The makeover of a chair

I got this chair about 10 months ago from Savers. I kept it in the garage for a few months waiting to finish it before I finally just used it as the office chair. Unfortunately the seat cushion was uncomfortable so I moved it to my sons room where I would not have to worry about it.

Finally yesterday I got moving and refinished it.

I layered a few paint colors mixed with plaster and distressed it.*

I used 80 grit sand paper and then went over everything with fine 220 for a smooth finish.

The fabric was left over from some other projects.

I love how light it looks finished. Its the perfect place to read bedtime stories, which is one of my favorite things to do with my kids. 

The bedtime story last night was The Cloud Spinner.  (A very cute story)

*Note- I used sample size paints that where about 3/4 full and then mixed in about a teaspoon (a little less) of the plaster it helped the consistency of the paint so that the finish would not be so latex-like. This is not the "proper" way to do this but it was incredibly cost effective and I had no problems with the finish. I normally sand before I paint wood but because I was going for a really distressed look anyways I did not worry about sanding this chair. I did cover the top with a clear wax to protect the finish. 

Weekend wonders

Yesterday was my grandpa's birthday! To celebrate we took a trip to the park. Always fun times. Its wonderful to see my children play with their cousins and second cousins and make memories similar to the wonderful memories I have of family gatherings.
Those are the types of memories that make me feel positive about life!

 I am so grateful for having a family!

 ________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday I went yard sale-ing with a good friend of mine. I had five bucks in my wallet and on the 5^th stop I found a large side table lamp for …. You got it $5. Pretty sweet deal, I could not resist.

My Pinterest board is full of pictures of lamps and they usually look like this:http://www.potterybarn.com/products/warren-pulley-metal-task-table-lamp/ or This:http://www.potterybarn.com/products/glendale-pulley-task-table-lamp/?pkey=e%7Clamps%7C113%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C11&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-%3Fcm_sp%3DMyRecs-_-LeftNav-_-Search%7CLamps

But for 5 dollars it will certainly work as a temporary fix. Eventually I hope to be able to carry out my design plan. It is really a creative and artistic thing to decorate a room, a well-appointed room is art (to me at least). I so love to make a beautiful and comfortable home that works perfectly for our family.

So without further ado here is the 5 dollar lamp.

 -coming soon an incredibly exciting (or unexciting) lamp shade recycle/update!

Pillows, Pillows and More pillows.

Pillows, Pillows and more pillows!
Throw pillows. Changing up décor with the coming of summer! There are a thousand tutorials of how to make them and there is a good reason they are easy and inexpensive!
Finding good home décor fabric is not hard but it can be unpleasant-in that home décor fabrics are often more $$$ per yard.
There are a few ways I like to combat that (meaning the $$$ unpleasantness) and one of them of course is buying just enough to make a great throw pillow.
Seeing the pottery barn catalogs with shower curtains trimmed with pompoms got me thinking, because you see my kiddos LOVE pompoms, they are like the coolest toy ever! So I knew I had to use them in my décor and going with the logic seen above I decided a throw pillow was the perfect way to add that to my living rooms décor.
Step 1: Find a fabric you like-wash it-dry it-iron it.
I make all my pillows envelope style for two reasons: 1- I hate putting in zippers, and 2-the envelope style does not require zippers and is therefore less expensive (and faster).
Step 2: cut fabric.
Because the trim will go on the outside and we want a nice seam to follow, do not just cut one big rectangle, and cut three separate sizes. One square (the front) and two pieces to overlap in the back making an envelope.
Step 3: Now make a double hem on the two back pieces and iron in place before sewing. Then sew the hems. (you only have to trim the one side on each piece that will be left at the opening.)
Step 4: Next place all of the pieces right sides together and pin in place.
Sew together.
Step 5: Turn pillow inside out-we are almost finished. AT this point you really could be done but we aren’t yet. Because we want to use our trim! Now iron the outside of the pillow so that all the seams are crisp.

Step 6: Beginning in a corner place trim over edge of pillow and sew.
Now we just get to feel excited about having such a playful pillow on your couch!

Shower Curtain = pillow.

So the goal was to have a pillow close to this in appearance.

But there was a problem with that, its pathetic I won’t pretend it’s not, but I hate making button holes! I know pathetic! But it was the truth, enter shower curtain.

Shower curtains come with pre-made button holes. (They are actually the little holes for the shower curtain rod hooks, but let’s not fuss about that) so my problems were solved.

For these pillows I used a Ross store shower curtain that I got a few years ago. All shower curtain fabrics are different the one I found is very comfy fabric, I think in general they are pretty nice but sometimes the fabric can be rough or thin a wash in the machine and dryer can help soften them up.

So for this pillow I did use one big strip and then you just fold it (right sides together) and sew up the sides. 

Then I turned the pillow right side out and sewed on my buttons. The hardest part was going to Walmart to buy buttons-don't do that ladies unless you have to the selection was-to say the least- disappointing.

I also started making a lumbar pillow. but it is not yet finished.

So Basically yesterday was pillow making day.

Color and dishes

Remember yesterday when I mentioned my mismatched colorful clearance isle dishes?

Here they are! (Well three of them-the rest are tucked into the cabinets).

I love the color that a few patterned dishes add to space. Like flowers after winter it’s so exciting and stimulating.  

Aren’t kids wonderful?! I get to be with mine all day-and a lot of the times I am up with them at night too. Somehow the moments of shear exhaustion at 2 am become the most precious memories.

Its those memories that standout in my mind like colored dishes in a (mostly) white kitchen.

(I know, I know,  I wrapped those two topics together pretty smoothly didn’t I?)

Happy Wednesday world.

Eat in Diner

I have always thought that phrase would be funny to hang in a kitchen. So I finally made a sign for myself. I just painted over a different sign I already had.

I painted the whole sign and then traced out letter by letter the phrase and filled it in with paint.

I used frog tape to help with the border I did around the edge.

When I was about finished I decided to free hand a few details to the border for fun.

Let the paint dry completely.

Sand gently and apply the stain taking off  as much as you can. You could also use a dark wax for this part.

Once the sign has dried it is ready to hang.

Did I ever talk about my dining area? I really like to collect colorful dishes even as I have my off white obsession. . My dishes are off white except my mismatched collection. I have a rule with colorful printed salad plates, I never by matching salad plates; it’s kind of a game I have. In the end they all coordinate because I choose pattern and solid colors. I usually only buy one at a time- the game is really about finding one salad plate I like in the Clarence section.  There is something about the mis-matched-ness of all the plates that says to me-yep I am fun and colorful! 

The good,the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So the other day a found out some good and bad and good news. The bad news is that  some very good friends of ours are moving, the good news is that they are moving because she got a really good job. The other good news was that they had a vintage couch they wanted to give me.

Last week she texted me some pictures and after thinking it over and talking we decided No the sofa-love seat was not for us. We Wanted a chaise lounge for the living room and the love seat would be too deep for the window in the master. 

*Excuse my poor drawing I drew this  quickly so you could see what we had in mind originally.

 The weekend came and we went to RC Willy just to scout out some fun thins and relax. By the end of the day I was having a pity party about the house. I decided to call my friend and see if I could just go over to her place and take a look at the love seat (even though I had already rejected their offer) She had not found anyone else to take it and was very willing to have me come see it. Yep when I saw it in person and sat on it I made up my mind. We took it home that evening.

You know how I feel about classic traditional furnishings-they never go out of style and they are beautiful.

Let’s just say that we got very lucky-or blessed.  It is vintage and very well made it was her parents and they had had it reupholstered years ago and then given to her when she got married. It is very nice. And although I do see why it needs reupholstered again I washed all of the cushion covers  and soon I will rent an upholstery cleaner and use that on all my furnishings. I will keep the sofa love seat as it is for now because it is really a great color for my living room and my kids will ruin the fabric eventually so I might as well start where I am at.  Thank you dear friend you know who you are! It is perfect for our house and very comfy.

 Here you see that my boys are hard at work breaking it in.

So that was the good the good and the bad but what about the ugly?

Well its gone! This afternoon I finally finished painting the hallways! Good bye mauve paint color hello linen white!

So this picture looks not too bad but trust me- when the sun was setting this hall was PINK. Not the good kind either.

Ah doesn't that look brighter?!

* The color is linen white by bher.

One project down...

I finished the couch finally! Yeah! Okay I am not actually finished yet, I still have to put on the trim and hand stitch the seams. But the BIG stuff is done! I am excited to say that the glorified hallway that for the last few weeks was a huge mess of unfinished couch is now finally its own room! The room has not changed too much as far as what was in there before, the old entry table is gone and the woven rug is gone too. We were sorry to get rid of the rug but it was so done, when I took it up to clean it was clear to me and my husband and my mother (who had been over) that it was time for it to go. So we have a small rug in the room now that is a temporary place holder. I need to get curtains and the new rung in there and then hopefully I can work on the small details and let it be for a while until after I repaint the kitchen and upstairs bathroom (yikes that will be work). The main living room is still in progress I have been fussing and regretting over it for the last few days. When I planned the room I wanted white white white, but I have two small boys and a lot less energy for cleaning then white furniture (slip covered or not) requires. I decided instead to have gold toned chairs instead because it was light and I could not find any thing I liked in gray. Then when time for the couch rolled around I debated with a cream color to match the chairs and still be almost white, but the kids where with me that day in the fabric store and I just could not do it. I knew that they would just cover it with stains so I decided on a lighter blue color because it is darker and hopefully it will hide more.

My only fuss is just that I still droll of pictures in magazines and blogs of all white furniture. Beautiful! But I think its best for me to except that unless I want to commit to that much cleaning I should be happy with leather and colors.

living room

Here

 Here is what this room looked like when we moved in. Yes it really was as yellow as it looked. In fact it was yellower. It was not at all the happy yellow you hope for, more like a bad daycare yellow.
finally several months later i was able to repaint and do a little bit of decorating!

These chairs where nothing but some dirty old frames when i got them, and with the help of my mom and mother-in-law they became these beautiful comfy chairs, perfect for reading and chatting..

 the new wall color is Bayberry Frost by Bher. I love how peaceful it feels.

 Of course i will continue to improve and change this room as time moves on but for now i am loving the difference from that yellow to this green. :)