All posts filed under: Crafts

Gas pipe shelf

Bare Joinery

Published by Karen Knox

As you guys may already know, i’m the daughter of a woodwork (Design & Technology) teacher. My dad has been a big inspiration to me over the years and helped me on so many projects at home it’s unreal. He’s the kind of guy that can turn his hand to anything. Building, joinery, tiling, plumbing, landscaping… I even watched him build a two-storey scaffold on his own, in the pissing rain so he could fit new barge boards at my first house. He borrowed the scaffold from one of his mates (he’s always knows someone who knows someone) and drove it 100 miles up to Leeds on his roof rack. If my dad lived up here, it’s fair to say, i’d have enough work for him to give him a full time job working with me. My dad with a screwdriver, “in back pocket of Farah“ He’s made all of his own furniture at home, some of which as part of his Creative Design university course at Loughborough, back in the 70’s. They still have an …

The Million Dollar Floor Lamp

Published by Karen Knox

A couple of posts ago, I introduced you to my latest project, Sherwood Forest. Today is just a quickie to show you how something from that project has gone from “meh” to “sshwing!” In less than an hour might I add. See that lamp? Well, it needed some love. And what better way to love it than to take off that old shade and make it all warm, shiny and coppery. Luckily my clients love copper nearly as much as I do. Whoop! So with some sandpaper and can of Valspar’s Metallic Copper spray paint I got to work. Pic from B&Q After one coat. After two coats. And so with our new rather glamorous lamp base which in total had three coats for good measure, it needed a new shade. Initally I opted for the Grande shade from Habitat. A simple tapered drum in matt black with a copper interior to reflect the light beautifully. But the shape and dimensions were all wrong. The client also felt it needed a little pattern, so off I went searching …

Original Design with a Story

Published by Karen Knox

There are not many businesses out there that spend as much time and care sourcing unique and ethical design as these guys. Such & Such was founded by a brother and sister originally from the Peak District. Meet Ali, who in a previous life was a lawyer and Nikki who was a creative professional. In 2011 they both began to get itchy feet, feeling the need for a serious career and life change. Ali and Nikki with her daughter, Bessie After almost too many ideas, lots of research and a serious period of reflection, Such & Such was born in 2013. Nikki and Ali are clearly passionate about design, quality and craftsmanship. They offer a meticulously curated selection of homeware and lifestyle goods, whilst telling the stories of the designers and makers behind them. This is not a shop selling you “stuff” or a place providing a quick design hit. It’s a place to find those “cherished belongings that you will keep for a lifetime.” The collectables of the future. “Such & Such goals are to search for well-designed, cool …

Interactive Art #loveyourwalls

Published by Karen Knox

  I picked these enormous gold frames from a charity shop for £7 each. Bargain. One was used one to reframe and update the look of my Ashley Percival poster. See… Et voila. I had one frame left but nothing else I really wanted to re-frame, so I decided to go maverick and make my own god damn art. Hell yeah. If you’re anything like me, then you might be a fan of a slogan or two, motto, life affirming quotes and general feel good fonts. I’ll give you an example of some of my faves: These are all either hanging on my own walls or have been used in one of my interiors projects. One of my favourites (that I don’t own yet) is by an artist called Ian Stevenson.  I love the simplicity, the concept, the fact that someone would actually say that about that space. It’s interiors-y, but takes the piss. Right up my street. Go take a look at some of his work, makes me smile. And smiling is definitely a good …

The Live Table

Published by Karen Knox

As you’ve probably learnt by now, I love a bargain. If there’s one to be found, i’ll find it. But I put the hours in. You’ve got to spend the time looking to get real good at it. So on ANOTHER trip to Ikea (Jesus, I know), and during a quick trip to Bargain Corner (which should be called, “Hi Karen nice to see you again), I came across these. Ikea ENHOLMEN, sectional garden chairs. Priced online at £45 each, these were brand new in their boxes at £10 each. £10!! I had no idea where I was going to put them, but I was damn well sure going to find somewhere. I ummed and aahed about how many to get and decided that as there was only three in our little family, i’d get one each. We have a smallish patio area which originally had our little bench on which was saved from a trip to the tip. A few screws and a paint job and it was as good as gold again. It …

Goodbye Ugly Wall

Published by Karen Knox

So recently I wrote a post about our recent garden sprucing, which included new furniture, splashes of colour and a home made planter. But I failed to draw attention to this ere eyesore above. The mingin’ concrete wall boundary wall. Luckily our neighbours agree it’s bloody horrible so they were happy for me to attempt to make it look a little better from our side of the garden. The driveway and patio are also completely knackered, but we are planning an extension down the entire side of the house in the next few years, so no point in paying to get the wall, patio and driveway re-done. So that’s why it looks so rubbish. All in all. This bit of the garden sucks. I was stuck with how best to improve this area as I wasn’t allowed to eat up any driveway space. It’s already tight to get the car down the drive, so there was literally no floor space to use. So I played around with some ideas: Ivy – Nowhere to plant it and takes …

I Can’t Decide

Published by Karen Knox

Earlier this year I wrote a post about my Geometric Desk Top. It was part of a mission to kit myself out with a home office without spending any (hardly any) money. I had loads of stuff sitting in the loft going unloved. In a couple of days I ended up with the space above. I was pretty chuffed with myself. But then as ever, I started getting itchy fingers and the shelf was annoying me. Should it be black? I wrote about possibly painting it. Then that stuck in my head. And then it stayed there for a while, hovering. And yesterday whilst I was messing about with my copper enamel spray paint, I just decided to get on with it and see what happened. And here it is. I’m honestly unsure. I’ve changed the picture as those white frames were not sitting pretty in my eyes (they were a quick bit of wall entertainment just because they were there at the time). This huge poster by Street Artist, Erosie is from this year’s Ikea …

Copper Top

Published by Karen Knox

I’ve had this can of Rust-oleum copper spray enamel for weeks now and have been meaning to attack my Arenite table lamp from Made.com which was purchased for the living room. I bought it knowing full well that I didn’t want a white base. It had a white base. But i’ve been building up the courage to do something about it, ie. spray paint it copper. Also known as “potentially ruining it.” I’d also seen these lovely copper dipped plant pots on Not On The Highstreet which I loved, but wanted to experiment to see if I could create something similar before splashing the cash. So a little trip to the Motherland (Ikea) for some supplies. One Ingefara terracotta pot and saucer. £2 for both bits or something ridiculous. And this lovely Dracaena Marginata which must have been priced up wrong as that was only £1 too. So a total spend of £3. Not much to lose should I be crap at this spray painting lark. The saucer was going all out copper and the top …

Play Tray – Mini Project

Published by Karen Knox

My son is obsessed with Lego. Lego and making a mess. So I planned to make this slightly more bearable by trying to keep said Lego (and mess) enclosed in a play shaped space. Bring on the tray which is about 18 years old and a bit worse for wear and the vinyl Chalk Board roll which was left over from the Mini Kitchen project. It only took about 10 minutes to apply the vinyl to the clean dry tray surface. Use a Stanley knife to carefully cut the vinyl into the very edges of the tray. Considering the tray was going to get thrown out and the vinyl was just sitting in the loft, it looks pretty cool. I think this little mini project is going to help maintain both my sanity and Charlie’s Lego heads. Chalk dust all stays in the tray too. Brucey bonus.