Bench Recovery

While on my project kick this weekend adding storage to our laundry room I got around to recovering the bench that lives in the front hallway. I have been meaning to recover it for awhile, especially since I dropped a paint edger on it face-down (oops!) and got a big gray rectangle on the fabric when I was repainting my office. I absolutely love how it turned out. Something about how the white and gray fabric makes the brown wood parts look like dark chocolate looks so chic! The old cream and orange fabric brought out more of a warm chocolate color. You can see what the bench used to look like before and after I recovered it a few years ago here (and below).

Recovering a bench is CRAZY EASY. It took me all of one hour to recover this bench in two different fabrics. I did a white layer first to make sure the old fabric didn't show through my new fabric.

Here's the bench before... notice the gray paint on the upper right!

The first step is always removing the bench seat from the legs. This step should be very easy. Just flip the bench over and unscrew the top (should be 1 screw located near each leg).

My next step was to find some white fabric to use as a barrier from the old fabric to the new fabric. I tested it first and knew the old would show through the new.  I simply laid the fabric out and eyeballed how much I needed by laying the bench seat on the fabric and cutting about 4 inches extra all around it.

Next, basically wrap the seat like a present. Pull the fabric really tight and staple it in place on the four straight edges first, then fold in the corners and secure with more staples. I repeated the same process with my new patterned fabric. I was careful to look at the printed side first and decided which part of the pattern I wanted to be centered on the bench.

Reattach the top to the legs, and viola! New bench:

Ikea Scores

This week was an exciting one - my mom's birthday on Tuesday and my 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday. On Tuesday my mom and I went to Ikea in Chicago and out to lunch to celebrate. I intended to buy a new chair for my sewing room/office. While I love the ones I made for the room a long time ago (see the diy makeovers here), I was ready for an update. I looked online and found the chair I wanted. It looked like it was going to be $40. When I got there, it was only $19! 

I think it's pretty cute. 

Plus I get to roll around on the new flooring. 

I was also looking for a rug for the bedroom so the dogs don't have to jump directly onto the hard floors. I was thinking a black and white polka dot because I am still very noncommittal about color in there. So far everything was black, white, gray, and one pink pillow. Not anymore!

This rug was the weekly special so it was only TEN DOLLARS! Crazy. So far it seems to be decent quality and holding up to the dogs scratching at it etc.

I probably would have never picked it if it hadn't been on sale but I think I like it. The red is a little bright for the bedroom but it is fun and definitely a change of pace. 

I will call it a successful Ikea trip! Now back to work... at least the chair makes it a little more fun for now.

The Flea

The Flea Market has been quite the buzzword in my family for awhile now - most of us love everything about the flea. Flea markets offer something for everyone, from tools to old sewing machines, chandeliers (I can't resist), furniture, glassware, and vintage finds. My sister has a booth at an indoor flea market called the Mega Mall in Lansing, MI - I have done posts about it before (see them here and here) and over Memorial Day weekend I helped her move in a new Seaside Green hutch and rearrange some things. Of course while I was there I snapped some pictures. Her booth is deep inside the Mega Mall - no natural light to be found so my pictures usually turn out pretty crappy. I was gladly surprised that the new camera did such a great job in there so I thought I'd share some here, for the love of the flea.

My sister snagged these decanters for me at the outdoor flea - 6 decanters for $7! How can you beat that?? My decanter collection went from 2 to 9.

Black Side Table

A couple weeks ago I decided I needed a place to display shoes near my bed... because I love nothing more than waking up in the morning to a beautiful pair of shoes. I thought about putting some shelves up near my vanity - then it hit me that I could just use what I've already got. Free and functional! This half circle table has been in our foyer since early last fall when my sister spotted it at a junk shop for $12. It had a bit of a country chic distressed look to it, which is not really my thing anyway, so painting it black just felt right.

To begin I took the table out to the garage to smooth out some of the distressing with sandpaper. I used 100 grit.

Then I gave it a few light and even coats of Rustoleum Semi-Gloss black. I also tipped it upside down to get those spindly legs from every angle.

Don't they just sparkle more on the black??

Inspiration Station

A couple months ago I picked up a hid-e-odious bright yellow dresser at at Goodwill in Michigan. It has finally found its way down to Indiana, and has been living in the garage waiting for me to have some time to work on it. Well, I am almost ready. In the meantime I have been gathering inspiration for how I should paint it, because at this point, just painting a piece of furniture seems kind of boring. :-) The dresser will go in the master bedroom which has gray walls and black and white accents (and 1 hot pink pillow on the bed). Also, it will have to go in T.J.'s closet, but the doors are always open, so it is worth making it look nice. So far I am playing with the idea of stripes (like in the picture above - from here) and painting giant flowers on the front (like the pictures below). What do you all think?

The picture above (from here) has been on my fridge for a month - not sure it is manly enough for TJ's closet though...

     And I have always loved the look of this ombre dresser, below (from here). I wonder if I could ombre and paint a design on the dresser... hmm. 

How fun is this ombre waves dresser (from here)? 

I want to know how they got a dresser out onto the beach!

Only time will tell what my bright yellow dresser will become. I will keep you updated! Which of these plans do you think look prettiest/doable?

Checking Chairs off the List

I can not believe Thanksgiving was two weeks ago already! These past two weeks have been a blur of grading/watching final presentations/writing/reading/note taking, and a little bit of sleeping and eating. :-)
Anyway, I find that whenever I have people over for a party or get together I end up getting a lot of projects completed right before that, trying to get everything ready for my guests. T.J. and I had 14 people over for Thanksgiving dinner, so naturally we needed a lot of chairs. I had a couple of chair projects that had been on the back burner that moved to the top of my list. You might remember posts about them... check them out here and here.

I love the way they turned out! For the most part both projects were pretty easy, but of course took a little elbow grease :-) and a lot of getting frustrated at my "on the fritz" staple gun.

This silver chair has a twin and they will both go in my sewing room at the big desk/table I have in there. Check out the before and after below, and below that, a shot of them at my thanksgiving table!

The second set of chairs I worked on were from my living room. I got these a couple months back and recovered them almost right away. I thought the original color of the frame wasn't bad... so I left it that way for awhile. Before Thanksgiving though I wanted them to look the way I had intended from the beginning so I re-removed the cushions, primed them inside, and took them out to the garage to spray paint (note: this is dangerous without proper ventilation, I may have caused myself some brain damage).

Like Mother Like Daughter

Quick post today - I am buried deep in paper-writing mode (privacy and family communication patterns) and have no time for blog-writing mode. :-(

My dad sent me this awesome picture earlier this week and I wanted to share it. All good things run in the family if you ask me.

I apologize it is a little dark - but it is my mom refinishing some furniture back when she was in her 20's. She would go to my dad's garage with him while he worked on cars and she fixed up old furniture. No wonder I love it so much.
If you notice, it looks like she is mid-sand in this picture. I know that exasperated look! Earlier this summer when I redid my kitchen table and chairs, my husband opted not to tell me we have an electric hand sander so that I would "know what hard work feels like". Sounds like an awful thing to do to someone doesn't it? I suppose I love my kitchen table even more for it though.

That is all for now... I'll be back with a whirlwind of Christmas craft/gift posts after this crazy final paper week is over! I am so close to Christmas break I can almost taste it...

Fabulous Footstool

Last week I posted about my latest thrift store finds. This footstool was my favorite! I love that it has a secret storage compartment.

The fabric on the top and what I found under it was pretty gross. I am thinking there was a lot of old glue holding it together. It came off like black dust. I had T.J. make me a new wood insert for the lid because the old one was un-salvagable.

Two coats of primer, then 3 coats of Behr semi-gloss white paint. I bought the orange and white medallion fabric from Joann's on sale - I think it was $6 a yard, but I only used about half for this project... the rest may end up as a pillow or in a frame on my new gallery wall (pictures coming soon!).

 

The before and after again: