TISLstyle

DIY: Dresser Makeover

When it comes to your baby’s room, it may seem to be the easiest room to decorate. There are, after all few design opinions coming from the tiny occupant, and as the parent, you get to design the room to your exact specifications. While for many, this ensures a no-brainer, done-deal project, there are those who need more information about the occupant in order to personalize their space.

I am in the latter group. For three years, Zoe’s room sat bare with the only décor being a coat of paint, a hand-me-down crib, a pink-and-white area rug and a ubiquitous white 6-drawer dresser. From the start, I was hesitant to impose my personal decorating ideas and essentially force her to live in a room that may not suit her personality.

After a handful of years, I know her much better and despite the fact she hasn’t exhibited any of her own color preferences, I can no longer starve her - or myself - of the visual delights of decorating.

First up, heading to Spoonflower for one-of-a-kind selection of wallpaper. Be forewarned, there are thousands of patterns and colors to choose from. The best strategy: find a favorite designer and stick with them.

(Above) I chose Holli Zollinger and ordered five samples. Choose from smooth or woven texture, and water-activated or peel-and-stick. I ordered the samples in all the forms to feel the weight of the paper, and to determine which would be easier to apply.

(Above) Holli Zollinger’s “Atrium Veranda Garden” woven wallpaper, #3856775 from Spoonflower. It comes in 2’ x 12’ rolls. The dresser was less than 5’ tall but you’ll need wiggle room for correct placement and any mistakes. The materials: cutting mat, Exacto knife, pencil, ruler and measuring tape. The roll comes with a squeegee to push out any air bubbles as you apply the paper.

(Above) I chose the woven texture peel-and-stick. The paper has a heavier hand, rougher surface and is repositionable.

(Above) Here, half the dresser is completed. Wipe down the dresser face and remove knobs. Measure the face of the dresser face down on the paper underside. I left an extra inch on the top and bottom because it’s better to cut too long than too short. Trim off the extra or curve it under the drawer.

(Above) A 2’ width roll will get you only half way across the dresser front. Now begins the lining up and meticulous matching up of the seams. Once you’ve identified the general area of the perfect seaming, leave about 2” extra to begin slicing off thin strips until your pattern matches up.

(Above) Here: tiny slice by tiny slice until it’s a perfect seam.

(Above) Perfect!

(Above) We’re on our way!

(Above) After all the paper was applied, the next step was to give the dresser a finish worthy of an antique-y look. Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint is a decorative paint that is applied without the need to sand or prime the surface. A little goes a long way. I painted the top, sides and front frame in two coats with this sample pot. I bought her brush and clear wax finish. The wax was suppose to dry clear but it dried slightly darker, so I stopped because that wasn’t what I wanted.

(Above) The sides of the drawers also got a little lipstick. The material was raw wood, however so I applied a coat of shellac first. Here, Annie Sloan’s Scandinavian Pink.

(Above) The Distorted Faceted clear knobs from Anthropologie were the finishing touch!

You might also like:

Breakfast recipe: Chia seed fruit pudding

My eyes perk up whenever I see the possibility of using a new highly nutritious seed in our diet. This time it’s chia seeds. Good for the body and brain, these teeny tiny seeds pack in the fiber, loads of nutrients, protein, calcium, antioxidants and omega-3s.

One of their qualities is they absorb up to 10x their weight in water, so when left to sit in a liquid, they fatten up. I recently soaked chia seeds in almond milk that turned them into the consistency of tapioca. It takes 20 minutes to soak, and can be kept in the refrigerator for up to five days. Give it a good stir, add a dollop of honey or agave and top with fresh, cut fruit. It’s pretty filling and fun to eat because what’s not fun about chowing down a pudding-like meal? Also, a little goes a long way, so while my photos show a cup filled to the brim, this could actually be two meals. 

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup chia seeds

1 cup almond milk

honey or agave

fresh fruit 

DIRECTIONS

- Soak chia seeds in almond milk for at least 20 minutes. The mixture can stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to five days. I put it in a Tupperware container and dole it out during the week. 

- Add a dollop of honey or agave. Depending on how sweet you want it, you probably don’t need a lot with the almond milk and fruit already in the mix.

- Top it with your choice of cut fruit. I like doing kiwi, mango and blueberries! 

You might also like:

thredUP Gets the Thumbs Up

If you have good clothes that you want to sell, let me tell you about my experience with thredUP. It’s like eBay but done with VIP services. In a nutshell, you send in a bag of your used clothes, the approved items get photographed, uploaded on their site, and if it sells, you get money. Much like eBay only without the entire eBay hassle. Read on if this sounds interesting. Here’s what I did:

Register for an account and order a free Clean Out Bag. It’s the size of a laundry bag but it’s plastic for sturdiness and mailable via Fedex or USPS. 

 

My Clean Out Bag sent to me with all necessary mailing labels affixed.

They accept children’s and women’s clothes, and they’re gaga for anything and everything designer. 

Fill 'er up!

An email is sent to you when they’ve received your bag, with notification that they will begin processing it. Each clothing item is inspected for tears, stains and pilling, all of which will be rejected. A selling price is attributed to each item depending on sellability, and rejected items are either sent off to charity or you can buy into a feature where they get shipped back to you. 

This is my account showing the pieces they accepted, what sold and the amount they'll pay me upfront.

In my account, I see the list of my clothes that they’ve accepted. thredUP photographed each one and even put a few on a mannequin for better display. Then the images are uploaded onto their website to be sold. The price of each item is based on season, brand, condition and style. Then thredUP pays me upfront on these prices. I’m getting $56.73!

For any of my items listed under $59.99, I can earn between 10%-40% of the selling price. 

 

Here’s one of my pieces, a Kickee onesie that sold.

 

This Theory dress is still up for grabs on their site to be sold. 

$56.73 may not be a lot of money but 1) I got rid of clothes I don’t need and it feels great to clean out, 2) I didn’t have to do any work like taking pics, uploading, monitoring, selling a piece, packing it, shipping it. What a relief! 

Thank you thredUP!

 

 

You might also like:

Shopping: pillow inserts

Our brand new throw pillows!

Here you go. You’re welcome! What am I talking about? We hate the throw pillows that came with our sofa. We love our sofa. Hate the pillows. They are mean little things with pokey quills popping out all over. You can’t see them and only know they’re there after they’ve taken some of your blood. Unzip the pillow cover, and there are feathers everywhere. Pulling the pillow out of the cover would be a catastrophic mess. I can just see it. 

This leads me back to why you’re thanking me for I know there are other pokey-haters out there too! After spending weeks researching different kinds of pillow fills from polyester fill to buckwheat seeds, whether to consider pillow protectors and what's the right size to buy, I decided to share what I purchased. 

First, here’s a shout out to the reason why we needed new inserts: Les Indiennes, hand block-printed organic cotton textiles, which uses old-school kalamkari Indian methods to create uber soft fabrics. My favorite part is that they lay out the cotton in India’s intense sun to bleach before printing.

A chance reading about the shop’s outlet in Hudson, New York on a Friday night led to a spontaneous 3-hour family daytrip to the historic town Saturday morning. Outlet items are located at the back of the shop, and my haul included euro shams, pillowcases, dessert plates and four throw pillow covers. 

Check out the textiles and plates we bought at Les Indiennes. I love the rich red and ditsy pattern.

Throw pillow inserts: I loved the idea of the therapeutic qualities of buckwheat pillows but they’re expensive and the process of making my own was beyond my mental capabilities at that point. At the end, Garnet Hill’s inserts were natural, dense and soft with 95% white goose feathers and 5% white goose down with little to no reports of pokey quills. Hooray! And at $18 each for a 18”x18" square, the price was right.

Pillow protectors: I decided to go for an extra layer of protection between me and the sharp quills, and also the down for hypoallergenic reasons. Protectors keep errant feather escapees contained. Pottery Barn’s cotton selection come zippered and are machine washable. Their 230-thread count 18”x18” size is $8 each. 

The general rule for sizing is to buy inserts 1" - 2” larger than the pillowcase. It makes for a plumper and firmer throw pillow.  

Happy lounging. We are!

You might also like:

Everlane: Retail Rebel

I have a friend in the fashion industry who designs accessories for big-name brands. She never buys clothes at retail because she knows better; namely the big mark ups. It does give you pause if you think a full-priced item at $200 might have cost $25 to make.  

Have you heard of the online retailer Everlane? They sell basic clothing items, including silk tops, dresses, tanks, pants and weekender bags and totes. The designs are classic with a casual cool vibe, which includes cashmere. Their whole business philosophy is transparency to the nth degree, and I'm talking about pricing. For each item they sell on their website, they lay all their cards on the table: the story of the manufacturer, why Everlane works with them and trusts them. In an illustration, they reveal the breakdown of how much it cost them to manufacturer, and then how much they marked it up. Also compared is how much it would cost at a traditional retailer.  According to their website, a brick-and-mortar retailer marks up their items 8x.

Here’s an example of Everlane’s cashmere crew from their new spring cashmere collection. 

I find this concept refreshing and intriguing. I do feel less taken advantaged of as a consumer. Is transparency the new black? I hope so.

You might also like:

Hotel Henriette in Paris

What happens when you want to open an affordable chic hotel in Paris but have a small design budget? A lot of DIY and creativity come together for a bohemian and hip boutique hotel. The next time you’re in Paris, search out Hotel Henriette just south of the Seine in the 13^th arrondissement near Les Gobelins metro station.

Designed and owned by Vanessa Scoffier, a former fashion editor, she took a 30-year old hotel and transformed it into a new-vintage-y, 32-room boutique using paint to create unusual architectural angles.  Here, color applications, wallpaper and flea market items, including a gym mat fashioned as a headboard mix artfully with plywood surfaces and stand-out light fixtures.

All this visual stimulation is happy distraction from the tiny footprints in which they dwell.  Room sizes range from 118 square feet (single) to 161 square feet (double twins) to 248 square feet (deluxe double). To accommodate the petite rooms, each one is outfitted with space-saving, two-legged desks.

Room rates start at $74/night for a room for a single occupant to $128/night for a junior suite that fits up to three.

Photography by Herve Goluza and Herve Goluza for Glamour France

You might also like:

Loose Easy Braid

No, this isn’t Zoe and I!  This is from Casey Leigh Wiegand, who I follow on Instagram.  Her images are pretty dreamy.  They really have a sense of calm.  She had been playing around with different kinds of braids and posted this and this one on Instagram.

If I ever had long enough hair, this is how I would do my braid.  It’s messy, not fussy and looks deceptively easy to do.  Thank you, Casey Leigh Wiegand!

• 1. Part hair down one side. 
• 2. Run a braid from the top of your head down to the top of your ear.
• 3. Fasten with bobby pins.
• 4. Skip down 5-6 inches and begin braiding again.
• 5. Fasten with a rubber band.

Photo from caseyleighwiegand

You might also like:

Ikea's Paper Shop Collection

If you haven’t been to Ikea lately, you must see their new Paper Shop collection.  Just when you didn't think Ikea could best themselves any more than they have, they've done it again.  I am a paper girl (read: Filofax, pencils and stickies are my thing), and I’m obsessed with their range of wrapping paper, pens, notepads and paper décor to hang from the ceiling.  My faves are the cubes of note paper, and I think I'll use their gift boxes to keep my desk at work organized.  After you take a look at the photos here, drive fast to your nearest Ikea but take care not to speed!

You might also like:

Oh, Backpack

People used to say to me, “Don’t you remember last winter (2013)? It was one of the worse winters we’ve had.”  As hard as I try, I don’t remember.  That’s because I was never forced to step out in inclement weather with my 1.5 year old.  Both of us shielded from the cold and snow entertaining ourselves at home. 

Fast forward to a 2.5 year old who now goes to preschool.  She and I now move among the daily commuters heading to school and work.  She sits in her UPPAbaby stroller, so I can walk at a brisk pace before descending into the subway.  The weather has turned colder, so I purchased Manitoba’s universal rain and wind stroller cover.  It’s a lifesaver, and we call it the “rocketship” so she’ll be excited to crawl in.  More on this cover in another post.  Winter is here, and naturally one anticipates snow.  Here’s my dilemma: I’ve never had to push a stroller in snow before.  Will my UPPAbaby or City Mini go through snow or will she need to walk to school?

I decided that if we’re both walking in one or more feet of snow among fast-moving cars, I need to have both hands free and be as unencumbered by totes and handbags as possible.  I have begun looking into backpacks.  If you’ve read my past post on the subject, you know I have an uneasy relationship with backpacks.  They’re not quite my style yet they are truly functional allowing you to move about freely without the bag-lady chaos or purses falling off shoulders.  

As I searched and scrolled around, I began collecting some that I liked onto a Pinterest board.  My backpack identity is zero, so I wanted to rummage around and figure out what I was most attracted to.  I began to notice a common theme emerge: structural, compact and somewhat tight to the body.  Let’s see what I end up with!

1 Francesco Biasia’s Paradise 2 Yellow flip lock backpack 3 Francesco Biasia’s Miss Sarajevo 4 Freda backpack 5 Sylvie backpack 6 Kelsi Dagger Metro

 

You might also like:

Hello? Hi there!

Hello?  Hi there!  It’s been a long while, and I’ve so, so missed writing.  I hadn’t had the time to focus on writing, since my last post on September 11.  After some time freelancing, I landed a fantabulous role as the design editor at This Old House magazine.  It’s been a revitalizing and exciting move for me.  I love working on renovation projects, as well as missions, such as our new website dedicated to millennials titled, The Snug.  

So, what has been happening on the life front since my last post?  Here are a few visuals:

Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream - pastry chef opens up his own eggless ice cream shop with flavors like Vietnamese Coffee, Brazilian Bourbon and Durian Banana.

 

Zoe’s first pumpkin and apple picking excursion at Wilkens

Hiking in Mohonk where we gathered boughs and found baby pinecones.  Before the winter, I bought Zoe a Hawke & Co winter coat.  In the beginning, she would yelp out of nowhere at odd times.  The reason remained a complete mystery to me until I took off the coat, and she looked like a plucked chicken.  She was yelping because the quills were poking her.  Those quill tips are sharp!  This coat shed like this every time we took it off.  A couple coming out of the coat makes sense but 20?  Needless to say, I'm unhappy with this little torture chamber. 

In December, we photographed Kimberlee Paige Hanson’s kitchen for the July issue.  A gorgeous bowl of compost was sitting there when we arrived, and we begged Kimberlee not to toss it; Kimberlee’s weimaraner, Nutmeg asking for attention; a collection of utensils scored at flea markets; and I inadvertently made our stylist, Jennifer Vreeland work on her birthday.

Christmas tree shopping in Florida with a spontaneous frolic in the beach sand

Posted these Chie Mihara Mallard shoes on Ebay

You might also like: