Suzanne McGrath Photography

Six on Sunday...how to make a Terrarium

Hi there.  I thought I'd talk about this project because it lends itself to a summer project with kids.  Originally I wanted each of my kids to make one of these, but we have only made one so far.  

It's really easy and truly something your kids can do with little supervision.

Supplies:

• Glass container - you can even use a wine glass!
• Rocks
• Sand
• Soil
• Plants
• Moss

You just layer it in the container like you see in the image above.  Well, actually, put the rocks on the bottom and then the sand.

And ta-da...you get this.

I will say the best place to get plants is not Home Depot or Lowes.  Your best bet would be a special trip to a landscape center.  

These require very minimal water which is perfect for someone like me who nevers remembers to water anything!

One last image...

If you try to make one of these I'd love to know how it turns out!  Have fun.

Thrifty Thursday...a Glamorous Upholstered Bench (Tutorial)

Last week I promised something kind of fun for tonight.  I'm here to tell you I delivered!  I finished up my upholstered bench this week - a project that has been nearly a year in the making.  Yes, you heard that right.  Almost a year.  That's just how I roll...

You need to put on your thinking cap...my room is a work in progress right now.  Imagine soothing gray walls, a clean-lined bed skirt, new window treatments, campaign dressers for the night stands, modern lamps, and perhaps a black or white bed rather than stained pine. BUT...this is going to be my new bedding.  I realize it's old and it's been all over the inter-webs, but I still LOVE it!  And I love the play of the stripes which is masculine against the flowery quilt.  

 

OK.  Now, the tutorial, if you're so inclined to stick around.  If not, no hard feelings!

My friend Craig and his List helped out.  When I originally bought this $20 "bench", it was a coffee table.  The hubby so kindly cut out a chunk of it and then glued it back together using biscuits.  Then it sat in the "Box Room".  (The old playroom with a toy box - hence, box room.  The name stuck.)  And sat.  And sat.  And sat.  

The first thing I did was silver leaf it.  I went to an art store and found this silver leafing kit.  The kit contained the glue, two brushes, poly to cover, and 25 sheets of silver leaf.  It was $17.99.  I also ended up buying two extra sets of 25 sheet of silver leaf.  I think they were $8.99 each.  I have quite a bit left over and even silver leafed two lamps.  So it wasn't a bad deal.    

 

Here's what it looked like when I first started.  You can see the seam down the middle of the side where it was glued back together.  But the silver leaf covered that up.  I will warn you - it's kind of messy!

 

The first thing I did was apply the glue with the little brush.  It goes on white like you see in the following picture.  After about 30 - 45 minutes, it turns clear and becomes tacky.  That means it's ready. Since this process was fairly tedious, I ended up doing this in three different sessions.  It was all I could handle at once - and I have a pretty long attention span!

 

This is what it looked like when I was done.  I went back over it with a paint brush and my finger to get rid of the excess.  After that, I used Rub-n-Buff and applied it using a rag.  I applied it to the gaps and cracks in the silver leaf.  I don't have a picture of that part but it wasn't bad.  I even found the Rub-n-Buff at JoAnn's.

 

Next it was time to tackle the top.  I bought 3" foam at JoAnn's when it was 50% off.  It was only about $30 - not bad for foam.  I laid it on top of the bench and traced it with a black marker.  Then I used my electric knife to cut it.  (Seriously - this is the ONLY time I've ever used that knife - in almost 15 years of marriage!)  

The next thing I did was measure the top because I knew I'd need a piece of MDF or plywood underneath the foam.  I purposefully cut it an inch short on the long sides but full length on the short sides.  I'm not sure why I did that, but I did!  Thankfully the hubby was cutting trim so he didn't mind ripping a piece of scrap MDF for me.  (I don't mind using the circular saw, but it's just so darn LOUD.)

 

After the MDF and foam were cut to size, I sprayed both with Adhesive spray.  

 

I let the foam rest for a few minutes so it would all hold together.

 

Next, I wrapped two layers of batting around the foam to soften the edges.  

 

I used my trust staple gun to adhere the batting.  I love this staple gun!  It's so much easier than using my big air compressor.

 

Next - and almost last - I attached my fabric.  I bought this fabric from Calico Corners back in January when it was 25% off.  I can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but I think it was around $25/yard.  I only used about a yard of it here.  I'm thinking I'll use the excess for curtains!  I followed the same philosophy I used when I put together #4's upholstered headboard.  

 

The corners were definitely tricky.  I had to try a couple times to get them right.  

Lastly, and I don't have a photo of this, I screwed the MDF into the bench through the bottom of the bench.  And one more time...here is the final product.

Now I can't wait to paint my room!  Do you have any project planned for this weekend?

Thrifty Thursday...How to Recover a Lamp Shade

In truth, these lamps got a TOTAL make-over!  But I'm only going to show you how I recovered the shades tonight.  I'll do a full tutorial on how I silver leafed the bottoms.  But that will be a little later.

Here are the lamps in their before state:

I never had any intentions of using them while they were red.  But then I found them hidden away when I was putting out the holiday decorations and they worked.  So I used them for a month.  They were on clearance at Target for only $15.  Not bad, huh?  $30 for two lamps?  (I think the shades were extra but I can't exactly remember.)

First I tried spray painting the bases.  But I used Krylon.  I decided I hate Krylon.  Every time I've used that brand I've had issues.  (For example, I sprayed a paint can red for the holidays and the spray can back-fired on me and ruined my ski jacket.  But I'm too cheap to buy a new one so now my ski jacket has red splatter marks on it.  I think it looks a little bit punk rocker.  So I'm keepin' it.)

After the yellow turned out horribly wrong, I decided to try silver leafing the bottoms.  It was so easy!  (Tutorial coming)  But they were still boring.  Check out the lamps with the plain white shades in my family room reveal.

See?  They get lost.  I knew I had to do something.  I had some fabric I bought back when I reupholstered my cane chairs.  It was a perfect match to the chairs so I decided to forgo the pillows and use the fabric for the lamps.  I have bought fabric from www.fabric.com a few times and really like them.  Their prices are great and shipping is fairly quick.  

Here are my supplies.  (I am missing my spray adhesive.)

The first thing I did was very lightly trace the lamp shade onto the wrong side of the fabric.  One hint: make sure you cute the fabric extra long!  It's nearly impossible to cut it for a perfect fit and you'd rather have extra fabric than not enough.  

You can see how much extra fabric I had:

Hold the phone!  This is actually the second step.  First you need to "hem" the exposed edge of your fabric.  I just used iron-on tape and it was SO EASY!  

Once this step is over, it's actually time to adhere the fabric to the shade.  I used spray adhesive and did it out in the garage.  It's tacky but allows you to move your fabric if needed to get a perfect fit.

After the fabric is glued down it's time to trim the top and bottom.  In order to give myself some wiggle room, I used trim to hide the top and bottom edges.  It was genius!  Not my idea.  But genius, nontheless.  

Isn't that pretty?  My trick?  I used binder clips to hold the trim in place while the glue was drying.

And that's it.  It took maybe an hour - total.  And I love the punch of color it provides.  Fun and not too serious.  

And there you have it.  Fun lamp shades!  What are you going to work on this weekend?





 

Thrifty Thursday...a Tutorial: How to Reupholster a Cane Chair

It's Thursday and that means it's time to get thrifty.  Woo-Hoo!

Tonight I bring you my bright and fun cane chairs.  I think they fall into the occasional chair category.  But whatever...I just liked them and had a vision.  I was actually inspired by a room designed by KC's very own David Jimenez.  Check it out:

  

(Image via decorpad.com)

I started looking for these chairs way back when it was still cold outside!  I ended up finding a $40 version on Craigslist.  Score 1,503 for Craig and his list!

These sat around for a loooooong time before I had the energy to tackle them.  

Here's a sneak peak of how they look now.  Improvement, no?

If you want to know how I did it, read on.  If not, scroll to the bottom for the full reveal.  You won't hurt my feelings:)  

First, I started with my tools.  Just a few basic tools are needed for a reupholstery project.  (I'm sure there are other "real" tools; but these worked for me.)

The first thing you have to do is remove all the bajillion staples holding the fabric to the chair.  In all actuality, this part was not very difficult.  I think I got lucky.  One tip I have for you is to take a lot of pictures as you remove the staples.  You want to remember how everything was put together.

(I was trying to remember how the piping was attached in this picture.)

After I had all the fabric off I spray painted the chair.  First I primed, then I sprayed a few coats of black.  Remember, several light coats are always better than one heavy coat when it comes to spray paint!

Finally, it was time to cut the fabric.  When I removed the blue velour from the chair, I was careful not to destroy the fabric so I could use it as a template.  It worked beautifully, thank goodness!

Since I didn't want a tufted back, I bought new 1" foam and cut it to size.  I could have stuffed the holes in the original foam, but I thought using new foam would be easier.  

In addition to the foam, I also bought high-density batting.  I used it to round out the corner of the back of the chair.  I also used it on the chair bottom to add a little layer of padding.  You'll see what I mean further below.

The first piece of fabric I attached was the back of the chair.  I started stapling on the top middle and worked my way out to one corner and then again from the middle to the other corner.  I made sure to keep the fabric tight as I stapled.  I wanted it to be smooth.

Next, I just layered the pieces back on before I covered the front with fabric.  

First, the thin layer of foamy stuff:

Next, the cardboard:

Next the foam and then the batting:

Finally, it was time to staple.  Before we move further, let me digress a bit...

I used a pneumatic stapler.  It's great.  However, I had to be careful to adjust the amount of pressure from the compressor.  I practiced on a piece of scrap lumber to make sure I had the pressure just right.  If the staple comes out too hard, it will bury itself in the wood.  If for some reason (say, you forget to add your batting) you need to remove the staples, you can't remove them without damaging the fabric if they are buried in the wood.  If the staples don't come out with enough force, they will stick up too high and you will have to hammer them all down.  So this is what my scrap piece looked like.  It took me awhile to figure out the correct pressure.

OK.  Back to our regular scheduled programming.

The next step is to attach the fabric to the front of the chair.  This part was fairly nerve-wracking because I didn't want to screw it up!  I used the same pattern to staple the fabric that I used on the back.  Back middle to outside corner.  Back middle to other outside corner.  Down one side.  Down the other side.  Make sure to pull the fabric tight as you go along.

Here it is after I was done.

The last step of this process was to trim off the excess fabric and batting as close as I could to the staples.

Next, I had to sew double-corded piping.  The original chair only had single piping but I couldn't figure out to attach it properly so I went this route instead.  I re-used the cording from the original chair but had to buy more to make it double.  You basically cut a long piece of fabric about 2 inches wide and as long as you need.  Then you wrap the fabric over one of the pieces of piping and sew.  Next, lay the second piece of piping down, fold the fabric over again and sew again.  Lastly, trim off the excess fabric.  Ta-da!  Piping! 

I glued the piping onto the back of the chair to hide the staples.  I'm not gonna lie.  This part SUCKED!  I think I probably used the wrong kind of glue.  If I were to do it again (and I have another chair lined up) I will buy better glue.  For Sure!

The rest of the chair was pretty easy.  I just recovered the bottom of the chair (with an added layer of the batting) and used the pneumatic stapler to attach the fabric and the piping.  Then I simply screwed the chair back into the bottom.  

The cushion cover wasn't horribly difficult to make but it wasn't easy, either.  When I took the cushion out, I made sure to use a seam ripper to take apart the fabric cover.  This allowed me to reuse the cording AND I was able to re-use the zipper!  I'll admit I patted myself on the back for that little trick:)  I was also able to use all the pieces as a perfect template.  I simply sewed everything back together the way it was originally made.  

I didn't take a bunch of picture of this part because I just copied what was done originally.  That is my advice to anyone trying this for the first time.  Copy, copy, copy!

And here they are in all their glory.  I am really proud of them given this was my first time trying my hand at reupholstery.  I will definitely do it again!

Here they are in front of the window seat.  They don't belong here, but this is the only place I could photograph them.  They will eventually go in my family room after I re-do it.  I'll reveal that when it's ready!

OK, folks.  That's all I've got!  I hope you like them but mostly I hope one person is able to glean something useful from this tutorial.  I'm off to watch Project Runway!

 

 

 

Thrifty Thursday...How to make an EASY upholstered Headboard

This tutorial is fantastically easy!  Is fantastically a word?  Anyway, moving on...

Previously I've posted pictures of #4's finished big girl room which included not one, but two of these upholstered headboards.  I love the pop of color and impact they provide without breaking the bank!

And here is how I did it:

I bought hi-loft batting when it was 40% or 50% off at JoAnn's.  (Batting isn't particularly cheap, so I usually wait until it goes on sale.)

I can't even remember where I got the fabric, but I love it and it wasn't expensive.  I simply made sure to have enough fabric to cover the headboard without seams.  Since this was Home Decorator fabric, it is 54" wide which was perfect.  I probably used about a yard and a half per headboard.  

The last thing I needed was a piece of MDF, 3/4" thick.  I could have probably used 1/2" but I prefer 3/4" because it seems more substantial.  Home Depot or Lowe's will cut a sheet for you or you can buy it in slightly smaller sizes.  (I bought a sheet of it and used it for various projects.)

The next thing I did was figure out how many layers of the batting I could use.  I managed to get 3 layers to cover the board.  I made sure the batting was pulled tight so there were no lumps anywhere.  Once the batting was in place, I stapled in the center of each side.

Then I stapled all the way around and left the corners for the last part.  I routinely turned the headboard over to make sure the batting was lump-free!  When it was time to address the corners, I cut out all the excess I could and then stapled away.  I folded one side over the other and made sure it was smooth.

This is what it looked like when I was done with the batting.  I made sure to trim off as much of the excess as I could.

See - lump free!

Next, it was time for the fun part!  The fabric.  Since my fabric had a fairly large repeat, I needed to make sure it was centered on the headboard.  Once it was centered, I stapled each of the four sides in the middle, just like I did with the batting.  Once the four staples were in place and I was sure the fabric was centered, I stapled into the corners.

 

Once I got to the corners, I just experimented until I had something I liked.  In the end, I just folded one side over the other.

Lastly, I trimmed off all the excess fabric.  And below you can see I used the same "hangers" I used for the pinboard project.  They are great and simply screw into the MDF - no need to pre-drill.  Bonus!

And here are a couple more of the finished project.  We lean against the headboard every night while reading books and so far, so good.  We love them and they are comfy!

And there you have it!  Upholstered headboards without the need for foam - sweet.  I hope this tutorial helps at least one person:)

 

Thrifty Thursday...How to Make a Lamp Out of an Antique Tripod

I can't tell you how excited I am to blog about this one!  It started off completely innocently.  

A couple weeks ago, when we were at Lake Okoboji, we stopped in to an adorable little coffee house one morning.  While my hubby was in line, I went to browse around the antique shop located inside.  And I found the most perfect tripod.  The best part?  It was only $39!  I hadn't really even been looking for anything special.  So really, it found me.

I brought it home and immediately ran out to Home Depot to get the goods I would need to turn this baby into a lamp.  Now admittedly, I am a little more modern than Pottery Barn, but I do like some of their pieces.  And this lamp really reminds me of their Surveyor's Floor Lamp - only less expensive.

And below is the story of how my tripod became a lamp.

First, pick up the goods.  I bought a lamp kit, a harp (didn't need it, though), a bulb (duh), and a different colored cord.  (I wanted clear, not the white color that came with the kit.)  This all came to about $24.  However, the extra cord was $8 so you could ditch it and I didn't need the $3 harp, either.  

I simply followed the instructions that came with the lamp kit.  They were very easy to follow!  It comes with a few different sizes of these tubby things.  I simply figured out which one fit into my tripod the best.  Here is the winner:

Next, you screw two parts onto this longer screw-type thing.  Yes, these are all technical words!

Next, you start dealing with the cords.  Here is what it looked like:

Then, for some unknown electrical reason, you have to tie the cords in a knot.  Strange, I know.

Lastly, you screw on the top part of the kit which is what the light bulb screws into.  That's it.  

Here's what he looked like when it was all put together.

I bought my lamp shade at Target.  I really did look all over but had a hard time finding places that sold plain lamp shades.  I think this one was about $15.  

And check out his legs.  Don't you love the detail?

Here is the finished product.  I love the juxtaposition (big word, big word!) of the mid-century modern chair with the antique tripod lamp.  All I need is my awesome silver martini side table from West Elm and this little vignette will be finished!

Note:  Please ignore the ugly, gross stairs.  They will be replaced with hardwoods...some day.

And there you have it.  A new lamp for around $75.  Not too shabby.

Thrifty Thursday...How to make a custom shower curtain

I'm back for the second installment of Thrifty Thursday.  This week I thought I'd unveil the shower curtain I made for #1's bathroom back in March.  Not only is this fairly thrifty, it's an easy way to inject a little oomph into a room!

#1 had been begging me to paint her bathroom for over a year.  When I finally got around to painting it, I realized it needed something more.  It was just too plain and too green.  We set out to rectify the situation by hitting up a couple different fabric stores.  

First things first.  This is a great and easy project.  Since the shower rod can hang anywhere, you don't have to measure exactly for the length.  You just adjust the height of the shower rod - perfect.

The first thing I did was lay my stripe fabric down on the floor - right side up.  Then I put the accent fabric on top of that with right sides together.  Since my large fabric had stripes, it made it really easy to work with because I basically had built-in guides.  I just made sure the brown accent fabric lined up between the stripes.

After it was lined up just right, I sewed the right sides together and I was on my way!

The next step was to determine how long I wanted the brown accent fabric at the top.  Honestly, I just eyeballed it and came up with a length I liked.  (12", i think)  Then I used my measuring tape to fold it that length the whole way across.  I measured down from the seam to make sure it was even.

In the process, I pinned it to help me cut later.

Then I simply cut off the excess so I could hem the top.

Because I was super lazy and didn't want to drag my ironing board upstairs to my bedroom, I decided to forgo the whole ironing step.  I simply folded once, folded twice, and pinned everything to hem.  Here is the very top and folded, pinned, and ready to go.

After the top was all hemmed and ready to go, it was time for me to determine the length.  I simply laid everything out flat and used my measuring tape.

I knew I wanted the shower curtain to be fairly long and dramatic, so I measured the approximate height in the bathroom to determine my height.  Then I simply cut.

After I cut it to length, it was time to hem the sides and the bottom.  Here is one side all folded, pinned, and ready to hem.  See those stripes?  I just used them as a guide to make sure I got it all straight.  It was super easy. I used this same technique on both sides and the bottom.  Fold, fold, pin, sew = hemmed.

The last thing I did was add the grommets to the top.  I love the look of these grommets.  They look like metal but they're actually plastic.  They were so easy to work with, too!  Unfortunately, I was so into finishing it at this point that I forgot to take pictures.  To make a long story short(er), these grommets come with instructions.  You simply use a template to trace where you want the hole, cut out the hole, and snap the grommet in place.  (They come in two parts.  You simply put one on each side of your fabric hole and presto magic - snap into place!)

I was going to simply string the shower curtain rod through the grommets.  However, the shower curtain rod had a different idea.  Because I bought the "prettier" one, it didn't actually come apart!  So I improvised and purchased the cute hangers from Target.  And ta-da...it was done.

Do you like it?

I love the two patterned fabrics together and love the color it brings to the bathroom!  I even have extra striped fabric left over to sew a valance for the window hidden behind the door.  I just have to drag out the sewing machine again - so it might be awhile:)

 

 

 

 








 

How to make a fake Capiz Chandelier...in other words...a Tutorial!

Howdy, folks.  I'm back!  I am excited to let you know I have a first communion shoot this weekend. Hopefully I will have some images to share next week.  In the meantime, here's a tutorial.

These tutorials are available all over the internet, but I'm going to include some tips I wish I had when I made this.  It would have gone a little quicker and smoother.

First things first.  I suck at remembering to take before pictures.  Seriously.  It just never crosses my mind until it's too late.  So use your imagination here.  The before couldn't have been any worse.  For reals.  This light fixture had nowhere to go but UP!

You take this...

 MINUS the "shells" PLUS 

Yep.  My house was built in 1994 and all the fixtures are brass and fake glass.  Awesome.  Not really.

Let's get started!  The first step of the chandelier is to create all the "shells".  What are the shells made of?  You'll never guess.  Try.  

Did you guess?

Any ideas?

Want to know?

Wax paper.  Yep.  Wax paper straight out of your kitchen.  Isn't that cool?  I seriously made my chandelier for the cost of a roll of wax paper.  That's it.

Start out by ironing two sheets of wax paper together.  

I'll be honest.  At first I covered the wax paper with a kitchen towel.  But by the end, I ironed straight on the wax paper.  It worked out great.  Nothing stuck together.  Nothing burned.  It was perfect and much quicker.  

**TIP**  I've read that you can iron up to five sets of wax paper at one time if you separate each set by a sheet of parchment paper.  However, when I went to Target to buy my wax paper they didn't have parchment paper.  Therefore I didn't have any.  I just did it old school - one set at a time.

After you have the two sheets of wax paper ironed together, you can use a hole punch to get out the holes.  My hole punch was 1.5" and worked great!

**TIP**  After my sister watched me punching out circles and then cutting off the little bits of paper that remained on the circle, she asked me why I didn't double up.  I learned that actually hole punching FOUR sets of wax paper at the same time worked perfectly.  They punched right out.  When I was only punching one set of wax paper at a time, it wasn't thick enough and got caught in the hole punch.  I wish I had known this at the beginning.  It would have sped up the process a LOT!

Here's what it looked like at the beginning of the process - only doing one set at a time.

To make it easy, I stored the circles in a muffin tin.  It was perfect.  I actually ended up refilling the tin a few times.  

I never actually counted up how many circles I punched, but I know it was in the thousands.  It had to be.

OK.  Now your circles are done.  What's next?  Well, you have to have a place to attach them, right?  Since my light fixture was already round, I simply hot glued a thin string of wire to the light fixture in three different places/levels.

By now you are probably wondering how I attached the circles to the light, right?  This was genius. (Meaning, this wasn't MY idea.)  I actually sewed the circles together!  Yep.  I simply ran them through my sewing machine.  Easy peasy. For real.  It couldn't have been easier.  I simply figured out how long I wanted the strand to hang down and then I doubled it.  

The first two rows were 14 strands long and the highest row was 20 strands long.  To make it easy on myself, I simply hung the row of "shells" across the wire.  That way I didn't actually have to attach anything.  They are simply draped across.  Hence, doubling the desired length.

As I was draping the strands of shells across the wire, I came up with a tip.

**TIP**  Overlap all the circles over each other just a little bit.  That keeps them from twisting once they are hanging up.  HOWEVER, the very middle should not really be overlapped at all.  This makes draping them across the wire super easy.  Because if they are overlapped, you actually have to fold the circle to get it to drape across the wire and it doesn't lay as flat.  

Here's what it looked like in process.  I'll be honest, this part took a couple different sessions.  I couldn't do it with the kiddos around - so I had to be sneaky or do it after they were in bed.  

And that's all there is/was to it.  This project took me a couple weeks since I worked on it in fits and starts.  But it really lent itself to that kind of work.  

I do need to spray paint the wire silver.  And the piece that goes up on the ceiling is hanging down in the pictures because we still have to paint the ceiling.  But still...you can see the coolness factor!

Another view...

If you have a sewing machine, this project really is very easy!  Let me know if you have any questions - I'll be happy to answer them.  Good luck!

 

How to Reupholster a dining room chair

I know.  I know.  I skipped Six on Sunday and now this?  Another tutorial?  Well, let me explain...

Six on Sunday was replaced due to my procrastination.  I had to work on our taxes.  You see, Friday is tax day.  How do I know this?  It is also #4's birthday.  While taxes aren't terribly hard with today's tax programs, they still take quite a bit of time.  And I needed to have them (mostly) done before the week started.  Because our weeks are crazy right now.  Of course, I haven't actually filed them, but it'll get done.  Eventually.

As for the tutorial?  Well, I've promised project updates for awhile, so I thought this would kill two birds with one stone.  Genius, right?  Right.  Let's get started, shall we?

First, I forgot to take an official "before" picture.  I usually forget the before pictures - it just never dawns on me.  But I did a little digging and actually came up with one.  Here it is.  Our dining room chair before the magic transformation.

 What?  It's not actually IN the dining room, er, kitchen.  Nope.  Let me digress for a bit here.  I feel this picture needs a little explanation.

    1.  #1 decided she wanted to climb a tree but needed a boost.  Hence, the chair.

    2.  #1 and #2 did not have their shoes on.  Therefore, #4 decided she needed to take her shoes off.          That's why she's sitting down.  She wasn't hurt.

    3.  It was mid-afternoon in this picture.  Yes, #3 has on her nightgown.  I believe she wore that         nightgown for approximately 48 hours straight that weekend.  It's just not a battle I'm going to         fight.  

OK.  I'm back.  The first thing I did was pick out my fabric.  Genius, right?  Anyway, while I longed for something really cool, I had to face facts.  I have four kids.  The youngest is still a toddler.  That meant I couldn't get cool, expensive fabric.  I had to go with clean-able, wipe-able fabric.  In other words, vinyl.  But in the end, I found fabric I really liked that was totally practical.  For $12.  Unbeatable.

The first step is to unscrew the chair seats from the frame.  My chairs were super easy to unscrew - one in each corner.  Easy peasy.

Then, I laid down the seat on my fabric to decide how big to cut the pieces.  I ended up with eight pieces which means I have two extra.  I kind of like that - I have two replacements in case we need them some day.  And let's face facts here...we'll need them some day!

After I had my fabric pieces cut out, we set up a work station out in the garage.  I happened to have leftover MDF from my bulletin board, so we just set that up on top of two saw horses.  It was awesome!  Check it out.

See that staple gun in the bottom, left-hand corner?  That was my dads.  THAT is what made this process possible!  Had I not had the pneumatic staple gun, this process would have taken probably 10 times as long.  No joke.  This thing was worth it's weight in gold.  Loved it.

OK.  Back to the tutorial.  First thing, lay the fabric down, the seat on top, and staple one staple in the middle of each side.  This will make sure it's even all the way around.  And I had a pattern in my fabric.  So I had to make sure the vines were "growing" from the same direction on each chair.  

The next step was the hardest - the corners.  I didn't want a fold in my corners, so I just gathered them up until I liked the look of it, then I held the fabric while my dad stapled the CRAP out of each corner.   But it worked like a charm!

Once I had each corner stapled to my liking, we went around and stapled the rest of it.  If I had excess fabric, I just trimmed it off.  

Then, we just screwed the seat back on and Poof - that's it!  I think we probably managed to finish all six chairs in an hour, maybe?  It wasn't bad and totally worth it!

See?  Doesn't that corner look NICE?

And here is a close-up so you can see the pattern.  Not too shabby, eh?

And here it is, the final result.  Pretty snazzy!

And here is the final result at the kitchen table.  I really like the change because when the chairs were all black, everything was really, really dark.  The seats really lighten everything up.  Plus, they tie in perfectly with the rug.  And that made me super happy because I didn't want to replace the rug!  

There you have it.  Kitchen chair recovering 101.  

Tutorial: How to refinish a wood (veneer) table and make it look pretty

OK, folks.  We've got another how-to post...on a photography blog.  I get it.  It's weird.  But hey - it's my life right now until it consistently warms up and I can photograph outdoors!  So bear with me or just sign off for now.  I am posting this just in case someone might learn something from me.  'Cause you never know, right?  Right.

I'm sure you all remember the dead-mouse-table from craigslist.  I've showed you the after pictures.  (She's a beauty, right?)  Anyway, I thought I'd tell you how we did it!  Just know that we are NOT pros here.  This is just how we did it - right or wrong...

1.  We sanded the CRAP out of the table.  Seriously.  Here we are after only the first round.

As you can see, we did it inside.  I would not recommend doing this part inside!  When we were all said and done, I had to vacuum the entire first floor and I had dust in the strangest of places.  Not good.  And I sneezed.  A lot.

However, this is just how we did it.  First we focused on the top of the table because it needed the most work.  We started off using my electric sander that we've had for years.  I do not recommend refinishing anything unless you have one of these puppies.  Seriously a life-saver.

We began by using 90 grit sandpaper.  Once we got the first layer off, we moved to 150 grit.  Then the hubby went to town and sanded out the stains by hand.  There is actually a slight groove in the table in one spot b/c the stain was so deep.  Lastly, we sanded one final time with 220 grit sandpaper.  We did all of these rounds with the sander.  The top definitely took the longest amount of time.  We followed the same path on the legs (after dis-assembling the table) and they went much faster.  They didn't have any stains to sand out - thank goodness.

Before we stained anything, we gave the table a good wipe down using a damp rag.  Once it dried, we used a tack cloth to make sure there was no dust anywhere!  (Hint:  You can buy a tack cloth at a paint store.  I'm not sure if Home Depot or Lowe's carry them?)

Here's our tack cloth.  It's really, really sticky.  It's actually kind of gross to touch.

Once everything was wiped down, we went to town with the stain.

I picked out Jacobean and I have to say, I love it more than I thought I would!  The color is deep and rich but still allows the wood grain to show through.

I learned a few things about stain since this was my first time trying it out.  First, and most important, don't shake the can!  The will put air bubbles in it.  Second, gently stir it with a stir stick.  And thirdly, apply the stain with a small, 2" paint brush.  I found out stain is really, really watery so I had to be careful.  I made sure to cover the entire surface and then I went back over and brushed the whole length of the table to take out any lines or marks.  We let the stain sit for 20 minutes (we were truly anal about the time!) and then went back and wiped it off.  We didn't press too hard, just hard enough to lift off the extra stain so it didn't pool anywhere.  We used an old T-shirt for this process and it worked great!  (T-shirts don't leave any lint.)  We loved the color so we only applied one coat of stain.  

We actually let the stain cure for 48 hours before we applied the poly.  We wanted to be sure it was very dry and my dad told me to let it sit for two days.  And what can I say?  I listened to my dad because he's got a whole lot more experience than I do!

The last part was the poly.  It was actually pretty fun, too.

Before I applied the poly, I actually went over the entire surface with a 360 grit sandpaper.  I went super, super lightly and made sure not to take any stain off.  I just wanted to catch anything that had lifted due to the stain.  Then I used my tack cloth again to wipe up any dust.

I applied the poly much like the stain - very thinly and evenly.  I went over the top and wiped from one side all the way over to the other to make sure it was as smooth as possible.  I also watched out for drips on the sides and legs.  We were smart enough to have the table in the garage for this part because it is so STINKY!  I put on three coats of poly.  I sanded and wiped everything down with a tack cloth in between coats.  

This is how I store my brushes so I don't have to clean them in between coats.

 Yep - they're right next to the lazagna and ice cream.  I'm classy that way.

When we were all done, we let the table and legs cure in the garage for about three days before bringing everything inside and putting the table back together again.  

Here she is (again) in all her glory.  And yes, she's definitely a girl!

There you have it.  How we refinished our table and gave her a new life.  Would I do this project again?  You betcha - in a heartbeat.  All in all, we spent less than a hundred bucks for a table that we think looks like a million bucks!  Not bad for two parents with four kids running around:)

Stay tuned for some "new" chairs.  They add just a little more color into the room which I think is needed.