A Tale of Two Chairs

Hello! It’s finally feeling like summer vacation around here…my kids are out of school and we just finished two great (but tiring) weeks of VBS so I am finally, after a long break, getting back to some DIY projects around the house.

Today I am sharing two chair makeovers I recently completed. I say ‘completed’ because the first one was more then a year in the making and I finally finished. You can tell you aren’t loving a project when it takes that long to finish it– apparently upholstering just isn’t my thing. Though, it also might have had something to do with the hundreds and hundreds of staples that needed to be forcibly pulled out of the chair after I ripped the fabric off?

Regardless, its a huge improvement and had I known I would be so glad to have it finished, I would have done it sooner.

So, here is the before of this lovely golden beauty.

I had a set of these chairs, but the yellow colored fabric never went with my house. I had bought both chairs at a model home furniture sale for $50. You see, once upon a time I had a job selling new homes and we were able to buy the furniture from the old models at next to nothing, a nice perk! I had given my friend Tracey one of the two chairs, which she made work nicely in her office {You can see her home HERE}, but the yellow just never worked in my house.

So, here is the new and improved version…

Over the last year I bought 3 different fabrics (a beige linen, and a brown zebra, and then the black and white I finally used) as I could never settle on how I thought it should look. This chair is in my office, in front of my computer, so it gets quite a bit of use.

You also get a sneak peak at my office in these pictures, I am finishing the room up {I just need to get the fabric and make the curtains} and then it will be done. Its been fun to work with a pure black and white color scheme, its a little more interesting then the cream/beige/white elsewhere in my home.

The second chair is my daughter’s chair at her little “art” area in my office, right next to my desk.

The chairs to her table didn’t survive our last move, so I picked up this little chair for her on my last trip to IKEA.

Christy has been quoted saying “There isn’t much I won’t stick a monogram on!”, I took a page from her book and ordered a vinyl monogram to jazz up her chair HERE.

She loves her chair and her art table, and its nice to have our separate ‘work’ spaces so close to each other.

Have you redone any furniture lately? I have a HUGE project just sitting in my garage that is next on my list, and I can’t wait to start on it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Projects & Printables | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Sometimes it works…and then sometimes…

As I have mentioned I am working hard to get my home ready to go on the real estate market.  So, recently I have been updating certain problem areas to help my home “show” in the best possible light. As I don’t live close to many retail establishments, this has involved spending LOTS of money with Ballard Designs.

I love Ballard, they are just my taste. I am always happy to see the catalog arrive in my mailbox, and love pouring over each issue. But, as you would expect with mail order, sometimes things work…and sometimes they don’t.

My success today came in the form of the Ballard Couture Chair Covers I ordered for my dining room chairs. This was admittedly, a risk, as I totally don’t have the Ballard chairs they are designed to go on. I did measure my chairs vs. the dimensions in the catalog (as well as sadly, passing on having them monogrammed so I could return them if they didn’t work out) and I knew they would be off but not by too much.

Here is the “before” of my chairs. They came from Storehouse many years ago, and while I love the lines of my table, I have never loved the chairs. The set was the first furniture my husband and I purchased after we were married for our little townhouse. So, it was time for a little updating. Plus, I recently painted the walls chocolate, with the intention of making almost everything else in the room white.

Here is the chair before: (I had recovered the seats a few years ago)

I figured (correctly) that my chairs would need some help to match the dimensions of the slipcovers, but I just added some layers of quilt batting over the back (top) of the chair, and slid the cover on. While its not  a perfect fit, its fills out the slipcover and is a huge improvement.

I know that I could have made something similar, but at $35 each, plus I used the 15% off coupon Ballard just ran, it was well worth my time to just order them and not pay for materials, childcare and deal with my lack of patience with sewing. I love them! I did not love the amount of ironing they took when they came out of the package–but hopefully the remaining wrinkles will fall out over the next few weeks.

Now, my “fail” of the day…I have been waiting for WEEKS for the Ballard Burlap panels to come back in stock. They arrived yesterday, and after even more ironing, I got them up. Then took them down, rehung the curtain rods higher, and put them back up. Their weight promptly pulled the rods out of the wall, so then I re-anchored them and rehung them again. And decided it was all a waste of time…

Here they are (see the rods still falling out of the wall?)

In my opinion they just don’t work. While I hoped they would cover up a less then pretty view out the back window, I don’t like how dark they are, and how wide they are in the space. The final straw  is the cost of new (more substantial) rods– on top of the curtain cost– just wouldn’t be worth it just to make the room look good to show. So, back to the drawing board!!! I am thinking a trip to Ikea??? I need a cheap, easy short-term solution, and as always its a good place to start.

Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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