DIY: Box Letter (Winter Pinterest Challenge)

I'm all about odd decorations. If you read my first post of Home Details: Office then you already know of a few I've recently made and put up. I really want to put more pieces on this wall so when I came across Young House Love's recent post (Winter Pinterest Challenge), I knew exactly which Pinterest pin I wanted to make.

Spearmint Baby has a DIY for Fabric Wrapped Letter for Nursery (see here for the pin) and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make my own version of it. Now, I'm not pregnant and I don't have any kids but, again, I like bold decorative pieces. So, I grabbed a box (I literally just unpacked it) and got to work.

First, I cut off two of the box flaps into the shape of a T (for my name, of course). I used regular scissors and it was a four on the pain-in-the-butt meter, but nothing like crying-in-frustration mode I get in when using an Xacto knife.

Next I used the pieces of the box flaps that were leftover and measured out how big they should be to connect the two Ts that I had already cut out. I used a hot glue gun to put these pieces together. 

I highly suggest you watch a TV show while you do this--something that you can focus on but still manage to work without burning your fingers with the lava glue. Netflix was my friend during this DIY.

After I put the T all together I went ahead and grabbed an old shirt to use as the fabric covering. I've always been a fan of the shirt's color and thought it would look really nice on the wall with the other pieces. 

I took the fabric and hot glued the ends on the back. I like the look of bundled cloth so I didn't make the fabric stretch against the cardboard. When I was satisfied with how it turned out, I glued a square piece of cardboard on the back of the T and then two Command Strips (specifically these) on that. Then I stuck that baby to the wall!

I have to say, I'm happy with the outcome! What is also cool about this DIY is that you can alter the design to your liking and use it for parties, decorations, or cute little handmade gifts!

If you haven't check out Young House Love or Spearmint Baby, then I suggest you do. Also, go ahead and participate in YHL's Winter Pinterest Challenge!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

Home Details: Office

Not many people know, but I've moved into a new house. I could fill up a book with my complaints about the process of moving however, this time around wasn't too bad. Everything I own fits into a 14 foot Uhaul. This new change in my life has inspired me to create a photo home series called Home Details. I want to chronicle the beginnings and works in progresses in this new home.

Right now I'm in the middle of setting up my office. It's fun and also a pain because of all of the random, non-matching things I have. It'll be a few days before I get everything in its proper place but I went ahead and put some time in making one part of the room comfy, fun, and useable so the office doesn't totally look like an explosion.

Below is what I can see from my desk chair.

It may not look like a lot but, for now, it's enough to make me happy. (Plus, I've gotten some compliments already!)

The picture at the beginning of this post shows a close up of the wall decorations I felt worked best with the randomness of the items I have in the office.

Because I don't have a true color scheme to the room, I wanted one piece of art that tied all of the dominant colors together. I was inspired by Ashley Goldberg's piece (here) to make a "messy" painting.  

From there I decided that I wanted something to balance out the visual weight of the painting. Luckily, I held on to this old mirror from a little shop back in the day.

Since I'm such a fan of triangles I wanted to top off these two pieces with something unique. That's when I ran across this plate! I instantly fell in love and drew my own version of it onto a manilla folder (I didn't like the white of printer paper) and put it in a $3 Dollar General frame.

I used the same orange paint to outline the crusts as I used in the painting. I carried his orange over to make a stripe down the mini cork board that was first in the middle panel. I wanted two more pieces to complete the panel and I wanted them to be unique. That's when I found my mini piñata (a very fun late night DIY!) and a little clay coffee cup I made for fun. Since the piñata already had orange in it, this worked out well!

I'll add more to this wall in the future, but for right now I'm just tickled about it. It's random chic, I say!

Now, to the rest of the little details that make this portion of the office warm and fun!

I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more Home Details!

All wall decor was placed on the wall using Command Strips. They are awesome.

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)