IDM on MCM Low-Riders

These Mid-Century low-rider lounge chairs arrived at our shop via one of our customers who had been working on these guys as a side project for a while.  He told us that he had gotten as far as he possible on these loungers and needed us to add the cushion and upholster this quirky little frame!  Also, he needed to choose a fabric and ultimately decided on one that we have on hand.  It is hard to tell from the photo, but the color of the fabric is a gray-brown that has a light orange overlapping rectangle pattern all over it.  We think he did well with his decision, because the scale of the pattern is perfect for the small frame of the chair, along with having a Mid-Century era vibe all its own.

Well, at a quick glance, the chair appears simple enough to upholster, however it is not as cut-and-dry as it seems.  If you notice, the chair seat and back are not only trapezoidal in shape, but also concave --just a little tricky, to say the least!  Oh, and one more thing, as we got into this project, we noticed that the legs of the chair were showing quite a bit of rust. With that noted, we recommended  to our client that the chairs could definitely use some cleaning and re-finishing----OMG, we always seem to create more work for ourselves!

So here is the chair frame before we did anything to it.  As you can see, it has some really sweet lines.  Notice the nylon ball feet and brass sleeves around the bottom of the chair legs.  The brass could use polishing with a SOS pad or even a fine-grain sandpaper, but the client said that he was fine with the dull patina on the sleeves.

This image shows one of our first steps in cutting and fitting the new foam to the back and seat panels.  We opted for a thicker, denser foam cushion that would provide as much comfort and support for the user as possible.

Once the foam was fitted to the seat panels, the fabric was essentially adhered to the foam with a spray glue, then pressed and smoothed before wrapping it. Finally, all that was left was to staple it to the bottom of the panel. **Just to avoid any messy views of the underside where all the staples and trimmed fabric are seen, Adam cut a piece of vinyl fabric out in the same shape of the panels and attached it the same way to the bottom side.

The brass leg sleeves and ball feet were taped off first before the primer coat wend on the chairs.

The final new finish looks great!  We opted to use an auto-body paint that is black with a gold fleck.  It sprays on thin, so you have to be careful of creating runners!  Great alternative to the regular spray paints if you are looking  for anything that is a metallic.  One other issue with this paint is that it is almost double the price of other typical spray paints and the can is half the size :(

All done!  Their not at the shop anymore if you were planning to come see.  At least, I was able to get a final shot of these before our client came by to pick them up!  He was thrilled to see them and could not have been more happy!  He did promise to send me a photo of the chairs in their new set-up at his house.  Oh, I can't wait to see it!  Every time, Adam and I make something and it goes to a new home, it always leaves you with a feeling like someone has just adopted your puppy

Cheers Ya'll!

Back From Our Blog Vacay!!!

I wouldn't necessarily say that we have been on a vacation all this time, even though we did take a week last month to travel to Germany.  Actually, since we have been busy bees working on running our own 'Bricks-and-Mortar' business these last several months, the Blog has been dropped by the way side.  So, with that said, Adam and I have decidedly committed to keep the IDM Blog as current as possible!

Before, getting overly wordy with all that has happened and with all of the many projects that IDM has had the great opportunity to work on over the last several months, we think it might be best to show some of our favorite IDM originals along with some really cool re-designs!!!

We will strive to keep you all up-to-date with our many projects!  Until next time friends!

IdeaDesignMake

has recently opened its bricks-and-mortar shop called

IDM Home Collection

located in historic downtown Kernersville, NC

at 113 West Mountain Street

Our shop's mission is to design and sell original, yet stylish custom products for the home, as well as re-design second-hand items and offer high-end consignments that are from modern inspirations. 

We offer furniture for lounging along with occasional pieces!

We offer interesting accessories!

We offer dining and table-top items!

And we offer original artwork, as well as re-designed second-hand pieces; making them eco-friendly!

Please stop by our shop where you can browse all of our products and see the latest additions to our constantly changing collection!

For consignment inquiries please go to our Facebook page:
IdeaDesignMake

"Topper" Secret

For going on almost two years now, IDM has been making these really cool, one-of-a-kind Wine Toppers!  We have gotten a lot of positive feedback about them and are selling them on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/IdeaDesignMake along with having a few local shops in the area requesting to carry them! 

It's really funny when we show people these Wine Toppers for the first time.  They always seem to be amazed by asking "How did you make that?"  Well my very smart partner in life has a few tricks up his sleeve and in fact, is in the process of making a few as I write.  We thought it might be interesting to others to share a little bit of what goes into the handmade (and a bit tedious) process of one of our newest topper favorites, the Cross-Hatch Tapered Topper in Maple.

 

 

As with everything, the making-process takes place in the shop! This image shows the "Blanks" that have been started in the early phase of product development.  There still needs to be boring, sanding, corking, and a 2 to 3-part finishing process, which will go into these toppers before they are completed!

 

The next two images show the "Blocking" and "Gluing" of the Cross-Hatch Tapered Topper "Blank".

 

 

Clamps, of course are some of Adam's best friends in the shop! And as a side note:  You can never go wrong with giving him more clamps for any occasion!

 

 

This is what it looks like after Toppers have been shaped and what they look like during the finishing process!  Adam devised a keen way to address the finishing of multiple Toppers at once!  This custom stand does a nice job of holding the Toppers in place, so that they can be stained and allowed to dry.

 

 

Dry Baby Dry!  As you may have noticed, these Toppers are stained with a walnut finish and are made in a "Hatch" style rather than the newer "Cross-Hatch" style.  These Toppers should be ready for shipment in about 24 hours! 

 

 

And here you go!  The end product ~ Voila! 

They really do make great gifts to wine-enthusiast friends or as "selfie"-gifts for the wine lover in you!  Visit them on Etsy before the holidays!

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/IdeaDesignMake 

 

 

 



Green Gray Aqua Dining Room

The Dining Room is a room that we actually use more than twice a year.  So yet again, this is a space that we felt needed to be transformed into a more comfortable and enjoyable space for our family to have our evening dinners.  The room of course, was pretty sparse before; completely neutralized by the former owners.  My guess is that the realtor recommended the neutralization in order to have a better chance of appealing to the masses that toured the home while it was on the market for nearly two years...

Anyway, getting back to the rather boring dining room that only had one really cool element, the homes original and only crystal chandelier (a beautiful lighting fixture that we re-located into our foyer; where the scale fit into that smaller space a wee-bit better).  Other than that, we dared ourselves with paint and used a really funky paint by Sherwin Williams called Antiquity and another Paint that would act as a "tempering agent" called Adaptive Shade.  

To keep things really simple, we left the trim paint alone and resisted the urge to give ourselves any more to do!  However, we did do something a little unorthodox by extending the funky paint color to our ceiling.  Yeah, by doing that, the ceiling actually grew and feels a lot higher...(an experiment that fortunately worked!)

Of course, like every room in this house, nothing is 100% complete.  But rather, just the gesture of one wide brush stroke~

What We Did:

• Re-painted walls / ceiling
• Replace the light fixture
• Purchased and installed new window treatment
• Re-designed our IDM custom dining table, (i.e., raised the leg height to accommodate normal-sized chairs)
• Purchase new dining room chairs (re-located to breakfast nook)
• Design and build a new IDM credenza
• Create "focal" piece of IDM artwork
• Select and purchase a dining room rug (re-located to screen porch)

What We Still Need:

• (2) buffet lamps
• Table Top accessories for table and credenza
• One more wall hanging of some form or fashion (i.e., shelving, mirrors, complementing art piece, etc.)  (decided on a plate collage that picks up colors in the painting)
• To replace carpeting with either hardwood or a dark cork flooring......
• Current Flooring Solution (until we are $aved up) - Bamboo Rug (which gives us the wood look, minus the wood price!)

Always open to suggestions or feedback! 


January 2014 
Hello "Almost- Completed Dining Room"!  Here is an updated shot showing how our Dining Rooms looks now (with baby Hayes in the background).

I think it is safe to say that we have come a long way from where we started!  The changes that we have made may not be for everybody, but at least they reflect who we are!  These updates to our 1960s brick rancher are giving us the chance to add a healthy heap of 'chic' to the 'granny' decor!  

Until next time,

A + B