Day 3-From Drab to Fab

Okay, that was the cheesiest title ever. I've been meaning to blog about this for months and just haven't found the time. Today's post will have more than one picture. You can read below how I completed this project. The lighting in the pictures isn't that great, but I think you can see what a difference this made in the chair.




This faux roman shade is not completed yet, so it looks a little wonky. I still have the folds pinned and plan to finish it as soon as I can find the time.

***I am NOT a professional seamstress as you can tell by the close-ups of this picture. ha!

We've been on a fixed budget for exactly 5 years and 6 months. You can do the math. Staying home is wonderful, but sometimes I just get tired of waiting to save up for a professional to hire and I get a wild hair that I will just have to do it by myself. I have had lots of hits and misses, but this project was a great success (in my humble opinion ;). I inherited several chairs when my parents downsized to a smaller house and while I LOVE antiques, I just felt that this chair could be changed for the better. It wasn't until I found the perfect fabric that I made the decision to tackle this project. I can't say it was EASY, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be either. This chair was OLD. I mean, it still had the original horse hair packed inside that carpenters and upholsterers used many, many years ago. I REALLY WISH I WOULD HAVE TAKEN PICTURES OF THE INSIDE AND THE STEPS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN, BUT I WASN'T EVEN THINKING ABOUT BLOGGING ABOUT THIS SO I WILL JUST HAVE TO DESCRIBE THE STEPS.
1. I removed the gimp (which is the decorative ribbonish looking thing surrounding the fabric), the fabric and pulled out at LEAST 100 old, rusty nails.
2. Removed the layers of cloth, horse hair and lastly the burlap covering the wires and vacuumed out the inches of dust it had collected over the years.
3. Cut out the old hemp looking string that had broken down over the years and retied down the wires in the seat area to make them as even as possible.
4. Recovered the wires with new burlap.
5. Added a foam cushion to level out the wires. They were still a little uneven and bumpy.
6. Put a new quilt batting (I think that's what it's called) on top of the foam so it wouldn't look so squared. I did all of this with a staple gun and left the front open to add pillow foam inside to even it out even more. I can't remember the exact name, but it's the huge bag of what looks like cotton and I bought this at Walmart. It came with a wooden stick to push in tight spaces. When I had all of the empty spaces filled, I staple gunned the rest down.
7. I made a pattern using the old fabric and stapled gunned the new fabric around the edge of the wood. This took a few tries to get it pulled tightly and even, but it was easy to pull the staples out.
8. I used a hot glue gun to add the chocolate brown gimp all around the fabric for a finished look. I'm so pleased with the results.
9. I used the remaining fabric to make a "faux roman shade" for my back door, which is still incomplete. I still have it pinned in places because I wanted to look at it awhile to see if I liked the folds.
10. I also made a simple covering for my window over the sink. My mom and I bought a few more yards of the same fabric this weekend so I can make a few pillows for my couch and some ties for my panels to complete the look.
*****Here's a sneak pic of my next chair recovering project that I'm working on now. It is alot easier because I don't have to completely redo the chair. I'm just covering over the old velvet fabric.

New Hobbies! Sewing and Distressing Furniture

I have two new hobbies that I am loving! This summer I have had the urge to spruce up my house a little bit. It all started with looking at these three blogs...Pure & Lovely, Young House Love, and k.f.d. designs.

After my week without kids, I really got motivated! I painted my bathroom, bought a sewing machine, thought~how hard can it be? and made this fixed-flat Roman shade (different fabric I found at Brentwood Interiors for on sale for $4.25 for 1 1/2 yards! I haven't taken pictures of it yet. I have a few tweaks I need to make on it. It was harder than I thought, but easier than I thought too... does that make sense at all???


Then I used Pure and Lovely's playroom for inspiration on my kid's upstairs playroom. I even stalked Ashley (P&L blog owner) for the paint color but ended up using a slightly different color. I found like fabrics on Etsy and ordered 7 different yards of fabric. I kind of made up my own pattern for these window treatments. They are NOT PERFECT, but good enough for me. I misjudged a few measurements (which has been the hardest part of sewing for me) so they are a little bit off. Then I started painting. I sanded, painted and distressed the boys toybox a bright red (who needs P90X when you are sanding all of the furniture in your house)?? and repainted one of the chairs yellow. Then I made three cute little pillows and the playroom is still a work in progress. I still have a bookshelf (found on the side of the road for trash) to paint and bulletin boards, etc to add. I had painted these pear paintings on canvas about six months ago and didn't have a place for them and the colors match great!

(please excuse the mess, it's a work in progress!!)




Then I WENT ON A HUGE PAINTING FRENZY. I painted a bed I got for Walker~ $10 at a yard sale(thought it was a twin, but ended up being a full) so it's now Will's bed, painted his rocking chair, our end table, coffee table, an antique desk I got at a yard sale for $30, and now I'm repainting our kitchen table and chairs. Our table was my parents first table when they were married and was handed down to us several years ago. We painted it black when Will was a baby and 4 years and 2 kids later, it was looking AWFUL with lots of chips in the paint in a not so distressed kind of way, never mind the fact that our kitchen and den are all one big room and our den is in brown and neutral tones. This always bothered me, but I didn't have the energy or desire to fix it. The table has been a BEAST to sand and I'm still working on it and still working on the coffee table. It's been a lot of hard work, but very rewarding! If you are still reading this I applaud you! Here are some pics of the bed, rocking chair, and other things.



table in progress







whew....I am sore and tired, but love my new hobbies! This has been such a creative outlet for me and has helped me to get back a little piece of myself. It has been very rewarding for me to have a new outlet and something to look forward to.

Our week WITHOUT kids!

Rewind to last Friday when I had an emotional breakdown after Walker clogged the toilet for the 4th or 5th time with an entire roll of toilet paper each time. I got very angry at him and lost my temper and then I just sobbed and sobbed because I felt so bad and so overwhelmed with never having any time to get things done, etc. I was just having a complete pity party for myself. At this time, my Aunt Kay called and I couldn't quit crying. Two hours later, I got a phone call from my mom and she told me that Kay had gotten sitters for my grandparents and she was on her way to Nashville. My mom came here, watched the boys, did laundry, cooked, etc. On Saturday night I came downstairs and Len and my mom were having a little convo. My mom told me that she wanted to take the boys back with her to Montgomery for the week. I couldn't say YES fast enough. I've NEVER been away from Walker for one night yet alone more than 6 or 7 hrs. So, thank you mom and dad, thank you Aunt Kay!!! This was my mom's only week off ALL summer and she so graciously took the boys. They have had the best time and I don't think they've missed me or Len at all. Len has gotten to study uninterrupted and we've gotten to remember what life was like before kids. I have been SO busy that I've hardly sat down or gotten on the computer. (THIS POST IS FOR MY MOM AND DAD to see what all I've been able to accomplish during my KID FREE!!! week! I'm not trying to brag, just excited to get some things done that I've wanted to do for a long time, but not been able to with the kids). I'm REALLY glad I don't have BEFORE pictures of the closets, pantry and toys, but I do have the afters. Thank you so much for always been so unselfish mom and dad!!! You've helped me regain my sanity and Len and I have had the best week! I did start missing my little ones today and I can't wait to give them tons of hugs and kisses!