Come away with me to see exclusive and original photos of the Pink City, Jaipur, I have the perfect photos to treat your eyes and satisfy your wanderlust today. Our visit to the Rajasthan area of North Indian was rich in inspiration, color and patterns. The Rajasthan region is rich in color, culture and arts. Jaipur, the Pink City, is one of my favorites and was named for the color of the stone used in many of the building structures. Today, I would like to share some arts and architecture to inspire you, especially if you are considering a visit to North India! 

Samode Palace lies on the outskirts of the city. It is a magical place that offers a lot of stunning visuals and historic architecture. Sunny yellow motifs, bougainvillea, and pink dahlias greet guests as they arrive. 

Are you feeling inspired yet? Just look at all those hand-painted wall patterns!

​If you are as passionate as block printed textiles and patterns as I am, then please read on to see exclusive photos from a block-printing factory and more candid shots of Jaipur.. 

I began working on my art studio and office updates near the beginning of summer in order to refresh and basically clean out the work space. I'm guessing that most artists and designers can relate to the studio stacks of materials from projects that seem to build up and grow over time. I soon realized that my studio is usually in a state of evolving and occurring projects and that I would never be totally ready to completely for sharing. This was a nice challenge to  tidy-up, photoshoot, and share my space as it currently appears. 

As you may remember, I planned to declutter and even host a Shibori workshop event this summer. I began with both inspiration and product boards, as I started to source pieces to help me reorganize my space.  To begin to organize the space, I relied on new and old furnishings to give the room order and structure. 

So here it is, my studio, work in progress!   ​

As you can see, the white open shelving with drawers hold most of my art materials, paints and textiles. My desk and writing space is to the left and my work table is to the right. 

Read on down, to see all the details and progress as it comes together. Scroll to the bottom, to find out more about how to join my art studio board, so that we can design our artistic spaces and share inspiration. ​

Today, I decided to pop-in with a quick DIY for you to try out. I resurfaced an ombre nightstand, a few years ago and it came out wonderfully, so I thought I would share it. As you know, I love all shades of turquoise and blue. This is a fun project for an afternoon that easily updates older wooden pieces. I came across this little nightstand at a thrift store, and I noticed that it was in good overall condition. I look for pieces with no wobbles and drawers that slide easily. 

I remember when the ombre trend first emerged and it spread to everything from hair to fashion to furnishings! I knew that it was something that I wanted to try out. Even today, I like the timelessness of the piece. 

When designing a piece of ombre furniture, I always look for a piece with 4 drawers or more, so that I can fade and lighten the hue as work from the bottom to the top. I also look for all wood pieces. Over the years, I realized that painted laminate nicks and scratches easily, so now I only use pieces that are completely solid wood.

For this project you will need:

1. 1 qt water-based primer (optional)
2. sander or sanding sponge for light duty sanding
3. 4" foam paint roller + tray
4. paint

I used the colors Blue Lagoon and Simply White by Benjamin Moore. For furniture, I like to use satin or semi-gloss for the finish. 

Directions:

1. Begin by sanding down and all of the drawers.
2. Wipe down your furniture after sanding to remove dirt and excess dust. 
3. Prime with primer, if necessary. I recommend primer for previously painted pieces.
4. Start with the bottom drawer first, using the pure color. I used Blue Lagoon. I use a foam cabinet roller to achieve smooth even coats. I often do as many of 4 coats to each drawer allowing each to coat to dry in between. 
5. Next, prepare your tints (hue +white) in 3 plastic containers. You may find it helpful to use separate foam rollers or disposable 3" foam brushes per color, since each color needs to be kept separate.
6. Mix an ample amount of each tint, so that you will have extra if you decide to go back and do touch-ups to each drawer. 
7. Paint the body of the nightstand white or another solid color, be creative! You can do this while your drawers are drying and in between coats of paint. 
8. Once the nightstand and the drawers are completely dry, replace the drawer pull hardware. For this, I used the original hardware.

I hope that this blue lagoon nightstand has inspired you to renew something that you may already own or to hunt for a vintage piece of furniture to redo. ​

If you liked seeing this piece, want more details, or are ready to tackle a bigger project, check out my Coral Ombre Dresser that I renewed too.

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