Recovering Seats

Anyone can recover a seat, they just need patience and a little know how. I'm not much of a sower so I usually have to get creative with my fabric folding. One of these days I'll learn the art of the quick stitch, but until then folding will do the trick. I thought I would give a couple quick hints to help you recovering process.

#1. The Original

When you find your chair, start simple for your first project. If you go big, you might just go home! Also, survey the damage. You may need to stop and pick up new foam or wood filler - look for damage! Also check to see how tight the fabric is... Sometimes the fabric is so tight it's not letting the foam breath. Take for instance my last project -

It looks like the padding is ruined, but once I took the fabric off the foam was actually in great shape! Whoever recovered the chair pulled the fabric tight in certain areas which shifted the foam.

#2 - The RE-Recover

Always check the bottom of the chair, you can usually tell if it's factory or a rehab. In older furniture you'll find tacks instead of staples and if it's original everything is usually evenly spaced. If you see odd staple jobs, you will most likely uncover a workload... Exhibit A -

Which leads to Exhibit B -

If that's not something you plan on working through, don't start!

#3 - Finishing Up

When recovering the chair remember to leave a little room for the fabric to move if it's a bigger project. Dining room chairs can usually stand to be tight, but a chair like the one above needs to move a little. You don't want someone sitting and either ripping the fabric or popping staples! The second thing is please be kind. Remember how that chair came to you, full of staples. Don't go all Rambo with the staple gun, be precise and calculated like James Bond. If all else fails have a friend help, stapling is easier with four hands. With a little luck you'll have a matching household accessory!

There's always more tips and tricks, but those are a few that help me! 

Good Luck Rehabbers!!

Gossip Bench - Redefined.

I thought I would post the update to one of my good will finds! As you remember here is the original...

It wasn't terrible but it didn't fit my living room. So... Here's the make over!

How cute right! I took a risk with the patterned fabric and it may not be aligned perfectly, but I think it really paid off! 

It just goes without saying that you can't judge a piece of furniture in its current condition. This only took me an hour to complete... 25 for spray paint and the rest to get the fabric stapled on. Even the  uncraftiest (yeah I made that up...) person can do this project with ease!

Good luck!

I'm now on ETSY!

Hey all!

For those of you who love my vintage finds... i'm now selling on ETSY!

(Click the link ------>)                                 My Etsy Shop

Listed my first piece! Check it out!

Bar Rehab

This one is pretty simple I repainted an old book shelf and added a few features to make this a great bar!

I know the after picture isn't the best... But it still made a great gift!

After painting it I stopped at Lowes to pick up some hardware to make this more of a "bar". I found awesome glass racks for a little less than $2 bucks a piece! Then to give it a little charm I wanted to add a decal to the back - normally I would paint it, but because I was unsure if the receiver would like the look... I actually used wall decals. I found a really neat pack of wall decals and cut them down to make a running border. 

Then just finished it off with a few bottles of booze and some vintage barwear and TA-DAH! A great personalized gift on a budget!

Bridesmaid Boxes

So I found this next idea initially on Pinterest. I twisted it to match my wedding theme and colors. Everything I used was just little bits and pieces of wedding decorations I already had!

I wanted the maids to have a sense of the wedding and the colors they can look forward to seeing for the next six months so I made little memento boxes to ask them to by my maids!

The boxes are from Michael's and with the online coupon I bought all five for less than $4 each! 

For the outside I used -

1. Stickers for their initial - I put on initially and then went back with paint.

2. A chevron stencil - I used acrylic paint and a dry brush 

The sticker left me an outline that I was able to fill in with a solid letter. As for the inside...

I also made sure to include -

1. The wedding info (when/where)

2. What their dress was going to look like

3. A meet and greet of each bridesmaid and how we met.

These turned out great and the girls LOVED them... So +1 for Pinterest! They took about 15 minutes a piece, so a great gift no matter how much time you have for crafting! 

Homemade Paint Chips

Good morning! 

I thought I'd share a little tip! When it comes to remembering what exact shade of blue you picked when you painted that piece of furniture... It's really tough to match that obscure pillow you found at that big box store. SO! I used this idea because my bridesmaids are going to wear different color dresses. I wanted to make sure they each wore a specific shade and now I carry around an extra set of chips for when I find wedding stuff at random. 

These are my chips - 

I just bought little pre cut wood chips at Michaels for roughly $0.33 per chip. I then painted them the colors I needed to be reminded of and because they had pre drilled holes... I just linked them together with a ring that I used to use for notecards. 

These are great for not only wedding colors, but color schemes in each room of your house! I highly recommend writing the color brand and name on the back of the chip in case you run out of paint and need to grab some while you are out.

Well I know that was a lot of crammed information - feel free to ask questions if you need to!! 

Get crafting!!

Referb Addict

So I just had to post my new finds! It's amazing the unique furniture you find at garage sales and goodwill stores! I'll do a follow up post once they're refinished! 

This first piece is from Goodwill ... $8

Another Goodwill find ... $10

This one is from a garage sale ... $13

Can't wait to see the after shots! Time to get crafty!