Dining Room Chair Reupholster

I've wanted to reupholster my dining room chairs since we got them. Zac's parents graciously gave us their beautiful dining room furniture for our new house and gave us their blessing to reupholster the chairs if we wanted to. I didn't mind the fabric, but I was up for a project! It just took over a year to actually make that happen. Last summer my partner in crime, Morgan and I went fabric browsing only to come away with nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Today I kidnapped my mom and took her to Hancock Fabrics, where they happened to be having a half off sale on almost everything! Score! I intended to buy a floral or paisley print in a muted blue, or gray but look what I ended up with: yellow and white chevron print. I fell in love with the fabric instantly and knew it would be perfect. When asked, "But what about your curtains?" I responded with, "I don't love the curtains and they were cheap. I LOVE this fabric and can replace curtains easily." Easy peasy.

So, here's my simple directions on my very first reupholstering project ever.

Turn your chair over and remove screws from each corner

Close up of screw

My only materials: 1.875 yards of fabric @$9.98/yd, staple gun, scissors, flat head to remove old staples, philips to remove screws

The reason I reupholstered: stains, cat hair, outdated fabric from 1986.

Before

Goose loved jumping through the seatless chairs!

I laid out each seat on the uncut fabric so I could ensure I had enough. It was also a way to make sure the chevron pattern was aligned how I wanted to the seat.

I cut squares for each seat and just pulled one seat over to me at a time to staple. Leave approximately 3 inches on each side of the seat.

Start by pulling the fabric taut and stapling in the middle. Then staple the opposite side. Continue stapling in the middle, making sure to pull fabric taut each time. The corners are a little trickier, but there are a few variations depending on if you want creases, pleats, or a seamless finish. I attempted a seamless finish but ended up with creases, so clearly, I'm no expert.

For the most part, the fabric is lined up the way I wanted it. Whew!

After

Two out of the six chairs

So, what do you think!?

Living Room

View from the entry hall. I like how the rug is still the focal point in the room. The couches are from Zac's bachelor days and still serve their function, but we hope to get a sectional at some point. It's hard to want to buy a brand new couch with a baby, a dog who submissively pees, and two cats that have more hair than a wooly mammoth.

The two paintings that you can't see because of the glare (oops) are the inspiration for every color choice I make in the room. We got them off from a guy that was selling them on Congress a few weeks before we closed on our house. It was fun watching him make our art from spray paint!

These windows are so naked. Now that the walls are painted, I think I want white, flowy curtains from IKEA. Before I painted, I wanted "fake" stationary curtains set on each side of the windows.

The TV is in a hugely awkward nook above the fireplace. That being said, it serves a purpose by being completely out of reach for kids and animals. The fireplace is a strange, porous stone. That's all I know!

Here's the view from the kitchen (please ignore the mess from breakfast!).

In this light, the paint looks very silver. In actuality, it's bluer than I had wanted, but I love that it photographs so gray. I fell in love with Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage and had it matched at Sherwin Williams.

That HUGE, empty wall will soon have a table or dresser of some kind in the middle. On the dresser might be a lamp and a few accessories and the rest of the wall will be covered in photos.

We have a lot more to do in the living room, but having a painted room is such a great feeling of accomplishment. I love sitting in here and looking around at all of the hard work I did! I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life -- Morgan, a fellow teacher who I met while subbing over two years ago, motivated me into getting paint and taught me everything. She gave me confidence to conquer those pesky projects that I keep stored in the back of my mind. Next on my list to do is reupholster the dining room chairs, put up curtains, hang my photos, and buy/refinish a dresser.

Pottery Barn Kaley Bloom Rug

PWe FINALLY decided on a rug for the living room. Please excuse the awful red throw pillows; they will be gone tomorrow! The black leather couches will not be staying forever, but right now, the baby is our first priority so the mocha sectional will have to wait. The Kaley Bloom 8x10 100% wool rug was a steal at Pottery Barn today. We were told it was originally $699 (please correct me if this info is wrong!) and got it for $239. For both Zac and I to equally love something is rare, so we knew we had to jump on this rug when we saw it! I spotted it and said, "Ooh I REALLY like this one!" He looks at me and says, "Seriously?" I instantly thought, 'Oh no, he hates it. I guess we'll keep looking' but he loved it, too! Our quest for the perfect rug has finally come to an end after eight long months of searching.

*Note: The furniture placement still looks off to me. Any suggestions on how/where to place the couches? It's a complete head-scratcher for me. Thanks!!

Summer Wreath

A friend of mine stopped by yesterday and poked fun at me for still having my lovely Easter egg wreath still on my front door. Okay, technically it's still spring so I think it's fine but, she had a point. I needed a summer wreath. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one that I loved. What's a girl to do but make her own wreath.

My mom and I went to Hobby Lobby today and I knew I wanted a modernish wreath that was inexpensive and somewhat matched my yard. For $24 and about an hour of my time, behold my new summer wreath!

Summer wreath in the making

Summer wreath is complete!

THE inspiration

(Photograph taken with flash, but it's as true to color as I'm willing to get at 11:30 on a school night!)

I really thought I had already posted about these paintings but I can't seem to find it...
A week before closing on our house Zac and I were downtown with friends when we stumbled upon two guys spray painting canvas and posterboard. It was amazing to watch them work! After being mesmerized for about fifteen minutes we decided to buy two prints for $40 total. They sat in a back room for two months before we figured out what we wanted to do with them. A framer at Michaels suggested doing a matting around the smaller print so that we could frame them in identical frames and tada... this is our end result!

*I forgot to mention WHY I posted these. I'm planning my living room completely on these two prints. Do I need a neutralish room with lots of jewel tone accessories?

I. have. no. idea.

Botanical Serenity

I know I'm new at this but if you had to choose would it be this room or the previous post, Hollywood Elegance? I can't decide on the chairs or the rugs, that's why there are two. Zac is no help, he'd be happy with either!

Hollywood Elegance

Who knew making an inspiration board could be so easy!? Thanks to Sproost I feel like a pro.

The above picture is one of my ideas for our living room. Currently the only piece we'll be keeping in the room is our tv!

charliehooper07 - Inspiration

charliehooper07 - Inspiration
An amazing collection of inspiration pictures found on charliehooper07's (fellow nestie) blog.
(P.S. if I don't blog about it I'll probably never remember how to find her site again!)

Score one for Zac!

Zac is getting his mancave all set up. His wonderful dad decided to take us shopping at IKEA for a couch for his room. We fell in love with this one for two reasons: one, it was on sale BIG time at only $349 and two, we can cuddle on it while watching movies.
So, this is what we ended up with, the KRAMFORS sofa in an orange-red (I forgot the "official" color's name.)
Next step, dark gray paint on the walls, black curtains to block out light, and hang our original art pieces. Any other suggestions? *PS it was Zac's request to stick the chaise out like that. Pick your battles, right? ;)

ANDY WARHOL - 9J -- Rug Decor Online Store

ANDY WARHOL - 9J -- Rug Decor Online Store

BOMBAY - 003 -- Rug Decor Online Store

BOMBAY - 003 -- Rug Decor Online Store

KIBATSU - 007 -- Rug Decor Online Store

KIBATSU - 007 -- Rug Decor Online Store

Furniture shopping = not fun anymore

I'm so sick of shopping for furniture!! It seems like we've been everywhere and have yet to buy a thing. Is it because I'm just THAT picky!? We found one bed and one sectional that we absolutely loved at Havertys, but it seems that every other place we go to has inferior furniture (Rooms to go, Lacks, Star, Thomasville, World Market, Roomstore, mom & pop places, etc.). Today we went to Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware to get some design ideas and holy moly, if I could decorate my house with their things I think we'd end up spending more on furniture than our entire house!!

I've found that every piece of furniture we see we are comparing to Havertys. Is that our sign? Should we just take the plunge and buy what we love instead of settling for meh stuff?

(By the way, here's a picture of the couch we want...)

(and... the bed)

Decorating sorrows, oh my!

I used to think of myself as an avid decorator who knew the current trends and could put a room together if I had the chance. So why is it that now that Zac and I own a home, OUR home that we can do WHATEVER we want to it, I have absolutely NO idea how to decorate. I think realizing that I can't have it all right now like I'm used to has put a damper on things. It's just not like that on HGTV... in thirty to sixty minutes you have complete home makeovers. Why isn't it that easy in real life!?

I honestly don't even know where to start. Big things? Little things? Whole house? One room? Big room to start? Little room to start? Most important/lived in room or least? I always wanted to be an interior designer so maybe it's time I go to school for it. (Just kidding! I could never leave my babies!) In the meantime I will continue pouring (pouring? poring? hmm...) over home decorating magazines for some inspiration.

Any ideas are much appreciated! Or at the very least, may I have some direction for Christmas decorating? Sadly, I have to add on a budget this year. (Look Dad, I said budget! I'm all grown up!)

Deck the Halls! falalalala....

I love decorating for Christmas. I have to make up for last year when I had no motivation since we were in an apartment. Plus, it's Goose's first Christmas so it has to be special! Oh, and the new house is a pretty good reason to go all out, too. ;) We debated getting a new tree this year since our tree was bought five years ago when we lived in an 800 sq. ft. apartment with hardly any room for a tree. We ultimately decided to keep this one and use the potentially $250 for LED lights, bills, and other Christmas decorations for the house. I dragged out the DSLR for the first time in months just for the occasion.