Upholstery Fun!

Last night, we got to work on a project that was a long time coming...

Years ago, my grandmother gave me a dining table and chairs that she and my grandfather had had since the '70s. And while I've always loved the set, I haven't ever been too crazy about the off-white fabric on the cushions, not to mention the stains they've accumulated after years of wear and tear. And cat hair... They show so much car hair!

So, yeah... It was time to say buh-bye to the off-white early-90s fabric and helloooooooo to something a little more "us".

My first task was selecting fabric. What I had in mind was a navy ikat pattern, but I knew I'd settle for anything close. After coming up with nothing at Michaels (Apparently they don't sell fabric), I stopped in the adjacent Walmart, since I needed a few groceries, too. Much to my surprise, I found a few suitable options (at good prices) at the discount store we all love to hate. The fabric I chose has a white swirly pattern on a gray/black, almost denim-y textured background. Not navy ikat, but good enough for this project.

After choosing the fabric, I let Ryan lead the upholstering process, since he knows a thing or two about it (his stepmom owns an upholstery shop)... I traced the pattern onto and cut the fabric, then removed the piping from the seat cushion (We decided to not remove the old fabric, in order to give a little more structure to the cushion, since our new fabric was a little thinner than the old fabric.). Ryan then did the hard part... Stapling the new fabric onto the cushion. After that, he just had to screw the cushion onto the chair, and voila... New chairs!

It took us a little less time than we had anticipated, and only cost about $50 in supplies (And would've cost less if we had a staple gun on hand.)... Not too shabby!

Overall, this was a great project... Low cost/effort but huge impact... We are already brainstorming our next upholstery project!

DIY/Update

Our 1925 house was “renovated” before we bought it. And I use that term loosely, as all of the “renovations” seem to have been done as cheaply as possible. So, after four years in the place (We actually closed on the house four years ago today… Crazy!), its not surprising that we need to make some updates.

For instance, the sink. The “renovators” clearly chose the cheapest faucet they could find at Home Depot. So, four years later, it seemed to have come loose somehow, and after checking out the situation, Ryan discovered that the screws were actually stripped.

So, off to Home Depot Ryan went! And while we didn’t get the cheapest faucet, we also didn’t get the fanciest, either. We wanted it to fit into our kitchen nicely but also add a little flair.

And luckily my handyman of a hubby had the whole project completed (including the HD trip!) in just a couple hours.

We are pretty happy with the upgrade… It was easy, and fairly inexpensive, yet prettys up the kitchen a bit!

Now we can move onto the other “renovations”… Like the doors, the bathroom cabinets, the upstairs shower and the counters. Who knows if we will actually get to all of those projects, though. Baby steps…

:)

That’s us playing “airplane” the other night!

This post, however, has nothing to do with “airplane”… I just needed to lure you with a cute baby pic (And obviously it worked, hehe).

Today I wanted to mention one of my fave websites… younghouselove.com. Never heard of it? Check it out!

Even though I haven’t done a ton of DIY projects, their posts inspire me. They have the cutest house, and they way they write is quite engaging.

I feel like I’m continuously stockpiling mental images for our next house… That’s probably why I love websites like YHL, Pinterest, etc. And it probably explains my slight addiction with all things HGTV.

Enjoy!

On Saturday we ventured out to do something I’d wanted to do since moving here six years ago… We went to the flea market at the fairgrounds! Srsly… I had always heard about how wonderful this monthly event was, but for some reason I had yet to check it out.

We went later in the day, so a lot of the items had been picked over (and some vendors had even left for the day), but there were quite a few gems. There were some awesome pieces of furniture that looked like things they sell at Pottery Barn and Anthropology, with much, MUCH lower price tags. And it was quite obvious that you could talk the sellers down a bit if you had your eye on a certain piece. There were many pieces that were in great shape, but there were others that had low prices but needed a little DIY help (like the cute desk and chair Linny picked up).

I only spent $5 this time (on five Little Golden Books for Jett), but I was definitely inspired to start thinking about what things we could use at our house (I credit the blogs of Young House Love and Old Made Good for my new love of all things DIY/awesome/etc.)…

Next time!