1 DIYs of the Week

A few cool projects we've come across this week:

1. DIY FRUIT MACARONS

How cute are these fruit macarons made with food markers. Get the how-to from Sugar and Cloth.

2. MONOGRAMMED CHEESE BOARD

A cool project to make for someone special. Instructions at Baked By Joanna.

3.  DIY GOLD DIPPED CERAMIC SPOONS

Make some ceramic spoons extra special using metallic paint.  From Sarah Hearts.

4. ICE CREAM DONUT SANDWICH

Make these adorable ice cream sandwich donuts. By StudioDIY.

5.  MAKE A PATTERNED FLOOR WITH LINOLEUM

Make a cool patterned floor using vinyl floor tiles. Instructions at A Beautiful Mess.

6. HANGING PAPER LANTERNS

A simple idea that looks lazer cut. Get the how-to at The House That Lars Built.

7. DIY WOODEN SPOON

Carve a spoon with the help of this how-to from The Merrythought.

8. DIY LEATHER NOTEBOOK

A cool Cricut Explore project by Vintage Revivals. Get the info here.

1 Best of DIYs | Botanical Prints Downloads

To continue with our "Best of" series for the summer, we thought we'd bring back this beautiful botanical prints post which was so popular from last year.  (A selection of downloadable botanical prints we found courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library). Check out the post below:

Free Botanical Prints Downloads

We've been admiring vintage botanical prints for some time and found some really pretty ones from the Biodiversity Heritage Library that we thought might work for a nice wall display.  We fixed them up a bit in photoshop and created pdf's to print out to share. These are all 8.5" x 11" making it easy for any printer.  We just taped ours up temporarily with gold striped washi tape but think they would look nice in some white RIBBA picture frames from IKEA (like above). Wouldn't they also make pretty wrapping paper?  Links to downloads below.

Download:

Fig. 1 | Fig. 2 | Fig. 3 | Fig. 4 | Fig. 5 | Fig. 6.

Images courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library.

3 Sneak Peek - August Issue of Inside Out Magazine

We just got a sneak peek of August's new Inside Out Magazine coming out this Thursday (July 24th) and once again it's filled with beautiful interior shots and great features to keep you inspired.   Managing Editor, Lee Tran Lam gave us the low-down on a few of the highlights.  To start,  Inside Out Magazine is opening the doors to one of the homes in the issue! How cool is that?  As Lee Tran tells us, "It's the inaugural 'Open For Inspection' feature we're running. Thanks to Circa Home, readers will get a chance to step inside this eco-friendly family home in Melbourne, as part of a tour led by our editor-in-chief Claire Bradley and our styling expert Lisa Koehler!" Styling by Ruth Welsby. Photography by Martina Gemmola. 

 Also, there's a Best Buys feature on cushions – these cushions are always a nice way to soften up a room. Anything that adds a shot of personality to a room and aids comfy TV-watching or DVD nights can not be a bad thing! Styling by Joseph Gardner. Photography Amanda Prior.

A Kid's Room inspiration story – this one is for a little daydreamer. So there are lots of patterns, pictures and resting spots for books – all good kindling for the imagination! Styling by Jessica Hanson. Photography by Jessica Hanson.

A feature on 'Creating A Mood' – recommendations for music soundtracks, candle selections, petals and greenery, and lovely pieces to get the atmosphere just right. Styling by Heather Nette King. Photography by Mike Baker. Flowers by Fleur McHarg.

The August issue of Inside Out Magazine is out Thursday and is available at newsagents or digitally via Zinio, Google Play, iTunes & Nook.

2 Before and After | Vintage Cabinet from Shabby to Chic

Guest post by Nicole of Visual Heart

One thing that really bothers me is when someone takes a Mid Century style piece of furniture and applies a shabby chic paint finish to it. Modern + shabby do not mix! This vintage cabinet was one of those disasters, lightly brushed with a weird green, the door had been removed on the right side and the notches for the hinges were left behind. Ugly white hooks were added to the side for functionality and that green paint had dripped down onto the legs ruining the brass finish. The only cool thing this cabinet had going for it was the drawer, the inside was crafted really well with an area to hold pens or utensils.

I started by removing the hooks on the side and patching all the holes. I lightly sanded the entire cabinet and Andrew aggressively sanded the face of the drawer right down to raw wood. We had to be careful because it was a really brittle wood veneer on top of plywood. The legs were also sanded down to raw wood and a danish oil was applied to both the legs and drawer front in several thin coats.

Since this cabinet was so tall it was calling out to have some shelves made to make it more functional. So we got some MDF pieces cut to fit and drilled some holes to place in some shelf clips at the desired height.

The cabinet was primed with several thin coats to build up a nice base, this was a very dry and brittle cabinet, the primer just soaked right in. Once it was primed, the interior of the cabinet was painted with Benjamin Moore High Gloss Advance in Mantis Green and the outside is Snowfall White.

I replaced the rustic style knobs with something more clean and modern, these tiny knobs are actually from an old Ikea Expedit unit, they’re the perfect size and scale for the drawer. They no longer carry them, but they have other options.

Check out the transformation from shabby to chic:

The shelves were purposely placed at the right height to create a bar cabinet or a record cabinet:

Editor note:  We recently found out Nicole sells her "before's and after's" after we asked what she did with all of her pieces.  You can contact her HERE if you wish to inquire about buying them, or in general she has a gallery of her amazing furniture projects listed HERE.

About the contributor:
Nicole Phillips is a Vancouver based Graphic Designer and blogger.
You can learn more about her at visualheart.com or follow her creative side:

twitter.com/visualheart
pinterest.com/visualheart
instagram.com/visualheart

http://visualheart.com/2014/07/18/vintage-cabinet/

6 Capree Kimball's Bathroom Makeover

What's black and white and brass all over? This beautiful bathroom makeover by Capree Kimball!  When we first spotted her reveal earlier this spring on instagram, we had to ask her if we could share some of those images here. 

First a little peek at the before:

And now the after!

Isn't it amazing? As you can see they kept the cast iron claw foot tub (of course) but wanted the floor to be a statement piece as well as adding brass as an accent throughout. Because the bathroom was small, they wanted a modern looking wall-mounted sink and ended up going with the Reve series by Kohler for both the sink and toilet. The result is a gorgeous, modern and dramatic bathroom that looks much larger and fresh.  Check out more images below. 

To find out more source info, etc., check out Capree's post about the reno here.  Thanks for sharing Capree!