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DIY Beaded Chandelier

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Brittany

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July 29, 2020

The Inspiration

You’ve probably seen this amazing bead chandelier before, as it has made its way around the internet (others found here and here and here). I love how relaxed and elegant it feels – that’s a difficult but essential pairing. The layers of cascading beads have such a graceful look, but the natural wood keeps it fresh and easy to incorporate into any setting. And the tiers remind me of the scallop trend that is super hot right now! So often I see pieces I love but have a hard time imaging in my space. This one though fits right in! I think it could look good in any space.

A Penny Saved…

Is a penny earned! This Pottery Barn Hack for a DIY Beaded Chandelier will save you so much money. While I love the original chandelier, the $800 price tag would present a big dent in the monthly budget. In times like these, I don’t exactly want to spend that much on anything nonessential. Save where you can so you can splurge where you can, right? You don’t have to splurge to have nice things, but you do have to be willing to try new things.

You CAN Do-It-Yourself

Since I just had to have this piece, I automatically started to think of how we could replicate this beauty. With a box of wooden beads, a handful of embroidery hoops, and a season of Friends (yes, this one’s a bit time-consuming folks), I got just what we wanted! This DIY Beaded Chandelier could easily pass for the original. If you’re feeling particularly creative, you could even play around with different colored beads. While I didn’t actually put a lightbulb in mine, you could easily find a cheap hanging lightbulb like this one and place the your DIY beaded chandelier over it. Let your imagination run wild! We’ve taken care of the rest with our DIY instructions.

If you’ve got pennies to pinch and time to spare, this is the project for you! Total cost of supplies, $170. Score! See here how to make it.

Learn how to get the DIY below!

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My new green sofa

Brittany

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October 31, 2016

21

I rarely talk about my personal home here on the blog and it’s mostly because I haven’t invested much time or money into making it look awesome and thus, I don’t want to take pictures of it and share it with you. As some of you might remember, Paul and I live in a basement apartment of a house. It’s actually super awesome for being a basement apartment. And it comes with the best land lords of all time, which is why we don’t plan on moving anywhere until we want to buy. It’s a walk-out apartment so it has more light than the typical basement and it’s street facing so it feels like a real home, but because it doesn’t feel super “my own” I don’t spend time on it. BUT, I recently got a new sofa and it’s been life changing. Let me tell you about it.

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18 best paper plant tutorials

Design
paper

Brittany

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March 3, 2016

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It’s no secret I’m prematurely welcoming spring in so I thought I’d jump the gun a bit more with some of my favorite paper plant tutorials and inspiration out on the web, in random order. My paper plants (#5 on this list) were my most popular post of 2015, so clearly you are liking them as well! In my free time I’d love to make a bunch for my house, which doesn’t get too much light.

Get the complete list after the jump!

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DIY Rattan Sunburst Mirror

Brittany

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July 12, 2018

6

Sunburst mirrors are definitely having a moment and I’m all about it. You’ve probably seen them popping up around the design world, I’ve got one in my kitchen! I happen to love rattan–furniture, accessories, you name it! There are lots of beautiful rattan mirrors out on the market right now, including lots of vintage beauties! They can cost a pretty penny though so we decided to make this DIY Rattan Sunburst mirror for only $25! And that will allow you to make 2-3 mirrors! It’s much easier than you’d think and the end result is so stunning, no one would ever guess you made it.

So let’s make some mirrors!

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DIY origami lampshade

Design

Brittany

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August 1, 2018

10

I’m inspired by the clever work of UK based paper artist, Sarah Louise Matthews, and I was thrilled to find that she has released a paper craft book called, Paper Craft Home, which is available now! It features 25 projects to cut, fold, and shape. I already dog-eared the heck out of mine! It’s great for both beginners and advanced crafters so you can find a little something for everyone. Today she’s sharing a tutorial from the book, the origami lamp shade, which is actually similar in concept to a project from our book, Craft the Rainbow, with a different spin.

Strictly speaking, this lampshade isn’t origami, but it’s a great project to put your paper-folding skills to the test. Once you break the folding down into a step of valley folds followed by a step of mountain folds, it is fairly straightforward, and when mastered, you will be making bespoke lampshades for every room in the house!

See the full tutorial below!

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One Room Challenge: Week 6 final reveal

Brittany

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May 8, 2019

37

We made it, you guys! The final week of One Room Challenge! Are you still with us? Well, if there’s ever a time to tune back in it’s NOW! Sit back and enjoy an absurd amount of “before and afters”–it’s going be good!

If you’re just joining in, we focused our attention on this 6 week challenge with 20 other bloggers and a handful of generous vendors on Mary, our business director here at Lars, and the new house she bought a few months ago. It was in nice condition, just lacked…finesse and style. And I do believe that we BROUGHT IT!

What do you think?!

Read more about the vendors we worked with, what lessons Mary learned along the way, and the three things she’d recommend for an equally dramatic kitchen transformation.

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One Room Challenge Week 1: Spring 2019 Room Reveal

Brittany

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April 3, 2019

12

One Room Challenge Week 1: Spring 2019 Room Reveal

You may have seen our Instagram announcement last week and if not…we are thrilled to announce that we are participating in a new round of One Room Challenge with 19 other fantastic designers. Huzzah! We loved being involved last time, though it was a little (ok, A LOT) frantic with the renovation of one of our office spaces (see here), and this time we’ve had a bit more breathing room so we are stoked to get going and show you every inch of the process!

One Room Challenge, now in its 15th season, is a 6 week event where bloggers and designers transform one room of a house into magic in partnership with stellar brands. It’s churned out some really great eye candy (see previous years here). You can see everyone’s progress on their respective platforms (see the links at the end of this post) week after week all culminating with a feature on Better Homes and Gardens at the end. They’re all so different and it’s really amazing to see how everyone is presented the same options but use them in dramatically different ways.

So far, we’ve kept our intended space a secret…any guesses which room we are tackling (besides the major hints with these photos)?

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Top 5 favorite interior designers right now

Brittany

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June 25, 2019

7

Top 5 favorite interior designers right now

With the algorithms changing all the time on social media, I was starting to get really bummed out. You too? Instagram was showing me stuff that I wasn’t inspired by and it was filling my eyes with things I was disinterested in, which may seem benign or petty, but even digital real estate fills up your mind and bandwidth and it was taking up too much of it.

I resolved to only follow accounts that I find inspiring or want to support and unfollowing accounts that didn’t align. It’s been about a year of this adjustment and I’ve noticed that I’m much more inspired by what I consume. I’m constantly bookmarking inspiration and ideas for projects in fashion, interior design, and more, so much so that I now share this inspiration on a weekly column on stories (tune in here to see it!) and I’m finding it really exciting. I mean, the constant algorithm changes are still SO LAME, but at least my creative juices are flowing.

I don’t know if it’s just the backlash against a decade of white walls and minimal interiors, but all of a sudden I’m starting to see rooms full of textures, colors, and shapes and I AM LOVING IT! I haven’t been this inspired in a long time so I thought I’d share some of my favorite interior designers right now as interior design is one of my favorite sources of inspiration.

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How to paint lime wash with Pure and Original Paint

Design

Brittany

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March 11, 2019

4

How to paint lime wash with Pure and Original Paint

We recently released a new collection of home goods in partnership with interior designer, Meta Coleman, and today she’s sharing a peek into her new main floor. Meta’s home is constantly evolving stylistically as she grows and I love seeing the process into how she brings it altogether. She gathers inspiration from her favorite artists and travels to create a truly one of a kind home.

Today she’s going into detail about the new colors in her house in partnership with Pure and Original Paint, her lime wash company of choice. Lime wash has the most lovely texture and it’s been something she’s been experimenting with the last couple of years. I’m excited to let you in on this technique with you! – Brittany
Meta Coleman’s new painted living room

I have wanted to paint my hallway a beautiful green for a couple of years now. With the help of Pure and Original Paint I finally made it a reality and I couldn’t be happier with the result. Follow along for the entire adventure and what sparked this desire.

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The complete list of where to buy wallpapers

Design

Brittany

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February 3, 2015

11

The complete list of where to buy wallpapers

Image credits from top left clockwise: Blue Stripe | Blue horses | Pink | Martinique

For those of you who are unfamiliar, my background is in interior design though now I focus more on crafting and DIY living now here on Lars. But, did you know that I write for the Caesarstone blog, Interior Collective, twice a week? Yup! I write about all sorts of topics surrounding interior design. I’ve decided to channel some of my interior design advice more onto my own blog as well and thought I’d start out with one of my favorite topics: wallpaper.

Wallpaper has the ability to transform a space with very little. A plain basic room can feel polished, whimsical or sophisticated with a simple roll of paper. True, wallpaper can be very expensive, but if that’s the only thing you are using to decorate a space, I say save and make the investment! For the past few months I’ve been creating a resource guide on where to find gorgeous papers for the non-designer, meaning places where you don’t need to have a designer in order to buy it, like what showrooms often require, and today I’ve sharing them with you and including some of my favorite spaces using wallpaper and why they work.

Wallpaper by Josef Frank. Image from here.

Above, this Josef Frank wallpaper is one of my favorite designs. In fact, my friend Meta just upholstered her sofa in the same fabric and it’s divine. Josef Frank’s patterns are nearly a century old but are still so fresh and modern. They work well in a variety of styles, but I especially love it when you bring in rich woods and contrasting patterns.

Below, this gorgeous bright floral wallpaper is expertly combined with similar colors and contrasting patterns to create an eclectic yet romantic feel.

Graham & Brown wallpaper

I love how the more muted wallpaper in this space acts as a neutral for the rest of the space. Combined with brightly painted pieces of furniture, it feels complete and sweet.

Photography by Lina Ostling

What room would you wallpaper if you could wallpaper any room?

See the complete list of wallpapers after the jump!

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Custom pillows and DIY lampshade

Brittany

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January 17, 2019

9

For her BFA a number of years ago, my sister designed several textile designs and had them custom designed on the then new-to-me platform, Spoonflower. She then sewed pieces of clothing and had all the guests at her final show dress up in them. I was living in Denmark at the time so sadly, I was unable to experience the magic, but I’ve been told that it was indeed magic (You can see some of her work here). They had brought her designs to life.

Spoonflower was the first platform I had heard of that offered the ability to create custom fabric from your own designs. I first heard about them while I was a graduate student in interior design and textile design. I ended up trying out a number of different patterns of my own designs over the years and being super pleased with it. Well, I hadn’t checked in with them in awhile and was super surprised to find out how much the platform had grown over the years. If you’re unfamiliar, on the platform, you can either design your own fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap and get it printed on a variety of fabric and paper OR you can sell your designs OR you can select from the other designer’s fabrics. And there are SO many great options to choose from!

Click to read more and to get 10% off your Spoonflower and Roostery order!

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How to make a style board

Brittany

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April 26, 2017

0

I’m thrilled to introduce a guest contributor for today, Megan Gonzalez. Perhaps you’ve seen her work with her company, MaeMae. I’ve been a fan of her beautiful work for quite awhile now and I’ve long been impressed with the style boards she creates and features on her site for each client (and the movie she created?! It’s a must watch!). They are in itself beautiful works of art. As I’ve been featuring more and more style boards here for different projects (remember Becca’s wedding inspiration board?), I thought it would be wonderful to hear from the expert on how to create them for your own projects.

Hi! I’m Megan and I run MaeMae, a creative studio located in Minneapolis, MN. Since I was in elementary school, I have collected magazines tears, notes and drawings from friends, and postage stamps. When I got my first computer in college I filled folders on my desktop with photos and designs I found online as well as scans and photos of pages from books I discovered at the campus’ library. Now if I didn’t have the job I do, I think we’d label this all compulsive hoarding… but fortunately I get to put all of these found and collected objects and images to good use in my work!

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