DIY: Gold Leaf Brush Strokes Vase

I was stocking up on some gold leaf at the craft store last week and saw this variegated rose gold leaf next to my regular yellow gold stand by. The wheels in my brain starting turning and I knew I had to use it for today's vase project!

I worked with a great online florist called The Bouqs on this post. I used their company to send one of my friends a bouquet recently (they have a promotion right now where you get a free bouquet with your first order!) and she was super impressed and begged to find out where I could find such pretty ranunculus at this time of year. The Bouqs ships their flowers directly from their sustainable, eco-friendly farms on the side of active volcanos (!) in Equador right to your door, so the buds are always fresh and so beautiful! 

There's no silly teddy bears or weird upselling, just beautiful flowers at great prices and always free shipping. It's a perfect solution for when you want to send thinking-of-you flowers to your friends, but you don't really want to spend a ton of money on a dumb arrangment. These flowers are from the Marshmallow bouquet (one of my favorites on their site). I love how the bright white buds pair with the pretty purple larkspurs and the coral color of the DIY vase. 

To do the quick and easy leafing project, I picked up a couple of clear glass vases at the craft store, cleaned them well, and taped the entire outside of the vase with painters tape before spray painting the insides. 

I used Rustoleum's French Lilac (can't get enough of that one!) and Design Master's Coral. I sprayed on a couple of very, very thick coats and let the paint dry for at least 12 hours.

When the paint is dry and the tape is removed, the paint looks like milk glass! It's such a pretty effect - I did a similar project here to get a blue opaline look for my jewelry trays.

I wanted to go a step further on this project though and give the outside of the vase some metallic love using the variegated rose gold leaf. Any leafing project can get a little messy (but it will be the most beautiful mess you've ever laid your eyes on!). I like to lay down a sheet of thick brown kraft paper before starting, which makes clean up a breeze.

I poured a small amount of leafing size on the top of the vase and used a 1" brush to very loosely paint the size on the bottom half of my vase. I went really easy with the size - being careful to not overly smooth out the brush strokes and to leave little gaps here and there too. As you let the sizing glue dry, watch for drips and either brush them off or lightly dab them up with a paper towel. You want the coat to be thin and even.

The size will be completely clear and tacky to the touch when it is ready for the leaf. I applied the sheets with a soft bristled brush, but it's fine to just use your (clean) hands too! You want to really flatten the leaf sheets against the vase, making sure there are no air bubbles or wrinkles.

The leaf will magically stick to where ever the size was painted on, but will brush right off the rest of the vase.

If there are any cracks or gaps, I just use some of the extra leaf bits on the table and rub them onto the size with my fingers. It's really so easy to get a smooth finish!

I think the dimension of the finished vase is so pretty with the bright color inside the glass and the rose gold on the outside!

After the leafing is done, you'll want to paint on a layer of sealer to help protect the gold leaf. 

When the sealer is all dry, you're ready to start arranging your bouquet! I know it's tempting to do a blunt cut at the bottom of your flower bunch and just toss them in a vase, but I'm learning it makes for such a more beautiful bouquet if you cut and arrange the flowers one by one. The Bouqs is also a great place to get tips on floral arrangement and care (here's the page on ranunculus).

I tried to keep the arrangement organic and swoopy (the tall larkspur stems helped there!).

This arrangement was a gift for my friend, who needed a little extra love this week, and I love how it turned out. The Bouqs suggests that if the water is changed every few days, the flowers will last an additional 1-3 weeks. They suggest adding a little sugar or Sprite to the fresh water once you've run out of the flower food that comes in the packets.

A big thanks to The Bouqs for sponsoring this post! Check out all their amazing bouquets here, and get a FREE bouquet with your first purchase!  I think this one would be perfect for a holiday gift to a far-away loved one.  :)

My Holiday Garland in Domino and A Fireplace Faux Concrete Overlay!

The holiday issue of Domino is on stands now!! Just look for the beautiful face of my talented friend, Paloma, on the cover. :)

And feel free to check out page 78 for my latest DIY column - a piece on using hardy house plants to make an untraditional holiday garland!

I really love how this one turned out! We shot the tutorial in early October, so the garland is long gone now, but I'd love to recreate something similar for our mantle now that it's time to decorate for Christmas. The little clementimes are my favorite part (psst - the trick is to use the smallest, lightest fruit you can find!)

All the pretty details are in the new issue, which should be on news stands every where by now.

Right before we shot the tutorial with my talented photographer friend, Sarah Webb, I decided I wanted to add a layer of concrete to our mantel to lighten things up and add a little texture.

I used the same approach I've done several times now, using Ardex Feather Finish concrete, but this time I mixed the concrete to be a little on the watery side and applied it in many, many coats with a paint brush.

If I had to guess, I probably put on six or seven light coats of the Ardex, with drying time and a sanding block session between each coat.

I also put on two layers of matte natural-look sealer after the concrete was dry, and after a couple months, everything is still looking great!

I love how the concrete looks with the black paint on the surround, but especially with the fossil limestone we added to the firebox.

Thanks again to Sarah Webb for the photos and to Kate for assisting at the shoot, and to the Domino team for always being so great to work with! In case you've missed any of my past stories for Domino, here's my Pax armoire makeover, an upholstered bench DIY, and my house feature.

Grocery Store Flowers

I love having fresh flowers in our house (it always feels so fancy!), but the habit can get expensive.

One of the tricks I've been doing lately is buying the (sometimes cheesy) assorted bunches that are usually $3-$5 and then breaking the flowers up into different vases.

It's so much more fun than having just a dozen stems of one kind of flower. I end up with four or five different arrangements that I can split up around the house or group together.

I pick up little vases and containers at thrift stores and flea markets all the time, so it's fun to have an excuse to pull them out and actually use them on a regular basis.

How often do you splurge on fresh flowers? I love to get tulips and daffodils in the spring because they seem to last forever, especially if I can remember to change the water every couple of days. And I still love doing my grocery store roses trick.

DIY Splatter Vase (and a Trick for Grocery Store Roses!)

When I was leaning over the paint counter, thinking about what colors I'd like to add to my bedroom, I thought an oxblood red would be the perfect balance to the new green lamps and the Knoxville Gray walls. I usually have something of every color in my extra tchotchkes/accessories closet (we all have one, right?), but this time I was coming up a little short in the oxblood red department.

So I swung by the craft store and picked up a plain, clear glass vase for about $3. They have these vases everywhere - even the grocery store. And they make the perfect base for customizing (hello! - great gift idea!). Here's the how-to:

I wanted a splatter pattern on my vase, so for the first layer, I grabbed a bottle of black nail polish and sort of carefully whacked the brush around the rim of the vase.

This enamel spray paint from Rustoleum is the perfect color of oxblood. It so glossy and deep - love it.

I wrapped the outside of the vase with a grocery bag and sealed it up with painters tape along the top edges of the rim

Then I sprayed the inside of the vase with the red color. Don't go too heavy with the paint here. You want to coat all the glass evenly, but it looks prettier if the light can still get through the layer of paint.

Just like Christmas morning!

The oxblood pairs so well with the pinks and purples in my favorite lady portrait and in the pink grocery store roses.

Also, here's a little trick for getting cheap $10/dozen bodega roses to look more like garden roses. 

To loosen the buds a little, put them in some warm water for an hour or two and then use your fingers to help them open a little more. If you put your fingers in a pinching position and sort of spread them from the center of the bud, they'll open up beautifully! And if you do it gently, there won't be any damage to the petals. Also I think they live just as long as before this way, especially if you're good about changing the water every other day or so. I can usually get my flowers to last about two weeks that way.

The roses are so much more pretty this way, don't you think? Hard to beat $10 for a pretty arrangement that last for weeks!

Oh, and some of you were asking about our flip clock. It was an Amazon purchase! Takes some work to get it going, but it's cute and fun!