Thursday, January 26, 2012

Spruce up a room, don’t break the bank: “re-covering” an old chair

My sweet father-in-law left my husband & I several pieces of furniture when he passed a few years ago. To be honest, I was reluctant to alter the things I didn’t like for fear of hurting my husband’s feelings, knowing that every piece was special. Albeit, everything has ended up upstairs so, unfortunately, he has caught on to the fact that upstairs is where I put things that I don’t really want to be seen by guests. With that said, I finally decided to re-cover an armchair that was a special shade of 1980 blue. When I priced this out, I quickly realized that it would cost an arm & a leg so, again, I let it sit there for months on end. Finally, I got an e-mail from Ballard’s Designs about a closeout sale & snapped up a great white linen slip cover. When it came in, it was WAY too big. So, I headed over to my favorite fabric store to pick up foam sheets & pillow stuffing. I kind of figured it out as I went but I think it turned out pretty cute. Oh, and it cost me a total of $200: $150 for the slipcover & $50 for the stuffing (I fortunately got the stuffing during a ½ off sale). Stay tuned for the “re-covering” of a fabulous loveseat….

Here’s what we’re doing:
I started by putting the slipcover on the chair to see where it needed the most help. (clearly everywhere!!)
I double-wrapped the arms with the foam sheets & pinned them in place.
For the cushions, I wrapped them with a foam sheet, put the slipcover on & then trimmed to fit. (I was lazy & didn’t want to measure 1st)
I pushed stuffing in every nook & cranny.
I took a look at where it “fell” in places & then added even more stuffing to make the fit tight.
I put it in place in my office & topped with a super-cute pillow. I love it!!











Friday, January 6, 2012

Recycling At It’s Best- Mardi Gets a Manor

My sweet puppy, Mardi, is a tiny bit on the wild side. Actually, she is rather nuts, but I love, love, love her. When I was a little girl, we had three (!) Saint Bernards, (Chrissy, Alex & Lucky). They had this amazing, huge dog house with a big opening in the front. I can remember crawling in there with all three of them and playing for hours. If I saw it now it would probably measure 3’ x 3’ or something really small but it seemed huge to me then. I have been dreaming of building a beautiful dog house for my little sugar for a while, remembering how much I loved the one we had growing up. I hate the plastic kennel she was sleeping in because it seemed too small & had no appeal to it at all.

As you may know, we completed a renovation a while ago which means that we had left over everything; all very unfortunately stored in my garage. This is actually my husband’s project but I thought it was cool so I am sharing it with you. I scoured the Internet to find a design that I like and had the hubby tweak it a bit. I wanted her to have a front porch, lots of space inside and ventilation.

Here’s what we’re doing: All materials used were left over from construction on our house:
 The frame- beams used in our kitchen (cemented into the ground)
 The flooring- hard woods from our kitchen and office. Yes, Mardi has hard wood floors!
 The roofing- shingles from our new roof
The paint- left over from our old house
The front door: old kitchen cabinet door. Can you believe it was the perfect size?
We actually made two doors, a winter version, which is solid, and a summer version, which has a screen (shown)
The screen: old fireplace screen




 
Blog Template by Delicious Design Studio