I could never justify them to my husband though since we just got new chairs less than a year ago :( I guess a girl can dream!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Summer "Mantel"
Hello, all! Well, I've mentioned my procrastinating ways before and this time I'm regretting the procrastinating. I'm late for the Summer Mantel linky party over at The Lettered Cottage. Oh well. My loss! I still wanted to share with you what I've done for my Summer "mantel".
How simple is this? I wanted to keep things light and airy because it was such a looooong Winter. I was really beginning to feel claustrophobic being kept in the house so much!
So, because I wanted to keep things light and airy, I decided to decorate with clear glass. I've got tons of glass of all different colors (I'm kind of a glass freak. Weird?) but I really was drawn at the time to colorless and simple.
Can you tell what's different in this picture? My daughter has been using my DIY Dollar Tree hurricane as a holder for her "Belle rose". Remember that in the movie?
Here it is from a distance...
Close up. I got the two apothecary jars on a recent thrifting trip and the cheese dome from another thrifting trip. The tall candle holders are from Pier 1 many years ago.
These are the DIY Dollar Tree hurricanes that were all over the blogosphere a while back and the silver tray was another thrifting find.
The cabinet is from IKEA and my garden stools are from Craigslist...$30 for a set of two!
I've been thinking of posting to show you what I've got in that cabinet. I've got some really fantastic treasures in there I should share...
I hope everyone is having a great (short) week. I can't believe it's already Thursday! I'll be posting more tomorrow or over the weekend. I've got a lot to share!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
New Reading Bench
Hello, all! I've got to tell you, I've got several posts in process and I would love to be able to share but I'm having some issues with uploading pictures to Blogger. I'm working on the issue and hope I can show you soon!
Anyhow, last Friday I came across this bench on Craigslist and immediately knew I had to have it. I love the simple lines and the caning detail. It was listed for $20 and I didn't even want to dicker...it had to be mine :)
As soon as I got this sucker in my vehicle, I realized how horrible it smelled. The cushion was disgusting and smelled like cat pee. There was no way I could salvage the padding.
I have never ripped apart upholstery before so I just kind of guessed where to start. I flipped over the sucker and peeled the padding off the rusty springs.
I finally just ended up cutting the fabric so I could pull it and the foam off so I didn't have to smell it anymore. It was really that bad.
Aah, SO much better!
I then unscrewed the spring frame from the bench frame and removed about a million staples. I'm sure I had my neighbors wondering what was going on with the steady stream of expletives coming from my garage.
I gave it a few coats of white spray paint.
Looking better already!
I brought the seat frame inside to get a new cushion put on. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on foam so I bought a twin sized egg crate mattress topper.
I laid the frame down on top and traced it with a marker so I knew where to cut.
I layered the foam on top, stapling the first layer to the frame so the subsequent layers wouldn't slide around so much.
I covered the foam with a few layers of batting to smooth it out.
Making progress!
Here is the fabric I used to re-cover it. And...as much as I was cursing the staples I removed from the original padding, I stapled the crap out of it myself :)
Viola! (Excuse the crappy cell phone pic. I do have better ones but can't get them uploaded!) I'm proud of the work I did and although it was really tedious, it was pretty easy and the finished result is a hit. I'm going to be putting this in my daughter's room and I think it is inspiring a mini-redo.
The bench was $20 and the mattress pad was $10. I had the paint, fabric and batting on hand. Not bad for $30!
So, that was one project for Memorial Day weekend. I hope you all had a nice weekend too! I've got more I need to get posted, like I said. I hope to be able to get my pictures uploaded tonight or tomorrow!
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