Should You Paint Your Cane Chairs?

 I debated and debated. Consulted with my sister who did not paint the cane chairs she acquired. And decided YES, YES you should, or in this case, I should!!

 

 I bought the pair of cane chairs from Craig's List for $30!! They needed to be reupholstered, that was a given. The previous owners had cats and the fabric was white and nasty. The cane was ok, but they were very worn and chipped, so I decided yes I was going to paint! And I am so glad I did, they look AMAZING!

I splurged on the fabric, and purchased this fabric at $25 a yard!!!! I never spend this much on fabric, but since I only needed a little, I splurged. 

 Aren't they pretty?? I am so happy with how they turned out!!

 And for about $25 a chair, you cannot beat that!!! Take the risk, paint your cane chair!!!

DIY Upholstered Headboard with Cardboard

I decided it was time to finally give Little Man a headboard! Besides the fabric this project was FREE!! Got to love that! I decided to give the cardboard backing headboard a go! Using cardboard has its pros and cons but for now it works! 

I used a big Pottery Barn box I had. My box had a fold in it. In the end it doesn't seem to matter but it would have been easier to assemble without the bend. I used two pieces of cardboard, which is why the entire thing is lined with duck tape!  Not shown, but I used two layers of the eggshell mattress pad cut to size, and then a layer of quilt batting. I stapled the quilt batting down before I added my final layer of fabric. As with any headboard I use a lot of staples!

 

My biggest concern with using cardboard as a backing was how would I actually attach the headboard to the wall. For my attempt I used string and put about 50 staples in to hold it in place. See below. This did hold it. And probably would have been fine, however, after I made the below changes, I decided to change how I hung it as well.

Once my headboard was hung, it drove me nuts how the fabric and the batting bowed out when you viewed it from the side - and this is your view when you enter the room. I should have glued the eggshell crate to the cardboard and to each layer before I added the quilt batting. This would have solved the problem from the start! 

However, I was not going to take the whole thing apart unless I had no other solutions! So I took the whole thing down and decided to add tufting!! This is one of the huge advantages of using cardboard instead of wood, this was SO easy to add. You need a long upholstery needle and embroidery thread. I made my buttons using extra fabric and a button kit. With a long needle this was SO easy! 

I added 8 buttons and it looks so much more finished than before! And it solved my bowing problem! I also decided to hot glue 3 D-rings to the back to hang.

I am much happier with how it turned out. I still wish I would have made it a little shorter, but again I am not going to go back and change it! I measured for a bed that wasn't against the wall. Being against the wall it should have been the exact size as the mattress, not any longer. Oh well, Little Man LOVES it! He even helped!

Kitchen Bar Stools Upholstered

One of my most FABULOUS and AWESOME Craig's List finds were 4 brand new bar stools that were un-assembled for ONLY $50!! For all 4! (Seriously might be my best CL deal so far!!!) Target sells ONE similar chair for $70! And these were from a furniture store, but the original owner only wanted the table and it came as a set. So lucky me I am the owner of the 4 new chairs!

When I first bought them I knew I was going to upholster them (they came with a hard wooden seat) and originally I was going to paint them black. I decided not to paint them and am very glad I did not, I like the color as is - plus less work!

Once I had the chairs assembled, I had the very difficult choice of picking which fabric to use! I was debating between 3 fabulous patterns I got while in New York at Mood! (Seriously I want to go back to New York just to go to Mood!!! Such a fun store!!!!) I decided on the pretty grey fabric (the others will be around at some point... just need to figure out one what!!!)

I purchased 2 inch foam square cushions from Joann Fabrics. I debated on the 1 inch but thought that seemed too thin and ended up with the 2 inch. At first it looked like 2 inches was going to be too thick, but I think they turned out great.

I used one square per chair and had some help cutting them out!

Little man had to make sure they were going to be comfortable enough... it is important to test out your hard work before you put in all of the hard work!!

I traced around the seat with a sharpie and used a fabulous orange handled scissors to cut right through the 2 inch foam.

The most important step I did (I don't have a picture of) was to cut a small amount off of the top of the foam at an angle so the seat was not so square looking when covered. I was not neat about it and once the fabric was on and stapled down you could not tell that I was not neat, but it does help to make the upholstery look like it was meant to be there and not something I added on at the last minute! (You can see the curved edge in the final pictures!)

I then found my staple gun and stapled the fabric to the chair pulling the fabric tight without stretching the fabric "pattern." I also had help on this step! But this time little man thought it was fun to jump off of the chair seat.... I guess the extra foam gave him more lift...

I made sure to do my front corner the same on each chair so they would look consistent - the back on mine did not matter as much because that part was screwed into the base!

Then I screwed the seat to the base and we have fabulous new bar stools!

I love how they turned out and the fabric I decided to use! We have used these stools every day for the past 3 plus months and they still look just as good as they did when I made them.

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!!!

Gray and Yellow Guest Room Reveal

My guest room is finally ready for visitors! After my previous post about my guest room fails, I am much happier with how this room turned out! A lot of this room is DIY or something I put my own spin on.

I upholstered the headboard myself with a very soft velourish fabric. I also sewed my first pillow - the gray and white pillow on the bed! I have had several tutorials on using my mom's sewing machine in the past and this was the first time I plan to continue to use the skills.
I painted pretty much everything in this corner, except for the frame. The white chair was given to me by my grandmother in 1984. I call it my first DIY project because in college I painted it black and added puff paint gold glittery stars to the back of it! I love that I am now able to include this in my house!
My Good Will find that I painted with Paris Grey Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Love, love, love how this turned out, and how easy it really is to refinish furniture with this paint!

This is my previous hot glue gunned lamp shade I considered a fail. I simply moved it, so you can't see the inside as well! I love how that turned out.


I bought this end table new at Target in an espresso color and painted it with Paris Grey Chalk paint to match the rest of the room. I looked all over for an older piece but could not find anything and was under a time crunch. So I went with this and am happy with how it completes the room. On the night stand is my copy of Chronicles of Avonlea signed by Lucy M. Montgomery that my grandma gave me and a piece of pottery I created.

I love all of the natural light into this room!


In the center is my mirror I made and cube shelves I spray painted white.
Writing this post I am realizing that I have a lot of character and history in this room, which I love! I love the color combo of white, gray and yellow, so this room is a favorite of mine!

Ugly chair turned cute chair

Every August 14, college students move out of their old college apartments and into their new apartments, so this year we participated in "hippie Christmas" as its called by some, and drove around the campus area and picked up a few free things. We got 2 chairs and I finally got around to fixing it up! Here is the before with the torn fabric.


I spray painted the chair with a Krylon gray spray paint! No pictures of this step, since its pretty straight forward!!

I then upholstered the front and back sections of the chair, again, pretty easy! I have never used cording before, so that was a new challenge for me. But it was actually pretty easy. I used the cording that was already in the chair and worked my way around the outside of the chair, saving the corners for last. That seemed to work out for me.



I stapled close to the edge and pulled it tight.

Attaching the front and back to the chair took a little longer than I thought since I could not find the right screws for it. But once I found the correct screws it went together very easily.

The finished chair!



I am going to use this for my little man's booster seat since our dinning room chairs are upholstered and this will be easier to clean up.

This free chair turned out pretty nice!