Sunday, October 20, 2013

Desk Chair Make-Over

I am so proud of this project!! When my sister and I were in the fourth grade, our parents bought us bedroom furniture. The dressers are still in use but my mom wanted to throw out the desk chairs. Before I moved, I grabbed them, wanting to try to fix them up. I knew there could be more life lived with them.

They were originally off white, with a gold seat cushion.  They were pretty tired looking.


I gave them both a light sanding and a good wipe down.


I had to google how to get the cushions off.  Who knew it was so easy??  You just flip the chair over and in each corner there is a screw hole.  Take the screws out and put them in a safe place.




I measured the cushions, added four inches to the sides and picked some fabric.  That was the hardest part!  So many pretty choices but I ended up picking this. Then I brought it over to the spray paint section to decided what I wanted..


I placed the fabric down, put the cushion on top and stapled it with The Husband's gun.


So easy!!


Then I took the spray paint, I went with a glossy, brown tone and sprayed away!


Each chair took two coats which was almost 3 cans of paint.  If you look closely, you might see a couple of drips....



I am very happy with the results!  Even my mom asked if she could have them back.  They are now in my craft room to replace the folding chairs I usually use.

This project was less than $10.00.  The fabric was $2.50 and I had gotten one of the cans of paint for free.  Not bad for 2 "new" chairs.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

sign with a sentiment

A few weeks? months? ago I saw this somewhere on the internet and fell in love.


How true is this saying? When the kids were little and they'd play with mud, color themselves with chalk, paint and food.  Well, they still are covered with food.  Even now, we come in filthy after a hike or camping or....eating.  Anyway, I loved the sentiment and thought the clothesline was cute.  I am a fan of a clothesline....

I had wished I could paint something like this but I am not a painter.  After awhile it came to me....I could use my Cricut and half-ass the project on my own terms.

I bought a canvas, picked some colors and went to work.  I arranged it the way I wanted, used some Modge Podge to adhere it to the canvas and ended up with this....



Things I learned?  If you Modge Podge over pencil, you can't erase it.  I would also have used smaller sized letters.  But since I had already cut them out, I made them work.




Maybe my color choices could have been better but I could change them if I want.  I thought about painting the clothespins but decided to leave them au naturel. 

It isn't hanging up.  Yet?  Not sure if I like it that much but it gave me a few afternoons of playing with my paper and supplies.  Doing something crafty puts me in a great mood, even if my project sucks.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Fall decor tour

I love decorating for Fall. It went from being hot here, to lots of windy/rainy days.  We even had sleet last week!!  But today feels like Fall and believe it or not, trees do change color in Idaho!

I had a coupon for mums so I picked up 3 to decorate the front door.


We haven't gone pumpkin picking yet but I did find a few gourds.


This is my favorite color of mums but I thought yellow would be a good pop since the house is brown.




Inside the house....This is the rest of the silk flowers that were leftover from the wreath.  I actually think they look really pretty in here.


We left this table by the stairs for now but it needs a better home.  I threw some of the things the kids have made over the years on it.


More orange in the family room.


I finally have a nice mantel to decorate!  At first I wasn't happy with how this came out but it grew on me.


I put my scarecrows on the "hearth".  Wasn't the look I was going for but the rest of the fam liked it so it stayed.





Happy Fall!