#Geometric #Tribal #Bright - Painted Headboard Project

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

― Albert Camus, The Stranger

It's been a cold, windy, gray, pestilent, (insert synonyms for pestilent) winter here in New York.  As part of my ongoing push to create an atmosphere of "rustic beachyness that doesn't involve framed prints of seashells" in my bedroom, I wanted to do something to brighten up my bed.

BEFORE: This was my Oatmeal Upholstered Draper Bed from World Market, not very tropical. 

I thought about doing a simple update with some colorful bedding but then I was out treasure hunting at Buffalo Exchange one afternoon and stumbled across this stunner:

This feeling of YES hit me and somehow brought to mind the week I spent in Negril, Jamaica in 2010. It was for my brother and now sister-in-law's wedding: so many of my favorite people were there, for a very exciting event, and we were in paradise. It was one of the happiest times of my life.

I wanted to take that feeling and wrap it around the bed somehow, because that was the feeling I want the room to have - happy, sunshiny, Caribbean vibes. This geometric upholstered bed at CB2 helped me think going with a bold allover pattern might actually look pretty cool. I was hoping I could reupholster the bed in a similar fabric but I couldn't find one that I liked so - I decided to try and paint the pattern onto the frame.

I checked out some posts on painting fabric headboards like this one and it seemed doable so the next step was getting supplies. Luckily Blick had just opened near my office on 6th Avenue and yes, was having a SALE so I stocked up on acrylic paints.

You can always count on Astoria's crazy variety stores to have any number of useful cheap items. I found packs of foam applicators for $1. They turned out to be good for laying down the base colors but would gradually fall apart so I destroyed a bunch of those.

I would section pieces off using painter's tape (if you've ever seen me attempt to use a ruler you would know I need all the help I can get to make straight lines!) and pieced out the design as I went.  

It was slow going waiting for a section to dry before I could tape off some more and do the next piece but then I started using my hair dryer to speed things along. I worked my way up from the skirt's hem onto the footboard of the bed to the skirt's top onto the headboard. I eventually just used large paintbrushes for the background and angled paintbrushes for the fine details. I freehanded most of it which leads me to:

What Did I Learn: Freehanding is tricky. It's a better idea to draw out the design first instead of looking at the space on the bed and then looking at the skirt with the dripping paintbrush in hand before making my move.  

I am lazy and did not wish to individually paint each and every repeating design so I made my inaugural foray into stencil making using some thin cardboard for the bat-like shapes along the footboard.   

I worked on this project on and off for months. Sometimes I would get impatient with how long it was taking and shout at myself ("Ahhhhhhhhh!  I'm so stupid!") that I didn't just go the colorful new bedding route. The final speed bump was the upper corners of the headboard because I tried to freehand the square design when I was tired and just completely messed it up - black paint on orange, not an easy fix.

I just couldn't wrap my head around the spacing for this design so I ended up making another stencil.

I wouldn't let myself move onto any new projects without finishing this one so my rainy afternoons of painting to the sounds of Fleet Foxes, Led Zeppelin and this finally came to an end.  

All these colors totally clashed with my white/teal/gray shabby chic bedding so the last touch was a new white duvet cover (OFELIA VASS from Ikea) because whenever I wear the skirt I pair it with a white t-shirt.

The snow and sleet continue to batter against the windows but now, when I wake up everyday, it is within an aura of invincible summer.

AFTER: Dancehall Queen Bed

SERIOUSLY EASY GOING

Upcycling the Dresser: Part II of IV

As another step to rid the dresser of The Funk I decided to paint the inside of the drawers.  I was low on patience and the green paint after painting the little drawers so I picked up some mirror sheen silver spray paint for the middle ones and went to town.

Did you know you have to show ID to buy spray paint?  I was previously unaware.  I don't understand how that would stop anyone.

I dashed home after work to try and catch the last of the daylight, dragged the drawers outside, and gave each a nice interior coating.  "Outside" means the sidewalk in front of my apartment building, a couple of yards away from passers by giving me strange looks and the local bus route rumbling along. Perhaps I went a little too far, because some unthinking whimsy caught me and I painted the sides silver as well.

After a couple of minutes I brought them inside and lined them up under the kitchen table to dry.
  

What have I learned:  Even when you paint outside, the fumes will be very strong for a couple of hours, especially in a small apartment.  Next time I spray paint I'm going to wait until the weekend and do it earlier in the day so I can let it dry outside longer.  Also, spray paint is fun.

Back to School

After selling my couch and dresser at asking price through Krrb - shockingly none of the inquiries I got through Craigslist panned out - I wanted to give back to such an awesome site so I paid a couple bucks and became a certified member.  My book case was gone in days after I listed it.

Krrb is having a "Back to School Sale" where you can get $25 back from purchases over $100 - $50 if you were a certified member.  I never met a sale I didn't like.

I've been using my window sill as a nightstand but its just a little too far away.  Also saw these posts about nightstand-desk combos and figured it would be nice to have a desk again in that 48" by 45" space in the top left quadrant.

Thought about just building a shelf to save on floorspace and keep it simple.  Just itching for a way to use some reclaimed wood!  Liked Flatiron Green's little counter, and the thought of a wall of astroturf :)

But then, I saw this and my heart was lost forever.  At 33" by 18" it would fit the space nicely - and given the other inquiries I was lucky to beat out, would be an easy resell if it ever came to it.  I got in touch with the seller Kyla and she agreed to hold it and its lovely light blue stool for me through the weekend.  Kyla's Adaptations store (aka a Real Honeyhole) is by appointment so I had a great reason to visit Greenpoint.

It was awesome meeting Kyra and seeing all the great stuff her showroom has.  She gave me some excellent advice on what finish to use if I want to give the desk that midcentury glow.  I think it will also come in handy for my Lost and Found chair project.

Kyra and I chatted about selling on Krrb and if they pass in person inspection she will be selling my vintage Smith-Victor lamps for me on consignment - cause those babies have not been moving on their own.  Could this be the grownup equivalent of meeting on the playground?  I feel like I made a hopscotch buddy.

Lust worthy burnt orange storage locker from Adaptations in excellent condition.  The doors on the smaller compartments lift upwards instead of sideways which is a neat little detail.  I'd love to put it in my entryway for shoes and bags and sports equipment but I'm $525 short.

My new desk and chair are being delivered by Kyra (for free!) on Sunday.  It looks like The Cure Thrift Shop (all proceeds go towards juvenile diabetes research) will be coming for my table, wingback chair, bench, and other assorted goods on Thursday - I tried selling them over the past couple of weeks on Krrb and Craigslist but haven't had any luck so I'm going for the tax deduction on those. A cure to diabetes is something I'm all for. 

Upcycling the Dresser: Part I of IV

This is the blueprint of my bedroom I carry around with me in my notebook for quick reference.  Amazingly handy to have!

I wanted to get a long dresser that would fit under the window but leave enough space for the closet door to open.  I liked the look of midcentury dressers with skinny legs - you can dust under them when they don't sit on the floor, makes the place seem more spacious and clean.   There have been a lot of "upcycled dresser" posts where bright paint and wallpaper are used to excellent effect.  I love bright paint!  I love patterned papers!  I wanted to try my hand.  My old dresser had pull out drawers which were great for organizing so I was happy to find this, in the dimensions I needed, on eBay for $70.

It lived in Brooklyn, I paid $125 to have it delivered. I contemplated renting a Zipcar and trying to slide it up the stairs to my place on cardboard but my co-workers talked me out of it.  See lack of car; See also lack of upper body strength.

Picking a color was difficult.  So many to choose from! I needed something that would go with my future painted headboard bed.  Saw this brilliant post and loved the color of the piano and the pattern of the bench's fabric. I want to jump into Spoonflower's fabrics like Scrooge McDuck into his money bin.

I wanted to use chalkboard paint like everyone else because its cool and you don't need a primer but the Annie Sloan brand wasn't available at Home Depot in Midtown and the alternatives were either lime green or evergreen.  At the time, I didn't make the connection that I could have made my own chalkboard paint so I ended up going with regular paint with primer mixed in because painting this monster in the middle of my living room meant minimizing anything with fumes or that would involve aerosols like spray primer. I once spray painted a small chest indoors with open windows and newspaper, my white floors were tinged blue forever.  Never again.

Before I could paint through - I had to clean, and sand. This thing came to me filthy so I washed it with dish soap and then even diluted bleach trying to get off all the grime and this huge orange rust stain and best of all - the dead person smell. I think the previous owner's name was Verna.  She liked old and new pantyhose and cubes of rose scented British bath salts.  I found all those items in the drawers and threw them away.  My boss later reminded me that the bath salts would have come in handy for the zombie apocalypse - I kicked myself for overlooking their street value.

What have I learned: It might not be worth it purchasing a used dresser online, sight and smell unseen.

The moldings on the side doors were ugly and chipped.  I thought it might be nice to have smooth doors so I removed all the screws holding the moldings in place but still couldn't pry them off.  I decided to take the doors off completely and have the drawers be open faced like this beauty. I filled in the screw holes with some painter's nail hole filler.

I took the subway for 30 minutes to the Home Depot in Midtown.  Here was the damage: 

$10 on a brush/roller/tray kit (the kits really are a great deal when the brush itself can be $5)
$15 on Glidden's Lucky Shamrock and a tester size Ripe Apricot (testers run at $3.25, perfect for when you just need a bit)
$2 Shop towels (worth every penny) 
$3 Face masks  

I have a fabric shower curtain liner from a previous place that I used as a drop cloth under the dresser.  Used a large roller on the top and sides and a brush for all the crevices.  Smaller roller for the drawer fronts.  A couple hours of streaming Breaking Bad on Netflix later:

Partial picture for now.

I let the paint dry overnight then made the feet little booties out of shop towels and painters tape (so it wouldn't scratch the floor) and slide the dresser the 15 feet into its new spot in my bedroom.  Now I can walk through my living room again.

Part II: What pretty pattern can I put on the front?

For whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell.

Air rights are a type of development right in real estate, referring to the empty space above a property. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building gives one the right to use and develop the air rights.

This legal concept is encoded in the Latin phrase Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad caelum et ad inferos ("For whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell."), which appears in medieval Roman law and is credited to 13th century glossator Accursius; it was notably popularized in common law in Commentaries on the Laws of England (1766) by William Blackstone; see origins of phrase for details.

- Wikipedia

It may have originated in medieval Rome but I venture we can all agree that the best contemporary example of developed air rights is New York City.  I'm going all out NYC style with my approach to closet remodeling - I cannot find additional hanging space outwards, so I will find it upwards.  

It seems a Queens hallmark to have weirdly, wonderfully high ceilings in the closets.  I've been wasting it's potential using the shelf above the hanging rod for linens - that changes today with the addition of a $4 set of fixtures and a $9 closet rod.  And $4 worth of screws and anchors because I really can't figure out the stud finder. Damn thing.

Here is my closet beforehand.  It's a good sized closet for New York.  To the right of the shelf the space becomes more shallow because that wall is the entrance to the bathroom on the other side.  You can see the hangers are not hanging straight on the rod because the space isn't wide enough at that juncture.  I want every square inch I can get so here we go.

A little crowded...

 Step inside, and look up.

Like a gigantic atrium in a Midtown office building, that's all air.

The hardest part of this was accessing the space.  It was a tight squeeze up into a vertical cave.  Got the supplies ready before climbing up the ladder.

Screws with anchors.  I bought two sets, always helps to have extras in case you lose some, strip the screw head, or bend the anchor out of shape by trying to hammer it into a hole that isn't big enough.  Not that I would ever do any of those things...

I endorse this product.

The first hole was the most difficult, it took all these drill bits before I found the right size I needed to get the anchor in.  Always a good rule to go from small to largest gradually.  (The larger to smaller approach involves plaster, and that just gets messy).  I had to climb up and down the ladder a bunch of times to get more drill bits but at some point it was like, hey, drill bits are kind of pretty. Thanks to that and the magic of Instagram, I now have my background image for this site.

It really helped to have that built in light in the closet (kudos to my landlord) even if I did have to contort myself with sweaty feet on the ladder to avoid getting burned by the hot glass shade.  Three holes for each fixture times two fixtures, six anchors to drive in with the mallet hammer, then six screws, hang the closet rod and boom:

 Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad caelum et ad inferos!

Can it be true?  Have I really graduated into that elite class of people who can separate and store their clothing by season?  After hanging my winter coats and more formal clothing on the High Line, we still have a work in progress (also known as a disorganized mess because now everything that lived on the shelf is on the floor and tripping me).  Next phase: shelves.

Black and Yellow Black and Yellow Black and Yellow

Artist Teofilo Olivieri was camped out at 23rd St and 6th Ave this week.  One of his Batman pieces will look great above my bed once I finish painting it.  Prices run from $40-60.

These are on hardback book covers and come ready to hang.  I love the textural detail of the book title running through the image.

This one is on a vinyl record.

Oh! Idea!

I Want This — Chic Chevron Coffee Table

Chevrons just seem to be EVERYWHERE right now.  I love them as much as the next hipster but I really like that this is chevron with a twist.  I have to get a smaller kitchen table at some point soon, been thinking about maybe getting one that I can stencil a design onto.  This linework is lovely, might just have to borrow it for that project. 

Or maybe just make a wall hanging with it...