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How I Made It: Swanky Leather Hanging Lamp

July 9, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Once upon a time I bought 3 yards of a faux leather fabric to make a pillow. Turns out, I have no idea how to order fabric. I ordered a lot of fabric. Naturally, I had to figure out what the heck to do with so much fabric. Lamp shade, that’s the natural first-thing-everyone-would-think-of idea, right? I wanted to do something mid century inspired with elongated diamonds stitched on. And thus was born a swanky mid century inspired hanging lamp shade.

How I Made It.

It all started out with a $4 clearance 14 inch drum lamp shade that I picked up online shopping at Lowes. I tore the outer fabric and trim off to leave it bare bones. The fabric appeared to be hot glued on. It was surprisingly easy to simply peel it all off.

I then measured the length and circumference of the widest side of the shade. After I had my measurements, I cut out a piece of faux leather fabric 5 inches longer and wider than my measurements and wrapped it around the shade. I then hot glued an inch overlap. I cut the excess off and folded and hot glued the ends of the fabric into the shade.

The short width of my diamond is 4 inches and the length is 12 inches. I used a craft knife to cut the shape out so that I’d have a stencil. I then cut out enough diamonds to go around the entire shade. I then placed each diamond onto the shade in the position I wanted them to be and hot glued them in place. Working on this shade in the heat of Virginia proved hot glue to be a very temporary solution. In between working on the shade the diamonds would peel off. I wanted them to be stitched on and look stitched on anyways, so that was okay.

To stitch the diamonds in place, I used a thumbtack to punch holes along the outside of the diamond and onto the diamond. I then went back and stitched “X’s” with embroidery floss and and needle. This part was time consuming but I still love this lamp shade so much, it was definitely worth the trouble.

Assembly after this was as basic as putting together lamp kit pieces. I swapped out the generic cord for cloth wrapped cord because I adore the look.

I chose to purchase my cord from Snake Head Vintage because they were having a promotion for free shipping at the time and would be attaching the plug for me. I compared prices from several cloth covered cord suppliers and found Vintage Wire and Supply to be the cheapest cord. Color Cord Company has a lot of really fun colors and kits already assembled if that’s your thing. And, Nostalgic Bulbs had a decent selection for cloth wrapped cord, but their light bulb selection was out of this world good. So hopefully that bit helps if you’re ever in the market for cool light bulbs, cloth wrapped cord, or pendant light kits!

I think lighting is one of the coolest things you can DIY. It’s pretty darn easy to do so! If you’re feeling unsure, you ought to try out one of the kits from i like that lamp. There’s a variety of kits to choose from, but I am especially loving the DIY Mid Century Modern Sputnik Chandelier (so much so that I bought one for myself!)

I hope you’ve found this post helpful, inspiring, and interesting! Before you go, leave me a comment? I’d love to hear from you! You should also sign up for email updates, so you don’t miss out on any of this awesomeness!

How I Made It: Macrame Wall Hanging

July 7, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Today. We Talk Macrame.

I feel like this needs a more dramatic intro. It’s friggin’ macrame! An iconic craft form that’s lasted generations. From wall hangings, to planters, to lampshades to whatever. Macrame is an easy art form to get the hang of. I self taught myself how to macrame. If you grew up making hemp jewelry, you can self teach yourself how to macrame, easily! A lot of the same knots apply.

As I catch you up on the rooms of my home that have been decorated, I’m also going to go through how I made any of the pieces that I DIYed. I have a rather large macrame wall hanging that I made. It’s approximately 42 inches x 42 inches. It suits the space above my sofa well. And the best thing about macrame is that it can be enlarged or can be made smaller to suit the space you have.

How I Made It:

I chose to use leftover copper spray painted 1 inch EMT conduit. You’ll find here on da blog that I try to reuse scraps from other projects in new projects because I hate to waste and hate to hoard. I had one longer piece than the other, top piece is 42 inches long and bottom piece is 28.5 inches long. Conduit cuts easily with an inexpensive hand-held pipe cutter. Here’s one from Amazon for less than $8 that’ll do cuts from 1/8 inch to 1 and 1/8 inch.

I always gather inspiration before diving into these kinds of projects. My inspiration is on my Home: Wall Hangings Pinterest Board. If you’d like to try out macrame, give the board a look through (and even a follow!) to get some ideas.

I used about 2.5 arm lengths for each length of cord (I used this macrame cord, but I’ll definitely use this one next time. Once the cords are cut, I recommend taping off the ends to prevent excessive fraying. The knots I use to get the rope onto the pipe are the Lark’s head knot. Because square knots are done with groups of 4 strands, I made sure I had enough cords to be divisible by 4. I followed the Lark’s head knot with 2 square knots to secure things in place.

You can do something very rad, very pretty with the basic square knot. The design created here is made using the alternating square knot. Shift inward, leaving a couple strands hanging on the end, and tie a square knot a few inches below the square knots above. Alternating back and forth, it creates the alternating square knot.

I used an over-the-door wreath hanger to hold my pipe. It’s very wobbly and unstable, but I had to start on the wall hanging and couldn’t stand to be delayed with picking up something else. I’ve seen great recommendations to use hooks to hang it from though, just to give you another suggestion. Though I think 2 over-the-door wreath hangers would work fabulously and you can pick them up for $1 a piece around the holidays!

You can add a second rod further down into the wall hanging. Secure the pipe in place using two square knots. I used a level to ensure the second rod was lining up with the first and simply loosened or tightened the square knots as needed.

Below the second pipe I used the switch knot to create the cool hanging pieces. The switch knot looks way more complex than it really is, and adds a very cool layer of dimension the the piece.

There are plenty of ways to start tapering off the ends of the macrame wall hanging. I left mine organic, yet structured in length to some degree. You could tie knots and cut excess of to create a point. Another suggestion would be to add embellishments like beads, or paint the ends of the cord, or fray the ends intentionally.

After the switch knots were finished, I tied each group of cords into an overhand knot. Like the square knot, the switch knot leaves the outer cords hanging out to the sides, and it didn’t feel finished to me.

To add a little something more the the hanging, I added lengths of cord on either side of the piece and tied large figure 8 knots. Then pieced off sections below that to tie into smaller figure 8 knots.

I’m so happy with how it turned out. I hope you learned something cool today and enjoyed this post. If you did like it, please leave a comment and give this post a share!

Tour: A Boho Vintage Collected Living Room

July 6, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey There Friend!

Today I’m excited to be sharing my living room with you. It’s one of the few spaces I’ve had a chance to sink my design claws into and while the space isn’t complete, it definitely showcases my style. I’m really proud of it and I hope you like it, even if it’s not your thing!

Some things I’ll note particularly about this space are that I gravitate towards a white backdrop, lots of different wood tones, vintage furniture (particularly mid century), and saturated colors.

I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below or shoot me an email.

When you enter our home you’re right smack dab in our living room. I long for a beautiful old home with an entryway, but this way everyone is immediately dosed with how awesome our home is 😉

The gallery wall came together over time and includes a lot of pieces that were never intended to be in a gallery wall but that have come together in a really fun way. My dream is for this load bearing wall to come down some day but the happiness on this wall makes me deal with it for now. And the fact that you can only see a peek of the mess that’s still leftover from my little guys birthday party is nice, too.

I like to have lots of different spots for people to sit. This way I can ensure that most of my guests have a spot they’ll be comfortable in and it’s great for larger groups of company because we can move around all the individual seats to create an intimate conversation area. We have two Poufs, a wicker chair, a rocking chair, and retro swivel rocker and a sofa. I hope to find a vintage setee one of these days and to have it reupholstered in a fun fabric.

I have potted plants everywhere in my home because I love them and they’re practical. It’s the perfect accessory. It’s been a long journey to finding plants that flourish under my care instead of dying but the snake plant has been an all time favorite for a while now!

“Hi!”

I’m not much of a TV watcher so you’ll see books and magazines stacked about so that I can easily reach for any of them to kill some time. Pinterest is pretty great too though, to be honest. Right now I’m loving Ellie Tennant’s design bloggers at home, Justina Blakeney’s The New Bohemians and Create the Style You Crave on a Budget You Can Afford.

These shelves make me happy in a way that I just don’t even know how to explain. Lots of little things effortlessly came together to create shelves that encompass lots of things that I love to be displayed without the touch of my little guy.

My sweet husband picked up this bar cart for me for mother’s day last year. It’s hard to keep glass low to the floor with a 3 year old so I’ve changed it to a plant stand. It’s perfect with it’s shiny gold and earthy green plants.

Don’t mind the blur. My husband has been convinced since the first night that we have a ghost in the house. It’s just come out to say, “hi” to you all!

And you’ll probably notice a bare spot on the other side of the couch. I know what I want to put there and just haven’t found the perfect piece. With a limited budget, I’ve decided to live with empty space until the right piece for the right price shows up.

I hope you’ve made it to the end here! If you enjoyed anything you’ve seen here, make sure to follow me either via email or through social media (Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter) because I’ve got sources and DIY tutorials coming up next!

And give this post a Pin! You’ll share it with others (which I really appreciate!) and you’ll have it saved for later!

My Dream Home

July 3, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey there, Friends/Family/(possibly even crickets?)!

Alright, so I felt like it would be fun and helpful if I shared my dream house with you all today. That way you can get a feel for my style and what I gravitate towards and I get to talk about all the things I love about a pretty house! This is awesome.

I found this house while perusing Facebook. A friend shared a post on Facebook with this before photo:

I have no shame. I am a wildly curious person, so I clicked through the link. They say a hoarder once lived here. Flippers bought the house, cleaned it up (and boy oh boy did they!), and it’s for sale now (or at the time I publish this post at least).

Check out the article on House Beautiful.

spanish style dream home pops of aqua wrought iron details

The after is so incredibly stunning. The work was obviously extensive. But I have to say totally worth it. The home is truly restored to it’s glory.

Why I Love It:

The house is just so wildly charming. Everything from the detailed front door to the arched windows to the unique shaped doorways is so carefully thought out and detailed. The color palette is gorgeous and flows from room to room. The choice in textiles and furniture are spot on with what I gravitate towards. The white walls are so fresh and clean! Basically, I love everything about this home.

vintage eclectic modern with bohemian details dream home high ceiling charming unique details dream home spanish style

How To Incorporate These Details Into My Space:

I think I totally have to paint my windows black, but still leave the trim white just as they did in this home. My ceilings are much lower so it will add just enough drama without weighing the windows down. I love that the look of black painted windows mimics the looks of steel casement windows. And those are so beyond my budget, so it’s nice to have the character that comes with that kind of luxury without the price tag!

It’s already “da plan” to paint our bathroom tile. I had been planning on going stark white, but I may paint the border black to incorporate the same detail in the black and white bathroom of the featured home. A black and white bathroom plays so well with vintage spaces.

Painted interior doors are so a thing right now, and it’s hard to question it. Plain hollow stock doors like mine may not look so spiffy painted, but with tutorials like this one from Pretty Handy Girl and this one from Addicted 2 Decorating, I think I’ve got some ideas up my sleeve for adding interest inspired by this home.

forrest gren painted cabinetry with butcher block countertops stainless steel appliances charming vintage details spanish southwestern style tile backsplash

The pops of aqua on the exterior of the house has my heart jumping all over the place. Luckily, I had already made the decision to add a similar color to our exterior and have the paint sitting at home ready to add some curb appeal. Our windows are jacked up and really need to be replaced, plus they’re covered by storm windows, so I won’t be painting them. But I have a pretty rad DIY shutter idea and they’ll look fabulous in aqua!

I’m a fan of arched doorways. I’ve been wanting to open up our kitchen to our living room since before we even bought our house and the solution to blowing out a load bearing wall on a budget? Going with a beam. But I think a beam could be concealed and even work in favor of adding charm to the space by making an arch around the beam. I dream big here, guys.

And I am absolutely painting my cabinets that color if hubby ever agrees to painting our cabinetry. Our cabinets are new and actually really nice, so it probably won’t happen. But, again, I dream big 😉

Check out all the photos and the listing for this property h ere.

So what do you think? Do you love this house as much as me or do you prefer a different style? What other tips do you think could transform a house to have a similar look, style, and charm as this one?

An Overview of My Home

July 2, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hello There!

Welcome back to my little slice of the internet! Before I dive into sharing details of spaces in my home, DIY projects and the like, I wanted to start off with a brief overview of my home.

My husband and I bought a 1,300 square foot 1954 build brick ranch almost 3 years ago in Hampton Roads, Virginia. It’s got 3 small bedrooms, 1 full bath, a living room that you walk right into from the front door, a kitchen that was renovated a bit (cabinets were really the only good thing about that), an addition off the back of the kitchen that could be a den or playroom or dining room, an enclosed porch off the back door with a breezeway attaching the house to an addition to the garage and the garage itself.

There’s loads of storage space with multiple closets and a floored attic in both the garage and the main house.

I find the flow of the house to be mostly great. The laundry is located (old school) out in the garage and I’d love to see it moved into the house one day but I don’t know where a good place to carve that space out would be. The addition to the garage is weird (like it’s a garage-like space but it’s enclosed like a room) and I don’t think it works for the majority of most families. I’d love to see that go or be converted to useable space in the future.

The yard is fenced in which is great because we came into this house with a 3 month old baby and a 1.5 year old puppy. The fence is chain link and that part doesn’t do much for privacy in the yard, but it does keep the dog and kid corralled. The yard is covered in a fairly thick bed of grass but there isn’t much else in the way of landscaping, but I have started working on that.

It’s a decent little family house. A little on the small side and leaves much to be desired but we bought it for a decent price. Decent price, decent size, decent flow, decent charm, decent storage… you see where I’m going with this?

The house is just decent and my heart just does not do well with that. I’m passionate about creating spaces that I feel alive in. I don’t enjoy living in a space that makes me feel “blah.” I don’t enjoy simply living in a space the way it is just because it is the way it is.

Here’s a rough sketch of our home. It felt like accuracy was irrelevant as I’m just aiming to share with you how the house flows since you’ll see peeks of rooms through pictures and when I mention things like, “take down the wall between the living room and kitchen,” you’ll have an idea of what I mean.

This journey is going to be a transformation. It’s a slow transformation and a transformation that’s already begun. But I hope you can find inspiration and information for your own home journey. Our styles and tastes can differ but we’re both likely working within a budget, working real day jobs, and will run into obstacles during the process of transforming our house to a home.

I’ve got lots of ideas and I want to share them with you. I’d really love to keep in touch with you- Add this blog to your bloglovin reader or sign up for email updates to stay in the loop.

Welcome to “A Designer At Home”

July 1, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

“And Although This Blog Be Little, It Is Passionate.”

Hello New Friend!

Well, how do we do this?

My name is Corinna and I welcome you to my little slice of the Internet- A Designer At Home.

I’m starting this blog because I’ve dreamed of being an interior designer since I was a little girl.

I was a very creative little kid. I loved rearranging rooms in the home I grew up in (I think my mom is thankful I’m out of the house so she can do that now), I loved doodling dream home blueprints on page after page of geometry class graph paper. I was always looking for my dream home layout where everything flowed and made sense. I once created a home where there was a driveway that went through the house. The portion on the top and top right of the house was all master bedroom heaven and the portion downstairs from the top right was an at home office. I’ve always loved the idea of refining and perfecting spaces to be beautiful and to function well for living in.

I also loved the idea of teaching when I was a kid. I would use notebooks from my other classes to take attendance and track grades for my imaginary classroom. I enjoyed making up pretend lesson plans. It has always been in me that I want to teach others. It’s a spark that was ignited when I was very young and it is still strong today. I may not be interested in teaching traditional subjects, but I want to teach others whatever it is I know and am passionate about. Because, I believe people learn from people who are passionate.

I was also a very driven little kid. I wanted to succeed in life. I found out early on that teachers did not make good wages. But I’d heard that scientist did! So I set out to be a geneticist at around 10 years old. I took advanced classes in Math and Science, took Summer classes for education advancement in Middle School, and was accepted into the Leadership center for Sciences and Engineering in high school. I completed 3 years before the realization that college is expensive hit. I didn’t want to spent the first 10-20 years of my career paying back student loans. So I dropped out of the Leadership program to pursue “regular income.” I chose to be a Pharmacy Technician and have not enjoyed it a day since.

I’m in a Marriage where my husband and I have had to work together to figure out what it is we each want in our careers. My husband is certain he’s found something right now that he enjoys and wants to do for a while. I’m certain I want to pursue my life-long dream of becoming an Interior Designer, through school. We hope to make things work within the next 2 years where I can start taking classes and it’s the 5 year plan for me to be finished and to be in my “dream job.”

I guess all this time, I never realized I just wanted to be Emily Henderson 😉

So, how does this all fit in right here, right now at A Designer At Home?

There’s no better time to start than the present, they say. I saw it on the internet once so it must be true.

I want to share with others what I know now. I want to share how I make my house beautiful with not a lot of time or money. I want to share my ideas for cleaning and maintaining a home; for managing finances and getting organized.

I want to be an interior designer who designs real life spaces while also helping as many people as possible through an online platform (this blog!).

I have a lot of good ideas and there are people who will benefit from my good ideas. So this is my platform to do that.

I hope this all sounds like a good idea with you. And if it does, please give this blog a follow (sign up to receive posts by email). I can’t wait to share with you what I learn along this process and even more so when the “real” stuff starts.

Here’s a little about me: I like going for walks and nature, power tools make me anxious, I think I hate painting but as often as I change wall colors I’m pretty sure my subconscious loves it, I’m a vegetarian, I listen to every genre of music and have an obsession with bohemian decor. Get to know me even better by reading my about page.

Here’s a little about my style: I’m refined and wild all in one. I like pairing elements of bohemian decor with mid century but I really love all styles. I like white walls and warm wood floors but I also like grey walls and dark wood floors. I really love retro details and I try to highlight and keep details that are from the period of a home. Pairings of rustic wood are right beside sequins. My style is a lot like my personality, and that’s all over the place!

Here’s where I need your help. Tell me what you’d like to see here on A Designer At Home. Everything from nitty gritty home owner perils to Do It Yourself projects. This blog is just as much mine as I hope it will be yours, too.