Louise is using her K&Co Smash book as a visual idea reference album for furniture and finishes she’d like to include in her house and new studio. She started by finding photos on Pinterest and printing them out, before organising them into categories and adding some quick reminders as to what it was she liked along with some fabric samples.
Louise wanted a simple, aged and arty cover for her album as it will be getting a lot of use and she didn’t want anything able to be damaged put on. She used an iron paint and dragged it over the cover before activating it to achieve a rust effect. When this was dry she added some simple lettering as a title before sponging over a copper paint and activating it again to achieve a verdigris finish. A few splatters of indian ink finished the look.
As the whole studio is going to be a modern vintage theme, Louise altered the pages of the album with gesso before spraying liberally with walnut inks and allowing to dry. She then went over this darkened areas with distressing ink to further enhance the aged effect. A Pink Paislee stamp was added as a reference for the kind of artwork she plans on painting on the furniture and some hand-drawn scroll doodles draws the eye to the heading as well as being a reference to the floor pattern. Some punched tabs attached to the page edge helps define areas of the book into rooms.
Continuing with the vintage theme, Louise again lightly gessoed the surface of the pages before adding some strips of et Cetera paper and layering with random strips of tissue tape. She then liberally applied distress stain to the whole surface before flicking the surface with a Glimmermist spray. For this spread it was all about colour and décor ideas so she included paint swatches of the proposed wall colour as well as dream rooms and lighting ideas. Again some simple black pen lines highlight favourite pictures and note the ideas she’d like to implement into the room.
The storage spread was created by roughly gluing over the pages and attaching tissue paper before covering both pages with the distress stain, giving each page a uniform look and leaving space for further photos and information to be added. Some bakers twine adds a pop of colour and fun and the Prima wooden tickets add some cuteness and dimension. Although the album is fairly simple, it invokes the feel of the room Louise is trying to achieve and is a great source for all the ideas and images she wants to be able to refer to.
