Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Orange DIY Room

I have recently became an avid follower of Altera’s Mini World. Her blog first captured my attention when I stumbled across her ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ post. In her scene, she used a sofa from Voila dollhouse furniture set to mimic the orange Ligne Roset Togo sofa she loves.

Orange has been a huge colour for interior design in 2008. When I went to the Toronto Interior Design Show back in Feb 2008, orange was everywhere. I love the funky/happy vibe emits from the colour and I've managed to work this colour into my house by using it in my daughter's nursery (her crib bedding is Blocks by Rosemary Hallgarten for Nurseryworks in colour Pumpkin).
I wasn't ready to splurge about $150 on the Voila dollhouse furniture set just to get my hands on the orange couch and a few other 'usable' pieces (well at least not right now ... the set does come with pieces for different rooms such as living/dining/bed/bathrooms), so I've decided to be creative and make my own orange sofa with foam boards, this orange/white kitchen towel I found at the dollar store and some liquid-stitch. The whole thing costs roughly $3 + labour. The foam boards were salvaged from packaging and liquid-stitch is about $4 a tube and I only used maybe half of it.

After finishing the couch and quite happy with the result, I attempted to make throw pillows without a sewing machine. After trying to handsew one with needle and thread for a good half hour, I gave up and resorted back to liquid-stitch and it worked like a charm.

The green fabric pillows were made from this $2 set of pillowcases (leftover from the same ones I've used to recover the Flairline sofa in a previous post) and the orange floral pattern fabric was cut off from these dollar store potholders. The lamp is another DIY project (which I will talk about in a future post). And thanks to Mini Modern in her recent post, I was reminded of my Muji New York city in a Bag and the side table here is the Guggenheim Museum turned upside down.

Sources:
Sofa, Pillows, Table Lamp, Area Rug - My DIYs
Side Chair - Reac Japan
Side Table - Muji New York city in a bag
Coffee Table - Kaleidoscope House's Jasper Morrison living room set
Plant - The Dolls House Emporium
Magazine Holder, Mugs, Clock - Re-ment
Art - Ford Smith 'Elated Autumn'

Images - http://alterasworld.blogspot.com/

8 comments:

tarkus said...

Awesome job! It makes me miss my old orange velour futon from when I lived in my single chick apartment. I especially like how you paired it with the green Reac chair.

Altera said...

Terrific job on the sofa - it looks great! (I have some foam and fabric waiting for some weekend free time as well)

The bedding is fantastic as well - what a sophisticated looking crib. What can I say, I do love orange . . .

Can't wait to hear about the DIY lamp!

Modern MC said...

I can't sew! This DIY looks good.

vwong said...

tarkus - Thanks for your compliments. It must have been cool to have an orange velour futon.

MC - I can't sew either (I did when I was in highschool but it's been so long ago), so Liquid-Stitch is my new bestfriend!

vwong said...

Altera,

Thanks to your comments. Can't wait to see your DIY sofa when finished cuz I know you are much craftier than I am.

My baby girl's room is mainly orange (bedding and change pad cover) and white (crib, Ikea Expedit shelf unit and Malm dresser double as a change table). I also put a capiz shell pendant lamp (from Westelm) just to give it a more feminine feel.

Lena said...

Just lovely, I think the colours is great!

Lena!

studioseven said...

Thanks for sharing...beginning with inspiration and taking us all the way to your finished project. You've made checks look so very chic and modern here. I love the way the whole room came together. The Guggenheim museum makes an awesome side table. (I thinks you and Modern MC have convinced me to purchase that Muji set). Looking forward to hearing about the DIY lamp. BTW, the nursery design sounds awesome, your daughter is such a lucky girl.

vwong said...

Sorry that I have been somewhat 'removed' from my mini-hobby and blog =(

Lena - Thanks for your compliments.

graciea - I am glad you've enjoyed reading my humble blog. Tks. Although I have to be honest that I am quite a lazy blogger.

studioseven - Thanks for your comments about my rooms, both the 'mini' one and my nursery. About my daughter being a lucky girl, well I am lucky to have her =)