1st attempt at reupholstery and some helpful hints!

Well, I've finally completed it! I was hoping to post the before picks (I did actually take them), but our hard drive crashed and now they're gone :( My hubby is slowly getting pics off the old hard drive, but I wanted to put this up without waiting too long.

Anyhow, it was a pretty ambitious project, I have to say, for a first attempt. And although there are things that are a little shoddy, I've learned from them, and you can't see them right away either.

I got this material a while ago at a design fabric store that was closing their location and I lucked out and only paid 30% of the price. Not 30% off, I paid 30%! Don't we all live for deals like that? :) I was originally going to paint it to look like grain sacks, but then I thought, what if I hate that in 5/10 years? So, I'm going to put the more trendy stuff on the pillow I'll be doing next. If I could easily afford another chair, I would just go for it, but for us cheapskates ... :)

Anyhow, here's the final product - Voila!























I did manage to get a picture of a piece of fabric that came off it (just imagine the whole thing in this with really shiny legs):

And, yes, the whole thing was that dirty.

So, there are a lot of tutorials on this topic out there in blogland. The gist of it is take lots of pics/videos/notes and pay attention while you're taking it apart.

But, here are some things I learned (from many mistakes) that I haven't really seen in a lot of tutorials that I've read....


1. So you're using the old pieces as patterns to cut out the new ones? Good for you - make sure to cut them AT LEAST an inch bigger! Especially if there are curves on your chair. You can (and will) cut off excess after it's stapled on.

2. Along the same lines, if there are little cutouts in the old material, wait to cut them out until you start putting it on the chair and you can see EXACTLY where it should go.

3. Be careful with larger weave material, it's going to fray a LOT easier! Just plan that and maybe cut just a little more than that extra inch. And get some seam sealer!

4. Even if you think the seams will not show (when sewing the welting or cushion), don't use contrasting thread. It sounds super obvious, but I didn't think it would show, that's what was in my sewing machine and I lazily didn't want to change it. But, when I sit it pulls the material away just enough to see the black thread. Classy :)

5. To take the staples out, I ended up using a phillips screwdriver and needlenose plyers. I loosened them with the screwdriver first (as many in a row as I could), then went along with the plyers.

6. Number the pieces as they come off and write on the old material. Also, draw which direction faces up, front, etc.

7. If you decide to do nailhead trim - way to be ambitious! :) These are actually not to bad (not nearly the love/hate relationship I had with the curve-ease). If you start hammering it in and the head isn't exactly in line, you can gently hammer at an angle until it is in line.  I didn't use a marker (I didn't want it to show up), but if you have one of those fabric markers that dissapear, just draw a straight line.
















The bottom line wasn't too hard, but if you do a second one, or the first one isn't directly along the bottom, here's what I did:

Measure between the two lines, then go out 8-10 spaces and measure the height difference and put that in, then you can visually check the line as you further along.

But, you do have to be willing to take them out if it isn't working. Like, when I looked at the left-hand side and realized I actually wanted the right hand side,

And end up with a pile of unusable brads like this

To end up with the end-goal you want.

On the arms, they had used finishing nails or something to attach it (you have to put the material around the little insert and then connect it to the front of the chair. I didn't have access to one. So, I just used the brads to hold it in place.

I wanted to do the second row along the bottom to do something a little differently (I was inspired by a  chair on Restoration Hardware). Plus, because that first row was right in line with the bottom, you couldn't really tell. Here's a close up of the nailhead trim:

You also get a good look at the legs. I just sanded off the old stuff and got a sample-size paint at Home Depot (paint for $2.50? sure!) Then distressed it with sandpaper. Then lightly sanded over the rest of the paint as well to kind of blend it all together.

Overall, I'd say it turned out pretty darn good for a first attempt and all those blasted curves!

I knew for sure it was pretty good when my hubby (whom I married because I loved his willingness to be honest even when it would be easier to offer noncommital placations) tried to claim it as only his to sit on!

Linking up to:

Baby Girl's room wall "mural"

My baby girl's room has a 13 foot wall behind her crib. What on earth do you do with that? I had seen the paper flowers, also the paper butterflies out in blogland, but figured it needed just a little extra something. At first I thought about a cute quote. But, then I saw people turning their pictures into sillhouettes and framing those. I used that as a springboard for this....

So, first I used my super nice neighbor's cricket to cut out LOTS of different size flowers from paper I bought at Michael's (LOVE that store!) and also butterflies (on sparkly white paper). I took a marker and rolled the edges of the flowers in so they would have some dimension.

Then I had my wonderful hubby take a picture of our baby girl walking toward me, then traced the outline on a peice of tracing paper (moving, adding, cuting out what I wanted)

I learned that tracing paper will not work on a projector and didn't care to spend money on projector sheets. So I glued the tracing paper to some scrap paper and cut it out, then taped it to the projector...

And traced it on my MDF board from Home Depot.

Then used another super nice neighbor's scroll saw to cut it out. Because it was so tall, I had to cut it in half. I haven't used one of these since 7th grade shop (where I learned how to get the nice boys to do the projects for me) :) So, I was pleasently surprised when I didn't completely ruin it (it just might have helped that I said a prayer beforehand, "Heavenly Father, I can't afford to buy another MDF board right now, so please bless that I won't royally mess this up, Amen")

I painted it Antique White (I just used Acryllic paint) and cut out paper from the same pad I used for the flowers to resemble the "clothes", which I mod podged on. I changed the jacket material to match the skirt, it just looked better. Then I put ribbon on to distinguish a bit and used the same ribbon for a headband, with one of the smaller flowers and a larger stone/gem thing in the middle. Then I just put a layer of Varnish over all of it for a bit of protection.

My 4-year old got a hold of the camer and took a picture of me :)

I was wracking my brain how to hang up the sillhouette because most screws for stuff are too long and would go right through. Well, I was looking at Walmart (yes, I do shop there) and they had these cool velcro things to hang stuff up with. Perfect! I didn't want to rip all the paint off the wall, so I attached a small sheet of paper with my pushpins (I added more than shown in this photo), then put the velcro together and stuck it on the paper. THEN I stuck the sillhouette on top so the velcro would be lined up perfectly.

Then came the fun part... I used flat topped white pushpins to attatch all the flowers and butterflies (they blended in with the butterflies and were like the "middle" of the flowers) and just kind of started putting them on and stepping back every now and then to make sure the were following the general shape I wanted them.

I couldn't get a pic of the whole wall at once, so hopefully you can see where they overlap. But here's the finished project.....

Here are the link parties I've linked up to:

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/04/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-ladybug.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20blogspot/OivM%20(Tatertots%20and%20Jello)






















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Spring Wreath

I didn't take any pictures of putting it together because a) it's hard enough for me to do any projects with the girls awake, let alone trying to also take pictures of it and b) it's pretty self-explanatory.

Design Home Fabrics 70% off!!!

If you are in the Salt Lake Valley, I would suggest you stop off at Design Company Fabrics at 196 W 12300 S - they will be closing that location and EVERYTHING in stock at that store is 70% off! Which means I got enough of this fabric to reupholster the chair I just bought on KSL and it only cost me $5.69/yd for fabric that is normally $18.95/yd!

















And this fabric for some curtains in Ava's room for only $2.09/yd

















AND this (which I would have gotten more of had they more there) for only $3.58/yd (ususally $11.95/yd). I think I want to use it with some coordinating fabric to make a bedspread for our bed. It's a far more subtle color than in this pic, much more of a dusty purple, but beautiful!!!

Basically, I got $181 worth of fabric for $55 plus tax! The lady said the owner is going to try to keep it open until the end of February, but will take it on a week to week basis. If nobody comes in, they'll just clos

e it down.

So.... what are you waiting for? Seriously, how often do you think you'll find a sale like this?!

My $3 Valentine's wreath

Did you know burlap comes in red? Isn't that just awesome! So, this isn't really an original idea, by any means - I saw it on a few of the many (MANY!) blogs I follow.
I got a yard of burlap at JoAnns, which at $1 off/yard, was only $2.00 plus tax, and cut it into 3-inch strips. Then cut a wire hanger and shaped it into as close a heart shape as I could. I took the strips of burlap and folded them like an accordian (folding every 2.5-3 inches) and one at a time poked the hanger through the middle of the folds until they covered the whole thing. And it looked like this:















Hmmmmm... I couldn't even tell it was a heart. It just looked like a big mess. So, I took it down pulled the material off and cut all the strips in half vertically (so they were only about 1.5 inches in width), then again folded them like an accordian, but the folds every inch-inch and a half. Reshaped the hanger and put the burlap back on. Then where I had to secure the hanger together (In the top middle) I wrapped burlap around that a few times to define it a bit more and ended up with this:





















Markedly better, don't you think? Though I think next year, I'll use two hangers and make it a larger heart, it looks a bit small on the door.

New shelves in my daughter's room

Wow! Has it been a long time, or what? Good grief. So, in keeping with the title of this blog, I'm sure nobody cares, but here are some pics of the shelves I painted for my little 4-year-old girl. I always hear about these great deals everyone else gets, and finally got one myself. These shelves were in the Clearance aisle at Michael's for only $3 each! I just used acryllic paint and painted a bold color first (one green and one dark red), then painted over that with antique white and sanded. On the top I just mod podged some scrapbook paper cut to size, then put two layers of varnish over it.
My only beef is if you look close (you can't see it in the pics) you can see the seam where the two papers meet. And on a note of awwwww... those flowers are the first flowers my hubby gave me when we were dating. Everyone together now... awwwwwww. :)