chair redo

Once I finished my DIY roman shade, next up on my crafty to do list was refinishing this chair icky old chair. I actually picked it up on the side of the road way back in the spring, but it took me a long time to decide on fabric... This was my first furniture redo involving upholstery, so I looked around at a bunch of tutorials, and then I just kind of had at it. Since the chair was free and looked quite terrible, I wasn't too worried about messing it up.

Before:

After:

I'm no expert in this, and you can find lots of great blogger tips and tutorials out there, but here was my general process (with links to the various tutorials that I found really helpful):

• First I cleaned up and sanded the chair. It looked like there was originally caning under the arms, with only bits and pieces remaining, so I had to clean those out too. I unscrewed the seat and ripped off the welting and fabric from the chair back, saving everything for reference when cutting my new fabric. And nearly got carpal tunnel from pulling all those staples. Definitely a blister...
• After priming, I painted the framewith some leftover paint from my bathroom vanity. These tips from Little Green Notebook were helpful for getting a nice coat. 
• And then it was time to tackle the cushions. I picked out this Waverly fabric from fabric.com - it was hard to know how much to order, but I guesstimated based on the cushion size and ordered extra so I could make cording.
• For the seat, I probably should have sewed to get the front corners just so, but I decided to fudge it a little and just staple the fabric into place. Stapling fabric around the curve was a bit tricky, but the back part of the seat isn't visible when it's in place, so I could hide any folds back there.
• Then I made a new back with some batting (since the original was tufted, so the old cushion didn't work so well any more) and stapled into place (Little Green Notebook tips here). I cut off the excess and then hid the staples with double-cord welting.
• I made the welting following Little Green Notebook's instructions here (also referenced Centsational Girl's post here) and then glued it on. 

It could be a little more professional looking, but it was my first chair - and a really cheap project (only had to buy fabric) - so I'm pretty pleased with the new chair in the corner of my bedroom. Now just need to hang the curtains and art, and I'm pretty much done with the room as envisioned on my mood board!

 

 

Sharing here.

no sew roman shades

When I started seeing (and pinning) a bunch of tutorials for turning old mini blinds into fabulous roman shades, I decided it was the perfect solution to my window treatment issues: I could replace the icky, dingy mini blinds in our master bedroom with something fancier and then repurpose one of them to dress up my bare kitchen window.

Once I finally picked out (and got my husband to install) the new shades for the bedroom, I got going on the kitchen one. And I love it!

Supplies:

• Mini blind that fits the window in question
• Fabric, sized to the length and width of your window (plus extra on each side for hem)
• Iron-on hem tape
• Fabric glue
• Scissors

To give credit where it is due: pretty much all of the tutorials out there seem to originate with this one from Jenny of the excellent Little Green Notebook. But after reading through a bunch of variations, I decided I wanted to do the hem tape variety, and I found this tutorial from Welcome to Heardmont to be easy to follow - check out the steps (with helpful photos!) there.

The version I pinned:

                                                                   Source: welcometoheardmont.com via Anne on Pinterest

And mine!

I just love this chipper print from Premier Prints so I immediately thought of it when it came time to pick something to make this shade. The only downside to it is that the slats can show through lighter fabrics. Some tutorials suggest adding a liner, but I don't really need the shade for shade, mostly just for looks. So I didn't bother with a liner since it will pretty much always be pulled up.

It's really an all-around win situation. My bedroom windows look like this instead of bent/permanently dusy mini blinds, the blinds got repurposed, and my naked kitchen window got dressed up, making that corner of the room a lot happier looking!

 

fall mantel

I don't tend to go very theme-y with any seasonal decorations aside from Christmas, but I like to change up the decor feel a bit. With fall, it's all about bringing the warm and cozy back in after summer. And I don't think there's much more cozy than curling up with a good book - so when I saw this post (from last year's fall mantel link up) I had my inspiration.

                                                               Source: applevalleygirl.blogspot.com via Anne on Pinterest

My quick version:

Because of the mounted tv - which is quite helpful for the rest of the living room arrangement - I often have a little trouble figuring out what to do with the mantel. There's not a ton of space to work with, and I don't exactly want anything distracting from my view of Project Runway. So I kept it simple with some 59 cent mini pumpkins, my cork collection that fits with the warm colors, a candle for cozy lighting now that the evenings are getting shorter, and of course my books.

I arranged some books on top of the shelves on the other side of the room to match. The vintage-y keys were a Michael's $1 section find.

 

master bedroom mood board

The first of my fall projects that I'm tackling is making over a chair I found on the side of the road. I'd been wanting an upholstered chair in our bedroom, and when I saw it (in all its ugly, gross glory), I thought it could be just the ticket:

Okay, needs a lot of work. It's currently all pulled apart and stripped down, waiting for primer and paint...

Once the chair is done, I have a couple other updates I want to make to the room before I call it finished. There are a few details left, plus while I like the gray/white/aqua color scheme, I want to incorporate some additional colors so it isn't too matchy-matchy. So I when I saw the master bedroom mood board event at Remodelaholic I thought I should give one a go, especially because trying this Olioboard thing sounded fun. The center photo is of the current bedroom setup. I plan to put the chair (stand in for shape included in the board) - which will be recovered in the fabulous pink geometric print - next to the mirror, get new blinds, hang these curtains, and use this paper as bedside framed art. 

 

Eventually on the project list is to sew some throw pillows - I included a few inspirations I like (no really planning to use those all!) - and get new lamps - general ideas included here too. But first I'm off to prime my chair.

magnolia leaf wreath

My neighbors have a sort of overgrown, large magnolia tree that used to seriously get on my nerves. A chunk of it hangs over our side yard and driveway, and I was constantly picking up all these leaves that fell, cluttering my flower bed and clogging the drain at the bottom of the driveway. But then on a recent visit, my Grandma taught me to love that tree - because the collected leaves are perfect for a fall wreath! She took some home with her and gave me the idea to make my own.

Magnolia leaves are nice and thick, so they seem like they'll hold up well. At first I thought of spray painting the ones I collected to get a uniform color for my wreath, but a lot of them have a nice shine to them already, and the brown/yellow/green shades are so pretty, so it would be a shame to cover them up. 

So instead of trying to collect all one color leaf, I decided to go with an ombre effect. I sorted my leaves by color and then used a hot glue gun to attach them to a flat wooden ring.

The leaves aren't exactly bendable, so it seemed easier to use a flat ring rather than a styrofoam wreath form where I would have to cover the sides. I sort of layered the leaves a bit to give it a little more fullness and dimension.

This is some pretty darn inexpensive fall decoration too - the wreath form cost me just a couple bucks, and the leaves were of course free!

linking here and here:
     

house crafting to do list

I'm busy enjoying the last weeks of summer with family visits and a beach vacation starting tomorrow, so crafting is on hiatus again around here. But when my normal routine resumes, I have a whole bunch of house-related projects I'd love to get to...

First up, I'm thinking of putting together some sort of gallery wall in the living room.

                                                                       Source: younghouselove.com via Anne on Pinterest

I'm also considering jazzing up the bookshelves.

                                                                        Source: flickr.com via Anne on Pinterest

The kitchen window is bare and could use a fun shade - thinking of trying this tutorial for a DIY roman shade.

                                                                Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Anne on Pinterest

I picked up a roadside rescue chair that needs some love - this furniture redo tutorial is great.

                                                                   Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Anne on Pinterest

I love poufs, but they're a bit pricey - this looks like a potentially doable DIY.

                                                                               Source: curbly.com via Anne on Pinterest

summer deck

The CSI Project is showcasing porches, terraces, and patios this week. So I thought I'd share a couple photos of the full deck, after the couple of painting projects I did out there to spruce up the patio set. The furniture was an inexpensive set from Ikea last summer, and I added a $25 Ikea umbrella this summer, plus a clearance set of citronella candles from Home Goods (our back yard is rather buggy). Our tiny little grill is out there too, and a couple of potted flower arrangements that used to be really pretty but were kind of killed off by the heat...

It's a lot more inviting with the updates, and I'm looking forward to actually using it, now that the temperature outside is a bit more bearable. Details on the painted chair cushions I did are here, and the placemats are here.

silhouette pillow

Okay, here's a perhaps unexpected "supply" to be stockpiling: pillow covers. I picked up all of these at Ikea last year, meaning to embellish them. Time to finally get on that.

 $6 Ikea pillow covers in various colors...

I love Jane Austen, so I of course adore this Jane Austen silhouette pillow from Dear Lillie.

                                                                                 Source: dearlillieblog.blogspot.com via Anne on Pinterest

To make my version, I used one of my Ikea pillow covers, fabric from the packaging of some curtains I got from Urban Outfitters, and fabric glue left over from another project. The silhouette, from the second edition of Mansfield Park, is in the common domain and can be found here for download.

jane + puppy in profile...