lately...

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This pretty much sums up my life lately... We've had a lot going on and none of it has involved finishing anything on my project list (or cleaning my house for that matter).

The campaign chest is half painted & sitting in the middle of the sunroom, my Craigslist bookcase is lined with paint chips, the 'new' sofa is covered in tiny fabric swatches... and our back bedroom is filled to the brim with items for a yard sale that was supposed to happen two weeks ago.

I'm hoping that my house will be restored to normalcy soon... But (honestly) it's pretty unlikely, given that we purchased windows last week for our upcoming exterior remodel. 

Let's all agree to view it as organized chaos, okay? 

sofa fabric inspiration

My original plan for the 'new' sofa was an ivory or off-white fabric... Especially after reading Kirsten's design with kids in mind series, where so many said washable and bleach-able white is the way to go {and fur children and human children make roughly the same amount of mess, right?}

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Jeff wasn't so impressed by the concept, reasoning that our sweet puppy daughter's love of furniture and my OCD cleaning would have me washing the cushion covers every week.

Plan B was an outdoor fabric (also a suggestion from the kids in mind design series) in a light gray or bluish-gray...

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Then, of course, there is a very big small piece of me that wants to throw practicality out of the window, in favor of a beautiful home... With a colorful velvet upholstery...

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In my defense, Lauren at Pure Style Home has two little ones with velvet upholstery and says it has held up great!  {As a side note, she also mentions purchasing her LEE sofa on Craigslist for $300... That loud squeal you hear is my excitement over our deal!} 

So what do you think?  Washable white?  Outdoor fabric in gray?  Or a fun velvet?

featured

I am beyond excited to start out my weekend being featured as part of 'before & after' on Matters of Style today!  It has long been one of my favorite blogs, and I'm thrilled that our skirted console table project made their list!

Be sure to go over and check us out, along with all the other incredible before & after's featured... Because who doesn't like a good makeover?

We're picking up a bookcase from Craigslist this weekend (in need of a little love), and hopefully starting a few more projects to share soon...

Happy Weekend!

dresser as a tv console?

Once I get an idea in my head, there is usually no turning back (much to Jeff's disappointment).  Lately I've been obsessed with using a pretty dresser as a tv console.

Because let's face it, there is not much attractive about a tv stand.

But using a beautiful dresser?  Much better...

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I also love that the dresser would add valuable storage for toys and other odd & ends once we have some wee whittakers in the picture.  But for now, I think I'm already sold... And making plans to paint our $25 campaign dresser this weekend for it's upgrade to the living room!

What do you think? Would you use a dresser for your tv console? Or do you like the dedicated space for equipment in a tv stand?

preview

Although the weekend trip to Mary Jo's was a bust for me, we picked up some beautiful fabric for a little project at my sister Sarah's boyfriend's house (You can imagine how excited he is to have me and my sister on the prowl to decorate!)

Sarah had the great idea to take the fabric to an alterations shop.  She manages the family dry cleaning business, so she works with one frequently and was able to get a great deal on having two euro sham covers made.  Even if you don't have a relationship with one, I'd definitely suggest checking out an alterations shop as a more budget-friendly option for custom pillows or curtains.

We have a few more projects to work on, hopefully this weekend (pending boyfriend approval, of course).  But here is a quick glimpse:

It's so much fun to help Sarah with these projects, and I absolutely love how the shams came out!  Plus, now her boyfriend and my husband have one more thing to bond over... our love of and their dislike of our decorating (just kidding... I think!)

Happy weekend!

repurposing frames

Over a year ago, I picked up this set of two botanical prints for a whopping $7 at a local estate sale.  I knew immediately that I wasn't going to keep these prints (although, in general, I do love botanicals), but the  frames had great shape & detail.

They took their place in my guest room closet, full of 'potential DIY' projects... For slightly longer than I'd like to admit.  After we completed our sunroom, I realized that our desk area could use some practical improvements.

Enter the frames... I decided to turn them into a chalkboard and bulletin board set.  The project was very much Jeff-approved (aka cheap), coming in at around $20 total, including the original cost of the frames.

I pulled off the backing and took out the artwork and glass.  Then lightly sanded the frames and spray painted them gray.

We purchased an Ikea bulletin board for $4.99, then Jeff used the old glass as a template to measure and cut the piece to fit in the frame.

For the chalkboard, I took the glass and very lightly sanded it, just enough to give it a rough texture.  Then I painted it with chalkboard spray paint (you can find it at Lowe's in the spray paint aisle)  It took about 3 coats, with plenty of drying time in between, to get it completely covered.

We lined the inside lip of both frames generously with superglue, then dropped in the bulletin board and chalkboard pieces.  After letting them dry (frame-side down) overnight, they were ready to hang!

Quick tip:  Per the instructions on the chalkboard spray can, I rubbed a layer of chalk over the entire surface before writing anything on it.  So far, it's held up very well.

This was a quick, cheap and easy project... Not to mention it pulled one more item out of my guest closet.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Considering...

A few months ago, I picked up this campaign dresser for $25 at our local Goodwill.  Not bad for a full-size dresser and considering that a refinished campaign dresser was recently listed on our local Craigslist for $300!

It's in need of some love, so I planned to give it a coat of paint and call it a day.  Similar to these...

{images via Lonny}

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But I've done painted furniture before (best instructions I've found for painting coming soon!)  And for some reason, I'm feeling a little over the painted campaign dresser.  So I'm considering going a different way...

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{via Mr. Goodwill Hunting}

Surprisingly, I'm leaning towards staining the dresser a dark shade.  I wonder how difficult it would be to sand down and restain the dresser myself... Has anyone tried this before?  Any tips to share?

Recovering Kitchen Chairs

I debated recovering our kitchen chairs for a while... On one hand, I loved that the upholstery appeared to be original to the 1970s Henredon chairs (snagged for a major deal at Sleepy Poet about two years ago).  On the other hand, they were really starting to show their age.

The construction zone that was our house for 5 months, during the sunroom addition, answered the question for me.  All of the dust certainly did no favors for the wear & tear of the chairs... So recovering was a go!

I hit up Mary Jo's (one of my favorite weekend spots) and found this perfect-shade-of-gray linen fabric for the chairs.

I also picked up some batting to fill out the seats.  The original plan was to remove the entire old fabric, add batting, and recover.  A few too many original staples sent me the easy way out...

We unscrewed the base of the seat from the frame, cut pieces of batting to the same size as the seat, and cut the fabric a few extra inches wider than the seat (allowing for enough extra fabric to staple down).

Then we laid the batting over the top of each seat, covered with the fabric, and stapled to the bottom with a staple gun (with one of us pulling the fabric tightly and the other stapling down).  We stapled once around the seat, then went back and stapled even closer together.

For the corners, we folded the edges (like wrapping a present) so that the front would appear flat and the only folded edge would be off to the side.

Then we cut away any excess fabric and re-attached the seats.  For a refreshed final result...

It was so much easier than I thought!  One Friday night (I know, we're so fun) and the project was done!  Have you ever done a DIY reupholstery project?  How did it turn out?

No Sew Skirted Console Table

I struggled with what furniture to put on the back wall in our living room.  It couldn't take up too much space, needed to serve as part of our entryway, and provide some much-needed storage.  In the end, I settled on a skirted console table.

I originally planned to use the console table that my parents gave us.  However, I knew it would be a no-sew project, which means lots of staples into a nice piece of furniture (not ideal).  Additionally, I wanted the table to be taller, so I'd need to raise it with bed risers (also not ideal). 

{entryway & table before}

Jeff wasn't a fan of this plan either, and in about 30 minutes built me a console table with scrap wood from our shed!  He also added a shelf, so that we'd have the additional storage needed.  So for $0 we had a custom console table, ready for a skirt!

{Jeff demonstrating the new table's sturdiness}

{view of final table... excuse the unfinished floors!}

I based our skirt off of instructions from Camila at Effortless Style and Jennifer at Newlywed Diaries.  To start with the bottom: Camila used various panels to create a faux pleat in her skirted table.  I took this idea and simplified it for our smaller one.  Instead of 5 panels, we only needed 3.

I cut 2 panels to wrap around the corners and 1 small strip to go down the middle of the table to create a center 'pleat.'  Since I knew the console table would be against the wall, I just wrapped the corner panel a few inches around the back (that's all you would be able to see anyway).

Then I used Stitch Witchery iron-on hem tape to finish the edges (only the ones that would be exposed eventually).  This could not have been easier, and so far the iron-on tape has held really well!

{finished corner}

I also used Stitch Witchery to iron-on the Greek Key trim around the bottom of all the panels.  I just used double rows of tape to make sure the bottom and top of the wide trim was secure.

Jeff was sweet enough to help me with the staple gun.  We stapled the middle section first then layered the 2 corner panels on top to create our pleat.

{shelves already filling up}

For the top, we followed Jennifer's instructions, measuring our fabric and leaving a little overhang on the sides.  We stapled the top piece along the front edge first, with the bulk of the fabric hanging off the front of the table.  So we were actually stapling the underside of the fabric down to the table (sorry we forgot to take pictures here).  Then we folded the top back over itself to create a clean edge.

Next we folded under the sides and placed a little strip of Stitch Witchery underneath and ironed down those edges (and a little over the stapled front pleat to finish it off more)  Lastly, we stapled the back edge of the top panel to the back edge of the table (we stapled down on the underside to make sure no staples were visible from the top of the table)

And here is our finished skirted console table...

The no-sew skirt has been on my list for awhile, and I have to admit being pleasantly surprised with our finished table!  I couldn't be happier with how it came out!

Marbled Paper

Happy Monday!  I finished a quick project this weekend, and I promise to post the full details later this week (along with tons of other projects that we've been knocking off the list)

I was inspired by Kristen's living room artwork...

And Bryn's secretary update...

Marbled paper is such a fun way to create artwork on the cheap.  For those of you in Charlotte, check out the selection at Paper Source or Binders Art Supply & Frame...

I love the turquoise and gray in this paper from Binders...

Or, the ever-popular, Pirouette marbled paper from Paper Mojo.  Love the gray and apricot combination...

Stay tuned for our quick marbled paper art project, bathroom updates, and a few others.  I'll be making up for our recent lack of blogging, starting this week!

Making the Cut

Hope that ya'll had a great weekend!  I headed to Raleigh to see some of my oldest friends (we calculated that we've known each other since middle school... so an average of 15 years!) and to celebrate the first one of us to be expecting a baby!  I was so lucky to also spend Sunday afternoon with my college roommate, Lindsey (who is less than two weeks from her due date!)

We all talked babies. A lot. 

But... Our current project is the sunroom, and before I left to talk babies for the weekend, Sarah came over to talk decorating.

We pondered removing the skirt from the eggplant sofa when it moves into the sunroom... To give it a less formal look.  As a quick recap, this couch started in our living room, then moved to the office & was slipcovered... And will make it's final move into the sunroom.

I'm in the mood to start cutting away, especially once I found this amazing 'after' on Centsational Girl.  My only hesitation is whether or not the sofa needs the skirt to balance out the heaviness of the arms and pillows...

You have to use your imagination a little here (and ignore the burlap sample)... I really keep going back & forth on this one.  Any thoughts?

Thoughts?

My mind has been going non-stop on home projects lately... Add to that my recent find of Effortless Style, and... well, you can just feel sorry for my hubby.  A definite add to your blog roll, with tons of inspiration images & great DIY projects!

I saw this duvet with a Greek key border and immediately feel in love...

A quick Google search later and I found this beauty...

But the price tag of $358 for full/queen and $388 for king duvet left me a little a lot less giddy.  So I started thinking, could I get the same look with a solid white duvet and a little Greek key trim?

A 530 thread count plain white duvet from Overstock for $65 and Greek Key trim for $12 per yard.  Definitely much more cost effective, but would the look hold up?

I'm really tempted to try this out... Any thoughts?