Tag: DIY

Memorial Day Table

Last Memorial Day was eventful, we helped Doug’s parents buy a new flat screen TV–their living room is in the basement and we had to haul the broken old 5,000,000 pound old one up the stairs… it took four of us, but we did it!

This Memorial Day we’re enjoying the fact that we’re both 100% obligation free for the first time in months. No work, no church, no nothin’. We’re going to tackle a project but take it leisurely–we have all day after all!

We picked up this beauty at Goodwill yesterday and it’s going to be our “training wheels” project for wood restoration. I decided I didn’t want to tackle our reupholstered chairs for my first project because I like them too much and don’t want to mess up. So we got all the stuff we need and today’s the day. I’ll show you how it turns out, for better or for worse!

Here’s the top:

I’m hoping for some dramatic improvements. If not, we could always paint the recessed part a bold color and seal it. (Actually, it would be cool to paint that section and then “dip” the legs in a matching or contrasting color).

Now after a good bout with Murphy’s Oil Soap:

We’re going places already. We have this kind of Murphy’s… we diluted it as per instructions and filled up an old spray bottle–so handy!

Now off to sand, oil, and wax! We’ll see how we do!

Unpermanent

So, for the longest time, I’ve been having issues with what to put above the headboard in the bedroom. That is, what’s cheap to put above the headboard in the bedroom.

First, we had a map of New York City in a frame we got for our wedding, but the proportion was killing me. The wide bed+bedside tables and wide wall really deserves something with a more horizontal nature to it. Image below: awful, right?

So, I had the courageous idea to do a New York skyline mural on the wall. In my first inspiration board, which this room is loosely based on, I’d envisioned a headboard cut out to look like a skyline. I still think it would be totally awesome.

For my skyline, I looked up some stylized NY skyline prints and adapted one onto my wall in pencil, then taped it off with blue tape with the plan to paint it. It was around this time that I started sending out lots of job applications to outside states, and we got our new landlords and Mosey, so I put off painting… and put it off, and put it off.

(Photo taken Sunday: bed not even pretending to be made) I think it would have looked really cool, I was just too hesitant to do something too permanent to a rental that, when I did it, we could have moved out on short notice. Now, a few months later, I know I could’ve done it because we obviously haven’t gone anywhere. Guess I’m starting to dig in my heels for a little while longer.

Sick of the blue tape, I took it all down (carefully, because I think the wall is in fact painted-over wallpaper, which likes to peel off) and put up some of the extra antique postcards I got in preparation for our wedding guestbook (we had guests write us a note on the back and we keep them in a box). I tried out a couple of different patterns flat on the bed before they went up on the wall.

It’s not perfect, but the arrangement meets our color scheme (sort of–I mean there is a fair amount of green, and the blue goes with the blue baseboards and curtains–features of the room chosen by previous tenants that we’ve just left as-is). It’s wider than it is tall, although I could add one more “layer” around the edge to give it a grander scale–I just don’t have postcards that look like the rest (I tried to stick with illustrations rather than photos for a more antique feel). I used sticky tack, for the first time since my freshman year of college, since I didn’t want to do anything permanent to the cards and would feel guilty putting that many holes in the wall.

Here’s another shot, closer up and from a fancy-schmancy angle:

My favorite is the first one directly to the left of the two vertical Chicago cards. It’s a view of Shelter Island and San Diego bay as seen from Point Loma! So cool that I found that old card in Kansas :)

What do you think?

First Reupholstery Project

A long, long time ago, I promised you pictures of the “After” of these chairs I picked up for free at the dump. And I promised them that Friday. I gotta stop promising things to you guys. Haha. Well, the cushion on the first chair was finished before that Friday, but we hadn’t purchased the refinishing products recommended by this post from The Brick House (shoutout to Hemet!) so I decided to hold off on blogging about it until we shined up the wood as well.

Well, we got sick of the fabric & cushion for the second chair sitting around, and we still hadn’t/haven’t bought the stuff to try on the wood yet, but the wood has been cleaned on both (this actually made a world of difference) and the cushions have been finished as well. So I figure for lack of other content, and although this project isn’t done done, now’s as good a time as any for the not-as-big reveal!!!

Note the dingy, lumpy pink fabric. Had it been mint, I wouldn’t have minded the color or pattern but… it was actually really nasty. And when we took it off, stinky (we were wearing painter’s masks during that part of the process). This was quite creepy but inspired confidence: “no where to go but up!” So, here’s the before:

And now, the after! (The after so far, that is, we’re going to further clean and refresh the wood by following this guide.)

I’m crazy about the green link fabric we got on sale at JoAnn’s (the selection was way better than at Hobby Lobby). You can really tell the color by looking at the front edge–the sunlight kind of washes it out in this photo. They are actually super comfy and covering them was so easy I’m tempted to attempt to add cushions to the white chairs we got for free from my in-laws (you can glimpse one of them in the background). Time shall tell.

What do you think? Should I try to tackle the white cafe chairs? Or should I not give up my day job…
Oh, and don’t forget to vote for me by clicking the link on the right. Thanks much!