It’s hard to turn a page in a home magazine without seeing a collection of beautiful porcelain vases in someone’s home. But the price tag that comes with some designer vases can be a little hard to stomach. So do-it-yourself queen Erica Domesek of P.S.-I Made This came up with an ingenious way to turn everyday bottles and cans into elegant faux porcelain. All you need is a little puff paint and some white spray paint.
designer
Erica Domesek
cost
$10
time
10 minutes (plus drying time)
difficulty
★★★★
materials
Puff paint
Bottles and cans
Matte spray paint
instructions
1 Paint your desired pattern onto the can or bottle with puff paint. You can create shapes or stick with a simple line-and-dot pattern.
2 Once the puff paint has dried, spray paint over the entire can or bottle and let it dry. Repeat if necessary until the can or bottle has a smooth, solid coat. Let that dry, and you’ll be ready to fill your new “vases” with flowers or just display them around your home.
Craft projects involving yarn always remind me of Girl Scout camp, but Derek and Lauren found a way to use yarn that feels fresh and modern. By wrapping a simple glass vase with brown and teal yarn, they created a modern design that feels right at home with the rest of their décor. If you’re looking for something more dramatic, try using a range of colored yarns to create Paul Smith–style stripes.
designers
Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith
cost
$2
time
10 minutes
difficulty
★★★★
materials
Glass vase or bottle (ours is rectangular, but any shape would work)
Double-stick tape
Yarn
instructions
1 Apply a few strips of double-stick tape to your vase, down the length vertically and around the top and bottom.
2 Starting at the bottom, begin wrapping the yarn, making sure to stack the layers (don’t overlap) and tuck the loose end under the first couple of rounds. When you’re ready to switch colors, cut the yarn and secure the trimmed end to a piece of the double-stick tape.
3 Continue wrapping until you reach the top of the vase. Tuck in the tail end at the back of the vase under the top couple of rounds.
Resist-dyeing, like batik or tie-dye, is a lot of fun, but can be a mess—especially for those of us completing projects at home. Design*Sponge editors Derek and Lauren discovered that bleaching a pattern onto predyed fabric using a gel bleach pen is a much easier, cleaner way to achieve a similar effect on a limited budget. So the next time you pick up a bleach pen to work on your bathroom tiles, consider trying your hand at faux batik dyeing using inexpensive, colorful fabric.
designers
Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith
cost
$20 for 4 towels
time
1 hour
difficulty
★★★★
materials
1 yard of dark-colored linen
Scissors
Iron
Sewing machine
Matching thread
Plastic drop cloth or aluminum foil
Clorox Bleach Pen (2 pens should be enough for 4 towels)
Tailor’s chalk (optional)
Rubber gloves
instructions
1 Wash and dry the fabric and cut it into quarters. Fold the long sides in ¼ inch and press with a hot iron. Fold in another ¼ inch and stitch. Repeat on the short sides, and with the rest of the fabric pieces.
2 Protect your work surface with a plastic drop cloth or sheets of aluminum foil. Wear work clothes in case the pen brushes against you, and open your windows for ventilation. Lay the towels down on the work surface and draw patterns on the fabric with the bleach pen. We like the look of free-hand, slightly wavy lines, but you can also draw your desired pattern onto the fabric beforehand using tailor’s chalk and trace over it with the bleach pen. Let the finished towels sit for 30 minutes.
3 Wearing rubber gloves to protect your hands from the bleach, rinse the towels in cold water. It is very important to rinse off all the bleach in order to avoid smearing.
4 Let the towels dry, and give them a final wash before use.
NOTE: One yard of 54-inch-wide fabric will yield four tea towels that measure 26 x 17 inches.
One of my favorite pastimes in life is attending flea markets. The endless possibilities, the hidden treasures, the chance of finding something amazing for less than $10—it all makes me weak in the knees. The Brimfield Antique Show in Massachusetts is one of my favorite flea markets to visit, and during my last trip I picked up this vintage mercury bottle for a song. Originally I assumed it would work as a vase, but the neck was so narrow I decided to use a lamp conversion kit to create my own custom desk lamp. All I needed was an inexpensive shade and it was good to go!
designers
Grace Bonney
cost
$40
time
1 hour
difficulty
★★★★
materials
Bottle (try eBay and flea markets for affordable versions)
Cork lamp kit (this version is from National Artcraft and is available at Amazon.com)
Lamp shade (be sure to buy the kind that clips directly onto the bulb)
Fabric (optional)
Scissors
Marker
Hot glue gun and glue sticks (optional)
Decorative details like ribbon or studs (optional)
instructions
1 Clean out the bottle to ensure there isn’t any mold or organic matter that could be left to rot when sealed with the cork.
2 Assemble the lamp kit and gently slide the cork lamp unit into the neck of the bottle. If the bottle feels top-heavy, remove the cork unit and fill the bottle with sand or small pebbles as ballast. If your cork is too big, you can carefully shave the sides to ensure a snug fit.
3 If you want to decorate your lampshade like I did, cut the fabric so it is 1 inch longer in height than the lampshade, and ½ inch longer in length than the circumference of the lampshade. (Just wrap it around the shade to measure. If you have a shade that doesn’t have straight sides, you’ll need to cut your fabric at a bit of an angle. Just lay it on top and mark with a marker where you need to cut.)
4 Using a hot glue gun, run a line of glue around the bottom inside lip of the lamp shade. Wait 10–15 seconds for the glue to cool down a bit and then lay your fabric flat against the outside of the shade. Do not try to pull it taut, but rather let it lay gently on the shade and fold the bottom ends up and press them into the glue until they stick. Your fingers will get a bit messy but they won’t get burned if you’ve allowed the glue to cool.
5 Repeat step 4 with the inner top lip of the shade, until your fabric is completely attached. (If you have any excess fabric on the inside, cut it with a small pair of sewing scissors—any extra fabric will show up when the light is on.) Run a line of hot glue along the edge of one side of the fabric and press the other side on top. This seam will be visible, so position your shade so the seam side is at the back of the lamp. Let the shade dry before clipping it to the lamp.
Inspired by elegant, moss-covered statues from her local garden tour, elements for her own garden using common hardware store materials. With simple glass lighting covers and a bag of quick-setting concrete, Shannon designed beautiful (and affordable) concrete spheres that will age gracefully tucked inside her backyard garden.
designers
Shannon Crawford
cost
less than $20
time
30 minutes (plus setting time)
difficulty
★★★★
materials
Glass lighting covers (try a thrift store or hardware store for cheap options)
Nonstick cooking spray
Quick-setting concrete
Bucket
Small garden shovel
Safety goggles and gloves (for when you break away the glass)
Hammer
instructions
1 Spray the inside of the lighting covers with nonstick cooking spray—it helps in separating the glass from the ball at the end! Then set the lighting covers in a pile of dirt or sand so they won’t roll away while you’re filling them or while they are setting.
2 Mix quick-setting concrete in the bucket (Shannon used about half a bag of fine-gravel quick-setting concrete), adding water until it reaches the consistency of peanut butter . . . or maybe a little bit runnier. You don’t want it too runny, but not too hard, either. Play around with it!
3 Use a small garden shovel to fill the balls. After every scoop, give the ball a shake or twist to help it settle and break up any air bubbles. Fill the ball to the top and try to make it as level as possible. Then let the balls sit for at least twenty-four hours to set up.
4 When the concrete has lightened, it’s ready to be freed. Put on safety goggles and gloves, and use a hammer to lightly tap the glass to break it away from the concrete ball.
NOTE: When buying lighting covers, make sure there are no cracks in them or they will break when you fill them with concrete.
