Coffee Staining Fabric

Not long after I finished my roman shades in the bedroom, I bought a new duvet cover.  I had been eyeing this particulr duvet forever.  I first saw it online.  I loved the color and the pattern so much, but was not certain that I could make the purchase.  Pottery Barn is expensive, and it was more than I would normally consider spending on on a duvet cover.  So, I put it aside.

A few weeks after I moved to Kansas City, I was at the Pottery Barn and saw "my" duvet.  It was part of the display bed, and it looked even better in person than it had online.  It had all of the colors: plum, turquoise/teal, and browns.  The finish, although a cotton sateen, was great and not too shiny.  Strangely, I did not see any of the sets out for sale though.  I forced myself to walk away.  When I got home, I looked it up online again.  It seemed that my duvet may have been discontinued.  It was listed as being on sale, but the website only had the twin size (twin size is sold online only and is often the last to go).  Sigh.  I knew that I should have bought it.

Eventually, I ended up in the Plaza again, just walking through the stores for inspiration.  As I walked into Pottery Barn, I decided to see if my duvet was still on display, knowing that it would be gone and I would be disappointed.  But it was still there.  So I asked an employee if they had it for sale.  He confirmed that it was discontinued, and that they did not have any.  So I asked if I could buy the display, as I assumed that it was a full queen.  He looked shocked at first, but said it was absolutely an option and that it actually helped them because people continued to ask about the pattern and they did not have it.  Sold.

In retrospect, I probably just should have bought it when I first saw it.  Especially as the only place that now has the shams is eBay, and they are expensive!  When I got home, I immediately put it on my comforter, and it was perfect.  It was dark and thick enough to cover the pattern of the original comforter.  Plus, it was beautiful, and so soft.

But then I looked at my new, recently created, so much work (relatively speaking) roman shades.  And the blue of the fabric was too bright.

I love to layer colors, and I'm not one to make sure that all of the different tones are "matchy matchy."  But these were both too close and not close enough.  It was just enough off to make the room look like a three-year-old had designed it instead of complex and layered.  What to do?  My first thought was to return the duvet.  So sad, but doable.  But this was my linchpin piece that would pull the whole room together.  Should I just start over on the shades instead, and pick a fabric that was a better match?  Ugh.  I put a lot of work into those shades!

I decided to keep the duvet.  But before I trashed the shades, I decided to see if I could somehow "mute" the color.  So I went to my handy DIY expert, Dr. Google, to research tea staining.  It turns out that there are two methods for staining fabric, tea staining, and coffee staining.  (This website has a good description of both and the effect that they give.)  Lucky for me, coffee staining seemed to give more of the color effect that I was looking for, since I had coffee in the house and not tea!

Next question, how to stain the fabric?  I really did not want to take the fabric down, despite the fact that most of the demonstrations required dipping the entire piece of fabric.  Would putting the coffee into a spray bottle work?  I decided to run a test.

The flash on the camera bleached out the pictures, so it is difficult to see the difference, but I decided that overall the experiment went well.  The process itself was fairly easy.  I released the blinds to their full length, and evenly sprayed the fabric until it was thoroughly saturated.  In some places, this did cause the glue dots to loosen, but I reattached them without problem.  I did have a paper towel that I used to blot the fabric and wipe up the excess coffee on the window sill.  You can see in this picture that the coffee darkened the fabric just enough (the window on the far left has been stained, but the other two windows have not.

I'll come out and admit that I did not finish the fourth window in the bedroom when I did the others.  This meant that I was able to stain that piece of fabric before I hung it.  For anyone looking to replicate the process, it was much easier!  I was able to dampen the fabric more, which helped to ensure an even finish.  But either way, it worked!

The end result is that I get to keep my duvet, and my window shades.  As a bonus, I have a new technique for adjusting fabric color.

:)

Bedroom Vanity

When I was moving to Kansas City, many of our family members kindly donated items for my new apartment.  One of these donations was a small student desk from Nick's aunt.  It was a nice desk, but the finish was an orange-ish eighties oak, and it was also a little worse for wear.  I decided that it deserved an upgrade.  The desk itself is a little on the small side - it isn't possible to store files or paper in it.  But given the *tiny* size of the bathroom, I was desperately in need of somewhere to store makeup and jewelry.  So, it became an integral part of my "vanity nook" in the bedroom.

I don't have a real before picture.  Sorry.  I do have a half-way before picture, with one coat of paint and the drawers.  It gives somewhat of an idea of the desk!

As I mentioned, the finish was orangey, and the handles brassy.  It is also a very light desk, so it does not have any of the extra details that a desk of a similar style might have.  

I decided to use homemade chalk paint on this piece as well.  Instead of buying new, I utilized some latex paint that was leftover from the last time that I painted our bedroom in Chicago.  The color is Sherwin Williams Chinchilla.  It is a taupey/brown/grey/purple color.  

When I previously used it on the walls, it came out much darker and moodier, but between the small scale of this desk, the brighter contrast of the cream walls, and the plaster of paris (which lightens the paint) it came out as a lavender.  The texture of this paint seemed to be a little more difficult to work with than the green oops paint.  I think that this is because it was a self-priming, self-leveling paint.  So, note to self, when working with homemade chalk paint, there is no need to get fancy with the base!

I used a paint brush (as opposed to a roller) for this project because I thought that the style of the piece lent itself to a more textured finish.  I painted inside with this project, which overall worked well.  I used some cardboard for drips, and I did not have to worry about the low temperatures affecting the curing.  I did the first coat, and then waited a few days before the second.  This was not because it needed that much time to cure, but rather because I became caught up in other projects. The only really stinky part was the wax.  I finished painting the second coat in the evening, and once it was dry (about an hour or so) I put on the coat of wax before bed.  Not my best decision!  Oh well, learned my lesson and applied the second coat during they day.

I like how it turned out.  The color is great and the finish is butter smooth.  Just need to work on the chair now!

:)

Kitchen "In Progress"

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I was lucky enough to have my husband in town for the holiday.  After realizing that we did not need a full turkey, we decided to change the meat.  Then, one thing led to another, and we ultimately decided on an Italian theme: of Sausage and White Bean Soup, Chicken Saltimbocca, Garlic Green Beans, Italian spiced Spaghetti Squash, and Lemon Thyme Roasted Mushroom.  We went down to the Plaza for the lighting ceremony, and then came back to the house to have tiramisu for dessert.  It was a great meal!

Cooking itself was a bit of a challenge in my tiny kitchen.  Strangely, it made me feel quite excited, as though I was cooking in the Smitten Kitchen.  As an aside, I LOVE that website.  Nick and I have both been following it for years, and the new cookbook is fantastic!  As we dodged each other and struggled to get all of the dishes done on time, I definitely felt proud that we were able to turn out such a lovely meal.

Anyway, since Nick and I spent the day dancing around in my tiny kitchen, I thought perhaps it is time to share pictures of my kitchen.  The kitchen is definitely in its "good enough for now" stage.  I still have some things that I'd love to do, but they aren't going to happen immediately.  Mostly, there isn't much space, so there isn't much that you can do to it!

The rugs were cut down from a 5'x7' rug that Nick and I purchased for another space and never really liked.  The posters are from the Beijing conferences (one is Beijing at 5, and the other Beijing at 15).  I used to display them at my office at DePaul, and they work fine to bring some color into the kitchen for now.

I put the knife rack up when I first moved in, and I don't love it.  Primarily because I have so few "real" knives here, and the steak knives are just messy.  I might change it up with some magnetic spice containers (I  think that I would also like to put some on the fridge).

Remaining Projects for the Kitchen:

• Paint rugs
• Fix knife rack
• Perhaps cafe curtains of some type for the windows
• Find a way to get the awful tile applique off the wall!

Happy Veterans' Day. Observed.

Yesterday was Veterans' Day, but today is the day the government and banks are closed in observance.  So while I should have thanked all of those who have served our country yesterday, I am just now getting to it today.  Thank you.

The rest of you can be jealous of my no work status now, but the tables will be turned on Black Friday when the rest of the world is lined up outside a Walmart somewhere and I am at work. :-)

I have not been on top of getting posts out for the last few weeks, but that is primarily because I STILL do not have Internet and typing everything out on my phone is killing me. Never fear, I have projects lined up and posts to write.

What am I talking about? Even my husband does not know that I have a blog. ;-) No one is missing these posts!

AT&T is supposed to come today at 2, so with any luck I will be connected hence forth with. I am pretty sure that is not a real phrase. Oh well, sounds cool. Catch you later! I'm off to run errands.

Sometimes the little things can have a big impact!

I was wandering around in the Plaza a while back and decided to stop into Urban Outfitters.  Now, I've never owned any clothes from there, but I like the vibe and I knew that they have some home good items, like Anthropologie (sp?) across the street.  So I decided to take a gander.  The selection of home items was not as good as some other stores that I've been too, but in the knobs bins, I saw these babies.

They have the texture of a wicker, but are in a nice antiqued brass.  Best part?  They were marked down from $8 to $1.99.  Sweet!

I knew just where they could live.  You see, I have these built-in bookcases with doors under the windows in the dining room.  They came with white ceramic knobs.  Nothing bad, but no style.  Especially given all the random vintage features in this apartment.  

I didn't plan to replace them, but for $2 each (I needed four) it seemed silly not too!  I admit, they make me happy when I look at them.

Note to self: no more evening pictures!  Everything is either really yellow or bleached out from the flash.  Too back I already have a slew of evening photos on the camera waiting for their posts!