From Boring to Swanky! :: Dining Room Chairs Update

It's feast or famine around here folks.. I think you probably are used to it though, right?  I have so many things I want to write about, tell about, shout about! But the reality is that my life gets in the way sometimes.. ANYway.. I have good stuff to share!

I bought these chairs from the company where I work - they did a big re-decorating thing a couple of years ago and they sold them to me for $5 each.  (You really never know where you'll find your next bargain!) They have been living in my pink dining room..

They reminded me of my red dining room chairs so I thought they would be great companions!  I shared on Instagram about finally starting to work on these dining room chairs back here... then, in late March we painted them. Of course I had to take them apart in the yard... with my Shaw Carpets tool swag from HAVEN Conference!

I roughed them up a bit with some steel wool pads, wiped them down real good, then Hubby primed them with Kilz, then painted them with Rustoleum's Heirloom White.

I went back and forth about painting them a bright white or a more creamy white.. in the end I went with the slightly creamer version of the Heirloom White because it matched the fabric to a T.
 

 Primed

Primed on the left, painted on the right

In the picture above the creamy white looks a little yellow-y, but it doesn't read that way in the house.

The fabric is Premier Prints Towers Onyx Natural from Online Fabric Store.  Last year I attended the HAVEN Conference for DIY Bloggers and Online Fabrics Store was a sponsor.  They gifted a yard of fabric and a yard of burlap to EACH attendee!  So generous!  And I'm finally using my gift on my chair seats :)  I just covered right over the old fabric using my hand-held staple gun.

 Old original fabric

When you're covering right over old fabric it is really the easiest thing - the hard part is getting the corners tight.  A friend taught me how to get a nice tight corner.  When you are stapling along the straight edges, staple right up to the corner on either side... (ugh, man hands!!)

Then, gather all of your fabric (and I leave a lot of fabric because you can always cut the excess off later) that is in between those last two staples on either side and pull it tight...

Then I put in three or four (or more if needed) staples over the folds in the material...

When you're finished the corners should be smooth with very little wrinkles.  I didn't like the way one of them looked, so I pulled the staples out and did it again!

I had plenty of fabric and I am seriously in LOVE with how they turned out!  Along with the chairs being finished, I also added a $10 faux sheep skin rug to my piano bench.  I love the warmth it adds to the room, along with that little touch of glamor. 

I am so happy that i finally got these guys finished!  I am looking for some cute red pillows for them, but not having luck finding exactly what I want.  I'm probably going to do some fabric shopping over at Online Fabric Store and just make them myself - that's always more fun anyway :)

One last before and after ~~~

I'm totally in love!  From boring to swanky! Have you ever painted chairs before? Or recovered chair seats?  Do you have special techniques that are tried and true?  Do tell!

Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chic! You have got to check out the great before & afters! And also over at All Things Heart & Home's Twirl & Take a Bow - :)

Love,
Kelli

Happy Memorial Day :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend - we owe so much to so many, and what better way to show our gratitude than to celebrate with friends and family.

I spend the weekend on Hilton Head Island with close friends and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Thank you to all who have served and are serving right now.  God Bless America!

 

Love,
Kelli

A Little More DIY; But Not Much Writing About It!

ohmygosh where has the time gone? yes, once again i have taken a two three month leave-of-absence from my lovely blog! 

Well, that's okay cause we're just gonna jump right back into it :)  I am kind of ADD when it comes to projects.  I see something I want to do, I start it, then I see something else I want to do, so I stop that other thing and go to the next, and it just goes that way.  I have several things going on and nothing seems to get done very quickly.  Anyone else do that?  Really, it's just me?  Ha, I think not...

So I shared the picture above on Instagram on a lovely Saturday back in April that I had four things I wanted to accomplish that weekend.  THAT was pie-in-the-sky for me, folks.  Four things ain't gonna happen in one weekend.  But, I did get two of those thing finished (one with the help of my sweetest hubby) and felt sooo accomplished!

Like others in the blogasphere I have become crazy about succulents.  When I found this old pottery dish at the thrift store I knew I wanted to fill it with some adorable little plants.  Such a quick little thing to do, and the outcome is so enjoyable - everyone who has walked in my house and seen this little dish just goes nuts!  I love it and hope I do not kill them.

The second project was to upgrade this awesome bohemian light into a real, working light.

I found this at 3 Monkey's Antiques & Auctions, in Blue Ridge, GA.  My best friends and I take a girls' trip up there every spring to hunt for treasures and to just hang out, eat shrimp, and drink alcohol.  This was one of my scores from that trip!  I'm slowly working on Chelsea's room, and she loves that bohemian look - and so do I!  This light will fit right in. (Seriously, I could have several different houses and the decor would all be totally different.)   Hubs and I went to Lowes - he got a socket, some lamp wire, a switch, and a plug and made this thing light up.  He's awesome!  Now we just need to hang it...  we'll see how long that will take...

Love the light! Isn't it so cool??  So I sorta got two things done.. when the lamp is hung then it will really be done.

I've been working on the other two things I mentioned in the picture - recovering the chair seats and a secret project - and will be sharing about those soon too!

Are you ready for summer to be here?  I sure am!  What projects have you been working on?

Love,
Kelli

Sharing on All Things Heart and Home - Twirl and Take a Bow