Leather Wrapped Rock Paperweight

Editor’s Note: Late last week hackers redirected all my website traffic to spammy sites. It’s a horrible feeling and a mess to fix! I apologize if you tried to visit this site and weren’t able to do so. Huge thanks to Handy Husband for tackling the problem and kicking them off my happy place! I’d be lost without him!

I have a crush. A style crush.

Lately, thanks to Instagram, I have found inspiration in the spaces created by Studio McGee.

If the name doesn’t sound familiar, you might recognize the fantasy kitchen they designed for HGTV.

No biggie, right?

(image: Studio McGee)

Studio McGee is a small company started in 2014 by what seems like the nicest couple, Syd and Shea McGee. At least, I hope they are as sweet in person as they appear online. Don’t disappoint me now, folks!

As I was shopping their online store, I saw leather wrapped rocks for sale for $12.

Not sparkly rocks.

Regular rocks. Wrapped in leather.

Guys. I have oodles of rocks. I collect them everywhere I go!

Remember my memory rocks?

I also have some larger rocks that I use as doorstops.

They work fine – just don’t stub your toe on one.

Lord have mercy.

I also have leather.

Remember my old boots I turned into this map?

All that to say, I HAD to try and recreate this paperweight. It wouldn’t cost me anything besides me sanity to see if I could make something similar.

I assumed from looking at the picture that the original paperweight was made with flat leather cording. I do have some of that, but it’s thick and I thought it would make the weaving detail look too bumpy.

Instead, I cut thin strips out of a piece of leather from my old boots. It might be faux leather, I’m not sure. Let’s not get bogged down with these details.

I only used 5 strips due to the size of my rock. The downside of cutting of my own strips of leather is that the edges weren’t as clean as if I had used cording.

Let’s just pretend that ‘downside’ means ‘added character.’

95% of the time when I think something is going to be easy, I will sit staring at the project wondering if I’m actually doing it the hard way.

I won’t tell you how many times I figure out I actually AM doing it the hard way.

In all of that wondering I decided the best way to affix the leather strips to each other and to the rock was with glue. I used my go-to Elmer’s ProBond Advanced Glue because the label says it works on stone. And that’s just what I needed.

Let’s hope it works on leather too.

So far, so good!

So what do you think?

Did I get close to the spirit of the original?

The only thing left to decide is where to put this paperweight.

Handy Husband has us on a fantastic paperless filing system, so there’s very little paper that needs to be weighted down around here.

If you’ve ever met Handy Husband, this little tidbit probably won’t surprise you.

And it also won’t surprise you that I’m perfectly happy moving my leather wrapped rock paperweight around the house until I find just the right spot.

Or maybe it will go back to its life as a doorstop.

Thanks for hanging out with me today! I love a good theme, so if you want to keep reading try one of these:

Leather Wrapped Basket Handle

Wrapped Wheat 

Tourist Maps Make Great Wrapping Paper

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