Crafts – Page 13 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 6th September 2014

Blog love

The first week of living as a freelancer is at an end and it has been a complete delight! I’m in the middle of doing a house makeover and a sewing commission for a magazine, as well as organising a lovely event for the gorgeous bloggers who are helping to launch Styling the Seasons this month. I definitely can’t complain, although I have begun to wonder how on earth I ever had enough time to squeeze in a full time job on top of blogging, social engagements, dog walks, cooking, events, appointments and housework. There still aren’t enough hours in the day! I hope your first week back to work has been good, too 🙂

Weekends give us all a bit of time to breath and think – I’m going to have to make sure I am strict with myself and try not to work over the weekend as it is such an important time to switch off and free the mind to think of new things and reflect, a bit like when you go on holiday, which is always when I do my best thinking. So, if you have a bit of free time and brain space this weekend, I have rounded up some of the blog posts I have enjoyed most this week and hopefully will provide you with a bit of inspiration, that isn’t always top of the priority list during the week…

Junkaholique

Artemis, a bit of a style guru to me, made the most delicious clothes for her gorgeous daughter over on her blog this week. The pictures alone are to die for, let alone the beautiful fabrics she has used. Pop over to read Sewing September Blue.

Littlegreenshed

Lou has been driving me crazy with bedroom decor ideas over on her Pinterest account. I now want to change everything about my own bedroom! Check out her inspiration in her bedroom renovation post – she has such good taste.

My Scandinavian Home

I always check this blog for beautiful home tours and this one really inspired me, so I hope you will like it too. Pop over to ogle over pictures of this Dutch home in a former children’s nursery.

Joelix.com

Judith’s post about how to grow your own succulents came at precisely the right point for me as I have lots of baby succulents that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with next (and after reading this I realised I was giving them far too much water). Some very useful and practical tips, as well as lovely photographs in this post Grow your own succulents. I also love Judith’s idea of sending friends baby succulents in the post, I’m going to have to bear that in mind.

Say Yes

I’ve been looking for some crafty inspiration and I came across Liz’s tea towel project, which is really simple, very cute and fits in perfectly with the back to school theme this week. Take a look at how to make her DIY notebook tea cloths.

Happy weekend and happy thinking everyone!

Katy x

katy 2nd September 2014

DIY Home office

Yesterday was so much fun, seeing the first of the Styling the Seasons posts and photographs. Thank you so much to everybody who is going to take part (remember, you can share your styled surface on any day during September) and I hope that it has already helped you take a bit more time to reflect on the change of month and how to refresh your home – sometimes a jiggle around is almost as good as redecorating, I find.

That being said, I have done a rather large ‘jiggle around’ of what was our guest room/home office and I would like to share the results of that with you today. The room used to look like this…

I never invested a huge amount in this room, mostly because I had run out of money by the time I had bought furniture for the other rooms in the flat. Therefore, it was always more functional than anything else. However, I always hated the carpet, I can’t bear staring at a wall when I’m working and the bed didn’t get used enough to justify taking up most of the room. So, I have done a DIY makeover with a budget of £300 (excluding the shelves, which Jules bought me as a present):

Budget

Floor paint – Farrow and Ball ‘All White’ £94

MDF desk top – £25 bought from a timber yard and cut to our dimensions

Four desk legs – Ikea £32

Pendant light – The Gifted Few £90

Cabinet makeover – £62 click on this post to see how I changed it: Furniture Makeover Challenge

Pegboard – Amazon £16

TOTAL: £319 (I also sold the bed for £150)

In brief, we sold the bed, ripped up the carpet, painted the MDF floor, removed everything from the left hand wall and cut the existing desk down to 150 x 70cm. We then bought another piece of MDF, exactly the same size, and painted it white to make a double desk. Neither of us wanted to face straight at a wall so I decided to place the desk in the middle of the room, which also means others can sit at it and I can use it as a very easily accessible sewing table and for pattern cutting. It is also good for taking photographs on from every angle. We had two trestle legs on the old desk, which we have kept and we have one each, and then I bought four more legs, which don’t take up the extra space trestle legs do.

My desk chair is from the wonderful Out There Interiors and Jules has had his Herman Miller chair for ages. I slotted the cabinet in next to the window and it has sliding glass doors, which is perfect for the space and it’s where I store all my sewing bits. Find out more about it and the pegboard in my furniture makeover challenge post. The String shelving was a massive indulgence but is such a flexible shelving system that can broken up or added to (I want the cabinets and drawers) and can be moved to other rooms – I hope one day to have a whole wall of it). I have left the wall behind my desk completely blank so that I can take photographs against it and there’s also a set of drawers, that were in the old guest room, next to the door as you enter the room where I can leave on-going craft projects or take photographs.

I hope you like the end result…

My home office makeover by Apartment Apothecary

Did you see my first Styling the Seasons post yesterday that focused on my new String shelving?

I love this Double Merrick print, which I used as colour inspiration for the room.

I have hung three clipboards on the wall for inspiration – pages of magazines, fabric samples, photographs etc.

The drawers are stuffed with craft supplies and the top of the drawers is a good place to leave on-going craft projects or to take photographs. During the makeover, I smashed my Original BTC clip-on lampshade – I HATE the feeling of breaking something! I had to buy a very expensive replacement shade 🙁

I love these baskets that I bought from Tea and Kate. One is full of fabric and the other with my wrapping paper and wallpaper stash. I still need to find a new home for the phone.

I used Mini Moderns Peggy wallpaper to line this cabinet that I bought from eBay. See more on my Furniture Makeover Challenge post.

I’ve added my Little Dane lamp from Loaf to this room because the colour works really well with the new pendant light and it’s nice to have a really soft light sometimes rather than task lighting, which the pendant provides.

The cup is from Tea and Kate and the jadeite tumbler is from Liberty.

Totally in love with Rifle Paper Co notebooks that you can buy from Liberty.

The vase set is from The Hambledon. I think I am going to buy a big plant in a terracotta pot for the centre of the desk – partly so Jules and I can’t see each other and therefore there is less chance of distraction!

I’m so happy it is finished and the light, bright feel of the room is so motivating. I had better get to work!

Katy x

katy 7th August 2014

Paint dipped bottles

I’m going to a baby shower next week and the guests have been asked to either do some baking for it or make a pastel coloured decoration. I can’t bake, or rather I won’t bake – I don’t eat sugar so I try to avoid coming into contact with cake – so I have decided to make a decoration.

I don’t want to spend any money on the decoration (no salary for me anymore!) so I have used things that I already have at home. I’ve got a few glass drinks bottles that I save if we have one of those nice soft drinks, like lemonade or elderfower cordial. They always seem too nice to recycle but take up a lot of room in kitchen cupboards so I’m glad to get rid of them, to be honest. I also have loads of left over tins of paint and small paint sample pots so I’m going to try my hand at paint dipped bottles that can be used to serve drinks on the day.

You will need:

– Glass bottles (or try with jars and use as vases or pen pots)

– paint (I’m using eggshell emulsion, which won’t last for long. Use a glass paint if you want it to last forever!)

– bowl, that you don’t mind putting paint in, but if you have a large tin of paint you can just dip the bottles straight into that with out the need for a bowl

– newspaper

– string to suspend the bottles whilst they dry (I strung them from a clothes horse).

Step by step:

How to make paint dipped bottles by Apartment Apothecary

1. Pour the paint into a bowl. Tip it to one side and roll the end of the bottle around until it is evenly covered in paint. Have a go with an empty jar first to get the technique right.

2. Hold the bottle above the paint for a couple of minutes to allow as much excess paint as possible to drip off back into the bowl.

Paint dipped bottles by Apartment Apothecary

3. Suspend the bottles with string to allow the rest of the excess paint to drip off. Make sure to put newspaper or plastic sheet down to catch the drips. Allow to dry overnight.

All finished!

I hope they look pretty on the baby shower table.

Happy paint-dipping!

Katy x

katy 16th July 2014

Paper lanterns for summer parties

A bit of a cheater’s post today as I blogged about paper lanterns last Autumn but lots of you said that you wanted to be reminded about it for the summer….so, here you go!

These lanterns are the perfect two minute project that you can use for glorious summer parties in the garden (or even a wedding).

You need:

White paper bags from Amazon (25 for £2.40 – I just cut off the handles)

Battery operated tea lights from Amazon

Scissors/hole punch/craft knife if you want to create a design but you can just use plain bags

N.B. You may need a few stones to weigh the lanterns down if it is windy

Tutorial:

There really isn’t a tutorial, all you need to do is cut out your desired design (hearts, initials, flowers) or use a hole punch, like I have below. Pop a few tea lights in each bag – you will probably need at least four per bag – and weigh down with stones if you need to.

Have you got any lovely summer parties planned that you could use these for?

Katy x

katy 10th July 2014

Furniture makeover challenge

As you may have seen from my previous post I have been kindly asked by Direct Blinds to join in with their ‘Renovation Sensation’ competition. They gave me £100 to find, buy and renovate a piece of furniture of my choice – the perfect competition!

I chose to buy a cabinet from eBay that I need for my new home office. I have taken a lot of inspiration from modern Scandinavian interiors so I want the room to be light, bright and white with vintage touches here and there. The cabinet I bought is a great shape and I love the glass doors but it has a very dark, orangey veneer that is not so pleasant – definitely not the lovely teak of a mid-century cabinet. I tested sanding a patch but it is made of some sort of composite wood so no beautiful grain or colour to reveal. Therefore, my first task was to brighten it so it doesn’t absorb all of the light from the room. I then tried to give it a bit of character and add some more storage to the top for all my craft supplies. Here’s how I did it…

Renovation

What I used (anything with a price next to it I bought for this competition with the £100 budget):

Cabinet £30

1 litre of Annie Sloan pure chalk paint £18.95

Annie Sloan clear wax

Two sheets of 3.5cm pegboard (60 x 120cm with 1.8cm hole centres) £8 each

Pegboard hooks £13.79

Batons, screws and drill to mount the pegboard

Mini Moderns Snow Peggy wallpaper remnants

PVA glue

Clear varnish

Paint brushes

Clean rag

Scissors

TOTAL: £78.74

Step 1:

I mounted two sheets of pegboard above the cabinet to add extra storage for my craft supplies.

Step 2:

I used pure chalk paint for the cabinet as you can apply this paint straight onto the veneer with no need to sand! Sometimes, with varnished or veneered wood the stain can bleed through the chalk paint so you need to do a tester patch first. If it does come through do a base coat of Zinsser stain blocker. I then used the clear soft wax to add some extra protection to the cabinet. I used eggshell on the pegboard as it needs to be really strong to withstand wear and tear.

Step 3:

I then used Mini Moderns wallpaper remnants to line the shelves of the cabinet and the pattern reflects the pegboard wall. I spread a very thin even layer of PVA glue over the shelf and laid the paper over it very carefully to ensure I didn’t trap too much air. If you don’t have wallpaper you could also use wrapping paper but use a very small amount of glue as otherwise it will wrinkle.

Step 4:

I put the wallpapered shelves into place and then varnished the paper to make it hard wearing and to avoid scuffing.

After…

So, I have finished the first corner of my new home office – better start stuffing that cabinet with all my craft supplies and finishing off the floor! Thank you to Direct Blinds and fingers crossed that I win this brilliant competition.

Katy x