101 Dizzying Spiral Staircases & Twisted Architectural Art Photos

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New Project: Swan Chair!

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Semester two of furniture upholstery at the BA&CE. During my first semester I accumulated a few diy duds from family and friends. This unique fowl-inspired chair is one of them.

Steve Madden 'Tuxxedo' Flat

Unfortunately for me, this shoe style only looks good on people with tiny feet. For all of you lucky small-footed friends, click here.

Central Square Chair Sale: before & after

before + after

It took seven three-hour classes, but my first chair transformation is complete! Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience. Not only do I have something to show for my efforts, I gained a greater appreciation for the craft of upholstery, a better understanding of why furniture costs so darn much, and I have a fully stocked tool box!

The chair has been dubbed "Princess Chair" by my roommates and no one sits in it except the cats. It's not perfect, but my next one will be ;)

Central Square Chair Sale: 21 Hours

double welt trim

The last step of the upholstery process was adding double welt trim to cover the staples. There are other trim options, such as home decor gimp, decorative tacks or single welt cording, but I think double welt was the right choice for this chair. Plus I learned how to use a sewing machine in the process! I took two pieces of welting cord and stitched strips of my fabric around them. It took a few tries...luckily I had plenty of extra fabric. After the trim was finished I simply hot-glued it over the staples. Piece of cake.

How they do it in Sweden

I just came across this Swedish apartment on Living with White (original post from desire to inspire - Aug '09). At first glance it looks like your standard sterile white on white modern design. But as you delve deeper into the design the space becomes increasingly warmer. What the apartment lacks in color it makes up for in the spectrum of fabric textures, furniture styles, surface materials, accessories, etc. It transforms from a cold, standoffish showroom into a comfortable, friendly home right before your eyes! Please look at the rest of the photos at either Living with White or desire to inspire and tell me if you agree.

Blue Birds

The company I work for has a webstore called CAD Garage. This week we decided to set up a twitter account for the store. Twitter is great! Not only can I do my job using poor grammar and incomplete sentences, I get to make loads of little bird buttons!

Harwich House

For New Years I spent the long weekend at my parents' house on Cape Cod. It is one of my favorite places on Earth. The house sits on one of the hundreds of charming little ponds found in the middle of the "arm." Everything in the house is second hand. All items were either bargained for at a flea market, purchased at an estate sale, or found at the dump and painted. Everything is painted white. There is no plastic anything. You'd think Cape Cod isn't an ideal winter vacation spot, but the house is just as wonderful in the winter as it is in the summer. These are a few of my favorite little spots around the house.

Central Square Chair Sale: 19 Hours

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Buttons were threaded through the back of the chair with a giant foot-long needle. It is important to decide on whether or not you want buttons before the back of the chair is attached. Otherwise you'll be doing a lot of staple removal and cursing...

Once the buttons were threaded I tied a slip knot. This allows the button "depth" to be adjusted. The cotton keeps the slip knot from sliding around as you make adjustments. Once all of my buttons were even, I tied a final knot to fix them into place. I had to learn how to use a sewing machine for the next step: Making double-welt trim to cover the staples. Stay tuned!

Central Square Chair Sale: 18 Hours

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After draping and cutting the fabric, which I actually wanted in a sage green but couldn't find, I tacked and stapled it around the cushions. Because this was the final layer of fabric, I had to be very careful and precise when stapling to make sure all of my lines were symmetrical. Spur of the moment I decided to add buttons, which I created with a button machine and navy blue scraps, to the back of my chair. Here they are just pinned up so that I could move them around before deciding on a final position. Also, that crazy math in the background has nothing to do with furniture upholstery...

Super Supermarket Sarah

I love London. Supermarket Sarah is a clever little shop that is part webstore, part flea market. Sarah sets up little booths you can either shop online or by appointment at her store location in West London, which also happens to be her home. The online experience is very cool. It's like window shopping, but you can buy stuff! Sarah sets up several booths filled with items ranging from artwork to shoes to vintage electronics, which you can select and purchase right off her wall. I love this concept. It combines all the fun of perusing junk stores with the convenience of online purchasing! I would also suggest checking out Sarah's blog.

Central Square Chair Sale: 15 Hours

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After the foam was in place I measured, cut, and stapled cotton muslin over the seat and back of the chair. The muslin holds the shape of the cushion and prevents the stuffing from popping out in all directions. Next comes...you guessed it...FABRIC!

Central Square Chair Sale: 13 Hours

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Once I had a few even layers of cotton down I cut a piece of one-inch foam to cover it. Foam is not the easiest material to work with. My foam in particular was very soft and tore easily. I had to work with a partner and quickly staple the foam down evenly on all sides to prevent it from taring out of the staples. Who knew furniture upholstery was a team building activity?

Tossed & Found by Linda & John Meyers

I read an article in a recent issue of Design New England on a new coffee table book called Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs by interior designers Linda & John Meyers. The book is a collection of totally off-the-wall, impractical, and seriously creative furniture rehabs (complete with instructions on how to recreate the final products). It is absolutely on my holiday wish list.

Chair Bench by Annie Coggan

This great DIY project by Annie Coggan of Coggan + Crawford was recently posted on Design*Sponge. Since I'm chair-obsessed at the moment, the chair/bench naturally caught my eye. I'm putting it on my DIY To-Do list. Look through the full D*S "Sneak Peak" post for more of Annie's signature chairs.

Central Square Chair Sale: 12 Hours

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For this chair I used one-inch soft foam as my top layer of padding. I traced the shape of the chair frame onto the foam and cut it out. Here is where I had to start paying attention to details, because if I was sloppy about attaching my foam, my whole chair would look lopsided - and who wants to sit on a lopsided chair? No one, that's who. I had to staple the foam very slowly, working from top to bottom, so as to not accidentally deform my cushion shape. My arms were aching from holding the staple gun steady for so long.

Central Square Chair Sale: 10 Hours

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I created the lip you see around the seat of the chair by rolling strips of cotton in burlap and stapling them to the frame. These rolls are designed to hold in the padding, as well as create a rounded edge once the fabric is added. Cotton goes down before the foam to create a desired shape, as well as provide extra padding. Here I used two layers of cotton to raise the center of the chair back. It's so primitive looking, but I guess it's how the pros still do it!

Brownstone Library

Saw this odd stoop walking down Commonwealth Ave. in the Back Bay. The occupant of this old brownstone has so many books he can't even open his front door! I'm sure he's lucky enough to have a second entrance, but it's still a pretty odd location for a personal library.

Central Square Chair Sale: 9 Hours

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Next up was stapling pieces of burlap over the webbing. This went pretty quickly. Then came the sanding and staining of the frame.

Central Square Chair Sale: 8 Hours

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Once the chair was dry I cut strips of burlap webbing. These were were then stretched, weaved, and stapled to the seat and back of the chair. The webbing on the back of the chair is only partially weaved to maintain the curve of the chair. This was a really fun process, mostly because it is starting to look like a chair again!

Sanding and staining should have actually taken place before the webbing was added, but I wouldn't have been able to work on the chair that day while it was drying had I applied stain at the beginning of class. I waited until the end and just worked around the material.

SAVE THE VINYL Artwork

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SAVE THE VINYL is the brainchild of my very special bf Joshua Pratt, host of Vinyl Vlog. SAVE THE VINYL is a unique service/promotion put together in association with Limited Pressing, National Underground and dozens of bands from all over the US and Canada, for attendees of this weekend’s FEST 8 in Gainesville, FL. The idea is that anyone who purchases records at FEST 8 will receive a record mailer to protect (or SAVE) their vinyl from the chaos that is the FEST. Inside each mailer is a comp CD with over 25 songs by the bands mentioned above. 200 record mailers and comp CDs will be given out. Of these 200, 5 comp CDs will be "Golden CDs," which include a secret track announcing the lucky record buyer as a winner of a prize package. These prize packages are made up of records, CDs, coozies, and other merch items donated by participating bands. Josh and I collaborated on artwork for the comp CD insert and above are a few of the sketches we came up with.

Central Square Chair Sale: 6 Hours

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Re-glued and screwed. Once the chair is dry I will sand, stain, and begin the upholstering process!

Central Square Chair Sale: 4 Hours

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Sometimes situations have to get worse before they get better...

Wall Mosaic by Jill Roberson

I spotted this neat penny tile wall mosaic on Design*Sponge today. It must have taken a lot of planning! The wall is from the home of Jill Roberson of office.

Central Square Chair Sale: 3 Hours

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My chair after three hours of prying out tacks and staples, ripping apart dry-rotted foam, and watching my hands become red and blistered. I couldn't believe how long it took to tear this thing apart. But I was also very unprepared. I think I can cut my time in half next time around. I'll also invest in a pair of gloves next time around...

Central Square Chair Sale: 1 Hour

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About four weeks ago, after months of complaining about my hobbyless lifestyle, I finally signed up for a continuing ed. class at the BA&CE in Brookline, MA. The course, as you may have deduced from the photo, is Furniture Upholstery.

Remember this chair from my original Central Square Chair Sale post??? Turns out, Mr. Shalimar has hundreds of these chairs in his store basement. I picked this one out for my project. This picture was taken about an hour into my first class. It took a whole HOUR to tear out enough nails to remove HALF of the seat fabric. I have a long way to go...

HGTV Green Home Comes to MA: Update

The 2010 HGTV Green Home is located in Plymouth, MA this year, which is extremely exciting for me as a MA resident and HGTV.com groupie. The house seems to be entering its final stages of construction already. Pretty impressive considering the project was only announced this past June. Of course, there is still a considerable of work to do. The floor plans show multiple lofts, a giant porch, and generous master bedroom. There is only one other bedroom, but for a free house you can't complain. I'm planning on doing a drive-by in the next few weeks... The giveaway entry period begins April 16, 2010.

Johansen Shoes at Little Girl Grown

kennedyholmes.etsy.com

I spotted these adorable mid-century Johansen heals at Little Girl Grown, a tasteful and affordable Boston-based Etsy store stocked with hand-selected vintage gems. If only my feet were three sizes smaller :( If you are interested in these shoes I'd hurry, because nothing ever stays on LGG for long! Take a look at more vintage fall finds here.

Babushka Cookies

Learn how to bake Babushka Cookies here!

I just started following www.craftzine.com and their post about "Babushka Cookies" was the first feed update I received on them. There are no words to express the joy I am feeling right now. These cookies are the brain child of Michele of Extremely Crafty. Thank you Michele.

Moustache Mugs

My Mom always jokes about having given me and my brothers pacifiers in the shape of cigars, puckered lips, gold teeth, and other adult accessories that look hilarious on babies. I think it was her favorite part of motherhood, in fact. This moustache mug image found at PicoCool.com reminded me of that. Love you Mom ;)