is it? Six steps worth of easy! All you need is an old dresser, black acrylic, Mod Podge Hard Coat, 400 and 150 grit sandpaper, toile print wallpaper, a sponge brush, a nylon brush, a craft knife, scissors, and a ruler.

1. Remove drawer pulls. Sand entire chest with 150 grit then 400 grit sand paper.

2. Basecoat entire chest Licorice using nylon brush.

3. Measure top and drawer fronts; cut a piece of wallpaper to size for each area.

4. Using sponge brush, apply Hardcoat Mod Podge to back of top wallpaper piece; position on chest then smooth out air bubbles. Repeat for drawer fronts. Let dry.

5. Apply a topcoat of Hardcoat Mod Podge over the entire chest (both painted and wallpapered areas). Let dry. Repeat with a second and third topcoat of Hardcoat Mod Podge, sanding between coats with 400 grit sand paper.

6. Using craft knife make a holes for drawer pulls then reinsert.

Ta da! You now have a “new” dresser, end table, or bed stand!

Before I could even imagine buying a house, I was quick to profess my love of small houses. Cottages. Bungalows. Whatever you want to call them. After all, they’re cheaper to heat and cool, they’re cute, and they kind of force you to prioritize your junk. Then I actually bought a small house and realized just how much junk I really had!

Figuring out what to do with my small spaces was a challenge. I had more space overall, but the individual rooms in my new house were smaller than the corresponding rooms in my apartment. What that meant was that I had to prioritize when choosing my furnishings and decor, find creative and aesthetically pleasing ways of packing everything I wanted in, and make as many pieces as possible do double duty.

What do I mean by double duty? Take a plain kitchen window, for example. Demesne suggests you turn that window into:

• A plant window with glass shelving for indoor plants or garden starts. A narrow bookcase with attractive baskets for holding garden books, planting tools, and a covered bucket for potting soil could turn this into a mini-plant care center.
• The perfect cat zone by adding a somewhat wider shelf to the typical sill, then topping it with a home-made cushion (with a washable cover).
• An entertainment bar with a drop leaf shelf mounted at bar height under the window for extra eating or serving space. When you need it, it’s there, but for convenience it can be left down. Camouflage it as part of a built-in if you’re ambitious.
• A breakfast table. An eastern exposure combined with a small drop leaf table and a couple chairs is a natural solution. The leaves can be left down to facilitate flow through except when having that morning cappuccino.
• A mud space. If it’s next to a door, a narrow bench with cubbies for outdoor shoes, boots, and a bin for hats and gloves provides a good spot to catch family clutter. Put a couple heavy duty hooks nearby for backpacks or purses. Voilá. If you can train your family to take their shoes off, you’ll cut down dramatically on the dirt that gets tracked in.

And so on and so forth. Little niches can become mini offices, prettied up storage nooks, or entertainment areas. Ask yourself: Where can I fit some additional seating? How can I display my stuff to its best advantage? How can I make my spaces feel bigger without sacrificing comfort? If you plan carefully–perhaps using some of the software readers recommended here–your small spaces will pop.

Now you tell me…what have you done lately to maximize the appeal of your small spaces?

Give an Ikea ISIG to lifestyle guru Matthew Mead and you’ll end up with something lovely. I found his easy-peasy DIY directions through ikea hacker, a blog devoted to finding the most interesting and innovative uses for boring old flat pack furniture.

Go and check it out, then come back and tell me about your most creative furniture hacks. After all, just because something came from Ikea (or the Goodwill or the Dollar Tree) doesn’t mean it has to look like it did!

When The Beard and I moved into our new house, we didn’t exactly have a lot of moolah left over to dedicate to decor. Our apartment was of course nothing like the house, and I’m big into decorating to suit a space. I could have just settled and saved–to some extent I still am–but who wants to live in an uncomfortable habitat? Not me, that’s for sure.

I feel good and work well in spaces that have a nice homey quality to them. Had I just moved each room of the apartment to the corresponding room of the house, I would have gone crazy. Maybe it’s just an obsessive compulsivity that drives me to want everything to be in its rightful place, but I knew that I needed to make my house into my home as quickly as possible.
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