Custom made furniture … Bri’s Credenza

05.30.13

You all remember Bri and Arian’s apartment, right? Well I tried not to show you the credenza so I could do this post on it, and hopefully you’ve slept in the last three months while waiting for it because here it finally is.

When we started, Bri and Arian had their TV on this bad boy — a mid-century dresser retrofitted to be a media unit. It was so not bad, but it also just wasn’t awesome. It was dark, clunky, and too small for that giant TV. Bri hated it and it totally bummed her out.

small credenza

But the piece itself wasn’t the biggest challenge  — there are a lot of good credenzas out there — it was all the media components that didn’t fit inside the piece that were really hard to design around. Arian is super into high tech media, specifically audio, and NOT having really good sound wasn’t really an option; it was one of his only deal breakers. So he needed really good speakers, left, center, and right – not just one in the middle (which of course I proposed before I, too, became an audio person). More on that later …

So we picked out some new speakers, the JBL Studo 530, and I designed the credenza to do these three things:

1. Lighten the space while still working with the mid-century modern vibe.

2. Be larger and better proportioned to the TV and the room.

3. Hide the media components that could be hidden (with sliding doors as opposed to cupboards that stick out into the room) and yet leave out the audio that needed to be exposed, but make them look more attractive.

So I started drawing, which I don’t do well so thank God for the invention of the ruler.

credenza sketch

The TV is 60 inches wide so I knew that I wanted it to be at least one foot on either side, so the credenza was proportioned to the TV= 84 inches. If it were a massive room, it could’ve even been longer, but the space isn’t huge so 84 inches was about the longest I could go without the piece taking over the room. The depth is relatively standard, but we made sure to measure the components inside and make sure that they would all fit with the doors shut (including the chord things that stick out at the back). The height was more negotiable but I decided that 30 inches would work nicely based on how high they wanted to view their TV. I measured the speakers and left an inch of room just in case, and then I measured the components and made sure there was plenty of space inside the unit itself. There was a lot of measuring, and I, Emily Henderson, am NOT a terribly good measure taker but I got through it.

Next I took it to get some quotes. I know you are asking, “How do you find furniture builders?” and it’s really easy and difficult at the same time. I knew a guy who knew a guy and unfortunately I promised the guy I got the name from that I wouldn’t tell you, BUT you can also do these things:

1. Go on Craigslist and post an ad. Obviously make sure that once they respond that they show you pieces they have built so you know they aren’t just dudes desperate for a gig. These days there are quite a few of them online, at least in LA — good and bad.

2. Ask around. This is way more difficult unless you are in the habit of asking your refinisher to ask their brother who is a furniture delivery dude if he knows anyone that makes furniture. This is what I did, but at the same time I obviously have a bunch of dudes that work in the arena.

Anyway, I found my dude and he’s awesome. The quote was $1,200, which I thought was totally fair for a HUGE piece of furniture that is totally customized, with beautiful joints and beautiful wood veneer on the inside. So after a week, I went to go visit the piece:

custom credenza

It was coming together, indeed. I decided on doing the outside a clean paintable wood because I was going to have it lacquered white. BUT Bri and Arian really still wanted some wood so we decided to do two of the three panels (yes, he suggested adding a panel in between the two sliders) made of pretty stained wood. And then we figured since the components were black, then the inside should be dark so I went for the same stain inside the piece.

  custom credenza

One week later it was even closer to being done. We had to change out the legs from the ones in the drawing because with all the measurements we realized that the legs could be no more than 6 inches tall in order for the piece to not to be too gigantic, so instead we opted for the mid-century style peg legs, and six of them to keep it all sturdy. The piece is right side up in this pic, with the legs on top, but that was just to show me how the feet were going to fit, and how spaced apart they should be, etc.  The piece was coming along …

And then one week later:

mid-century credenza

BOOM. Dunzo. (Photo by the lovely Laure Joliet) We were all VERY happy with the final result, thank god, because with custom you don’t get to return anything obviously so you are taking a bit of a risk. The size was wildly better because it was way more proportioned to the TV, and in fact made the TV less noticeable and smaller. Before when it was on the wood dresser, it dwarfed the media unit, and therefore made the TV look extra giant. Now it just looks like a dope TV, ready for me to watch all my stories. With the whole top dedicated to the JBL speakers in a clean, proportioned way, it drew way less attention to them and made the whole thing look more intentional. Arian got his sound, and Bri got all the rest of the media hidden inside.

midcentury credenza

Customizing that bad boy was VERY satisfying. I know that it’s not really a very accessible tip: “Hey if you have an extra $1,200, know a REALLY good furniture maker, can draw, and have lots of extra time on your hands and/or an interior designer on staff, go ahead and customize your furniture …” but I will say it was WAY easier than I thought it would be and turned out far better than I expected. We got something that would cost at least $3,500 at most stores, that fit the needs of my clients EXACTLY, was one of a kind, AND was designed and delivered within three weeks — all for $1,200.

custom credenza

And just because it’s so satisfying, here we are again, BEFORE:

small credenza

And now, AFTER:

mid-century credenza

Check this post for all other shopping resources in Bri’s house. Meanwhile, what do you think? Are you slightly LESS intimidated to customize something? The design of this was inspired by some Paul McCobb pieces (that I love) from the ’60s and has also inspired the credenzas from Organic Modernism, so if you want something similar but don’t want to customize it yourself, check out their site. 

Come back tomorrow for a video staring me and my/the new credenza. We’ll talk about how to mix masculine and feminine styles in the same space … and then we make out.

**This post was in partnership with JBL, but all ideas, designs, words, and opinions are totally mine. 

 

Flea Market upgrades for “Good Housekeeping”

05.24.13

Last year “Good Housekeeping” asked if they could do a feature on me and my flea market shopping. Knowing that “Good Housekeeping” is the NUMBER TWO most popular magazine (think about it, every Dr.’s office in the world) with 4.5 million readers I said, “Does Lindsey Lohan love ankle monitors? YES, let’s do that.”  So we shot the “before’s” in January at the Rose Bowl, the “after’s” all styled up in March, and now the feature is in the June issue, which is only on the shelves for 10 more days.

good-housekeeping

flea-market-shopping

Remind me next time to drink dandelion water or whatever celebs drink the day before a shoot to debloat them. My face could hold up a cruise ship in that photo. Must have been a really good Saturday night the night before.

These were the eight things that we bought below. The idea was that they all needed to be cheap and simple enough that they could be turned into something great. They also needed to be easily doable — not a crazy 14-step process DIY. The magazine wanted nothing mid-century or regency-style, all more traditional or country so I had to keep that in mind, too.

And the question that I kept asking myself (which I do about everything and I think every person in a creative job should) was, “Would I actually own this?” and “Would I actually do this for myself?” Now it doesn’t mean that it has to exist in my current small house right now, but would I keep these in one of my houses if i had 10 houses?  And the answer has to be and was consistently “yes.”

So here are the “before’s” (shot by the lovely David Tsay):

vintage-accessories

One of my favorite pieces was this bench, below. We reupholstered it in vintage/handmade Hmong fabric and stripped and waxed it to show the natural wood. It’s now sitting in my hallway and I LOVE it.

sleigh-bench
vintage-accessories-2

My job was to redo them (which, yes, I had so much help, namely from Orlando) but also to style them in environments that would show them off the best and give them the right context. It was tricky because I wanted them to look super “me,” but they also need to look right for “Good Housekeeping,” so it had to be kinda a modern version of traditional. Honestly, though, I love all those photos above. We shot at Scott’s house (which is beautiful) so it wasn’t hard to make it really pretty.

diy-trunk

window-frame-mirror

The herringbone top trunk was probably the most complicated so I’ll do a separate DIY post on that and hopefully more of them, but I’m not sure how many process photos we got. I’ll see what kinda posts we can scrape together.

So thank you very much, “Good Housekeeping,” for the feature.

And now, friends, which one is your favorite?

 

DIY Headboard Painting

05.09.13

Dear Emily’s Readers,

Do you ever look around at giant paintings, salivating, wishing you could call them your own? That you could take them home from the gallery and love them for the rest of time? But then you look at the $170,000 price tag and you get sad because you spent your last million on that brand new jet? Well you’re in luck, because I recently made a glamorous giant painting with the help of Alexis and a little boy who dared to help me paint. Below is a step by step guide to creating your own masterpiece, whether you’re a teenage cat enthusiast or an elderly professional wrestler.

Before we get started with our Bob Ross-style painting lesson, here is what you’ll need:

Canvas + Stretcher Bars + Staple Gun = Stretched Canvas

canvas frame

You can grab all these items from Blick Art Materials, where Emily and I like to shop. If you’ve never stretched a canvas, watch this video for a quick primer. Or you could just be a normal person and buy a pre-stretched canvas.

Paint

In real life, artists use acrylic or oil paint for their paintings, but for the purpose of this project we chose to use house paint. This is because we needed a lot and house paint is less expensive than acrylic. It was also helpful that we didn’t have to mix the colors, because mixing the perfect shade of blue can be as difficult as trying to arrest Reese Witherspoon’s husband for drunk driving. Too soon? Sorry.

Step 1: Choose your paint colors.

emily-henderson-diy-headboard-paint

Because the colors in the bedroom were so sophisticated and restrained, we decided to go bold with our selections for the painting. We chose Benjamin Moore Coat of Arms, Sun Kissed Yellow, and Black Satin.

2: Stretch your canvas.

make-own-canvas

Canvas stretching is an art form unto itself. This is kind of difficult to describe so check out that video I mentioned before.

3: Paint your background color.

diy headboard

In Graham’s room, we were working with a color palette of blue, black, yellow, and grey so we decided to keep our painting in the same vein. To give our painting more depth, we mixed black paint into the Coat of Arms color. This had the effect of making it look like the bottom of a pool, rich and aqua and shimmering. Like my eyes.

4: Enlist child labor to ensure handmade look.

diy headboard

diy headboard

Because this was for a kids room, we wanted to involve our clients’ son so that he could take some ownership over his painting. When I was little, I loved making art, and I assume that all children love to paint as much as I did. Which is why I was slightly surprised when Graham was all “OK, I’m done painting now” after like five minutes. I will say that he was seriously into when he was doing it, but that he knew when his interest was dwindling and decided to stop while it was still fun. I think we all could learn a lot from Graham.

4: Maniacally micromanage your child laborer to make sure it doesn’t look “too DIY.”

diy headboard

One of the reasons I will be a terrible parent is that I’m slightly controlling when it comes to things like art projects. One moment I’m all “be yourself!” And the next minute I’m like “No, stop that. You’re doing it wrong.” Just kidding. I would never say that to a kid and I was super good with Graham … otherwise he’d hate me. And I know he likes me. Right? Graham? Are you there? Hello? I’m so alone.

5: Tape off upper section of painting to add in second color.

diy headboard

Once I had bored Graham so much that he fled in terror, I taped off the upper portion of the painting to add our second color (white). A normal person might have just left the canvas white so it wouldn’t be annoying to paint white over a dark color, but I like to complicate things as much as possible so I did it backwards. It did give the painting an added sense of laying and depth though, which I like. Speaking of layering and depth, have you seen Emily’s new bangs? I’m totally into them.

6: Tape off accent stripe, painting it in with black.

diy headboard

painting-emilyhenderson-3

We wanted our painting to be very minimalist and simple, so we didn’t want it to get too busy with too many stripes. Thus, we just added a few, including a big black one in the middle. This helped to give the painting some movement. Also, sorry for my outfit. Sometimes, when I’m running around shopping, making paintings, and being a terrible role model for young children, my outfit gets messed up (there was a cute overshirt I was wearing before these pics were taken but it got too hot so I took it off).

7: Tape off and paint in your final accent color (in our case yellow).

huge painting headboard

In order to make the painting more kid-friendly, to make it more lively, and to bring it back into our color palette, we added our accent color into the mix. The bright yellow really helped the painting come alive.

8: Remove tape and, BAM, your painting is done!

huge painting headboard

One of the most satisfying things in life is ripping blue tape off of painting jobs, and this was no different. I wish there was a job where all you did all day was rip blue tape off of stuff, because I’d totally apply.

We created a simple frame using pine we had cut to size. This process was slightly involved, so check back for our DIY on how to cheaply frame large paintings. It will literally blow your socks off. (No it won’t).

9: Hang painting behind headboard.

DIY headboard

Photo by David Tsay

Depending on how big your painting is, this might be harder than it sounds. Because our painting was giant and we were hanging it over the bed of an especially adorable child, we hired someone who specialized in secure art hanging to hang it for us. If you are hanging anything over a bed, make sure to use plenty of anchors or just have the thing built into the wall.

10. Enjoy the painting!

So, there you go. That is how you make a giant painting without really trying. Well, there was quite a bit of trying to be honest, and a little bit of artistic turmoil (“Emily do you like this? What about the yellow do you like that? Do you like me? What about my personality is that okay? Why are you running, come back. I love you.”). Hopefully your painting won’t involve so much drama.

So, now I have shown you the way to make a giant modern painting. What are you waiting for? Get out there and make it! Right now.

Love,
Orlando

Guest Contributor Orlando Soria 

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Side table makeover; styled two ways

04.19.13

Happy National Painting Week, friends. Last year I was all young and ambitious and painted Brian’s office for National Painting Week, by Sherwin Williams. This year I decided to tackle something a little more doable, something that only took a couple of hours, and was wildly satisfying.

demi-lune table

See? Boring vintage Ikea demilune table (from 1996, I believe) that just screams, nay, whispers, “Hey guys, I’m very boring.” It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but it could use some spunk, pizazz, jazz, zam, pow … you get it.

It was as boring as the two hour season premiere of Mad Men — there is something to it, sure, but really it just put me to sleep. (I mean, am I right, people?)

Red Side Table-6

So we (by we, I mean Alexis) painted the table a bright red (Sherwin Williams “Positive Red”) because, well, I couldn’t handle blue again, and I figured why the hell not go for red because it’s a totally under used color.

Red Side Table-10

I would go into how to paint a table, but you probably get it. Grab a brush. Dip said brush in paint. Move that brush around on the table. Blow on it til it’s dry.

But we were still kinda bored with just the red, and it’s such a simple table that is inexpensive so it’s kinda begging to be experimented on. So I told Alexis to do whatever she wanted — a pattern, go wild. She taped off this pattern inspired by all the tribal (and triangular) things trending right now and we went for it. Since our color for the day was red/pink, we decided to use two different pinks to make it happy and girly, but still a little tonal.

triangle pattern

pattern painted table

She added the colors “Hopeful” (light pink) and “Begonia” (coral), which I have to say are just very lovely names of colors.

painted table

I love it when a piece looks like a total disaster before you remove the tape, like above. But after we removed them, it was oh-so-fresh and fun.

Instead of just showing the finished table in a styled space, I decided to style it twice and let you decide which you like more. I think I just love how you can change the look of piece just by changing its context.

Style #1: Happy playroom:

sherwin william post

I styled it as a kids space because it was so playful and I have kid on the brain. Plus, I had just got that yellow lamp and that adorable rocking chair (both vintage) and wanted an excuse to show them off to you. That art is from a client of mine — he’s five and adorable, so I borrowed it for the day. I kept it graphic and simple.

hague blue farrow and ball

All the books and those blocks are Ruby’s (Oh Joy’s daughter). Thanks, Rubes, for the use of your adorable props. I’m sorry that I snuck into your room while you were sleeping and stole your toys. Hopefully that doesn’t scar you for life.

Style #2: Hip Dorm Room:

patterned painted table

Oh very Urban Outfitters. Oh you know, she just finished her Intro to Human Sexuality final and she’s leaving tomorrow to backpack around Europe so she’s just been reading these travel books voraciously. She can’t put them down. Although when she does, she puts them down in cute little piles next to her Victorian wicker chair …

But that felt forced to me, so I took them away:

red demilune table

Better, right? I think, so. I don’t know, it’s so hard to be objective about your own stuff …

fern

Most of the props were borrowed from Scott Horne (who has a Tastemaker sale on One Kings Lane TODAY!!) so thanks, Scott for lending them out. I want that blue and white box real bad.

maiden-hair-fern

That tassel is stupid. And by stupid, I mean, remarkable. Like I want to remark about it so hard … with my mouth.

I like how the table turned out. It’s a bit trendier than I normally go, but it’s just paint so next year when painting cats on everything is the new huge pattern trend, I can repaint it in a couple hours. Meanwhile these triangles were totally playful, fun, and I loved how random they were. Happy National Painting Week, friends.

* This post is in collaboration with Sherwin Williams but they all the words, photos, and opinions are mine, mine, mine.

Before photos by Monica Wang, After photos by Tessa Neaustadt, Painting of table done by Alexis Finc. Produced and styled by Me. Thanks so much for your help, ladies.

And be sure to check out other National Painting Week makeovers over at Vintage Revivals today, and tomorrow you get Ashley’s project on Decortista and The Anne Sage on The City Sage. On Sunday, check out Curbly’s and Simply Grove. Meanwhile a lot of my favorite interior design blogs did projects already for National Painting Week, check them all out: Little Green Notebook, Coco Kelley, House of Earnest, Remodelaholic, Recycle Consign and Design  The Brick House and Decor Chick.

So, what do you think? Which styling do you like better? Style #1: Happy Playroom or Style #2 Hip Dorm Room? 

Sneak Peek into a DIY

04.12.13

Today is a sneak peak into a post I have for Sherwin Williams National Painting Week next Friday. Yes, next week you have to paint something in your house — it’s required by law. By the way, did anyone catch the National Sibling Day hype yesterday? Geez, nobody told me. With five siblings I could have killed it.

I’m not gonna show you what I’m going to do but it involves this color:

Sherwin williams positive red

Positive Red

Also accented by Begonia and Hopeful. You know what job I would never want? Naming paint colors. These names are GREAT, actually, but one time I had to convince a client to use “Elephant’s Breath” and no matter how much we loved the color on the wall, Elephant’s Breath is decidedly not a instinctively beautiful thing. They should have at least called it Baby Elephant’s Breath.

Anyway, Sherwin Williams asked me and like 13 other design bloggers (my favorite lineup, actually) to participate in National Painting Week and paint something. I was assigned red/pink, which is bold, but not scary.

So mark on your calendars next Friday, and I’ll reveal the project … and of course I styled it two different ways to show how you can really change the vibe of a piece by how you style it.

But most importantly, who are you wearing for National Painting Week?