Squares and stripes

First of all...bear with me. This is my sister dancing with Donnie. (About 30 seconds in.)

Warning: Turn down the volume unless you are a fan. Lots and lots and LOTS of screaming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Qth0Rp0Jo

Sniff. I'm so proud!! Oddly enough, she was only up there for 20 seconds or so. It felt like four minutes while we were there. This is a good thing, because it means I was only standing there frozen like a total dweeb for less than a minute. Good stuff.

OK, so let's move on. The long awaited squares and stripes post, which works well for this time of year (stars and stripes...get it??). It's really not rocket science, and yet again, there will collective "DUH." when you're done reading, but I like to share so I'm sharing. OK? OK.
First, the squares. The two items you must have for squares and stripes is a level (either the one below or a laser level that sends a beam of light straight down the wall) and blue painters tape. For this wall, I used two inch painters tape for the whole wall. I used the white wall as the background, but if you want a color, you'll need to paint it that color first.
Then, the measurements all depend on the size of squares that you want, or how many rows/columns you want. Say your wall is 127 inches -- and you want six columns of squares. You'll subtract two inches for each end of the wall, and each two inch space between each column -- basically each spot the painters tape will go.

Like this:
127 inch wall
six columns equals seven two inch sections (on each end of the wall and between each column)
7 sections x 2 inches (for painters tape)=14 inches
127 inches - 14 inches= 115 inches
Now divide 115 by six (for six columns)= each column would be 19.16 inches wide.

Do the same for the rows up and down as well. I know I made this seem complicated and it's really not that bad. It may take you a few tries to get the right measurements -- it did me. The rest is easy, it just takes time.

I hope that made sense! After you've figured out your measurements, you'll just need to measure off your wall. I use a yard stick, with the measurement marked, and I keep moving it down the wall, marking, say, 19.16 inches up and down the wall. Then take the level and use it to make straight lines on the wall vertically and horizontally.

Take your blue painters tape and run it along the lines. You can use the laser level and put the paint along the laser line, (this is how I do it) or you can put a light pencil line down the wall and then tape that off. To make sure no paint bleeds under the tape, I've heard many tricks, but all I do is take my thumbnail and run it down each side of the tape. You can also use a credit card or pan scraper. It works every time for me.

For stripes, my little trick is to use the yard stick again. In our son's room, I wanted the stripes in different widths -- two, seven, three and five inches. I did all the painting before the chair rail was put up, so the top of the stripes doesn't have to be perfect. Before I started, I marked the measurements and colors on my yard stick, and then used the painter's tape to hang the yard stick on the wall:


Using the marks on the yard stick, I used the level and painters tape to put the stripes down the wall. With stripes, you can't do all of them at once. My wall was cream, so that stripe was done. I had to paint three other colors, so I did the dark and medium green first, let it dry (I did NOT wait as long as they recommend and you don't need to) and did a quick second coat. Then I pulled off the tape and the next day did the third, lightest green by reapplying painters tape on each side of that stripe and painting:
Of course, the more colors, the longer it takes. It seems complicated and again, it's not. The great thing about varying stripes is you don't have to measure the wall like with squares. Just figure out what look you want and go. Once you get going, it will go surprisingly fast. Surprisingly. Swear. Pinky swear.

I taped off most of the stripes in my son's room within a couple hours, and the total paint time was probably a few hours.

I did stripes on one wall in our bedroom as well:
This was done by just painting the wall the base color, then taping off one foot columns and painting a shimmer glaze over the base. It's a really subtle look and I absolutely love it.

My biggest tip when using painters tape -- take the tape off when the paint is still damp if at all possible!! I've heard from professionals to keep it on till the paint is dry, but when I've done that, it makes a mess. The lines turn out awful, because the tape pulls up little pieces of the paint. When it's damp the tape comes right off, leaving a clean line.

If you have any other tips for a clean line or painting stripes/squares, please leave them in the comments! I know many of you have textured walls and I know it can be done, I've just never tried it. ;) I appreciate any other thoughts!!

It takes some patience, but the result is so custom and beautiful, you won't regret it!

P.S. I went to the best antiques shop in Indiana today and whoooeee, I have some eye candy for you later this week!! If you follow me on Twitter, you have already seen some of them. Fabulous!!!

Bob Collins at Todd Romano

It's funny when an answer to one of your questions falls in your lap. I've been trying to find out who represents Bob Collins & Sons in New York and just I found out that Todd Romano has recently started carrying the line of fabulous fabrics and wallpapers. You might not know the name Bob Collins but I can bet you've seen the wallpapers used in rooms by the some of the top interior designers as seen below. It was so much fun to be able to check out all the patterns in person and even though none of them seem right for any of my current projects I will definitely be filing them away for a future project! They are really fabulous and you should check them out too!


Bamboo Birds as used by Albert Hadley

Bamboo Birds as used by Kelly Wearstler

Chinese Lattice as used by Kelly Wearstler

Chinese Lattice as used by Meg Braff

Chinese Lattice as used by Kelly Wearstler

Cheers, it's a Kegerator!

Gill pulls a perfect pint with this hack.

"My husband and I took an old commercial fridge, and refinished it, to become a kegerator. We hit the As-is section of Ikea for the counter top (paid $30), and the rails are actually Enhit curtain rods (not on website), marked down to $4.99. Works perfectly!"

Antony Todd on Sale

Antony Todd has exquisite taste and now that eponymous shop is having a sale, you may actually be able to afford a few of his impeccable choices. Items that are 25-40% off are marked with a tag. Everything else is regular price. Don't forget to peek downstairs. You won't see Antony since he's in Europe but you will find more of his treasures. Bonne Chance!







Antony Todd
44 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10013
212-529-3252


Photos by Heather Clawson

It. was. awesome.

Oh my goodness people. I cannot even tell you how. much. fun. we had last night. I'm not even kidding. It was the time of my life!!! First, some pictures, and then you'll just die at the story at the end!!!!

Our seats were AWESOME, thanks to a former coworker of my sister/second cousin of my best friend (long story). We were right behind the sound stage. Thank God I'm 11 feet tall:

I kept standing on the railing around the sound stage, making me about twelve feet tall. The security guys were giving me the stink eye and a stern "GET. DOWN." look quite often. Whateva dudes. I waited 18 years for this:
Jared the Subway guy knew someone in the band and sat right in front of us. My goober adorable best friend and sister got pictures with him:
We went ALL OUT and got a limo -- here's a few shots. Me and my sis:
My hawty hawt shoes:
(Yes. I have blisters.)
My and my BFF. We've been best friends for about 23 years. Five NK's concerts together, and I wouldn't want to go with anyone else:
And a self portrait with the massive crowd behind us!!
So GET THIS. Before the show, my BF is Twittering Donnie (to my fellow twitterers (?) I'm sorry for the goofy posts last night!) and just to be funny, I twitter him our section, row and seats and tell him to come out to see us (we heard earlier that they come out in the crowd.)

Later in the show, the lights go down and all the sudden the guys are all spread out in the crowd. Donnie is immediately to our right, about five feet away. My sis and BF are over there in two seconds. I turn around and Joe is to my left, about five feet away as well. The seas parted and crazed girls grown women went screaming to each side of me. I stood like a goofball right smack in the middle, by myself, freaking out -- which way to go???

I was frozen. I couldn't decide. (Ladies, they were both smokin' hot. Smokin'.) I look over to the right at Donnie and there's this cute chick dancing with him, and I'm like, oh, she's cute! Oh, I hate her. Oh, she's cute though. But oh wait, look, there's Joe! Right there. Geez, that girl is still dancing with Donnie! I still don't know which way to go. Frozen.

I look over again...it hits me....
MY SISTER IS DANCING WITH DONNIE WAHLBERG. Wait. What? MY SISTER IS DANCING WITH DONNIE WAHLBERG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was the most surreal experience of my life. I run over there, get on a chair and am about three feet from Donnie, eye level....

And I don't have a camera. Nothing. My phone had long died, I didn't bring in my camera, I had no idea where the other cameras were. I could have gotten the most amazing pictures of Joe and Donnie if I had one. I am hating myself right now!!

I don't even know if they get twitters from fans, but we thought it was so odd that he ended up right next to us. :) It was fantastic. My best friend has been a Donnie fan for 20 years and held his hand. We felt like we were 15 again, only better. :) It was the best concert I've ever been to, hands down. There are only about ten more concerts -- if you are not sure about going -- you MUST. You won't regret it. They know how to entertain!!

Thanks for letting me gush!! I feel like you are all my friends, so I had to share the night with you! And a big thanks to those of you who could care less about former teeny boppers for putting up with me lately. I swear, no more about it -- back to painting, crafting, decorating....I promise. :)

At Home in Argentina

I received a lot of responses to the post on Etiqueta Negra store post. Seems many of you have been to the store in Buenos Aires and really loved it. You may also enjoy a peek inside the Buenos Aires country home of the owners Paula Cahen D'Anvers and Federico Alvarez Castillo that was published in the January 2005 issue of World of Interiors. What I love is the down to earth realness of the interiors. It's not over done or fancy. It looks like a truly relaxing weekend country home full of treasures found at "flea markets, antique shops and junk shops." The article mentions that the family has a saying, "a happy man's home is never finished." I think that all of us collectors can relate to. Enjoy!











Photos by Ricardo Labougle

Compact music studio

Matt downsizes his studio gear with a rolling drawer system.

He says, "For the longest time I was using 2 tables for my studio gear and it wasn't until I moved to an apartment that size became an issue. So I figured out a way to put all my gear together right in front of me. What we have here is 9 Vika Curry legs and 2 Vika Amon table tops and a home made keyboard pull out shelf with drawer rollers.




First I cut one of the table tops 15'' length ways. I took 4 vika curry legs and cut them down to 14''. These support the half table top above. I used a drawer roller system to mount my pull out keyboard under the table and I added a 5th leg in the middle to help support all the weight."

Related hack:
- James' minimalist music desk

Check out this stream