Brokelyn » decorating

How to make the most of BKLYN DESIGNS

Kate Payne — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:06:05 +0000

Marty Markowitz blessed the 8^th annual BKLYN DESIGNS event this morning at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, kicking off a weekend homage to furnishings and home accessories designed and/or made in Brooklyn. This sampling from the ‘Republic of Brooklyn’ (whose exports extend far beyond artisanal pickles and yoga wear) features handiwork and artistry of 45 local favorites, including a few never-before-seen designers. If you’re heading over for some (or all) of the still-full weekend left, here are a few ways to get your ticket’s worth:

Free stuff
Arrive before 11 a.m. Saturday or Sunday to enjoy free coffee provided by Brooklyn’s own Crop to Cup.

Exhibitor schwag: pencils, pretty cards (that can be re-purposed as postcards); plus tables full of free copies of the May 2010 Dwell Magazine & New York Magazine’s Spring 2010 Home Design edition.

Ideas for things you could conceivably do yourself
Hook your spare/reclaimed wood planks together using leather hinges.

Stencil some birds on your wall.

Infuse your place with haute (not too pricey) local design

Do it Snug-it Style:

Make your own California king bed frame using three sheets of your own plywood or reclaimed wood paneling (cut to 3/4” thickness, rounding not important) for just the cost of the Snug-it connector pieces, which come in silver and any color you can imagine.

Or with hand-printed wall art:

So wallpapering your rented apartment is of course out of the question, but you might consider framing a 27” X 36” silk-screened narrative featuring femme scientists from the 1800s for $48. Unique over-the-couch or bed art on the cheap.

Some organic cribsheets, maybe:

Ridiculous sale for the brokesters with kids: Originally $185, you can snag this organic, butter-soft dinosaur set for a less-than-whoppin’ $49. They’re out with a new line of same pattern, only on a whiter background, and need to unload this back stock.

Here’s all the info you’ll need on the three-day event, May 7 to 9 at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO (38 Water St.). Tickets are $15; Students are $10 and ages 16 and under are free.

Fun dorm-room ideas from $3.99

Iheartdaily.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:06:54 +0000

When we wanted to find out the best cheap places for teens in Brooklyn, we knew just who to ask: Anne Ichikawa and Melissa Walker, the Brooklyn-based creators of iheartdaily.com, a newsletter full of style and entertainment tips for the pre-Daily Candy crowd. Now that back-to-school shopping is in full swing, we brought them back to scout out some cute stuff for dorm rooms that can be ordered online. (Tip: Ship it straight to your room. You’ve got enough to schlep already.) Here’s what they found…

Wall art: Imagine if your dorm walls were a giant stickerbook. Forget damage fees at the end of the year—with this you can go nuts and then peel it off whenever you please. Flair4All, $20.

Five-headed floor lamp: Match your light to your mood by turning on any one of these colored lamps, or be a rainbow and shine all at once. At Target, 19.99.

Preppy sheets: You’ll automatically save money with those skinny dorm beds, which are the smallest mattresses you’ve known since summer camp. Overstock.com has a big selection. Sure, you have to wade through boring stuff, but when you spot the awesome Tommy Hilfiger “Christina” (top) and “Aaron” sets, it’s worth the hunt. Overstock.com, $29.99.

Egglings: Way cuter than your mom’s silk ferns. They come with seeds; just crack them open, add water and watch for a bumper crop of lavender, petunia, mint, chrysanthemum or prickly cactus, others. Brooklyn 5 + 10, $9.95

iPod Alarm: You can find cheaper alarm clocks, sure, but how many come with a bed shaker to get you up and out of the door on time? Compatible with your iPod or iTouch, this multi-functional gadget is a great space saver. i-luv.com, $59.99.

Dorm caddy: You don’t want your toothbrush wandering around the shared bathroom. Trust us, this is an essential. Comes in eight colors. At Dormbuy, $3.99.

Arty posters: Avoid the college store’s standard Hendrix art and pick something more YOU on etsy.com. Roll & Tumble Press, $15.

Chalkboard sticker: Don’t try applying your lipstick in this “mirror.” You can stick this pliable chalkboard anywhere you wish. It won’t leave a messy residue. Organize.com, $9.59.

Photo mobile: Decorate the air in your room by using this hanging photo mobile. Just clip your favorite photos, and watch your friends and family dangle whimsically above you. ”Why, hello there!” PB Teen, $12.

Get a daily blast of sassy style by signing up for their newsletter at iheartdaily.com.

How much to recover my ugly brown chair?

Julia Bedell — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:17:04 +0000

Home redecorating may not be for the brokest of Brokelynites, but that doesn’t mean we should be destined forever for the furniture we’ve had, well, forever. If you can manage to scrape together enough change (from inside that dingy couch), you might find that a living room spruce-up can do a world of good, especially with how little you’re probably leaving the house these days. So, we thought we’d find out just how much cushion change some small-scale reupholstery would actually take. We called the following upholsterers and, when possible, sent them a photo of the tired-looking chair above, purchased 10 years ago at a flea market. What follows are their quotes in order of increasing price, delivery fees if any, and the amount of time they said they’d need to do the job. What it doesn’t include: the fabric. While several of these places do sell it, we have a hunch you can do a lot better on EBay. None of these businesses has seen the chair live and in person, so it’s possible the actual prices may differ. Finally, we cannot vouch for the quality of the workmanship at any of them, because the chair is still in its pre-makeover state. For now.

BUSHWICK
F L Upholstery
1096 Broadway (corner of Dodworth St.), 718-383-5165,
$200-300 including pickup/delivery, 1 ½-2 weeks

WILLIAMSBURG (though a commenter—below—informs us it’s actually BED-STUY)
Herbert Upholstery Shop
155 Tompkins Ave (between Willoughby Ave. & Hart St.), 718-782-5896
$249 + $75 pickup/delivery, 2 weeks

FORT GREENE
Workroom
544 Park Ave. (corner of Sandford St.), 718-852-4500,
$385 + $125 pickup/delivery, 2-3 weeks

EAST FLATBUSH
Raynolds Upholstery
5602 Clarendon Rd. (at E. 56th St.), 718-629-6170,
$450 + $70 for pickup/delivery, 3-week deadline, around a week for a chair if needed

GREENWOOD HEIGHTS
Rifi Furniture
775 Fourth Ave. (between 26th St. & 27th St.), 718-369-8282,
$400-600 including pickup/delivery, 1 week

MIDWOOD
Royal Cushions & Upholstery
1815 Coney Island Ave. (between Ave. N & Ave. O), 718-375-7866,
$450 + $60 pickup/delivery, within 2 weeks

SUNSET PARK
Masters Upholstery Corp.
50 Bay Ridge Ave., #10 (corner of Narrows Ave.), 718-779-3102,
$450-550 + $100 pickup/delivery, 1½ weeks

DITMAS PARK
Das Upholstery
1312 Cortelyou Rd. (between E. 13th & E. 14th Sts.), 718-284-1079,
$600 + $100 pickup/delivery, 1-2 weeks

PARK SLOPE
J & Y Upholstery Workroom
552 Fifth Ave. (at 15th St.), 718-499-8304
$625 including pickup/delivery, 2-3 weeks

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
Gerard Theuns Upholstery
89 Atlantic Ave. (between Hicks St. & Henry St.), 718-237-4619,
$750-800 + $75 for pickup/delivery, 3-4 weeks max

So Bushwick wins this round, and Brooklyn Heights loses. (A shocker!) Next: Where to get cheap fabric?

The decorator’s guide to dumpster diving

Jonathan Berk — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:38:28 +0000

One man’s trash is another one’s… temporary shanty fully constructed from salvaged materials. At left is artist Lisa Kirk’s Maison des Cartes, a trailer-like structure and former exhibition piece roughly the size of a Winnebago, installed at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. The 52-piece abode, which is available for rent for $199.99 a week, is a “shanty timeshare,” says Kirk, who found the materials in recycled-goods stores, dumpsters, on the street and from construction sites (see below for a guided tour). “I’m kind of obsessed with the milk crate,” she says.

Maison des Cartes, Kirk’s play on the naming of luxury buildings, was inspired by the shanty towns of Puerto Rico and the displacement of immigrants from the tenements of rapidly-developing lower Manhattan. “I just thought it would be kind of funny to make a shanty in the Lower East Side and sell it to these rich people as like a joke on their luxury branding everything,” she says.

After five weeks this spring as the center-piece of a solo exhibition at a Manhattan art gallery, the shanty was taken apart, moved and re-assembled on its current Brooklyn lot. Now, since late May, it has housed weekly tenants who signed their leases in the gallery/real estate office.

The hardest part of building the shanty was going out and getting the stuff, often with a kid in tow, says Kirk, who has an 11-month-old baby. Building materials include used pieces taken from construction sites that she swapped out for new materials. But it wasn’t stealing, she insists. “We were replacing.”

Has Kirk’s own home-decorating been influenced by her project? No, she was always “a garbage collector,” she says. “The desk I’m sitting at right now is definitely from the trash.” Here, a look at some of the stories behind a few of her finds.

Dining room table: “Those are just barricades that I found on the street. I knew where there were a bunch of them… we just jumped in the truck and went out and grabbed them at night. The benches are actually boat parts — pieces of oak from some boat that was dismantled, and we got those from Build It Green!“

Hammocks: “They’re from a construction site. It’s that webbing they use to collect the debris that falls off the building. The newspaper floor is actually the AM New York issue that they wrote about me in… It made me sound very stupid, so I used her article as some kind linoleum treatment on the floor.”

Bathroom graffiti wall: “It’s like a brick wall piece of Masonite that I assume was probably used on a photo shoot, because it’s not real graffiti at all… It could have come from Build It Green or a dumpster… And that, of course, is a roll of toilet paper.”

Welcome Mat: “That’s American Express credit card receipt folders. I found a box of those over in Chinatown… They’re just vinyl and cardboard and then we put some clear plastic tape on them just to seal them down.”

Houseplants: “The tree that’s in that picture is growing inside the shanty, like from the street. We just cut a hole out when we put down the foundation, so it would grow in… We decided not to kill it, and it’s doing really well. I guess there’s a greenhouse effect from the skylights.”

For more information on weekly rentals, contact Invisble-Exports Gallery, 14A Orchard St., 212-226-5447.