All posts tagged: upcycle

The Other Duckling

Published by Karen Knox

I love discovering new places to shop online, especially places that offer something more than just “the norm”. What’s even better is when they fit with your own working ethos. Allow me to introduce you to Erica and Andrew from The Other Duckling. Aka; My new favourite online boutique. “The Other Duckling brings you an eclectic collection of delightful home accessories, home furnishings and gifts including designer made homeware, vintage, revamped and shabby chic furniture, fleamarket finds and Erica’s exclusive greetings cards.” A few years ago, Erica, whose background is in textiles, was working as managing creative at Innocent Drinks and Andrew who originally hailed from the world of fashion photography was working in high end digital media. But, after turning 35 they began to re-think what they wanted out of life. Finally making the big decision in 2008 to leave London and their uber successful careers to move to the Hampshire countryside, where they purchased a 17th century property (and lifelong project). As you do. “Between building, filling, painting and tearing our hair out we started …

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 …

Thrifting, sourcing, hunting and finding.

Published by Karen Knox

My love of charity and second hand shops is a fairly new one. With vintage, up-cycling, mid-century and Scandinavian design being so on trend, there are SO many amazing finds. And whilst the Great Ikea Haul gave me some great pieces for The Blue Room, I needed a bit of “old and borrowed” to go with the “blue and new”. Remember the chest of drawers I picked up from Gumtree for £10? Before. After. Don’t they look amazing? I spent no more than two hours bringing them back to life: Fixing the drawer runners, cleaning, sanding and waxing the wood grain and updating the handles. They certainly look better than a set of £10 drawers. And so, I went on a charity shop hunt yesterday to try and find some accessories to dress the room, vintage style-ee! I made it to 10 charity shops across Leeds. Here are some of my best finds. A mid century storage stool. Really cute little piece for £25, but it needed a bit of work to stabilise the legs. So this stayed in the shop. Rule number …

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 …

My MCM Geometric Desk

Published by Karen Knox

Behold. My new delicious work space. I have managed to design and produce this space with a few left over items from my capacious loft space, coupled in with a new lamp and Eames Eiffel chair as a treat from me to me. Thank you me! See that crazy mid-century modern inspired geometric desk top? “Yes, Karen we see it. It’s hard not to” Well that was about to get kicked to the kerb **finger snap**. A bit of old furniture board from a super ugly old flat pack desk. It’s actually the perfect size for my tiny office space. I don’t have clients visit at home and i’m only little. So for me, this space is pretty much bob on. Here is how it looked before: The offending piece of furniture board. There were bits of the “birch effect” foil surface missing. Some idiot had done their Christmas selotaping and used the edge of the desk as a tape holder. Face-palm! It all started when I wanted a rug. A black and white geometric …