Design Sponge!

So one of my design obsessions definitely stems around the frequent checking of Design Sponge a "daily website dedicated to home and product design" (http://www.designspongeonline.com/) created by & run by Grace Bonney . I generally check the website at least 4 times a day to take a look at any recent postings-which change throughout the day. My favorite sections of the site are the sneak peeks-a look into peoples awesomely design homes- & the before & after sections which feature clever projects submitted by the everyday reader. Thus begins my story :)

This project started out when I saw a piece of art in a Pottery Barn magazine. It was made from wood, multi leveled, painted white, & very inspirational to me! One day on my way to work I found these old crates from a local business, they were giving them away free, and I talked one of my friends w/ a truck into helping me pick them up & drop them off at my house. I had tons of ideas to re-purpose these crates, but I finally settled on cutting them up into random pieces & laying them out for wall art!

The whole project probably cost around $11. The wood was free, I had the miter saw, the wood glue was $3, the back board that I glued the pieces to was about $8, & the hanging rig was made from wood & screws I already had. I thought about giving the piece a white wash like the intial inspiration piece I saw in Pottery Barn, but I loved the texture of the wood & the color of the spray paint against my bright studio walls!

Months later Christie emailed me a link to Pottery Barn-they're selling a similar version of what I made for $400! Go figure :)


So back to Design Sponge, I thought I'd tempt fate & send Grace some of my before & after pics. She sent me an email back very quickly saying they'd consider it for the site. At this point I was pretty pumped they even responded to me, but I wasn't holding out to see a post w/ my work. Next thing I know Christie is calling me freaking out saying my before & after had been posted on Design Sponge! How crazy is that!?! Long story short (well maybe not that short) I freaked out too, immediately hopped onto the computer to check it out, freaked out even more when I saw it, & now I'm sharing the story & the link on my blog. Go here to check out the story, with pics, and tons of lovely comments from other Design Sponge-a holics!http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/07/before-after-jenns-pottery-barn-crate-artwork.html

There are such thing as happy endings :) Enjoy!