Another $0.75 Cent Chair Makeover

I found this chair for $0.75 at the Faith Farm Thrift store a while back.  I refinished it, took pictures, and forgot about it.  I found it last night while scrolling through pictures.  The fabric was some kind of embroidery that had seen better days.

I took it apart and gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.

 I used some fabric I had in my stash and recovered the chair.

 It was a remnant piece of fabric, so I couldn't really center it on the chair, but I loved the combination of colors.

It was an easy fix and it made for some afternoon entertainment.  What do you do with your fabric remnants?

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and Beyond the Picket Fence, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Showoff, Remodelaholic, Addicted 2 Decorating

Painted Vanity Table

I had a crazy busy day yesterday.  I left work and got home five hours later.  I was exhausted.  I have an easy project for you today.  I'm still trying to catch up on posts from my sister Ivette's apartment.  She found this vanity on Craigslist and she couldn't pass it up. The lines are so cute.  She brought it straight to my house for some paint.

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white.  Look at the mirror compartment.

Here she is.   I didn't get a straight on angle because of the placement in the room.  She had a small area that she used to sit on the floor and do her make up and hair.  The vanity is a perfect fit.

Look at these gorgeous handles from Anthropologie. We did some light sanding on the edges.

What do you think?  I love its new look.

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and Beyond the Picket Fence, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Showoff, Remodelaholic, Addicted 2 Decorating

Blue Velvet Chair

We found these chairs a while ago at the Faith Farm Thrift store for $4.00 each.  They were pretty crusty.  I pointed them out to my sister and she loved the idea of them, but oh, they were bad.  The velvet was in horrible condition and the foam was disintigrating, but for $4.00, whatever.

I painted the legs using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.  I gave them two coats and then sanded down them down a bit to get the aged look.

We had them refoamed and reupholstered.  There was no way I would attempt this on my own.  My sister bought a high quality upholstery blue velvet from a local fabric store. It was kind of pricey at $35 a yard, but the quality and texture of the fabric seemed worth it.  It's hard to tell in the photograph. I didn't want to destroy the fabric, so we left it to the professionals.

 Here's the back of the chair with a few nailheads.

Pretty, right?  They will be used in my sisters dining room along with the two chevron chairs and the Turquoise Chandelier.  The crazy thing is, my sister has decided to rent out her apartment and move to Paris for 6 months.  After all that work!  I think I've figured out why I'm so exhausted lately. I'm back at work, trying to workout (which I am now doing Crossfit and it WEARS me out), some other crazy stuff, and trying to wrap up all the projects for my sister's place.  I am beat.  Writing that just got me even more tired. I'll be photographing my sisters apartment this weekend. We weren't able to finish everything, but it is a huge and adorable transformation.  Have a great weekend.

Zig Zag Painting Pinboard

I hope you all had a great weekend.  We celebrated my parents 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday at our house.  We had a great time, even though it rained.  I had spent all week fixing up our dilapidated backyard, only to have to move everyone inside about thirty minutes into the party.  My dad got all sentimental talking about my mom.  It was a great night.  I'll be posting pictures of my backyard later this week.  I got the house cleaned up yesterday morning, but all the tables and chairs are still all set up in the backyard.  Ugh.

Here's a cute project that I worked on for my sister's apartment.  I found this flower foam tile rose painting at Goodwill for $2.00.  I knew the print wasn't for me, but there was something about the texture of the tile that caught my eye.

I gave it a coat of Rustoleum's Aqua spray paint.  The color seemed a little too strong for what I wanted.

I wanted to soften it up a bit so I used the same technique that I used for my cherry blossoms painting. I filled a cup with about two fingers of water and then I dipped the tip of a paintbrush in the can of paint and then dipped it in the water and mixed it up.  I then brushed the tile over and over. It's a weird finish at first, kind of bubbly, but just keep brushing and brushing.  Eventually it evens out and softens the color on the tile.  Then I taped a zig zag pattern to the tile.  I tried to do my best measuring it out. 

For the final step in painting, I used Annie Sloan's Chalk paint (not watered down) to fill in the spaces between the tape. 

I then removed the rope and added a pretty satin ribbon.  I hot glued it to the back of the tile and here it is.

Here you can see detail of the tile and the softness of the blue after using the watered down chalk paint.

I made this for my sister and it will be sitting by her new chevron chairs and chandelier.  I'm thinking it might work great as a pin board.

I'm so excited about setting up her apartment. I've been working on projects for what seems like months.  I think the painters will be going this week and then we are ready to get everything in there.  We will be heading to the beach today (weather permitting), I LOVE summer.

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Cherry Blossoms - Sister Files

I found these two frames at Goodwill for $1.00 each a while back. They've been sitting in my pile of stuff for my sister.  As I mentioned in yesterdays post, I am clearing stuff out of my house.  Which means, tons of painting and back breaking work.  I loved the frames (plastic again), but the paintings were not really what I had in mind.  

I used Rustoleum white spray paint for plastic on the frames. On the canvas, I used Rustoleum's Aqua.  I love the color choices and selection available in Rustoleum products.  They are my go to spray paint choice.

I then did the same technique that I used on my sister's chandelier with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I filled a cup with about two fingers of water and then I dipped the tip of a paintbrush in the can of paint and then dipped it in the water and mixed it up.  I then brushed the canvas over and over. It's a weird finish at first, kind of bubbly, but just keep brushing and brushing.  Eventually it evens out and softens the color on the canvas.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the finish is beautiful.

I got out my paintbrushes and started mixing paint. I had to call my mom, the art teacher, about color mixing. I only had a few colors on hand and was covered in paint.  I then drew some branches and cherry blossoms. 

I was inspired by this image at the House of Giggles.

The finish was a little harsh, so I did the same brushing of chalk paint and water over the painting. It gave it a soft, feminine feel.  I'm loving the look of it in these frames. Here's my version.

They will be hanging by the mirror, I posted about yesterday. I'm loving the softness of these paintings and for $2 total cost, you can't go wrong.  Have you tried painting?

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Chevron Chairs - Sister Files

We found these two chairs at the Faith Farm Thrift Store a few weeks back.  They were $30 for the two chairs and the table.  So figure about $5 a chair.  From a distance, they aren't too bad.

However, upon closer inspection, they have been painted with some sort of shabby chic paint technique of ivory paint and smears of blue all over them. 

The dirty seats were beautifully and loosely upholstered in this cotton fabric.  Here you can see more of the blue paint.

I painted them using Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.  After two coats, I sanded them down to smoothen the paint and give the edges some texture.  I used a blue zig zag fabric from fabric.com to cover the chairs. 

 Here you can see the sanded edges.

I think they turned out beautiful.  My sister came to pick them up last night and she loved them.  They will be sitting under the turquoise chandelier.  The two other chairs are also done, but I haven't gotten pictures of them.  I painted the base of the table and am now trying to figure out the top.  I may ask for some advice on that tomorrow.  So what do you think of the chairs?

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My Sister's Chandelier

I found this chandelier last week at Goodwill for $30.00.  I thought it was on the pricier side considering the condition of it, but I couldn't pass it up.  I knew my sister would love it (even though I tried to convince my husband that we should find a spot for it).

Some of the crystals and white sleeves (not sure what that's called) were missing.  I soaked the crystal in a glass cleaner and water.

I cleaned it up and taped up the openings.

I gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint.

Then I used Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Old White to give it an aged effect.  I filled a cup with about an inch to two inches of water and poured in a tiny amount of paint.  It basically looked like I was soaking a brush in paint water.  I then just rubbed the brush on the chandelier.  It kind of bubbled in places and didn't really seem to be sticking, but I just kept going over it and spreading it out. The effect is beautiful.

If you look closely here, you can see some of the subtle white peaking through.  It took away the harshness of the spray paint and gave it a beautiful aged look.

I had a blast photographing it in my backyard.  Please excuse my insane amount of pictures below.  As for the missing crystals, I just chose not to hang any on the top section and used them all for the lower parts of the chandelier. I also went to a lighting store and they actually gave me the plastic sleeves.

Isn't she pretty?  I tried again, to convince my husband that we needed it, but he seems to think our lighting is just fine.  

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