DIY | Modern Triangle Trash Bin

WhatIWore: Now that I have a good idea for the color palette and overall feel for our baby’s nursery, I’m excited to start in on DIY projects for the room. The starting point for it all was the rainbow triangle quilt I recently made as the main focal point and pop of color.

I plan on doing some wall art, making a pillow to match the quilt and today, I’m updating a very inexpensive little wastepaper bin to match the colors and triangles of my quilt.  I have a kind of bad habit of just hanging plastic bags on the back of my upstairs doors (nursery, closet, master bedroom) and using them to collect the recycling instead of proper trash cans. This leads to the two bins I do have (in the bathroom and my office) being over filled (and thus resorting back to the plastic bags). If there was ever a time to work on organization and getting this house in gear, it’s now! 

So! Let’s get moving with this cute little craft!! Here’s what I’m using:

SUPPLIES

• Small Plastic Trash Bin (I found mine for $1!)
• Assortment of Scotch® Duct Tape (For the pattern I used ‘Pattern Crazy’ and for solids I had Hot Pink, Sunshine Yellow, Tangerine Orange and Blue Turquoise. )
• Self Healing Cutting Mat
• Ruler (with angle marks)
• Sharp Utility Knife (use with caution!)

The last time I played with duct tape I realized it was easiest to cut it using a self healing mat - it stayed in place while I cut it but easily peeled off when I was ready to get sticky. I’ll be using that same technique today.

Start by unrolling some of your tape and placing it along a straight line on your mat. 

Next, we’ll want to cut equilateral triangles, which all have 60 degree corners. I’ll do this by laying my 60 degree mark along the bottom edge of the tape and making my first cut along the straight edge of the ruler here. Now I’ll flip my ruler to the top edge of the tape and complete the second cut! This leaves me with a perfect equal sized triangle and I’ve also made the first cut for my second triangle.

Continue in this manner until you’ve created enough triangle 'stickers’ per color and pattern you’ve picked for your project. 

That was the hardest part! Now onto the fun stuff! Let’s get stickin’! Instead of completely filling my background space with triangles, I decided to let a little of the white show through, so I created little clusters of triangles.  I wanted to focus on my main nursery pop colors (yellow and teal) and add in accents of the pattern tape (which actually looks very similar to the quilt!) and bits of orange and pink. Note: duct tape sticks to itself easily and won’t come undone, so keep a little distance between all of your tape stickers. They’ll peel up from the cutting mat easily (and I even repositioned a few of mine on the plastic bin). 

Once your triangle is in it’s final position, press down firmly around the edges. This will create a strong bond and you shouldn’t see any peeling! 

Continue around all sides of your bin until the pattern is complete! If you’re extra patient you could cut out hexagons, multiple sized triangles or even make a cool mosaic with random shapes! You can follow Scotch® Duct Tape on their website, Pinterest, facebook and twitter accounts.

I am proud to be a 3M- sponsored blogger, and, as part of my responsibilities, I get the opportunity to evaluate new products from Scotch® Duct Tape. Opinions are my own and additional product used in the project were selected by me.

Nursery Plans for Baby Quirk

WhatIWore: I’ve always really liked decorating my home. I love hunting down vintage pieces, upcycling items we already own, DIYing keepsakes and saving for special items.  Because we won’t know if we’re having a son or a daughter until baby’s birthday, I’ve opted for a neutral nursery that could work beautifully for a boy or a girl.

I’m going with a neutral palette primarily of pale gray, white and natural woods, with accents of pale yellow and a minty teal. Because babies are stimulated by patterns and eventually colors, I made a rainbow triangle quilt to drape over the rocker or crib as a pop of color (it’s backed in a black and white polka dot). I’ve yet to bind off the edges and mocked up what a pale mint border would look like. (I also mocked it up on one of my inspiration images above!) I think I’ll also make a matching pillow, destination TBD. I’m planning on doing a simplified tutorial (basically on how to cut perfectly equilateral triangles and sew them together) if there’s any interest! 

The walls will get a fresh coat of pale gray paint and we’re planning on gray carpet in the nursery. We’ve debated re-doing our 94 year old wood floors (that appear to have never been refinished) but will save that for sometime in the future. As it stands, the wood floors in the baby’s bedroom are really beat up and we think we’ll really like the coziness that carpet provides.  I’m debating on hiring a painter to give the ceiling a pale coat of light minty blue or else my mom and mother in law have both volunteered to help me. Normally I love painting rooms but I’ll gladly pass off that job for this space!

I’ve registered for gray and white crib bedding in cute geometrics and dots and will also make gray curtains with white sheers for the windows. I plan on hanging them high and wide, like I did for my sewing room next door.

We’ve already tackled the major items in the room including the crib (from Target.com), the rocker, rug and the dressers (one of which will be used as a changing table). The Monte Joya rocker was a huge investment, but I had a little money set aside and felt like it was worth it for me. It’s being custom made in Canada as we speak and has gray wool and solid walnut wood. Adam loves it too and I’m looking forward to reading loads of stories while rocking away in that chair.

The dressers were a craigslist deal I found about an hour drive from us. We negotiated what we thought was a good price for a set of matching, mid Century modern dressers (which also came with a mirror and bedroom - all a set), but when I started doing my homework I realized we really scored! It’s from the Perspecta by Kent-Coffey line from around 1964. The idea with these pieces is to keep them in the family forever - whether they move to another child’s room or our master, they really fit in well with our taste and style and the natural wood makes the room feel a little more grounded.  

To bring in some color, we bought a yellow and white striped rug from Overstock.com (top inspiration board).  I like it a lot and it’ll look great with the pillow that comes with the rocker and play nicely back to the triangular rainbow quilt.

To accessorize the room, I’m planning on making bunting out of my left over quilt fabric that I think I’ll drape over the curtains or on the wall behind the crib.  Adam and I bought a trio of Ryan Buckley prints years ago (like a month after we started dating! Wishful thinking, huh?!) that I want to frame and use in the room.  We have a lot of brightly colored art and posters so I’ll play around with that until I have a gallery wall we like. I’ve also collected vintage globes over the years (I have 5 or 6) so I’ll probably put one on the higher dresser for that pretty teal ocean color. Lastly, I’ve been really aware of giraffes since I’ve been pregnant and for now, it’s my baby’s spirit animal (maybe he/she will be a long baby!). I registered for this big giraffe and might treat myself/baby to it on my own if it’s still left on the list. 

Right now we have a pretty empty room ready to be worked on! My friends and family are throwing me baby showers over the summer and I hope to make progress on the walls/floors/windows and then set everything up by August 1st!  See more of my inspiration ideas (and direct links to most of the images above) on my Pinterest Nursery page.  You can read more about my pregnancy here and here.