Zilla-Mama's Profile

Where's Leah? She is Luke's sister...

If you stick to black and white, it's not to hard to make something similar. For the dark areas, like the back of the sofa, get black duck canvas and some bleach. Use a bleach pen, font templates and literally draw on the dials and the text. The light areas - the seat keys, need a little more work. On your computer, make a template of the black areas of the keys. Now print out the template either on a laser printer or a copy machine the uses powder toner. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! You MUST use either the laser printer or powder toner or this won't work. Buy white duck canvas and place the printed template face down on the white duck canvas. Now gently and carefully (without moving the print) paint the paper with Acetone. This will permanently transfer the toner onto the canvas. Add a few pieces of red felt for the red areas and you're done. You might be able to add the wood grain to brown duck canvas but I don't know if the acetone will eat through the brown dye. You can try a test patch and see. Sew all areas together. If you do this, please post the results - I'd love the see them. Good luck

http://showtellshare.blogspot.com/2011/02/bleach-pen-tshirts-stash.html
http://campfireladycreates.blogspot.com/2009/02/image-transfer-using-acetone.html

I'm a web designer and I live in a co-op. One day, I asked one of the board members to help me get approved for two new telephone lines (this is when DSL was dial-up and you needed new land lines). Not only did he tell me he wasn't going to help me, but if I pushed the issue, he was going to have me thrown out for having a home business.

Now, I didn't have employees and I very rarely had clients come to my place. However, it was a nightmare for 9 months until he moved. The other board members were fine with both my business and installing the new phones. When my lease was up, I started looking for new places to live and I always asked the Realtor if the building was internet ready (remember this was awhile ago).

Luckily, I was able to stay in the building and the board has worked with me for over a decade. I was also lucky that I was able to work around the jerk for the 9 months he still lived in the building. However, it can be a major issue if you live in an apartment building. Be careful.

You can buy a more expensive sofa and antiques and beautiful things as long as they're sturdy. A sofa in a high end distressed leather will stand up to children jumping and spilling, cat's clawing and general life. One that has a fine, smooth finish - not so much. Heavy antique desks, dressers, tables, etc. with simple mats covering them while children are little will be fine, but delicate fine details - you're taking your chances.

Things that can be knocked over easily either have to be removed or hard to break. You can still have beautiful delicate pieces but they might go in your room or a guest room where the children/animals don't play. If you don't have room for that - then they are a luxury that you can't afford at the moment. However, children do grow up and learn that things are special - it's not forever, it's just for now. Enjoy it, either way and remember, furniture and things are for people, you're not living in a museum and children are small for such a short time.

MAMAHOLT - Thank you.

I don't know about an oversized mirror, but I did have a mirror backsplash in my last apartment and I have plans of adding one to my present apartment.

At first, in my old apartment, I was worried about keeping it clean, not breaking it and if it would make everything look two times worse. Well, I was very happily surprised that it let in a lot of light (the kitchen was dark and the backsplash helped). It was easy to clean. In fact, I've never had a backspalsh before or since that was as easy to clean as the mirror. It was also a lot sturdier than I feared. I often accidentally hit it with pots and pans yet I never even chipped it. While it did 'double' the mess, it also doubled the clean areas as well, somehow making the kitchen look a little cleaner than it really was.

Before I had one, I would never had thought to add mirror in the kitchen. Now I can't wait until we redo our kitchen - both my husband and I want the mirror backsplash as an absolute "must" when we can afford it.

jmb235 gave you a really great choice but if it's out of your price range you can try a console from craigslist.org in a style you like. You can work on the top of the console and hide the equipment and wires inside. Often they are very well made and you can find anything from Jacobean to mid-century modern for under $100. Also, since it might be so cheap, you won't mind cutting holes in the back for your wires if you need to do so. Good luck.

If you're worried about toxic insulation, just use foam-core board. As long as it's in an area that it won't be bumped or moved often it's fine. You can buy them in art supply stores in sheets of 4' x 8'. They're lightweight and sturdy. If the sides will show, then use black masking tape and wrap the sides before you put on a poster or other item. I'm a designer and we used foam-core in this fashion for making trade show displays and window displays. It's cheap, light, easy to use and cut. Enjoy.

These are terrible choices! Most of them use webbing instead of spring construction and none of them have pocket coil seating. Their most expensive one is one of the least well made of the lot. If it's your main sofa and it's what you sit on the most, you had better be under 150lbs and without children or this won't hold up more than a year or so. Looks are great, but for those prices, get some quality!

The color is a beautiful rust/terracotta color. Just keep that in mind and add pillows and throws that work with terracotta. For something neutral, try blacks, grays, flax color and oatmeal. For a subdued palette, use soft blue-greens, gray-greens and navy blues. If you're interested in bright pops of colors, add hot pink, lime green, turquoise and lipstick red. Whatever you prefer with this should work - even though it's a color, it really is a neutral that should work well with most color schemes. Good luck and enjoy.