DIY Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs By: Grace Bonney

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Samin Nostrat for the first time and it felt like we all became instant great friends. She is one of the most delightful people in the food (and all-around) community and I’m so thrilled to welcome her for a special holiday DIY. Take it away, Samin!

I grew up celebrating Nowruz, or Persian New Year, where one of my favorite traditions was dyeing eggs to symbolize fertility and abundance for the new year table, or Haft-Sin. Now, as a professional cook, I marvel at the myriad ways food affects our lives and traditions beyond the dining table.

A few years ago, I met Kristine Vejar, whose passion for fiber-based arts is wildly apparent from the moment you step into her beautiful Oakland shop, A Verb for Keeping Warm. I began wondering — could she come up with a dyeing method that would yield delicious, properly cooked eggs with vibrantly colored shells? Does it always have to be one or the other? The answer is a resounding no!

On a recent morning, we invited friends, photographer Terri Loewenthal and artist and stylist Aleishall Girard Maxon, to lend their talents to this tutorial. Terri shot everything on medium format film, and the light was ethereal that day. Aleishall’s delicate touch made everything look even more beautiful than we could have imagined.

These eggs will thrill your eyes and your tastebuds. Use them to make egg salad, radish + egg and butter sandwiches, egg and anchovy toasts, or just snack on them with a little flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

DYEING TOOLS

-Saucepan or stockpot

-Measuring cup

-Measuring spoons

-Strainer

-Funnel

-Tongs

-Mason jars

-Wire rack

-Oil

DYEING MATERIALS

-White vinegar

-4 cups shredded red cabbage (1/2 head of cabbage)

-3 cups yellow onion skins (9 yellow onions)

-3 cups chopped red beets (2 large red beets)

-1 tablespoon turmeric

Optional and luxurious: 1 teaspoon saffron threads

This recipe yields enough to dye 10-12 eggs.

Credits:

Styling: Aleishall Girard Maxon, Studio Deseo

Photography: Terri Loewenthal

Dye Tutorial: Kristine Vejar, A Verb for Keeping Warm

Samin Nosrat, Ciao Samin

via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1xY6Zhd From Grace Bonney

Alea Toussaint Pattern Download: Day Three! By: Grace Bonney

I love when artists can make me look at the most everyday objects and see them in an entirely different way. All week artist Alea Toussaint has been sharing handmade patterns with us that she’s turned into desktop wallpapers you can download for your phone or computer, and today she’s back with another pattern inspired by tea. Dried rose petals, cloves, dandelions and lemongrass make up the ombré fade of this pattern and it makes me want to tear open my tea packages in the kitchen and make something beautiful. But if you’d prefer to drink your tea instead, you can download Alea’s pattern for today RIGHT HERE.

If you missed the last two days of patterns, click here for Monday’s and here for Tuesday’s!

via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1OZ8alR From Grace Bonney

Idea – Two-tiered RASKOG End Tables By: IH guest

Materials: Raskog Kitchen Utility Cart

My wife and I were looking for some modern end tables for either end of our loveseat, but couldn’t find anything we liked. Then my wife spotted the Raskog kitchen cart at IKEA.

Raskog comes with three shelves/baskets, which are supported by four upright tubes, two at either end. Luckily, the tubes come in an upper and lower section. To make them the right height for the loveseat, I left out one basket and the top section of the upright tubes. The top tube sections have a metal plug at the top to give them a finished look. I just inserted a wooden dowel into the tubes and tapped out the plugs, then tapped them into the tops of the lower sections, and assembled the rest more or less according to the instructions. The result is two inexpensive, modern end tables on casters, which allow them to be moved easily for vacuuming.

By Bob Sieber

The post Idea – Two-tiered RASKOG End Tables appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1Dt9cSx From IH guest

Hackers Help: Can the BRIMNES daybed be painted? By: LondonDiane

Photo: IKEA.com

Has anyone painted the BRIMNES daybed or changed the handles?

Saw the post about changing a BRIMNES dresser to leather handles which looked good.

Asked Ikea about painting the bed and they advised against painting any of their products!

***

Diane,

It can be painted. Take a look at this! And yes, the leather handles are awesome. Let us know how it goes.

Jules

The post Hackers Help: Can the BRIMNES daybed be painted? appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/19qwgoD From LondonDiane

A Georgia Home Filled with Love, Art and Plenty of Pets By: Grace Bonney

Today’s home tour felt like the perfect follow-up to Caitlin’s essay about learning to love and embrace your home for all of its quirks and imperfections. Artist Sarah Neuburger of The Small Object and her wife, Edurne Sarmiento, chose their Decatur, GA home because of its proximity to Edurne’s new career. After leaving their Savannah apartment, Sarah and Edurne found this 1949 home and loved that it would allow Edurne to walk or ride her bike to work every day (she is an RN in a medical intensive care unit) and have enough space to give Sarah a home studio with a separate entrance where she could welcome clients. Neither Sarah nor Edurne were ready to settle down and choose a forever home, so they embraced this space as their somewhat temporary home and turned it into a bright, open space that suits all of their needs. “We know we’ll probably need to move again in a few years, so that means that we’ll live with cabinet knobs that aren’t our favorite, or wallpaper we’d rather replace or flooring that should be swapped out. But when you know you’re not changing everything, you learn to work around it.”

Sarah and Edurne have lived in their Decatur home for four years now and, despite some early difficulties like hanging chairs that ended up falling out of the ceiling and a giant hallway closet that holds a huge unusable tub, they love the space they’ve built together for their family (which also includes four adorable pets, Chloe, Charlie and Oscar Pants (cats) and Milton (their dog). “We aren’t fussy people,” Sarah says. “We want our home to function and be comfortable. We want to look around and see the things that remind us of each other, where we’ve been and who we love.” It’s easy to see how much love, family and friends have played into the creation of their beautiful home and I’m so happy to share it here today. Stay tuned for a peek inside Sarah’s home studio later this week! xo, grace

Additional Sources:

Living Room

Credenza from Target

Couch and Wicker chair from IKEA

Eames Rocker from Design Within Reach

Hanging lamp from Home Depot

Kitchen

Island from IKEA

Drafting Stool from City of Atlanta

Dining Room

Chairs from City of Atlanta

Bookcase from an antique mall that has now closed

Hanging lamp from Home Depot

Office/Guest Room

Bed from Craigslist

Dresser from Decatur Estate and Way Back Antiques

Lamp from IKEA

Bedroom

Bed from Pottery Barn (we think, it’s about 10 years old)

Dressers from IKEA

Wardrobe from an antique store in Georgia

Studio

Items are from IKEA or school district sale in West Columbia, SC

*Re: Paint: Sarah explained, “Sadly, we didn’t paint any rooms, so we have no idea what their colors are or where they are from.”

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Pattern Downloads from Alea Toussaint! By: Grace Bonney

Since I started today with inspiration from Instagram, I thought it was the perfect time to introduce a special weeklong guest series with an incredible artist I found through Instagram: Alea Toussaint!

Alea is a talented graphic designer based in Minneapolis who works for Colle+McVoy. When she’s not creating beautiful work for them, she’s running one of the most creative Instagram feeds online. Alea makes patterns from real, three-dimensional objects, like bobby pins and vegetables. It was her bobby pin picture (which she kindly shared in the #dspattern hashtag challenge) that caught my eye and turned me into an instant fan of her work. So I wrote her an email, crossed my fingers and lucked out that she was game to collaborate with us for a week on a special series of custom patterns! Every day this week (including Saturday and Sunday!) Alea will be joining us to share a beautiful handmade pattern that you can download to use for your computer desktop or phone background. I’m so excited to show you what she has coming up! Thanks again to Alea for creating these for all of us! xo, grace

To download today’s wallpaper, just CLICK HERE !

*Please note these patterns are for personal use only.

via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1IJGuNn From Grace Bonney

Wide LACK Standing Desk By: IH guest

IKEA Materials:

Lack TV stand (white), 35 3/8×10 1/4 “, $14.99

Komplement shelf (white), 39 3/8×22 7/8″, $15

Other Materials:

Brackets & bolts, $5.40

various nuts & bolts form supplies

I liked the idea of an easy IKEA hacked standing desk, but I like the desk that I have, and I need to be able to use both my laptop and an auxiliary monitor. I saw the long & skinny version of the Lack TV stand, and thought it would be the perfect size for what I wanted. I added a Komplement shelf, and some hardware store bolts & brackets, and in 3 hours (not counting shopping time) I had an easy $35 standing desk platform.

I had the initial idea, but my brother-in-law gets mad credit for actually doing most of the execution and having the necessary power tools.

I first assembled the TV stand using the given directions – just the easy parts, attaching the legs to the table base. I did not install the included shelf.

We then cut down the Komplement shelf to the width necessary to fit between the table legs (31.25″).

We then installed the brackets, which we measured so that the top of the Komplement shelf would be 9″ from the bottom of the legs (this was the height I needed for my height and desk height – I measured before we started the project). Because of what I’d read from other standing desk hacks with Lack, we used 2.5″ bolts – the heads are on the outer sides of the shelf and we secured them on the inside with nuts.

After the brackets were installed, we rested the cut shelf on them to get a sense of how far out I wanted it to be. We ended up cutting the shelf on the long side to a width of x”, which would allow a shelf to stick out enough to rest my keyboard on. (The final dimensions of the cut Komplement shelf were 18.5″ x 31.25″ – and remember to cut and place it so that the finished front of the shelf faces forward.)

Once the shelf was cut, we used the small screws included with the brackets to attach the underside of the shelf to the brackets. We ended up using washers on the screw heads to add a little height so that the screws wouldn’t go all the way through.

Pictures of the finished desk:

By Meg Poehler

The post Wide LACK Standing Desk appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

via IKEA Hackers http://ift.tt/1bIPfMT From IH guest