As you know I try to be a source of design advice, and a trend I can’t help but notice is using multiple end tables as a coffee table instead of one big one. Me likey. I have this vision for the perfectly proportioned coffee table to my living room, and since the room is so ginormous, an incorrectly sized coffee table could really throw the room off. However, since I’m still scouring Craigslist for a coffee table to refinish these are only pipe dreams, unless I find a table that would work in a grouping.
{Image source: Lotta Agaton}
- Nuevo Estilo
- Lotta Agaton
- Apartment Therapy – Claire’s Unique Space
- Overstock Bunch Metal Cocktail Tables
- El Mueble
- Bubbel Soda Tumblr
Here are a few tables that you might to look at want if you’re considering this trend.
From top right: 1. Wildon Home Danville End Table Trunk $124.99, 2. angelo:HOME Bowery Coffee Table $291.99, 3. Wildon Home Julian Cocktail $271.99, 4. PS 2012 Coffee Table $49.99, 5. Indoor/Outdoor Round Metal Accent Table $62.44
Are you feeling the multiple coffee table look? I’m especially partial to the rustic/industrial table pairing, even though that completely wouldn’t match. I guess I’ve just always had a special place in my heart for the industrial look.
{Image source: Triangle Honeymoon}
Buffet: A serving piece with drawers and/or open shelves for displaying and storing plates and silver. Buffets were “invented” around the 19th century when banquets evolved to a dinner party with dishes served on a sideboard.
I really don’t remember using them often as a food server, but they have always been a storage staple in my family. Typically we used only used it as a literal buffet table was during large family gatherings around the holidays. My entryway is small, and so is my dining room, so it wouldn’t be practical of me to incorporate a piece like this at this time. However, once I outgrow this house (hopefully not anytime soon) I’m sure I’ll wind up adding one to my furniture lineup.
{Image source: Young House Love}
{Image source: Overstock}
Do you use sideboards and buffets in your house? What do you use them for? Mainly for storage with an occasional sprinkling of buffet action around the holidays like my family? Or is every night a sideboard-laden-with-food kinda night?
It’s been a while since I’ve gone through some geeky stuff about furniture.
Drop Leaf: A table with hinged leaves that can be lowered or raised when not in use, often on a dining table, desk, or occasional table.
{Image source: Decor Pad}
{Image source: Daisy Mae Belle}
From top right: 1. Drop Leaf Dining Table $279.99, 2. Uttermost Harrison Table Lamp $272.99, 3. Kottebo Basket $16.99, and 4. Ceramic Owls $9.00 – $16.00
{Image source: Design Sponge}
From top right: 1. Grass in Silver Pot $39.95, 2. Scoop-Back Chair $99.00, 3. Organized Abstraction II Print $99.95, 4. Hand Carved Drop Front Desk $399.99, and 5. iDesign Wavez Wastebasket $12.99
Wish I had the room for one of these looks, I would set it all up right behind my purple couch.
Many of you already know that I’ve had a design crush on Mrs. Hilari Younger of Design Star. It started back in season 6 when I picked my two designers I thought might win, one of them being Hilari Younger from Dallas. Well, unfortunately I was close but she lost in the second to last episode. When I found out she would be returning on the next season as part of the All Stars cast I was pretty pumped and needless to say cheered her on again. Last week, last Tuesday in fact, I was invited to a private VIP viewing of Design Star All Stars hosted by none other than Hilari Younger!
Really this was such a fun opportunity to get a chance to meet Hilari and some of her fans. Yep, that below, that’s me and Hilari. You know how people always say that TV personalities/celebrities seem taller in person? True that. I’m wearing my tallest pair of wedges and she’s still like a half-foot taller than me.
The event was held in a theater in Highland Park Village. 
The snack bar kind of reminded me of one of those vintage snack bars from the movies, all colorful and lit up. It was very cheery.
They also had this swanky little bar-lounge areas that I found really pretty. We didn’t spend any time in here but it was pretty nonetheless.
Most of the evening was spent in the lobby, or in the theater. There were leopard print bags of popcorn set up (kettle and regular..ohh-la-la) and complimentary champagne was served as well.
I spent most of the meet and greet taking photos of Hilari with her fans, friends, and family. She was a busy bee, and was obviously the type of person that would take a moment to say hi to each and every person that came out for her viewing which I found very refreshing.
I met her husband and he was such a nice guy, aren’t they a cute couple?
After about an hour of chit-chat we all got settled in to watch the second to last episode of Design Star All Stars.
She made it through the episode and since we were watching it live we still had to deal with commercials. She took the commercials as an opportunity to get feedback from us in the audience about the episode. It was a great episode by the way, the were asked to reinterpret the design of the set from the show “The Facts of Life”. I really I didn’t like the fact that they had to work in teams; I think that late in the season the should be doing solely single challenges, but that’s just me.
This was Hilari’s Room with DanVickery (he’s such a cutie-pa-tootie!) In my humble opinion, the green with the orange was too much. The color palate kind of reminded me of the losing room from the first episode of season six from Design Star. The wallpaper was wonderful though and so were all of the furniture choices. Hilari never ceased to amaze me with her incredible couch finds throughout her two seasons on Design Star.
{Image Source: Bromstad.com}
The second team consisted of Leslie Ezelle and Tom Vecchione.The color scheme was a little easier on my eyes…..but I felt a little bored by the room in general. I’m definitely not saying I could do it better but I think I expected more of a wow factor.
{Image Source: Bromstad.com}
After the episode Hilari did some Q & A where I asked a few questions myself and took a little video of her answering others.
Me: “You seem very talkative and charismatic in person, but did you find it hard to be on camera at first? Like, would you ever feel ‘camera shy’”?
Hilari: “Hmmm, yes and no. Sort of, it took some time getting used to it, but once I could think of the audience behind the camera it got a lot easier.”
(This question she really liked, which made me really happy)
Me: “What was your best moment, the room or project you were most proud of in all your episodes, including season six up until this point we watched tonight?”
Hilari: “Thats a good question! Hmm, I’ll have to think about that one. That’s a really good question. [guy in the audience shouts: "PVC pipe!"] Yeah, I think that might have been my favorite project, the PVC pipe from season six.”
After her Q & A, she showed us some of her pillows from her collection.
Her interior design company is called Ufunkshen, and I believe you can purchase her pillows as well as her interior design services through her website, or at least get in contact with her. She was truly just as funny in person as she was on the show. I’m so glad I had the chance to meet her and I wish her nothing but success in her up coming ventures!
I have ton of photos from that night so take a look through the gallery to see more of Hilari Younger.
We’ve all been there before, you see an awesome find at a thrift store and you snatch it up. Then you get home, and you start crafting your plan to make it like new again. What’s the first thing you consider? For me, it’s how to remake a piece into something that I love and fits my style while still maintaining its antique personality. I’ve often found furniture that I knew was A) not from this time period, and B) had no idea idea where it was from. How do you go about finding out where it’s from? When one of my coworkers came to me for help with a set of vintage chairs with an unknown history I figured it would be helpful to show you how we found out about them. I’ve come to think of her as my “Dumpster Diving Partner In Crime”. You might remember some of her other thrift/junk finds such as her couch she reupholstered a while back or the table she refinished for a pinterest project.
Christi purchased six of these chairs for a great price. They have this brassy/silvery metal structure supporting the very orange-y chair cushions. They for sure look dated, so before Christi could form a plan of action for new fabric choices/metal finishes, she wanted a general time period for them.
We took several steps for our research of these chairs.
1) Turn to the internet. I began by googling around using general terms describing the chairs. I tried long phrases “old chair with gold plated metal base with orange velvet fabric” and general short descriptors “orange chair.” This step helped me figure out that these chairs were most likely from the 70′s. I pretty much had an inkling of that already, I mean that orange fabric was a pretty big giveaway. I was still confused about the base though. Was it an a reference to art deco? I wasn’t sure so I moved on from my internet research.
2) Used one of my furniture contacts. Several months ago I purchased a vintage record cabinet from a mid-century furniture dealer. I was impressed by his collection when I went to pick it up and I’ve held onto his information in case I should ever need anything else. I sent him a text asking if he had ever come across chairs like this in his dealings.
At this point I thought I might have something. Milo Baughman sounded promising. I put in a search and turned up a few images that resembled Christi’s mystery chairs.
However, I wasn’t completely satisfied. So…
3) I turned to the experts. One of the leading schools in furniture and design is High Point University in North Carolina. I went and browsed through the website and picked one of the emails listed under the school of interior design. It just so happened to be the dean of the school….of course. I couldn’t believe it but he was nice enough to forward my inquiry to the correct contact and they responded about a week later.
Hi Shannon,
Scott Raynor forwarded me your inquiry about the chairs. I have asked a few people and we are thinking these might be from the 1970s, maybe early 80s. A brass/gold finish was not particularly popular at mid-century and most of the metal was round in section. We are asking one other individual what their opinion is. I assume there are no manufacturer marks on the chairs?You may want to contact the factually at Kendall. They have a strong furniture design program as well.
Regards,
John Turpin
I presented all of my findings to Christi about her chairs, so she’s starting to get a better idea about how she wants to proceed with their makeover. One option that we didn’t turn to was to use the aid of a library. There are many resources on the history of furniture that are not accessible online.
Hopefully she’ll share her project soon. If your having a problem identifying furniture send me an email to info@compartmentlife.com and I’ll do my best to figure it out for you. Has anyone ever seen these chairs before?
We hear the phrase reclaimed wood thrown around a lot these days. You can’t watch a show on HGTV without hearing it at least once. I mean, I literally heard it 9 times in one episode, and I remember thinking “is all old wood just reclaimed wood”? I mean it sounds great, kinda like it’s an old piece of history that has been restored and made new again. So, how do you know if you’re actually dealing with reclaimed wood?
Image from The Woods Company
Reclaimed wood, from the research I did, must be wood that has been used for a previous purpose. The most common example of that would be an old barn or farm house, but it can be any building previously constructed with lumber. Workers then deconstruct these buildings and manually remove screws and nails to reuse the wood. It’s a fantastic way relieving some of the forests from over forestation and using what we already have, not to mention it keeps some of those materials from winding up in landfills.
Image from The Woods Company
Most of the information I found came from calling companies that specialize in sourcing reclaimed wood. Many were very eager to share their information and direct me to additional sources that were trusted and responsible reclaimed wood companies. One employee even told me that often with a deconstruction of an outdated building they’ll remove up to 500,000 feet of usable wood.
Image from The Woods Company
Reclaimed wood can often be confused with aged wood. Many people want to achieve the reclaimed wood look by purchasing lumber and leaving it out in the elements to age the wood and make it look weathered. I’ve seen DIY bloggers also physically add character to their lumber purchases by distressing wood with hammers, nails, and even using a staining technique. There’s nothing truly wrong with these methods, however, it shouldn’t be labeled reclaimed wood.
Antique wood can be used for floors or or any type of furniture such as coffee and console tables. The special things about this type of wood is the details in the grain of the wood, and sometime you’ll notice knots and rings from the original tree. Reclaimed wood, especially in flooring seems so much warmer to me, it’s like you’re walking back in time. Recently, I read an article that mentioned having at least one old thing in each of your rooms to add interest to a space. I definitely think reclaimed wood would count as something old.
Image from The Woods Company
You can really create the “it factor” for you space by adding reclaimed wood to your home, but make sure what you’re using is actually reclaimed wood and not just aged wood. Call around for local companies to talk to about where their products come from.
Today’s post was graciously written by Amy from the blog Triangle Honeymoon. I fell prey to checking her blog everyday when I learned that similar to myself, she babies her pups like there’s no tomorrow and shares a love of DIY projects. I asked her to give us a rundown of her blog and how she manages to stay so composed when she’s living a life that has so much going on.
Over two months ago Shannon asked if I would be interested in writing an article regarding the DIY blog slash real job balancing act. Of course I jumped at the chance. Having taken about two months to put this information together, I’ve come to realize that perhaps even I don’t have it all figured out. I do have tips though. As a pretty active DIY blogger, who also works full time and overtime in the real world, I have picked up some tricks along the way to help manage the work, the home, the projects, and the posting.
- Find a routine. Try to set aside the same time every day or every week to dedicate to your blog. This doesn’t have to be a long period of time, but just establishing consistency will help keep you on track and motivated. Use this same time for checking comments, replying to reader e-mails, uploading photos etc. My time is the last hour or so before I go to bed each night. I also carry a small notebook with me everywhere so I can jot down ideas for posts and projects as they come to me.
- Make a plan. In addition to needing time to write, I write a blog mostly about DIY. So, I need to save a few hours in every weekend just to work on projects so that I have something to write about. This doesn’t work all the time, but that’s always the plan. Making a list earlier in the week of what you want to accomplish and what supplies will be needed will also save you time. I try to shop for paint or other supplies during my lunch break, or immediately after work, so that come Saturday morning I’m ready to go.
- Establish some structure. Whether you write about DIY, food, or travel, it can be helpful to establish columns or regular features on your blog like “Wine Wednesday” or “Fashion Friday.” It doesn’t mean that you cannot write about other topics on those days or that you have to write these features every week but having some good go-to topics can help you muddle past the inevitable case of writer’s block.
- Use technology to your advantage. You don’t need an iPad in your purse to be an efficient blogger, but using features of your phone or tools of the internet that are already available to you can make an enormous difference in your productivity. The camera phone is a no-brainer. Snap away whenever you’re inspired, and use your regular blogging time to develop posts around those images. Use pinboards on Pinterest to keep track of your upcoming posts and ideas. There are also tons of apps out there that make your life easier if you just find them and use them. I write a lot of posts about Etsy items, eBay items, home décor, paint, etc. Searching an Etsy app over your lunch break and tracking items that speak to you can be an efficient way to avoid the time suck of web surfing for ideas later in the day. Also, get to know your blogging platform well and use the widgets and add-ons that are at your disposal. One of the greatest tools of WordPress that I use almost every day is the scheduling feature for posting. Most of my posts are written over the weekend or in the evening, but I schedule them to post first thing in the morning or in the afternoon when readership is higher but my time is spoken for.
- Get social. If you’ve taken the time to set up a whole website devoted to your business or thoughts on life, I’d imagine that many of you also have Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you don’t, consider adding this to your repertoire. Social media is a great way to keep the conversation going with your readers even when you don’t have the time to sit and write a lengthy blog post. Tweeting photos and small bits of information throughout your day can grow your readership and help those reading feel an even stronger connection to you as a writer.
- Don’t mix your work or life demands with your blog. Use work time for work time, family time for family time and blog time for blog time. As important as it is to set aside time to blog, it’s equally as important to not overdo the blogging. You don’t want to become unproductive from 9-5 simply because you’re obsessed with your blog stats. Remember what pays the bills. And you don’t want to neglect your family or other responsibilities for the same reason. What does this mean? Sometimes you’ll have to say no to someone. It’s bound to happen so go ahead and get comfortable with the idea.
The moral of the story? Compartmentalizing your goals and time is the key to keeping the ship afloat. All of this coming from a girl who took two months to write one post.
Again, a major thanks to Amy from Triangle Honeymoon for writing this post for me. I hope you all learned a little something to help you all with your blogs, I know I did. Please stop by her blog sometime today and leave her some love! Feel free to share any additional tips or tricks below in the comments section!
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