30 great DIY rug tutorials

I must have checked out over 50 different painted rug projects done by other bloggers before deciding what to with my own 2 white IKEA Erslev rugs.
For the nursery I went with a bright yellow and white stripey pattern and I am really pleased with the result.

find the full post here

For the living room I wanted a more ethnic look and went with a dark brown colour for the pattern. I am equally pleased with how this one turned out. The best thing is you get two tries since you can just turn it over and go again on the other side if it doesn't turn out the way you hoped it would. 

I am yet to post a full tutorial for how I did this rug... but it's coming.

Here is a list of 30 best painted rug projects I came across while looking for inspiration for my own rugs. I have posted some of these links before but thought that they were worth re-posting. These links will also take you to some pretty cool home improvement blogs that are worth taking a look at. 

They are listed in no particular order.

     1. How to make a block print rug at Apartment Therapy
     2. How to paint an indoor/outdoor rug at DIY Maven
     3. Stenciled pattern rug at Pudel-design
     4. DIY zig-zag rug tutorial at adventures in dressmaking
     5. DIY turning an old rug into Chevron beauty at SAS interiors
     6. DIY Chevron rug at High-heeled foot in the door
     7. DIY painted IKEA rug at Charm Home Design
     8. DIY Geometric Rug at Classically Modern Nest
     9. Tutorial: Hand Painted Rug at Diddle Dumpling
   10. The great Rug adventure (foam stamped rug) at Ramblings around DC and beyond
   11. Ikea rug makeover at a little bit of everything
   12. Ikea rug painted with grey and white Chevron pattern at Hayley Anderson
   13. DIY painted faux Kilim rug at Forge
   14. Chevron Rug DIY at Mason Jar Champagne
   15. Chevron painted rug from Ikea at The House of Smiths
   16. DIY stamped rug tutorial at My Hands Made It
   17. DIY polka dot rug at katiecupcake
   18. DIY painted Kilim rug at The Gold Jelly Bean
   19. DIY Herringbone rug at All Things Lovely
   20. Jen at tatertots & jello has painted a ton of rugs in different patterns

   21. DIY Metallic Gold Zebra rug at the Home Depot by Caroline Inge

   22. DIY printed long entrance rug at Trieu Love

   23. Animal print rug by This Mommy

   24. DIY table cloth rug by Dream Book Design

   25. DIY felt zebra rug for nursery

   26. Black and white painted rug by Diapered Daze & Knights

   27. Scrap fabric chevron rug by The House That Lars Built

   28. Painted Morocco rug by Sarah M. Dorsey Designs

   29. T-shirt rug DIY by Xoelle

   30. Braided rag rug at Little House in the Suburbs

These are just a few of the projects I came across, there are plenty more rug DIYs out there to explore.

Chalkboard wall cover up & a DIY sticky note calendar

I've mentioned the weird wall decor (tiles) in our rented Hong Kong flat before:
In our living room we have two opposing walls, one is covered with grey stone tiles with cave painting symbols on them, on the other there are some patterned shiny green metallic tiles. They look horrible on their own and they look even worse together also the floor is also not great, but that I can live with. Otherwise the quality, size and location of the flat is great for what rent we pay which is why I am currently living with these strange design details... Hong Kong flats don't come cheap.
The worst wall, in my opinion,  is the green metallic one. Luckily the tiles were smooth and I managed to come up with a great and cheap solution to it without having to alter it in any way (not allowed as we rent), I covered it from top till toe in black chalkboard sticker wallpaper.
These were sticker panels 3meter x 60cm in size and they are easily removed should we wish to move out. I found them online, they were cheap and took about 20minutes to put up. Problem solved!

Me and my boyfriend use them to teach each other our languages, Flemish and Swedish (although we are proceeding very slowly as we keep on forgetting to update them) and I've created a big sticky note calendar on it.

It works great, I added 31 days so that I wouldn't have to alter it from month to month and just added a little note saying NOT THIS MONTH if the month only has 30 days. All I have to change from month to month is that and the name of the month at the bottom. I place the sticky notes with reminders on the date squares writing the name of the day at the top, that way when I have a few sticky notes it is easy to see and know what date is what day.

This is what the metallic tiled wall I am covering up looks like.

I am still not loving the opposing wall but this solution is not an option for it for two reasons,

it would make the room too dark and the tiles are not smooth so the stickers would not adhere to it.

What can I do with this wall, in our rented flat?

Does anyone have any good ideas or suggestions??

Here is another very cool idea for a chalk accent wall DIY.

Orchids in water?

I am not very good with plants... at least not indoor plants.
I love gardening and taking care of the outdoor mini wildlife haven that I had when I had a garden back in Sweden. I believe gardening should be something where the garden is a wildlife oasis, creating a refuge for bugs, hedgehogs, birds and other little creatures that may want to take up residency.
I used to study local plants and try to introduce them best possible and never used pesticide but instead tried to bring in the favourite plants of the arch enemy of whatever pests I might have had.
The garden was wild and beautiful (in my eyes) at the same time.
A wild growing garden does not mean you can just neglect it, a wild garden needs lots of care too.
One of my very favourite gardens to look to for inspiration at the time was Tasha Tudors garden, you can't come closer to a fairy tale garden than hers.

Now, living in Hong Kong, I don't have the luxury of a garden. And I don't have the same love for indoor plants, I find them boring and a bit sad. Like an animal in the zoo, doomed to die in misery locked into my small flat.
I have so far never managed to keep any indoor plants healthy. Currently I am the caretaker of a very sad Bouganvillea (this one would be very much happier outdoor in Hong Kong but I have nowhere outdoor to put it), a Passiflora which surprisingly seems to be having a revival and three near dead Orchids.

The orchids have been standing on my kitchen counter for a few weeks, that is the halfway point, by that I mean halfway to the trash. But last week I came past a post about putting your Orchids in water to make them bloom all year round (can't seem to find that post again) on further research I came across this site.
That's it I thought, seems much easier than the not too little not too much watering that people normally say Orchids need. I uprooted all of them and noticed that the roots on one of them where completely rotten and on the second one only one root remained green and alive looking. The third one had some kind of weird insect egg looking kind of fungus going on in it's root system but it was the one out of all of them that had the healthiest root system in tact.
I cut of all the rotten roots on all of them and cleaned the remains with some soap, on the worst one all that remained was a stump, on this one the leaves where all shriveled as well and it was and is generally in a very poor state.

I popped them all into jars holding distilled bottled water and they've been there for three days now. They don't look any better yet but they also don't look any worse either.
I smell the water every day to check if it is rotting and so far it's been fine so I've just added a bit more water where it had evaporated and that's all.
It's actually very exciting, much more exciting than regular orchid keeping.... this is an experiment, not just boring old watering. I can't wait to see what's going to happen, it's almost like playing the lottery, I might win or I might loose, no one knows.
The best thing about it is actually that they look great in water. The roots look beautiful on the one that still has them and it's so cool that they are visible.
Even the stump looks cool in water!

According to what I've read it should take around 3-4 months for new roots to really have started growing, I will keep you updated on how it is going.
If this works then I think it's the way to go if you are not good with watering Orchids the regular way, this is way easier!

DIY IKEA Rast dresser makeover no.2

I finished the makeover for my second pair of Rast dressers. It was very quick, easy and pain free. Check out the results and how I did it.

I bought some matte black spray paint for the drawers and was looking around my area in Hong Kong for some wood stain bout couldn't get hold of any (possibly a lost in translation thing) but tried some Umbre coloured regular watercolour and it worked just as well and I love the final finish of the stain, so that all worked out for the best.
The pullers are made of regular packing string that I twisted together to create a thicker rope.

I started staining the wood everywhere but the front of the drawers. I used a bowl of water into which I mixed the watercolour to create the colour intensity I wanted (I tested it on a not so visual part of the dresser to check) and painted it on with a wide brush. It took ca 45 minutes to do.
I drilled slightly larger holes where the original pullers had been to fit the new hemp rope handles.
I then covered over the parts of the drawer that I didn't want to paint black with paper attached with masking tape and sprayed the fronts with black spray paint, this took ca 20 minutes including the covering.
I took a hammer and hit the drawers randomly a bit here and there to give them a used look and also used a nail to create little worm holes.
My intention was to lastly sandpaper the corners of the drawers but I only had very very fine sandpaper at home and it took for ages to get any kind of result with it and the paper wore out super quick so I gave up. On the picture just below you can see how it turned out on the corner that I did manage to sand down a bit. I really liked the result but had no patience for it so only one corner got done.

I proceeded to splash a bit of red and white paint on it to create an even more used and vintage feel. I accidentally splashed a bit too much in a few places and as I attempted to get it off with some wet toilet paper ( I know...LINT!) I got paper lint stuck on the drawers ... you're probably thinking "I knew that was going to happen". But the look of the lint was almost a bit similar to using the sand paper, so I did this all over the dressers wherever I wanted them to look distressed. I then used a shoe shine brush to brush of the residue and in the picture just below you can see the result of my toilet paper lint vintage look.
This was so quick compared to the sanding and looks almost as good. I might go back and do proper sanding instead at a later point... then again maybe not.

I used 4 strands of the hemp packing string and twisted them together, tied a knot in one end, pulled it through the puller hole and tied a knot on the other side and cut to length.

In the picture above you can see the difference between using the sandpaper (on the left drawer), I do prefer this look even though it was much more time consuming, vs. the toilet paper lint effect (on the right drawer). All in all the project took almost exactly 2 hours which was a lot less than my previous Rast DIY for the nursery.

"Now hold on!" a lot of you are thinking... yes, this makeover idea is not mine. I was so inspired by the gorgeous industrial dresser makeover that Mia from Jilly & Mia did, and after many weeks of questioning how to remake my dressers I finally decided to go with her makeover. I decided on this style for many reasons:
1. It would fit in well with the chalkboard wall I have created behind it.
2. I just loved the way Mia's dresser looked.
3. I could use stuff I already had at home. The only thing I bought for this project was the can of black spray paint.
I have to say I love Mia's look, I even stole her idea for the wormholes (it's all in the details) hers has  industrial wheels which I actually like a lot more than with but I needed my dressers to stay put, hiding the nest of electronics wiring that is behind them. Mia also took the time to sandpaper properly and it does make a difference and you should really check out their blog because it's packed with cool DIY projects to be inspired by ...or totally copy like I did.

Swedish wood clogs & childhood nostalgia

Today I came across this picture of these very cute knitted socks with hearts on the heels. The socks paired with clogs set me of on a total nostalgia trip as I started longing for those worn red clogs of my Swedish childhood summers.

Image by petraO

Although I grew up in Switzerland we would spend the summer months in Sweden and the many months there are my best childhood memories.
It was a very special feeling arriving outside our summer house just at dawn after a whole night of driving. Entering the house that had a very special smell after being left uninhabited for most part of the year. Finding my "summer toys" and remembering all the fun I had with them last summer and the excitement of the few months to come... and my clogs, the summer footwear (until I grew out of them). They were best after a few summers wearing, new ones were never that comfortable. Or where they ever comfortable? I know I almost broke my ankle in them a few times as they were worn during all childhood activities from climbing trees to fishing crabs.
My boyfriend (from Belgium) saw Swedish clogs for the first time this summer and he thought they were some of the most ugly footgear he had ever laid eyes on. I have a pair of mine at my parents house and just like when I was a child I tend to wear mostly clogs when I visit them during the summer months. I tried asking him at different times during our stay there "...you still think they are ugly?" ...are they really that bad?" etc. Hoping he would change his mind... but I found myself asking are they really as ugly as he says, am I just blinded by my childhood nostalgia induced love for them?

What do you think?

Image by Jean Aimar

Image by Omelett

Image by pe image

Find many more clog pictures here 

Spring/Summer 2013 Marc by Marc Jacobs - Clour inspiration brought

Fashion week is in full swing and designers are showing us what to wear Summer 2013. I have fallen head over heels with Marc by Marc Jacobs playful collection. Patterns and colours are beautiful... I want so many pieces from this collection and feel totally inspired.
You like?

Images from The Best Fashion Blog and The Sartorialist

Images from Patternbank (awesome website for colour and pattern inspitarion)

Super cute crochet baby gnome hat tutorial

Check out this adorable and at the same time very funny gnome hat by Lorajean's Magazine. For those of you who don't know how to crochet, it's actually very easy, I find it both easier and more enjoyable than knitting and I used to love to knit, but these days it's crochet all the way!! Sorry that was very cheesy.
Anyways, if you start now you will have no problem finishing this hat for your little bub in time for the colder days.

The full tutorial can be found here

I'm back with lots of DIY projects! First up is Chupi's nursery

I've been away from the blog for what feels like ages. I am so sorry, I didn't mean to be away for that long... time just flew and before I knew it weeks have passed.

The good thing about this is that I have managed to finish a lot of DIY projects and I will be posting them all these coming weeks and I finished Chupi's room.
Here is a quick preview of how it turned out.

The two IKEA Rast dressers ended up keeping their original pullers (see the previous post here for the original thought of adding Asian style pullers and more Rast DIY inspiration)
The Ikea rug I painted is a great colour adition and breaks up all the red really well (the original post on painting the rug is here)
The knitted monster travel pillow that I made for Chupi for using with our baby carrier was awesome during our 2 week trip to Sweden and Belgium in July. The 20 hour trip from Hong Kong to Sweden would have been impossible without it and a huge knitted blanket that I brought. She is still supposedly small enough to sleep in those travel baskets that the airlines provide, but that's according to the airline, not Chupi. She would not stop crying when we tried to put her to sleep in it (during the Easter trip she slept just fine in there but then she was only 3 months, now she was 7 months). So she ended up sleeping on top of me which made me completely immobile during most of the flight. Thank god for that extra little pillow and blanket to create some padding. 

I will be posting more detail photos of the nursery soon, so don't forget to check back later.

Travel pillow for kids - Knitted mini monster pillow

I just finished another monster pillow...
meant for hanging on Chupi's baby carrier for the times she gets tired and needs something soft to lean upon. For that reason I didn't make it as big as the previous monster pillow I knitted and I also added a small loop for hanging it on the carrier. I didn't make the loop too long as there is always a risk of babies getting tangled in these things.

The bright colours and the tassels (which I also made sure are sewn securely onto it so they don't come off in case she pulls or sucks on them) are interesting eye catchers for the little ones and she really likes to play with it making it both the perfect out & about travel entertainment and a mini travel pillow.

Mini Thursday - DIY inspiration for the little ones

KIDS FASHION
DIY - super simple kids leggings

Why not sew some kids leggings from a leftover t-shirt like Ashley over at Make it and love it did?
The full tutorial can be found here.

PROJECT for & with KIDS 
DIY- Kids cardboard castle

Christiane Lemieux, the founder and creative director of DwellStudio and author of Undecorate, shared his tutorial of how to build a DIY cardboard castle featured on Built by Kids.
...yes yes, I know it's another playhouse but how great isn't this castle, I think I want one for myself and I love the horse stable with the zebra.

DIY for the home - for both the tall and the small

Two quick and clever DIY tips for the home.


INTERIOR DESIGN
DIY - Custom mugs

I didn't know you could write on porcelain with a regular sharpie pen, but according to A Beautiful Mess you can as long as you bake them after.

INTERIOR DESIGN - KIDS
DIY - Rollerblind kids clubhouse

This is so clever, no building before and no cleaning after...just pull them down when it's time for a meeting in the club house and zip them up when the meeting is over. I think this even classifies as a secret clubhouse.
The link to the original post no longer works, I cant seem to find a tutorial for this but it should be simple enough without one, just attach rollerblinds under the table and draw whatever you want your clubhouse to look like on them. Kids could even get to decorate the inside... some pictures on the walls and why not a patterned wallpaper.

Fashion Tuesday

It's time again to get some do-it-yourself fashion tips...


DIY - CLOTHING
I was so excited when I saw this post. Firstly because I love waxed denim and secondly because I have a pair of waxed denim that are getting un-waxed due to too much use and washing. This lead to total depression and me not wearing them any more in a stupid attempt to save them. Now I know all I have to do is just re-wax them ... and it doesn't seem hard at all thanks to this great tutorial post by Because I'm Addicted.

DIY - JEWELRY

Super cute hanging chains headband, if only I hadn't just recently cut all my hair of. Check out ...love Maegan for more great craft and DIY ideas.

DIY - ACCESSORIES

This DIY thread wrapped belt is so cool and almost ethnic looking, the tutorial is by studs and pearls.

Another baby bodysuit DIY - French vintage inspired baby onesie makover

This is also a super easy DIY for updating a regular baby bodysuit.

The only difficult part is possibly crocheting a heart shape but there are plenty of tutorials out there on the web to learn from. I've posted the link to one with a video tutorial at the bottom of this post, I find the video tutorials the easiest to learn from. You can be a complete novice and crochet something pretty decent following video tutorials.
I didn't do that however. I learnt to crochet a granny square a few weeks ago, resulting in this blanket.
So for the heart what I did was start crocheting a granny square and I just sort of winged it halfway through and did what I thought was gonna turn into a heart ...and it did, a pretty good one too I must say although crochet experts out there probably wont agree with me.
My backup plan was that a granny square on the bodysuit chest placed to form a diamond would also be ok so I just went for it and somehow it all worked out.

See another one of my baby bodysuit DIYs here

Visit the Crochet Geek for a easy crochet heart tutorial with video.

The easiest way to update a baby tee ever

Just add a bow and ruffle the sleeves...

This is how I did it:

THE BOW
For the bow I used strips that I cut from a cotton bed sheet. I drew some messy flowers on it with a Shirt Marker and ironed it to fix the ink. I used the same pattern and fabric in this DIY top here.
I shaped it into a bow and sewed it onto the tee wherever you want it.

THE RUFFLED SLEEVES
I just pinched the sleeves at the top to create ruffles and sewed one straight seam from the center top of the shoulder toward the center top of the sleeve edge - BUT NOT ALL THE WAY this will make the sleeve too tight, just one inch or ca 2cm to create the ruffles.

That's it, you're done.
For another quick baby tee up-cycle check out this post.

Have a great weekend everybody!

It's mini Thursday again - Craft inspiration for and with the little ones

Today there are two great DIYs for the small people, and again the fashion one is by Dana from Made and I promise she will be featured again.


KIDS FASHION
DIY - Boys letter t-shirts

This is another tutorial by Made, I will not only be posting Dana's tutorials here in the future, BUT she does do some great ones... and I will still be posting some ...every now and then.

PROJECT for & with KIDS 
DIY- Bookcase dollhouse

Not much description needed here.
This bookcase dollhouse tutorial is so easy and I love how the roof is just drawn onto the wall leaving the top of it to be used for more practical purposes. The tutorial is from Honest to Nod, check it out for lots more fun creative projects, tips and inspiration.

DIY floating clothes rack

Another interior DIYs from Love Aesthetics. It's so simple but super stylish, it doesn't always have to be complicated, sometimes the simple things are the most beautiful.
I wonder if she DIYed the cream hangers...I love them.

                                                                  Find the full post here.

Fashion Tuesday - three DIYs to help upgrade your wardrobe

Tuesdays regular fashion DIYs from bloggers all around the world coming up...


DIY - CLOTHING
I think it was spring 2011 that Burberry Prorsum came out with the studded trench and studs have been on everything for what seems like forever and still are and I am so happy... I can't seem to get tired of them. 
So even though we've seen this coat for some time I still think it's cool and studs and pearls did a very good job with this Burberry inspired DIY studded trench coat. 

DIY - JEWELRY

What can I say about this, super cute chunky floral bangles from one of my favourite DIY blogs, P.S. - I made this... 

DIY - ACCESSORIES
Upgrade a pair of plain old heels with some tassels like at PARK AND CUBE with this chain tasseled curtain heels DIY.

Chunky knitted baby blanket

Another knitted baby blanket I just recently finished using this pattern by Purl Bee.

I have a small blanket factory going on at home, cant seem to stop making them. Recently I did a baby name blanket for Chupi. I am also working on my very first granny square blanket consisting of only one big square.

The tutorial for the bodysuit worn by Chupi in the picture can be found here.

This post went to the Take A Look Tuesday Party at Sugar Bee Crafts and had lots of fun