More Slipcovers

I haven't touched a paintbrush in over a week, now, but have kept busy being 'creative' in the house. We've had a blue couch and chair in the diningroom, that we got secondhand from some friends, and last week I decided I would slipcover them, since I'm not a huge fan of that particular shade of blue. I went to WalMart and bought painter's canvas drop cloths, came home, washed and dried them, and set to work. This is what I ended up with:

I love how they look, and now it's on to painting the diningroom! I love doing these slipcovers, and as I've mentioned before, I want to try making some funky slipcovers (multiple fabrics) at some point. The nice thing about using the painter's drop cloths is two-fold: first, the fabric is cheap at 12 square yards for $18, second, it's almost indestructible, given that it's heavy canvas. I'm also experimenting with dying the canvas. In the picture below, I've dyed a swatch of it with a tea bath. It gives it a much warmer color. I'm also thinking of trying actual dyes and using a dull red or even a dark chocolate brown.

What I've Been Doing: Laminate Flooring in the Studio

Inspired by my success in laying laminate flooring in Katie's room, I decided to put laminate flooring down in the studio, as well. I've had the boxes of flooring stacked in the garage for almost two years now, always see-sawing back and forth about whether I should try to lay it myself or hire Walt, the wood wizard who built my studio.

I finished yesterday, and am so impressed with it. I'm happy happy happy that I didn't ruin it, although I still have lots of organizing to do. The original plan called for hiring Joel and his buddy to help me move everything out of the studio, but that just seemed like an impossible task, so I shifted things around a half-room at a time. Not the ideal situation, but given the weird weather we've had here in the last week, it was a good decision.

I will say that I miss my old red painted floor--loved the jolt of color it gave!--but I just couldn't keep it clean/get it clean. The laminate will be easy to care for.

question for the day

So here's my dilemma:

I love the look of a richly layered collage, the feeling that I can look and look and look and always physically see something new...

but I also love looking at a collage with just a few key elements juxtaposed to each other in that way that grabs you and holds you...

in both types, there is much to think about; a certain kind of mystery and power; and while I talk the good talk about following my instincts and just getting out of the way, I can't put this conflict out of my mind. What I need to say to myself is that it's an issue that will resolve itself as my style changes and grows and develops. But what exactly is my style?

Ah, there's the rub.