Sunday, January 31, 2010

Springs, Sterling and Spy glass

My upholstery class started this weekend. I braved a snow storm with broken windshield wipers and an outdated GPS to get to the class in MD. After driving at an average rate of 20 mph, passing and eleven car accident and taking several wrong turns. I made it to the class.
I decided to start the class with the yellow chair I found at the curb with the sign that said "free". The teacher confirmed that it is an old chair of good quality and worth reupholstering



Here's what it looks like now.
I removed EVERYTHING and will learn how to rebuild it all. Starting with tying springs next week.

Fridays are when the estate sales start--I love Fridays!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Closet Chaos part 2

Ta Da! I've installed the shelves and two hanging bars. I just need to label the boxes and baskets to help keep us organized. I also want to hang one more section of shelves to the right.

This closet stores EVERYTHING. From extra barstools to winter wear and shoes, to batteries, tools, games, the vacuum and recycle bin. I've got it all in there with room to spare.

I got the cloth boxes as Ross today $10 for two. Matt, Drew and I will have our own to store hats, gloves, scarves and any other miscellaneous items that end up floating around.

I used the magazine boxes at the top to organize the multitude of user manuals, warranty information and telephone books--they look much better out of sight, and will be a lot easier to find what we're looking for once labeled.

I hung a low bar so that Drew can hang up his own jackets instead of just throwing them on the floor.

It looks a lot less cluttered now, and I'm not going to get so upset if the door is left open.

Stay tuned for part 3. I'll be hanging the other shelves, patching and painting. I might even try hanging some wallpaper on the back wall.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Closet Chaos part 1




I finally did it
We don't have very much storage in this house, but there are plenty of closets and they are all pretty good sized. That's one of the main reasons we bought this house.

We have a fantastic coat closet in our entryway. It's bigger than any normal-sized house closet I've ever seen. It's potential just hasn't been maximized. None of the closets in this house have really been maximized yet- but that's all about to change.

For about a year I've been going to Home Depot to look at closet organization systems. (It's right next to the fabric store I like to visit.) I get excited every time. But I get there and start looking at all the pieces, and my excitement quickly changes to a feeling of being overwhelmed. I leave empty handed and deflated.

DREAMY/DREAMING
Easy Track RB1448 Closet 4 to 8-Foot Expandable Closet Organizer Starter Kit

So, a couple months ago I called a company. They gave me a quote of well over $1,000 for the coat closet. We were tempted, but I just couldn't justify that expense.

I finally got a few kits and decided to give it a try, and hopefully if I mess up too badly my handyman will actually show up to fix it. With call placed to him. And a false sense of security I started screwing things together and ripping things out.

It took all day. The next one will go much faster I'm sure.

And I had to use saws, goggles,
a level and other tools which I wasn't expecting--the kits make it sound so easy and straight forward




I ended up with a few extra holes too.

Alas, my real job calls and the job is not finished yet.

Part II of this multi-part series coming to a blog near you soon. Can you stand the suspense?....




Thursday, January 21, 2010

Living Room Chair Before

I never liked it - Chair transformation

I grew up with these yellow velvet chairs. I don't remember ever sitting in them. I think they were special furniture (kind of fancy for our house).

It's funny how taste change, or why we end up being attracted to some things. Even though I never liked these chairs, they were some of the first furniture pieces I brought into my new house almost 3 years ago. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them when I asked my mom if I could have them. At that point they were stained and the cane sides were broken and I didn't really like the color of the fruitwood. Although this yellow is making a comeback right now, it's never been a color I like.

Anyway, I call these my batman chairs because the shape of the backs. I ended up ripping out the cane sides and staining them almost black and covering them with a very small print that reminded me of zebra. I found it on the remnant table, so I got a great price.

Fabric close up

I didn't do the upholstery on these, I paid someone to do it. Materials and labor came to $190 each.

Chairs After

One reason I love old chairs and like to rework them is that they are so much sturdier and much better quality than the chairs you buy new these days. The old ones are actually made of real wood--not composite that chips and scratches as soon as you get it home.

So they're unique, good quality, one-of-a-kind, and you can't beat that price!

Chair Obsession



For about 2 years now I have been obsessed with chairs. In fact, one night a telemarketer was calling and my son (just 3 years old then) asked who it was. I simply said, "oh someone selling something." Without skipping a beat he said, "mom you better answer, they might be selling chairs."

So, here starts my journey in blogging.


I've been picking up chairs that have what I consider unique and classic shapes.

I would say most are structurally unsound.







I go to fabric stores pretty regularly, looking for fabric to use one day when I reupholster these chairs.

About a year ago I took a crack at doing one with some YouTube instructions and it turned out OK. Although it's technically not finished yet. Don't look too closely.


So, this year My New Years resolution is to finally take a class and either bring these chairs back to life (and able to be sat upon again) or get them out of the shed and my office once and for all. My class starts January 20th, and I can't wait!! So till then I'm trying to figure out which chair I'll do first, and finally pull the trigger on the fabric purchase. I'll keep you posted.