Inspiration: The Laura Ashley floral fever

Source: flickr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

When I was a teenager (a few years ago, hehehe), I grew up with a few Laura Ashley skirts and floral accessories, and up until this day I continue to associate pretty pastel florals to this wonderful brand. Florals are now witnessing a big come back thanks to the school of ‘vintage-chic,’ which is celebrating everything beautiful my generation has seen the last drops of. We’ve been through the ‘ugly’ eighties, but we’ve captured the last offerings of the glorious 70’s, and florals seem to have managed to make their way into our lives up until the early 90’s.

The above pic shows a few Laura Ashley floral fabrics. They go together so well, although the motifs are different.

Below is a vintage-style bedroom with a country, yet contemporary, twist. The chest of drawers is from Laura Ashley as well as the vintage-style floral patterned accessories.

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

For more Laura Ashley accessories, I picked this floral mug  for you…

Source: lauraashley.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

The vintage-chic style is probably the most among other trends that is celebrating florals in a big way. Vintage-chic stylists and bloggers are showing us ways to mix and match, and stack up on  florals upon florals in one location, in one room, which is exactly what I am liking recently. Look at this…

Source: flickr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Florals, which are a staple of the British aesthetic and the prairie trend, have also seen a come back into fashion lately. Belts and little floral details have appeared in this year’s spring/summer clothes and accessories.

Another brand name that celebrates full throttle florals is  Cath Kidston, whose take on florals is a bit different than the classic Laura Ashley line, but all the same I love them both (I did mention this earlier in a previous post). Here is an example of Kidston’s accessories.

Source: gottohaveit.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

I also found florals from other brands,  such as this mug, which ultimately reminds us of Laura Ashley’s style.

Source: gottohaveit.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Finally, this is my biggest floral crush… vintage floral cards. Yum.

Source: georgiahousepublishing.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

And this one here….

Source: umla.tumblr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Ok, then, I’ll leave you with a flowery and sunny day, hopefully, and see you next time,

K

DIY Prettier Magazine Files

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In the spirit of continuing the theme of pretty organizing, I noticed that when I place things in beautiful containers and storage solutions, they get an instant promotion around the craft room: From being a merely functional “thing” to a piece of “love” that you want to place in a prime location.

In this DIY, I basically upgraded 3 magazine files by attempting a wall-paper look. This is inspired by the lovely bird magazine files that are at the bottom of this post, and which I mentioned previously.

This is how these poor black files got their promotion up into a much nicer shelf at my workspace. The files are a bit unsteady since they are old, and I did stack up more magazines than they could hold, so they are puffy at the edges.

I had a difficult time deciding whether to decoupage the files or paint them. I had some nice damask wall-paper, but it looked too patterned, too well-finished for the look I was looking for.

So I decided to use:

• Acrylic paint (white, pink, green)
• Foam stamp (Motif: Grapes)
• Brush

Method:

1. I started by free-handing the shape of a pink bird, as if perched on a branch. I found an illustration of a bird and placed it in-front of me to help me keep the proportions right while I painted. I decided to paint the bird on two magazine files (I just had to hold them real tight as I sketched the shape). This is so that the final image would give the impression of a whole big painting that was cut into 3 parts (just like the original wall-paper idea was).
2. I stamped the grapes around the bird arbitrarily after dabbing acrylic colors on the foam stamp (pink on the grapes, green on the leaves), but the lines were too thin, so I decided to take advantage of this and add a vintage-y touch by dabbing paint here and there, on the leaves, around the grapes themselves, and around the bird.
3. I touched up some areas with light pink or white to hide mistakes.

The inspiration

Yes, here it is… the beautiful inspiration that got me thinkin’ about changing the look of my files.

The design of the files in the above pic is by British stylist Marie Nichols, whose blog  is so inspiring.

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Related Articles:

• Inspiration Board: DIY Shelves using Baskets & Crates
• Organizing 101: Ideas for pretty storage

Inspiration: British-chic in vintage & contemporary hues

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

I love it when artists and designers take classical objects and shed new color and light on them. This is the case of these iconic London teapots and phone booths.

The first one up is a beautiful rendition of the British phone booth. Wouldn’t you love to have tea in a teapot that looks so English?

A British phone booth in pink is just so cute;  just by applying an unexpected color hue, you have yourself a beautiful piece of art. And a ceramic teapot with vintage roses, brings a different dimension to the classical British teapot (although I think the said teapot – below –  is from an Australian shop, ehem).

Source: flickr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: domayneonline.com.au via Karboojeh on Pinterest

How about a Union Jack pillow; but this time it comes with vintage-romantic colors, like this one here? And the Union Jack floral cozy – by Monsoon – right below it?

Absolutely beautiful!

Source: lnt.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: uk.monsoon.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: via Karboojeh on Pinterest

 

The placemat above is a DIY by the people at Laura Ashley’s Blog, titled: How to make a ‘Union Jack Cutlery Roll’… yet, another Union Jack design, with not-your-usual colors. So cute, isn’t it?

And let’s not forget, British contemporary-chic, found at an online store owned by British stylist Marie Nichols – called  The Shop at Number 57 – with it’s cute contemporary-vintage British art.

Source: theshopatnumber57.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Here we have the Queen’s stamp, reinterpreted into a white-and-black cross-stitch design nestling gracefully in a round embroidery hoop. So cute! You also have the Union Jack, and the Royal Crown, also in a black-and-white contemporary rendition of a vintage theme! A beautiful collection!

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Luckily, I have a London postcard of a two-level red bus that I bought in my before-last visit; this will keep me London-satisfied for a while! I mean you can’t just see all of this beauty and not want to have it in your craft room!

Crafty DIY: How to paint a romantic basket

I finally came around to update this basket! I’ve had this basket for years: I love the shape and the wicker, but the oil stains always bothered me so much, even if they hid under a doily or a cloth.

So, I decided to update my cute little basket/tray, and my inspiration came from a mixture of “shabby chic,” French romantic,” “vintage romantic,” and floral prints by Laura Ashley & Cath Kidston.

The tools I needed were:

• Wicker tray/basket
• Acrylic paints in pastels and cool hues
• White glue (or varnish) to seal the work. You can of course use Mod Podge to seal the work
• Brushes
• Water to clean the brushes in between colors

So, what I did was basically the following:

• I wiped the basket clean with a wet cloth
• Applied a coat or more of white acrylic paint, and I deliberately made an imperfect job,  hoping to achieve a “shabby chic” effect
• Painted little rosettes with pink and white acrylic paints, and I used a vintage green for the leaves
• Once the paint was dry, I sealed the work surface with white wood glue.

And that’s it, basically.

I’m planning to post a tutorial soon on how to paint those lovely rosettes. It’s a mind-blowing-ly simple technique, you’ll feel like a master of arts when you get the hang of it.

Ok, folks, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Cheers

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This post participated in this link party:

Tip Jinkie :: Homemade Projects – Linky party – 14/8/2012

Home Decor DIY: Rustic-Looking Chicken Wire Lamp

I love the idea of up-cycling vintage home accents & accessories; it’s budget friendly, creative, and it gives you instant gratification. Rummaging through mom’s storage room, I came out with a broken ceramic table lamp, and a vintage wooden pitcher that has this beautiful rustic look. By marrying the two, I re-created this lampshade.

The chicken wire is just a fantasy of mine, but it’s not practical once you turned the lights on. I decided that I will leave it the way it is, though. I just love the way it looks, besides, I can always change the lampshade if I wanted to.

The lamp base

The ingredients for this lamp are:

• A broken lampshade: … so I would use the lamp’s wired candlestick & bottle adapter (this is what they call’em apparently) – I didn’t take a photo of the original lamp, but you can see the lamp candlestick on the far right side of the above pic.
• A shade riser: I totally DIYed mine using the metallic ring you see in the pic, and some wire to create a middle ring and tripod to help me attach the shade to the lamp skeleton.
• Chicken wire
• Scissors or Wire cutter.
• Some skill in wiring and rewiring lamps. Well… that’s my husband’s domain.
• Newspapers or sponge.

What you basically do is ask the electrician to insert the lamp’s cord through the nozzle of the vintage wooden pitcher you have and to keep the switch close by.

Insert the pipe that comes at the tail of the lamp skeleton inside the vase (the vase should be deep enough to accommodate it). To keep the lamp from moving, and to be able to change your mind later on, try to stabilize it by squishing in some crumbled newspapers, or sponge, or whatever that can just keep the lamp in place.

The lampshade

Now, if you have a shade riser then all you need to do is just cut the chicken wire to size and attach it to the shade riser.

But if you don’t have one, just use an old round ring, and using craft wire, you can create your own shade riser.

Watch out for your fingers when you cut the chicken wire. You can use the loose wire ends from the chicken wire to attach it to the ring.

Anyhow, with this kind of base, you can amplify the rustic look by using a basket as your lampshade. The effect it gives once you turned the lamp on is so cool. You can run your own lamp fashion show and try different lampshades until you finally find your beat. The important thing to remember is that imagining what a final product looks like has nothing to do with actually trying to make it & seeing for your self. A DIY looks much better in reality!

Cheers,

Karboojeh

 

 

Handmade Spotted: Vintage keys as jewelry

I just discovered this handmade jewelry shop on Etsy: Venbead. I love this new trend of using vintage keys in jewelry-making.

I spotted another Etsy artist, Urban Heirlooms. who uses vintage, rustic beads as clasp snaps for clutches and bags, I posted about them on my other blog: karboojeh.tumblr.com.

Very inspiring!

K News: Barter deal ~ Give us your old accessories, we’ll give you a new one!

Do you, or other female members of your family, have old vintage-y accessories that you don’t know what to do with (old brooches, broken necklaces, one missing earing…)?

Give us your old jewelry, which we will then recylce and dismantle into parts, and we’ll give you a brandnew necklace (or bracelet and earrings) as a gift…

To participate, drop us a line at karboojeh.damascus {at} yahoo.com

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