Today’s Teach Me Tuesday features the fabulous Laurie from House to Your Home. Laurie is a real-life designer, not a fake one like me who just pretends on the Internet. She created a gorgeous silver leaf table for a client, and I’m excited to share her how-to.

Laurie explains:

Awhile back I showed you an e-design for a client and since that time the project has moving right along but as anyone who knows a thing or two about designing a room you’re going to hit a few bumps in the road.

My client decided she wanted to make a few changes to her e-design which I was happy to do after all it’s her room. First, she decided she was only going to live in her house for another year so she wanted to make the room look great but wanted to scale way back on the initial budget. Second, she decided she wanted to switch the turquoise accents to red accents.

Two easy fixes but today I’m going to talk to you about how we scaled back on the budget for the room. The easiest way to scale back was to eliminate the mirrored chest. I mean the one below from Pottery Barn is a $399.00 and trust me that’s one of the cheaper ones out there!

My solution? Silver leaf a table! It’s easy and alot less expensive. First we need a table.

(Easy enough, this table was the homeowners so it cost her nothing!) I then used one of my favorite products kilz primer. I mixed the kilz primer with some black paint I was going to use to paint the table.

Mixing a little of the paint color with the primer with the color you plan is a trick I picked up so when you go to actually paint the piece the actual paint color doesn’t need as many coats. Once the primer dried I painted the table an Onyx Black in eggshell by Glidden.

The table was looking really good and I almost wanted to stop right there and leave it black. But hello, we needed some sparkle going on in that room!

The next few steps I unfortunately do not have photos for, for some reason my camera didn’t want to cooperate. I’ll talk you through the process though.

After the black paint was dry I used silver leafing adhesive called Mona Lisa adhesive which cost $3.19. After painting the table with the adhesive I let it sit for 60 minutes and until it was sticky to the touch. Once that was done it was time to apply the silver leafing. I used a product called silver leaf argent feuille and covered the entire surface. I used almost 3 packages which cost about $27.00. (Notice we’re not even close to $399!)

All you do is take sheets of silver leaf and start applying it to the table, one slightly overlapping the next, pressing it down until it is flat and then you peel off the backing. Don’t worry if there is a bit of a gap though, the paint that shows through actually looks pretty cool. This whole process takes quite a long time but after the first few sheets I totally had the hang of it and I like doing stuff like this. To finish the table and prevent the silver leafing from flaking I sealed the table with 2 coats of Mona Lisa metal leaf sealer that cost of whopping $2.99.

When it’s done it looks like this.

It really looks great next to the bed and soon I’ll post the final reveal of the finished room, until then a few photos to tie you over.

(Next to the new bed and bedding)

(The client’s antique chair, she wanted to keep the antique look of it)

(My client lives locally and I was able to do work with her both by online correspondence and home visits.)

This is so great, Laurie!  Thank you for sharing!  Since my DIY mirrored dresser is still in pieces in my bedroom (I promise it’s coming, y’all!), this is a great alternative.

Whew! That change over from Blogger to WordPress was surely challenging. Luckily, I have a genius of a husband who figured out all of the little snags we encountered in importing my old posts and comments over here.  He’s a saint (with more patience than I), for sure!

If you wouldn’t mind, leave a comment below to let me know that this post did come through to your feed reader, Google Friend Connect, or whatever else you use to find my blog.  I would be forever grateful.

I’d also love it if you’d click around a bit and let me know if you see anything that is wonky or broken.  I know I need to fix the Tutorial and Teach Me Tuesday tabs, so that’s already on my radar.  Are links not working? Are photos not showing up? Does some page just look like gobbeldy-gook?  Please let me know!

I have a fun post I’m planning to write up tonight, so we’ll be back to decorating and glue gun burns very soon.  Thanks, guys!

UPDATE: None of my internal links are working (i.e. if I link to one of my old posts).  Looks like Tom will get to fix that, too!    FIXED:  Who needs Tom when I can do it myself?  Ha!

I’m getting ready to transfer my blog from Blogger to WordPress. All the cool kids are doing it, so I figure I should, too.

All joking aside, I’m excited about the transition because I will gain so much flexibility and functionality with the blog on the new platform. Nothing *should* change for you. You *should* still be able to find me at www.LivingWithLindsay.com. You *should* be able to access my blog feed in the same way you do now.

Of course, that’s all dependent upon if I break the entire Internet in the process. Let’s not hold our breath on that one.

Hopefully, I’ll see you on my new platform by the end of the night. If not, I’ll be the one crying in the corner.

UPDATE: It’s going to be a bit longer than anticipated…maybe tomorrow (Sunday)?

As if I needed another reason to love Jon Bon Jovi, I have recently learned that his Soul Foundation has partnered with HELP USA and the city of Newark, NJ to open 51 new affordable housing options. Called the JBJ Soul Homes, these apartments with “green” features are available to low-income and special-needs residents. The residence also includes community computer labs, an art gallery, and a graphics facility. JBJ Soul Homes opened in December 2009.

JBJ Soul Homes isn’t just beautiful in it’s mission. It’s beautiful on the inside, too. One of my favorite designers, Elaine Griffin, teamed up with Help USA to decorate a model apartment within the complex. You may remember that I reviewed Elaine’s newst book Design Rules a few months ago and loved it. Photos of her wonderful Soul Home design can be found in the March issue of Elle Decor, but Elaine sent me a few sneak peaks for you that didn’t make it into the magazine.

Elaine really has a way of taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary. Take this bathroom for example.

With the addition of the fun shower curtain, textured wallpaper, and table for necessities, you hardly notice the exposed plumbing under the sink or the budget-conscious light fixture. I’m amazed at how expensive she has made this understated bathroom look.

Elaine dresses up this long, plain wall with a beautiful metallic wallpaper, which serves as a perfect backdrop to this console table filled with colorful accessories. I love the grouping of blue and green together, and I think this is an excellent way to fill an empty space that otherwise might end up being a bit awkward.

The sink in the kitchen has been lowered to make it wheelchair accessible. I’m assuming that there are no cabinets underneath the sink area so that a person in a wheelchair could more easily use the counter for food preparation. I love that Elaine has taken a fun fabric to make a little curtain in that space. If you hate your kitchen cabinets or if you are a renter who cannot do much to change the way your cabinets look, take those lower cabinet doors off the hinges and put together a little cabinet curtain of your own. This is a perfect spot for one of Nester’s mistreatments.

I also love that the kitchen lighting has been replaced with a pendant and drum shade. So much nicer than the florescent lighting I was expecting!

It’s so great to see such wonderful artists and organizations working together to create beautiful spaces for those in need. Thank you to Elaine for sharing her photos with us! Could you apply any of her designs to your own home?

Photo Credits:
Photos 1 & 2 by Adam Chinitz
Photos 3 & 4 by Todd Plitt

One of the questions I get asked most often about my blog is how I got the decorative ‘B’ on the top of my little, black rehabbed desk.

Nope, it’s not painted, like most people think. It’s actually a vinyl monogram!

These days, vinyl monograms are perfect for uses other than simply putting on your walls. I’ve seen them on the back of car windows, on plastic lunchboxes and on galvanized buckets. Need to jazz up a plain piece of furniture like me? You can’t go wrong with vinyl decor!

One of my fantastic sponsors, Lindsey with WordyBird has a wonderful online shop featuring some really neat vinyl designs at incredible prices.

Her designs come in a wide range of colors (really, really wide, y’all) and sizes. Even better, if you don’t see something on WordyBird like what you are looking for, Lindsey can work up a custom design for you. What’s better than custom? Nothing!

Here are some of my favorites:

Couldn’t we all use the reminder that Life is Beautiful?

I’ve seen a lot of vinyls for nurseries, but none as cute as this Baa Baa Black Sheep design.

I really love this modern style of these round trees.

You can never go wrong with a monogram, can you?

Aren’t those wonderful?

Lindsey is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky Living With Lindsay reader…and she’s giving you THREE ways to win!

1) Visit WordyBird and post a comment here telling me your favorite design. Be sure to include a way for me to contact you if you don’t have an email address attached to your Blogger account.

2) Sign up for the WordyBird newsletter by adding your email address to the Mailing List box found on the right side of the WordyBird home page. Come back here and tell me you did that in a separate comment.

3) Add the super cute WordyBird button to your blog’s sidebar. The HTML code for the button can be found on the bottom of the WordyBird home page. Come back here and tell me you did that in a separate comment.

Got it? Entries will be accepted through Sunday, March 14th. Good luck!

Today’s Teach Me Tuesday features my friend Gina at The Shabby Chic Cottage. If y’all aren’t reading her blog, you are really missing out. Go there and follow her now. I’ll wait.

Okay, you’re back? Great!

Gina lives in the same little town that my parents live in, so Zack and I had the opportunity to have lunch and go thrifting with her when I was visiting in February. While we were shopping, we spotted a little lamp that I would have wrestled her for if there is anyway I could have gotten it back home with me. Just wait until you see the genius way Gina transformed it!

Gina explains:

It’s no surprise that I’m hacking Pottery Barn. We went in a few days ago, and I found some things I love. One was this lamp. $100? Uhh… no.

I also fell in love with this shade. $59? No, thank you very much. But, you know me, I can always find a cheaper alternative!

I already had the shade, it used to be my dining room light, picked up at Goodwill for $2 back last summer. Yesterday, when I went thrifting with {Living With} Lindsay, she spotted the lamp for $7. She is genius!

Using my favorite cheap white spray paint (thanks to Mother Nature for letting the sun finally shine today), I gave the lamp acouple of realllllly good coats. Then I roughed it up with sand paper.

Madeline and I mixed up a little raw umber paint with some Ralph Lauren glaze. Mixing in some paint means that not every distressed finish in your house looks exactly the same. It gives it a little more depth and variation.

Wipe it off in circles, so that you don’t have wiping marks left over. Once finished distressing, set aside to let dry.

Next go make some tea. Or coffee. Either will work. I used leftover tea bags from making today’s batch of sweet tea. {We go through a gallon a day!}

Once it’s cooled, “paint” a couple of coats of tea onto the shade. If your shade is already the color you want, skip this step. Blot with paper towels to help absorb the excess. Set aside to dry – or blow dry it with a hair dryer (I’m impatient!). I did this while my spray paint was drying.

Just like with last week’s curtains, translate your favorite phrase (mine is from a love note Mr. SCC wrote me years ago), and print it off, I used this font at 175 point.

Trim your words and tape them to the inside of the shade.

Put the shade on a lamp and painted it, just like the curtains. I used a Paris postmark rubber stamp for the postmarks.

A $159 lamp for less than $10. I’m. In. Love.