Category Archives: House / Living Room

The 4-Year Lamp Rewiring Project

You may have seen a fabulous vintage lamp hovering in the back corner of my living room photos for the last few years.

Living Room July 2012 The Borrowed Abode WIde Angle

Sure, it looked great, but want to know a dirty little secret? IT NEVER WORKED. The cord was broken.

I know how long it’s been broken because Ryan and I bought it at an antique store during the first month of our relationship. Ladies, that was over 4 years ago, and I bought it for a steal, knowing that I was “going to fix it.”

FOUR YEARS to fix a lamp? I’m so ashamed! :)

In January I told you that I was tackling unfinished tasks as part of my “personal happiness project.” I carried that goal into February, and then March, because apparently I had more unfinished tasks than I realized.

Well, rewiring this lamp was one of the sweet, sweet victories for March.

Vintage Lamp MidCentury

I wanted to explain it for you, but I didn’t take enough detailed photos and I know nothing about wiring. My little brother really showed me how to do it, and this HGTV article does a great job of sharing the steps.

Regardless, here’s my 5-second version:

Vintage Lamp8 I unscrewed the parts of the lamp so I could remove the old cord. I threaded a new cord through it and attached it to a new socket (see below).

Vintage Lamp5

I am still thrilled with myself for fixing it. The new socket is so shiny and gold! Vintage Lamp2

I also took some time to refinish it. I used Brasso to polish the metal parts I could reach, and then I sanded down the old, rough, and kind of fake looking varnish. Before:

Vintage Lamp7

Then I rubbed in some Teak Oil to give the wood a natural finish. Teak Oil hardens in the wood rather than on the outside, so it helps preserve it without creating a shiny coating that can chip.

After: So warm and velvety. Vintage Lamp1 When I plugged that baby in and turned it on for the very first time, it felt so good to see it glow! I felt pretty silly when I realized this project only took about 20 minutes to complete.

Vintage Lamp3

Do you ever procrastinate on a project only to finally do it and realize how easy it is?

No Mantel? No Problem! {Faux Holiday Mantel Wall for Renters}

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Christmas decorating can pose a problem for apartment renters and even home renters like me, because we often don’t have a fireplace and mantel to decorate!

Ok, so maybe it’s not a huge problem, but because I love to hang stockings it bugs me. My solution? A rustic branch, hung on the wall and draped with a pine garland, creating the feel of a fireplace mantel and a safe place from which to hang our Christmas stockings.

Christmas Stocking Branch on Wall for No Mantel | The Borrowed Abode

Think of this as a not new, but improved project.

During our first Christmas in this borrowed abode, I solved the problem by hanging a branch on the wall with some Command Hook products. Thanks to Pinterest, I now see that Christmas Stocking Branch pinned all over the place – and it bugs me because every time I look at it the branch looks like a massive centipede crawling on our wall:

So here’s how I did it this year. Not only did I find a sweet, weathered piece of wood at a river, I also used a different hanging system.

I used two small Ook Hooks because they use small nails but create a strong hanging system. I installed them about 1 foot higher than I wanted the branch to hang. Then I created two long loops of fishing line to hang the branch from, since fishing line is clear. You can also find clear, strong line in the bead section of the craft store.

Hang Christmas Stocking Branch on Wall With Fishing Line | The Borrowed Abode In real life you really don’t notice the clear string that the branch hangs from. But what you would notice are the hooks – so I created a small “Let it Snow” sign to hang over them. I simply used a board, some craft paint, and glitter.

Holiday Stocking Branch No Greenery | The Borrowed Abode
Charlie and I thought the wall still looked a little sad with the stockings hanging on a naked branch, so I added a fresh pine garland. I wound it around and held it in place with by tying it with a few more pieces of the clear fishing line.

Perfect!

Holiday Stocking Branch for Mantel with Garland | The Borrowed Abode

Faux Mantel Stocking Branch Details | The Borrowed Abode

The fishing line is strong enough that we can put some small treats in the stockings. The key is to get twine that is rated at 10 pounds or more.

No Mantel Stocking Branch & Winter Sign | The Borrowed Abode

I was so excited to finally, finally get this project completed. We’re still working on setting up the rest of our decor, like the Christmas Yarn Trees and our actual Christmas Tree. Let’s hope it’s not an insane saga like it was two years ago. :)

Christmas Stocking Branch Wall Faux Mantel | The Borrowed Abode

If you rent, how do you deal with your lack of a mantel when it’s time for Christmas (or winter) decorating? Or are you one of those lucky people who actually has a fireplace to hang stockings from in your rental home?

Shared at Ten June: Holiday Mantel Party

Choosing a New Sofa {AKA Buy new or reupholster?}

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Our living room is back to looking like this:

Living Room July 2012 The Borrowed Abode WIde Angle

After its brief audition for “Honey, I shrunk the sofa!” last week:

What are we doing with the mid-century sofa?

To answer the question(s) many of you asked in the comments: The too-small mid-century teak sofa that we showed you last week is not staying. We *could* put it opposite the original white sofa or find another way to make it fit into the house.

Ryan and I do like the sofa, but we don’t need it. One sofa plus two teak armchairs is enough in our living room, since we like having the space rather open. When we have extra guests we can grab some more chairs from around the house. So we’ll sell the sofa and put that money towards upgrading our current white sofa.

Why not keep the C&B Sofa as-is?

The loose weave of the fabric has not worn well, and attracts stains like you wouldn’t believe. Before you say “that’s what you get for having a white sofa” let me tell you – years ago I had a white Ektorp sofa from Ikea, and that fabric slipcover washed clean up like a charm! It all depends on the quality and type of fabric used. From reading other reviews of the C&B sofa it appears that their fabric choice (at that time) was a major FAIL. Everyone complains about the fabric staining and snagging easily.

Where do we go from here?

Determined not to let this project lag on and on (a fate that befalls many projects at the Borrowed Abode) I started researching (aka pinning) new sofas right away. I didn’t really set a budget, but kept a ballpark of $1600 or so – figuring we’re a married couple now and we wouldn’t mind investing in a really good living room sofa.

I pinned a few, but none of them really screamed “awesome sofa” at me. Here’s what we discovered in the process:

Ryan doesn’t like the style of the Pottery Barn slipcovered sofas, and I’m not in love with any of them.
We really love the style of our current sofa more than any others we looked at.
It turns out we both prefer a white or off-white sofa.

Then I thought – what about finding a basic, inexpensive sofa from Ikea, and pimping it out with custom removable cushion covers and a slipcover? The Karlstad sofa gets great reviews, and the $400 – $600 price can’t be beat:

It’s a good template to start with to create a mid-century sofa effect. There are some sweet hacks.

IkeaHackers showed how one woman boxed her Karlstad sofa in to create the great 1950′s look, while most likely discouraging her cats from scratching the armrests:

And these smart people at Our Mid Century simply switched out their Karlstad sofa feet and tufted the cushions – resulting in a sofa surprisingly similar to our current C&B Petrie one:

Photo credit: Our Mid Century

Ryan liked both ideas, and was practically chomping at the bit to “box-in” a Karlstad.

But then I started thinking again.

(That always gets me in trouble!)

1. Slipcovered sofas still require effort to keep clean. Especially white ones, and we want white. Pet hair still has to be vacuumed off them.

2. A good, hardwood frame leather sofa would cost upwards of $3000.

3. Our C&B sofa was hand built, in Virginia, from kiln-dried hardwood. In other words, it’s got better bones than any Ikea sofa will ever have. Why buy a new one just to make it look like the real thing, why not work with what we have?

We’ve decided to keep our dingy-but-solid C&B sofa and have it professionally reupholstered in an off-white pleather (aka faux leather). I’ve ordered some fabric swatches, and we’re budgeting $1,000 – $1,500 for the total cost of the job, including fabric. It’s still a hefty investment, but knowing that we’ll be able to brush the pet hair off easily has us pretty excited that we’re making the right choice.

I’m excited, because it means our living room will continue to look like this, minus the oh-crap-guests-are-coming sofa vacuuming sessions!

Living Room The Borrowed Abode June 2012

Now’s the time when I’d love to hear your experiences with leather or “pleather” furniture! Any advice? Horror stories? I can’t guarantee I’ll take your advice, but I would like to hear it so I can weigh it before we plunk down the cash.

Before & After: A Mid-Century Modern Entryway

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Remember that sneak peek I gave you of a mid-century modern style table I was building? It was our solution for our entry way, which was still struggling to find its perfect style after one and a half years.

We designed the table to blend with our existing mid-century style furnishings, as well as to fit the space just so. The bottom area needed to be open to allow maximum air flow, since the heating comes out of the vent in the wall. Also, we wanted it to be scaled large enough to help anchor the wall. Scale is super important, as I learned with previous, low-budget attempts at decorating that wall.

Let’s take a look back in time:

The first attempt, which consisted of a home-built book shelf, was unsuccessful because I didn’t tape it out on the wall and build it to proper scale. Also, the blocky bookshelf design just didn’t mesh with the rest of the space.

My second attempt was an improvement over the first – and it was free, because I used things I had on hand. It didn’t make a lot of sense for the space because it held my scrapbooking supplies. It also blocked the heating vent. No bueno!

So sometime last summer I started looking for a tall and wide sofa table that I could buy. I found some great ones, but they were all so freakin’ espensive. And that’s when the little rusty gears in my head started turning. :)

I designed the table in the fall, I think. . . and then procrastinated on actually buying the wood and building it. I was worried it would be difficult. This is a common theme in my DIY projects, actually – and one I hope to kick to the curb this year. Finally I got the supplies at Christmas. And it was so easy to build that I found myself wondering – Why didn’t I tackle this sooner?!

Mid Century Sofa Table

The red oak boards that I splurged on turned out beautifully. I will most likely never build with cheap pine again, unless I’m painting the end result. Also, I didn’t use any screws, so I didn’t have to fill any holes at the end. So exciting. I can’t wait to tell you all about the trick for that later.

I’ll be back later this week with a detailed tutorial so that you, too can build something like this if you want to. Trust me, it really was easy.