Chair Makeover Finished!

I'm so excited! This weekend I was able to finish my latest project- the living room chair!

Last weekend we found this chair at the Salvation Army, and it was the first thing I saw when I walked in. I knew that it had a great structure and look that I wanted, but just needed some paint and new fabric. So, that's what I did!

Here is the chair before--

It was only $14.99!

It was a bit difficult to get the upholstery off, because it was stapled in this tiny groove, so I had to pull out literally every. single. staple!



So it took a few days to do that, but finally I was able to prime it, give it several coats of white spray paint, and reupholster the cushion!

Doesn't the white really bring out the detail on the legs?

We went with the Kimono Gypsy fabric, and it looks great.

I'm so happy that I now have a fabulous, one of a kind chair that matches perfectly, and was under $40! Our chair hunt is officially off :)

Lovely cushions

I've been spending a lot of time out on our back porch recently, with the mild temperatures and great weather we've been having. We have a pretty private spot, with afternoon/evening shade so it is great for eating dinner outside or just studying or enjoying a cold beverage in the afternoon.

We have a nice patio set that I bought from Home Depot when I moved into my first apartment several years ago. It's not bad as far as comfort, but it could definitely use some more padding, especially for lengthy use, so I made some!

It was really simple and again, I didn't do any sewing. I am actually thrilled that I can rip the staples out of the fabric and throw it in the washing machine, since it is outdoor fabric.

This is the one I chose, from Waverly's brand new Modern Essentials line.

Isn't the color / print gorgeous?

The teal pillows were a clearance buy from Target last year.



IKEA shower bench turned shoe storage

This project was one of my favorite things. I am not sure HOW on earth I even got the idea, I just know that I was browsing the IKEA website and somehow happened upon this shower bench and decided I should paint it, make a cushion for it, and put it in our entryway to hold our ever growing pile of shoes by the door.

So that's what I did. And here's how.

I assembled it myself. That's right. I was pretty proud of that. It was terribly easy though.

So I gave it a coat of primer:

And then the next day, I gave it a coat of white paint. By the way, painting on a beautiful day is so therapeutic.

And then another:

And then I got to working on the cushion while it dried. I picked up a yard of fabric at Joann's, and this was the one that we both liked a lot and agreed on: a Waverly lattice print.

We also got two of these foam cushions:

The measurements of the pad had to be 15" wide and 32" long, so we were going to have to do some cutting. I put them both together (the 15" wide was perfect, so I just had to cut the length), measured, marked off where I should cut, and just used fabric scissors.

Then, I laid the fabric around, pulled tight, and wrapped it like a present. Don't tell anyone, but I didn't sew a cushion for this- no way. I staple gunned it....

The staple gun = my favorite ever way to do something you would normally have to sew, without having to sew, and making this extremely non-permanent. If I ever want to change the fabric, it will be sooo easy, and the original fabric can be used on something else!

Here is the finished product. Yes, there was a huge crease down the middle, because I am lazy about ironing fabric. Don't worry, because I ended up ironing it after I saw this horrible crease.

So all that was left to do was put the bench in the hallway, plop on the cushion, and fill with shoes!

I took of the pillows in the last photo because Aaron thinks that the embellishment I did to the one is "weird" and "ugly". Haha! The pillows my mom made me when I moved into my first apartment four years ago. I'm still thinking about the pillows... I don't know if the patterns are too much! What do you think?!?!