Ivy & Co.: yellow

Showing posts with label yellow. Show all posts

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Wizard of Oz Dresser

What kid doesn't love The Wizard of Oz? By the age of 10, I had the entire cassette tape (with songs and dialogue) memorized. I'd recite it on long road trips across various continents, driving the people in the car nuts! (Sorry guys). My daughter now loves the movie and her reaction to my skill of knowing the whole thing by heart is in stark contrast to my childhood experience because she readily accepts it and begs me to recite all the dialogue and sing all the songs. I LOVE IT.

In my first few months of blogging, I came across this post over at Inspired by Charm, called "Ode to Oz." I have never forgotten it and still think it is one of the most clever ideas ever.

source

Everything on this cupboard alludes to The Wizard of Oz. Perfection.

Ok, back to my dresser.

Down below you can see it peeking out of the corner in Ivy's room

kids room with aqua table and chair bookshelf

Here's a head-on shot, totally under-exposed:

This dresser belonged to my aunt and she had it since she was 18 years old. We ended up with it after she moved back to the mainland and I promised her I would keep it in the family and in great condition. It worked in Ivy's room for a time, but the drawers were hard for her to open and she couldn't really reach the top ones. Also, what 4 year old needs 6 drawers for their clothing?

So I decided I was going to put it in my room. Some of the paint was chipping off and the gorgeous key holes had been painted right over, and it just needed some TLC and new life. So I started to peel back a little of the paint, and discovered we were dealing with 3 coats of paint!

paint stripping drawer front yellow cream green

Top layer: cream. 2nd layer: bright yellow. 3rd layer: forest green. 4th layer: solid wood.

This stuff did not want to come off. I fought it and fought it. Splinters, cuts, chemical burns, sore shoulders, you name it, I endured it to get down to the wood. I actually left a little bit of the green on it in places, and then dry brushed some off-white (shiloh) because I wanted it to show through under the black to give it depth. It was so fun to sand those key holes because they came out bright shiny gold.

For some reason I'm painting all our furniture black. Well, this is only the second piece I've done, but I'm a little obsessed. I've been using Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Typewriter. Here's a link to the other dresser I painted black: click here. I covered up the key hole with painter's tape and used a razor blade to cut perfectly around it so I could paint smoothly. Look at that workmanship!!

In comparison to the body of the piece, the drawers were a piece of cake. To get the 3 coats of paint off the body, I had to call in the authorities.

My dad had out every tool he owns. I learned a lot about power tools that day.

I discovered a little bondo/wood filler on the bottom right of the piece, but other than that it was pretty awesome all bare like that!

I dry brushed on a little more shiloh, on top of the splotchy green, then covered it all in black.

The inside of the drawers needed some attention as they were rough and had some stains. I used clear shellac and some cute fabric to line the inside. I also painted the outside sides of the drawers in shiloh to give it a clean look when you opened and closed them. That white thing on the inside is washi tape covering the sharp end of the knobs so it doesn't tear my clothes.

These knobs are the Green Faucet Metal Knobs from Hobby Lobby. On sale now for $2.99!

black antique dresser with green knobs hose

I used Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil on the entire piece, then went over that with her Furniture Oil. I LOVE her Furniture Oil. I'm still getting used to the smell of the Hemp Oil. It's very earthy. :)

black antique dresser with green knobs hemp oil

So here it is in our master bedroom.

That black and white photo on the wall is from Urban Outfitters.

The pink Maui print is from Ashley Johnston Design.

black antique dresser wizard of oz polka dot curtains guitar tennis racket

It's at the foot of the bed, flanked by pieces of my husband's art, which we just moved in there. I have the Grey accent chair I blogged about here to the right of it.

So, why call it "The Wizard of Oz" dresser? Here's my reasons:

1. The name "6 drawer dresser" is boring.

2. Those green knobs are something I could see Uncle Henry using on the farm

3. It came to me in a very mono-chromatic cream color, and it's now black, alluding to the first 17 minutes of the movie which are completely sepia toned.

4. Once I dug a little deeper I came across a layer of yellow paint: the Yellow Brick Road

5. The Yellow Brick Road led to the green layer of paint, the Emerald City

6. Once I went through all of that, we're back to the safety of our black and ~~white~~ sepia home.

And that's the story of my Wizard of Oz dresser.

One last tip. Per my husband's advice, I've been using a bar of soap to make sure my solid wood drawers go in and out with ease. It works like a charm. Anywhere on the drawers or on the body of the dresser that's going to slide wood to wood, you slide the soap along it. Make sure it's oil free. Scented is ok. :)

Aloha,

Rebecca

Monday, January 28, 2013

Pretty Recycle Bin

A few months ago our trash service decided they weren't going to pick up trash twice a week anymore. Instead, they were going to pick it up on Sundays, but then on alternating Wednesdays they were going to pick up Recycling and Green Waste. The recycling bin they provided for us was kind of far from our house, since there are a couple homes on our property that share the trash service. So what happened next was that piles of recyclables were ending up in our kitchen, next to the indoor trash can, and on our deck, before they were taken over to the main recycle bin. Something had to be done!! Of course, I made something...

I saw this pin on pinterest and was inspired.

Source: delightfuldozen.com via Randi on Pinterest

Here's what I used:

-metal trash can (I think it's a 16 or 20 gallon), $25 at ACE Hardware (kind of pricey, but that's what you get on an island!)

-4 yards of fabric (I got 2 yards in the polka dot, and 1 yard of the yellow/grey, and it wasn't quite enough. I supplemented by making the bottom out of some grey fabric I had at home.

-thread

I mainly followed the fabric bucket tutorial from Inspired by Family Magazine here. I use it alot :)

I measured the top of the trash can circumference and the bottom. I cut out fabric with the appropriate top length and bottom length. Then I stenciled a circle with fabric on the bottom to create the bottom part of the bag.

Follow the original tutorial for all the details. I didn't use any interfacing, however, I did stitch some thick terry cloth in the shape of an 'x' spanning the bottom circle, just for a little extra re-enforcement while carrying it. The other revision to the original tutorial is that I added a strip of the yellow/grey printed fabric along the top and inserted elastic in it so that it would be secure when folded over.

I will admit, my husband was smirking through the whole process of me making this, haha. He just didn't see why it needed to be, well, pretty. I sensitively told him to just let me make it and to try not to go searching and analyzing the reason behind it. It's a girl thing. :) We like things to be pretty. And this pretty recycle bin now sits on our deck, instead of piles of recycling.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Super Hero Cape Tutorial

Yesterday we made a cape.

You heard me.

I guess I should back up. It's not every day you make your kid a cape.

Well, we were at a baby shower on Labor Day (pun intended) and Ivy and a little friend were stealing the tissue paper and ribbon from the opened gifts and making capes. All week, Ivy's been begging to wear the tissue paper cape, but it's pretty much ripped to shreds. So I got tired of the disappointment in her eyes every time I told her we weren't going to wear the ripped cape, and asked her, "Should we make a better cape?" Of course she said, "Yes!" So we went to my fabric and she picked out this magenta fabric with chartreuse root/coral/dead tree print on it. Girl's got style.

First I cut it out like so:

Ivy is almost 3 years old, and tall for her age.

The bottom is about 24 inches across.

It's 22 inches from the bottom to the base of the neck, then I eyeballed the part that goes around the neck. It goes up to about 28.5 inches from the bottom.

It's 18 inches across the top (part that sits on the back of the shoulders)

I used a white piece to line the cape.

Then I created the letter "I" in white fabric, and sewed it over a black circle. I didn't like it alone like that, so I added a white square around it. Plus, I hate sewing circles, so it was much easier to sew a square to the cape. You can see in the photo below, I just sewed straight lines up and down the circle to fasten it, rather than actually sew a circle. It will fray, but what good super hero's cape doesn't show some wear and tear from the crime they're fighting in the world? ;)

Before you sew it all together, sew on some velcro to the neck pieces. Think about which sides you're going to sew...

Then I placed the two pieces of fabric together, so I could sew them. I did add a little "super power" to this magenta/chartreuse cape... Black leather fringe along the bottom. I picked it up at a garage sale in San Diego earlier this summer. This cape demanded for it. Look closely at the photo below on the right-- you can see I pinned it inside, so it would be included in the stitch.