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...

Project Skyhook: Install a weight-bearing plant hanger

I've been wanting a rope plant hanger for a while.  I associate them with awesomeness from when my mom had one.

You know that hanger would be like $300 now at Anthropologie.  Omigod I was joking and then I looked it up.

Spotted one at Home Depot for $8.  And now it is mine.

My lovely downstairs neighbors loaned me their lightweight ladder.  Equipment gap bridged!

What's the worry here?  Weight bearing objects overhead tend to freak me out.  This hook needs to provide a stable vehicle for a long duration.  I tried to find a stud with the stud finder, got the beeps and the flashing lights, drilled in: no stud.  Through a serious stroke of luck - of the three screw anchors in my toolbox, one of them happened to be the right size - I got to keep going without having to make a trip to the store.  Got the anchor in with a mallet hammer, screwed in the screw and voila! New hook.

Hung the macrame hanger with a heavy book for a day as a test plant crash dummy, figured if it fell down it would be a lot easier to clean up than a smashed terra cotta pot and potting soil everywhere.  Gravity lost that round and now my plant has moved on up like the Jeffersons.

Lesson learned:  Wear eye protection when drilling into the ceiling.  Sure, that would seem like a common sense move but hey, I tend to learn these things through experience.  Plaster dust in the eyes type experience.

Why tiny

I live in Astoria, Queens in what is euphemistically referred to as a "2 room studio" - i.e. a tiny one bedroom.  Not to complain - it is a great size for me and I feel quite fortunate to be its occupant.   So fortunate in fact, that after a year here I have resigned the lease for another 12 months – something I have never done before in all my 30 years.

With this foreign prospect of actually staying put for the foreseeable future growing familiar to me, I’ve embarked on a total overhaul of my apartment – hoping to take it from a ragtag collection of items shuffled in some aspect of order to a thoughtful expression of home design.  

I’ve felt like a kid peeking over the fence at DIY Disneyland seeing all the amazing, creative things people are doing out there on Pinterest, Apartment Therapy, Etsy, and all the personal blogs in terms of home design, furniture design, and doing it themselves.

After geeking out over these projects with similarly minded New Yorkers and lamenting our lack of a pickup truck to haul reclaimed wood or a garage in which to spray-paint, I would like to share my experiences about attempting home deco and DIY projects without the workshop space, transport, and cash flow that I see helping many of these endeavors I've read about along.  I'm not saying all the cool projects I see online are not budget conscious - they often are very much so and excel at making a silk purse out of a sow's ear - but its just a different ballgame out here and I know I'm not alone. This is about par for the course.  I once saw two guys hauling a washing machine up the stairs from the L train platform at Union Square.  That is at least six flights of stairs to reach the street!  When I moved from the East Village to Astoria my movers had just left with the van when I realized my wall mirror was still on the wall.  No cabs would pick me up.  I took a framed 63” x 23” mirror onto the bus, through 14 subway stops, and then onto the bus again to get it to my new digs.  I'd love to know what other people do to get around the no car and delivery is going to cost you more than you spent on the item problem because I've yet to find a solid solution beyond blood, sweat and cursing.

I do have a bit of a head start thanks to my Mom and Dad being the unicorn equivalent of parents in their unique and magical nature though –they got me a fully stocked toolbox as a housewarming present when I moved back to New York in 2011.  Cordless drill?  Check.  90-drill bit set?  Check.  Short saw?  You bet.  I’ve moved three times since I came back up to the Empire State – let me tell you, that cordless drill is the gift that keeps on giving.  Many thanks also to my brother who shows up every time and rehangs the tv for me since I just haven't figured out the stud finder - yet.

Tiny is also my nod to two of my favorite websites: Tiny Buddha and Tiny Sepuku.

I'm going to try and add some extra hanging space to my one closet now.  I'm excited to tell you about it when I'm done.