Blue on Center: sunroom

Showing posts with label sunroom. Show all posts

A Lazy & Cheap (!) Way to Reupholster a Bench

A couple months ago I purchased a bench from a thrift shop.

It had potential. And of course, the price was right. I spray painted it gold and decided to reupholster the cushion because it was a bit blah. I did not want to sew a cover, so I improvised.

Supply List:

plywood

staple gun/staples

batting

a willing assistant

fabric

hammer

I measured the cushion and had a piece of plywood cut at Home Depot a little smaller than the cushion's dimensions. If you're going do do this project, make sure your plywood is thick enough for your staple.

I chose a charcoal geometric fabric from JoAnn. The geometric was actually really useful because the lines in the pattern helped make sure the fabric went on straight as we stapled it.

We initially wrapped the cushion in batting but realized that the indents from the tufting in the cushion was showing through. The babe was sleeping & I didn't feel like going to the store to get more batting so we improvised by wadding up some other fabric to place over the indents.

Yes, I was also being cheap.

Then we rewrapped the cushion in batting and placed the geometric fabric on top. Before cutting the fabric, make sure you have plenty to wrap around the edges to staple.

Then start stapling. This is where a second pair of hands really come in handy. The fabric has to be pulled and held very tight by one person while the other person staples. Also, keep an eye on your fabric's pattern (if you have a pattern) to make sure you're keeping it straight. Crooked fabric on newly upholstered bench = not cool.

Once you're finished with one side, go back and hammer in all the staples in to make sure they're secure.

The edges are a little tricky. We chose to fold and staple one edge and then use a gift wrap style to wrap the second edge.

Done.

I like the bit of funk it adds to the space.

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Find of the Century

About two or three weeks ago the light fixture in the sunroom broke. I was kinda excited about going to my fav lighting store to check out some ideas for a new fixture. Reality kicked in when I got there: everything cost more money than I wanted to pay. But they did have cool stuff (and free popcorn!).

I also checked out Habitat for Humanity's Restore and front and center was a very cool fixture. It was much fancier than I was looking for but the scale and price were perfect. It was dirty and the crystals were cheap & clouded looking but, hey, I am the girl to fix that. I put it in my cart and skipped to the checkout. People were rubbernecking as I passed them with this fixture in my cart and kept asking me if there was another one.

People, this is how you know you scored something awesome.

I enlisted the help of an adorable kid and we got to work.

After it was all cleaned up, it looked a bit yellow-goldish to me, so I rubbed some Rub-n-Buff in. I love this stuff. It added the perfect aged patina.

I am thrilled that it works!

Yet to do is caulk around the medallion, paint the ceiling & picture rail and finish the unending stencil project.

I love progress.

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Sunroom progress, or that time I drew on wall with permanent marker

So. This is likely an anti-climatic post because there's no "HEY LOOK AT THIS AWESOME TRANSFORMATION!" moment, but rather a slow crawl toward some elusive finish line with some epic fails along the way.

Wow. I really sold this entry, did I? But we're keeping it real here. Laura doesn't have unending money or time, but I got some ideas, right? Right.

The sunroom is the room in our home that you first walk into. There's lots of light and lots of woodwork in meh condition. There's potential. I am leaning toward keeping the woodwork natural and just refinishing it but I don't want the room to feel boring or formal., so a couple of months ago, I hatched a plan to make this room AWESOME.

But first, let's have a look at the beginning.

We began with a giant piano, crumbling plaster, boarded up windows and an 80s brass light fixture with etched roses. But, there's leaded glass, wood floors and beautiful moldings in good condition.

The inspiration for this room began with this little number off Ebay:

I removed the etched glass from the light, spray painted it a oil rubbed bronze, painted the walls and called it a day for awhile.

I wanted some green in there so I went to the coolest plant store in town and fought off the crowd to bring home this beauty.

After I hatched my sunroom plan, I printed off a page to get an idea of what the stencil would look like and I really liked it.

I got some stencil paper from Michaels, traced & cut each and every little tiny tedious circle, sure that the end result would be worth all the work. My friend Ana helped.

It took about 9 evenings to get the stencil cut. It was a fairly miserable endeavor.

I used my little handy dandy sponge roller and was careful not to over-saturate the roller to eliminate bleed through. And....it was an EPIC FAIL. It just looked like a blob. I kept my cool and switched to a small paint brush and dabbed the paint and....ANOTHER EPIC FAIL. I get angry and quit for two weeks. Stupid stencil. This project worked for Meghan, why won't it work for me?

And then an epiphany. My walls are plaster and are likely not as smooth as Meghan's. Of course paint is going to bleed through. I got out a black sharpie and began.

The downfall is that this will take me until, oh, 2017 to complete. Hopefully I will still like this look by then.

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The Sunroom Plan.

I have been thinking a lot about what to do in the sunroom of our house and within the past two weeks, I think I finally have a plan.

The room feels a little formal right now with all the woodwork (that I have yet to refinish) but I do have a very cool tribal rug in there. I also was able to find a very sad looking parsons table at Restore this week for $8! It will likely find a home in there as well.

I was absolutely inspired by this photo:

I think this look would work nicely in our formal entry space to let people know right off the bat that we don't take ourselves too seriously around here.

The wallpaper is Fireworks by Albert Hadley. I wasn't willing to purchase the wallpaper because it would likely be insanely expensive (because that's just what happens when I really like something) and also I think it may be discontinued. I began researching some diy stencil ideas and found this:

And then I saw Jenny post about it today and confirmed it for me that I should go ahead and rock the look.

So here's my plan.

The good news is that I already own all this stuff! I just have to make the stencil and paint. Which, face it, will take hours and hours but at least it's free, right?

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White Paper Packages Tied up with String

I had ordered a rug off of ebay last week and have been tracking its shipping status all week. It was due to arrive today and when I got home from running some errands this morning, the status was marked as delivered.

I looked all around the front door for it, the porch, both sides of the house…no rug. I checked the back door even though there's a tall fence in our back yard which is inaccessible from the outside. No rug. I peeked around our neighbors' porches to see if it was mistakenly delivered there. I checked the address online to make sure they delivered it to our home. I initiated an online chat with UPS and called their customer service number (never did get the chance to speak to a human).

WHERE'S MY RUG?!?!?!?!!?

I put my boots back on and wandered aimlessly around the yard. Then I saw it: the UPS guy threw it over the back fence into a snowbank. And, of course, the rug is wrapped entirely in white plastic, making it virtually impossible to see.

I picked it up and skipped gaily into the house. I can't be too mad at the UPS man. He usually brings me good things.

I am always a little nervous about ordering things online without knowing exactly what the colors will be. But as soon as I began opening it up, I loved it.