things I've made

Moving into a new apartment always fuels my DIY instincts, so I thought I'd share a few projects/things I've made recently as well as a painting I made a bit ago. People get intimidated about art on the walls, but it doesn't have to be something expensive or, if you want to try your hand at making art yourself, difficult. I'll show you!

I've always loved the cross motif - not the religious cross, more like the medical cross. I wanted a smaller piece to go above our bed and it needed to be cool and graphic. One trip to Blick, a 10"x10" birch board for $8 and $2 tube of black acrylic paint later, and I was on my way. I measured out the width I wanted (2" square), measured the center of the board, and penciled in light lines at the edges of the cross design. Then I laid blue painter's tape over the lines, using an exacto to make sure there were no frayed tape edges sticking into the cross design. Two coats of black paint dried in between with a hair dryer on low, et voila! A really cool, easy + affordable piece of art. I love how it looks in our bedroom:

Simple + cool. See, you can do it!

Next up: our Bosse stools from IKEA were pretty in their natural birch tone, but with the pale yellow renter's walls I wasn't totally digging their vibe. Using leftover wall paint from our deep teal accent wall, that blue painter's tape again, a measuring tape + pencil, I transformed them into something unique and more "us." Loving them now!

(Bosse stool as they come from the store, courtesy of IKEA.com)

I just measured 20" up from each leg's base and penciled/taped it in.

One down, one to go.

Done! So pretty.

Luna approves.

Last but not least, I thought I'd throw in the striped painting I created awhile back with our wedding date (9.6.08). The tricky part with this one was getting the lines to be straight, but with a measuring tape + pencil marks in a few places for each, it worked pretty well. Painters tape is your friend here, too. (Stuff is amazing!)

(in our old apartment - it's still in the bedroom in our Seattle place but on the wall opposite the bed.)

Don't be intimidated! A trip to your local art/craft store and $20 or less, some painter's tape and a little brainstorming can make a big impact on your apartment walls.