Thursday, February 23, 2012

Leftovers

Hi! Well, the madness is over with! The Next Cool Event went off without a hitch, and I met some wonderful people along the way. Thanks to everyone who helped us out and everyone that came by! 


Today's post is going to be short, but I promise to follow up with a picture tomorrow when I have it. On Sunday, I had to find a place for several things for the event that I took home with me. Among those items were flowers and vases, chandelier parts (disaster!), and FLOR tiles. Those tiles are heavy, and I had to carry them up all my stairs to get them up here. So of course I was determined to do something useful with them. 


I started doing my typical Sunday googling activities of totally rando things that interest me- which usually somehow lands me in Pinterest, Design Sponge, or Apartment Therapy. I was able to find a website about a competition by Bustler called Ample Sample. Have any of you heard of this? I'm starting to realize with any job or event we do, we always have leftovers of things that need a home. Why not find a creative way to make these items do something useful in your own home? I mean, the beautiful orange roses, football mums, and green buttons had an obvious purpose. They came home with me and are ALL over the house. But these FLOR tiles were getting me. Ample sample is a contest they have with the purpose of recreating new designs with old carpet tiles. Over 700,000 carpet samples are shipped each year, and what do most people do with the leftovers instead of shipping them back? You know. This contest is a great way to do two things: recycle and stretch your mind. What a thought! Here are some photos from past entries and winners...aren't they amazing?? Think what you could do in your home! 












So, back to my tiles. I first went for the obvious use. For the event, we ordered orange, pink, grey, and black to pop against the sleek black and white furniture. Orange is my color, if you didn't know that already. When we got a humongous sectional off Craigslist a few months ago, (which was a steal- I'll post pictures soon!) I moved my vintage orange sofa into the office. This was the obvious place to put some carpet tiles down, so after about 30 minutes of playing with the color combos and placement- my rug was made! This actually worked out well because it was feeling colder than I would have liked in here with the wood laminate, so this was just enough to warm it up. Our floor plan is pretty open, so I knew this one FLOR rug was enough. I'm not a huge fan of a patchy quilt-like look in a home, which is why I would normally just order one or maybe two different types of FLOR tiles (if they form a pattern), but this was working for me. 


Now...what to do with the others? I played around with them in my bedroom- but the grey was looking powdery blue underneath my bed which is not happening. I went back into the office to think, and there sat my ugly plain walls. Lightbulb moment.... cork boards! I'm always looking for a place to hang fabric samples, put sticky notes/pictures, and inspiration photos/words. Done! I used the pink, dark grey, and light grey tiles to make a pattern on my wall and I'll show you tomorrow. For now..it's off to work I go. 



"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Gandhi

Emphasis on the you.

xoxoxox

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