Plaster & Disaster

Our big thank you to those who took the 2016 Plaster & Disaster Reader Survey as part of our blog anniversary celebration last week! I’m not going to do a full run-down of the results because, in the interest of transparency and not-finding-a-new-survey-tool, the results can be seen by just clicking through the original survey (provided you’ve already taken it and the WWW can tell that you are the same person).

However, I do want to share just a few of the things that we learned from it. For example, we found out that the typical Plaster & Disaster reader is a 25-45 year old who loves DIY, blogs, and the color blue, tolerates rose gold as a replacement for copper, has no idea who we are, and is either good at math or doesn’t care about math at all.

The Typical Plaster & Disaster Reader from 2016

Modeled by Stephanie, a VIP reader whose brilliance led to the name of this blog.

We learned a few ~~insightful and non-intuitive facts~~ things we probably already knew:

Most of our readers like blogs and DIY… or at least DIY blogs.
Only 3% of our readers’ favorite colors are Marsala, Rose Quartz, or Serenity… and we are deeply suspicious that the handful of you who made one of those selections were being snarky (which we totally support).
You all didn’t seem too enthused by any of the options we offered for 2016 trends, but grudgingly agreed that rose gold would be the least painful of the bunch. (The best write-in answer we got was “republican nominee-themed window treatments”… please identify yourself in the comments for the grand prize of… one of us responding to your comment. We also made you this picture.)

Replublican Nominee Themed Window Treatments - Plaster & Disaster

Sorry, but until the people vote we’re going not going to narrow this down for you… despite our tremendous prescience.

The biggest bummer for us in the survey was that only 15% of you can tell which of us is writing each post each time, and the largest group of you can’t tell at all. We will try to do a better job to differentiate our voices or identify ourselves in our posts! We want you to know who we are. (This is Naomi, BTW.)

We also asked you to guess which of our partners reads the blog. By a slim majority… you were right!! It is Brad who reads the blog – Hi, Brad! Sam is either playing the long game by reading and pretending he doesn’t, or doesn’t care very much what goes on in his own house.

And you all either blew off my math question, got it right, or complained in the “other” field and asked for the answer. The trick is that it isn’t a math question at all! Just flip over the image:

$Math Question Answer - Plaster & Disaster$

Perspective. Now you have it.

As for what you want from us, by far the most popular request for 2016 is more multi-post room makeover projects with big reveals. Fortunately for you, that is just what we had in mind! Sage has already shared the start of her HUGE room project for 2016 – her kitchen makeover! And a big goal of mine is to take some of the rooms I’ve been working on for the last two years and finally finish them up. First up, is my bedroom:

My Bedroom Makeover Plan Loose Set of Ideas That May Or May Not Pan Out

My bedroom definitely needs to be finished. Here is what it looks like now:

Okay, I’ll be honest, that isn’t what it REALLY looks like. That is what it looks like if I’m trying to blogger-manipulate the best photo I possibly can have. That blue blanket isn’t usually in there, I usually don’t have extraordinary flowers on my bedside table, and the rug is moved waaaay over to be in the shot. In reality, it is way too small in the room and is just hanging out at the foot of the bed until I find a suitable replacement.

Here is what it really looks like:

It’s not terrible, and it’s come a long way from when we bought the place.

We’ve put in new windows (including the beautiful bay), new wall material and trim, and painted.

But there is still a lot to improve. We still have the same dinky light fixture in there that we want to replace. The bedside tables don’t match and are too small. We have to lean way over to reach them from the bed, and we waste space that could be good storage. We never finished painting our windows, we need window treatments (hello, neighbors!), Brad doesn’t have a bedside lamp, and we hardly have any art.

While we like our bedding a lot, it is getting pretty worn out. We need to get a bed, or at least have an attractive way to cover the box spring and basic bedframe that we already have. And, as I mentioned, we need a rug that actually fits.

I also still haven’t gotten around to covering the gaping holes that are our duct work, in which we occasionally drop things.

That’s a lot! But I do have some good stuff to build on. Here is what we love about the space:

The light. We love the windows, and want it to continue being open and bright, even as we gain privacy with window treatments.
The colors. I picked Iced Slate by Benjamin Moore very early in decorating this house. It’s unlike the colors I have in the rest of my house (it’s a mellow sort-of-in-between color). It also looks great with the bright yellow doors (Yellowstone by Benjamin Moore) – the contrast looks pretty extreme in the image above, but in reality it is more tame.
The vanity. That is Brad’s piece, an antique that he bought in Albuquerque before we were dating. I love the shape and detail, and it fits perfectly in that spot.
The plants. They’re staying.

I also know the overall look I’m going for:

Soft colors bedroom inspiration - Plaster & Disaster

Sources: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Not a single one of these images on their own are exactly right, but the overall impression from all four give a pretty good idea of what I’m thinking. I’m loving that the look is colorful, but not the highly saturated, hit-you-over-the-head-with-it-color that I use throughout most of my house. I like that there are some dark, high-contrast pieces and spots of natural wood. I like the gray, white, and light blue color pallet with a few hits of soft warmth.

My wall color is a good starting point for this, and the doors are a great hit of color, but I’d like to bring in some other complementary tones through a new rug, art, and maybe even a decorative pillow or two (but don’t tell Brad…)

Wait, he’s the one who reads the blog. Shoot.

There is a lot to decide and buy before I get this room where I want it. I’ll be in the market for a new rug, bed, and bedding. Bedside tables, a bench for the foot of the bed, and art might need to be bought or DIYed, or some combination of the two.

I was originally thinking of doing coordinating artwork on either side of the bed. But Brad actually suggested shelves, and I love the idea of the additional storage and chance to have some books in there. I think if I make the bedside tables symmetrical, then having shelves on one side might be a nice point of contrast. Thoughts?

So what do you think of this direction? Any suggestions on furniture or color scheme? Tutorials I should look at?

Either way, I see a lot of fun projects coming! 2016 looks like it might be okay, after all.

(Sharing at Two Uses Tuesday and Tip Me Tuesday)

(Disclaimer: This post is satire. If you don’t like sarcasm or you are an easily-offended raccoon, you may not want to read it. Also, any statements about brand partnerships made in this post are lies intended as humor. Don’t sue us. Thanks.)

Today marks the final day of our blog anniversary series — we started with dueling makeovers of salvaged cabinets, we answered a bunch of questions you didn’t have about us, we talked at length about what it’s like to blog as a pair and why it’s the best thing ever, and now we’re capping things off with our favorite activity ever: totally serious crafts that embrace just a few of the fresh and inspiring trends of the New Year.

In case you missed it, last week we made a few predictions about the trends we think will overtake DIY blogland in 2016:

To stay ahead of the curve, we obviously have to get to work right away. We’re planning to replace all the hardware in Sage’s house with rose gold finishes and start a truffula tree farm in Naomi’s living room (she’s the one with the green thumb), but those projects will take a little while. In the meantime, here are a few quick and easy craft projects we to share with you this week.

Project #1: Oven-Bake Clay Trinket Dish Hand Painted with Adorable Woodland Creature

As predicted, 2016 will be another year in which we put animals on things. But what will be the go-to animal of 2016? Last week we posited it could be slugs, mice, or raccoons. We all know that neutrals are in, so really it could be any of these things. But then we came across the following at Michaels while we were picking up supplies:

Bloggeriest craft projects -- raccoon clay trinket dish -- Plaster & Disaster

The Star Wars background is to prove that this was a recent find (or maybe the photo was taken in 1977)

Seeing that raccoon notebook alongside the fox (which as we know has been high on the list of trendiest animals for several years now) convinced us that the adorable little raccoon is where it’s at. They’re just so irresistibly cute — we can’t decide whether our favorite thing about them is when they break into our trash, or how they carry rabies.

Source: National Geographic Kids

We just have to get that sweet little face on our home decor!

Here are the supplies we needed: craft paint in the regal colors of the raccoon, gold leaf, a small craft brush, white clay, and an x-acto knife.

First we molded the clay into flat circles to form the base of the trinket dishes:

Oops, sorry — we need more seasonal styling:

That’s better.

Next we folded up the edge of the bases:

We also added legs to both dishes to elevate the project (get it? eh?). Here are the adorable little bun feet that we put on the smaller dish.

The other dish got little rounded mid-century legs, of course.

And of course, the last step was to put a raccoon on them. We prepared our palette, marveling at how “on trend” the neutrals are, and got to work.

We couldn’t decide which represented the essence of the raccoon better — its adorable little face or its tail. So we decided to paint a face on one dish and a tail on the other. Then we finished them off with some gold leaf on the rim.

We’re each going to keep one on our nightstands to corral jewelry and other small items. We just love the idea of looking at this adorable little face right before we turn out the light.

Of course if we’ve learned one thing in blogland, it’s that the only thing that can make this project better is an even lighter photo.

So pretty! There’s really no such thing as over-exposed!

Project #2: Pantone Color-Dipped Shabby Chic Cork Chandelier

The best DIY projects combine multiple things that we love. Making trinket dishes out of clay, gold leaf, and animals that eat our trash obviously fulfills that charge. But for our second project we decided to bring together a few more things that are very close to our hearts: DIY light fixtures, Pantone’s new color(s!) of the year, and using corks in projects where corks really don’t belong.

If making a chandelier seems tricky to you, don’t worry! Just embrace a shabby chic, “beautiful chaos” aesthetic, and it really couldn’t be easier.

And we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with our friends at Pantone on this project! When our fiends at Pantone asked us if we would like to partner with them by trying out some exclusive craft paint in their stunning colors of the year, Rose Quartz and Serenity, we totally squealed with joy. Seriously, it was one of those “pinch me” moments. Are these our real lives?

We just love partnerships.

Other supplies included some corks, yarn, and one of those cut out wood frame things from Michaels. So other than the uber-elite craft paint that our partners gave us for free because we’re bloggers, this project is super affordable!

We started by painting the corks in Rose Quartz and Serenity. We only painted half of each of them – not because it would have been messy and annoying to try to paint the whole cork and get paint all over our hands, but because we just love the “color dipped” look.

To add a little variety and class, we gave the champagne corks a brush stroke look.

We seriously could have just kept them like this and used them as a display! So pretty, and not at all “I just had fraternal twins!”

While they dried, we made one other embellishment for our chandelier: yarn tassels!

How to Make Yarn Tassels (When There Are Two Of You)

If you loved our tutorial on making DIY pom poms when there are two of you, then this will be right up your ally! The good news for all the crafting pairs out there is that making tassels out of yarn really is a 3-hand-project. (So, 1.5 people, and here at Plaster & Disaster we round up.)

Start by wrapping the yarn around one hand, looping it until you have a good, tassel-sized amount, as shown below. Then use two of the other hands to hold the yarn taut and cut it cleanly.

Bloggeriest craft projects -- color dipped Pantone cork chandelier -- Plaster & Disaster

Even better if you have four hands available, then you can take a slightly blurry photo

This project works best if you do it over a pretty background of seasonal greens and corks, but this is DIY so make do with what you have, I guess.

Next, run some yarn through the loop and tie it off. You can sort of do this step with just two hands, but it is much easier with three.

Holding it steady with one hand, use the other two hands to tie off the end, creating the adorable little tassel head that we all love so much. Tie the yarn super tight and cut it off close to the knot for a clean look.

Then, just cut the ends, and you’ve got a tassel!

We made six for this project. When you’re done, style the results with some corks and seasonal greenery and take some photos. It’s not really a craft if you don’t have evidence!

The (exclusive and fancy) paint had dried while we were making tassels, so we moved right along to finishing up our chandelier. We strung the corks on lengths of yarn so that we could hang them around the light bulb.

Of course, these would also make super-chic and trendy necklaces, as we modeled in our instagram teaser of this project. (Don’t follow us on instagram? Why not? Don’t you want to see what we’re working on and get updates on what Sage’s cats are doing at any given time?)

We tied the ends of the yarn onto our wood craft frame, decorated the corners with our special brush stroke corks, and hung tassels from the sides.

Then, all we had to do was stick it up to the ceiling around a bare bulb. See, we told you this was easy!

This is such a fresh and pretty way to bring the colors of the year into the home. We love the softness of these colors and the way it goes with the lacy look of the frame.

The casual way that the corks hang is so cunning. We love that it isn’t orderly or under control at all, and that it looks so effortless. Here’s a detail shot with a blurry background to really bring it home:

We’re so thrilled to have partnered with our friends at Pantone for this special project using their exclusive line of craft paint!

This marks the end of our official 1-Year Blog Anniversary Celebration. We enjoyed sharing more about ourselves with you, and getting to do some of our favorite things (dual makeovers and snarking the blogosphere). Thanks for celebrating with us, and we’re excited to see what Year #2 has in store for us! Hopefully it’s not a lawsuit from Pantone.