DIY Lighting - Challenge #1

I woke up one morning last week and, amazingly for the first time, admitted the light fixture in my bedroom is super ugly. Which led me to look around and let sink in that all of the lighting fixtures in my house are super ugly. So, new challenge – DIY myself some cool lighting.

My first DIY light is a small pendant light for my little ones bedroom renovation. I’ve been pining over the very lovely Swarovski Schonbeck pendant light for a while now. But, with a hefty price tag of just over $1,400, the closest I’m going to get is a DIY knockoff.

For some reason I have been carting around an old wrought iron planting pot hanger for years. It was one of those “it could be good for something someday” things (my collection of things drives my husband crazy!). But, couple the pot hanger with a $5 IKEA Hemma cord set and you’ve got yourself a frame for a light.

I made and tied on a slew of beaded strings around the frame of the hanger for shimmer. The colour choices match the bedroom’s new fabric.

To hide the string ties I then wrapped the whole frame with a thin turquoise ribbon.

I still have a few finishing touches to take care of – including tracking down a tin snip to get rid of the extra chain, evening out the beads and installing the light above E's new bed.

So, while I’m not going to be showing off this light fixture at any glamorous exhibits, it does the trick.

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Back to blogging - A duvet cover

I have a three year-old with an insatiable appetite for the colour purple. Now, I like purple - but not in the espresso hit that she does. Luckily, I found a fabric that fills the purple need for her while giving me a little relief from all purple/all the time.

Using the fabric as a starting point, we’ve painted the room and made a few “designer” decisions (stay tuned).

My project this weekend was sewing the duvet cover. I used the designer fabric for the top, and decided on a purple and white polka dot fabric for the underside (originally a dress fabric, but it works!). All in all, this was a pretty easy project. It was literally sewing two pieces of fabric together. Remembering to make a slit in the side for the duvet.

I decided to add in a bright green piping. I thank Lenee Alexander over at ehow.com for teaching me how to sew piping! Nothing like propping the laptop up beside the sewing machine!

Website

www.carolynclegg.com

the beginnings of a home office desk

i'm working on turning our one spare bedroom into a home office/playroom/guest bedroom. a little lofty, considering the room is only 9' x 11'! my first project is building myself a little desk that can be tucked away when eden and i need some room to play. so, how about a desk that swivels?

i'm building a desk that is made up of two 12" x 48" x 6" tabletops that sit on top of a small storage unit. the storage unit rests against the wall and the two tabletops are parallel to the wall.

when i want to use the desk i swivel the two tabletops to meet and lock them together.

i have the table tops made. i just have to see if the way i imagine the tabletops swiveling will actually work. i can't have them scraping against each other when they swivel. i'll show you what i've come up with next week!

idon storage shelf

i know, i know....i took a little two week hiatus. i was busy building this....




this is my idon shelf (finally something named after my husband - he's been waiting awhile!). idon is an acronym for idea icon. this shelf is three rotating cubes within three cubbies. each cube is 6" x 6". i painted a different design on each of the sides and back to match up as you rotate the cube.


it funny how after you build something you think about how simple it was and what took so long?!

work in progress

i like doing this blog for two reasons - one, it gives me weekly goals and two, it's nice to have all of my projects in one place. but, on the flip side, i sometimes avoid more complicated projects in order to post once a week. i have a few big projects that i have stuck in my head that need to come out! the project i'm working on now is a little complicated. i spent last week working it out by building little models out of cardboard to make sure it would work. these boxes are going to eventually rotate!

i've approached the nova scotia designers crafts council to see if i can become a member. in order to become a member you have to submit three pieces to be judged. i'm hoping this one will work out as a submission. my jury session is october 10th...yikes! stay tuned!

crazy cool tables

i'm a bit of a new design junkie. i'm addicted to being wowed by other peoples ingenuity. these two tables definitely impress. i want the marble table above by tineke beunders . how clever and fun!


i love this musical coffee table by tor clausen, too. how much fun would this be with a couple of kids (or a couple of drinks!).

a baby duvet

what happened to summer? we've had to put the heat on two nights in a row! so, i thought it was time to make a little baby duvet for eden. luckily, my mum had an old duvet that she was happy to let me cut up! cutting up a duvet was crazy...i felt like i was working in a snowglobe for a couple of hours - down feathers everywhere! i'm still picking feathers out of my sewing machine.

out of one queen sized comforter i was able to make two baby duvets and one twin duvet. this one was covered with a cute hot pink fabric.

just two pieces of fabric sew together, a slot made for the duvet to fit through.

i'm going to pack away my sewing machine now and move back to the table saw! i have some projects stacking up in my head.