DIY: Here’s How I Colored My Appliances with Heat Wrap Vinyl

Ok, I’m going to make this super quick because I was supposed to post this a year ago, BUT that’s ok, because now I can tell you it has held up super well over the last 11 months.

I’m a renter so anything I do in my apartment has to be put back to its original condition when I move out. Because of this (as you may have noticed from the rest of my apartment) temporary wallpaper has basically become my best friend. I even covered my modern refrigerator in a cute retro blue before I brought in my vintage GE. Unfortunately, temp wallpaper isn’t ideal for stoves because of the whole ‘they get hot’ thing. Even though my oven door never gets hot to the touch, I wanted to be safe. I reallllly wanted a pink stove, but none of the vintage ones I was finding could fit in my kitchen. Besides it was already a pain in the ass to swap out the refrigerator. I looked for a solution similar to peel and stick wallpaper and that’s when I thought of heat wrap vinyl!

Update: my friend Cyn, a very talented set designer, used car wrap vinyl on her apartment’s vintage wall ovens and made a video tutorial for Instagram that you can watch here!

DIY Colored Appliances.jpgAnyway, I looked online and found a shimmery vinyl (you can find several brands and colors online) and set out with my hair dryer, a squeegee, and an exact-o knife to bring a little color to my kitchen.

The good news is this stuff is very forgiving! Look up some heat wrap or car wrap tutorials and you’ll see, its super pliable and molds to the curviest of shapes with the application of heat. It also has no or little adhesive so it peels off clean.

I took off all the handles and applied the vinyl as flat as I could to the front of the stove doors while smoothing and stretching as needed while applying heat from my hair dryer. Then I used heat and the corner of my squeegee to press and mold the vinyl into the curves and crevices around the glass window. I cut around the edges with a blade to remove the excess.

DIY Pink Stove .jpg

I wrapped the vinyl around all of the door edges and replaced the screws and handles.DIY Colored Stove

I made sure to cover the sides too! I didn’t cover the cooktop because it most probably would burn and melt, being so close to the fire and all. I used the same method to cover the front of my dishwasher.DIY Pink Stove

And here’s the final result!

DIY Colored Appliances

It took a lotttt of patience, but once I got into the groove it went on a lot faster and smoother. It’s very easy to clean and has held up really well. Even with JV cranking the oven to ungodly temperatures when he’s baking bread. When I’m ready to move out I’ll just peel it off and be good to go. Yay!

{Update: We moved and it peeled off clean! I used a little rubbing alcohol and stainless steel cleaner to buff out any markings left behind and the appliances looked brand new.}

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DIY Mid-Century Inspired Felt No-Sew Tree Skirt

One of my favorite things to do each year is make new no-sew felt tree skirts. They’re super easy and fun to make and don’t require any skills except being able to use scissors and glue.

You can see past tutorials with measurements and instructions here and here, and my latest space age themed one here.

For my main tree (the pink tree) I wanted to bring in colorful shapes based on a vintage Christmas cards I fell in love with. DIY No-Sew Felt Mid-Century Inspired Tree Skirttreeskirt.png

I used the images to create templates and then used my Cricut to cut out the shapes, but you can totally use scissors!

DIY No-Sew Mid-Century Inspired Felt Tree Skirt

And there it is! Go ahead and play with sizing and adding some other little embellishments to make it your own design!

Be sure to tag @melodrama or #krysmasgram on Instagram to show me what you made!

 

 

DIY Mid-Century Inspired Colorful Metallic Sputnik Ornaments

When I was gathering decorations for my space age tree I knew I wanted to try and find some vintage or retro style colorful sputnik ornaments. Unfortunately my search game up empty for exactly what I was looking for in my price range, so I got crafty with an easy DIY version.

I gathered everything I needed from my local craft store including:

Mini wooden dowels
Metallic round beads (the dowels should fit perfectly into the bead)
Glitter Styrofoam Ball Vase Filler
Metallic washi tape
Metallic embroidery thread
Craft glue

DIY Sputnik ornaments

First create a loop with a piece of embroidery thread and insert both ends through the bead opening. Next, insert the mini wooden dowel into the bead opening. This should hold the thread in place.

Then wrap the wooden dowel in metallic washi tape. The best way to do this is cut strips the length of the dowel and wrap it lengthwise like you’re rolling a j….nevermind you get the idea ;).

Finally dip the end of the dowel into craft glue and insert the dowels into the styrofoam ball in a sputnik type pattern.

DIY Sputnik style ornamentsYou’ll end up with ornaments like this! DIY Sputnik ornaments

Told you it was easy! Get creative with colors and patterns! Be sure to tag me at @melodrama or use the hashtag #krysmasgram on Instagram to show me your creations!

DIY No-Sew Retro Atomic Space Age Tree Skirt

One of my favorite things to do each year is make new no-sew felt tree skirts. They’re super easy and fun to make and don’t require any skills except being able to use scissors and glue. You can see past tutorials with measurements and instructions here and here.

This year I needed something to match my office’s retro space age theme, so I used flying saucers and atomic shapes like boomerangs and starbursts.

DIY Atomic Space Age themed tree skirt

I used the method detailed here to cut my skirt out of green felt. Then I cut my shapes out of sheets of different colored felts. I used silver metallic rick rack to add rays to my flying saucers and shiny snowflake starburst buttons for a little extra shine. I finished off the edges with silver metallic fringe! I always use standard craft glue to adhere all of it.

Here are the shapes I used to make your felt cutting life a little easier! Print on a standard piece of paper. (Opt to scale to fit paper on your print settings if possible.)

Retro Atomic Space Age Tree Skirt Template

Tada! Retro Space Age Atomic Christmas

Make sure to tag @melodrama or use the hashtag #krysmasgram on Instagram to show me your creations!

 

 

 

DIY Retro Inspired Christmas Space Age Reindeer

As you saw from my previous post I went full on atomic space age for my home office. I had to do a few DIYs to make it exactly what I wanted it to be, but my favorite is probably this astrodeer!

This project required some Frankenstein style surgery, but I’m really thrilled with the way it turned out. Here’s what I did!

Supplies

Paper Mache Deer
 6.5″ Round Glass Terrarium
Aluminum Foil Tape
Utility Blade
Hot Glue
Craft Glue
Silver Tinsel Garland
Silver Tinsel Stems
Craft paper or paper bags

 

DIy Space Deer TutorialOk I’m going to admit right now I didn’t take process photos because I’m the worst and I wasn’t even sure it was going to work, BUT luckily it’s a pretty straight forward process. (Note: I’m going to make one for a friend so I’ll try to update this post with photos when I do!)

In order to get the deer’s head into the terrarium, but still have the helmet in the position I wanted, I had to make cuts on the points shown below.

Space Deer Cut Diagram.jpg

I added paper ears and eyes and placed the head in the terrarium. Once the head was in the terrarium (from here on known as the helmet) I reattached the bottom part of the antlers, and the upper part of the neck with craft glue and used chopsticks to help get where I had trouble reaching. Once it was dry, I used wet strips of paper bag and glue to cover the cut seams.

Space Deer DIY.jpg

Then I used hot glue to attach the rest of the antler to the top of the helmet, and the helmet to body. I used a black sharpie to draw on the hooves and a nose, then I covered the body in foil tape, and covered all the glue joints with tinsel wire and garlands.

There it is! My new spacey pet. Isn’t he a cutie?

DIY Space Age Deer

Retro Mid-Century Atomic Space Age Christmas Decor Theme

Ahhh I am so excited to show you our home office’s Christmas theme!! I’ve had this retro sci-fi idea floating around in my mind forever and I’m so glad I was able to pull it all together. I was in a pretty serious car accident in November, so for a moment I didn’t think I’d be able to rally in time to make this happen, but I was able to work it out and I’m super happy with the result.

I was inspired by the atomic and space age depictions of Christmas popular in the mid 20th century. Think Christmas cards with Santa riding a rocket, flying saucer shaped Shiny Brites, and even movies like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Unfortunately, it was a difficult task finding the appropriate items to deck my halls in this theme, aside from one or two retro style ornaments I found at Michael’s. Fortunately I was able to craft my way through enough projects to make it pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

I’ll be following this post up with others detailing the DIY crafts I did with links to materials, so stay tuned for that. For now let me take you on a little tour of the room!

Retro Space Age Atomic Christmas.jpgSince it’s a small room I needed a tree that wouldn’t overwhelm the space. I went with this slim white tree from Treetopia which fits nicely. It has white lights, but my vintage Norelco color wheel adds some festive color to it as well.

One of my favorite Christmas crafts to do each year is to make custom no-sew tree skirts. You can see examples of that here and here. This year was no exception! For this one I used ufos, boomerang shapes, and starbursts, finished off with silver metallic fringe.

DIY Space Age Atomic Felt Tree SkirtDIY Atomic Space Age themed tree skirtTo decorate the tree I used blue and gold star wired garland and a variety of starburst ornaments I’ve collected over the years.

Space Age themed Christmas treeOf course I used some of my vintage reflector ornaments and threaded ball fringe comets.Retro ChristmasI found a few fitting ornaments at Michaels like a flying saucer, rocket Santa, and an aluminum tray TV dinner (space age technology!).Space Age Retro ChristmasRetro Space Age themed treeOuterspace SantaI also made colorful sputnik ornaments (look for those in an upcoming post!)DIY Sputnik style ornaments

And I even added a space helmet (an empty craft ornament) to Frosty!DIY Space Age ornaments

I found an astronaut nutcracker and gave him an aluminum tree to decorate. This is just three craft cones of different sizes covered in foil tape and stacked!Space Age themed Christmas decorationsAnother rocket Santa! Made out of a bird feeder, metallic tape, and mini ornaments. DIY Space themed Christmas decor

And my new pet, my favorite Christmas creation of all time, my space deer! He’s made out of a papier mache deer and a round terrarium. DIY Space Age themed Christmas decor

Over on the shelves we’ve got some spacey aluminum and vintage Shiny Brites.Retro Space Age Christmas Decor

Retro inspired Christmas decorRetro Themed Christmas

I found this vintage space Santa image and had it enlarged and printed. It even has space reindeer!

Space age ChristmasLooks pretty good over by our 1960 Philco Predicta. Retro Space Age themed Christmas tree

And there it is! I hope you liked the tour!Retro Space Age Christmas decor

 

 

Stay tuned for a followup post of details on the DIYs and all the resources.

 

Melodrama Halloween Home Decor 2018

Hey, Ghosts and Ghouls! Tomorrow is Halloween and I wanted to show you this year’s decor. I used a few DIY projects like my dip dyed pumpkins, Halloween Putz houses, a DIY banner for our bar, and some cut up spiderweb placemats for the kitchen cabinets and bedroom. And of course all the classic stuff like cob webs, spiders, bats, jack o lanterns, and bones!

I’ll just let the photos show you. Happy Melodramaween!

Halloween BarMid-century Home Halloween BarHalloween DecorMid-century home halloween decorMid-Century Home Spooky Halloween DecorVintage halloween decorVintage style scream queenMid-Century Modern Halloween Putz HousesMid Century Mod Putz HousesRit Dyed PumpkinsEasy Halloween Kitchen DecorRetro Style Halloween WitchRetro Style Halloween Witch

Happy Halloween!

Guest Room/Office Floor Update with FLOR Carpet Squares

Have I ever mentioned on here how much I love working with FLOR carpet tiles? I’m sure I have. I used them in my own living room and they’re the best ever. Blogger Krys Melo's 1960 Mid-Century Apartment

After seeing how easy they are to install and clean, and how durable they are, I knew I wanted to use them somewhere else in my apartment.

We’re currently in the process of decorating our spare room to be a multi-functional office/guest room. Instead of looking for an area rug to fit the wonky dimensions, I decided to use FLOR carpet squares again. I had the Mod Cafe pattern in mind because I thought the sputnik style design would bring in mid-century hotel and vibes. After receiving samples of all the color variations, I chose the color ‘linen’. It’s a blue-grey that changes to more one or the other depending on how the light hits it.

Mod Cafe Linen Flor.jpgThe cool thing about FLOR squares is that you can customize a rug to fit your needs. You can mix and match colors and patterns to create something truly unique, or you can just go with one all over pattern like I’ve done. They’re easy to cut and they simply stick together using the included FLORdots stickers. Flor Squares Install.jpgThe stickers hold the corners of the tiles together and only stick to the backing of the carpet squares. Nothing actually sticks to your floor underneath so you don’t have to worry about ruining it or having to deal with sticky residue underneath. Plus, when we move we can just stack them up and take them with us to the next place.

OH! They’re also a breeze to clean. Some one spill a drink? Dog had an accident? Just pop up the dirty square and wash it out in the sink. Let it dry and stick it back down. Or if one gets ruined you can replace it. 

Here’s what the room looked like before FLOR squares.Before FlorBefore FlorFirst I laid out the squares to make sure I was happy with the placement. Any parts that need trimmed are easily cut with a utility knife or box cutter.

Flor LayoutThis room is tiny so I decided to do the entire thing. Once I was happy with the placement I easily applied the stickers to the corners to hold it all together and voila!

Flor Linen Mod Cafe

Atomic carpet! All done in about an hour!Flor Mod Cafe Linen

The lines blend together more and more as the carpet fibers fluff up a bit. Vacuuming helps.

Here’s what it looks like now!

After Flor Mod Cafe LinenTada! I think it definitely makes the room feel more put together and adds some much needed pattern. I love the way the blue-grey looks against the blush pink velvet of our sleeper sofa, and the black and gold of the table. Bonus, it’s perfect for home office use because it immediately eliminated any awkward phone echo! After Flor Mod Cafe Linen.jpg

If you’re thinking about getting a little creative with your flooring, be sure to check out FLOR! They always have good sale events and you can purchase in expensive samples of all their patterns before committing.

The room isn’t completely done yet, but stay tuned for a few more DIYs and the final reveal!

 

 

 

Mid-Century Resort Inspired Flamingo Bathroom Refresh

Around this time of year I always get the urge to change my decor up in at least one room. Chalk it up to spring fever I guess. Anyway, after having such a successful attempt at wallpapering a focal wall in my bathroom with Tempaper’s tropical print, I decided I was confident enough to go wild and do new look and wallpaper the entire bathroom. As soon as I saw Tempaper’s new peel and stick flamingo print I knew it was meant to be and immediately jumped on the chance.

To quickly jog your memory, this is what my bathroom looked like before. 

Peel and Stick Wallpaper in Krys Melo's Apartment Bathroom.jpg And here’s the new new!

Retro Inspired Flamingo Bathroom.jpgIt’s kind of crazy how it makes the room feel bigger. I thought it might feel closed in with so much pattern on the walls, but nope! It works. The print is so lovely. It’s a lovely mix of soft pink and reddish pink that looks amazing against white and gold. As always it was easy to work with and very forgiving. You can refer to my previous post for installation tips that work for me. Bold Flamingo WallpaperI also added a few new accessories.Flamingo Wallpaper and Hanging PlantI got this hanging planter on Amazon and changed out the original chain with one from the jewelry making section at Jo-Ann.Flamingo Wallpaper and Fringe Window ValanceI kept the original window valance and shortened it in order to let more light in. I loved the fringe on the new towels and rug so I added some chainette fringe to tie it all together.Vintage Inspired Flamingo BathroomAbove the toilet I removed a badly installed towel rack and replaced it with a cute framed vintage Camay Soap ad.Flamingo Mid-Century BathroomI replaced the light fixture with a new mid-century inspired two orb vanity light from Lucent Lightshop. Flamingo Wallpaper from TempaperI personally like mixing metals so I went with brass, of course. Mid-century inspired two orb light from Lucent LightshopFlamingo bathroom with gold and fringe Over on the other wall I picked up a brass mirror/shelf from Target’s Project 62 line and a new metallic gold and white geometric shower curtain from Project 62 as well.Flamingo Bathroom MakeoverThe new “fancy towels” (you know, the kind you’re not allowed to use), are from Target’s Opalhouse line. I love the texture and fringe.Flamingo peel and stick wallpaperI followed the wallpaper all the way around the room, meeting the last seam in the most inconspicuous corner. Everything is reflected in the mirrors so it’s all pretty much visible from every view point, which was intentional and I’m glad it worked out.

Retro Flamingo bathroom makeoverThere it is! This year’s new bathroom look. I looooove the way it all came together. Yay!

Next up, the guest room and patio. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Mid-Century Inspired Custom Dyed Dining Room Accessories| Rit’s 100 Year Celebration

If you’ve been following the blog over the years you will know that I LOOOOVE to use dye to transform home decor. I’ve dyed curtains, rugs, bedding, and even my sofa! My go-to dye has always been Rit because it’s inexpensive and easily accessible. Luckily Rit heard about what a fan I am and asked me to be one of this year’s brand ambassadors so stay tuned for more projects!

This year is special because it’s Rit’s 100 year anniversary! To celebrate we teamed up to recreate one of their adorable vintage ads from 1962. This project was especially fun for me since I’m obsessed with mid-century advertisements and even keep a collection of them for inspiration.RitDye62

I picked this one because the dining room set up reminded me a lot of my own, particularly the top right corner version. I already planned on dyeing curtains to match my artwork, so I went all-in and dyed a tablecloth and cloth napkins as well. Mid-century Inpired Dye Projects.jpg

For the vibrant pink tablecloth and curtain I used a 50/50 mix of Rose Quartz and Petal Pink, and for the orange napkins I used a 50/50 mixture of Tangerine and Golden Yellow. Custom dyed tablecloth and napkins with Rit products.jpgI just mixed those up with hot water and a little dish soap right in my sink basin. I then soaked them in Rit’s dye fixative and rinsed with cold water. Easy peasy!

Mid-century inspired dining room accessores custom dyed with Rit dyesI love how everything ties together with the artwork and my vintage Burke chair pads. Now I just need to throw a little dinner party with a Jell-o salad and few cocktails ;).