Monday 29 April 2019

Recycled Spoon Mermaid Necklace


This weekend I've made something I've been wanting to do for ages, creating a mermaid tail out of a vintage spoon. I also filmed it, and posted it on YouTube, going to try to make creative process videos a habit, will try to make some with the furniture as well. I got this black border around the video not sure if it was because of my phone setting or the video editor settings, will try to avoid it next time :) Please subscribe if you have not yet, more videos will come soon!



The necklace is available at Staroftheeast :) The chain and shell are sterling silver.



Thursday 25 April 2019

Newly Listed: Sterling Silver Urchin Necklace


Sterling Silver Urchin Necklace with Pearls and Cubic Zircon, Bridal Necklace Sea Urchin One of a Kind by StaroftheEast
Black and White Photography, water ripples ocean beach sea print wall art, Paw Prints by CarolynCochrane
Black and White Photography, jellyfish home decor ocean animal wall decor, ocean wall art by LynnLangmade
Black and White Photography, Nature Print, Nautical Starfish, Beach House Decor by VictoriaEnglishCharm

Saturday 20 April 2019

Happy Easter!


We wanted to wish you a happy Easter weekend, or if you do not celebrate that,  a happy weekend :)
We kind of tried (bribed them) to picture Mimi and Ernie as Easter bunnies.


As sweet as our doggies are, we do not train them to 'stay' and such, they are adorable and sweet and come as soon as you call them but we do not train them strictly which is why we did not manage to take pictures like BarkHaus, the difference is funny to see how miserably we failed :)


Anyway, Happy Easter :)

Thursday 18 April 2019

Newly Listed: Beaded Triangle Necklace


Kinetic Necklace, Beaded Triangle Necklace, Pink and Turquoise, Japanese Miyuki Beads by StarDelights
Fine Art Beach Photography by CarlaGDesignandPhoto
Geometric prints Printable decor, Aqua pink art, Turquoise pink, wall decor by EphericaArt
Jet Stream, Abstract Expressionist Contemporary Art, Huge Turquoise Pink Abstract Canvas Art Print  by IrenaOrlov

Monday 15 April 2019

Flower Power


We got these beauties a few weeks ago. Long not as sad and shabby as we often get, but we loved the carved flower details.


The backs used to have wicker but this is how we got it at the second-hand store. The yellow was pretty but had cracks and needed to be cleaned.


It got a distressed whitewash and then I painted the flowers to make them pop.



I did the flowers in the colors of a beautiful kilim.


Although we have used kilim a few times for smaller furniture pieces, we never made chairs with it, and we love the result!


They are cheerful, colorful and also somehow something natural.


They are pretty from every side.


You can see more details of them at StarHomeStudio.

Friday 12 April 2019

Weird Times


I mentioned our elections last week.
After 13 days they (AK party) still have not handed over Istanbul to the Democratic party, they are asking for recounts, which happened, and now even try to have a new election for just Istanbul. In the meantime papers are destroyed, and ugly things are surfacing. For example, just in Istanbul, it turned out that there were 60.000 employees, getting their salary every month, without working a day. ATM workers they are called, so the only job they do is go to an ATM and withdraw their salary. The corruption is huge, and this is just the beginning of the pile of money they have been spending on friends and family. I hope Istanbul will get their deserved Mayor soon, and hopefully, this is the beginning of a new era here.
And the photo is just something I took this week, light is hope, and I hope to see light at the end of the tunnel :)

Monday 8 April 2019

Trashure


A friend's neighbor was throwing this sad stool a way. My friend rescued it, knowing I would be able to use it. Yes, I get trash gifts :D


Although it was falling apart it was actually well made and stable. It was missing two side sticks but I knew what to do with that problem right away.


First I dismantled it completely, it had good long screws that I threw in the tumbler for them to clean up. The parts of the top and those used to kind of repair it in the past I got rid of. I then used one of the long sticks to replace the missing short one and all the long sticks I replaced with pretty sticks that we bought in a thriftshop back in 2017 during our trip to California.


I filled up the screws and holes and already it looked much better! I brushed the wood clean but did not sand it smooth as I wanted to keep its texture.


I choose 5 colors of paint to match what I wanted to use on the top. I painted the wood with a rough dry brush without trying to cover the entire wood (except for the first layer of dark brown) and then sometimes used a metal brush to rub it off for an aged look.


The paintwork gets varnished as I use water-based paint. The feet got felt to protect both the paintwork and the floor it will live on :) I built the top of salvaged wood.


As this stool already was pretty high I needed to have a frame going down. The ugly bottom got covered with fabric.


The top got a 5 cm foam and got covered again with the red lining fabric.


And the top I covered with vintage kilim. The side kilim has holes due to the way it is woven, hence why the foam needed to be covered with fabric first.


This one might have the most extreme makeover yet till date, I'm so happy that it turned in to something pretty instead of ending up in a landfill.


It is super strong and stable, and absolutely gorgeous to look at.



I find it so satisfying to give these sad pieces of furniture another chance, even a better one than that they had when they were new :)


Available at StarHomeStudio among many other one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and home decor.

Thursday 4 April 2019

Spring Arrived


At March 31st we had elections here in Turkey. These were for Mayors of municipalities.
The slogan of the democratic party was 'The end of March is Spring' as Spring is always associated with positivity and change. And it did happen. The party of Erdogan is still objecting about a lot of the outcomes as there have been enormous changes. The biggest is Istanbul, with 16 million people the Democratic party won and it is a huge loss for the party of Erdogan. Also, Ankara (the capital), Adana, another city of 1.75 million, Antalya another big city of 2.3 million went from Ak party to the Democratic party, a huge win, and to all those with some sense, a huge relief. Izmir (population of 6 million) as the most democratic city did not change and with all these big cities together a huge change is coming and hopefully we'll see even more with the next general elections.
Ak party is still struggling and trying some ugly games as they have with previous elections, but they can't hold it forever.
Our town also had a bit of a scare, our (democratic) Mayor of 15 years ran again but as the Democratic party did not want him anymore he ran under another democratic party, which caused for divided votes and Ak party could have won, but luckily did not.
We now have a new Mayor, young and Democratic and I liked the way he talked and I hope he'll be honest and fair.


In the mean time at home, I'm still working to get a huge amount of furniture done.


We got these school chairs during our last trip in New Orleans, yes we even brought back furniture lol :) No wonder we had so many bags.


Although adorable they did need some TLC.


After sanding the got treated with anti-rust paint. The plastic covers are re-used packaging, keeping it eco-friendly.


Then they got various layers of a lovely mint color.


The wood got sanded again, and I then stenciled these cute checks on the wood.



As the wood still had some stains that did not go off with sanding I stained the wood, also to keep it more with a vintage look.


Now some fun details, they are after all kid's furniture:)


Tadaaaa! Love how they turned out. They have birds on all sides except for the side where the book cubby is.


The details are all in black as the table top got black chalkboard paint, so that the kid sitting at it can draw and write with chalk.


I also like that it is pretty enough to have it in your living room, often kid stuff is bright and plastic and not very matching with adult stuff. The color makes it perfect for all genders.



Normally only 7 pieces should be left, but some new projects came in so I'm back to I don't know how many :D
All furniture pieces are available at StarHomeStudio

Monday 1 April 2019

Colorful Makeover


As I mentioned in my previous post, there are a ton of furniture projects in our atelier right now, I'm happy to say that the number went down to 9 :)
These lovely wooden feet were a score of our last USA travel at a thrift store.


And we choose all the materials and colors according to this lovely embroidery.


The feet became unrecognizable after their colorful makeover.


I built the body of the ottoman from salvaged wood. Normally the body doesn't need this much wood, but for this model it is required.


Last finishing touches!


Tadaaa! The upholstery was a challenge, the various layers, piping and the fact that the fabrics are striped made it very difficult, but the result was worth the trouble!


This pouf will definitely catch everyone's eye :)


I love the quirky cat :)



Except for the foam and webbing inside, all material is either vintage, salvaged or upcycled.
Available at StarHomeStudio.