Hosting a party is a true stimulus for the progress of your long forgotten DIY projects. That’s what happened to me last week, as you might have noticed with the lack of posts. Hosting my mother-in-law birthday pushed me to finally take out those paints, masking tape, sewing machine and what not. Everybody wanted to see “the interior designer”‘s house. All of those in the industry know, that the real ID-er house looks more like a mess or a bunch of unfinished projects rather than the picture perfect dream come true.
Anyways, I decided to reveal a few TLC projects that were both wallet-friendly and actually quite fun to do. Although I redid these side tables quite a while ago, I just never had a chance to take a good picture of them. So here we go.
BEFORE: I got these pieces on the brink of being thrown away in rather miserable condition. I really liked the solid frame and the fact that they are not completely the same. 
AFTER: Half of the quarter of black high-gloss paint did wonders. 
<images via me>
Nothing brings in spring like blooming flowers. And as much as I try to have fresh flowers at home I always feel sad when they are withering. Lucky for us, there is Thiliblooms. Thilie is a 27-year old artist from Miami, who hand-crafts absolutely adorable blooms from fabric scraps which otherwise would have been tossed out. Although her Etsy shop is on the smaller size (yet!), her specialty is custom work. Be sure to check out her portfolio for the full spectrum. I’m lost in the possibilities.
<images via www.thiliblooms.blogspot.com>
Following my yesterday’s post on light bulb inspiration, it’s time to show my creation. I was really captured by the idea of light shimmering in the water, especially after seeing the plastic water bottles wall in the Morimoto restaurant, when lit from behind, it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
My original idea was to fill up bulbs with water and some how arrange them around the light source. But the my husband showed me the magic bulb trick on youtube and the light bulb inside my head went on! If I don’t need any wires to supply the bulb why don’t I…well, check it out.
…yes, I submerged my whole fixture under the water. Not only the light looks surreal under water, but also the regular frosted bulbs appear as if the glass is a kind of liquid steel (like the bad guy from the old Terminator movie). How did I do it?
First, drilled the holes in a few bulbs and filled them up with water. These would serve as the weight for the rest of the bulbs to actually stay under water and do not float up.
Then, I took 2 magic bulb (bought them at the local magic shop) and wrapped the base in foil to lit them up.I’ve put some hot glue around the base where it touches the glass to make sure that water is not leaking through.
And I assembled the whole thing. too bad the battery life of the magic bulb is not that long, so by the end of the show one bulb went off.
<images via me>
I don’t know what is it lately but I’m in the mood for some DIY. May be it’s the end of the year, when you really want to look back and tap yourself on the shoulder for all your completions. So…before starting anything new, it’s good to look back and get that extra push from previous (successful!) projects.
Little story behind this makeover: I was looking for our new place and was runnng around checking out the neighborhood when at one of the apartment complexes I saw a repair man about to throw away a the dusty old chandelier. I came to the rescue to his BIG surprise. The rest is the history, but couple spray paint cans later this chandelier has become a dining centerpiece at our new place. Who would have thought, right?
Ignore the ugly blinds, they are long GONE!
There are new exiting DIYs on the way. I’ll keep you posted.
