Kentucky Monthly Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide

I am very honored to be featured in Kentucky Monthly’s Holiday Gift Guide this year, along with many fantastic local artists. Check it out!!!

http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/articles/holiday-gift-guide/

Getting Organized Part 2

 

There are some sections that are not done, but I figured that I’d better post now rather than wait who knows how long to be completely done. I’ll never be completely done!

 

Getting Organized (Artistically of course!) Step 1

You may know that I moved into a new house 15 months ago. At the time, I set up my sewing machines and a couple of tables in my new studio, but that was about it. This summer my husband helped me build an enormous cutting table with storage underneath, but I’ve still been tripping over crates of stuff and ranting about how I can never find anything. I’ve had a pretty good couple of months business-wise, so I decided I could afford some sort of storage system. So, I started designing shelves. Not just designing where they would go, but designing the actual shelves! Here’s the project:

1. Inspiration:

These are wallpaper samples that I got free at the Zero Landfill Project a couple of months ago. My other inspiration was the fascination I’ve had lately with citrus (colors and shapes).

2. Plan

I wanted the color scheme of bright orange, yellow, and teal. Happy, fun colors that would be over the top anywhere else in the house, but I could get away with in the studio. I had the idea to paint and decoupage the underside of the shelves, because they will be high up on the wall and the undersides will be visible.

3. Collecting materials and getting to work:

Scrapbooking paper from JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby, along with some templates I drew on copy paper:

Which I cut out and “colored” with Sharpies:

 

Then I used Mod Podge to glue the paper cutouts onto the painted wood:

And I used latex paint samples (which you can get for $3 a jar at Home Depot) to paint designs:

 

If I did it again I would use some sort of paint pen rather than paint brushes. I chose the vibrancy of paint over the precision of markers, and I’m not sure I couldn’t have gotten both had I looked around a bit more for different materials.

 

When I was done with all of the shelves, I covered them with two coats of Mod Podge. I did this for two reasons. One is that the guys at the paint counter will tell you that sample cans shouldn’t be used as a “finish coat” (I am not sure if this is just to sell “real” paint, or if it’s really true, but I didn’t want to chance it). The other is that sample cans are flat (as opposed to semi-gloss, etc.) and I wanted it to have a glossier appearance. So in the end, they came out like this:

 

They came out darker than I had intended, and they remind me a little of certain Mexican restaurant decor I have seen, which was also not my intent, but overall I like them. Once they get affixed to the wall, I will post pictures of that, and also Step 2 of getting organized, which involves LOTS of clear plastic bins with flower and citrus tags on them.