design Archives - Kristen Anne Glover

Red Handed (Or, What I Stole from Pottery Barn, Part 2)

Yesterday, I confessed to all of you how my secret adoration for Pottery Barn led me down a path of destruction. At first, it was simple coveting. All I really wanted was to have a mossy fireplace in my bedroom, with twinkling white lights on the mantle and a miniature sawhorse by my bed.

I thought it was perfectly normal. I mean, what warm-blooded girl doesn’t want a miniature sawhorse by her bed?

Most of my coveting was contained to catalog perusal and an occasional foray into an actual store. However, I usually left faster than I came because I felt like I had the words, “Doesn’t Own a Single Tasting Plate” emblazoned on my forehead, and people were staring.

But it all changed the day I saw this chandelier:

At $499, it was about $499 over budget, but I had to have it.

So I decided to steal Pottery Barn’s eclectic hand-blown-glass idea right out from under them. I made one of my own.

See that light? I totally stole it from Pottery Barn.

Now, I will be the first to admit that the Pottery Barn chandelier is way cooler than my knock-off. But a nearly $500 difference in cost goes a long way in making me feel better about my project. Every time I start to think it doesn’t look as good as the catalog version, I just whisper, “That’s a $500 chandelier you just made out of juice cups,” and I smile.

The first thing I did was gather a collection of glassware since Santa has yet to bring me a 2,500 degree furnace and a blowpipe. Clearly, glassblowing was out of the question. That meant I had to give up the mottled look of the glass in the chandelier I loved.

Score one for Pottery Barn.

However, I didn’t really need to blow glass because I already had an eclectic collection of glassware thanks to my children’s innate ability to break any cups that match.

Also, I had already decided to make mercury glass pendants instead of trying to replicate wavy blown glass. Mercury glass has interesting color variations and a mottled look, but it has the added benefit of being metallic, which I wanted in my chandelier because it was going to be part of my ongoing master bedroom design. Our master bedroom has deep gray walls, and we can’t paint them. The silver of the mercury glass would be a perfect accent.

Score one for ME!

I searched the cupboards for glasses with curvy sides and rims around the tops to replicate the look of the Pottery Barn pendants. Cheap glass vases worked well too, as did glass storage jars (the kind that have a rubber seal and separate glass lid) because they have a nice, thick rim.

I saved the glass lids from the storage jars and even purchased a few half-round glass votive candle holders. You’ll see why in a minute.

In order to create the mercury glass look, I purchased a can of Krylon Mirror spray paint. It’s exactly the same stuff as this:

It is expensive, especially since you only get 6 oz. per can. But, I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby to get it a bit cheaper. Happily, one can lasted the entire project. Whew!

Making mercury glass is super easy. Simply collect your glassware and take it outside. Be sure to remove the rubber seals from around any glass lids. You don’t need to wash the glass first unless it is visibly dirty. Then, spray each piece very lightly with water on the inside only. Don’t overdo it–you want just a very light mist so little droplets form. In fact, it’s a good idea to shake the jar after you’ve sprayed it so the droplets disperse and don’t run.

After you’ve done this, spray a very light coat of mirror spray paint on the inside only of each jar or glass piece. Just stick the can right in the jar and spray a light coat. The spray paint traps the water underneath, creating interesting bubbles, runs, and color variations, just like real mercury glass.

Light coats of spray paint work best. Otherwise, the silver runs. If this happens, don’t worry. Just roll the paint around in the jar to spread it out as evenly as possible. Then, add another coat later on to make the run less visible.

Let your jars dry in the sun between coats, and then repeat the steps until you like the look of your jars. Hold them up to the light and take a good look at them. Now is the time to add coats if you don’t love it! Do the insides of the lids and the votive holders as well, if you have them.

Let everything dry completely. You now have mercury glass!

“Mom? Where are all the cups?”
Seriously? I’m working here.

Using a hot glue gun, I attached the lids to the bottoms of the cups and jars. I tried lots of other kinds of glue, including toxic “industrial strength” stuff, but it just didn’t hold. Hot glue worked the best.

I did not have enough lids for all of my glass pieces, but that was okay. I left some plain and attached the glass votive holders to others. Adding these extra glass pieces transformed the look of the cups and jars. They didn’t look as much like cups and jars any more, but began to look more and more like the pendants I was trying to steal.

The transformation begins

Once the glassware was painted and assembled, it was time to attach electrical cord to hang them by. You can get electrical cord from a place like Home Depot or from your children’s annoying electric toys. Either way, it is not expensive.

You could also use ribbon or cording, but I wanted the chandelier to look like it could actually work, even though I had no way of electrifying the thing.

I strung the electrical wire through metal jewelry findings like this and secured the ends with excessive amounts of hot glue.These were attached to the pendants with even more glue. I did not want them coming loose. They were going to be hanging over my sleeping head, after all. Now that the pendants were ready, it was time to attach them to a board. My husband rustled up a piece of Hemlock and cut the 1×4 to about 2 1/2 feet long. I stained it a dark espresso color, added a coat of polyurethane, and drilled holes to string the electrical cord through so I could attach them.

Using these handy little clips to hold the pendants, I arranged them the way I wanted by suspending the board between two chairs and fiddling with the design until I liked it.

The excess electrical wire was trimmed and held down as flat as possible into more globs of hot glue. Those babies aren’t going anywhere.

Now, I really wanted my chandelier to light up, even though I couldn’t actually add electricity to it. So I ordered some remote control LED votive candles. Only, they didn’t come in time. I had to go to the store to get some cheap LED votive candles just for this post. See?

I stuck one in each pendant using Velcro dots to hold them in place.

When everything was done, we hung the chandelier up in the cove that holds our bed. I’m working on the pillow thing. Don’t look at that yet.

It may not be Pottery-Barn-perfect, but my chandelier also didn’t cost Pottery Barn money. The entire project cost about $30, including the back-up set of candles.

And even though it didn’t come from the store, my version of the Paxton Glass Light Pendant makes me feel like I’ve gotten a little bit closer to living the Pottery Barn Land dream.

Now I just have to figure out how to get moss to grow on my fireplace.

Pretty Stenciled Stools

This is a crazy chicken.

Behind the crazy chicken are two white bar stools. I picked them up at a garage sale when we first moved into our house because we suddenly owned an island but had nothing to put around it.

Here’s a closeup:

That’s baby Micah, trying to eat the bar stool.

Over the past five years, we’ve gotten a lot of use out of those stools. They’re sturdy and in pretty good condition. But they’re also boring and a little worn, and I didn’t feel like they belonged in my kitchen anymore.

That’s because, behind the scenes at Five in Tow, we’ve been working on a few major house improvements. I tackled the kitchen, which included refinishing the cabinets to a deep, espresso color. I’m going to show you the whole thing next week, but for now, you just have to trust me that those old white bar stools just didn’t go.

The white was too contrasty against the espresso, and they were a little battered and worn from being used as blanket tent supports for the last five years.

So I decided to fix them up.

I had a can of turquoise spray paint in the garage. I bought it with a coupon for the craft store when I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted for 40% off. I do that sometimes–I just buy spray paint and keep it on hand because I never know when I’m going to need to paint something turquoise. It happens.

I taped off the wooden seats and sprayed the legs with several thick coats of paint.

My husband walked by at this point and looked at me. I wouldn’t say he disliked the color.

No, the deep loathing I saw in his eyes was much more like hatred.

“Trust me!” I smiled.

“Shouldn’t you be working on your kitchen?” he asked. He meant, shouldn’t you be finishing the project you already started instead of painting perfectly good bar stools that hideous color, which I hate? And also which I don’t like? At all?

Yes. I should have been finishing my kitchen. But painting bar stools was much more fun and creative than slathering another coat of polyurethane on my cupboards.

So. I continued.

I wanted the stools to look worn, in a good way, and I wanted some of the white paint to show through. I figured this was going to happen anyway, after months and months of kids using the stools, so I thought I might as well make it look intentional. I took some sand paper to it and smoothed away the blue paint wherever I felt like doing it.

Finally, I slathered on a glaze to antique the stools even further, and to tone down the color a bit since my hubby loved it so much.

After the stools dried and my husband went away to search craigslist for new bar stools, I got out my stencils. This is the exact stencil I used, only I purchased mine at Michael’s with a coupon.

Martha Stewart Arabesque Stencil

I love it because it has several patterns, and I didn’t want my stools to be matchy-matchy.

I did want a bright, cherry-red color to accent the turquoise. I also thought this would pull in the red on a wall on the opposite side of the room. My kitchen, dining room, and living room are all one great big room, so things have to coordinate. However, I chose a brighter red for the stools because I wanted something fun and vibrant.

Besides, Jeff loves it when I paint things fun and vibrant colors.

Tape and stencil with acrylic craft paints. The picture above is from another stenciling project. I didn’t take any pictures of myself stenciling the stools because I did it while we were watching a movie to distract Jeff from the horrors of his wife painting his stools turquoise and cherry red.

But, they turned out like this:

Aren’t they fun? I sprayed a few coats of polyurethane all over them just to make sure they’d last after five kids get a hold of them. I have to say, it was a joy to shoot some poly out of a can after spending hours and hours painting it onto my cupboards with a brush.

Now, here’s a little sneak peak at my kitchen renovation post.

Don’t you love the flowers from my yard? I’m picking bouquets every day because we’re not going to have flowers like that to pick in El Paso.

See the painter’s tape on the floor? That’s because I spray painted stools instead of applying the last coat of polyurethane to my island. La la la!

(I think it was a good choice).

Jeff doesn’t think the stools go with the kitchen, and he’s probably right. But I love my stenciled stools anyway and I’m not above buying a few accessories to place around the kitchen to make it all work.

They are a tad bright. But then, I kind of like things that way.

What do you think? Do you side with Jeff and think my stenciled stools are a little over the top? Or are you ready to break out the spray paint and make some of your own?

Also, stay tuned for my upcoming Kitchen Transformation post! See how I turned my cabinets from dated and drabby to classic and stunning for less than $50!

DIY Butterfly Chandelier

Today’s project is full of ribbons and paper butterflies–perfect for the first day of May!

I was inspired to make a butterfly chandelier for my daughter’s room when I saw one here. I posted it to my Pinterest board and actually set about to make it. Score one for me! Pinterest: 5,062 Kristen: 1. I’m catching up. Here’s proof:

Ta-dah! One butterfly chandelier!

A chandelier like this is super easy to make (but it will take a little bit of time to punch out all. those. adorable. butterflies). Here’s what I did:

1) Gather supplies

I purchased a package of foam pipe covers at my local building supply store for about $2.50. The package contained 4 foam covers cut into 3′ lengths. Two of these would become the wreath forms for the chandelier.

I also purchased a large monarch butterfly paper punch (Martha Stewart brand). This was by far the biggest expense of the project. The punch retails for over $16. Fortunately, I had a coupon (woo hoo!).

I also picked up a stack of scrapbook paper since I’m not a scrapbook girl (don’t judge me) and didn’t have any on hand , various ribbons, and a roll of pink tulle. I already had various crystal beads in my stash to decorate the ribbons.

2) Create wreath forms on the cheap

Wreath forms are expensive. You can make some for waaaay less money using the foam covers I already talked about. I created the biggest form from one piece of 3′ pipe foam. Simply secure the ends with heavy-duty tape to form a circle. The second form needed to be slightly smaller, so I cut the second piece down to 2′ and secured the ends.

3) Wrap the forms

I found it beneficial to wrap the foam wreaths with pink tulle because I didn’t want any gray to show through, and it was cheaper than ribbon and less time consuming than punching out a gazillion more paper butterflies to do the job.

4) Punch butterflies until your fingers fall off

You will need approximately 50 bazillion paper butterflies. Somewhere around 20 bazillion butterflies, you will wonder what on earth you were thinking when you chose this project and you will curse Pinterest, even if you don’t normally curse. Push through the pain. You’re nearly there!

5) Assemble (in other words, glue, glue, glue!)

No one can eat dinner until the butterflies are glued!

I strung crystal beads on some of the ribbons, wound more ribbon around the wreath forms, and connected the two wreaths with even more ribbon and tied all that ribbon into a bow around a big ring. The cat was very interested in this whole process.

Then, I glued, and glued, and glued. So. Many. Butterflies. Then I punched out more butterflies (because apparently, 50 bazillion butterflies wasn’t quite enough) and I glued those on too.

Pretty soon (not really) it was done!

When it was finished, the heavens parted and angels sang!

After soaking my hands in Ultra Strength Bengay and taking a couple dozen pictures of the chandelier, we hung it in my daughter’s room.

Its final resting place

I’m still hoping to find some more crystal (read: plastic) chandelier beads to add to the final product, but for now, we’re enjoying the look of it in her room. I would have hung it above my own bed but my husband had something to say about that. He’s such a dream-killer.

Is this a project you’d like to try? I have a butterfly punch you can borrow and a couple extra foam-thingies…if you dare.