Refinishing and Re-upholstering a Chair {DIY Chair Project}

Here are a couple chairs that I found for SUPER cheap. The first was a set of six that I found at an estate sale through craigslist. I got all 6 for $25! The one pictured was in the worst shape.

This one I found at a consignment store for $20. I thought after I spiffed it up it could be a really cute prop when I'm taking children's portraits. I really like the turquoise velvet and it was in really good shape so all this one needed was a little paint.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the entire process so you could see the "how to" but these will have to do. The painting is really a no-brainer. I used to paint furniture with brushes and oil paint. WHAT was I thinking? That was so tedious and really so unnecessary. Ever since I've discovered the magic of spray painting furniture, I've been addicted to furniture makeovers!! I have experimented with many different brands of spray paint but I have found Rustoleum Painters Touch to be by far the best. It comes in many shades and sheens and has the most ergonomically-finger-friendly (yes, I made that up!) sprayer.

Spray painting makes things quicker and easier, but its not the greenest of options, so I always make sure to paint over everything I spray with this eco-friendly lacquer. Three thin coats. I learned that trick from my idols over on the YHL blog. Love this stuff.

So, there she is after a couple coats of spray, then some hand-sanding on the edges to give it that antiquey, weathered look and a couple layers of safecoat acrylaq.  Of course, I carefully covered all the fabric on the chair during the painting process with tape and paper and when I removed it all, she looked as good as new. Much more modern looking, don't you think?

As for the dining chairs, most of the seats were in pretty good shape, so I simply removed all the seats by unscrewing them from underneath, and recovered them with new fabric from here, pulling it taut around the edges and using a staple gun to staple it onto the back.  For the ones that needed some extra love, I bought some foam at JoAnn Fabrics (I had a coupon!) and cut it in the shape of the chair. Then I realized I needed some batting on top of the foam to give it that extra-cushiony feel and the rounded edge shape so back to JoAnn's I went. I also had to make sure to pull the fabric really really taut around the edges as I stapled around the back otherwise the cushion felt too loose and the edges looked to squared off.

Now, you could stop there if you wanted to, and simply put the seats back on the freshly painted chairs... It would look fine. But I much prefer the completely tailored look with the rolled edge around the seat....So I used the cord from the old seats and cut strips of my new fabric. Since I don't have a sewing machine, my mom sewed the new fabric over the cording for me.

When the cording was ready, I stapled it around the edge of the bottom of the seats and voila.

This baby came a LONG way, don't you think?

And here she is with her three sisters sitting around my dining room table. I am pleased with the result. What do you think?

Oh...and the little velvet gal made her way into the corner of my living room for now. I'm actually envisioning an upholstered parsons chair in that spot sometime down the road....And in case you were wondering. I got that desk at a garage sale down the street from my house for $20. It was my birthday and I had taken the day off work to go to some doctor's appointments for myself and my kids. Not the best way to spend your birthday. Anyway, I was on my way to appointment numero uno when I drove past the garage sale and spotted this desk. It was calling my name. Hopped out and asked how much. $20??? Happy Birthday to me!! Of course it didn't look exactly like this. I painted it and added glass knobs, but it was seriously love at first sight. 

That darling pewter camera was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law! Isn't it sweet? Thanks, Jeff! Its from Z Gallerie. The lamp was a great find at TJ Maxx and the painting is an original by yours truly. I know, I know, its pretty amateur. I don't claim to be a painter. Its sort of a "place-holder" of sorts until I find something better to go there. I made this masterpiece during a friend's bachelorette party at one of those cool wine and painting places in Chicago. Bottle and Botega. So fun. Wine and art. What could be better? I got the frame at a consignment shop near my house. Actually, I bought a framed painting for $10, but I bought it for the frame. It was dark wood so I just spray painted it with several coats of high gloss black.  What have you painted lately? Do you prefer spray or brushing on paint? Do you drink wine when you paint? Wine makes everything more fun, don't ya think?

Master Bedroom Progress

So its been a loooooong time since I've posted and its not because I am a slacker. Really, I'm not. I mean I wish my days had more than 24 hours and I could fit it all in, but I just can't. And I am not a slacker. I swaer. Since I last posted I have photographed and edited four weddings and at least a dozen family photo sessions, completed countless home improvement and diy projects, organized four closets and completely revamped my photography blog and website. Oh and did I mention that I also work full time as a teacher AND I had a baby this summer?! So much has changed in our lives and in our house since we've moved in... So...get posting already, right??

Okay okay, but just let me preface the following post with this....I have a problem. The perfectionist in me takes over and I don't want to share what I've done or post before and after pictures of ANYTHING until the room is completely finished.  However, I am finally beginning to realize that one is NEVER completely finished with their home. There is always something that needs to be done. And many times what needs to be done can break the bank! For example-- the new windows that we are getting in a few weeks!! --MUCHO DINERO, but I can't WAIT!!-- and that makes me feel SO old. Seriously. I will be like a kid on Christmas morning on the day we get these windows. Is that weird?  But as I was saying, there is always something one can change to make a house more of a home. I don't ever plan to be done.  I want to always find ways to fill my home with things that have meaning for us and empty out the things that don't.  I'm learning that it's more about the journey....SO, the perfectionist in me needs to say the following pictures will show improvement....but we've got a long way to go. And I do have a vision. Maybe you can see it too?

Let's start with the master bedroom today.


So here was our master bedroom when we bought the house:

And here it was right after we moved in:

Pathetic, huh?

Ay yay yay. That's what I say to my students when something just isn't right. And this ain't right. Do you see that mirror leaning in the corner? That's one of those cheapo target mirrors that I got back in college. I think I painted that design around the frame to "spiff" it up about 10 years ago. I think its about time we get a nice full length mirror, don't you? And yikes, doesn't that dresser look a little small for that space? I do love that dresser. I got it at a consignment shop called Legacies Limited about 8 or 9 years ago. I painted it white, back when I used oil (SO not necessary anymore) and added the knobs which I bought from this awesome artist.  So I moved this dresser to Lucia's room (now both girls' room) and I put the dresser that I originally had in the dining room here.

Better, right? But still not done. I plan to hang the mirror, mount the TV (which involves cutting holes in the wall to hide the cords or it would be done already!), find a way to conceal the cable box and DVR and hang some art. Better, but not done. Will let you know when this wall is El Finito.

So next we have this view. Found a rug and some lamps from Marshall's and some pillows to add some more color and texture to the space. The pillows are from Target and the Foundary and the pillow shams are from West Elm.

Next I added these curtains from Target. I had to order them online to get the length I needed since they don't sell the 96" length in the store. I still need to put up new curtain rods. These were cheap ones that were left by the previous owners. I have some nicer ones but I don't want to hang them until after I paint this room. Haven't decided on a color yet. Probably something beigey or creamy gold. Hmm. Actually neither of those sound good right now...so now you know half the reason why I haven't painted this room yet. The other half is I haven't found the time. Anyway. Rods. Plan to hang them after I paint. Will also hang some bamboo shades for some more texture.

Let's talk about that big girl mirror that you see here. LOVE her. This is one serious solid wood leaning wall mirror. Nothing like that little baby you saw in the other corner when we first moved in. And would you believe she was only $119??!! I am not kidding. I searched for SO long for a big beautiful floor mirror and I couldn't find anything less than $800 except for this baby. She is from IKEA and boy was it an experience to get her. Since we don't have and IKEA in Milwaukee (One of the only reasons you'll hear me say "BOO, Milwaukee!") I asked my mom to pick this up for us at the IKEA in Minneapolis. She gave it a good ol' college try and couldn't fit it in her car. For some reason, I didn't understand why...until the hubs and I made the trip down to the IKEA in Chicago with our JEEP commander and this baby barely fit and I mean BARE.LY. Hubby drove with the steering wheel up in his chest. But we got her home and I HEART her. Hmm. Just realized this picture isn't very recent because this is still a queen bed here...and last February my dream of slumbering in a king bed came true. Every night in a king bed. Dream. Come. True. Note to self. Photograph king bed.

Finally, here is a quick shot of some DIY art I created. Maps of Wisconsin, Mexico and Italy (Where we met, where we married and where we honeymooned) cut out in hearts and mounted on scrapbook paper). I like how they turned out but I am thinking of moving them somewhere else in the room. I'll let you guess where.

Has anyone else made some cool DIY art lately? Or driven over a hundred miles with the steering wheel in their ribs to get a big girl mirror?

Lucia's Room Updates {Girl's Bedroom Makeover}

So, some things have definitely changed since we first moved in and completed our very first home makeover in Lucia's room.   Let's take a look back and see the before and after from back in January 2011.

The first big update was the new girly girl chandelier that I added shortly after the makeover. I love the ceiling medallion, which cost nothing because we brought it from our first house after the tenant switched out a light fixture and gave it back to us. The chandelier I got for $60.44 on Overstock with free shipping. I added the little pink shades, which I think I also scored on Overstock.

Then early last fall when Lucia started jumping out of her crib, we had to act fast and get her into a "big girl bed." I actually inherited this beautiful twin bed, a family heirloom which belonged to my step-dad's grandmother. I have been waiting for the day when I my sweet little ladybug could use it. So, while the little jumping bean was giving us a run for our money, I was one part frustrated mommy, one part thrilled decorator.  When I first inherited this beauty, it was painted a white-washed green color. I painted it with a high gloss white oil paint to get this shabby chic yet sleek look.

I heart this "big girl" room!

While I am quite happy with this room now and my little ladybug is too, there are still some minor changes that I need to make (painting the vent to match the wall so it doesn't stick out like a soar thumb, and ORBing the hardware on the doors and windows) AND some major ones too. Most importantly we need to rearrange to make room for baby #3, who we learned back in February is another girl! We're all dying to meet her and Lucia is very excited to share her room with her new baby sister.  I have also been dreaming of painting a white tree in here, because I SO miss the beautiful tree I painted in the nursery at the old house with help from a dear friend. I am thinking it will go on the wall to the right of the closet. However, I am quite certain the very next step is going to have to be organizing the closet to make room for all the teeny tiny clothes and other baby stuff our new little peanut will need.

My inspiration for this project comes from here and here and here. I am LOVING the ribbon chandelier, the curtain in place of a door and the painted and stenciled walls from my favorite blog, Young House Love!

Here's how crazy and unorganized the closet looks now:

STAY TUNED while I organize and hopefully DIY this into a beautiful little space.

Cheery and Bright {Dining Room Makeover}

This was my dining room shortly after I moved in...

Just about the only thing I added that wasn't there when we moved in, were the chandelier shades and the brown velvet and white sheer tab top curtains that I brought with from our old place. I knew those were only a temporary fix at the time because I was not a fan of the dark colors in the curtains and  walls that make the room feel blah and boring.  You may also remember the chair rails are not my favorite, but the previous owners put them everywhere in this house....and since the ones in this room are high quality, I've decided on a way I just may be able to live with them...

So, this past Saturday at about 4:00pm, I got an itch and I decided I was going to paint the dining room to get myself halfway to my big dining room "fix."

So this is how the dining room looked when I took down the curtain rods, removed all the switch plates (which someone actually painted!-YUK!) filled and sanded all the holes and moved the furniture out. 

The painting actually took me longer than planned. I was up until close to 3:00 am because did I had to do one coat of primer plus three coats of paint to cover the awful dark brown and I also did two coats on top.  I also had to do 2-3 coats on the trim to get a nice even look. For the paint, I chose Olympic paint from Lowe's because its rated environmentally Zero VOC and still fairly inexpensive at $25 per gallon. I chose "Delicate White" for the bottom half of the room and the trim, which happens to be the same color we used for the trim in the adjacent Family Room, that you can see a peek of in this photo.  My ultimate plan is to add equally spaced squares of trim around the bottom half to look like molding, like you see here or here.  I'm contemplating also adding a stencil all over the top. Sounds strange but its actually really beautiful if you use a different sheen of the same color.  I used Olympic "Secret Passage" gray in eggshell and I would use the Semi-gloss or Gloss version of the same color for the stencil. My inspiration for this is from here but I want to do a somewhat funkier and elaborate design like you can see here.

Anyway....here is the "halfway-there-dining-room-fix" after my paint job and after adding my GORGEOUS new curtains from etsy found here. Of course I hung them high and wide, which everyone should do if they want their ceilings to look higher and their windows to look bigger. This is decorating 101. I also got some pillows to match, which are on the wicker chairs now, but hadn't made their way there just yet when I took these photos.  I LOVE how bright and cheery it is in this room now. It seriously makes me smile. 

It's all coming together nicely and now my bright yellow buffet, which you may also remember from this post, looks like it was absolutely born to live right there.

The mirror I got on major clearance for $50, marked down from $350 at Pier1 because it had a couple cracks. They were pretty easy to fix and not very noticeable so I snatched it up. I love it here. They fit nicely with the pair of lamps I snagged at TJ Maxx on sale for $25 each.

The white chairs were one of my refinishing projects, also found on craigslist for a major steal. I think I got 6 chairs for $25...and these are totally solid, high quality chairs. Did I mention that I also "ORBed" all the hardware in this room? I plan to "ORB" all the brass hardware in this house at some point. Yes, that is a verb and yes, Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint is my best friend.  I used it on the hardware on the built-in china cabinet, which was bronze, pre-makeover and the finials of the curtain rod, which were an awful brassy, reddish design. I love the result. Polished. Cheery. Bright.

Beautifying a Bathroom {Bathroom Makeover}

So my hallway bathroom wasn't in the WORST shape when we moved in, but it definitely wasn't the least bit cheery either:

Blah, I know. And its only taken me a year to finally get around to doing something about it. There was nothing major that needed to be done. The toilet, sink, tub and fixtures are all Kohler and in excellent shape. The tile isn't what I would choose, but its not bad. Nonetheless, I knew this bathroom doesn't need a complete remodel, but rather simply, just a mini-makeover to bring it up to speed. I've had a plan in mind for awhile. I knew I had to get rid of those awful side-by-side medicine cabinets and replace them with a giant mirror. Yuk. Not only are they rather ugly but the corner of one is chipped and it makes me crazy looking at it. So did this eyesore:

It didn't look like that when we moved in, but it did have too leaky faucet valves (as did the master bath)! I don't know how the previous owners could stand it. Every time we turned on the water in both bathrooms, the faucet valves leaked at the base and pool water all over the top of the sink, leaving that nasty build-up over time. So after six months and several blunders with getting Kohler to send us the correct parts, and a couple no-show events from our favorite plumber, we finally found a new plumber to come fix the valves. He removed the sink in order to do so, which left that eyesore that you can see in the previous photo. I finally had enough of looking and that and the blah beige walls seen here:

So I made the trip out to Lowe's--(can you believe they keep closing the ones near me??) and picked up some caulk and a gallon of Zero VOC Olypmic Paint in Serendipty Semi-Gloss Finish and I was on my way. After 4 hours or so, I arrived at this:

After painting and getting those medicine cabinets out we were left with a giant hole in the wall, of course. Thank goodness my giant mirror covers the whole thing. No need to drywall. :) Also--check out my studly hubby, helping me with the drilling and heavy lifting. The mirror was another craiglist find that also came from the estate sale where I got this dresser. I think I only paid about $10 for it. It came with the dresser that I bought for $25... so I guess technically, if I paid $25 for the dresser, the mirror was actually free. It was super dark and dated wood, so I just painted it white and distressed it to give it a shabby chic feel.

My sister gave me this set of frames years ago as a gift. The colors scheme fit perfectly in here, so I just updated it with some bathroom photos of the kids in black and white.

The darling Good Morning Sunshine print on the left is from a shop called Gus and Lula on etsy. LOVE etsy.

The other print is some DIY art that I made myself after seeing something similar on Pinterest. Its the dates of all of our birthdays with our anniversary in the middle. I love making my own art. Makes it more meaningful.

So that's it. My cheery bathroom makeover. Did I mention I also DIYed the little step-stool too, by decoupaging some pretty scrapbook paper on top?Let's look at the before and after one more time. No more blah beige walls. I'm happy. Sigh.

Ch-ch-changes {Painting an Old Buffet from Craiglist}

So I found this old buffet on Criagslist for $125 but I talked the guy down to $75 because as you can see it was in pretty rough shape. He actually included delivery to my house in the price, but the timing didn't work out right and he delivered it when I wasn't home. It sat outside in the rain for an hour or so and the side of the buffet warped from all the water. So I mailed the guy my check but asked if he would consider giving me $25 back given that I bought it sight unseen all because he didn't arrive when he said he would. So he did. Mailed me a check right back for $25! Bam. An awesome antique buffet for $50.

Not that I didn't have to put quite a bit of TLC into it, but it didn't actually take the long to get it looking like this:

I HEART her. Did I mention I used Rustoleum Painter's Touch Satin Summer Squash spray paint? Then I of course painted over that with my faovrite eco-friendly lacquer, Safecoat Acrylacq to seal in the toxic spray paint fumes. I LOVE the turquoise on the inside of the cabinets and the sides of the drawers. Its such a fun surprise when you open her up to peek inside.

And I also lined the drawers with pretty paper. When I have time I am going to decoupage it in permanently and of course paint over that with my favorite, Safecoat Acrylaq.

Oh and remember the old dresser that I refabbed that used to live right here in my dining room. Well, she found a new home in my bedroom. She's a perfect fit:

Painting a Wood Dresser or Buffet {Furniture Refab}

So I got this beauty for $25 at an estate sale that I found on Craigslist! The day I purchased this was probably my most successful thrifting experience of all time. For $110 I got 6 dining chairs, two beautiful mirrors and two long, solid dressers. I bought this one for $25 and the guy was so eager to rid himself of the other one that he threw in the second identical one for $15! I gave it to a friend, but am actually kicking myself for not keeping it. You can see from this before photo that it was old, ugly and outdated. Nothing a little paint and some new (or even "refreshed") hardware can't fix....

This piece was actually in such great shape (no dings or scratches at all!) that I didn't even have to sand it down before priming. First I removed all the hardware and hinges and then I used Rustoleum's Painters Touch White Primer to prime the whole thing, inside and out.

Next I painted the sides of the drawers and insides of the cabinet doors and the faces of the cabinet drawers with Rustoleum Summer Squash yellow, giving the insides a sunny feel and a nice surprise when opened. It took about 3 coats of spray to get the right amount of coverage. Next I used Rustoleaum's High Performance Gloss White all over the outside of the dresser, again with about 3-4 coats of coverage. However, if I had it to do all over again, I would have used Rustoleum's Painter's Touch Gloss White, mostly because the spray tip is more ergonomically comfortable on the finger to use. Next, to seal the deal (and the nasty spray paint fumes) , the entire dresser, inside and out, got a coat of my favorite eco-friendly lacquer: Safecoat Acrylaq.

To refresh the old, brassy hardware, I sprayed my favorite Oil-Rubbed Bronze, (ORB) which I had left over from my Family Room built-in project.

Next for the bottoms of the drawers, I used scrapbook paper in shades and patterns of white, cream, beige and yellow and decoupaged the bottom of each drawer with a decoupage paste that I picked up from Michaels. Each drawer was customized with its own unique pattern-- So fun and my favorite part of the final product. I followed that up with a coat of Safecoat Acqrylaq and Voila:

For now, this piece has found a home in my dining room as a buffet, but I just picked up another piece (found on Craiglist or course!) that I will refab for use as a buffet and this beauty will take up residence in my bedroom and rediscover its identity as a dresser.