stay home & feather
Still can’t handle how much we love doing this…
After nine years, I am not sure I have much to say other than this is the one thing that continues to tickle my heart at Christmas. So come on in…
We went a bit graphic pop with paper from Poketo which we snagged last year from Sonic Boom (who always do the funnest selection at Christmas).
We hope the magic of Christmas is on the other side for you and yours, as always and with love.
Where do you put your Snoopy-obsessed godson when he comes for a week-long visit?
Turn an IKEA desk, a cardboard box and some dollar store wrapping paper into a dream-come-true guest bed…
We are blessed here at Social Nesting HQ to have a pretty decent guest room and have housed a number of special friends. And our most recent impending visitor sparked an idea that started with B’s desk.
The IKEA Micke desk is the perfect tiny workspace-cum-guest-room-surface for the occasional work from home situations, but it mostly goes unused. I wonder if it ever dreamed of the transformation that was coming…
So the visiting godson has long been a Peanuts super-fan. The love, inherited from his mother, spans every incarnation of Snoopy and the gang. Naturally when discussing where we would put him, it wasn’t long before the desk turned into Snoopy’s doghouse in my mind.
The single blow-up mattress we had fit perfectly underneath, so off I set with cardboard, tape and red giftware from the dollar store.
I am not going to teach the obvious here – any crafter worst their salt (and willing to do this themselves) can figure out how to cut up a cardboard box, secure it to a desk, and wrap it. I am here merely to provide a hint of inspiration.
A few wooden letters and some squiggly lines with a Sharpie et voila! A bed that gave our little visitor a dream place to rest his little jet-lagged head.
This quick (okay, maybe not “in 10”, but certainly faster than you think) DIY lampshade makeover elevates a budget buy to bright new heights…
You would think that the fact that a pair of Habitat lamps we scored years ago at 75% off would give us carte blanche to get spendy on the shades, but that really isn’t any fun, and kinda negates the amazing price. So for years they were topped with a simple Ikea shade.
But since moving Social Nesting HQ to Canada and having to rewire the bases, the old shades no longer fit…
Step in Target, and this simple Project 62 rectangular lampshade. Chic in shape and divine in price ($19.99 USD), but a bit plain for us.
Admittedly, the steel-blue lacquer bases were tricky to accommodate. White was too bright, woven neutrals were too “country”, and from a sea of blues, none were quite right.
We needed to add a bit of drama, and aimed to do so with to this stunning marble paper from The Paper Place on Toronto’s Queen Street West.
To cover the shade, we tapped into our dry-mounting skills. Dry mounting involves spray-glueing both the surface you want to paper-cover, and the back of the paper you want to use, waiting for them both to dry, and then carefully sticking them together. Because in this process, when they are stuck, they are stuck.
The paper was only wide enough to cover the front and two sides, but had enough depth for us to cut and secure a cover for the back. The pattern doesn’t match at the back, but they are against a wall so no one will notice…
Plus people will be too busy in awe of the stunning results…
Top a tired table with a bit of punch in less than 10 minutes!
This plain tiny purple table has been kicking around Social Nesting HQ for a long time.
A Habitat bargain (I think we paid £10 for it on sale), it served us well, but was suddenly showing signs of age… a bit of scuffing and a chip here and there. Not enough to kick it to the curb, but enough to warrant a facelift.
Newcomers to the Circuit phenomenon, we don’t have a Cricut machine but we love the adhesive foil, and we are currently obsessed with (and covering everything in sight in) the Matte Gold.
And you don’t need a Cricut machine for this project. We simply cut a few pieces to cover the tabletop, going at it with a craft knife to create a jagged centre. This may look a bit weird as we craftily cut it out of scraps (waste not…), but you get the picture.
A few minutes to carefully apply and the tired tabletop gets a bit of comic book punch in chic matte gold…
…and becomes the perfect resting ground for some fellow gold trinkets.
The door to Christmas at Social Nesting HQ opens with a very special wrap job, and this year, some very special company stopped in to help…
Aside from the tree, the Christmas Door is the one bit of decor we border on giddy about. It just isn’t Christmas without the presence of an oversized present lurking in the corner of the room. So without further ado…
Out came the trusty tools, the wrap from World Market and some jute ribbon from Michaels, and the template we made to get the whole for the door knob and latch in just the right spot…
…and how special it felt to be able to have the episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show – the one that inspired this Christmas decor staple – on in the background as we did it.
So for those who missed the countless retellings of this story: it was the mid-70s, and a young boy was watching a rerun of a Christmas episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The original airing, in December 1970, was while he was in-utero, but who’s to say it didn’t make its way to the womb then too. Just saying: one should never underestimate the power of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Anyway, back to the mid-70s… so, when he saw the most exciting decorating touch he had ever seen, Mary’s front door wrapped like a giant present, he vowed that one day, in a place of his own, he would do the very same thing.
And so it came to pass that we are on year eight of a wrapped door. And every year it is as thrilling to create, and to share with guests, as that very first sighting was.
Come on in, won’t you?
