My new chair

A few weeks ago or so when I was on one of my many trips to Target on I stumbled upon this chair that at the time was an online only chair (they now sell this chair in the store) so it was on sale for $49! I didn't think twice and grabbed it!

While it's a very nice gray colored chair, it didn't really go with any of my rooms. I originally thought I would recover it for my master bedroom, but after thinking about it, in our family room if we have people over we seem to not have enough room for seating, so I decided to keep it on our first floor to move around as needed.

For this chair recover project, I used fabric I bought this past fall when I was in New York and went to Mood. So I sadly have no clue what it is called and have not seen it anywhere else (if you know what it's called let me know!!)

I don't have many during pictures because this was NOT as easy as I thought it would be. I pinned, pinned and re-pinned. The bottom cushion was not as hard, but the top was a bit more of a challenge. I found that pinning it in sections was the easiest.
I pinned and sewed the top in 4 different sessions.
I took out chunks of my fingers while sewing this from the pins! (My poor fingers still hurt!!!)

I was so happy when I thought I was done, only to realize that I ran out of thread on the bottom and it didn't sew the last part..... so I had to re-pin is AGAIN!!!!!
Here is another before shot! Once I had the slip cover sewn, I used my staple gun and my glue gun to attach it to the chair. (And I burnt a finger with my glue gun..... so my hands really hurt after this project!)
Here is my finished chair! AND I LOVE IT!!!!!
I purposely took the time to make sure my top seat cushion lined up with the bottom seat cushion. (It would have looked VERY VERY funny had I not!)



I love my new chair! And am so glad it's done! I thought it would take one nap or so to finish, but it took a lot longer than that!!!

Paris Grey Dresser Redo

My second piece I refinished with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint! Its a fabulous dresser for our guest bedroom!

This is painted with Paris Grey. I love the subtle shade of grey!

The beautiful before picture - not sure why it's so blurry, but this was taken with my iPhone at Good Will, while I decided if I wanted to purchase this. I am so glad I did!

I really liked the pulls that came with the original dresser, but in moving it twice after I purchased it and before I refinished it, I lost a pull. So for now I replaced them.

Again I was so happy with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and how it turned out!

Entry Table Makeover

My new entry table redo using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!
My before Craig's List find. It was in pretty decent shape, but it has some character flaws I decided not to fix to add to the charm!
There is a little crack on the top of the table, but I thought it added character. I love the bright and happy color, Arles! This was my first time using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I read so many reviews on the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that I had to try it out. I liked that I did not have to prime, but I did end up putting on 3 coats of paint. Looking online I was not able to find a lot of examples using the color Arles, so I was a bit hesitant ordering the color without seeing it, but I was so happy with the color!

The new pulls I was surprised to find at Target. I was going to reuse the pulls that came with the piece, but I really like the look with these pulls.
I originally was going to distress it, but for now I am going to leave it as is.

Refinished Dining Room Table and Chairs

My dining room table and chairs set is finally complete! I started sanding the table in May! But could not decide on chairs and then fabric for the chairs! I am SOO happy with how it turned out!

I blogged about refinishing the table previously, you can view it here!

After I was done sanding my table, I realized there was no way I would have the patience to refinish the chairs, so I was in search of "new" chairs that I could use instead. I found these lovely chairs on Craig's List for $15 a piece. They started off SOO ugly!!!!





I was afraid to remove the cushion to see what was there! I gave these chairs several coats of spray paint. I did spray prime these before using about 8 cans of Rustoleaum Heirloom White.


So ugly!!!


The hold up, was I was not able to figure out what fabric to use to upholster the chairs!! Below are a few fun patterns / prints I enjoyed!


I went to the store thinking that I wanted to do gray or gray and yellow, and these were my only choices! I do really like these prints.


My newly upholstered chair! And I realize I did not take any pictures of the upholstery part! It was SOOOO easy!!


My finished chair and finished table! I LOVE IT!!

Table Refinishing Project

We inherited a solid oak table from my husband's grandma which I love! But it showed some wear and the color was not exactly my first pick of color, so I refinished my first ever piece of furniture!

This is the table before, shown in our old house!

A close up of one of the table leafs.
I was nervous about refinishing this table since it has family history, and I have never refinished furniture before. I knew I wanted to stain it a darker color, so I started sanding...

And sanding and sanding and sanding! I did not realize how long this would take me! But it took a lot longer than I thought it would take! I found having a beer while sanding helped make the sanding easier to deal with! I drank a lot of beer while refinishing this table (and beer is not my first choice of drink!)

An original compared to a sanded leaf.



Once I was finished sanding, I was WAY too excited that I was done, that I did not get a completed picture of the sanded table! I was so excited to be onto the next step of cleaning up, wiping the table down, and picking out my stain color.

Picking out the stain color was A LOT harder than I thought it would be! I thought I would just run to Home Depot and pick out a color and be on to staining the table. Well I was wrong, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with the stain.

I ended up getting two Minwax stain colors: Ebony and Jacobean.


I did some experimenting with color on the bottom of one of the 3 leafs until I found the shade I wanted. I figured I had 3 leafs and if I ruined one I would be fine with the other two.

I ended up using 2 cans of jacobean to 1 can of ebony Minwax stain. I combined them into a plastic container and later transferred the mixed stain into an empty paint tin.

I wiped the mixed stain on with old t-shirts, and wiped of any excess.

To get the color I wanted I put on 3 coats of stain, which I experimented with in my sample.


I then gave the table 3 coats of spray polyurethane. I was not happy with how that covered, so I also gave it an additional coat of brush on polyurethane.

I am so happy to be done with my table!!! HOWEVER, the chairs that originally matched the table and as seen in my first picture, are way too detailed for me to sand down and re-stain. I do not have enough patience's for re-doing those chairs! So that lead to the next problem.... what to do about chairs.

So after lots of searching on Craigslist, I was able to find 4 chairs that will work with my new table. The finished table and my new chairs I will post as soon as I finally finish them!!

Dining room chairs

These are the very pretty new chairs I am in the process of re-doing for our dining room chairs. I liked their shape and their smaller size, but they are taking a lot longer than I thought to re-finish! I just love the fabric seats!


My goal for the weekend is to finish these chairs!! We will see if I can met this goal!

My First DIY Project

I received this chair from my Grandma when I was 4 years old! At the time it was painted a nice simple white color. I don't remember much of the chair over the years, but when I was in college, about 10 years ago, I decided it would be the perfect desk chair for my college apartment. So I painted it black, like every college student would! And not only was it black, but I added 3 puff paint gold glittery stars on the back of it! The black chair served its purpose that year in college and then after that it was put into storage at my parents house.

Lately I have been wishing that after my Grandma died I would have gotten some of her antique furniture and have been on the look out for a nice old dresser. So I was very happy to be reminded about this chair that my Grandma had already given me! So it was once again taken out of storage! I sanded it down, since I was not the best painter 10 years ago and glitter stars are not really my thing any more!

Below is the before, the after will come soon!