Director's chair in Arrow

Here's a fun project using my new Arrow fabric— a director's chair upholstered by LiEr Teigland of Ikat Bag. LiEr took apart this second-hand chair, made a new seat and back rest, and put it back together again, with a twist:


The pattern is reversible and can be flipped at a moment's notice! Yes. She's smart like that. I wish I had her brain.

This chair is perfect for fabric lovers, since it can display prints nicely and the fabric can be swapped out. It's also perfect for managerial types, since you can tote it from room to room, sit in it, and direct your minions to do as you wish.


To see how LiEr executed this chair makeover, read about it here on her blog.

Then come back here tomorrow for a follow-up guest tutorial, because LiEr just couldn't leave well enough alone and had to go and invent another awesome project using Arrow.

Purchase the fabric here from The Needle Shop!

It's Friday!

Happy weekend, everybody. I'm hoping to plant some stuff in the dirt patch by our curb. And paint a dresser. And some art for our walls. Also clean and do laundry and read books and go to church and see friends and try a new restaurant and go for walks. I can do all those things, right? Wishing you a weekend impossibly full of good things, too.

(Awesome typographic desk calendar by Simone Massoni.)

How to make an industrial pipe floor lamp

I really have a thing for lamps. I roam thrift stores admiring them— the weirder, the better — and pause on catalog pages with cool fixtures. Today I'm happy to share a guest tutorial on how to make your own industrial-style floor lamp out of pipes. Set this baby in front of your exposed brick wall and sip a craft cocktail while you admire your handiwork. You built a lamp!



The how-to is by Matthew Lyons, self-proclaimed handyman and blogger for HomeDaddys.com. Here's what Matthew has to say:

- - - - -
Like most red-blooded Americans, I love industrial pipe lighting. There’s a certain derelict nostalgia about lamps and chandeliers made from old metal plumbing that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and manly inside. Unfortunately, that feeling isn’t shared by my wallet.

I’ve been lusting after an industrial pipe floor lamp for years now but the price tags people attach to these things are utterly ridiculous. The majority of multi-bulb floor-length pipe lamps available online or in stores sell for $400 - $1,000. As a guy on a lower middle-class income with a wife and a kid to support, I just can’t justify spending that kind of money on what amounts to a few lengths of pipe, some wire and a couple vintage light bulbs.

So, considering how simple these things are, I figured I could just build my own pipe lamp for half the cost of buying one. Having never wired anything before in my life, I was a little worried how this project would turn out. Surprisingly, though, it was super-easy to make. The entire lamp can be assembled by hand like some sort of awesome adult Erector Set. As I predicted, the wiring was by far the hardest part of the entire build – but even that took less than two hours and I didn’t even set the house on fire when I plugged it in. This made my wife very happy.

Here’s how you can build one of these awesome industrial pipe lamps for your own house or apartment or office or whatever dark corner of your life begs illumination.

Continue reading »

How to fix for backlit photos

A tip for Photoshop users: here's a nice action for brightening bad pictures, especially backlit photos with a blue or gray tint. It's the Sunshine Photoshop Actions set from Charmbox Studios. It contains six different actions for a variety of lighting effects. I bought it for $4.50 and it's been worth the money in time saved.

Kissed by the Sun is the most useful of this set, I think. Above is my fixed up photo.

Here's what it looked like before I ran the action:


Today I edited a few snapshots for a client. Here's the original image:


And here it is, sunnier:


I made a few minor tweaks after running the action to brighten the floor in the foreground, but the action got me pretty far.

If you're not familiar with an "action" in Photoshop, it's a series of pre-recorded steps. Instead of applying each step manually yourself (brighten, adjust levels, increase saturation, etc.), you simply click the "play" button in the Actions palette and they all happen in order instantly. A huge time-saver, and if the action is designed correctly, each adjustment layer is still editable so you can tweak effects as needed. For how to install a new action, see here. There are lots of freebies floating around the web, too. Anybody have some they swear by?

4/14/14 Update: You guys must have purchased a bunch of products, because I just got a note from Charm Box Studios. They'd like to offer a thank you! To get 30% off anything in the Charm Box Studios store, enter the code: CBS-loves-orange now through 4/30/14. One use per customer, no minimum purchase. Sweet.

How to make a decorative picture mat

I'm getting a huge kick out of this funny linocut of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. The portrait is an original print by Nick Morley; read more about Nick's work here.

If you've seen the TV show, you know Sherlock is right at home amongst wallpaper, so I decided his picture mat ought to be patterned. I used a sheet of Rifle Paper gift wrap I got at Poeme, a charming little stationery shop in Cincinnati.

Covering a mat with paper is simple. You can cut a piece of chipboard to size and cover it, or cover an existing mat— one that came with your picture frame or a plain one purchased separately.


You'll need fancy paper cut roughly 1/2" larger than the mat, spray adhesive, and a scissors or craft knife.


Spray the back of the paper with adhesive and center the mat on it. Cut out the excess paper in the center of the mat, leaving around 1/2" to wrap around the edges.


Make diagonal slits to the inside corners and trim the outer corners at a 45 degree angle. Don't trim right up to the edge of the mat; leave enough extra paper to equal the thickness of the mat board so no board is exposed when you wrap the corners.


Bend the tabs around the board, sticking them down.


Put the print, mat, and frame back together and hang.


Sherlock must reside in the parlor, of course, where he'll scowl at me every day and make me happy.

Pretty tech wallpapers for spring

Have you been to Design Love Fest lately? The collection of phone and desktop wallpapers keeps expanding. Grab something pretty and spring-like right here!

Quiz: Which celebrity designer gets you?

I've posted a million design-related quizzes over the years. Here's a new one: Which celebrity designer gets you? Take the quiz at PopSugar to determine who's the best match for your preferences based on pictures you choose. The best part is, Emily Henderson— one of the possible answers— wrote a blog post about how she took the quiz herself wondering if she'd end up with Emily Henderson as the answer, and how it would affect her mental health if she didn't. Hilarious. See her thought process here.

I got Jonathan Adler, which didn't surprise me in the least.

Use a magnifier as a tiny photo frame

We spotted this gizmo in a curiosities shop last weekend. It's a magnifying glass on a stand with two adjustable arms with clips. It's for repairing watches, jewelry, and electronics, but it's even cuter as a tiny picture frame for photo booth shots or old yearbook photos. It magnifies about 4X.


This doodad would make a cool gift for somebody who's into industrial decor, or who just likes weird things. Here's one like ours on Amazon: Helping Hands Soldering Hobby Station, $7.

New Jessica Jones fabric: say hello to Arrow!

Today The Needle Shop has released a new print I designed for them: Arrow, available in three colorways. It's simple and graphic and geometric and cool. Let's make it the new chevron, y'all! Shop for it here.

This fabric is 7 oz. cotton home decor canvas, good for accessories and furnishings. Or you can get crazy like Rachel of The Needle Shop did and whip up a blazer. It would make a smashing shift dress, too. And that suitcase is killing me. I've begged Rachel for a tutorial, so stay tuned.

These prints will also be available in laminated canvas in two weeks. Think makeup bags, placemats, beach totes, wipeable chair seats and all sorts of goodies.






Mum made a quick reversible tote. Love it! It's Tanya Whelan's Flea Market Bag pattern, but with the strap lengthened and the body size adjusted a bit. A great bag for beginners if you want to give it a whirl.



Buy Arrow right here by the yard, or get it wholesale here if you're a fabric shop or manufacturer.

We're dreaming of printing other colorways, too. What combos would you like to see?

I found something in my yard

This was hiding by my front step. A crocus! It's spring!

Just kidding. I know this is a daffodil. It's one of the four plants I know. I haven't seen our yard in spring, so I'm curious what will happen. Right now it looks like a dead weed patch.

Speaking of dead, my new potted palm appears to be ailing already. I followed the Home Depot lady's instructions and let it soak up water from the bottom. After couple hours I dumped out the extra water. That was a week and a half ago. Yesterday after seeing it's looking poorly, I watered it again, this time from the top. Today it seems a little yellower yet. It's in a bright room but out of direct sunlight.


Can someone diagnose the problem? Left up to me, I'd do the plant equivalent of seeing someone with a bad cough and concluding their arm is broken. Not enough water? Too much water? Needs plant food? Root rot. More sun. Less sun. Wants to move to Florida. I don't know. Help.

Geometric wallpapers for desktops and devices

Find a bunch of abstract wallpaper freebies at Merek Davis, including this textured tessellation set by Kyle Gray. There's a size for every device! Pretty.

New old light for the office

A recent antique store find: this mid-century ball pendant light, which now graces the office. At night from the street it looks like a big round moon in there. I love it. Plus it coordinates nicely with these awesome globe lamps in the adjoining room.


I guess some bloggers like to decorate their workspace with cute garlands and buntings. I prefer to drape electrical cords all around behind desks for a more linear, modern effect. Who's with me?


Here's the light fixture that got demoted. It's just not cool. The green finish reminds me of sponge painting, which I dislike pretty intensely. Maybe this guy can find a good home on Craigslist.

I bought the vintage pendant light for $90. Not a steal, but cheaper than new and comes with extra character. I see West Elm is selling something similar for $129, or you could shell out $285 at Rejuvenation.

A cute wallet pattern to sew

Look what my mom (alias Grandma G) sewed me: a couple Get Carded wallets from the pattern by Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk. I know you just exclaimed out loud when you saw the cuteness, didn't you? I did when I opened the package.

I have a big vinyl wallet that's slowly disintegrating, and I wanted something trimmer and lighter to put in a small bag or carry in my pocket. So I convinced my mom to make me a Get Carded. Then I looked for fabric on Etsy and was dazzled by all the prints at Fresh Modern Fabric. I couldn't make up my mind between Skinny laMinx's Free as a Bird and Lucie Summers's Summersville Brush Strokes, so I sheepishly asked Mum for two wallets because I'm a greedy, greedy person. FMF mailed her the fabric, and these finished goodies just arrived at my house!

The wallet pattern uses just a fat quarter each for the lining and the exterior, so check out the pretty fat quarter bundles at Fresh Modern Fabrics. Or concoct your own order if you need something different than the combos listed. Such a lovely shop! Go there.


You might turn into a wallet-making machine like Mum. Look— she just keeps going, and she's not done yet. I've created a monster.


The wallet pattern offers three variations for the coin pocket: a flat pocket, a pleated pocket, or a gathered pocket, with a wrist strap or without.


Throw your loose change in there.


Put your driver's license in the clear pocket on the other side. If you don't want your mug showing, the pattern has an option for a fabric pocket there instead.


Then fill all the interior slots with credit cards and cash.


Mum says these are a piece of cake to make. All the cutting is straight lines so it goes fast and there's no hand sewing, only top stitching. She's a big fan of Erin's patterns and says the instructions are so clear and there are so many photos demonstrating the project that you just can't go wrong. (And Grandma G is a tough critic— not all patterns are created equal, so if there was anything wrong with this one, I'm sure I'd hear about it.) The pattern is for sale right here. Enjoy!

Removable wallpaper in the bathroom

Here's a look at our upstairs guest bathroom. Last night I covered an accent wall with removable wallpaper. I love it!


This bathroom has a peculiar layout. You walk in past the shower stall on the right, and when you hit the sink, you turn right to get to the toilet. Which is under a lovely arch at the end of a passage that is almost long enough to feel like a hallway. The paint color in there doesn't bother me (hard to capture in photos under electric lights) but that wall under the arch was begging for something interesting. I considered these drops wall decals at Walls Need Love, but after browsing their site some more, I was taken by the Waves of Chic print. Nice and watery for a bathroom, and I can't resist a pattern.


The kind folks at Walls Need Love sent the product to review. Cute packaging, eh?


Like the Sunburst wallpaper I designed last year, this paper is essentially a giant self-adhesive wall decal, and it's easily to peel off and reposition. Unlike our dining room wallpaper, the traditional kind, it was easy to put up by myself. Much to Alex's relief, I'm sure. The material is Fab-Tac, which is a textile coated with an adhesive on one side and backed with paper you peel off.

I measured the wall and cut a length of paper that would leave a little extra overhang at the bottom. I peeled off about a foot of backing from the top of the piece and stuck the paper to the wall along the ceiling. I held a level to the right edge to test the straightness (the corner was a little wavy and unhelpful, so a level worked better).


After a couple tries I had it, and then it was just a matter of peeling off the backing paper gradually while smoothing down the paper with the tool provided.

I cut another piece to place next to the first panel, overlapping the seam by a quarter inch to match the pattern.

Then with a craft knife and straight edge, I trimmed off any overhang that wrapped onto the adjacent walls and baseboard.


This stuff is really forgiving if you accidentally get it stuck to itself. I had a crumpled up ball of excess sticky paper I'd trimmed off the baseboard and wondered if I could untangle it. Yep— with patience you can straighten it back out, and since the substrate is fabric, it doesn't show any crumple marks in the pattern.


Now I just need an awesome picture to hang above the toilet, and we're in business! Or rather, people can do their business.


A huge thank you to Walls Need Love for making my bathroom cuter! Check out their other products: besides wallpaper and traditional decals, they offer anatomy prints, map stickers, and adhesive taxidermy, too. You know you need a buffalo head...

Free font: Composition

Composition is a quirky little handwriting typeface by Noe Araujo. Download it here, free for personal and commercial use. Be sure to type in all caps to make it work! I installed the OpenType file and noticed that uppercase I's, L's and dashes seem to have a strange preview in which they look outlined instead of filled (and print that way, too), but converting the type to outlines in Illustrator solves it. The upshot: it could come in handy for something, but has a few kinks that need working out.