There’s show on HGTV (in repeats only) called “This Small Space”. On it, a guy named Peter Fallico would have a DIY craft project. In one, he took an old-world style globe and turned it into a accent lamp. In another, he took a three shelf unfinished wood bookshelf, added an unfinished pre-cut shelf to the top, took a couple of shutters and made doors for the front and put the whole thing on casters for use as a portable serving cart.
On “Warehouse Warriors” one of the challenges was to build a unique entertaintainment center. One team made a large plywood box frame. Instead of ordinary shelves, they used threaded metal rods and suspended shelves using nuts and washers. This is an idea I would like to try if I can find the threaded rods.
I was watching Trading Spaces and they were talking about these “finish in a can” for granite, marble, etc. I refinished this crappy-ass end table with a faux granite top… looks pretty cool.
I got an idea from Room By Room on HGTV. I stencil-painted on my kitchen window screen, just a simple ivy stencil pattern. It goes across the bottom and up one side (it’s a large square window).
It’s pretty neat in that it doesn’t show during the day but shows up at night when the light from the kitchen light fixture hits it. I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it.
I used an oil-based paint, since it’s outside and exposed to the weather. It’s been there about 2-3 years and is fine. It is under the eaves, though, so rain and snow aren’t hitting it directly.
As a designer myself, I love HGTV and have it on in the background everyday in my office…One idea I really liked was from Pet Palaces…it was a series of shelves that cascaded diagonally up a wall to a trelace. The trelace was roughly a foot from the ceiling and wrapped around the room. and even entered another room…for those of us with cats…they love being up high! I just may have to ask my wife if we could do something similar…
We’ve considered doing that, but I just don’t have enough room in our little dollhouse. However, I’ve been thinking that an enclosed “track” around my deck might be a very cool alternative. Chicken wire and a slightly wider base, and the Little SoftiesTM could be outside without actually being in danger. Hmmm…I smell a business opportunity!!
We redid our kitchen in venetian plaster which we learned about when my wife saw it on Trading Spaces. It’s gorgeous. We’re also going to redo one of our currently-empty bedrooms in broad horizontal stripes which I’ve seen done both well and poorly on those shows.
Our house has “orange peel” walls and as a result it’s impossible to get a straight line where the wall meets the ceiling. Edward on Trading Spaces had a neat little trick where he’d glue a nice piece of decorative cording around the perimiter of the room to give it a “finished” look. I tried it and I think it makes a WORLD of difference. My husband thinks it’s tacky, but I much prefer it to my raggedy-ass excuce for cutting in.
I hate to admit I was watching Christopher Lowell, but one time he had this cupboard he mad out of just a few sheets of wood. It had a fake front with piece of wood cut to look like drawers with knobs on them (he also showed how to faux finish it so it looked like marquetrey.) The back was just shelving, so when it was up against the wall, it looked like a sideboard, and when you pulled it away from the wall a foot or so it was a bar. I couldn’t believe how good that looked for how little it was. It really blew me away. If we had the room I’d love to try something like that.
Any of the big box stores should have it. At Home Deopt they’re in the fasteners aisle right where they keep the angle iron and that stuff. [Yes I spend too much time there.]
I was building a desk for my office and couldn’t decide on a design. Then I saw one of those carpenters build one that was perfect – basically verticle dividers sandwiched between two pieces of plywood (here’s a picture of my modified version). It came at a perfect time as I needed to start working on the desk the same day I saw the show.
