Friday, June 20, 2014

Another Quick Upholstery Job!

My sister was at the DI recently (a local thrift store) and spotted this lovely chair for just $15.  
She texted me a picture and asked if I wanted it- um YES!!!!
I was looking for this type of chair for my kitchen desk area (and thankfully had mentioned it to my sister).

I chose a grey and white wool tweed fabric I found at Hancock Fabrics and used almost 4 yards.  I have "reupholstered" a few chairs before and followed the same easy procedure (click here to see the easy way!).  
The only difference is that this chair had tufting!  I saved this area for last.  My secret weapon was a hot glue gun.  First, using staples, I secured a large piece of fabric on the underside at the back of the bottom of the chair.  Then I wrapped the fabric up the back, over the top, and down the frontside of the chair.  Before attaching the front side with staples, I simply stuck blobs of glue on the top row of buttons, then worked the fabric in and around the buttons.  For the next row, lift up the fabric and put glue on the next row of buttons, then put the fabric back down and push in place, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Once the buttons were all glued in place, I secured everything with staples.  
It basically worked and when I was done it looked great!  
It looks like there are fabric tufted buttons - even though there aren't.  
However after a weeks worth of use, I learned a few things.
1)Fabric on top of leather is slippery - covering fabric chairs with fabric keeps things in place a lot better and is a little easier to do!
2) A thick wool tweed fabric was a good choice for working with hot glue.  Some fabrics would be too thin and might discolor where the glue is.
3) hot glue when dried easily pulls off of leather - DUH!  I should have known that!  Maybe "super glue" would have worked better?  After some of the glued fabric came loose I just had to reinforce it with more staples - I might have to resort to actually using a long upholstery needle and thread to hold the fabric down and in place (which shouldn't be too hard).
Again, if I was doing fabric on top of fabric this problem could have been a non issue.  I think hot glue would hold better to a fabric button?

Anyway things are holding up for now and I am enjoying the new look!



 Once the chair was finished, I hot glued a small white ribbon to the front of the chair for an added detail.






Monday, June 16, 2014

Foot Stool

Although I proclaimed my Living Room was Finished, 
I hoped to one day find a cute little footstool that would help me kick my feet up once in a while when relaxing in a chair.
I found it!  Home Goods for just $30.  

It was just a leeetle to short.  I loved the look of it "as is" and really debated about changing it.....
but of course I changed it!
 I already had the foam on hand, just cut it to size.
I then found some "faux" leather at Hobby Lobby, a 1/2 yard was on sale for just $7.
I did have to cut the fabric length in half then sew it together to give me more width.
 I simply put one staple on the underneath of each side (I used a pneumatic staple gun),
 then turned it right side up to work with the corners.

First just cut up the diagonal, careful not to cut too much.

 Then I folded the fabric under for a nice edge and worked it down and around the legs.  Then turned the stool upside down and stapled the corners in place.

 All Done!
Honestly - I'm not sure that I like it better than the original look, but it is a little higher and the change only cost $7!

I like that it's size makes it able to tuck nicely out of the way when not in use.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Happy Father's Day


 For gifts this year I used the "Waterlogue" app and made "water color" pictures 
out of some favorite photos for my Father and Father-in-law. 

The app is only $3 and can change any photo into a "watercolor" picture.  
I had the photos printed off at Costco and then framed the pictures.  It was a pretty easy and cheap gift - 
but it looks PRICELESS!


All my in-law's grandkids at the beach.


 It works well as a gift for birthdays, Christmas, Father's or Mother's day.
You could give someone a watercolor picture of their home.....

Or you can make great watercolor photos for fun trip souvenirs ....

It's a great app and it makes a great gift!


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Shelfies........Pictures of my Laundry room Shelves!

On a recent trip to Home Depot, I found something that they must have recently started carrying 
(because I have looked before and they didn't have these!)
Corbels!  And these were just $11.50 a piece!  
They have a few different styles (some are pretty beefy and ornate and run almost $50 a piece).
They come unfinished.  For mine I just used wax and a tiny bit of stain and rubbed them all over.  Easy!

I Love their Classic Simple Style!


Before:
AFTER:
I chose to hang them on the middle shelf - why?  I don't know!  The top would have probably been cute too.  To attach them I held them in place while my husband simply drilled down into them from the top shelf - we knew we'd never see the screws or holes on that top shelf.

*For more info on the Laundry Room Click Here

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Garden Hose Post


The hose is up off the ground - hooray!
I "pinned" this project a couple years ago and finally got around to doing it.



It was an easy project and I love the way it looks.  The downside - apparently when Ashli from the "mini Manor" blog did the project (way back in 2012) the cost was under $20.  Apparently times have changed quite a bit in the last 2 years because it now costs just under $50 (ouch).  I'm wishing that I had done it as soon as I had "pinned" it- Darn Procrastination!
At least I did have a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon (it was a Lowes coupon that I used at Home Depot - did you know they accept Lowes coupons?)  :)