Pinterest Challenge: Cork Balls

I wish there were a more glamorous name for these...perhaps salvaged wine cork globes? Well, whatever you want to call them I took Sherry, Katie, Emily and Lana's bait, and finally DIYed something I pinned over on Pinterest.

I started with a 5" round styrofoam ball, some craft paint (I choose Americana Gloss Enamels in Honey Brown)...

a one inch foam brush, a glue gun, and a ton of corks (scored from my trip to Healdsburg and the community garage sale). (And you might want to do this on a drop cloth or some old newspapers, cuz it is messy!)

Step one is to pain the styrofoam ball or the white gaps between corks will show, and not in a good way.

Once the paint has dried, start glueing your corks strategically around the ball. (Here's where I would show you pictures, but unfortunately, I stupidly had my memory card out of my camera when I was taking pictures of this step, and I can't find the right cord that attaches the camera to the computer.) But basically, I started by glueing corks all around the circumference of the ball in each direction, and filled in the quadrants with corks.

Within each quadrant I started with straight lines running parallel to the circumference corks, and then filled in as necessary. I thought it looked best with corks of different lengths and widths, so I played around with it. Perfection is not necessary here; variation in texture looks way more interesting in my opinion.

I even played around with the red wine stained corks for some color variation.

I am really pleased with the final product, and I have enough corks left over that I should be able to make a second ball. I have not decided on a final place of honor for my creation, but I am thinking somewhere in the living room would be swell.

Oh, and although others complained of this project taking four + hours, it only took me two episodes of This American Life - which is how I am counting time these days - or two hours. It could easily be accomplished in front of the TV too, if you have one.

Lastly, this textural wonder was fairly cheap to make. The styrofoam ball, foam brush, and paint were about $10 total; the corks were free; and the glue gun I had on hand.

So go forth and make a cork ball, a salvaged wine cork globe...or something else you've pinned on Pinterest.

P.S. I am sharing this project at Young House Love and Bower Power today, so be sure to head on over to check out their projects and many others here and here. You can also see what the other brainchildren behind this idea cooked up; Emily's is here, and Lana's is here.

What to Blog About When a Project is Taking For.ever?

I have been a bit worried this week about what to blog about since our quest to retexture our walls is painfully slow and not so fun to blog about (or read about) daily.

I did some blog hopping this morning as I was drinking my coffee to see what was happening in the blogosphere, and it seems as though my dilemma has been solved for me!

Young House Love and Bower Power have concocted a Pinterest Challenge - a call to make at least one item that you have pinned and saved to Pinterest.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with Pinterest, it's my crack cocaine, my kryptonite...It's an online bulletin board. You can "pin" pictures from anywhere - the internet, your computer, etc - and Pinterest saves them for you on different boards that you create. Those of you already addicted can follow me here: http://pinterest.com/nbulich/)

Like them and many of you, I have been pinning away since I found out about the site about 6 months ago, but I don't think I have whipped up any of that inspiration for my own home. I have decided to change that and participate in the challenge since sanding plaster isn't too exciting for you or me.

What will I make, you ask? A cork ball!

In case you are asking yourself what a cork ball is, let me show you some fine examples.

I already scored all the cork I need thanks to our trip to Healdsburg and Lindsay, who asked for corks at each of the wineries we went to when I was too shy to. And I picked up a foam ball at Michael's a couple weeks back when I made my fabric wrapped cork board. So now it's time to start glue gunnin'! I'll let you know how it goes. That and the sanding...

Upcycled Frame and Fabric Wrapped Cork Board

Today continues my adventures in spray painting. I made a fabric wrapped cork board out of a fun frame I found at Goodwill. Here's the finished product, currently chilling on my desk.

I started with this frame, which I fought and beat (not literally) another woman over at my local Goodwill.

At $10.50, it was worth the battle. That chunky scalloped trim reminded me of a good pie crust, and I figured it would look yummy spray painted white. (Please ignore the picture.)

First I wiped the frame down to get rid of any dust and dirt accumulated over the years. Then I sprayed the frame using thin, even coats until it was completely covered.

My weapon of choice was Rust-oleum spray paint in a semi-gloss white. I used a comfort grip spray nozzle attachment to get the even coverage I was going for. The spray paint and the attachment (which I can use again on future projects) were about $10.00 combined.

After the letting the frame dry according to the directions on the can, it was time to remove the picture from the frame so I could apply the cork to the picture (which was printed on a thin piece of wood rather than canvas). This required removing the staples holding the picture in place with a stapler remover.

Next I attached a roll of cork that I snagged at Michael's for about $10 to the picture. In my excitement I forgot to stop and snap some pictures but here's my process: I unrolled the cork and cut it down to fit the picture. Once I had it cut to size, I used Aleene's Tacky Spray to adhere it to the picture.

Then I placed the picture cork-side down and let the adhesive cure for 30 minutes with weight on top of it.

Once the cork was firmly attached to the picture, I wrapped it in my chosen fabric, some Waverly Lattice in Lagoon that I had turned into bathroom curtains at our old house. The only tricky part was making sure the pattern was straight on the cork board. Once I had everything the way I wanted it, I cut the fabric down, leaving a 1" edge around the cork board.

I then folded the edge over the back of the board, making sure the fabric was taught, and stapled it around all sides of the frame.

When I was done, it looked like this.

Last it was time to adhere the cork board to the frame using a staple gun.

With my custom cork board complete, I put it in place on my desk and began pinning away using 1-1/2" silver pins usually used in sewing and upholstery (just because I liked the way they looked).

I love having some inspiration to stare at as I work, blog, and surf the internet.

This project was so easy, quick, and fun that I can't wait to try some variations. Custom mirrors, anyone? 

Current Casa: Bathroom

This room might just be my favorite room of the house because it is the most finished. It's also light and bright, and the soothing colors work together well.

Here's the view from the door. The curtains are no-sew curtains that I made using Young House Love's tutorial. The fabric is from Waverly's Sun N Shade Line, an indoor/outdoor line of fabrics that I thought would stand up well to a moisture-rich room like the bathroom. The pattern is Lovely Lattice in Lagoon. It truly lives up to its name!

And below is the view of the vanity, which we scored from one of the hub's former jobs. It replaced a hideous dark brown vanity that had some kind of weird faux brown marble countertop. Ick. I was so grossed out at the time that I didn't take any "before" pics, but now I wish I had.

We also re-tiled with cream porcelain tiles and grey grout. The tiles look great for about a day after the bathroom gets clean, but they get dirty quick. I am not sure if we would go this route again. I would and will do the baseboard again. It really makes the room feel finished.

The towels are Thomas O'Brien's Vintage Modern line for Target, and the soap pump hails from Tar-jay as well. To the left of the soap pump is an abalone shell that I use to hold hair ties, tweezers, etc. Weird, but it works for us.

The shower curtain is a Marimekko print that we got from Crate and Barrel years ago on clearance. I absolutely love it and am sad that we will have to pack it away - for at least a little while - till we can do something about our sliding shower doors in the new house.

Above the toilet is some art.

The top print comes from Michelle Brusegaard's etsy shop. She designed our wedding invites. I love them so much that I periodically drop in on her shop to see what is new, which is how I found this picture of birds on a wire, called "Pretty Birds." I adore the parallel lines cutting across the picture plane, the color scheme, and how it all plays off of the more curvy lines of the print below, cut from a Snow and Graham calendar from years past. (Please excuse the art historian in me.)

And this is decidedly not glam, but on top of our toilet tank sits a silver hammered tray with shells collected from vacations, a cute matchbox, and a scented candle.

This bathroom is so much more spacious and airy than our new baños that it will be sorely missed. But I imagine that there is nothing quite like having two of them! I'll get back to you in a couple weeks on that one...