MaryOlive Design

04/13/2020

A guide to making your own mask

11/11/2016

New bloglet: Easy Peasy Deconstructed Roman Shades http://ow.ly/Ianf3065spv

My previous tenant left some beige wool felt curtains that she had made. The fabric came from the upscale menswear company where she worked; I was...

10/04/2016

Go Big or Go Home...
http://maryolivedesign.com/big-funky-floor-lamp-requested/

Once I got the Emergency Lamp Call, I put together a collection of floor lamp parts from various pieces in the basement, on a sturdy base. The...

10/04/2016

September 1st Blog:
http://maryolivedesign.com/summer-projects-roundup/

My summer projects list was pretty ambitious. For starters, I finally got the porch repainted! Notice how the chair color matches the house? That’s...

08/06/2016

Today's bloglet! http://ow.ly/sPPG302ZtHN

The bestselling Marie Kondo book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has a lot of fans and detractors. I decided to read it after several...

06/30/2016

Always on the lookout for interesting lighting...

I found this LED bulb at the 2016 ICFF (international contemporary furniture fair). The bulb is made of flat plates with LED sensors, which gives it a deconstructed look... sort of like a Tim Burton version of a light bulb. It has interesting features- both the white and black versions are dimmable by flipping switch on and off at just the right point. but for added fun, the black model is programmable with a cell phone! I personally will never ever use this feature, but it was the perfect gift for a techie friend who will. I just couldn’t resist pairing the super modern deconstructed bulb with a lamp I found on Ebay, which is its total opposite. The lamp is clearly a Wood Shop project from the 50’s . The wood- circles that make the lamp are a little quirky, but not bad for a hand guided jig saw; it has years of patina on the switch.

What I only just discovered is what a great sense of humor the makers of Nanoleaf bulbs have. I was reading the “instruction manual” and it just got better and better.

From the user's guide:

#11. The Nanoleaf One bulb is meant to be out in the open and admired, so it will lash out if placed into a fully enclosed fixture.

#12. Once the Nanoleaf bulb is damaged, it will be polluted with evil thoughts. Stop using immediately if the bulb becomes damaged or open, or experience its terrible wrath and mood swings.

Good to know.

06/09/2016

Antique Hardware:

It seems like you never get tired of finding new ways to prove “they don’t make them like they used to,” as things get ever more cheaply made. One more for the hopper: drapery hardware, specifically barrel sockets for hanging sheers. I was upstate foraging in a drawer in an antique store , and found these beautiful brackets, and at $2 a pair, worth it to buy them just to admire the heft and quality. I like the matching rings as well! I photographed them with the today’s equivalent.

10/26/2015

Kitchen Cabinets Redo, Okay, The Fridge Comes Too

http://maryolivedesign.com/kitchen-cabinets-redo-okay-the-fridge-comes-too/

10/15/2015

Why The Kitchen Drawer Won't Close

It used to close just fine. That handy drawer between the sink and the stove for all the gadgets. After many seasons of selection, I had the contents of the drawer whittled down to items that are mostly useful, sometimes curious (the vintage egg be**er that works with a mechanism like a spinning top) , often with patina and antique charm. Over the years the occasional considered addition to the drawer starts to make finding the thing you want a little harder.

And then I took care of emptying my mother’s house, and I opened the equivalent drawer she kept in her kitchen. And ended up with a box of utensils useful, beautiful ,patina-ed- and now the sentimental. Her can opener with intitals on it so when she took it to work at the church suppers it came home with her too. The pastry piping tube. The 30 year old aluminum egg slicer Old aluminum, much handled, acquires such a great tone to the surface.

12/04/2014

For my latest blog post, to see the before & after of my Upcycled Ottoman and a few steps in between, http://olivedesignny.com/upcycled-ottoman/

11/16/2014

Inspiration strikes in the oddest places.

Building a pair of lamps for one of my clients, I had been pondering the best finish for this stately pair. One fine Fall Sunday while walking by the Boathouse in Prospect Park, I paused to sit out back – and there it was! A humongous version of the lamps I was working on- in an amazing verdigris finish. I have been trying to capture the finish with layers of Glaze.