Karina Giordano

Bathroom Re-mural

admin — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:35:02 +0000

When we moved into our house the upstairs bathroom was a disaster, peeling linoleum, peeling wallpaper, dirty, and painted original beadboard. For whatever reason, I undertook this as my project, I painstakingly stripped every inch of wood in the bathroom, it was truly a labor of love…. kind of. But with the dark wood and the dark blue I decided to paint it, the room was so dark, too dark.

BEFORE:

NEXT – with the dark blue:

And now my inspiration: I found this image from Bradbury and Bradbury, a Victorian Wallpaper company. I couldn’t afford the wallpaper… so I decided to paint it as a mural. It is still a work in progress but this is a sneak peak.

I will be back soon… as soon as I can to post the final product.

Homemade Pasta and a New use for a drying rack…

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:41:53 +0000

Ingredients

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons milk
Dried basil (few shakes)

For whatever reason I decided to do this directly on my counter-top without employing the use of a bowl, it worked for the most part. I kneaded it by hand (wondering in my head if it would have worked better in my kitchen aid) but it did work and I eventually formed it into a giant ball. (Note: I did had an extra handful of flour since the dough was too sticky).

Next slice the dough like bread in order to feed into the pasta machine

Next on the fattest setting begin feeding your ‘slices of dough’ into the pasta machine, gradually reduce the thickness each time you feed it through, I continued till #4 .

At this point the dough was thin enough and I was ready to feed it through the fettuccine side.

Please note: if your pasta sheets were too thin, they will not cut as neatly and you will have to manually pull the strips apart. At this point I realized I needed a place to dry all these millions of strips of pasta. A lightning bolt hit me and I ran to the cellar. An old wooden clothes drying rack was the PERFECT thing! And here it sits in my kitchen until dinner time when we can enjoy the fruits of my labor. In all this took about 1 hour, I have not yet tasted the pasta but I am sure it was well worth the time!

Before and After: High Chair

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:02:24 +0000

We got this vintage high chair for 5 whole bucks at auction, not quite sure why, but I couldn’t pass up a deal like that! So I finally got around to revisiting it in the basement, it was ugly worn brown, here is it’s transformation!

I’m ashamed to say I forgot to take a real before picture, this is ‘during’

I found a light minty green color in my repertoire of basement paint and began. I then found a stash of ‘scrap booking’ items that I had acquired so where along the way. Their were some vintage flowers, almost like wallpaper that I chose to decoupage on.

And here it is the flowery, vintage, high chair. I will soon be for sale at the Storrs St. Antique Gallery!

Cheese heads? Yes, they’re ceramic.

admin — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:37:49 +0000

I was lucky enough to get some lovely Christmas gifts from friends and family this year, these were one of them, ceramic cow, goat and sheep heads. They have a small plug in the bottom to be ‘plugged’ into your cheeses! This way you can cutely identify which cheeses come from which animal, and if you’re a cheese lover like me this was the perfect gift! They were bought locally at Things are Cooking, in Concord, NH. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to use them again!

Etsy Finds! Steampunk Vintage Pins

admin — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:31:44 +0000

Etsy is addicting, I’m sure everyone knows that! Check out these vintage pieces by Tinyminds.

Before & After – Mini bathroom

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 01:11:49 +0000

What sold me on this house was this: a tiny bathroom beneath the staircase. I cannot even stand up in it – and I am 5 feet tall. I imagine this was once a closet but somewhere along the past 120 years someone decided to convert it into the tiniest bathroom in history. And I decided to transform it from a 1960s floral nightmare to this; here’s how:
Day 1:

During…

End Result:

Vargus Girls: Perfect pinups!

Bath and Body Works: Love the bottles and vintage looking labels.

Concord Auction Center: You can find anything here!

Home depot: What the heck? Believe it or not they have some great light fixtures – you just have to dig a little.

Urban Outfitter: A hipster’s dream – but yes they have some pretty cool stuff, I’ll admit it.

Before & After – Dining Room Chairs

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:01:54 +0000

What do you get with old velvet curtains, a staple gun, and a $10 dining room table set? Reupholstered chairs!
Before Chairs:

During:

After!: