Mini Bathroom Makeover

As you all know, we just made a big move to The South from up north. I guess that makes us Yankees then, huh?

As with all things related with moving there was a LOT of clutter that I had to redirect in our house before it was liveable. Heck, some of the clutter was makeshift furniture! Haha. We sold a lot of our belongings to make the move easier and to start from scratch. Moving on up! Or, south, technically.

One eyesore in particular was the master bathroom (SO excited I get to type that!). Sure, we had a vanity under the sink, but it in no way was capable of housing all of our toiletries. The countertop was a minefield!

Notice the highly attractive black part underneath the vanity. Who the heck does that?! That same ugly bar also runs along the bottom of the kitchen cabinets and the guest bathroom vanity. Builder's grade materials, they're called. Why oh why?

What boggles my mind is that there are darker wood floors throughout, and a dark ceiling fan in the adjoining master bedroom. The wood colors don't match!

See where the wheels were turning?

I went to the local Lowe's (love that place) in search for a medicine cabinet to house toiletries. I vehemently abhor that oak color for cabinets. Oak wood floors? Fine. Oak furniture? Reminds me of my college dorm furnishings. I digress.

I fell in love with this Allen + Roth medicine cabinet at Lowe's, and after chatting it up with the store employees I learned that I could easily install it myself. Only problem was the builder's mirror currently on the wall. The geniuses glued it to the wall, so I would have had to break it to install a medicine cabinet. So over the toilet it would have to go:

The two tone wood furnishings looked dreadful so I just HAD to paint the vanity.

Finding paint to match the cabinet proved far more difficult than I thought. See how it has a gorgeous red glow to it? Paint wouldn't be able to emulate that. The paint I ended up getting had a blue tint rather than red, but that's for another entry. Tune in to see the transformation!

Oceanside Guest Bedroom Inspiration

Hi all.  It's been a little quiet on the home front.  I have been extremely busy crafting (well, between entertaining out-of-town guests, traveling, and keeping house).  I have tons of things to share with you, but getting around to blogging has been a little difficult.

I have been very preoccupied with preparing our guest bedroom.   I LOVE relaxing weekends at the beach.  My wonderful in-laws have a house on Cape Canaveral and the beach is only two blocks away.  Dreamy!  I love the relaxed color palettes of the ocean and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to bring the beach to my guests?"  Haha, I didn't really think that, but I did think it would be nice to look in there from time to time and reminisce of relaxing summers on the beach.

As far as how to recreate such a memory, I don't like anything too kitschy, but I do like the creams, whites, blues, greens, greys and the sunlight sparkling off the waters of the ocean.  I've since secured a full size bed from a local wholesaler (I hate full size beds but the room is too small to accommodate a larger bed!), and a set of lamps and nightstands/end-tables from Craigslist.  Actually, the nightstands and lamps were only $75 total.  Not bad if I do say so myself.  I have plans for transforming the nightstands but I will leave that to be a surprise.  I did want to share with you the ideas I am working with for this room.  I've started to build a headboard (yes, build...more on that later in a separate post) and have plenty other things up my sleeve.

Let's start with the bed:

I love love LOVE upholstered headboards!  I love all the pretty shapes, colors, fabrics, heights, and embellishments!  I love the diamond-tufted ones, and tailored with nails like the one pictured above.  After much deliberating, I've settled on a sand-colored  headboard without tufting.  I also like the bronze nails accentuating the shape of the headboard.  I've seen similar headboards on the websites of Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel ranging between $300 - $500.  Now that's a DIY project right there!

I've seen sunburst mirrors all over magazines and Pinterest, and although I'm usually not a fan of the latest trends in decor, the idea has grown on me.  I think the thought of one above the headboard would resemble the sun rising in the morning sky.  The only thing I can't decide on is whether I want a silver one or a gold one.  I bought antique gold upholstery nails for the headboard, and am planning on incorporating chrome elsewhere in the room.  I'm a little nervous about three different-colored metals in one room.  What do you think?

Since most of these babies run around $200+, I think it's safe to say that I will be whipping up some elbow grease and go the DIY route.  Which leads me to my next element: mercury glass.  I've just discovered this beautiful metal.  I saw some mercury glass votives at Michael's and fell in love with the look.

What is an seaside-inspired room without some beach elements?

I love the color turquoise and it is a lovely reminder of the ocean.  This looks like it is upholstered foam board with gold upholstery nails.  I like that they mixed in a silver sunburst mirror with gold accents in the room, like the gold pillows and a gold lampshade.  All of a sudden I am feeling a little more confident about my antique gold upholstery nails for the headboard and mercury glass accessories.

What's a guest bedroom without a nice place to sit on?  I saw this online and was inspired by the colors of the chair:

 Last, but not least, I have a few ideas for incorporating the sea (without being too kitschy).  They probably will not end up being on pillows but I liked how these looked:

I will post updates on here really soon!

Reupholstering Chairs Completed

Sorry for the delay in posting the completed pictures! I have been done for a week or so now, but with everything going on I haven't gotten a chance for a final 'after' picture. But before I reveal that, let me remind you of the 'before' shot:

And here is the after:

I love it! I love the brown richness of the metal now after spray painting it. I like both the before and after looks but now this also reflects a little of me in it.

This is so easy anyone could do it. Don't be discouraged. The first seat I reupholstered coincidentally was also the most beat up one, but the rest were relatively a breeze. View the process here:

Reupholstering Chair Seats Part 1 and Reupholstering Chair Seats Part 2.

Reupholstering Chair Seats part 2

This was a much more productive run!  Amazing what can happen when you have all the right materials at your disposal! Last time I sat down to reupholster a seat for my dinette I had a chair pad (foam) that was several inches too narrow on all fronts.  How frustrating!  I went back to JoAnn a few days ago and swapped those chair pads for squares ones that were 22" on each side.  They only had three 1" high density foam pads, so I had to get 2" thickness, praying that I had enough fabric (I did).

 

These covered the widest part of my seats (20").  My seats taper towards the back, so I will have to do some extra cutting.

These were my tools: a permanent marker and my bread knife.  You can be fancy and use an electric meat carver, but I don't have one.

Trace your seat with the permanent marker.

 

(This picture was taken at an angle so the seat looks square. It is not).

When you are cutting, MAKE SURE YOU MAINTAIN AN UP-AND-DOWN MOTION.  Do NOT cut at an angle.  I learned this the hard way.  Your seat will be lopsided and you will have to conjure up a way fill in what you've cut out.  (This high density foam is NOT easy to cut, so cutting small pieces to make up for mistakes won't happen).

 

Using an upholstery adhesive, you will glue the foam to your wooden seat for easier upholstery.  Trust me, you're gonna want to go outside for this.  This stuff sprayed out  like Spiderman's webbing shooting from his wrists. ( I wish my "spidey" sense had forewarned me). It was white, sticky, and came out in a vertical line as opposed to the usual conical sprays.  Do this on cement or anything you don't want to preserve, like grass.  It can get messy quick, if you're not careful.

Follow the instructions EXACTLY as printed.  I sprayed both foam and wood and waited about 30 seconds (under the hot Georgia sun) for it to dry to a "tack."  To me that meant no longer translucent.  Then I placed the foam onto the seat.  Note: this WILL be permanent so proceed carefully.  If you feel like you might have to reposition your foam for whatever reason, DO NOT spray both sides.  When they say "it is a permanent bond" they MEAN IT!  Once I set it down it would not budge.

Once you have your foam glued (should take less than 30 seconds--really) you lay your seat (foam side down) on cotton batting.

Staple the center edge on the first side.  Pull the batting tightly; and wrinkles or folds in the batting will create an uneven base for your fabric.  Work your way around and staple the center edge of the remaining 3 sides.  If it's not as snug as you need it to be you can always remove that one staple and re-tighten.  The cotton batting will smooth out  the transition from the foam's edge to the wooden seat.  In my case, the batting also provided padding for the uneven cutting of the foam.  I had to cut extra snippets and place them in the gaps to make up for my mistake.  Live and learn.

Work your way around the seat and staple the batting to the seat.  I used my permanent marker and circled the nail holes underneath the seat to remind me of the space I needed to have clear.

 

I played around with different folds until I settled for this one. I found this the least bulky under the fabric.  Trim off excess batting once you've stapled it all the way around, and staple your corners.

Then placed your seat base under your fabric so you can see exactly how you want the fabric's pattern to lay across your seat.  I was worried about the extra height of each seat and the 2.5 yards that I purchased.  I thought I would not have enough.  Thankfully I was able to take some time and carefully plan how I would maneuver my fabric so that the design would be centered on each seat.  I found that I could make two seats using the 54" of width of the fabric as opposed to picking a location along the 2.5 yards where the pattern looked nice and end up wasting fabric.  Smart, I know.

 

This ended up being a few degrees crooked (in my opinion) but, since the print is so busy, it hides well and I can live with it.

 

My faithful companion, Chip. I just love him!

Carefully lifting your seat with the fabric, staple the fabric onto the wood with one staple in the center of the seat's side.  Once I knew I had it where I wanted it, I stapled one on either side of that center staple.  I had not cut out my fabric yet so I wanted to be careful.

 

Work your way around the fabric, stapling and trimming until you get a rough square shape that's easier to work with.  While you're at it, take a tape measure and measure the width of the fabric so you have a general idea of how much fabric you'll need for each seat.

This was my first time reupholstering ANYTHING.  I know I could have measured the length + width of the seat, added 3" to each side (2 for the height and then 1 more to fold over), and then cut a square of fabric for that measurement.  However, I did not want to mess up the pretty damask pattern for the sake of simple arithmetic.  I also did not know if I estimated the correct yardage.  I ALSO was hoping to have enough fabric left over for a window valance for the kitchen and perhaps a scrap for an idea I have for an oven door towel.

 

I gathered the corner like the original seat's corners were. This lends to a nice rounded corner. If you want a square corner you would have to do a simple fold like I did with the cotton batting.

You can see that my fabric is not even around the seat--this is deliberate.  It was more important to me that the print was centered on the seat.  Once you have stapled the fabric snugly (but not too tightly) around each side, make sure your screw holes are exposed.  If not (see below, bottom right corner) you will have to trim back some fabric and/or batting to expose them.  You don't want the layers of batting, fabric and then the dust cover getting wound around the screw.  That would be a nightmare.

I brought the dust cover back out and lined up the holes from the screws in the wood to their corresponding parts on the dust cover.  As you can see, this dust cover is pretty see-through.  Remember, no one sees this side of the seat except maybe your dogs (and an extremely nosy relative).  If it bothers you, you can always buy black dust cover material at Joann.  I think it's $7.99 for 5 yards.  That was an additional $8 I didn't care to spend money on, so I reused what I already had at my disposal.

After all my work was done, I screwed the seat back onto the chair and admired my work.  Note that I already spray-painted the chair brown.  Might as well get that done while the seat was off, right?

Reupholstering Chair Seats Part 1

OH-KAY!  Wow.  What an adventure this has been so far.  I used Amanda's tutorial on Design Sponge as a guide for this next project.  I'm so glad she made it easy to follow.  However, my experiences thus far have been less than exasperating.

Here is the before picture.  No, there is nothing majorly wrong with the color of the seats.  I like them.  However, if I left the seat covers this color my house would be plain vanilla.  I needed color without painting my walls a demanding color (in this case, green).  Some of the chenille seat covers were snagged, others beginning to be threadbare.

These are the materials I started with: cotton batting, a hammer, wire cutters (for lack of a flat head screwdriver), fabric, staple gun, staples, and poly fill (I'll explain that one in a bit) and a small Philips screwdriver.

First, remove the nails underneath holding the chair seat to the frame.  I used my Philips screwdriver.

The most annoying (and dire) aspect of this reupholstering project was the deteriorating foam padding underneath the seat cover.  In the picture below, my hand is laying on the seat...and I can actually feel the wooden board through the layer of padding and fabric.  Yuck!  A JoAnn Fabric employee suggested I buy poly fill to correct that hole of deteriorating foam in the middle of the seat. (Fast-forward temporarily to poly fill.  D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.  Like a badly-stuffed sausage!)  She meant well, though!  I returned the poly fill and bought four 2" high density foam pads measuring 15" x 17".

Turn your seat upside down to see what surprises await you!

Here is where this project differs depending on the wear your seats have taken.  Since I got this cute dinette used from Craigslist, I had to remove everything and start from scratch.  If my foam cushioning were intact, I wouldn't bother going through all the trouble you are about to see.  But, my set was deteriorating so I had to do it the labor-intensive way.  I removed the dust cover before anything else, with a hammer and the pliers.  (This part took FOREVER!)

Underneath the dust cover were more...STAPLES!! Ack

I had to bring out the wire cutters because the back of the hammer was not working.  Can you believe that JoAnn didn't carry staple removers?

FINALLY!  The dust cover was off! (I saved it to reuse)

The cording around the edge of the seat was actually a second layer under the dust cover.  It was stapled on after the seat chair fabric.  That meant there were double the staples to remove.  (I almost fainted inside).  At this point I was removing staples for over an hour.

My puppy was very curious as to what I was doing.  He also was asking for attention.

"Wait, what? This thing? You need this?!"

I continued removing staples for almost another two hours, wondering if this was even worth it.  The "wood" (really more of an extremely cheap MDF) was falling apart and flaking away.  Here's what I had after I removed staples:

Look at all those staple holes! It took over 2 hours to remove them all. Some of them were rusted inside the wood, so they broke into several pieces during the process. Not fun. If your cushions are good, I recommend you skip this process and just cover over everything and save yourself the headache!

My next step was measuring up the  foam up against the wood seat.  Imagine my surprise when the foam that I thought would be too big all around actually didn't measure up!

That was 2" high density foam that I bought at 50% off at JoAnn Fabric.

Thank goodness that NEXT WEEK (July 22-28) they have 50% ALL FOAM, so I won't have to get coupons like mad.  ALSO, they have a 20% coupon of your ENTIRE purchase (INCLUDING SALES PRICES!!!) next week that I plan on using as well.  I am going to have to return these foam chair seats (they ended up being just under $18 with my coupons) and try again.

I discovered that the manufacturer used 1/2" foam in two layers: one with the exact dimension of the wood, a second that covered the edge and went over the lip, giving that nice rounded corner look.  I will be doing just this, but with 1" thick foam covering the top and another 1" thick sheet going over the edge.  You don't want to feel the wood (it's pretty cheap plywood with tons of potential splinters). After that, I will cover the foam with batting to give an added layer of cushioning and smoothness to prepare for the fabric.

Alright friends.  This ended up being a little more complicated than I thought.

Tune in for the next step in this project sometime next week!

Living Room Chair

Slowly (very slowly) I am starting on making this house our home.  I have LOTS of work ahead of me!

I have currently been painting the house.  I started in the kitchen and am working through the living room.  When everything is finished I will post pictures.  Having a popcorn texture ceiling with knock-down texture walls sure does slow down the process!

Anyway, I have fallen in love with wing back chairs.  They're not too gaudy and they lend an antique touch to an otherwise modern living room.  We have a comfy, micro suede, double-reclining couch that I instantly envisioned my husband relaxing on when I saw it in the store.  It didn't exactly match my taste for esthetics, but as I sit here on it I'm glad I got it!

Back to the wing back chair...I've seen many tutorials on Pinterest (and repinned them!) on reupholstering wing back chairs found for $8-$15 at Goodwill, yard sales and Craigslist.  I've also seen some tutorials painting the fabric that seemed interesting to me.  However, I couldn't find a nice wing back on Craigslist that I wanted to make a project out of.  I have enough on my hands currently to tackle that project as well!

I didn't know whether a wing back would mesh with our furniture, but then I saw this picture on Houzz.com (FAB-oulous site...check it out!) and I realized it toooooootally could be done.

See the powder blue wing back chair facing the modern seating? Oh yeah, it works nicely!

I suppressed the urge to stick my tongue out at my husband when he complained about an "old-fashioned chair" in the living room, but I knew what I was doing.

I was perusing my "For the Home" board on Pinterest when I came across this long-forgotten image:

 

Striped slip cover on wing back chair

Would you believe it...I found THIS chair on Craigslist?!

Yeah, no kidding.  It was $100...about $70 more than what I wanted to spend.  I figured I could buy a cheap one and reupholster it or paint it, but this one was striped like in my inspiration photo.  Upon further conversation with the owner, I learned that this chair was only used as decoration and that it had only been sat on about 5 times.  My inner interior decorator was doing somersaults.  I was sold.

So, off I went (after making sure my hubby was O.K. with it).

The picture did it no justice.

Making a mental note of thanking my father-in-law (once again) for suggested I buy these bungee cords, I loaded my treasure into my car. 

I put it into my living room and I jumped for joy!  The real kicker was when I noticed the brand name tag under the seat.  Broyhill Furniture.  It was then that I REALLY jumped for joy as I realized that I could have potentially snagged a $700+ chair for a fraction of the cost.  No reupholstering.  No potentially ruined fabric by painting.  I got a mint condition Broyhill wing back chair on Craigslist and brought her home all by myself.  Elated doesn't begin to cover it :)

 

Please ignore the puppy toys in the foreground. Daisy has ADHD!

 

The two solid cherry wood tables I also found on Craigslist

I have found the perfect addition to my living room!  Now four adults can comfortably sit and gab!

Here she is again!

I will update you all on future decorating progress!

XOXO,

Lisette