DIY'sih: Making Ikea Ribba Frames Look Custom

I have a clear cut formula for inexpensive, yet fabulous and expensive-looking art.

Step 1: Cruise Half.com for a few coffee-table sized art books, purchase at an extreme discount, and don't mind the condition -- you'll be cutting this up.

Step 2: Go to Ikea and get Ribba frames, black or white, any size you think is appropriate.

Step 3: Order custom mats for the Ribba frame, to the exact measurements of the piece in the book you want to frame.  Custom mats are inexpensive, a nice frame store would run you about $20 for a custom mat, you could find them online for less though.

Step 4: Assemble, and repeat with as many pieces from the book you like, and you have the buddings of a gallery wall.

Watch this:

Half.com, ordered Lillian Bassman, Women by Debroah Solomon.  Stunning pictures of women in stunning outfits, all black and white.  $21.63.

Got two Ribba frames, $14.99.

Order custom mats from a shop in Brooklyn, for $20 a piece.  I think I could have gotten them for less online, which I'll do next time.

And assemble...

And it looks amazing...

And it is time to put some amazing on the bathroom walls...

Who says you shouldn't put real art in the bathroom? Not I!

We're going to do this for all the galleries in the apartment, for more on what we're framing see this post.

What do you think?

The Zero Waste Home

I recently came across this video about The Johnsons, and their zero-waste California home.

I was really intrigued, both from a zero-clutter, clean design standpoint, and to a lesser extent and environmental standpoint.  I sent it to Aaron for further feedback.  Aaron, as the indulgent hoarder spouse, had zero intrigue.

Unsatisfied with his meh attitude about our soon-to-be zero waste (clutter) lifestyle, I took the 'lets engineer our house to be more efficient' angle.  Aaron is an engineer, and immediately recognized my feeble attempt at playing up his interesting in engineering to try to convince him this was going to be awesome.

The four principles to a zero-waste home are, refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.  We talked about how we were doing on those fronts.

Refuse - We have refused some furniture from friends and family that we didn't want.  Beyond that, we are the oh la la I got another free hat / towel / t-shirt / bag, etc. from work couple.  We're both in media, so there is a lot of free to go around.

Reduce - We throw things away when we move, but now that we've bought a home, we're in danger.

Re-use - We have a Brita filter.

Recycle - Nope.

After our self-evaluation, we decided our home could be improved by making some effort in all for areas.  These are our commitments:

Refuse - We're no longer taking free stuff from work, unless we really, really love it, and it is replacing something we own now, and that replaced thing will be donated.

Reduce - We're using the 'haven't used this in over a year' rule of thumb for everything in the house, and going through all our clutter and throwing it out.  We're donating things of marginal value, and we're seriously evaluating our clothes and hiding a lot of them in the storage locker to see if we can manage with less.

Re-use - We're buying micro-fiber clothes and trying the no-paper-towel route, and we're also buying dish towels and using them as napkins -- I saw a restaurant do this once and thought it was genius.

Recycle - Well, we're setting up a place in our home to make recycling possible, starting with a recycling bin (or, bins).  Major!

I once saw this awesome home recycling center designed for Blueprint Magazine (a former Martha Stewart Magazine that folded).

If recycling always looks this organized and cute, I would do it.

We have a space in our kitchen that could be perfect for this kind of set up, right next to the fridge.

Space next to the fridge, non-functional at the moment!

And with our imagined recycling center...

Recycling center!

It's a bit of a hack Photoshop job but you get the idea.

I really like these smaller trash bins from Ikea, that would do great with hooks on the wall:

Ikea KNODD - $14.99

Elfa wire drawer, The Container Store, $17.00

I'd also love to make magnets for them to differentiate them.

Anywhoo, we'll see how far we actually get with all this, but I wanted to give you the heads up that we're taking some baby steps.

Does your family make an effort to refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle? Which are you worst/best at? What do you think of the Johnson's lifestyle?

Make-A-Frame

A few weeks ago we had one of those more-productive-than-usual weekends, which involved getting art framed, and building shelves.  This weekend, the art we had framed was done de-done done done, and we picked it up, hung it, danced in a circle, and took some pictures so you could share in the fun.

It all started when my Dad came over and we sauntered up Atlantic avenue to Make A Frame, which implies some sort of paint-a-pot activity, but in reality is just an expensive not-do-it-yourself frame shop.  I should caveat that when I describe this place as expensive, I don't actually know if it is comparatively expensive to other places, I just know that for wood and glass, it felt like we were buying a car.

Here we are, with our two pieces -- a Georges Braque print, formerly housed in my parent's basements and storage lockers for over a decade, and our ketubah, or, Jewish marriage contract.  Ours was given to us by my wonderful and talented Aunt Kris, who painted it as our wedding gift.

Dad and Aaron, Aaron not as interested in frame-store activities.

And here are the two things we needed to have framed...

Ketubah!

Braque Print, rocking a serious acid burn thanks to a former mat, oopsie.

Speaking of former mat, this is what the Braque used to be framed in.

This was how the Braque looked for about two decades.

And this is us picking out its new outfit...

A darker mat, and a silver frame.

And this is the Braque when we brought it home!

Finished!

I cannot even believe what a difference the new frame and mat made.  It's an entirely new piece.  We're thrilled beyond thrilled with the results.

A few more shots...

Close-up of the frame, awesome craftsmanship.

Our bedroom door, where we hung the Braque.

And lets not forget the ketubah, that came home in a new outfit too!

This was how the ketubah looked at the wedding, a $30 stock frame from Michaels...

Aww.  Also ketubah, behind me.

And this is how it looks now!

We 'floated' the ketubah on the mat, because the edges are a little rough and look great.

Ketubah, hung in our bedroom, next to the bathroom door.
Also the first thing I see when I wake up :)

 We love the ketubah too, though I was so in love with the dark mat on the Braque I wondered if we should have done the same thing for the ketubah, but now I'm over it.  Overall, this was not an inexpensive endeavor, getting a custom frame is like buying a real piece of furniture, but if it is a really great piece of art and you'll have it in your home for years to come, it is worth considering the investment.

Have you ever had art custom framed? What'd you think of the experience? Was the price shocking or worth it?

HGTV Design Star: Episode 1 Review

A neighbor suggested I review all the episodes of HGTV's Design Stars, because it is relevant being a design show, but extra relevant because it was filmed in our building.  Woo!  We were all a little intrigued while filming was going on, and somewhat bothered by the endless camera crews and use of our dollies, carts, whatever you call them.

Fast forward several months, and the Stars have departed and their show is airing.  I recorded the first episode and indulged this week.

Our backyard!

I'm not in love w/ any particular cast member so far.  I need natural selection to take place.

And these are the judges.  I was all about HGTV in High School and these three were regulars.  Genevieve and Vern were on Trading Spaces and Candice Olson had and still has her own show called Devine Design, where she re-designs a room from flooring to lighting, and it ends up looking amazeballs in the end.  Of all of them, I love Vern the most, maybe because he got so far in life with the name Vern Yip.

In this episode, the design stars were tasked with decorating the penthouse, which would be their home for the duration of the show.

These are some before and after pictures.

I can't imagine the fight about the necessary television lighting that was installed on the ceiling.

Reminds me of a CB2 catalogue.

A design question for the ages, how to make a modern fireplace not look like it belongs in Northern New Jersey?

Add a mantle, purple paint, and a lot of pictures, not bad!

The judges found this tire coffee table highly imaginative.  I was not as enthralled.

The worst bedroom I have ever seen, outside of hoarders.

So awful I don't know where to begin.

I like the chic surveillance cameras on the bathroom door.

All these rooms look like little kids rooms to me.

Anyway, the overarching theme was "bad, bad, not so bad, and omgbad."  I just feel like good design takes time, and two days is not enough to do a multi-million dollar penthouse justice.  I'll continue watching because it's too meant to be for me to give up now, but out of the gates, not impressed!

DIY: Custom Kate Spade Note Cards!

Oh how I adore Kate Spade.  I wore her earrings to my wedding, eat daily with her cutlery, and have used her bags as staples of my wardrobe for years.  I have scoured eBay and outlets for deals, and have found treasures that would otherwise be out of reach.  With all this, I have never been able to accept the flooring cost of her custom stationary.

I might need to back up here, and say that I have never been able to accept the flooring cost of custom stationary in general, and as far as those costs go, Kate Spade is right in line.  I just do not understand, it is paper.  And as a daily user of paper for most of my life, I can assure you, in the real word one just not shell out $4.00 for each sheet, or in this case a note card, which is really half a sheet.

As a side note, when I was engaged, I could not wait to shell out an obscene amount for Kate Spade invitations.  I soon discovered, ug, that all her delicious wedding designs were summer oriented.  I was in love with this one.

I can't find the wedding invitation but this was the save the date, gold and silver, simple, amazing!

I had to have it, but that little beetle just would not do for our January celebration, so I re-designed it around a winter theme.

Our invitation, beetle replaced with snowflake!

Our insert card.

Our thank you cards.

If you're feeling all weddingoo at the moment and need to review the whole album, go indulge.

Ok, back to the note cards.  We used up all our wedding thank you notes on all our friends and family who showered us, or more appropriately, monsooned us with gifts.  And now, thank-you-cardless, I needed to whip up some new ones with my married name.

A friend recommended I use Vistaprint, which is a site that will print your custom designs on hats, stickers, note cards, business cards, mouse pads, mugs, anything.  And as a bonus for wading through endless spam and upsell attempts, their prices are incredible.

10 note cards are $5.49, which is .54 cents per card, a far cry from $4.00 per card, or 86% less.  Cha ching!

I found these cuties online, and decided to try the XOXO design in, and add my name to the bottom.

::starts Photoshop, vroom vroom::

I could not for the life of me find this picture again for the blog,
and Aaron (amazing) spent a good amount of time searching, and found it!

The knock-off.

I ordered 50 of them, with extra envelopes, for $43.16, including a $8.99 splurge for nicer paper.  After 12 long but-the-shipping-was-free days later, they arrived!

Ooh la la is right!

I'm so excited about the finished product, what a great value, and hurrah for having thank you notes again! I think these would also make great gifts.  What do you think?

The Living Room Takes Shape!

I've heard a lot of designers do the living room first.  I, instead, designed all the other rooms first, and left the living room up to chance.  Chance? Well, sort of.  I bought a bunch of fabric for the living room, not knowing how it would all come together, and then I bought a sofa and settee from Williams Sonoma Home, again not having the full picture in place.  And then, I panicked.

Sweet new sofa and settee, and existing chair (soon moving to bedroom).

Sofa: like, settee: like, sofa side pillows: awkward, coffee table: no like.

Gratuitous shot of the windows and neighbors.

Hotnessofa.

Hotnessofa close-up.

After the sofa and settee got here, something just seemed off.  I loved them both, but the whole room felt a twinge off kilter.  I realized that the conversation area felt too disjointed, and the room seemed to revolve around the TV, which in our 'formal' living room, if you will, was bothering me.  I wondered if I had bought the wrong pieces, had the wrong floor plan, had messed this whole thing up.  I rearranged all the furniture, which made it worse, pouted, and called Dad.

Dad toddled down from his abode on the Upper East Side and evaluated.

Dad's Diagnosis:

• I like the sofa.
• I like the settee.
• Agree, the conversation area is off.

Ok well at least he likes the pieces I bought, but what about some suggestions Pops?

Dad's Suggestions:

• Move settee much closer to couch.
• Buy two knock-off chocolate leather barcelona chairs.
• Buy one knock-off barcelona coffee table.
• Buy one Saarinen Dining Table.

Barcelona Chair

Barcelona Coffee Table

Saarinen Dining Table

We rearranged the living room per his instructions, and used our existing dining chairs as stand-ins for the barcelonas.

A conversation area! Also, hi Dad.

Problem solved.  We have a conversation area, or as Dad called it, a 'conversation pit' which is a phrase that does not belong anywhere near my living room.

So we're getting the barcelona chairs, and we've been scouring the internets for a 'good' knock off for a reasonable price.  My dad has discerning taste when it comes to knock offs so I mitigated the risk of this project by letting him pick the vendor.  He went to work requesting fabric swatches of leather from stores in England, so, way more effort than I would have put in.  Thanks Dad!

As far as the Barcelona table and Saarinen table, we don't want the place to evoke DWR/Knoll showroom, so we're holding off there and looking at other options.

I feel like this whole thing was major progress. Special thanks to Dad for helping solve the biggest puzzle of the living room so far!