Rustoleum Enamel

Are you sick of me <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-heart-oil-based-paints.html" target="_blank">professing my love</a> of oil-based paints yet? :) When I want a custom color mixed, I use Benjamin Moore's or Sherwin-Williams' Porch and Floor paint, but if I'm at Home Depot and need a pretty basic color, I reach for the quarts of pre-mixed Rustoleum Enamel.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_0258.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/IMG_0258.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>I've used their <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/02/adding-mirror-to-cabinet-doors.html" target="_blank">blue</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo IMG_0812-2.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/IMG_0812-2.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br /><a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/12/entry-progress-bright-red-secretary.html" target="_blank">Red</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 2DSC_0302.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/2DSC_0302.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br /><a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/03/make-shift-dining-room-hutch.html" target="_blank">White</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo DSC_0269.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/DSC_0269.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br /><a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/02/painting-laminate-bathroom-cabinets.html" target="_blank">Black</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo DSC_0377.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/DSC_0377.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />and <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/03/diy-campaign-style-kitchen-island.html" target="_blank">Gray</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo 2DSC_0026.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/2DSC_0026.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />Eileen from <a href="http://www.acreativedayblog.com/" target="_blank">A Creative Day</a> was adventurous and tried out the Hunter Green Rustoleum recently and emailed me the results. Check out this beautiful color!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo rustoleum.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/rustoleum.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo EMERALDCHEST1.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/EMERALDCHEST1.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm itching to use it myself now! Such a pretty shade of emerald!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" photo emeraldchest2.jpg" border="0" src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album4/emeraldchest2.jpg" /></div>

Rustoleum Enamel

Are you sick of me professing my love of oil-based paints yet? :) When I want a custom color mixed, I use Benjamin Moore's or Sherwin-W...

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Organizing Books by Color AND by Genre

We love books and have a little bit of a <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-billy-bookshelves-look-like_7.html#more" target="_blank">book-buying problem</a> in the Komenda family. It goes without saying that it doesn't cut it for us to organize our books only by color - that way it would be impossible to find a specific book! And anyway, I think it can look a little forced when huge amounts of books are strictly placed in severe blocks of graduated color. You know what I mean? So while I appreciated the strict <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/08/diy-arched-bookshelves.html" target="_blank">by-genre organization in the bookshelf wall</a> in our loft, with our <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/01/making-billy-bookshelves-look-like_7.html#more" target="_blank">new bookshelf wall</a> in the brownstone, this time front and center in our living room, I decided to experiment with the organization a little.<br /><br />I've decided I have found the perfect-for-me way to organize books - and it is so, so simple. Here are the steps:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/2closeup.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><a name="more"></a><br /><br />1) <b>Decide where you want the biggest, chunkiest books to sit on your shelves.</b><br /><br />My biggest books are art and design books and a couple of atlases and an old family set of encyclopedias. I went with most of these flanking either side of the fireplace. The atlases and encyclopedias went up on the highest shelves, since they are rarely looked at. (Except for one giant atlas that we keep on the <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/10/coffee-table-makeover.html" target="_blank">coffee table</a>.)<br /><br />2) <b>Before shelving anything, make piles of your books by genre.</b><br /><br />We wanted our genre sections to be pretty specific so we could easily locate a book. We had to go past the fiction/non-fiction route. Our genre piles went like this: Classic Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Art/Design, Religion, Lifestyle (cooking, hobby, crafting, gardening), Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Law.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/Shelves1.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>1 - Contemporary Fiction  //  2 - Art and Design  //  3 - Lifestyle  //  4 - Religion</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>3) <b>Organize the individual genre piles by color and while shelving, pay attention to size.</b><br /><b><br /></b>When you're dealing with a large number of books in one place, you can give the eye a chance to rest when there are blocks of just a few colors.  So it became rare for a single shelf to see the full ROYGBIV spectrum - most of the time each shelf was only two or three main colors. And I tried to be loose about the colors. I cared a little more about matching sizes than color shades, and I think that helps the overall look feel a little less uptight. If I had been really strict about keeping the colors in the exact right spot, the spine lengths would have been all over the place, which looks sloppy to me. Also, by being a little flexible with color, I could easily alternate the piles between horizontal widths and vertical stacks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/shelves2.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>5 - Classics Fiction  //  6 - Political  //  7 - Design and Travel</i><i>  //  8 - Economics and Philosophy  //  9 - Law</i></div><br />And that's it! I am so sold on these simple steps to artfully and functionally organize bookshelves. I've tried the tricks on two more bookshelves since doing my own, and I've been just as satisfied with the results. Isn't it the best when form and function work together?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/DSC_0133-1.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div>

Organizing Books by Color AND by Genre

We love books and have a little bit of a book-buying problem in the Komenda family. It goes without saying that it doesn't cut it for u...

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Using Painter's Tape for Mapping Out Furniture

Did I tell you we bought a dining table?? Remember I was in love with <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/10/searching-for-round-dining-table.html" target="_blank">this octagonal Widdicomb table</a>? Well, I thought long and hard about making my own version. I priced out the right wood and brainstormed how I would do it. Ultimately I decided it was too risky. The wood alone was going to cost hundreds of dollars and I wasn't sure that it would look perfect in the end. We needed a table we could use all day long, everyday. I think that sometimes, especially with the bigger stuff, it's best to buy, not DIY.<br /><br />Luckily, I was doing some shopping for a client that week and had to stop in to Two Jakes in Williamsburg. I rounded the corner and saw this:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/ScreenShot2012-11-01at14913AM.png" /></div><br />I loved the color of the wood and the shape reminded me so much of the Gibbings table, but I didn't really think more about it since it was just a desk.<br /><br />Then I made my way to the back of the store, and BAM! Another desk! Now, two desks do not always a table make, so I asked the nice and vey knowledgable owner (who I assume is named Jake?) about the desks and he told me he has TWELVE of them and that they were mid-century, and designed to be configured in multiples for your needs. They can be placed long-way to make a massive conference table, or just used as a single desk. OR used in a pair as a hexagonal dining table that comfortably seats six!? Yes!<br /><br />Since they had so many of the table sections available, I did the patient, responsible thing (don't worry, that doesn't happen too often), and took the measurements home to triple check that the table would fit.<br /><br />I use graph paper a lot to map out furniture for my own home (the computer programs we use pretty much kill my creativity). But even when you have a perfect floor plan, it can be hard to really <i>feel</i> what how the furniture will sit a room. This is where painter's tape comes in. It works fine to map out furniture on the floor, but if you place the tape on furniture that is roughly the same height/scale as the new piece, that will help a lot for visualizing and there will be less surprises later.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/DSC_0090.jpg" /></div><br />I mapped out the hexagonal table on my old, ill-fitting table, and put the chairs where they would belong at the new table to verify they could be pulled out far enough, etc.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>It ended up being a really good thing I taped out the table. I found out the table would fit well, but that the armoire I had found on craigslist (to go to the bottom right of the table in the photo) was completely too big for the space, even though it made sense on my floor plan.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_9464.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>The table is in and we love it. And I've moved to Plan B for the armoire, so now we have plenty of room and storage space. More photos coming up (including the step-by-step for painting the giant chandelier!).<br /><br />Also, I still love the Widdicomb table and hope that maybe someday one will fall into my lap. But I'm thinking maybe this simpler design is a better fit for our small dining room? All those arches might have been a little intense. Plus, there's no way I would have been able to get the finishing the way I'd want it to be. Like how the grain changes direction in the inlay here? Love it.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_9478.jpg" /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I even sort of like my old chairs with the table. I might keep it this way for a while longer, though I'd still love a set of <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/03/thinking-about-upholstered-doors.html" target="_blank">straight-back louis chairs</a> in a pretty leather with white frames. Would it be sacrilege to paint my chair frames here white? Or to whitewash them so some of the greek key shows though? Hmmm...</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_9483.jpg" /></div>

Using Painter's Tape for Mapping Out Furniture

Did I tell you we bought a dining table?? Remember I was in love with this octagonal Widdicomb table ? Well, I thought long and hard about m...

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On Hiring Out Upholstery...

I have a bunch of vintage furniture that I'd like to reupholster and use in the new house. Some of it I'd love to do myself to help reduce costs, but there are a few pieces I'll likely send out once I pick fabrics.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/DREAMMMMMSOFA1st2.jpg" /></div><br />Emily just posted today an EXCELLENT break down of the ins and outs of hired-out upholstery (and even some tips on fabric choices)! <a href="http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-reupholstering-vintage-pie.html" target="_blank">Check it out here</a> and enjoy the eye candy (she is getting ready for a One Kings Lane sale and her vintage finds are crazy-awesome).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/70s_club_chair.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/heywake4.jpg" /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">PS Emily loves <a href="http://www.graylinelinen.com/index.php/linen/warsa-linen.html" target="_blank">Grayline linen</a> as much as I do. It is my favorite source for really affordable linen in almost every color including <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/11/diamond-tufted-ottoman.html" target="_blank">metallic linen</a>! Can't beat $9 a yard!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/graylinelinensfile_42_32.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>

On Hiring Out Upholstery...

I have a bunch of vintage furniture that I'd like to reupholster and use in the new house. Some of it I'd love to do myself to help ...

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How to Clean Lucite

I picked up this vintage lucite stool at the flea market a week or two ago and this weekend I had a minute to reupholster the seat and clean up the base.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0013.jpg" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0024.jpg" /></div><br />I was so excited to use this laminated fabric I bought at Purl Soho a while back. You can find lots of laminated fabrics online. They're great to use on dining chairs and play room chairs, or seating in the bathroom.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0041.jpg" /></div><br />I took off the old, dingy fabric and used the old fabric as a pattern to cut out the laminated fabric. This way it was easy to choose where I wanted to center the fabric on the pattern.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0046.jpg" /></div><br />Laminated fabric, like vinyl, is a little tricky to work with around corners and round edges because it is so thick. Don't be afraid to pull tightly and try hard to keep the folds on the underside of the seat, rather than along the edge.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0051.jpg" /></div><br />Before I put the new seat on, I cleaned the acrylic frame. There's definitnely a right and a wrong way to clean lucite. NEVER use Windex!! It deteriorates the acrylic slightly over time and makes it look cloudy instead of bright and clear.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0062.jpg" /></div><br />The best way to clean lucite is simply warm soapy water and a soft cloth.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0058.jpg" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0061.jpg" /></div><br />Then just wipe it down with a dry cloth and you're all done. I've seen acrylic polish solutions out there but I've never used them before.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0067.jpg" /></div><br />So happy to have a new little waterproof stool in our bathroom for sitting on while I bathe the girls!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/album%202/6DSC_0084.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PS Here's the post were I painted the <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/11/sponsored-post-bathroom-vanity.html" target="_blank">little blue vanity</a>. And remember Emily's <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/10/house-tour-emily-and-todds-dining-room.html" target="_blank">laminated fabric bench</a> in her dining room? Have you found a great use or source for laminated fabric?</div><br />

How to Clean Lucite

I picked up this vintage lucite stool at the flea market a week or two ago and this weekend I had a minute to reupholster the seat and clean...

Read more »