Year end review

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  Although we have been fighting colds and such, we were able to enjoy our Christmas.  I'll be sharing with you my big presents that I'm sure will provide the means to create much to post about for the future.  But before looking forward, I thought I would highlight some of my favorite projects from 2011.

Cream Desk (my first sale)

French Dining chair Redo

Reupholstered Settee

Little boy blue desk 

Union Jack dresser

Rustic Red Cabinet

 

French Barrel Back Chairs 

Coffee table turned bench 

Box turned mail tray 

Laminate chest 

Just some my favorite redo's from this year!  I'm excited about starting on new projects to share with you soon!

Sharing at:

  

Merry Christmas

Well, we are almost done with our pink eye medicine.  Now, we have a fever in the house.  Also, two of us sound like we are going to cough up a lung.  So, I wanted to send you an early Merry Christmas because we are going to to get some r & r around here.  You'll hear from me after Christmas.  This is for you:

French lovelies

Are you sitting down?  I'm finally going to reveal the chairs I've been posting about.  I know that in blog land we just like a quick before and after.  But let's be realistic people, it takes time to do projects (especially when they sit for 2 weeks).  So, let me refresh your memory. 

Before:

After:

They look so fresh and fit soooo much better.  Don't you think?  I think this might be one of the best upholstery jobs yet out of a total of 5 chairs and 1 settee.  I even tried to mimic all of the seams that the previous upholsterer had done.  I love my double welting foot.  The double welting just finishes it off perfectly.  I don't even think that the fabric looks like drop cloths.    It took forever to find just the right color of drop cloths, more taupe than oatmeal. 

So, there you have it.  My french lovelies are done!!!

I'm linking up over at:

   

 

An angel for Christmas

I interrupt the progress on the reupholstering for a little decor makeover.  I have an big, lovely empty frame above my mantel.  I was trying to figure out what to put in other than a wreath.  I stumbled upon this angel at Goodwill. 

I like it just not the color.  Can you guess what color I painted it?  Yes, not a big surprise.  White!  It took 2 coats of Annie Sloan's Pure White.  I'm liking it.

Here is where the angel now resides for the Christmas season.  Just love how she is floating.  I used fishing line to hang it from the frame to avoid putting another hole in the wall.

Thought I would give you my nighttime view.

Sharing over at:

Almost there

I know I have been a bad blogger of late.  If you have still stuck around, I'll share some more work done on my chairs.  Last you saw, they looked like this:

I got my trusty 50 cent flea market electric knife for cutting my foam and a new slab of foam.  I traced the old foam and cut away. 

Next, I used my pneumatic stapler, which I love by the way, and stapled in the foam.

As you can see from above, I already did the seat decking.  I used the previous fabric as a template.  You can see that the fabric below had three pieces.  I decided I should do this too.  I don't know if it is because the fabric bolt was not wide enough or because of the pattern repeat.  Needless to say, I'm not a professional like the last person to upholster this chair.  So, I better just follow his/her lead.  Oh, don't worry, I did iron the fabric before I cut out the pieces :)

That is all you get for today.  Hope you are having a great holiday season so far!

It's been a long time

Sorry for my absence.  I fully intended to post daily to keep you abreast of my reupholstering progress but a funny little thing called life just happened.  My aunt fell ill and passed over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Since then, I just wanted to enjoy my family and all of my blessings.

Now that I will be having some gal pals over for a craft date, I can't really have them walk in the door and be greeted by this, can I??

I know.  What a mess!  You can tell that I have peeled away the bottom seat and the batting and foam from the back of the seat.  I am currently in the process of washing the drop cloths that I have decided to reupholster the chairs with.  I like how nubby the fabric feels.  What I didn't count on was all of the slight variations of an oatmeal color the drop cloths come in.  I decided to go with the darkest I could find.  I'll show you how I map out my pieces once my drop cloth are washed and dried.  Until then...

Piece by piece

Since I can't look back with the barrel back chairs, I have no where to go but forward.  Time to start taking off the upholstery piece by piece. 

First, you have to peel off the back.

So far, so good.  Once the fabric is off, I took off the cotton batting to check out the back.  If you notice, I set aside the fabric and batting.  The fabric I will use as a template for the new fabric.  I will reuse the batting seeing that it is in good condition. 

Now I can start tackling the front back of the chair. 

And there you have it.  My progress since I am only using the time that my daughter is at preschool.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Isn't that how the saying goes?  Until tomorrow ladies...

No turning back now!

You may be thinking, where  I have been (or not)?  To be honest.  For the past week, I have been utterly lazy.  I haven't had the desire to do much of anything.  I take that back, I did do a little getting my booth ready for the holidays.  Nothing like taking a jump to get yourself out of a lazy slump.

Remember these chairs? 

I think the consensus was to paint the wood white and proceed with upholstering with a drop cloth.  Today I decided to get the process started.  First thing I did was pulled off the cording.  I have learned from past projects that you really want to be careful not to pull the cording too hard and rip the fabric since I needed to use the fabric for a template when I go to upholster it.

Once the cording was off, I needed to paint.  I sanded the frame and spray painted the primer.  I love how fast this went.  I followed it up with two coats of a satin white latex.  So, here they are at the point where I now can't turn back.  Nothing like spray paint on fabric to make you want to actually get the project done instead of letting them sit and sit and sit. 

Now that I have shared my first step, perhaps this will hold me accountable to make progress on a daily basis.  I may give the chairs a gray wash to tone down the white.  What do you think? 

I'll be back tomorrow to share whatever progress, big or small, that I make.  Hope you'll stay tuned.

French chest

I opened my mailbox Saturday and my order of chalk paint had arrived.  I had been eagerly awaiting its arrival.  I had this little french chest I purchased off of Craig's list. 

It is a chest of laminated pressed wood loveliness.  I knew that since chalk paint is supposed to stick to any thing, I wanted to put it to the test.  My goal of course was to make it look like an old piece.  I did two coats of Aubusson blue under a coat of Paris Grey.  I have to say the Aubusson blue was shocking for me.  The color is different in real life than on my computer screen.  I was much happier once the Paris Grey went on.  Okay, I will be honest.  I have an extremely hard time with change.  So, painting the piece other than a white kinda makes me twitch.  I have commit issues what can I say?!  Enough blah, blah, blahing and on to the reveal.

I don't care for the existing knobs and handles but replacing them seems like it could be challenging and cost money.  Before I go, I wanted to share where it is currently residing.

Some of you that have follow me, might recognize those chairs.  They are next on the project list.  I just need your help.  First, should I paint the chair frames?  Next, I would love a neutral linen but who really wants to pay $35/yd for the good stuff?  Don't get me wrong.  I would love it but just can't seem to justify paying it.  So, what do you think my options should be?  Love to hear your thoughts.  Hoping to working on the chairs after reading your advice.  Ironically, I drafted this post earlier and just saw Miss Mustard Seed post on chairs that are almost identical.  Pop over there to get an idea of what they would look like neutral. 

I'm sharing my little french chest over at: