Pinspiration Monday: Brick by Brick

I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say that sometimes we just need a day to ourselves…I feel like it’s been AGES since I was able to do my SSB (“Secret Single Behavior,” if you’re not a big Sex and the City fan like me), which typically consists of playing the Sims 3, watching sappy chick flicks in my pj’s, taking a bath every other hour or so because I get chilly so easily, etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong – I ADORE our “us” time, but it had been a long time since I had a little girly time alone…

But this Saturday changed all that when John decided to go on a camping trip with some of his buddies. When he left the house at 2:30pm, I heaved a big sigh in the contented silence of our near-empty home, kicked off my high heels…

…and got comfy in my fuzzy slippers. It was time for some “me” time 🙂

After a bit of random lazy-around-the-house activities (mentioned previously), I decided to do something productive and got to work on a Pinterest project I had been wanting to try. The idea was to wrap a pair of bricks in pretty fabric to create bookends. Genius!

No real source for this one…The link didn’t seem to catch properly on the pin – Sorry about that!!!

Instead of doing the smart (and free – although possibly illegal) thing and grabbing a few bricks from a construction site, I went to Lowe’s and did the responsible thing. Only problem was that my karma was DEFINITELY not with me that day, because they had run out of standard bricks, and all I could buy were these mismatched pavers. One was a bit thicker then the other, but they were the same measurements everywhere else so I bought them anyway…They were pretty cheap too – No more then $3 each – so I couldn’t get too worked up about the predicament.

As you saw in this recent post, I had a lot of fabric to choose from – I just grabbed the top pattern in the basket and went with it. I ended up with the big, wide pattern.

Using nothing but this handy-dandy, much-loved, often-used tool…

I got to work attaching the fabric to the brick!

Only problem was that, after cutting the fabric swatch to size and test-wrapping the first brick, I realized that the “big, wide” pattern was a bit TOO ” big” and “wide” – You could hardly see any of the pretty details and shapes on the small brick!

So on to the next option! This second fabric is a bit tighter in pattern and the shapes are smaller, so more can fit on the brick’s surface.

Starting over, I cut the fabric to fit and then laid the brick in the middle. Then I put a few squeezes of hot glue right on the surface of the brick, folded the fabric on top and pressed until it seemed secure.

Then I put some hot glue on top of the fabric I had just laid over and then pulled the other end over the remaining exposed brick. This is when I realized that I should have folded over that raw edge of fabric so that my uneven cutting didn’t show…Oh well! I’ll just put that side towards the books to hide it. Oh, and don’t worry about that excess glue showing. Once it dried, it was easily peeled off and discarded.

For the ends of the brick, I just folded the fabric over like you would the wrapping at the end of a gift box – My sister is SOOOOO good at this, I wish she had been around to help me…But mine came out okay!

Here it is all done!

On to the next one – This time I made sure to fold over that pesky raw edge to get a nice finish…

MUCH better:

Time to test them out.

I first tried them on the inside of a bookcase, as seen below. I liked them in that arrangement, but they seemed a bit hidden.

I put them sideways inside the book case because their “spines” (i.e. the thin,outside edge of the brick) were a little boring. If the bookshelf walls hadn’t been there to hide the pretty outside, flat edges it would have been fine. But alas, they would have been hiding in the recesses of the enclosed shelf.

Solution? I took them out and put them out in the hallway in a place of real visual glory!

(Sorry for the terrible lighting…No windows makes it hard to photograph anything in that hallway!)

I love how, when out in the open, the fabric pattern wraps around the brick. And of course I picked books off the shelf in the same color scheme as the fabric (blue, white, yellow and green) – Gotta be consistent!!!

One thing I have to mention is that the hot glue and extra folds of fabric on the ends of the brick make them a bit wobbly…But once they sandwich some books and have something to lean on, physics (or something…) takes over and all is in tip top shape and balance.

Not only do the pretty finished edges look refined and elegant, they also remind me so much of Christmas presents – What’s not to love about that?

A fun, simple and ALMOST free project! And they help keep my extensive book collection in check all with a little style to boot. You should DEFINITELY try this one at home 🙂

Channeling the artist…

For those of you who don’t know, I actually went to school for art. I found my love for the subject in a general high school art class and just couldn’t stop. I eventually found my niche in drawing and now draw charcoal and graphite portraits as sort of a side business (find out more about that venture here at my artist website). With that said, I want to reiterate that I DO NOT consider myself a painter. I have dabbled in it and was forced to spend many an hour at it in the art studios in college to meet a prerequisite, but I definitely do not think I ever got “what it takes” to be a real painter.

Luckily though, at least for the project I’m about to tell you about, my absolute favorite era of painting is abstract expressionism. Artists then used paint in graphic, expressive ways to portray emotion rather than imagery. It was definitely more subjective and you might know it better by the typical reaction phrase “Oh, I could do that.” Yeah, for the most part you could, but a lot more goes into a painting like that then just the surface medium….

Before I start sounding like a pretentious intellectual (which I promise you I’m not, just a little over enthusiastic and protective maybe), I found out the EASY way that you really can do it yourself 🙂

But let me take you back to the beginning of this idea…As you can see in the photo below, our yellow stencil wall was still bare and sad (although looking a bit more finished since the last time I talked about it with you guys – I have since started hand-painting the stencil at the top). The idea was to fill the space with an abstract-expressionism-inspired piece of artwork, namely a painting of my own creation.

So I went out to Michael’s and picked up a tall, skinny canvas – 16 x 40 inches to be exact.

Next, I needed some inspiration. Whenever I envisioned a piece of abstract art on the wall, I kept coming back to a well-known 1940s/50s artist by the name of Franz Kline. His pieces were mostly slashes and jabs of black paint on a white background. Here’s a screen shot of a Google search of his stuff – He really liked the black and white look…

But I eventually went with this one because I liked the vertical composition (it went well with my tall, thin canvas) and it wasn’t quite as busy as the main bulk of his work.

Keeping the website open on my desktop to serve as a reference, I grabbed my paint brush and got to work!

I used a cheap, wide, wirey-bristle brush to make sure the jagged lines looked as raw and unfinished as possible. I wanted to at least TRY to be true to Kline form!!

In no time, the canvas was definitely looking “raw” and “unfinished”…I was sort of starting to worry at this point that I was going to botch the whole thing and had a “what was I thinking!” moment…

But once all was said and done, I didn’t HATE it. I figured I would just hang it on the wall in the living room and see what I thought after a week. One of three things would inevitably happen:

  1. I’d hate it, take it down and paint over it
  2. After staring at it for a week or so, I’d see a spot that needed more (or less) paint and I could tweak it over time until it was perfect
  3. I’d LOVE it!!!

 

Here’s the “before” again…

And now the “After!”

Like I said, I don’t think that I hate it, but I’m not sure that I love it either…It’s definitely got the vibe I was going for and I like how it really speaks to that era of art I love. But I’m not sure if it’s too much “graphic” on one wall – The shapes in the painting may be competing with the shapes in the wall detail. I thought about simply adding a frame to give it a little separation from the wall. In fact that might be just the ticket, but do I want to go to the trouble of building a frame for it if it’s not going to work?

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it. I’m glad I went with my gut and gave it a shot, but not so sure the two were made to go together afterall. I’ll keep you posted! Would love to hear your thoughts…

While I was taking photos of the space, I thought I’d give you a quick shot of the sofa side of the living room…Not sure I’ve posted that side of the room lately! We are still l-o-v-i-n-g our new couch 🙂

That’s all folks! Have a great weekend and see you back here on Monday 🙂

(Photo credit for chosen Franz Kline painting: here)

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