Since I got my own apartment, I have enjoyed filling the space with my art. To me, the white walls may as well be a blank canvas for me to be creative with. A lot of my personal belongings have some sort of unique touch to them as well, some larger than others. My prized possession is a desk from 1929 that I refinished and repainted myself, while still keeping the antiquity of the piece. It used to be a yellowed and faded white with chipped gold inlay, and I restored it to its former glory by giving it a fresh coat of paint, but this time I made it a very dark brown. I touched up the gold inlay, and love how the brown made it stand out. Additionally, I like showing off my creativity when I am out and about by modifying my clothing, making my own jewelry, as well as dyeing and cutting my own hair. Below are examples of the work I just described.
Here is the desk as I bought it; dusty and yellowing. It is in two separate pieces and a chair that came with it. I kept the upholstry of the chair as is, but eventually I plan to get a new cushion to put under the existing fabric. The two doors on the top section, middle shelf, slide left and right in order to cover either the left and right shelves respectively, or the center shelf together.
Here is what it looked like after I painted it and put it back together. As described above, I repainted it with a dark brown, almost black paint, then touched up the gold inlay along it with gold spray paint and a brush. The hardware all got a fresh coat of gold paint as well. I still have some work to do, though, even though I have been using it for almost a year now, I plan to add a brown and gold design to the bottom of the drawers. I have considered doing so with peel-and-stick paper, painted canvas, or patterned fabric. Please feel free to leave any additional ideas in my contact page.
For these pants, I decided to spice them up with a fabric marker I had received for my birthday a few months prior. I added spiders on the front and on the back, but unfortunately they slowly faded over time. Luckily, I still have the marker and the pants, so I can add more designs of whatever I want onto them in the future.
This 3d printed Catan board was made as a gift for my aunt, who loves board games. It took over 200 hours of printing, as well as about 40 hours of hand painting each tile. It was a lot of work; my dad and I started the project in June, and didn't finish it until the middle of October, right before her birthday. Luckily she loved it, and still uses it when she plays Catan with friends to this day.
These are some paper stars that I have created. The pastel colored ones are a gift to my best friend for her graduation, and each star can be unfolded to reveal writing inside. The writing ranges from advice, memories, funny quotes from either of us, etcetera. They were a lot of fun to make, although I did struggle to come up with unique things to write towards the end.
These red paper stars will be used for a project that I am still working on. They will eventually be put on a string with beads, then those strings will be connected to a ribbon. This ribbon will be put under my top kitchen cabinets; it will be laid out almost like a bead curtain, but only a few inches long, rather than from doorway to floor. I figured this will be a fun way to add a pop of color and creativity to my kitchen.
