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The reason I reupholstered: stains, cat hair, outdated fabric from 1986.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

We have paint!

I finally picked paint! Let's backtrack a bit... when we moved into our house in, er, 2009 I had large aspirations in decorating. For serious. Go look at the posts back in 2009. You'll see. Anyway, almost two years later and there's only one finished room, the nursery. And to be quite honest, I still haven't hung two owl hooks or Addie's wooden letters yet so technically I guess that room isn't finished either. Crap. But back to now.

After perusing countless blogs and forums and knowing my current obsession with gray (grey, greigh?) I picked a paint color. Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage (yes, I jumped on that bandwagon. What, you didn't know there was a bandwagon? Well there is. I'm on it.) Refusing to pay RH price, I went with my lovely friend Liz to Sherwin Williams where they matched it in their Cashmere line, in flat. I hate sheen. It's ugly. It looks outdated. Don't get shiny walls. Just, don't.

Not uncommon for me, I went about painting backwards. I chose the color first before deciding which room to paint. I really wanted to paint the master bedroom gray but ultimately chose the living room since I spend most of my time in here and this is the room people see upon entering our house. Also, it's the one room I'm trying so hard to decorate.

My marvelous Martha Stewertesque friend Morgan is coming over on Thursday for a painting party! I'll try to take pictures whilst painting so we can see before/during/after shots. Squeee!!

Wait, eight months was TODAY!?

Our little girl is eight months old today! We celebrated this milestone by playing in our own personal splashpark, aka the backyard. Goose splashed around in the whale pool, and Addie and I played in the Splish Splash Pool. She had helped me cook oatmeal this morning and decided her new favorite toys were the plastic measuring cup and metal measuring cups so they got to go swimming with us, too. Unfortunately, the Aveeno baby sunblock I used for Addie made her break out into a rash all over her chest, stomach, back, and neck. Way to go mommy! Because of this and also her being under the weather, we'll be doing her eight month pictures tomorrow!

Summa Summatime!!!

I pink puffy heart love summer time!! Our family is having a great time relaxing while enjoying every single day of summer. We have a great little schedule while Zac is working. Addie is in swim lessons every Monday morning, we jog with Liz in the mornings, storytime at Barnes & Noble is Wednesday mornings, and storytime at the public library is on Thursdays. We try to get out once a day, even if it's just a walk. Addie and I are very social; we can't stay cooped up for too long! A mom at swim invited us to mommy and baby yoga, but it conflicts with another storytime. What's a mom to do?


I can't help but feel sad that summer is almost halfway over. I was a wreck having to go back to work after having an entire week off for spring break. I have no idea how I'll go back after essentially having a second maternity leave. I desperately try not to dwell on it, but it still kills me. So, to everybody who told me it would get easier? It didn't.

Eats on Feets

I began pumping when Addie was one week old. I thought I should start early so I could start building up a stash of frozen breastmilk for when I went back to work after three months. Addie began sleeping through the night almost immediately it seems, but was consistently sttn around six weeks. I was so scared I wouldn't have enough stored milk so I would set an alarm for 3 AM every night to pump. By the time I went back to work when Addie was three months, I was pumping once in the mornings when I would wake up, around 7 AM.

When the time came, I was so scared I would quickly run out of frozen milk before realizing I was still pumping three times a day while I was away from Addie. Therefore, my freezer input was still more than the output that Addie was getting at my moms. Eventually (see now) the time came when I knew I would run out of room in my freezers. Yes, freezers. Plural. Something had to be done, and quickly!

The milk was close to expiring (it's only good in a freezer for six months unless it's a deep freezer) and it was taking over the space where my much-needed icecream used to go. I thought about donating it, but then found out the Milk Bank only takes screened milk. Crap. I had five months of pre-screened donor milk. Now what?

I came across Eats on Feets on Facebook, a place where moms can meet up with other moms to donate or accept breastmilk. I decided to post the other night and by the next afternoon, a mom in Kyle (45 minutes away) was asking if I would be willing to donate to her premie. Her beautiful daughter was born six weeks early and on the day she responded to my post, it was her due date. I was so touched and agreed to meet her the next day. I put as much milk as I could in our little icechest (so, about 400 oz, or around 80 bags) and drove to meet her. She shook Zac's hand but I felt like we had so much more of a connection and we immediately embraced. I feel so honored, and so humbled to be able to provide this milk to her baby. She shared with me that her daughter is thriving and has zero health problems, to which she contributes solely to the breast milk her daughter has received from various donors. I am so blessed to be able to share this gift with her.

As we were departing, I told her I was sorry I couldn't fit any more (I had about 600 more oz at home still) in the icechest but that I would add her on fb so we could become friends. She was so grateful and insisted I take a box of Lansinoh breastmilk storage bags she had in her car. I am so thankful to her! I didn't stop to think about how expensive even pumping is, but $10 a box for these bags does add up over time. So, thank you again Kathy and I can't wait to give your daughter more milk!

Half a Year!!

Six months ago  at this time I was sitting in a hospital room with my new family of three. I was a proud mama of seven hours and was in complete bliss. Fast forward to today, and I am still in a state of bliss. I love being a mom to Addison! She's such an easy baby and every day I thank God that He gave me such a perfect tiny human to take care of.

She laughs, sits up completely on her own, babbles dadadada and HIIIIIIII, grabs and shakes her toys, sits at her high chair during meals, "drinks" water from her sippy cups, sleeps in her Rock'n Play from 8 PM-7:30 AM, laughs when she sees Goose, pets the cats and grabs their tails (gently!), and continues to put everything in her mouth.

I have to AW  myself for second: I've made it to my goal of exclusively breastfeeding for six months!! I never thought I'd be here at six months and at first thought this goal was unobtainable. I'm so proud of myself for accomplishing this goal, but I owe it to Addie for being so good at it. I hope to breastfeed for a year or until she weans herself.