Like the snowflakes that cover the ground this time of year, it seems no two Christmas trees are alike. Available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and — for those who prefer the artificial kind — materials, the Christmas tree is a blank canvas for expressing our vision of the holidays. This year, the…
Paul Lowe is one the most talented guys around. I don’t know where he finds the time to produce so much beautiful content, but he always does. Paul recently produced a gorgeous Norwegian holiday DIY book and is sharing projects from the book on his Sweet Paul blog from now until Christmas. He was kind…
While walking through the Robert Lehman Collection, a large circular gallery tucked away in the back of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I stumbled upon a painting that caught my eye. The painting, a depiction of a goldsmith in his shop, dates back to 1449 and was attributed to the Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. The…
We’re excited to kick off a short series of guest DIY projects from Merrilee Lilliard of Mer Mag. Merrilee will be sharing some handmade gift ideas over the next few weeks, starting with this lovely bleach-dot clutch. Thanks for joining us for the holidays, Merrilee! — Kate Hello, Design*Sponge readers! Merrilee from Mer Mag here….
I know the low temperatures in northern California hardly rival those of the East Coast, but we still get our fair share of bone-chilling, gloomy winter weather, and according to the news, there’s more cold and windy rain on its way. Like Max and Grace, I am a huge fan of candles: In my urban…
There are few things in life as exuberant as a pom pom. They’re fun, fluffy and ooze the sort of playfulness that you need after a long day. These gorgeous examples come from one of my favorite artists, Ashley G. As if her home could get any cuter, Ashley decided to whip up these adorable…
It’s always better to give than to receive, especially if you’re using fabulous gift tags from Design*Sponge! We commissioned one of our go-to illustrators, David Saracino, to create these charming tags to accompany all of your gifts this holiday season. Whether you’re a cooker, a crafter, a baker or a buyer, these little guys have…
If you meet me here every month, or have upholstered furniture before, you know that even the smallest project can turn into a labor of love, requiring hours of time and producing blisters and callouses. So what is it about upholstery that drives us to spend our wee hours of free time stripping, hammering and…
There’s a wonderful trend going on right now, which I predict will last from here on out: household goods made from simple, natural, organic materials. The increasing popularity of leather, wood and metal objects is wonderful news for the DIYer because all of these materials in their raw state are relatively inexpensive, easy to manipulate,…
This holiday season, we’re kicking off a new feature: “Bringing Art Home,” a column that draws decorating, entertaining and lifestyle inspiration from great works of art. Each installment, we’ll show you how to capture the look or feeling of a particular work of art and bring it into your home. No need for fancy frames…
If you’re living in a dorm, you’re likely familiar with the long lists of rules that RAs hand out at the beginning of the school year. Rules that forbid things like thumbtacks, toasters, hotplates and candles. While you might mourn the loss of toast in the morning or the ability to cook whenever you please,…
As a college student, there are a lot of good reasons to buy a beanbag chair. They’re lightweight, they’re portable, they’re inexpensive, they’re somewhat comfortable, and they’re kind of fun. Let’s be real though— they are not cute. You might search high and low, but rest assured, it’s practically impossible to find an attractive beanbag…
We have this very annoying tree right outside our apartment that blocks all light from our windows, thwarting the sun’s attempts to warm us with its golden rays of energy. Damn you, tree! Recently I begged our landlord to at least consider trimming it back, and he finally relented, which left me with both a…
When I went out trick-or-treating as a kid, I had only one goal: to get as much candy as humanly possible. In order to do this, I started early, attempting to cover as much ground as possible before it got late. Friends who couldn’t keep up were promptly abandoned as I raced from house to…
Aside from spiders and black cats, bats are the defining animal of Halloween. Around this time of year, stores will start selling various representations of the winged mammal in all manner of materials: paper, plastic, rubber and metal. Ever since I started throwing Halloween parties in high school, I’ve hung construction-paper bat silhouettes on my…
As you know, I’m a huge fan of completely non-functional projects where the only goal is visual delight. Sure, they don’t do anything, but if they are fun, or beautiful, or mysterious? Even in this world of infinite stuff, that’s still totally enough for me. This project falls into that category, and needless to say,…
There’s something infinitely comfortable and classic about Kerr jars. They remind me of visiting my great grandma in Oklahoma and having jam at breakfast as a kid. Their look is timeless, they are easy to find and they are wonderfully replaceable when I fumble and drop one on the kitchen floor. However, a no-handle glass…
When I moved into my dorm room for my freshman year of college, the first thing I did was unpack a gigantic envelope filled with magazine clippings. I had spent the entire summer going through various fashion magazines, cutting out pages with an X-Acto knife and saving them so that in the near future, I…
If there’s one DIY tool I love using more than any other, it’s a staple gun. I love it so much that I almost always mistype the word as “staple fun.” So when Shelly and Anna invited me on their DIY YouTube video series No Man’s Land, I knew I wanted to do something with my…
For the last few months, we’ve set aside our staple guns and dipped into our bag of tools and tricks to make everything from lampshades to slipcovers. This month on Upholstery Basics, we head back to the sewing machine to construct a simple shower curtain. For a clawfoot tub, finding a shower curtain that’s wide enough…
