Category Archive

living room

Monday Moment: vintage Wurlitzers and floating doors

This is my favorite moment in my home. And it’s a good thing too, because it’s the very first thing you see when you walk in the door. It’s kind of a great combo of me and that guy I married — a mixture of musician, vintage, and a really weird place to put a door.

Building a sofa: pros, cons, vague instructions, and valuable lessons

We needed a new couch. Wanting to build my own, I found this how-to instructional scanned from a vintage home maintenance encyclopedia. It took (a lot of) time, but the results are good! The thing looks nice, is child-jumping safe (so far) and saved us a chunk of change. Come see what I made!

I turned a storage barrel into a magical wine table!

I’m becoming a bit of a recycling center junkie — my husband and I go for a “hot date” every week and come home with a bootload of “treasure.” These barrells are storage barrells used by a health food company to import bulk spirulina etc. and cost a whopping NZ$1 each. The paper I used also came from the center — about $2 for a huge carton of old maps, sheet music and atlases — decoupage heaven!

How to build a constellation light for a little astronomy in the bedroom

Evita’s been sharing her tutorials on Offbeat Home all year — remember the starry window pelmet? Or her sewing machine-cum-computer-desk? She RETURNS! And you’ll be thrilled.

This tutorial makes a lovely, simple

Use your scanner to make art

Homie Leah had blank walls and a cheap scanner/printer for free when she bought her computer. So she used it to make scanner art.

How I used Pinterest to create a plan for an outer-space-meets-velour den

Pinterest is growing like mad — it’s an online app which makes it fast and easy to make, fill, and share various inspiration boards. It’s perfect for interior design — even for non-interior designers like me. My skills at decoration are severely limited by my dislike of shopping, but luckily, I’ve got mad skillz when it comes to collecting images from the internet. I’ve been e-hoarding for a decade!

One big happy family works it out in a high-chroma house

Mica Sue and Stephen live with kids Phoenix, Ocean, Anna, and Garrett and pets Holly and Mr. Kitters in a three bedroom house in east Tennessee. And it’s all a bit… chromatic. And full.