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Are you diggin’ the retro feel of an arched floor lamp? I’m not sure where I first saw and fell in love with one. The details aren’t really all that important. What is important is that I found one, and I want to share what I think about it with you today!

I bought mine with my own moolah off Amazon. My lamp was $84.50 shipped, but the price fluctuates constantly. Whenever I shop on Amazon I always add an item I’m interested in, from a few different sellers, and watch the prices increase and decrease over the course of a few days and/or weeks. Whenever one hits the lowest, that’s normally the one I go with. That was this lamp: Floor Arc Lamp with Marble Base in Nickel Finish.

First of all, and I found this mentioned a lot in the online reviews: my lamp did not come with instructions. It may seem silly to want instructions for a floor lamp, but it comes pretty dang unassembled. I figured it out, but if you’re not apt to figuring out how to assemble things, this may be a major issue for you. (Although, one reviewer said theirs was printed on the side of one of the boxes included in the delivery, just for reference).

The on/off switch is a very handy and perfectly functioning foot activated switch. There’s a great deal of cord on either end of the switch too, so  you can maneuver it to where it’s convenient. (omg my floors are so dusty!)

The base of the lamp is a very heavy circular slab of marble. I don’t doubt that it is in fact a heavy stone material. There is an alcove on the underside. This space makes it fairly easy to screw the pole into the base. I was missing no parts necessary to attach the two pieces.

I’m making the assumption that these slabs are made to fit with a variety of lamps/products as there’s a smaller hole beside the larger hole (that the pole of the arch attaches to the base with) that serves no purpose. I want to also point out that the threaded piece that attaches the pole to the base screws out to be long enough to accommodate the pole, base, and nuts and washers (I saw this complaint mentioned a few times in reviews).

The finish is a very definite brushed nickel. And the poles appear to be heavy-duty enough to hold up to the weight of the metal shade and arch over time. I’m not sure how much the lamp could take if you’ve got a small child who likes to shake things, though. I think it’s definitely worth mentioning that I think rambunctious children could eventually loosen the nuts holding the base intact. (the lamp is heavy which could be a safety concern).

The pole that’s attached into the marble base attaches to the other two “sections” of the arch by simply sliding into place, and screwing a small screw (included) into the predrilled holes. While it’s undoubtedly in place, the construction overall leads me to believe that constant moving of the lamp, or jostling caused by small children, could loosen some of the important joints (as aforementioned).

The middle segment is slightly skinnier than the first. Still the same brushed nickel finish, though. What I’m finding a lot of the reviewers mention, is that the third segment is missing. In fact, it’s actually inside of this second segment. Most people aren’t finding this and are bummed because the lamp doesn’t arch enough and the shade doesn’t point straight down.

In the picture below, I added a rectangular overlay to demonstrate just how crooked the adjoining pieces of the arch are. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem caused by over tightening of the screw or misassembly. So I’m left to believe this is a quality issue.

The third section is a bit tough to pull out, but it’s there and pulls out to fully extend the arch. I don’t have much upper body strength, so I couldn’t figure out if the piece pictured below was meant to be turned to tighten the other piece in place (but, a reviewer said that is indeed what it does). If it is, mine could very well be broken and that’s why I can’t turn it. I’m having no problems with it slipping out of place, though.

Probably the flimsiest part of the whole lamp is the shade. It’s not a single piece, but rather two, as you can probably see by the line below the holes (for the release of heat, if you’re wondering). It’s disappointing, as that’s not obvious in the picture. And the mechanism for attaching the shade to the rest of the lamp isn’t very sturdy. You may be able to see where it didn’t screw properly in place and a sliver of light is showing between the shade and the light socket portion of the lamp.

The rim between the two pieces that made up the shade can be seen below. The lower portion just rests atop the upper piece.

We have 8 foot ceilings in our home. Many reviewers on Amazon mentioned that they thought you’d need at least 9 foot ceilings because the lamp is too overpowering otherwise. I think if you’re looking for this type of lamp, you’re probably looking for a statement piece anyways. So I pulled it out and snapped a photo so you could see it in comparison with my 8 foot ceilings and Broyhill China Cabinet.

We’re in the process of buying pieces and arranging them in our home, so don’t mind the mess, will ya’? Here’s a picture of the lamp in the corner over my fabulous Vintage Swivel Egg Chair. Hopefully this gives you an overall view of it’s size and construction.

Overall, I love the look of the lamp. And for the price, it’s on par with what I expected it to be. It’s functioning, but the quality could be better. But, I could also spend a whole lot more money for one that is better quality. I wanted to point out a lot of what reviewers were complaining about, as the reviews are largely weighed negatively against this lamp because of misinformation. If proper instructions were included, a lot of these negative points would be void. Alas, I’m happy. And if you’re wanting this style of lamp, you may be happy, too!

Did I ever tell you about that one time I bought 3 yards of a faux leather fabric in probably the most perfect color on Amazon? Well, I did. And having never really bought fabric before, I way overestimated how much I needed. So I’ve been thinking of different ways to use the extra fabric and came up with this ultra cute leather fringe banner!

What You’ll Need:

Leather-like material, ruler/yard stick, pencil, scissors

Start by cutting out a rectangle of fabric. Mine is 10 inches tall by 36 inches wide.

Go along one of the long sides and mark 1/4 inch increments. I used the threading on the backside of the fabric as a guide so only had to mark part way. Then mark off about 1 and 1/2 inches on the other long side as a guide for where to stop cutting,

Cut straight lines at those 1/4 inch marks to the stop point. (This would be the time consuming part)

(See that large bundle of leather fabric there in the basic? I’ve still got loads more to work with!) Gold thumb tacks work really well for the weight of the fabric. Just press through the fabric and hold it up on the wall, adjust until you like how it hangs, then press the tacks in place!

Our living room is in that awkard state where we’re still buying and arranging furniture. So please excuse that! It’ll come together soon enough, I can’t wait!

 

 

I thought about hanging up a really cheesy and badly edited picture of it hanging over a white fireplace. I think it would look hella cool hanging across the mantle but, alas, have no fireplace yet. I’m pretty stinkin’ determined to have one eventually, so if you see a good DIY fireplace, send it my way!

I tried out a new thing with curtain making. Naturally, that meant I wanted to share with you my recent DIY curtain adventure today. I have been wanting to play around with tie dye for months now and finally pulled out the kit I’d bought. I used them on the plain canvas drop cloth panels I had hanging up. The results are stellar, I hope you like!

What I Used:

Canvas drop cloth, this “moody blues” tie dye kit, saran wrap, spray bottle with water, and these antique bronze finish drapery clip rings

The curtain rods are DIY.

 

The Process:

First thing I did was run the panels through a rinse cycle in the washer.

The instructions in the kit are pretty much straight forward. I chose the pattern I wanted, which they call “Stripes.” The kit came with rubber bands, which is convenient, but they aren’t very heavy duty for reference. I spaced a few of the rubber bands closer and a few farther a part from one another. I matched up the spacing on the two panels.

Then, I took my saran wrap out, pulled some out, laid the end of one panel onto it. Pulled more saran wrap out and laid more panel onto it. And so on until the whole thing was on saran wrap. I did it in sections so that the saran wrap didn’t bunch up and stick to itself.

Once I added water to the bottles provided with dye in them, I put the plastic gloves on as I figured I’d have to touch the panels a lot to get the dye spread.

I then zig zagged some indigo dye in some sections and turquoise in others.

Immediately after running the dye down, I sprayed over it with the water to spread it out and let it seep. The kit isn’t really designed for large curtain panels so I utilized the water to help the dye reach further into the bunched up fabric.

I then wrapped the saran wrap around the panels and let them sit for just over 24 hours. I dragged them out to the washer and ran them through a rinse cycle. Then through the dryer.

You may or may not want to wash it more than rinsing before putting it through the dryer. It didn’t seem like there was still dye running out of my panels after rinsing, but that may not be the case for you and I don’t want you to tie dye the inside of your dryer.

Once dry, they’re ready to hang!

The rocker is vintage rattan, garden stool was a makeover, sequin pillow I shared on Houseologie, and I’ll talk more about the lamp and plants later on. I’m not digging the lamp in the living room. I feel like it clashes with all the warm undertones in the wood and leather. What do you think?

I was initially worried about the blue on blue in the space but I’m not at all disappointed! I’m very happy with them when I hang out in this space. They feel so me.

The accent pillows here are handmade. I shared the leather pillow on the Love Nerds and I created the gold glitter heart pillow.

 

The panels fit beautifully with our vintage furniture and eclectic finds. I am so excited to share with you all the things coming together in this space. I hope you’re following along, and if you’re not, you should!

Do you dig tie dye?

Welcome back! One of the major purchases for my Home Office decorating/furnishing adventure were the chairs. I wanted the oh-so-popular Eames style chairs for the space. I had been looking on Craigslist for over a year when it came to the final count down to getting the space done, so I started scouring the internet. I’m cheap, facts are facts, and I wanted the cheapest I could find. The cheapest I could find were on Amazon from a few different sellers. So I added them all to my cart, checked them daily for about a month, and bought the one that hit the lowest price point.

That was these guys: Designer Modern Plastic Dining Side Chair WoodLeg Eiffel Base Set of 2

Here are my thoughts:

The Seat: The seat is a semi gloss with texture. The texture is less pronounced than the plastic seats we had in school when we were kids. The color is white, point blank. There is no blue hue. The color stays consistent in both natural and unnatural lighting. The back of the seat has a bit of flex to it. I’m not sure if this is a “flimsy” quality. The edges of the seat are smooth, there is no seam where the mold would have pressed together.

The Legs: The wood legs are a light colored wood (maybe inexpensive pine?). They appear to have a satin finish of some kind that gives them the same textured feel as the plastic seat. The legs are wrapped in a shrink-wrap plastic (I wonder if this is the lacquer finish one of the reviewers was referring to). If you don’t remove the screws in the legs before ripping the plastic off, I personally experienced pieces of plastic stick around these screws that would not pull out.

Construction: Happy to call this a one man job, even with a toddler fiddling with things. However, if you’re not apt to figuring out how to put things together, you may not like that instructions were completely nonexistent. There are two pieces for each chair, the legs and base and the plastic seating portion. Attaching the two is pretty straightforward as there are included screws and an allen wrench. As suggested in the Amazon reviews, I used the felt pads that were initially covering the hardware under the chair, and put them under the legs in order to protect my hardwood floors.

Shipping: I places my order late June 18th, 2014. My order arrived, unharmed, on June 24, 2014. Stellar considering the shipping was FREE.

My Final Thoughts: They finish makes them very easy to clean. Huge bonus for those with pets, children, or messy housemates. The chairs feel absolutely steady, but I have experienced one toppling over while my toddler was playing around on it. I don’t quite blame that on the chair though as he seems to topple off of any furniture (without tipping them though). With these chairs you get a lightweight, well made chair that attaches to a sturdy “Eiffel” style base. There are so many Eames replicas out there with variable reviews and prices and these were the cheapest ones I could find for sale. At $64.50 per chair (shipping and taxes included in that flat price!), and better quality than I expected based on reviews, I couldn’t be happier.

With progress on my Home Office officially over (I love the space, it’s turned out beautifully and you should absolutely check it out!), it feels like the perfect time to go over my radical gold duct tape curtains. I spend more time than I’ll ever admit to watching fashion and beauty Youtubers. One YouTuber in particular who inspired me in this project is Evelina Barry. She’s a fashion Youtuber with an amazing film space. One of the walls she uses to film in front of is white with very cool gold painted chevron accent wall. I already have a Southwestern Inspired Accent Wall in my office, so I thought curtain panels that I could pull together would work best for my needs.

The thought of taping out the design, painting it, then peeling back all that tape felt daunting. I just finished a project like that and just wasn’t feeling up for taking on another project like that so soon. That’s when Jenna LaFevor’s Duct Tape Trim Curtains came to mind. I remembered enjoying her project a while back and I knew I could apply the same concept to my accent wall of curtains.

What I Used 

7 rolls of Gold Duct Tape, Canvas Drop Cloth, Canvas Drop Cloth, Canvas Drop Cloth, Canvas Drop Cloth, Marker

How Long It Took

3 Hours

The Process

I started out by Washing, Drying, and Wrinkle Releasing 2 canvas drop clothes. The “panels” were still pretty wrinkly despite being run through the wrinkle release so I laid them out in the most empty room of our house and flattened them by placing heavy objects along the corners. Once they were flat enough, I used a tape measure to find the center of each side, and a marker to mark that spot.

Once the center point was found, I folded over the side that I wanted to be the top and clipped my rings over the fold. By doing this after marking the center, it created a more diamond shape. I used a tape measure and yard stick to connect center points and lay a piece of duct tape.

Once I had the center points connected, I used my yard stick to create a space between lines of duct tape. The distance used was 1 roll of the yard stick. I did a roll, laid down a line of duct tape, another roll, line of duct, and so on and so forth.

I used the excess tape along the outisde of the panel to my advantage to tape the panels to the floors. The drop clothe would move all over the place as I moved around atop it and taping the edges down like this helped a lot! When I had the design as far as I wanted to take it, I lifted up those edges of tape and folded them under. The corners of the inner diamonds I just snipped to a point with scissors.

Then I hung them up and stood staring at them with a huge grin on my face. I really like them! I think they turned out cooler in person than I had imagined them!

The ripples made when hung are so groovy. I love the shine that the tape provides and the unique way the pattern catches the eye. I bet this would look cool in any of the colored tapes. Perfect for a kid’s room!

I can hardly decide what it is I first want to say and do in front of these cameras. I’m feeling completely inspired and hope you’ll stop by my YouTube channel in the future to see what happens!

This is one of many projects I worked on for my Home Office. My office is pretty stellar if you don’t mind my saying so; Don’t forget to check out some easy DIY projects like the Southwestern Inspired Accent Wall, DIY Vase Lamp, and Gold Rhino with a Giant Paperclip for holding cute pictures and notes!