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"Design*Sponge" - 6 new articles

  1. upholstery basics: upholstered walls, part 1
  2. before & after: brick & mortar cupcake shop redo
  3. before & after: refinished dresser + card catalog
  4. tommaso guerra
  5. Malin Appelgren Paulsson
  6. Nuria Mora
  7. Search Design*Sponge
  8. Prior Mailing Archive

upholstery basics: upholstered walls, part 1

When we gathered here last time, we turned an uninspired coffee table into a boxed ottoman, and January brought us boxed cushion sewing. This month, I thought we’d think inside the box for a change and tackle one of the biggest upholstery projects to cross my path: upholstered walls! About a month ago, I moved into a house that my hubby and I have been renovating for over a year. There’s still a lot left to finish, but my current project is transforming the master suite into a serene, shimmery boudoir. Alas! I came across Norbar’s Monty in Silver (available at Spruce), a metallic, glazed linen that is very reasonably priced (I needed 80 yards!) and just the right amount of sparkle. I packed up the workshop, headed to the house and emerged a week later with plush upholstered walls. — Amanda

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Read the full how-to after the jump . . .

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before & after: brick & mortar cupcake shop redo

One thing I miss most about living on the East Coast is seeing brick interiors. If I were opening a place in Oakland, I would follow the brilliant example set by the Flirty Cupcakes shop in Chicago and expose as much brick as possible. Renovated by architect Matt Nardella of Moss Design, this new space has incredible warmth, charm and history. I love the contrast of the clean, smoothly tiled display cases and the rough salvaged pieces. The candy-colored oven door display on the wall is just the icing on this already delectable cupcake (shop). Congrats on the new space, Emily! — Kate

Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)

emily_before2 emily_after2 emily_before emily_after emily_after3 emily_after4 emily_after6

Read the full post after the jump . . .

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before & after: refinished dresser + card catalog

I used to be sheepish about painting pieces dark colors, but after seeing how beautiful Grace’s dining chairs look in the new D*S office — elegant and dramatic in a fresh coat of midnight gray blue — I’m completely convinced that it can be done well. These two projects are further proof of the transformative power of dark hues. The before and after comparison of this dresser makeover from San Francisco-based graphic designer Kate Koeppel is like day and night, almost literally. The modern bronze handles look fantastic against the new graphite color, and this piece suddenly has an understated chicness that it simply couldn’t achieve in its former gilded state. Amazing job, Kate! — Kate

Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)

Time: 10–12 hours (not including drying time)

Cost: $200 total (including a few tools, sandpaper, paint, hardware and the dresser itself for $100)

Basic Steps: Over the course of two weekends, we sanded, primed and painted — the sanding portion of our project took quite a few hours — using both the electric sander and working by hand on all the curved and carved parts. After sanding and wiping the whole thing down inside and out, we primed the dresser with two coats, sanding lightly between coats. We let the primer cure for 48 hours, then wiped the whole dresser down again to get rid of stray dust and help ensure a very smooth surface for the final paint color.

We used sponge cabinet rollers to get a really smooth coat and an angled sponge to get into all the carved details without leaving any brush strokes. We picked a satin eggshell finish, after finally settling on Benjamin Moore “Gray.” Again, the dresser needed two coats of paint, and we sanded lightly between coats to keep the final finish smooth.

My advice would be to always vacuum the piece of furniture and do a quick moist wipe down with a cloth or sponge between sanding and painting at each step, and always do a little fine-grit sanding between the final coats to ensure a very smooth finish. I’d also recommend having a partner painting with you, to make the job go faster, and to help each other maneuver the furniture to get the hard-to-reach cracks and tight spots when painting and sanding! — Kate Koeppel

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See Laura’s card catalog renovation after the jump!

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tommaso guerra


I’m a big fan of public art, whether it’s planned or spontaneous. I love that it sends a message to every single person walking by and transforms something public and shared (like a street) into a giant communal canvas. These chalk-art pieces were created by artist Tommaso Guerra and are dedicated to spreading pro-bike messages in urban areas. In addition to these beautiful typographic works, Tommaso has created some lovely book covers, as well. If you’re interested in checking out more of his work, you can view his site here, or find some of my favorite projects of his here, herehere and here. xo, grace


al-corso_04 al-corso_05 door_big linda01 linda02 linda03 giacomo_01 giacomo_02 filosofia_big

More of Tommaso’s work after the jump (check out the tissue paper piece for sure!) . . .

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Malin Appelgren Paulsson


There’s something about the way hand-beaten brass reflects light that makes it simply irresistible. These gorgeous sconces are from Swedish metalsmith Malin Appelgren Paulsson. Trained by her grandfather, who designed sconces for King Gustav V in the early 1930s, Malin now produces these sconces in brass and pewter. I love how simple but sophisticated they are. Pieces like this effortlessly straddle the line between traditional and modern, making them worth the investment. And the fact that you can see each of Malin’s 3,000 hammer hits (and her grandfather’s maker’s stamp) gives them a truly handmade feel that shows just how much time went into them. If you’re interested in checking out Malin’s sconces, you can contact The Shop Floor Project for details and purchasing. xo, grace


 


Nuria Mora


I’m packing up this morning for a quick trip back to Austin for SXSW and our panel on the future of lifestyle media (stop by if you’re in town!). My brain is racing with things I need to finish, so I thought I’d start by sharing some amazing eye candy in the form of a paper art installation. Created by Nuria Mora, this fantastic installation was created for the ARCO fair and includes dozens upon dozens of geometric paper shapes. I’d be happy to live or work inside that installation for a while, but these pictures are a good start. To see more and watch the installation created from start to finish, click here. xo, grace




 


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