I admire all of the great thrift store makeover tutorials around the web. My favorites are the ones that restyle old button downs into something fun, like a tank top or little girl’s dress. Since a number of readers come to Fine Diving site via search terms like “thrift shirt makeover,” this week I’m doing [...]
June 26, 2010
My Time Out Chicago piece this month started with a candlestick table. Found in an alley in Bowmanville, its original purpose may have been a prop for a play because the brown finish was thick and somehow exaggerated. No worries, a rough sand, two coats of gloss paint, then the dog photo, which was the [...]
June 24, 2010
Pass up a chance to meet new people and talk makeover design? Never, so I’ll be at point A on the map below this weekend, at the Highwood Street Market. This is a new outdoor pop-up fair in a town known for its high-end home and consignment shops. Come on up and we’ll talk [...]
June 22, 2010
I don’t know about your experience, but it was a pretty exciting day when my roommates and I decided to rent the perfect off-campus apartment for our sophomore year. We were on the phone constantly the summer before. Who had a table for the kitchen, did we have room for a cute little [...]
June 20, 2010
Almost finished with the chest I’ve been working on for the past week. In trying to bring some prince to this dark old frog, I went through several iterations of makeover schemes, from painting it red, painting it black, painting it red with a black top, and — painting it red with a black dragon [...]
June 18, 2010
Time Out Chicago wrote about a recent field trip to the recycling facility, Creative Reuse in Calumet. I’ve been there, and while I love Time Out for its enthusiasm for so many corners of the city, this place is a dump, and not an interesting one. Creative Reuse was once in a warehouse around Roosevelt Road [...]
June 15, 2010
There are a handful of people you just know to add to your wish list for marriage–first, second or other. Then there are others who go on the list for wished you lived next door. I haven’t 100% decided where to put designer, Eddie Ross, but I look forward to figuring it out on Sunday. Never [...]
June 14, 2010
A cheer for Monday following a weekend that, were we sitting together at the movies, our feature film would be called Invasion of the Viruses. Two thumbs down. To review, here’s this week’s subject, the Empire Revival chest and mirror. And here it is with the warped laminate peeled off. Wood purists, you may cringe, but I think [...]
June 11, 2010
I asked maker Steve Bialer what he most liked about the process of creating the designs that give his home its identity. “I like the personal, the handcrafted. The meaningful. In an economy of big box furnishings, these are missing.” Steve is a graphic artist in Chicago. He started in print, when we all read [...]
June 10, 2010
Before my hard drive crashed last week, I used a borrowed copy of Photoshop. But when I picked up my restored Mac at the Apple store – tumbleweeds were rolling down the middle of the mall but the Apple store was one big party - I found myself locked out of Photoshop. The license code [...]
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June 28, 2010
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