Snow Day Project

Since all areas south of Buffalo are under 6+ feet of snow, I haven't been able to go to work for the past FOUR DAYS!  Perfect time to work on a chair that I found in the attic.  (Seriously, there's still two more dressers, another chair, and a headboard up there, besides all of the furniture that I've already taken down.)

Chair before.

Isn't she pretty?  Lol.  It looks like someone tried to make her over at least once already.  They had covered up the wood back with some DIY upholstery.

Upholstery removed.

I removed the seat and added a fresh layer of batting and a new mauve velvet fabric to it.

Newly upholstered seat.

Using some of the paint I have left over from my dresser/nightstand/headboard makeover, I painted the chair a light tan.

Painted light tan.

The flat wood back was calling out for some added interest, so I chose to stencil it

with a bird motif and some white paint.

Stenciled with white paint.

And here she is after!

After!

Peaches & Cream Cabinet

Another roadside find, this cabinet looked like it was in decent shape on the outside.

Cabinet before.

The inside, however, was another story.  The two adjustable shelves were missing shelf pegs to hold them up.  The middle stationary shelf and the bottom of the cabinet were stained, as well as having been installed upside down.

Inside of cabinet before.

After a good scrub, I filled in the screw holes with wood filler.  I would have had to take apart the entire cabinet in order to flip the middle and bottom shelves right side up, so I figured this was an easier option since it was getting painted anyway.

Not sure who the genius was who put this together upside-down.

Finally ready for paint!   I removed the door and hinges and shelves.  I painted the entire inside, including the removable shelves and the back of the door a creamy white.

Inside painted.

The outside I painted a fresh peach color.

Peach door.

I decided to dress up the front of the door with some cream paint, so I taped off the areas I wanted cream with painters tape.

Ready for detail.

 
I also painted the carved leaf motif with the cream paint and added a new knob that matched the cream paint and original brass hinges.

Cabinet after!

New knob.

I also bought new pegs to hold up the two adjustable shelves since most of them were missing.

Inside after.

This cabinet would be great as extra pantry space in a kitchen, extra dish and wine glass storage in a dining room, or dvd storage in a living room.

For sale!

More Chairs!

Garbage day is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  I was on my way to work a couple of weeks ago when I spotted these twins on the side of the road.  After pulling a quick U-turn, they were mine!  They were dirty beige with metallic gold highlights and had ripped/missing upholstery.  Lovely.

Chairs before.

So the same process goes as always...  remove the old seats (one wasn't even attached to begin with), sand, clean, and paint.  Fergie found the old seat to be a comfortable bed where she could lay and watch me paint.

Fergie!

The challenge with these chairs came in the upholstering of the seats.  One seat didn't have any foam or fabric on it at all.  After a quick trip to the craft store, I  came home with a one inch thick piece of foam ( only $5 after coupon, of course).  I traced the shape of the wood seat onto the foam and cut it out with my fabric scissors.

Foam

Then came the fabric...  I had several scraps of a fabric whose pattern was similar to the shapes of the designs on the back of the chair.  I pulled the gray color from the fabric as my paint color.  But unfortunately, with the small pieces of fabric that I had, if I centered the design on the seat the way I wanted to, it wouldn't cover the whole seat (see right side of photo below).

Ideal pattern placement.

I tried every conceivable way to make the pattern work with the pieces of fabric I had, but eventually I had to settle for Plan B (see photo below).

Final pattern placement.

Although not my first choice, it still looks great on the finished seat!

Finished seat.

And here's the final result...

Chair after.

I had originally planned on selling these chairs, but I am in love with the finished results, and they have somehow found a place in my bedroom.

At home in my bedroom.

Plus, the gray paint on the chairs is a perfect match for the $20 gray quilt I recently "splurged on" from Christmas Tree Shops!

New gray quilt and pillow shams layered under comforter.

Side Chair Makeover

I found this castoff on the side of the road while driving home from work one day.  Other than needing new fabric on the seat and having some damage (animal chew mark?) to the center stretcher (the bar near the floor), it was a solid piece.  I love the shape of the back of the chair.  It's not a common design that you seen very often.

Chair before.

I unscrewed the seat from below and removed it so I could reupholster it later.  I lightly sanded the whole piece to remove the shiny finish.  I also sanded out the divot from the bite marks as best I could before painting the whole chair white.

After a couple coats of white paint.

While the paint was drying, I turned my attention to the seat.  I removed the bits of blue fabric that were left around the edges, but left the yellow vinyl intact to contain the stuffing.  I cut a piece of batting slightly bigger than the seat and stapled it to the underside of the seat to add some cushioning and smooth out the seat before covering with my fabric.

 

Underside of seat.

You might recognize this fabric from the antique barrel chair I did last summer with matching red-orange velvet.  This is my second and last piece of it, which was a free sample I got while in school.  I absolutely love it, but it matches nothing in my own home, so someone else will get to enjoy it when I sell it.

Seat cushion after.

I simply screwed the seat back on when the paint was dry, and here you go!

Chair After!

My Free Bedroom Set

The great thing about living in a super old house is all of the stuff I've found in the attic and basement.  I was told that none of it belonged to landlord (who hasn't been to Buffalo in over 30 years), so it was up for grabs.  I literally took an entire bedroom set out of the attic before we had even officially moved in.  There is a matching dresser, mirror, nightstand (wish there were two), headboard, footboard (which we're not currently using), and desk (which is currently in my office, but I hope to use as a vanity in my future master bedroom when we buy a house).

Dresser & Mirror Before.

Nightstand Before.

All of it is solid wood with dovetail joints.  They don't make furniture like this any more.  And the best part is that it's a piece of Buffalo history.  On the backs of the pieces they are stamped "North Park Furniture."

To prep the pieces to paint, I removed the old knobs.  For the dresser, I had to fill in the extra hole in the drawers where the old knobs were with some wood filler.  I put painter's tape on the back of the holes and just squirted it in.  When that dried, I sanded each piece with some medium grit sandpaper to remove the shiny finish and smooth out any dings and cracks.  I washed the wood down to remove any sawdust and dirt.

I bought a Behr paint and primer in one, thinking that it would save me a step.  Unfortunately, it really didn't save me much time.  I would have normally done one coat of primer and two coats of paint.  With the paint and primer in one, I ended up doing three coats anyway.  I think it had to do with the fact that my furniture was so old and dried out from sitting up in the attic for years.

Nightstand After.

In the "after" picture of the nightstand, you can see the old gross mustard-y color on the headboard next to the new light tan color.  The color did turn out about two shades lighter than the paint chip somehow.  It matches the comforter almost exactly, which isn't what I was going for, but isn't horrible.

Dresser & Mirror After.

The headboard is done, I just haven't gotten an "after" picture of it yet.  I want to mount it up higher on the wall so it is actually visible above my pillows.  And I still need to tackle the desk in my office.

So for only the cost of a gallon of paint from Home Depot and some new knobs on sale for half price at Hobby Lobby, I have a completely new bedroom set!

Parkside Tour of Homes

Today I took my husband along with me on the annual Parkside Tour of Homes.  The Parkside neighborhood is located adjacent to the Buffalo Zoo and Delaware Park and only about a mile from where we live.  It allows visitors to tour 10 historic homes, varying in architectural and design styles.  Most of the homes date back to the early 1900s.  You can hear more about the event here.

The tour started outside the Darwin Martin House, and you were allowed to wander at your own pace to each of the ten houses on the tour.  We chose to start at the southernmost house and work our way back north towards our apartment.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside any of the homes, but here are a few of the exteriors.

Queen Anne Victorian, built 1906

American Four Square, built 1910

 

Arts & Crafts bungalow, built 1911

 

Frank Llyod Wright's Darwin Martin House, built 1903

 

Craftsman Foursquare, built 1920

Arts & Crafts, built 1925

Fortunately, much of the original woodwork remained unpainted in these houses, which is the main element of Craftsmen homes.  Most of the home owners chose to decorate in furniture styles that matched the style/time period of their houses, but once in a while I'd see a very modern room that caught me off guard.

It was my first time taking the tour, and I had a great experience.  I was a bit disappointed that in several of the homes we didn't get to see much more than the living room and dining room/kitchen.

A few tips for anyone planning on taking the tour in the future are:

1)  Wear comfortable shoes!  We walked approximately two miles traveling from house to house.  (We also walked about a mile to and from the event each way as well.)

2)  Set aside enough time.  It took us about three hours to see nine of the ten homes.  (We bypassed one house that had a huge line out front.)

3)  Bring cash.  There were nine food trucks parked along the route, as well as several adorable children selling lemonade.  (We only had about $6 on us, which only got us each a small hotdog so we were starving by the time we got home.)

4)  Use the restroom before you start the tour.  Since the tour does take several hours and you're not allowed to use the homeowners bathrooms, it was a bit of an issue.

Wine Cork Dart Board

It looks at though my craftiness is rubbing off on my husband...

Now that Mike has his own "man cave" in our third bedroom, he insisted on getting a dart board.  But we didn't want a ton of holes in our walls from poorly aimed darts (we'd like our security deposit back when we move out). So he decided to create a dart board surround out of wine corks.  I'm ashamed to admit that we did drink most of these bottles ourselves, including some from our first trip together to cherry wine country in Michigan.  But we also got a few from Mike's grandpa.

The process was fairly simple.  Mike cut a piece of plywood to the desired dimensions (approximately 24" wide by 30" tall).  Then he cut four pieces of molding at 45 degrees to line the edges and create enough depth for the corks to sit in.

After he nailed the trim to the plywood base, Mike filled in the center with corks in a parquet type pattern. He dry fit them before gluing them down with Gorilla wood glue.  He did have to shave the edges off of some corks to get them to fit properly.  A screw was attached near the middle of the plywood to hang the dartboard from.

The glue holds the corks down well enough that even when a dart gets lodged in one, the dart easily pulls free without the cork detaching from the board.  I would know since I hit the corks more often than I hit the dart board!