Chairs: before and after

I took a couple of chairs to the consignment shop today but made sure to take pictures first. This little pink chair was a garage sale find and was pretty cute to start with, but it was a bubble-gum pink and I wanted to tone it down some. Okay, I wanted to tone it down a lot.

It got a coat of the creamy white I used on The Nasty Chair, then distressed it eeever so slightly.

Love how that pink peeps through the white.

The other chairs taken in were a pair I bought on Craigslist for $5 each.

Someone had done a good job of distressing them, but I think they overdid it a bit. They were both painted cream, one with a base coat of this weird green and the other navy blue.

First I painted on the same creamy white color...

... then Fate stepped in and helped me to mix the most wonderful Robin's Egg Blue paint I've ever seen. Seriously- I'm in love.

The distressing almost killed me because I didn't want to remove one tiny speck of that lovely blue.

But in the end I loved how they looked and almost cried when I drove home without them.

Okay, not really, but I am in love with this color. I want to paint every wood piece of furniture in my house this color. If this color was food I'd eat it with a spoon.

I'd paint myself this color if I thought I could pull it off. It's just so fresh and happy and Spring-y.
Unfortunately I only mixed a yogurt-sized container of this paint, so I'm going to take what I have left and get it color-matched for me at Home Depot next week. I bought an antique dresser on Craigslist (surprise, surprise) recently that is begging to have this color applied. And it will remain in my possession forever and ever and ever, and I will smile and sigh and hum "Zippety Doo Dah" every time I look at it.

Part 5: The Final Installment (maybe)

The Saga:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Okay, just one more reminder of the utterly disgusting, dilapidated state my latest project started out in. I paid $5 for a chair that probably should have gone to the dump, or at least come with a warning sign.

Here she is now.

Yesterday she got "dressed", so she's no longer Nasty Chair or Naked Chair, but Nice Chair (weak, I know, but it's the only "N" adjective I could come up with).

I have a confession- it's not completely done. I still need to apply some trim to the back to hide the staples, and I'm considering adding some nail head detail around the bottom of the seat. What do you think?

Here's another confession- I goofed up a lot. Luckily staples aren't too difficult to pull out. :)

One final confession- it's not perfect. There are bumps and lumps and dings in the paint already, and there are techniques that I need to get better at. But I've never claimed to be a professional, or even good at this, so it's okay.

There is no denying, however, that this chair has a brand new look and several more years of life left in it now.
(*insert contented sigh here)

Chairs and chalkboards and pillows- oh my!

We've got friends stopping in for a visit tomorrow, so I really should be upstairs tidying. But instead I'm going to share what I just took over to the consignment store. I've been busy.

Chalkboard made from a wooden cabinet door found at our local Restore.

Eiffel tower graphic found here, plus a black velvet ribbon on natural cotton.
Fabric transfer patches stitched onto thrifted gingham pillows.
Another cabinet-turned-chalkboard project.
And two barrel-style chairs painted happy Spring colors!



Can you tell that I'm really loving this whole create-and-consign thing? 'Cause I really really am!!

After

I was able to finish up my pieces of thrifted furniture today, and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out.

You'll have to trust me when I say that this chair is actually more of a taupe color, with a layer of white underneath. It's showing more like cream in these photos, which is disappointing.


I decided to paint this little table and chair to match in a fresh, springy blue.





That mint green shelf is currently laying on the floor of my garage wearing an altogether different look, but is only about 1/3 of the way done. I also made another little project that I'm putting together a tutorial for and will share that soon.

A new venture

I have an inspiring neighbor. She refinishes furniture and sells it locally. Her stuff is amazing and I'm always curious about what she's working on. I've been considering trying it myself and, knowing that I share her fondness for refinishing furniture, she recently introduced me at a consignment shop that carries her items.

That very day I visited several thrift stores and came home with a couple of candidates for makeovers.

These two darling wooden chairs and the mint colored shelf in the background will soon be unrecognizable, but hopefully in a good way!

I was so anxious to get started that I forgot to take a "before" photo of this little table, but imagine it painted in a watered-down muddy brown color. Blech.

I hope to be able to show you the "after" photos shortly, so stay tuned!

Headboard & footboard slipcover

It's not often that I get this excited about a project. But all I can say is, dudes- I'm stoked!

Today I slip covered my bed and I am THRILLED with the results.

Here's the "before".

We bought our leather upholstered bed when we moved here almost 2 years ago, and I do still really like it. But recently I've been toying with the idea of changing it up and making it less dark and heavy looking. We've got all this dark furniture in our bedroom- the bed, the night tables, the rocking chair, and this behemoth dresser.

I finally decided that with a wide-open afternoon I'd try tackling this daunting project at last. The boys and I headed to Joann where I'd seen this cotton fabric for $3.99/yd. in the "Utility Fabrics" section (I'm not even sure what it's called), and purchased 6 yards with my 40% off coupon. I liked the color and texture because it reminded me of linen, but without costing $15 per yard. Seriously. 15 freaking dollars! I also bought 3 packages of cream colored piping.

After laying the kids down for naps I went to work. I didn't even bother taking photos during the process because I was really just flying by the seat of my pants the entire time and had no idea whether it was actually going to work or not.

But here's how it turned out.

Like a GLOVE! (You have to say this like Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura.)

It's certainly not perfect, but there's nothing terribly wrong with it that's visible even up close. You should've seen me doing the final tugs and smoothing on the headboard with this big, stupid grin on my face. I was so tickled that it fit!

When I finished I ran downstairs to show my husband my handiwork. The best remark he made was, "For a slipcover it actually looks good." This is quite a compliment coming from a man who LOATHES any and all slipcovers of every shape, size and style. I can tell he likes the leather better, but he won't fuss. He knows how much I like change, and how proud I am of my new slipcover.

But, dang it, now I want to buy new bedding and lampshades!

Looking at this photo it shames me to see that big blank wall above our bed. Two years and nothing on that wall.

But today I tore this photo from my newest Pottery Barn catalog, and it's got me thinking...

...maybe I could do that! I've been trying to come up with something that would fill the space but wouldn't draw attention to the fact that our bed isn't centered on the wall. This could do the trick.

Maybe.

Pyper's dresser- complete!

And here she is!

Well, almost. This was taken yesterday (in some very bad lighting, I might add) before I got the dresser polyurenthaned. I just couldn't wait! I was hoping to also have a photo to share of it sitting in its place in Pyper's bedroom, but at the moment her room's not in a state fit to photograph. :) Maybe this afternoon she'll decide to tidy up, and maybe the sun will decide to come out for a decent picture. Maybe?

Latest projects

Over the past couple of weeks I've been in major project mode. Just one right after another, and sometimes a few at once. Here's what I've finished recently:

Finally, some art on the walls of my son's room.

An alphabet sampler made using this tutorial from Orange Flower Sketchbook.

A little applique and embroidery interpretation of this sweet Japanese fabric.

Using fabric to reverse-matte prints and photos is a great (and inexpensive) way to add color and texture to your art. Just cut a piece large enough to cover the frame's back plus about an inch on all sides, then fold the fabric behind the back and tape it down. Add some double-sided tape to each corner of your art and center on the fabric.
This is a pen and ink reproduction I did a couple years ago of a page from a beautifully illustrated book of my favorite poem, "Winken, Blinken and Nod", also reverse-matted on fabric.

I bought this piece of American Jane Wee Play fabric back when I was working on Hakan's quilt and never did anything with it. I finally decided to turn it into a wall hanging for his room.

I added some padding and a backing, then stitched between the printed panels to make it look a little more quilty and bound it. Can you spot the cute little buttons I added?





Just finished this baby girl quilt about an hour ago for whoever might have a girl next at church. Everyone's been having boys lately, so I have no idea who'll end up with it!

Red, white, yellow and green- reminds me of strawberries and summer! (Don't tell, but I wish I could keep it.) The backing was cut from a nice white cotton tablecloth that I found during my last thrift store visit. It was pretty big, so the rest of it may turn into a picnic quilt.

I just had to use some more of that sweet Amy Butler fabric from my wall art, so I covered a panel of cork and put it in a thrifted frame to make a little message board.

The pocket in the corner was originally intended to just cover a hole in the floral fabric, but it turned out to be a handy place to stash note paper.

I'm also working on bringing this antique dresser back to life. I am sooo excited to get it finished!

Here's a peek at my progress. Isn't that wood gorgeous?! Who could paint that?

I've still got lots of work to do on it, but I'll definitely be posting lots of "after" pictures here when I'm done!