Upcycled: DIY Chevron Table

A friend of mine lived in a beautiful loft downtown and wanted a 10ft table at a reasonable price. We threw ideas back and forth and eventually landed on a chevron table with a border and pipe legs, like the image below.

Successful trip to home depot, getting all of the above supplies! 

After assembling the legs, setting the plywood/base, I then attached the reclaimed wood in a chevron pattern. 

Halfway done! 

Done with the base and chevron. 

After attaching the border, here is the final product! 

The owner of the table is a photographer and she took an amazing photo the day she had a dinner party. I just had to share! 

Upcycled: Singer Side Table with Live Edge Wood

My friend had a class project on the power of negotiating. She had a great idea to practice her theory by going to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flee Market and purchasing something that caught her eye.

She found an old Singer sewing machine base that lacked a few screws and some love and care. We came up with idea of refurbishing it and using it as a side table. She negotiate the price and then sourced the live-edge wood piece from E&K Vintage Wood in Los Angeles. After acquiring the wood, she fixed up the base and I helped her attach the wood to the base. There is the final result!

It turned out beautiful! 

DIY: Drip Chevron Painting

Last September I went to a "artisans retreat" and I watched an LA painter paint the above piece in less than 20 minutes. Her method was to use watered down color and then spray water (using a spray bottle) over the piece immediately following her strokes. 

As inspired as I was, I wanted to use her technique, but modifying it a little. Instead of creating a flat painting (like the one above), I wanted to create one with texture and noticeable color variations. To me, the above piece was very similar to watercoloring instead of painting.... so cue my second attempt with drip-painting. 

First, select your colors. I decided to stray away from my typical color scheme of grey, blue and gold... adding pink, purple, red, green and periwinkle. Then, I mixed one part acrylic gloss and one part water, creating "cake batter" -like consistency.

I decided to paint with a chevron pattern, alternating colors. Apply pressure where you want your drips.

After I finished, I couldn't decide how I should hang the painting: dripping up or dripping down. My instagram followers voted and said that drips upward is too weird... so it drips down, for now ;)  

DIY: Lia's Headboard

My roommate Lia loved the headboard that I made for myself and asked me to make one for her. My only request was that she help me. In fact, that's the only rule I stick to. If you want something, then you get to spend "QT" (quality time) with me and we'll do it together. 

Lia and I went early to Home Depot and picked out "fence wood" for her headboard. We had everything cut (including the plywood) and then brought it back to our apartment. 

Side-note: remember your transportation. Thankfully HD in Marina Del Rey was used to people with small cars. Thank goodness for shrink-wrap! 

We built the frame (the exact same measurements/layout as my first headboard) and then attached the plywood on top.

Here's where the story gets funny. I absolutely love recycling wood... so I found a large crate in an alley and brought it with us to use for her headboard. The only thing is that you have to take out all of the rusty nails in order to use the wood. As we were pulling out the nails, my finger slipped and a nail went straight through my thumb. I actually saw the nail on the backside of my thumbnail...

Below is the photo of us before we started sawing, drilling, removing nails and getting tetanus. 

We continued on and ended up with a beautiful 1/8th reclaimed wood headboard and me with a bum thumb. 

The next day however, I woke up with a slight fever, headache and back pain. I called my mom and asked her to look in my medical file for my last tetanus shot. It was out of date, which means that I could have been showing signs of tetanus... or I could have just been hallucinating. Either way I wasn't going to risk it. Lia, being a good sport and supporting my decision to get a shot, decided to go with me and get a booster. 

We then returned to the headboard, sanded down the fence wood and carried it into her bedroom. 

It looks absolutely beautiful in her new room and she loves it!