Reupholstered Wingback Recliner

This thrifted wingback recliner was a steal!  Although hard on the eyes, it was very comfortable!  Definitely worth the reupholstery, considering the chair costed $15, and the upholstery fabric was purchased with a 50% off coupon for only $32!  Great deal for a comfortable chair!  Here's the ugly early 90's era pink chair BEFORE:

And here is the AFTER!  Let me preface, the chair that I did before was MUCH easier!!  This one was much harder, and it was due to the fact that it is a very high quality and well put together chair.  In order to reupholster, you have to take all of the original covering off, which in this case was VERY difficult because it was so well put together.  Also, the recliner mechanisms add another layer of difficulty to get around.  I'm not as happy with the quality of the results as I was with my previous chair, but I think the color and the new life look GREAT!  It was HARD work this time!  I don't see myself recovering another chair for awhile....

In the end, the before and after pics next to each other show me that it was worth the $47 dollars to purchase and hours of labor to re-do this chair and to have a custom piece for our new office!  What do you think?

Reupholstered Dining Set

Our lovely dining set was purchased for a whopping $150 from Walmart.com.  Although it may not be the most fancy set, it has been worth the money ALL the way!  It has lasted beautifully, and there are no scratches on the table top at all, even though we use it regularly and it was purchased over a year ago.  However, the chair covers are starting to look a little ragged.  The fabric is some sort of microfiber, but they do not have the cleaning power of high quality microfiber.  The photo doesn't even give the dirt justice:

The part that was bothering me the most was that the cushions were the same color as our walls!  No color whatsoever in our dining area.  So, to change that, I chose a bright orange color!

On a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty, I would rate this project a 2!  Anyone can do it!  All I had to do was to remove the meager two screws that held in the cushions (I'm sure higher quality furniture is a little harder to remove), lay out my fabric face down on a table with a layer of batting over it, lay the cushion over it, cut it 3 inches around it, and then staple tightly to the back of the cushion.  No sewing required.  You don't even need the quilt batting if your cushions are already "cushy" enough for your tastes.

This was 54 inch home decor fabric on sale for $9.99 on Joanns.com, and I only needed one yard for my cushions, plus I had a coupon for free shipping!  I already had the staple gun, staples, and leftover quilt batting so this project only costed $10.90 with tax!  Not a bad deal, huh?

Doggie Silhouette Art

Man, we LOVE our dogs!  We are almost border-line creepy loving our dogs.... just kidding... kind of.  Big surprise, though, we have no photos of them on our walls.  Although they are super-cute in real life photos, a more modern look was appealing to me.  So, I painted these cute canvases to show their cuteness off!  If you have met our dogs, you know that these canvases look JUST like them!

The hardest part about this project was getting them to sit still to get a photo that worked.  Although we have hundreds of ADORABLE photos of them, unless they're standing at a perfect profile, they just look like lumps in a silhouette.  For example: this photo is probably the cutest thing you've ever seen, but the outline is just a blob:

So here are the photos I went with, after finally getting them to sit still long enough to take one: 

As I was researching ways to take a photo and turn it into a silhouette, I came across many different ways.  Some people used a photo altering program to create an outline on the computer and erase everything else, and I tried that, but it was not so good.  My canvases were larger than printer paper, so just printing it and cutting it out was not an easy option (plus we're ALWAYS out of ink when I need it haha.)  The remedy came when I realized that our computer screen (really my husband's) is almost as big as my canvases, (I know, a bit excessively large, something like 23 inches,) but he's a software engineer, so what would you expect?  So I cropped the photos and opened them where they showed full screen, then taped tissue paper directly to the screen and traced it lightly with pencil.  Then I cut out the tissue paper, taped it onto the canvas, traced it onto the canvas, and then painted it with acrylic paint.  

I do not recommend using metallic paint for this project: it looks nice, but it was way too hard to hide the brush strokes, as you can see in the top painting;  the brown matte paint turned out looking much more professional, because the canvas was able to absorb it better.

Total project cost: $5.50:  I got the canvases on sale in a two pack, with a 40% off coupon!  All I needed was two small bottles of acrylic which were on sale for 97 cents each!  I ended up going back the next day to buy the same size canvas and covered it with left over fabric from some throw pillows I made.  Turned out looking great!

DIY Kitchen Remodel!!

Our kitchen needed help.  With only a little budget.  Luckily, we were blessed to buy a home that had already upgraded to granite, and that had excellent stainless appliances.  Why they could afford granite but stuck with these cabinets is beyond me... but here's the before and after:

It's amazing what a little sanding, staining, and new hardware can do!  Now, I'm not going to say it wasn't hard!  Here's a photo of the mess "during"

But it all paid off, and here's more after pics!  We are now super proud of our kitchen, especially with all the work we put into it!  Here's more after photos, plus photos of our finishing touches: drapes, table, and wall accessories:

Check out my cute dogs there :)

SO, bottom line: totally worth the money and time invested!

Antique Furniture Flip

For me, this awesome antique sideboard was a huge steal!  I found it at a local antique store for only $180!  It was in great condition, and has tons of storage!  It had much lighter colors than we have going in our house, so I wanted to stain over the old color.  However, it turns out that the finish was a very thin veneer, and could not be sanded down.  So instead, I painted it!  The sideboard was originally two-toned, so I left the darker color original, and spray painted the lighter color dark.  I think it turned out pretty good!! This piece would easily be over $400 if it was new, so I would say it definitely was a steal!

Cute DIY Skirt

Last week, I decided to get extra crafty and make myself a skirt.  I'm not a huge fan of using patterns, so instead I started researching for ones others had made for inspiration.  I found this great example on Pinterest, and decided to give it a try!  http://vievesscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2010/08/party-skirt-tutorial.html

Here's my version!  The best thing about it is that it was very inexpensive!  I was able to finish it with only one yard of fabric, purchased for $6.49 on sale!  With that being said, the only scrap I had left over after was a little sliver no larger than an inch wide, so I might suggest buying a little more.  Because I ran out of fabric, I had to make my bow a little smaller.  I also used metal clasps on the side instead of a zipper, mostly because I didn't feel like putting in a zipper.  Let me know what you think!

Modern Painted Canvas

As those of you who know me can attest, I am a cheapskate.  Totally willing to admit it.  Therefore, when it comes to accessorizing my home, I go for all the deals I can get.  So, to create a sofa painting, I bought a blank canvas at Hobby Lobby (at 60% off, I might add...) and painted it myself.  For this painting, I painted the entire back orange, then covered it with painter's tape and painted brown on top.  My lines are nowhere near straight, much less perfection, but when an art curator asks me, I will simply say that it symbolizes the organized chaos in my life.  Yeah, right...