Design by Nate Berkus Associates, Photograph by Chris Foster
Burnham Design
When it comes to the weekend I always feel like I want to share some interior design that’s colourful, whimsical, fun… so here’s your hit of design happy for the weekend from Burnham Design. Enjoy!
DIY Orange “Lacquer” Box
I love small boxes. They look so neat and tidy no matter what mess of junk you’ve got inside. (Side note: I helped with a seminar on “de-cluttering” in the winter, and the whole time I kept thinking “I should teach a workshop on ‘how to look organized when you’re not.’” Which is not very productive. But that’s what I feel I do sometimes…)
(Design by Hillary Kerr of Who What Wear for The Coveteur)
Anyways, I had a little box sitting on my bookshelf for a while now that I’d hoped to paint. It came full of Tazo teas as a gift a few Christmas’s ago.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m adding orange accents to my living room and figured now was the time to paint this box, and perhaps get the look of more expensive lacquer boxes.
(Five Sides Orange and White Box Collection from Pacific Connections)
I started by fixing up the box with some wood glue and a clamp. (Does anyone else have this problem with bamboo splitting? I have a bamboo tray that did this too… Not that I’m complaining; they’re uber cheap.)
When it came time to choose paint I walked down the store aisle and picked up Krylon’s Dual Paint and Primer in Mandarin orange. Then I put it back on the shelf. Then I picked it up again. Then I put it back. You see, I was afraid, there in the glaring fluorescent lights of the spray paint aisle, that it would be too “Home Depot Orange” and less “Hermes Orange”. Alas, it was a $5 can of spray paint, so I took the plunge. I’m wild that way.
After spraying a couple of coats and letting it cure for a few days I deemed it “not too Home Depot-y” (A little bit darker and greyer), and I taped off the stripes around the edge. I painted them with some leftover Para alkyd paint (“Bisque” from the Sarah Richardson collection) I had from redoing my living room chairs.
After letting that dry for a day I removed the paint and taped off the remaining stripes.
And here you go…
In the end I like the look of the box, but feel that the stripes are too wide to get the look I was going for. I might put tape over the white stripes and spray another layer of orange paint on top. (There are some spots to touch up anyway.) We’ll see. Until then, I’m busy wondering what to put in my new little orange box…
