A West Elm Knockoff - Veneer Sphere

I've been a huge slacker when it comes to maintaining the blog.  The projects haven't stopped...I just haven't had the courage to hit "publish" lately. 

I'm a hoarder of magazines and catalogs.  Anyone else?  I hope I'm not alone.  Seriously, it wasn't always this bad.  I blame it on my best friend.  She's always been a horrible influence.  When Amy and I actually get to hang out (which is few and far between these days), we sit down at her kitchen island with two too large cups of coffee and a stack of the latest magazines - completely ignore each other and flip through the pages until we find something inspiring. 

So, it's Amy's fault that I hoard magazines.  At first, our plan was to subscribe to different magazines that we could just swap.  I think we still have a few that overlap, which is fine since we see each other once every 12 months now (or at least that's what it feels like).  Here's my most current subscriber list (which has been cut in half in the past year):

- Better Homes and Gardens
- This Old House
- HGTV Magazine
- Martha Stewart Living
- Country Living
- Do It Yourself
- Lowe's Creative Ideas (this is free...and amazing)

This also means that all the retailers out there got a hold of my home address and thought they would load up my mailbox as well:

- Potterybarn
- West Elm
- Restoration Hardware
- Arhaus
- Ballard Designs
- Home Decorator
- and a slew of children catalogs since I hear I'm of "child-bearing age" .

The joke is on them.  Kids aren't on my horizon and I'm way too cheap to actually order anything.  I use the catalogs for inspiration.  Maybe one day the retailers will wise up and realize I'm just using them for research and they'll stop sending me catalogs.  Until then...I'll continue to hack their ideas and use the pages as a drop cloth.  I am always taking mental notes of items that I love - which will either become a DIY project (like my Potterybarn Mason Jar Chandelier) or until I find a cheap version that I like equally as much. 

I have been admiring the wooden sphere's in the West Elm catalog for a while now.  They aren't out of reach with the cost...but still, who wants to spend $50 on something so simple? I would rather fund my coffee addiction...

While I was silently stalking the craft store to find products that might work for the multiple projects, I came across a few ideas on how to create the West Elm Veneer Sphere Knock-off.

I went first for veneer strips at Home Depot - veneer strips to make a veneer sphere?? Makes sense, right? After checking them out, they just didn't seem like they would be thick or sturdy enough.  Not that they would be abused, but I wanted a stronger structure than what I thought the strips would give me.  While perusing the aisles of Michael's I came across the cheap, wooden embroidery hoops that come in 5 different sizes.  After playing around with a few I discovered that they fit perfectly within each other - and they're cheap!  So I grabbed a few, paid the $5 for them (with a coupon...of course) and went to work. 

West Elm...you've been hacked!

I spent about 10 minutes and $5 to create two wooden spheres.

Using 2 embroidery hoop sets (just the cheap wooden ones...they're $1.50 each and even cheaper if you use a coupon), you can create this too!  I created two spheres so I got 4 hoops, in two different sizes.

First I separated all the hoops and laid them out on newspaper.

Then I grabbed the same 1/2 pint of Dark Walnut stain that I've had for 2 years. And tested a small strip of the stain on the wood.  I didn't want to go too dark with these sphere's - the armoire that I plan on setting them on is a dark espresso stain and I wanted these to stand out.

 

Dark Walnut worked out perfectly.  Especially since I didn't give the stain more than 30 sec. to work it's way into the wood.  Using a small rag I spread the stain on the hoops making sure the stain penetrated all sides of the hoop.  Using another rag I wiped off the excess stain. 

 

 

I got the color I wanted from one quick coat.  (I didn't coat these with polyurethane because... I was being lazy).

After giving the stain about 5 minutes to dry, I fitted the hoops together until all slats were evenly spaced then applied a dot of wood glue to each cross section.  This would ensure that the hoops stay together tightly just in case they roll off the armoire.  It's a good thing the glue dries quick!  I happened to drop a sphere while working on it and it bounced off the hardwood floor, but stayed together perfectly.  

 

 

The original West Elm Veneer Spheres have a tack on each cross.  I was going to forgo the tack, but thought the spheres were a little too plain with out them.  I tried using an upholstery tack (since I had these on hand for another project I'm working on), but they were too long and poked through the other side of the hoop.

 

Turns out that regular, super cheap gold thumbtacks do the trick perfectly!  The embroidery hoop wood is soft enough that the tacks just pushed right through the wood, and the stick was short enough that it didn't puncture both sides of the wood.   

 

 

In the end...very cute, very cheap and very simple project that adds a touch of vintage industrialness to the living room.

 

 



The spheres add some beautiful geometric décor to the top of my armoire, which was previously vacant for 2 years. 

I'll get this house decorated...eventually.

Today I was reading Bower Power Blog and saw that Katie Bower has also been up to creating some awesome DIY geometric shapes.  She created a Pollen Ball...with straws!  Another great (and cheap) project!  Also, be sure to visit the linky party going on at Liz Marie Blog and Love of Family and Home.

I love a successful hack.  Don't you love perusing the décor magazines for some fresh looks? I'm so thankful for those talented designers.  Their creative minds create some beautiful things...that I get to hack :)

Mary

Linking up this week with the Simply Create Link Party.  Thank you for visiting!  If you haven't seen the other projects yet take a minute to browse the link party.