ahhh... real life

Well I'm so excited - my Renovator hubby and I finished covering the seats for the dining room chairs yesterday!  Yeayy!!!  So I'm like, okay, let me get the room cleaned up, the table cloth on, and let's get those chairs all set up around the table and take some pics!  Yeah!  I walk in and this is what I find:

Uhhhh... wha?  Apparently it's Tax Time!  And this is the only place he can spread out and organize the mountain of paperwork. But he promised it won't be this way for long [I should hope not!].  You can still see the chairs - so happy with how they turned out!  Oy, and you can see the very, very old chairs we had... can you see why I needed new ones??  haha

I'll have a pretty picture very soon [hopefully]... 

Love, Kelli

Happy Weekend

Started out my day watching/supporting my son’s middle school pep band and boys and girls basketball teams.  With thunderstorms were outside it was a great time to be indoors cheering from the bleachers.   

Now we're home and it’s bleak outside, but we have a fire going inside :o)

Happy Weekend !

Finally!! {A Tale of Two Chairs}

I have finally finished one chair!  I have no idea how long it will take me to get the other three finished so I am going to go ahead and show it off…

They started out like this…  the seat cushions smelled so bad that they never made it into the house.. I found them on craigslist for $10 each!

Then my awesome Renovator husband gave them a little sanding/cleaning, priming, and finally paint… [Rustoleum Red]

And then they sat for about three months until I finally found the fabric that I wanted, ordered it, and ordered the foam.  Then, yesterday, my best friend, Joanne, came over and showed me how to cover the seats!

So, one more time – tada! 

I am almost finished with the second chair and will get to work on the other two this weekend.  Then all I have to do is paint the dining room and do a couple dozen other things in there (curtains, rug, move piano out, table cover, new light fixture….) and it’ll be done…  who am I kidding?  It’s never really DONE, is it?  But that's half the fun :D  How do you like them???  I'm so excited!

Love, Kelli

Just a couple of little projects

For weeks I had been looking for just the right little table/stand/something to adorn a teeny tiny spot in the foyer of our house.  I was shopping the flea markets, craigslist, Ross, and Marshalls – just could not find anything that was just the right size.  Finally it occurred to me that I had a perfect little table in my own house!  It was residing in the powder room and it was really kind of plain and sad.

Well, a quick coat of black spray paint (thanks to my sweetest husband) fixed her right up!  It fits perfectly and I love it!  See what I mean about how tiny the space is?  Our foyer is so much smaller than ones in some of the other houses in our neighborhood – but apparently it did allow larger rooms (den, upstairs bedroom, office) in the house so no complaints here..

So, yeay!, I have a little table in the foyer, but now we had an empty space in the powder room.  Hummmm, let’s see…  I found that table in-house, did I have anything else I could use in the powder room?  Then it hit me, I had my old nightstand, which belonged to my mom from years ago, hiding out in my master bedroom closet.  Would it fit?  Could I use it? 

Maybe, probably, but it too needed a makeover.  Just a basic little sanding, little priming, and two coats of matte black Rustoleum and we love it! 

Now, the hardware is a different story.  Originally I thought painting the brass hardware this brushed nickel finish was the way to go, until I put them back on. Me no likey.  This picture actually makes them look white. I think I am going to try some Rub ‘N Buff and tone them down a bit. 

But for now, I love my little stand in the powder room!  It holds an adorable little lamp and the drawers hold extra bathroom “stuff” all hidden, out of the way!  So happy with the way both of these little projects turned out - and the only money I spent was on paint!  By the way, don't you just love the textured red walls in this powder room?  haha!  They were like this when Hubby bought the house and we loved it so we kept it :o)

Do you have any little projects that you're proud of?  Tell me, I'd love to hear about them!

Love, Kelli

Remember these?

Remember I posted about these chairs back in October??

Wellll - I'm still not finished with them.  But I am almost there!  I had the hardest time choosing a fabric that I really liked and could really afford.  Then, once I did I forgot to order it for a couple of weeks (during Christmas-time, so I have a legitimate excuse) so that put me behind.  Once I ordered it from fabric.com it was here in a couple of days [that website is awesome by the way] only to find out that my sewing machine is on the fritz.  So what's a girl to do?  Call my bestie, that's what!  She can do ANYTHING.  Especially sewing.  So, Joanne, my dearest friend in the world, helped me out by sewing the all new piping this past weekend, and we cut out the fabric for each seat too.  Sooo, hopefully I will get to show you the finished product this weekend!~  I am sooo excited!  I think you're going to love them as much as I do.

Love, Kelli

New or Used?

As long as I can remember I have lived on a limited budget. There has never been a time when I could just go shopping and buy whatever I felt like. Having that attitude I have always looked for furniture second hand. I did buy a new couch in 1987, and it has been recovered twice (yes, only twice!) and I can understand buying new when I comes to certain things like a couch or a mattress, but just about anything else I just think it makes more sense (for me) to buy used. The hunt - looking on craigslist, hitting the yard sales - is half the fun.  Then taking the time to make the piece yours with paint, stain, and fabric - awesome! I am currently looking for a dresser/console/credenza for our new flat screen TV in our family room. Right now its sitting on a beautiful cedar chest that belonged to my husband's great-aunt.  But we need storage for DVDs and board games so we need something new (used)!

Any of the following would be perfect!!  I’ll let you know when I find it!

 Love, Kelli