PINK ABSTRACT PAINTING

Over the past few years I’ve noticed the increasing popularity of pink in Scandinavian interior design.  Now, almost everything comes in pink, from couches and cushions to coat hooks and teacups.  Although I’m not a big fan of pink, the pastels of contemporary Scandinavian design work well with the copper and grey tones that I do love.  Investing a large sum of money in a pink couch, which might look dated in a few years, was not the way I wanted to go.  Instead, I opted to add a pink accent to my office with a simple abstract painting.  It’s easy to paint: all you need is a can of spray paint, some pretty acrylic colors, and a few extras you probably have lying around your house.  Below are a few inspirational images pulled from the web.

Clockwise from top: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Materials:

Canvas (I used a scrap piece of plywood and drilled a hole in the back to hang)

White acrylic paint

Grey acrylic paint

Pink acrylic paint

Copper spray paint

Ruler

Pencil

Painter’s tape

Paint brushes/rollers

Scrap paper

Method:

1]  Cover your work surface with paper.

2]  Paint a base coat of white onto the canvas/wood (optional).

3]  Draw a few straight lines across the canvas in any pattern you like. 

4]  Tape the edge of the area you wish to paint. 

5]  Paint area and remove tape once paint has dried.

*  When using spray paint, make sure only the area you want painted is exposed.  Cover everything else with scrap paper. 

6]  Repeat last two steps until you are happy with the results. 

7]  Hang (and admire) your work!  

Please feel free to leave any questions/comments below.  If you enjoyed this tutorial please share the love by liking The Felted Fox on Facebook or follow The Felted Fox on Bloglovin to receive free tutorials and patterns to your inbox.

Have a great weekend!  Nicole. 

PLATFORM BED DIY

Today I want to share an easy way to DIY a platform bed.  If you’ve ever used a drill and screwdriver, you could make this bed!  It’s really that simple.

Jeremy built our platform bed when we first moved into our home.  At the time, we had searched everywhere for the perfect bed but just couldn’t find one we loved.  He opted to build a wood platform and attach Ikea legs to the base.  It served its purpose for 7 years, but recently he decided the bed needed a serious makeover.  As we both love the muted tones and raw wood found in Scandinavian design, we covered the platform in grey felt and replaced the legs with poplar dowels.  Here’s the full how-to:

Materials:

1” thick wood – enough to create a platform to fit your mattress.

2   1”x 9”x 66” hardwood beams

4 to 6 Ikea Capita legs (the number of legs will depend on the size of the bed you are creating) 

28  1¼”wood screws

28 washers

Drill

2” drill bit

Sander

Medium and fine grit sandpaper

Wood glue

Linseed oil/ Polyurethane

Sponge brush

Screwdriver

Grey felt – enough yardage to cover the platform

Staple gun

5/16” Staples

Tape Measure

NOTE: You could use the Ikea legs as is, but if you prefer the look of the wood dowels include this in your list of materials:

4   2”x 9” poplar dowel legs

1 or 2   2”x 9 ¾ “ poplar dowel supports (optional)

Method:

1]  Measure the mattress to figure out how many pieces of wood you will need. If you need any pieces cut, a local lumberyard will do it for around 50c/cut.

2]  Using the 2” drill bit, drill 4 to 6 holes in each piece of wood. This allows heat to escape and preventing condensation from forming on the underside of the mattress.

3]  Sand the wood to remove any splinters.

4]  Seal the wood with polyurethane or linseed oil.

5]  Lay the wood pieces side by side forming the platform. 

6]  Glue the supporting pieces 7” from the top, bottom and side edge of the platform.  Evenly screw wood screws along the length of the supports.

7] Attach the Ikea leg brackets approx. 14” from the bottom and top edge of the platform centering them on the supporting beams.

If you prefer dowel legs, drill a hole slightly smaller than the bolt on the Ikea leg bracket.

8] Screw legs into the leg brackets.

Note: Depending on how large your bed is and how many pieces of wood you’ve used to create the platform, you may want to add another leg or 2 to stabilize it. We added an extra leg to the very center of our queen sized bed.

9]  Flip the platform over. Your bed should now look like this. Just ignore the fact that our bed has one side table. 

10]  Drape the felt over the platform and staple it to the underside. I needed two pieces to cover the width of our bed, so sewed these together before stapling. You could also just staple the two pieces in place. 

Done! 

Get Happy :) 

Please feel free to leave any questions/comments below. I do so love hearing from you. ☺  If you enjoyed this tutorial please share the love by liking The Felted Fox on Facebook. Also, don’t forget to subscribe or follow The Felted Fox on Bloglovin to receive free tutorials and patterns to your inbox. Nicole

SQUIRREL PINS SEWING TUTORIAL

When I first started to sew, every piece of fabric seemed important.  After each project I would end up with a pile of scrap fabric that I just couldn’t bring myself to throw out.  I knew that I could use the fabric for something, but I just didn’t know what!  I eventually created these squirrel pins from my leftover felt to give to the little people in my life.  Each pin uses about a 3” x 6” piece of felt.  If you have larger pieces of felt, you could easily enlarge the pattern to create adorable squirrel pillows for your child’s bed.

Supplies:

My free pattern

Grey felt

White felt

Grey, white and red thread

Polyester fiberfill

Safety pin

Super glue or a glue gun

NOTE: this pattern is for domestic use only and cannot be used commercially or sold. 

Method:

1)  Print pattern and cut out templates.

     2)    Cut felt according to template.

     3)    Sew white cheek piece onto face.

      4)    With right sides facing, sew top of head and sides of head – do not sew ears and bottom of head yet.

      5)    Turn felt right side out and sew eyes, nose, mouth, a few running stiches across forehead and little hearts on ears.

     6)    Sew ears together and trim any excess.

      7)    Stuff head with fiberfill and sew the bottom closed.

     8)    Use super glue to adhere pin and pin cover to the back of the squirrel’s head.

And you’re done!  Give these to your little ones on Valentines Day, and, if you have the time, make extras for them to share with their BFF’s.