The Desk Corner Is Done

The fact that I recently--for the first time since All Things Covid-Related began--have been able to concentrate enough to write and read again means more to me than finally putting together this little desk corner, but still:  Let us admire a finished project.  :)  I knew when Mike and I moved into this apartment ten years ago that this little corner would be perfect as my desk corner and also for our Christmas tree, and a few months ago, I got to see the vision come-to-life.  

For years, I'd been doodling pictures of the desk corner and gathering bits and bobs for it, and last spring, I found a desk and chair that would fit into this spot. As with the hutch re-do and mantel-painting, the desk went through a couple stages before I found the right color for it.  It began an unfinished wood--

--was briefly black--

 --and then I realized if I love the green of the hutch in the corner opposite from the desk so much, why not just use the same color here?  Green it became, then, as did the chair.

I dolled up the front of the desk and the back of the chair with a decoupage paper.  I replaced the desk's round wooden drawer knob with a letter V drawer pull.  I added pink gingham paper to the sides of the drawer.  And I texted photos to Mom throughout the process.  :)

The lamp was a rare splurge, a heavy Italian bust lamp I found on eBay a few years ago and stored in the bedroom until I figured out the rest of the desk. Love, love, love.  ♥  I found a top hat lampshade for it, jazzed that up with a different shade of green paint, velvet ribbon for the brim, ferns, and Rosemary--for remembrance.

The chair cushion started out as the black gingham pillow Mom had made for me that Stuffed would always rest on on my lap when we sat across the room together, but when I was ready to see it back on that chair without him, I moved it back and bought the black and white ticking stripe cushion to use with the desk.  Months of looking for a rug led me to this one on eBay.  The seller's mom had made it in the 1940s.  The size, pattern, and colors are perfect for this little corner.  ♥

The pink gingham desk skirt is actually the skirt I wore to my grandmother's funeral last January.  She would more than understand.  :)  ♥  It is simply slipped onto a tension rod across the front of the desk, which lets me store a bin of rough drafts, index cards, and notes underneath.  On the wall above it is an "I Love You" cross-stitch Mom made while pregnant with her oldest, my older brother.  She had it in all my bedrooms as a kid and at some point gave it to me to keep.  She painted the pink gingham flower pot-turned-pen pot for me years ago too.  ♥

The photos on the plant nook underneath the cross-stitch are of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott.  The narrow wall to the right contains my collection of silhouettes of women writing.  

 Well, that only took ten years.  :)  

 ♥

Lampshade Love

Finally, the lampshade is finished and tucked back into its little corner.  I feel like I've been covered in loose threads and bits of hardened hot glue for a month although it's only been a week.  It turned out exactly as I'd envisioned it, which is always so gratifying.  

I couldn't find the lavender plaid fabric I thought I'd saved, but the touch of pink floral suits me better anyway and its crocheted trim at the top complements the ball trim along the bottom.  

I like the way the shade looks in every light--

--and I love all its many colors and patterns.  Love, love, love.  ♥

This makes me so happy.  :)

And it makes reading in bed that much more of a favorite thing. 

Bliss!  ♥

The Lampshade Yesterday and Today

The lamp should be finished sometime tomorrow, I'm thinking.  'Two more tiers of ruffles at the top, and then back into place on the lamp-base it goes.  I have a piece of lavender/white plaid left from an old dress that I'm planning for the next ring, and at the very top, a Kelly green gingham.  

I realized the other day that I wanted a jolt of yellow on the shade and decided just to Sharpie-marker a section of green floral fabric. 

It worked and turned out almost chartreuse, a definite jolt of color on an already-colorful shade.  I have long loved pink roses against yellow backgrounds, so this has turned out to be my favorite tier so far. 

To tie that pop of yellow in with the rest of the lampshade, I dyed my white pom pom/ball trim gold by soaking it in Turmeric water for a minute.   

A minute in the spice-bath was long enough to do the trick, and I let the trim dry while I attached more ruffles.

Ah, ball trim!  It makes me happy.  ♥

'So dear. 

'Two tiers left to go, then, which is grand since all the fabric-pleating and hot-gluing have reached the stage of feeling quite tedious.  Once it's done, it's done, though, and this has already become one of my favorite re-dos and favorite items in the apartment.  ♥ 

Tomorrow!  A finished reading lamp! 

Thursday's Project

What I thought was going to be a fast-moving task yesterday turned into an all-evening project I'm now aiming to finish this Sunday.  The button-covered lampshade I'd loved for so long--

 --has annoyed me lately every time I've looked at it, and before I'd even realized that yesterday was Lampshade Re-Do Day, I found myself pulling it up from its base and peeling off the first of what soon seemed like five hundred buttons. 

All but the top ring of buttons is gone.  The bottom four tiers of ruffled fabric pieces are almost all in place now.  Pink roses fabric, green gingham fabric, and I-don't-know-yet-what-other fabric will make the top few ruffles.  And maybe ball-trim around the bottom.  Ideally, by Sunday night, a finished lampshade will again be atop the base of my reading lamp, the layers of fabric softening the light more than buttons-on-white-canvas ever could and the rainbow of colors and patterns cozy-ing-up its corner of my bedroom. 

Ah!  Anything patchwork-ish!  ♥

Mom Memory

Seeing the Queen Anne's Lace in bloom each summer reminds me of how my mom showed me, when I was probably four or five years old, how to tint its petals by letting it sit in a glass of food color-ed water awhile.  In its normal cream-colored form, it is one of my favorite flowers, but revisiting childhood for a bit as I watched the tiny flower clusters take on color has been sweet too.  A blue bloom for me today, then, and I'll pass it on to Mom when we see each other tomorrow.  ♥

 

♥

Wing Chair Progress in Seven Pictures

♥