Off Yer Rocker....

Since I have deemed this "Chair Week" here is another chair post....

Today's chair is courtesy of our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Baker.

One day on our way home I noticed this chair sitting on the curb in front of our neighbors house. It looked like it was in good condition, so I sent the Hubbs and our oldest down to ask Mr. Baker if they were getting rid of it. Sure enough, they were :) The chair looked a little "off" and I soon found out why. The Bakers said that it used to be a rocking chair, they got to the point where they didn't need the "rockers" so they removed them. Leaving a short chair with a tall back. Even though it looked off, I decided I could figure out something to make it look more normal.

I decided to buy 4 decorative fence post toppers to screw into the legs of the chair. They would give it height and some "bulk".

I chose to put an ivory as the 1st coat of paint and my new favorite color, Hosta Leaf (I used it on this project as well). I also chose a matte polyurethane spray to seal it all in.

To begin we had to sand all of the poly (the shiny parts) off of the chair so that the spray paint adheres well. I used the whole can of the ivory as the first coat and then used two cans of the Hosta Leaf . After the paint had dried I sanded down some edges, corners, etc... to give it the worn in look. After sanding I applied about 3 coats of the Matte Polyurethane spray.

And this is the finished product......

I love how this chair turned out, the color kind of makes it for me.

Thanks for stopping by!

One man's trash.....equals new chairs for me!

This week I have deemed "Chair" week! The next couple days I will share a few chairs that I have recently finished. This post has been a few months in the making...

In december after picking our son up from a friends house we saw these chairs on the side of the road...

...and because I have no shame when it comes to these types of things, I picked them up!

Our current table is a beautiful old table that has been in my brother-in-laws family for many years. They gave it to us and we fixed it up and re-upolstered the chairs that came with it. We love this table, but it only has 4 chairs and when guests come over we have to pull out the ugly card table chairs. Not so inviting! After seeing these two chairs on the side of the road I decided they were going to be our *new* guest chairs.

First things first...reupolster! I found a fabric I loved that was on sale for $6 a yard and got foam 50% off(I love me some deals!). We have our staple gun to staple the fabric in place, pliers to pull the staples out of the old cushion, and a serated knife to cut the foam.

We realized there were TWO layers of upolstery to remove and A LOT of staples! We also discovered that these chairs were so old the they were stuffed with actual cotton, not foam. We ended up needing to cut  new seats to upolster to because the original ones were cracking.

Next I sanded the chairs down to remove the original finish. We had to completely rebuild one of the chairs with screws, wood glue, etc...because it was falling apart. I chose a dark tan to paint them because I didn't want a dark brown (It would look fake next to our dark brown stained chairs). The outcome?

Steril. Something that looked like it belonged in my doctor's office. Blah.....

So, I tried a technique of rubbing a dark stain into the deep wood grains of the wood (On top of the paint we already had on them) to give them a darker color and "texture".

The result? GREAT! But, it didn't "fit" in our house....

Sooooo back to the drawing board again.

Step 5,301) Sand down again!

The next color I decided to try was a dark hunter green.

The result? Too blue.....

SOOOOO I tried the stain technique again, but this time on top of the hunter green.

The result?! Well, they are less blue at least..."They are fine, I'm tired of redoing these chairs, so I'm just going to say uncle and decided to "love" the color and go with it."

We screwed the seats into place and they were finished!

I am SO glad they are done AND now we won't need to pull out card table chairs when we have guests :)

  

Check back tomorrow to see the "Off yer' rocker" project!

Chalkboard sign....

A while back I was in a boutique and saw a cute chalkboard yard sign that you could use to write something to celebrate occasions, etc....I loved it, but didn't like the $25 price. So, I tucked away the idea in my head for future possible projects. Since making this post last Fall we now have a great place to put signs, decor etc...With our sons birthday coming up I decided I wanted a chalkboard sign to go out front, but instead of staking it into the ground, I decided to make a hanging sign that we could hang on our post to write different messages like "Happy Birthday" or "Please knock, babies are napping," etc...

The wheels began turning and this is what I came up with.....

1) I found a wooden plaque at Wal-mart for around $4 and sanded down the splintery(yes, my word, probably not real!) spots

2) I chose a green spray paint that we already had to paint the edges/top...I used about 3-4 coats

3) Sand down the the middle portion to remove any shiny parts(paint sticks better to porous surfaces)

4) I wanted the chalkboard to have "rough" edges around it so I took painters tape and tore it down the middle. I taped off the board with the rough edge facing the middle of the board where the chalk board will go. I then added another layer of painters tape in order to keep the chalk board paint from getting on the edges of the board.

5) I applied literally about 6 to 7 layers of chalkboard paint. You do not want to be able to see the wood grain underneath, this gives you a better surface to write on. Wait for the paint to dry(I waited overnight) and carefully peel off the tape (Mine came off really easily).

(I couldn't get rid of the glare!)

6) I needed to make something to hang the sign by. I decided to use jute twine. I took 3 pieces of the same length and braid them together. I then tied knots at both ends of the braid.

7) Using a staple gun I stapled the twine to the back of the sign. The knots will keep twine from slipping.

8) After securing the twine I decided I wanted to "jazz" it up a little so I took some different ribbon that I had and tied it to the twine. I LOVE this paisley ribbon :)

9) The finished product!

I love how it turned out! AND, of course, I love that it only cost me $4 since I already had most of the supplies :)

Coke crate recycle

This post has been about 9 months in the making. I finally did something with our entryway. It's eclectic, colorful, and kind of rustic. It meets our typical requirement of not just "there" for the sake of being there, it can also be useful. 

Our living room has one big, long wall that needed something on it and we needed a space to put our books, Bibles, games, toys, etc...so I kept my eye out for a sofa/entryway table that would work for our needs/wants. 

I finally found one at a flea market last April and paid a great price for it. It actually was made to be an entertainment center for a flat screen. I loved it, but wasn't quite sure what to do with the small shelf that was made to hold a dvd player, etc. I would have loved for those to be drawers, but they weren't so I decided to try and put something in there that could be used as drawers. At first I thought of putting rustic looking baskets in there, which would have been fine but I already feel like I have too many baskets so I was determined to figure something else out.

The table, originally a blue-grey with a black shelf on bottom. I loved the blue-grey, but not the black, so I painted the whole thing blue :)

During our brief visit to Dublin, TX this last summer we found various treasures and one of them was a yellow coca-cola crate. I loved it because normally the only color I find those in is red and I decided to get it and figure out some way to use it later. Plus it was only $3, so that made it an even better find.

This Fall when I was still trying to figure out what to do with the small shelf on our entryway table I walked by the crate(that was just sitting in our garage) and had an idea. I decided to put it on the shelf to see if it fit in one of the slots(there were two). It fit perfectly and looked kinda funky(which I love) plus also matched the distressed look I gave the entryway table when I repainted it. It became my new "drawer" and because there were 2 slots I needed another crate. My husbands father has all kinds of *treasures* so we asked him if he happened to have a coke crate he didn't need and he did! I was pretty excited.

We put them both in the slots and liked it(well the hubbs was warming up to the brightness of it), but they needed something else to them. I decided to make rope pulls for each of the crates to give them more of the "drawer" look.

Here's my step-by-step:

1. First I headed to Ace and asked one of the salesmen if they had scratchy rope(yes, that's the official term). They did and it was only $.15 a foot. I got 2 feet.

2. Next I decided where I wanted the pulls to go...in the center, 2 inches from the top of the crate. My crate measured 18 1/2 " long, so I found the middle of the crate at 9 1/4". I wanted my rope pulls to be 4 inches wide so I measured 2 inches on each side of the middle point(at 7 1/4 and 11 1/4) and made a mark---making sure it was still two inches from the top as well. Confused yet?

3. Next find a drill bit that is the same width(or as close too) as your rope and put it in your drill. Drill your holes where you marked them on each crate.

4. Take your two foot piece of rope and tie a knot in the end of it. Starting on the inside of the crate pull the rope through one of the holes and then through the other hole(leaving some lose rope in the front to form the pull). Knot it and then cut off the excess. Repeat the process with the second crate.

5. And last we put felt circles on the bottom of each crate so they do not scratch the shelf.

And there ya go! I like how it turned out. Even the hubbs likes it a lot better now. It fits our crazy household/life.

They go pretty well with the distressed finish I gave the table, ha, and the brightness of the blue(I kinda love our random blue table)

And there ya have it. I definitely think it looks better in person, but what can ya do.

And by the way, the total cost of this drawer project was $3.30. Not too shabby. Happy recycling everyone!

What to do with an old shirt...

Have you ever looked in your closet or drawer and realized that you had WAY too many t-shirts? I have...way too many times. This last week I decided to recycle one of my shirts.

Lately I have been wearing my shirts more often because I have been working out more. One problem I have with shirts is that the sleeves bug me and get in the way. One solution is to wear tank tops, but in an effort to save some money I decided to make this shirt into a tank top of sorts. This requires no sewing, but you could of course polish the edges by making a seam with a sewing machine.

Here's your how to on making the tank top...

1. Take your shirt and lay it out flat (No picture, just imagine a shirt on a table)

2. Starting directly under the seam in the arm pit make a curved cut up and towards the neckline.

3. The result is a shirt that covers my sports bra(a must), but also gives me the ease of movement. 

finished product!



Now, in an effort to never waste my scraps :) I decided to use the sleeves to make a headband. Truth is I loved the color of this shirt too much to waste the material! Here's the how-to to make the headband (btw cloth headbands like these sell for about $1 in stores)

1. Lay your sleeve out on the table

2. Cut the seams off of the sleeve

3. Roll the raw edges underneath and put it on! The material will naturally roll under and stay together.

Now if you REALLY had a shirt you wanted to be rid of but love the color too much, you could also make an infinity scarf out of it (This I do not have any pics of, sorry! I'm a busy momma and don't have the time to stop sometimes...that's my story). I'm seeing these everywhere and really all you need is a good jersey material.

1. Lay your shirt out flat

2. Take your scissors and cut horizontally across the bottom. Make the strips at least 4 inches wide because they will curl up. Make as many as you want.

3. Layer them one on top of the other around your neck. You could even do multiple colors if you wanted.

The hem of the sleeve can also become a collar for the dog, as my oldest saw the need for :)

And of course you could always use it for a rag like my husband does, but these options are a little more fun!

So, there ya go! Easy things you could do with an old shirt. Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle, AND save yourself a little cash :)  

**Also, since shirts have two sleeves and I only have the need for one headband, I have an extra headband! So if for some reason you want this extra, just let me know! If no one claims it, it may become part of our dress-up bag :)

Pinning is winning...

Lately you might have heard, "are you on Pinterest???" about a million times. Some think this is one of those new "fads", but I don't really agree. I have found it incredibly useful and a lot of fun! For a person who loves getting ideas for new projects, I have loved it! I just wanted to share some of the things I have made recently from some versions of my "Pins" on Pinterest.....

The original Pin from http://kenziehand.blogspot.com/2010/05/while-daddys-away-mommy-will-play.html...



And my version...

Mine is a little different from the original, and looks great in person. The original one was black and distressed on the edges. I painted mine orange on the edges and spray painted it a satin inside/outside brown paint. I distressed it on the edges to let the orange show and then sprayed a couple poly-urethane coats on it. We also put an oil rubbed bronze hook on it. I love how it turned out and am excited that I can just interchange the signs on it throughout the year. This sign is temporary, I am hoping to make a more Halloween-ish sign in the near future. I can't wait to put out mums and pumpkin decor on the porch with it! Yay, for Fall!

And the next Pin from http://lookiewhatidid.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-front-door.html

And my version of the pin...

The wreath is a wreath I made a few years ago with a grapevine wreath and two different Fall swags I got on sale. I have always loved this wreath, and have no plans of getting rid of it until I have too! When I saw the initial wreath on Pinterest I liked the idea of "Jazzing" up my Fall wreath with our initial. I found the wooden "S" at Hobby Lobby. I spray painted it the mustard yellow that I also used on the tin pitcher in my kitchen. I inked the edges with a brownish-green and hot glued in onto the wreath. I toyed with the idea of adding a bow, but my hubbs and I decided that we liked it better this way. The "S" really makes it stand out when you look at it from the street.

And the next pin from http://loveoffamilyandhome.blogspot.com/

And my "darker" version...

Okay, I love orange and not just in the Fall..can you tell? I also loved the ivory color of the original, but it would have been sorely out of place in our house where we have mostly dark frames. I found this beautiful oval frame 50% off at Hobby Lobby and covered the inside in burlap I already had. I found the "S" at Micheal's and painted a few different shades of orange. After a couple dabs of hot glue, it was finished! We really like the different texture the burlap added to it. Right now it is in my kitchen, but I am throwing around the idea of adding it to a frame collage I have in our hallway...we shall see!