Tuesday, July 7, 2015

She's Crafty

      This week I broke out my glue gun for the first time since November when I crafted my fabulous tacky Christmas sweater!  I got these bull horns from a booth in the store where I work but I felt like they needed some pizazz....so I went where they sell the pizazz by the cart full- Dollar Tree.
I purchased six dollars worth of fake flowers and came home and heated up the glue fun. About ten minutes later, I had this:
Isn't it fun!?!

I spent about three days gathering things - luckily I work at a home decor store and can bring things home on approval. This helped me - having all possible options at my fingertips! 

After holding piece after piece up, I ended up with this:
Remember this buffet? It's the piece of furniture that forced me to start a blog. You know, I painted it and it was too bright, then I dark waxed it and it was too dark. Well, my fellow painting friends told me to rub it down with mineral oil - who knew?!?!   Let me remind you-

It's just so much better with a little of the dark wax wiped off.

Up next, I am going to do an art wall above my sofa. I have a sectional that fits in the corner. It's not centered on the wall so I wasn't quite sure if I should center artwork in the center of the wall or the center of the sofa- so I figured an art wall would solve the problem.  








Sunday, July 5, 2015

Heavy Metal

Over the Forth of July weekend I spent a lot of time relaxing. Relaxing in my cozy new orange chair! Y'all, I love it and the more I sit in it, the more comfortable it gets! I only got around to one project this weekend- a heavy metal table.

I got this work table in the same old man shed where I found my lockers and bins a few weeks ago. This is what it looked like before-
Well, this isn't a true 'before' picture. Before this- it was covered in spider webs and gunk! This is after a little Fabuloso and a water hose!  This was a super simple project. I purchased some pre cut thin strips of wood at Lowe's. This would have been awesome with pallet board but let's be honest- Lowe's is air conditioned and ripping pallets apart isn't. Plus, I just wanted to have a simple and quick project for once. 

So, all I had to do was stain the wood using Java Gel by General Finishes.  While they were drying, I scraped off all the old gunk from the sides- caulk maybe? I also coated the whole piece with General Finishes, satin clear coat...just to hold in the rusty parts and seal up all the good patina.  When the stain was good and dry, I glued the boards on with construction adhesive. Super easy.

Here is the finished results:
Pretty cute, right?  The only downfall- this sucker is ridiculously HEAVY! 

I finished "The Girl on the Train" and have moved on to a little guilty pleasure reading: Holly Madison's tell all book about life with Hef.  Somehow, I find THIS book to be more terrifying than "The Girl on the Train." 

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Painting Upholstery: Part Two

The painted upholstery project is finished and here are the results:
I love it!!   It does feel totally different now but now bad. It feels like a Naugahyde chair. It's still squishy, it's still comfortable. I liked it more and more as I painted coat after coat. It just seemed to look better and better. 

The little skirt was the hardest part to paint. The tufts weren't a problem at all. The first coat was the worst because the paint soaked into the fabric so much.   The other coats were a breeze. I ended up using a whole quart of paint and two bottles of fabric medium. The total for this project:

1 quart of paint: 15.95
2 bottles of fabric medium: 17.90
1 Chair: 35.00

So, $68.85 for my new chair. I worked on and off on this project for several days. I would estimate it took a total of 6 hours.