Move Mountains In Your Home
I'm still plowing through my list of freelance articles (all 30 of them), so today I worked on a tutorial showing how to reupholster a small armchair. See that yellow French chair under the window? That was my subject. It took a couple of hours to get her all stripped down and ready for a nice new look. I decided to leave the wood frame as it was. It was a pretty, dark wood … [Read more...]
Here she is... Here she was... Again, I have nothing against pink, but the pink didn't work in my home and really wanted to keep these and use them in my family room. I've been on a quest for years to populate my family room with comfy, yet stylish (and budget friendly) chairs and these fit perfectly. Right chair, wrong color. So, I stripped her down and gave … [Read more...]
I finished upholstering one of the pink French chairs today. Woohoo! I even put a zipper on the cushion cover, so it's legit. With over twelve years of sewing under my belt, this is the first zipper I have ever done! I don't know why I've been so scared of zippers...ZIPPERS, people. Really?! I was determined to not be spooked by something as humble as a zipper. I dissected the old … [Read more...]
I love using antique European grain sacks for upholstering furniture. It gives an immediate character to the piece of furniture and it's very durable, which is important in a house with two young boys. So, when I acquired this pair of chairs, I knew I wanted to use a grain sack to cover them. The pair of chairs cost $95 and the grain sack was $40. Here's the result of my $135 and a few … [Read more...]
Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture of this chair. I bought it last summer off of Craig's List and never snapped a picture of it. It had a wood frame and lavender plaid upholstery. It was in great condition, but it just wasn't "me", so I gave it to Ruthie, my upholsterer to let her work her magic. I also gave her two antique grain sacks to use as the fabric. I can hardly take … [Read more...]
Welcome to another "Best of MMS" post. A few of you offered up the brilliant idea of sharing some of my past posts while I'm busy working on things for the book, so that's what I'm doing. (I'm sorry about the wonky spacing in the post. Something funny happens when I put code from my old blogspot blog on my new site.) I painted these French chairs before I had tried ASCP or Milk Paint … [Read more...]
After a whirlwind week of activities and festivities, we dropped my parents off at the airport this afternoon. We got so much accomplished, it's amazing. I started getting a little teary-eyed today when I saw so many projects complete. I know that's silly, but some of them have been five years in the making and now they're almost done. Before I show some progress on the house, I'll share … [Read more...]
Remember this? This is one of those pieces that people like me have nightmares about. The dresser that is so saturated with smoke that it needs a bath in bleach. The upholstered chair that was used as a dog bed...and then a cozy nest for a mouse. Or the sofa that was stuffed with dried grass. When I opened this one up, I know I was in way over my head and needed to call in … [Read more...]
I bought these chairs back in January from an estate furniture shop. I loved the shape and, while the upholstery was done well, the fabric was not my thing. I intended to upholster them myself, but once Ruthie came into my life all of that changed. I turned over every upholstered piece I had in my queue, including this pair of barrel-back French chairs. I painted the frames in ASCP Old … [Read more...]
Today, the glittering continued. I received my box of 10 pounds of glitter over the weekend, so the glittering isn't going to stop any time soon. Even my basement sparkles...and not because it's clean, unfortunately. I also began working on my feature furniture pieces for the Lucketts holiday open house today. I started pulling apart this sofa, but as soon as I got the … [Read more...]
I'm stingy with a few of my finds...ironstone, grain sacks and French chairs mainly. I do part with them, but it's always tough. If you ever buy a piece of ironstone or a French chair or something made out of a European grain sack from me, you can know I really, really loved it and it was very tough for me to put a tag on it. Today, I took two of my favorite things and made … [Read more...]
There's a lot of good information and inspiration in this post, so get ready! First of all, the beauty shot. Now, the before shot. I'm so happy with how these turned out. I'm taking the pair of arm chairs (only one is pictured in the before shot) to the Ground Hog Day Sale at Lucketts (Feb 4-6). If you'd like to read about the paint technique … [Read more...]
Can a chair from the 1900's and a quilt from the 1800's come together in a happy union? This chair was almost naked when it was purchased for almost nothing from an auction. No finish and stripped down to it's springs. This quilt fit under an unfortunate label...a cutter quilt. Although they were from different centuries, they seemed to want to be together. … [Read more...]
First of all, can you believe how cheap the contestants made drop cloths look on HGTV Design Star! I kid of course. Well, sort of. Drop cloths are cheap, but they don't have to look like it. If you slap a drop cloth from the package directly to the window (especially with some pieces of a taxi cab bag tied to it, a la Design Star), it's going to look cheap. If you reuse them in creative … [Read more...]
I bought this pair of French chairs at an auction almost a year ago. I had fallen in love with them and they had to be mine. I was willing to pay about $100 for the pair, but ended up walking away with them for $20. Of course, they were orange. I guess other people just couldn't see beyond that. I originally made slipcovers for them, but they looked so sloppy after … [Read more...]
