Summer is here, and I am so excited to start filling up my free time with warm weather activities. When it comes to beaches, pools, picnics and the like, I am definitely a planner — I like to bring everything I could possibly want along with me so I’ll never be caught without water, sunscreen,…
This is the fourth installment of Brittany Watson Jepsen’s summer DIY series. Check out her previous projects here, here and here. I love how simple and minimal these projects are, creating awesome results with only a few materials. Thanks for sharing, Brittany! — Kate For those of us lucky enough to have minimal living space, creative space planning is…
My early attempts with leather stain were messy, awkward and always too dark. I pretty much resigned myself to dark colors and floods. Then a friend, Eric Trine, started playing with dye in a spray bottle, and I was instantly intrigued. The results looked quite cool. So after giving it another try, I’m here to…
This is the third installment of Brittany Watson Jepsen’s summer DIY series. Check out her previous projects here and here. Thanks so much for sharing your DIY talents with us, Brittany! It’s great to have you back :) — Kate I’ve had copper plumbing tubing on my mind lately, and I’ve been thinking about how…
It seems no matter what I do, I can never get a handle on all the tiny odds and ends that accumulate around my house. From craft materials to hair ties, the bits and bobs are constantly trying to take over, so in the never-ending quest to corral them, these little fabric bins were born….
Lately my attention has turned solely to natural materials for making projects. In sifting through my collections of linen, wooden dowels and burlap, I realized that I usually buy these materials new when I could so easily find them at thrift shops, yard sales, flea markets and the like. When a copy of Maya Donenfeld’s…
It’s been heating up around Austin — 90, 95, 99 . . . 100+! The hotter it gets, the more I want to dive in, so this month on Upholstery Basics, I thought we’d whip up a poolside roll up for the upcoming months of sunbathing, daydreaming and catching up on Us Weekly (I’m not…
This is the second project in Brittany’s summer DIY series! You can see the first project from last week, a copper tubing side table, by clicking here. — Kate Picnics and bicycles are an absolute must in Denmark. I’ve been wanting to combine the two, so I decided to maximize the space in my bike…
I never can manage to come up with them myself, but I love super duper simple DIY projects. I have such admiration for people who see something and then, boom, a couple minutes later they have turned it into something totally different. Quick, easy, no muss or fuss: three-step projects are awesome. I’m going to make…
This is the second project we’ve shared from designer Kara Paslay in recent weeks, and again she’s managed to reintroduce me to a cool technique I had long forgotten about. Inspired by the ocean, Kara decided to transform a simple paper globe into a beautiful sculptural pendant lamp. By dyeing and dipping cut paper rounds into…
We’re thrilled to announce that D*S veteran and DIY genius Brittany Watson Jepsen will be sharing a short series of DIY projects with us over the summer! I’m particularly partial to this geometric side table, but they are all wonderful — so easy to re-create and perfect for the upcoming season. Trust me, you have…
Reverse applique may sound fancy, but it’s actually a crazy-easy sewing technique that allows you to add tons of color, texture and pattern to your projects with very little effort. In this technique, two or more fabrics are layered and stitched together, then sections of the fabric are strategically cut away to reveal the color(s)…
It seems I have a clutter problem. Previously it was piles of mail; this time it’s piles of magazines. Riffing on the form and function of my last post, the mail basket, I thought the same construction techniques could be used for a magazine rack. I swear to you, though, I will not use this…
I’ve been dreaming of making a giant cross-stitch project for years now, and when I saw Jessica Decker’s oversized cross-stitched artworks, I became even more excited. It’s an immediately recognizable pattern, but seeing those little Xs blown-up in big, bold color is just so unexpected and beautiful. Jessica has brought yet another spin to traditional…
I try to get my hands on every material I can think of, and sadly, that means I can never make a quick trip to the hardware store. Even when I plan to rush in and grab a packet of bolts or a can of paint, I always leave three hours later with those things,…
There are so many great things happening in the embroidery world these days. Gone are the old-fashioned needlepoint projects of yesteryear, replaced with a new crop of fantastic modern stitchery that ranges from quick, trendy patterns available for purchase on sites like Etsy to some amazing fine art pieces by a new generation of textile…
For the first time in several years, I’ve been spending more time at my desk. And although I love the change of pace, the change of space needed a few upgrades. My desk sits against a wall in an open living room, so I built a room divider to create a cozy little nook for…
I’m trying to get a little better at tending to plants, and have subsequently been looking for new garden pots. I had my eye on an incredible ceramic blocked planter at Anthropologie, but neglected to act quickly enough and it sold out. The pot was studded with chunky ceramic bricks, and I was drawn to…
This project stems from a conversation I had with Grace and Amy on my last visit; they had seen an image of a rolling pin held in place with two simple straps, and thought it could adapt nicely to become a wall scroll for organizing ideas. I managed to score three long branches from a…
Math was never my strongest subject, but lately I’ve felt a strong desire to play around with geometry. Inspired by the awesome tape artwork of artist Alex Menocal, I wanted to focus my geometric experiments on my walls but actually make a piece that is three-dimensional. 3D structures can be tricky to mount on walls,…
