twoinspiredesign

My daughter Madeleine’s room is a work in progress (having an infant just isn’t conducive to getting design projects done!) She’s now three and wants a little area in her room to sit down and draw, have tea parties, play with legos, etc. But, she can’t really be trusted not to draw all over the place yet so I decided to get her a cheap little IKEA Lack table.

If you don’t know this great little parsons-style table from IKEA, it’s about $8 and comes in different colors. I did a post about Lack Hacks earlier this year. So, my plan was to go to Paper Source down the street from me and get some paper and modge podge and cover the top much like I did to this West Elm tray. Then, as I was trying to decide what paper to use, I spotted this:

Hmmm…maybe it could work… measuring tape out, I discovered the duct tape was EXACTLY the width of the side edges of the table and the color was the perfect shade of aqua blue to match her two new little chairs.

This is literally the easiest home project I’ve ever done and it makes such a big impact for virtually no work–my favorite combination in home projects! Just cut start by wrapping one corner…seriously I’m almost embarrassed to post these “steps” — this barely qualifies as DIY.

Then, just keep wrapping it around…

Be sure to end at a corner and use a really sharp pair of scissors to cut a straight line…I told you this was easy.

And, voila, here’s the finished product in her room. (BTW, the painting was a Christmas gift from her Pop Pop–LOVE it.)

When people see this they never guess it’s duct tape! And when I was at Target last week, look at the selection of tape I found so the possibilities are really endless…

Sources

Table: IKEA Lack side table

Chairs: little Jake chair from Room & Board

Chevron duct tape: Paper Source (I got mine at the Central Street, Evanston location in case it’s not online)

The little cups for crayon and pencil storage on her table is actually from the bathroom department at IKEA–the Losjon toothbrush holder

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Ok, taking a little diversion from our regular decor posts today and getting a little Pinteresty on you! A few weeks ago, Tessa shared this photo and impressed us all with her Martha Stewart skills. Unfortunately for me, my daughter Maggie was so impressed with the cake that she asked for one for her birthday. I personally wanted to buy one at the local bakery, but Tessa assured me I could do it from scratch. Well, not really from scratch because let’s face it, I used a cake mix from a box!

I made it easy on myself and kept things streamlined–all I had to do was get three boxed cakes (I used yellow Betty Crocker), two containers of Duncan Hines whipped chocolate for the inside and two cans of vanilla (that you use red food coloring to dye pink) for the outside and anything you want to decorate it with!

The first step is to make two round cakes and bake one cake inside a pyrex glass bowl. I let my cakes cool down and then put them in the freezer for 45 minutes so that when I went to shape and frost, it wouldn’t crumble. After freezing, put the two round cakes on top of each other and frost between.

The next step is to add the “bowl cake” to the top and then using a knife, carve out a small hole for Barbie’s legs through all three pieces. Wrap her legs in saran wrap before sticking her in the cake. If you make your hole too big, don’t worry about it–just take icing, fill the hole half way and nestle Barbie in all that icing. Once she’s settled, frost a layer of frosting around the entire cake.

 Don’t worry about making this frosting layer perfect..coverage is more important. Put it in the fridge for about an hour to set that first layer of icing.

 Now for the final step-decorate! You can either do it smoothly or use a cake tip and give Barbs a beautiful dress worthy of her role as 4 year old Birthday cake girl!

I’m off to go celebrate with a very, happy four year old. Happy Birthday, Maggie Marie!

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Yes, it’s Good Friday, but it’s also the last day of spring break for my kids and I must admit, I can’t wait for school to start next week! My five and two year old are up at 6:30 and by 7:30 I’m hearing–I’m bored, let’s do crafts! By 10, I’ve run out of things to do and by 2 the whole is a disaster and my mind is mush. I was thinking of having them dye eggs for Easter, but then I remembered when they painted bunnies with my mum a few weeks ago and add a baby and a total lack of sleep to the mix and thought maybe I wasn’t ready for that particular project (call me a wuss, I’m fine with admitting that!) Then I was watching the Today Show and saw this adorable idea for an Easter centerpiece–now this is something that they’d love and we can make a whole afternoon out of it!

Brit + Co

Brit + Co

Brit + Co

Tomorrow morning, we’ll head to the grocery store and pick up the eggs and flowers and the kids will love it! Here’s where you can get instructions for this one: Brit + Co. You could also do a little individual one in a little egg holder for each person at the table. So cute.

You can see a few other fun ideas here from Brit + Co. Have a great weekend!

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