Bookshelves Makeover

A few weeks ago I showed the view from my bed on Instagram, got some funny comments like 'being a maximalist' which made me laugh.
I've always loved my bookshelves and although through the years small changes appeared, it was pretty much the same view for 10 years. Then I posted this blogpost about my little globe collection and slight obsession over them, with a lovely picture of bookshelves with globes and vintage crates and color coordinated books, and all of a sudden I got totally inspired and thought; 'hey I've got globes, I've got vintage crates and I've got books, I can totally have what that pretty pictures shows!'

And taddaaaa! After some hours of work in a period of a week, I all of a sudden had a pretty awesome bookshelves view myself :)
The vintage crates I have for many years but they were out of sight, and I never got to enjoy them. I got rid of a few stacks of magazines which I was never going to look in to again anyway and put all other papers and not so pretty stuff in the crates. I had to adjust some heights of the shelves to accommodate the new arrangement.

And then I started rearranging all the books by color. I thought it would never work, in the mess I never realized how many pretty colored books I actually have! Arranging them by color was actually very satisfying and fun to do.

I also uncluttered it a bit and removed some of the decorative stuff as the books were now pretty they didn't need so much covering up :)
I did cover some of the ugly maps spines with some cheerful magazine clippings to let them blend in better and making them less boring in the progress, still need to do a few of those.

I also filled up some frames I bought years ago and never got around filling them up, like this pretty wooden one got little map pictures which I found during my uncluttering process and apparently had cut out of magazines who-knows-when.

And my globe collection expanded, which makes me all giggly and happy :)

Now I'm beating myself up on why I did not do this years ago, but I am happy that I did it and smile every time I go to bed an look at my pretty view. Still needs a few little adjustments but I'll do those, eventually when inspiration strikes again, hopefully not in another 10 years :)

Newly Listed: Peacock Dress

Peacock Dress Vintage Embroidery Linen Birds and Flowers US size 6/8 EU size 36/38 by StarsWear
Yellow Poppy Art, Yellow Poppies Photography, Wall Art, Modern Floral Decor Print by AmyTylerPhotography
Original watercolor painting, sage green hazelnut lemon yellow, floral illustration, for the home by FrancescaLancisi
Sky blue, tree photograph, nature, botanical wall art, branches, floral decor, fine art print photo by dullbluelight

9 Great Ways to Recycle Toilet Paper Rolls

I have to be honest here, I never have recycled a toilet paper roll. We use and throw them away all the time, but lets face it: the 'toilet' part of its name is not something we like to think about :)
Nonetheless I decided to make a toilet paper roll recycle post, see if it will motivate me and others to use them, most likely not all, but at least some :)

• I like the idea of bird feeders, the glue is peanut butter, you make birds happy and the roll gets a second life, here is an easy tutorial for a bird feeder.

• Make biodegradable seed starters with the help of scissors, you can see it here, very easy and you can plant the entire thing in the ground later on.

• Use them to package small gifts, wrap them with a piece of cute paper or magazine clipping and you are ready to go, I also saw an non painted version of them here.

• Make toys with TP rolls, or make a project of it with your kid. I have seen many many wonderful toys, the mermaid and these race cars are just two examples, I've seen castles and monsters and you can find many more here.

• I've seen many beautiful frame projects, this mirror is one of my favorites, I also liked this art project. But there are many more projects to explore and I'm sure you could come up with your own ideas :)

• Although I do love the creative ideas I actually love the more simple daily usable things better. Like an open cut roll to hold paper rolls, wrapping paper and such neatly together. Or using rolls to keep all sorts of cables organized in your drawer, without them getting all tangled up.

• You can use TP rolls to organize ribbons but also pencils, pens and markers.

• Although we do not have a fireplace I love the idea of these eco friendly firestarters made with a toilet roll, newspaper and dryer lint, if you have a dryer you'll know how much lint comes out of those! 
• Once you have your cozy fire and decide to have a special event, make some cute crowns to go with it :)

And finally an honorary mention of artist Anastassia Elias who makes little worlds shadow boxes in toilet rolls, so cool!

  So what do you think? Will you do any of these projects?
See more recycle posts here.

Newly Listed: Sea Glass Cuff

Sea Glass Cuff Beach Glass Sea Tumbled Glass Bottle Green Bracelet One of a Kind by StaroftheEast
Ginkgo Leaves Photograph Bright Green Nature Colors Home Decor Print Gingko by VictoriaEnglishCharm
15 Green Peeling Paint Photograph by shyphotog
Landscape Painting - Watercolor Painting - Delicate - Giclee Print - Green Sky Birds by MaiAutumn

Our Creative Space...

Today I was all day busy with making some new driftwood clouds as only one is left in the shop.
And thought it would be fun to show the steps it goes through to become a piece of home decor :) First of all we of course need to find cloud shaped driftwood. Luckily clouds do not have a specific shape but still most driftwood pieces do not resemble a cloud, I always get a smile on my face when I find a 'cloud' on the beach! Most clouds we find on a beach that is hard to reach and a 1 hour drive so we do not go too often, mostly in winter time when storms bring treasures and the beaches are empty.

Although they are usually dry on the beach, I never use the wood right away, best to allow them to dry for a few weeks just to be sure that they are not damp inside.
The next step is then to attach a hook system on the backside so that it can be hung on the wall and little hooks below to attach the raindrops.

They then get a coat of white spray paint, I do not over do this or they would become white blobs, instead I give them such a layer that you see the beautiful cracks and texture of the driftwood very well, creating more dimension to the clouds.

While the clouds are drying it is time for the rain drops, which are vintage chandelier crystals. I give them a solder edge with the tiffany technique, the small crystals are hard to foil as they are so small, this prepping takes me several hours as I always do more clouds at once.

And then they need to be fluxed and soldered, again the small ones are tricky and I usually end up with several first degree burns on my hands and sometimes on my legs as the melted solder drops sometimes, ouch. Luckily we have air conditioning in our atelier as it is still about 45 degrees Celsius here (113 F degrees) and soldering is a hot job, I most likely would melt too :)

After soldering the flux gets all icky and black and needs to be cleaned.

Cleaning it thoroughly is very important, any flux residue will cause for oxidation of the solder which becomes pretty ugly. I used to do the cleaning with a nail brush and soapy water but discovered that our tumblr does it better without me breaking my back so I keep it in there for several hours and it comes our sparkling clean.

Now that the raindrops are ready it is time to arrange them to my liking.

I then measure the distances between the cloud and the drops and cut chain pieces accordingly.

Once all chains are ready it is time to attach them with special clasps, the drop to the chain and the chains to the clouds.

And tadaaa!

The clouds are finally ready, just in time to take some pictures before the sun went down :)
They will slowly appear in our decor shop, StarHomeStudio.

Newly Listed: Deer and Elks Skirt

Deer and Elks Skirt Fairy tale Vintage Clothing Woodland Bambi Gobelin Tapestry Fabric Clothing by StarsWear
Woodland Photography Print Fine Art Enchanted Dreamy Oregon Forest Path Landscape by WildWildernessPhotos
When she held her child... landscape version by theaterclouds
Deer Antler Photography, Rustic, Textured, Woodland, Wildlife, Animal, Forest, Autumn by PaperMeadows

From Shabby to Chic

Another make over, yes we have been busy :)
This one was actually slowly being done while we were also busy with the armchair.

I made a sketch to get an idea how it would look like ones made.

Sanding, varnishing and painting the woodwork many times was a fun killer but the result made it worth it.

We had only one embroidery which was perfect in color and size, a punch needle embroidered parrot, very fluffy and eye catching.

I wanted to have a nice fat seat so the stripes would pop nicely. also the wood right below the seat showed nails which I covered up with foam, fixing two things at once.

The vibrant green pompom trim matches perfectly with the parrot and bring some color to the black, white and grey sides of the pouf.

It is stable and can be used as a stool, in front of your make up mirror, in the hallway, children's room or anywhere where others can admire it too.

We have several more of these stools, I will be slowly sanding, varnishing and painting them, due to the vintage embroideries we use each will be unique and one of a kind.
You can fin our furniture pieces here in our decor shop.

Newly Listed: Vintage Wooden Chest

Vintage Wooden Chest Trunk Footlocker Shabby Cottage Chic Rustic Treasure Chest  Coffee Table by StarHomeStudio
Still life photography, fine art print, old books, still life photograph, aqua books,reading glasses by VintageChicImages
With An Air Of Excitement And Mystery fine art giclee print of an original watercolor and ink illustration by obsoleteworld
Digital collage with rocks, lace and a fencing woman. Instant Download in green colors by inkandflower

A Breath of Fresh Air: Armchair Before and After

It took almost a month but here it is, finally the armchair I showed a while back is gone through its huge transformation.

The fabric and style might come familiar, that is as it was part of a set with this Ottoman which we transformed earlier this month. Both still had their original upholstery from the 1950's, some weird pea soup green colored velvet, with trims hiding their pretty wooden legs. The fabric was actually in great condition after all this time, but the general appearance of the set was pretty sad.

Tearing up the old fabric and filling took many hours, which was the state I showed a while back. It was not stapled, but nailed, which was done before the stapler was invented :)

It needed new foam filling and webbing to give it some body and firmness.

Finding the perfect pieces of fabric and embroidery actually took the longest, we changed it a gazillion times and puzzled for many hours with many different vintage embroideries.

Eventually we figured it out, a bold and smashing combo of old embroideries and a magenta pink velvet, screaming for attention :)

A lot of parts needed to sewn by hand, after stapling most of the fabric firmly, for a pretty finishing.
This took a long time too.

 But it was worth it, all the work and patience resulted in an amazing one of a kind armchair, impossible to make a second one.

Full with color, dimension and history. Beside the foam, webbing and pink velvet all materials have a history. The colorful striped fabric is  handwoven and vintage.

This armchair won't be needed to hide in a corner, every side is beautiful and would look great in the middle of your living room for everyone to admire.

And although both changed a lot the Ottoman and Armchair are still a great pair and are separately available in our home decor shop, StarHomeStudio.