Pretty Stool Makeover and Yes, I Still Blog

Oh hey, remember me?

I'm sorry I fell off the face of the earth for awhile.  I've had a lot of projects to do lately (for my day job), which hasn't left me a lot of time to do anything blog-worthy, or to blog about anything at all.

I've taken some time out to tackle some projects and think about what I'd like to share on this blog, and I have some things I'm working on that you'll see soon - like the dining chair makeover project that has finally commenced!

For now, here's a little stool I made over for my bedroom.  It was a thrift store find of my mom's from about eight or so years ago.  She painted it black and recovered it with some pretty red fabric, and I had it under my vanity table for many years.  Unfortunately, I abused it, so the paint was chipping and the batting on the cushion had flattened and the red no longer fit in with my bedroom color scheme.  In short, it was desperately in need of a makeover.

I neglected to take a photo of the complete chair or the cushion before I ripped all the staples out.  Oops.  But here is the sad little chipped black frame before.

And here it is after a coat of spray primer and its first coat of gold spray paint (it needed two thin coats - no drips!).  I used Design Master 24KT Pure Gold and it was great.  It has a soft glow about it, but it's not too shiny or bright.

I didn't take any photos of the process of reupholstering the cushion, but it involved new super thick batting, a staple gun, and a small piece of  Chiang Mai Dragon fabric in Alabaster that I scored from eBay during one of my recent fabric addiction sprees acquisitions.  I've had it for months with the intention of sewing a pillow out of it, but I decided the stool was a better project.

And here it is!  It brightens up my bedroom so much, and I love how vibrant the green, red, and yellow are against the gray walls.

In all honesty, it was the first real DIY decor project I've ever tackled myself.  It wasn't at all hard, but it was intimidating because I always assume I'm going to fail since I'm not particularly crafty or coordinated.  But once I was into the project, it was so much fun to watch it take shape.  I'm so happy with the result and can't wait to finish the other projects on the list for my bedroom so that you can see the final result.  Or at least the semi-final result.

Stay tuned for more projects, and thanks for reading my little blog.

Dining Chair Makeover Ideas

Remember these groovy cane-back dining chairs that I scored on Craigslist?

I love the chair, but that upholstery is HIDEOUS.  It looks worse in person.  It's a wide-wale gold corduroy.  I bought the chairs with every intention of reupholstering them immediately, but then I couldn't make up my mind what to do with them, so I haven't done anything with them yet.

Paint them black?  White?  A bright color? Leave them wood?  Upholster with a solid color, a print, stripes, something else?  So many choices.

But my mom, who is awesome and knows that I need help starting a project sometimes, has demanded that I set a day for us to start painting the stupid chairs.  This means I have to make a decision.

To help my indecisiveness, I googled "cane back chair" for some inspiration, and was amazed to find a number of similar chairs.  Take a look at some of the goodies I found.

Some black options:

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The white chair with the dark table is nice, bright and airy.  I feel like I'm being attacked by that giant ball light fixture, though.

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God help me, I'd never paint anything this color or pair it with leopard print, but I entertained the idea of a bright color.  And then stopped entertaining it.

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These bad boys are no longer available on One King's Lane, but they were vintage, gilded, and carved, so I'm sure they fetched a pretty penny.

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This guy retails for $1,025.  That is literally $1000 per chair more than I paid for mine.  But I like the look of this chair - that dark glossy paint with the animal-inspired print.  We have a winner.

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So I made a decision.  I'm going to paint the chairs a high gloss black and use this fabric on the seats.  I ordered a swatch of it several months ago when I was thinking about reupholstering some other chairs that I've since decided to sell (with zero success so far).  I love it - it's apparently 100% cotton, but it has a bit of a sheen and a really tight weave that I think will make it work well in the dining room (i.e., it's wipe-able and won't catch crumbs like the current fabric does).

Want a good laugh?  Here is my unsuccessful attempt at superimposing this pattern onto the chair without Photoshop.  But you can see where I'm going with this.  Imagine the chair is black.  The feet will stay brass, though, because I love them.

We may start painting the chairs this weekend, so I hope to have an update soon.

eBay Fabric Addiction...the Saga Continues

As I've posted previously, I have a problem which involves me compulsively bidding on Schumacher fabric on eBay with the fervor of Scarlett O'Hara ripping down curtains to make a dress. Except I don't usually have a plan for the fabric I'm bidding on.  I just want it, and it makes me happy.

Anyway, I was able to quit for awhile, but I'm off the wagon again.

I've been trying (and trying, and trying) to finish the living room, and I really feel like the couch needs some more throw pillows. It only has two. And my armchair doesn't have any throw pillows at all.  It seems wrong, you guys, and it is stressing me out.

So naturally, I turned back to eBay.

And started bidding on upholstery fabric like crazy.

Which is how I wound up with three big squares of this fabric.

It seemed like a good idea at the time (which was, I believe, after midnight).  But since the fabric doesn't fit in with my decor in the slightest, and it's very Golden Girls, not to mention the parrots look really mean, it really wasn't a good idea at all.  I'm sure I'll find a use for these in the future.  Like out on the lanai.

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I got a little more judicious, and wound up with these beautiful remnants:

The top two are the Chiang Mai Dragon fabric I love so much...which I already have purchased a remnant of in another colorway.  The third is called Pearl River.  They are a beautiful heavy linen, and the colors are so vibrant.  The last one is white on one side and yellow on the other, and although it hasn't arrived yet, I believe it's an embossed linen (based on the description of similar fabrics on Schumacher's website).  These remnants are going to make gorgeous pillows, which may not all end up in the living room.

The thing about Schumacher fabrics that draws me to them is that they are very high quality and the prints are so detailed, which is why they retail new for crazy amounts of cashola that I can't justify spending.  But I can find beautiful remnants on eBay, and that works for me.

I'll just try to avoid making dresses out of them.

*This is not a paid ad for Schumacher fabrics.  They don't know who I am, and I doubt they'd approve of my eBay addiction.*

The Ugly Room: Making Progress

I bought and moved into my house just over a year ago.  It was a disaster when I bought it.Every room had cracked plaster walls that needed to be mended.  Every room needed cleaning and several coats of paint.  I'm not sure the walls had been painted since the house was built in 1939.  Many of the rooms (I'd say "several", but there aren't that many rooms in this house!) had walls covered in bits of blue poster putty, which the previous owners inexplicably used to cover the walls with photos and cutouts from magazines.

It was very "A Beautiful Mind."

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Not quite this bad, but close.

No room was quite as bad as the second bedroom.  Here it is, after the previous owners moved out and took all their stuff off the wall.  They were kind enough to leave all the blue putty behind.

Here's a closer view of the pattern of the walls.

Because I had two weeks to get the house ready before I moved in, I had to prioritize the rooms that would get repaired and painted.  Since this one needed the most work, and I didn't so much need a guest room right away, it was pretty far down on the list.

It took me 14 months to get to it.  

In the meantime, it became the "Ugly Room," because it just got uglier and uglier.  It also became storage for extra furniture and all my painting supplies from the rest of the house projects. 

Finally...FINALLY...I had to do something about this eyesore, because my good friend L decided to move in with me for a little while, and since she couldn't sleep in the laundry room, the Ugly Room was her only choice.

I hired someone to come and scrape all the blue stuff off the walls.  Scrape, scrub, and sand, actually.  Theoretically, I could have done it myself, but I was working insane hours at the time, and so I said "Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!" and called someone.  (Sweet Brown will never stop being funny. Ever.)

Anyway, once he was done, the walls were much smoother and ready to paint.

But of course, I waited until the last possible week before L moved in to paint the room, even though I had 3 months of notice.  That's how I roll.  Really, it's because I managed to sprain my ankle and my wrist, which put me out for a few weeks.  And it took some time to move everything out of the room...a lot of stuff had accumulated.

Excuses, excuses.

It took four days, a lot of sweat, and my mom's help, but it got done.  And now it's beeeyoootiful!  The walls and windows are, anyway.  I chose the paint color "Gypsy Moth" from Glidden's Martha Stewart Living line (from Home Depot), kind of a peachy beige.

After two coats of the paint + primer in satin finish, the walls are now 1000% better.

I chose the color specifically to go with these blinds that my mother made for me because she loves me (although, after the ordeal of making and then installing them, she might not love me quite so much).  I found large remnants of the fabric on sale shortly after I went into escrow, and fell in love.

The string is pointing up in the air because I'm holding it over my head while I snapped this shot. Mom hasn't installed the anchor (or whatever it's called) for that window yet.

It's no secret I love peacocks, probably because they have made an appearance all over the house.  So of course, I had to have this fabric.  Thankfully, L doesn't mind them and agreed to live with them while she lives here.  She's the bestest.  

Anyhow, it's amazing what a few coats of paint will fix!  Next up, the hallway and the laundry room. Someday.

Bedroom Textiles: Curtains, at Last

It's finally happened.

After several months of gold brocadecurtains that do not coordinate with my bedroom decor in the slightest, and that cast a weird gold shadow over my cool-toned grey walls (but were awesome at blocking out the light until I found the right fabric), I have new curtains.

Wanna see?

They aren't hanging quite right because they're a little super too long, so they are puddling on the floor.  I'm going to raise the curtain rod, which will take care of that.  

This is a quick, blurry iPhone snapshot I took to send to mom so she could see her handiwork in place, since she sewed these for me (because she is the best mother EVER).  By the way, the curtains being too long is totally my fault.  I gave mom some crazy measurements.  Crazy is how I roll.

Also, I didn't "style" my dresser before taking this photo, but I'm no stylist, and I'm keeping it real here anyway.  You can see my necklace hooks in between the windows.  They are curtain tie backs that came with my living room curtain rods, but I didn't want to use them for that, so I kept them for future use, and it's a good thing, because my necklace collection was getting out of control, and the tie backs made great hooks to hang them from.

I need to stop buying necklaces.

Anyway, I really love this fabric from L&S Fabrics.  It's nice and thick and lets just enough light in, but not too much.  I found it as a result of multiple rounds of swatch ordering, which was totally worth it.  It only took me nearly 6 months to buy the fabric...but it was worth the wait.  And it's a good thing I ordered it when I did, because now it looks like it's not available anymore.  PHEW!  Unless you wanted to order some, then, BOOH!  I'm sure it will come back, though.

Fabric Addicts Anonymous

I have a problem.

I keep buying vintage and current high-end fabrics on eBay.

I don't need them.  I just buy them.  This should come as no surprise to any of you, considering how many posts have been about fabric lately.

But I can stop whenever I want, right?

I've been working through some interpersonal and work issues, and trying to alleviate the stress of these issues with retail therapy.  It seems like, whenever I feel a little stressed out, eBay sends me an email letting me know that new items have become available.  How considerate!

It all started with the Dwell Studios Peacock fabric I scored.  That was my gateway fabric.

Then there was the Schumacher Chiang Mai remnant.  Ok, I'm going to frame it, and put it in the office.

And then there was the remnant of coral-and-gold Scalamandre shirred silk that I was so certain would be perfect for a throw pillow for some room of the house but is, in reality, too small to do anything with.

And then the nearly 3 yards of vintage Schumacher 'Monsoon' that I had no foreseeable use for, but had to bid on anyway.  Most recently, there was the purchase of another bundle of 'Monsoon,' but this time in a different colorway, which I surely needed, since the other 'Monsoon' was getting so much use.

Are there support groups for people like me?

I sure hope so.

Chiang Mai fabric image c/o www.fschumacher.com

Schumacher Monsoon and Scalamandre images c/o the original eBay listings, because I am too lazy to take photos of them myself

Swatches, Or, How to/Not to Buy Fabric Online

I've been searching for fabric for various rooms of the house for the last six months like it's my job (online of course, because I don't ever want to leave the house unless I absolutely have to, not to mention the fabric selection at local stores is pitiful).  Unfortunately, since I have an actual job, the rather time-consuming process of looking for the right fabric can take up valuable time that I'd rather spend sleeping or finding more post-apocalyptic TV shows to watch on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.  But I digress.

In my quest for fabrics, I recently made the mistake of ordering some without ordering a swatch first.

Big mistake. Huge. Like Pretty-Woman-they-won't-let-her-shop-even-though-she-has-a-fistful-of-cash kind of huge.

The image on the website was a soft coral-y pink.  Perfect for reupholstering my beige round chairs, I said.  It's on sale, I said.  I'd better just go for it, I said.  Out loud.  To myself.  I really need to stop doing that.

Click to read on...

Bedroom Textiles: Arrival

I felt a little like Buddy the Elf finding out that "Santa" was on his way to Gimbal's when the Dwell Studio peacock fabric I ordered on eBay arrived from Latvia.

Take a look after the jump...

Bedroom Textiles: VICTORY!

I feel like Julius Caesar (and my high school Latin teacher) would be proud of me.

The gorgeous pillow above retails at Dwell Studios for $90.  That's a 9 and a 0 next to each other.  For a throw pillow.  (To make matters worse, it was $72 last year - what the heck?)

Curse you, Dwell Studios, for your heartbreakingly beautiful fabrics and unattainable prices!

But I digress.  I've long wanted this pillow for my grey and mustard yellow bedroom, but being a total cheapskate somewhat frugal about things like throw pillows, I thought I'd check eBay and see if there was one for less money.  To my utter delight, someone in Latvia was selling a 22"x 56" piece of this fabric.  Enough to make one cushion/pillow, they said.  Or, if you're ambitious like me, two pillows with different fabric on the back.

I was determined to win.

See more after the jump...

Bedroom Textiles: The Last Crusade

I don't know when I became the kind of person who orders fabric swatches, but apparently, that's what I do now. Often. I've ordered three rounds of swatches from Lewis and Sheron Fabrics and another from Caitlin Wilson Textiles, all in the quest for the perfect fabric for my bedroom curtains.

It's an epic crusade of medieval proportions.  EPIC, I say!

As a side note, I think "swatch" is a funny word and I feel like I should be wearing a fur stole with the face and feet still attached and swirling a glass of sherry when I say it. I'm so totally grown up.

More after the jump...

Bedroom Textiles

I've been attempting to decorate my bedroom since I moved into this house over five months ago, and it hasn't been easy. 

I've had this duvet cover from Pottery Barn for awhile now, and I love it, but finding a corresponding pattern that goes with the toile for shams and curtains has been extremely problematic.  The walls of my room are a medium grey color and I have white furniture, and there is no shortage of yellow and grey fabrics on the market now, so you'd think no problem, right?