Making Messes: One project {or more} at a time: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Reupholster of Guest Room Chair {Up-cycle}

This was a FIRST for me, my first ever time reupholstering anything, and I did it almost completely by myself! (Husband helped a bit-- so thankful!!)

Before & After

Here's my "photo essay" of my journey to a reupholstered guest room chair.... and the best part, it only cost me $20 to do it. ($4 for the fabric, $8 for foam, $2 for headliner material and $6 for the furniture stripper to remove the old finish from the arms/legs)- now to make a window treatment out of the left over material I got.... but that's a whole other post!

Here's the chair as it was (it has been on my "list of things to toss or fix" for a while now) I "inherited" it when I married my husband, oh nearly 10 years ago, who had inherited it from his parents when he moved out into his "bachelor pad"):

Notice the top piece has batting showing through, thanks to a cat...

The finish looked like it needed a redo, and the seat was sagging

While the sagging seat and ripped top were features that made this chair so "endearing" (especially to my husband), I was ready to do something about it. After watching two DIY reupholstery videos on Youtube, I figured I was good to go! :) One thing that helped me (and was suggested in one of the videos) was taking A LOT of pictures as I took the chair apart.

Removing the legs/arms

The bottom of the seat

I wanted to save the webbing that was under the seat, so I wouldn't have to buy more... so armed with a screwdriver and needle-nose pliers, I got to work!

Removing the staples, so that I didn't rip the webbing was tough!

But I was able to get it...

Look at all of those staples that were hidden by the webbing... oh no!

I had my work cut out for me! I watched/listened to Les Miserables on PBS while I took off the upholstery. (Do you hear the people sing? I did for hours on end after watching it, instant replay in my head is GREAT!) I think I need to invest in a tool that removes the staples, because it was tough to get some of those staples out!

Most of the seat is finished... see what I meant by "sagging" seat!

The top portion, with the upholstery removed

I tried to be very careful in removing the upholstery since I needed it to be my pattern!

After I ripped out the seams, I have a pattern

I laid the old upholstery on top of the material and added a couple of inches to the width and length, but cut the "corners" exactly.

Pinned the "pattern" to the new fabric

Pinned the corners together (right sides together)

The back rest upholstery, I had to rip the seams... (I couldn't believe how dirty this chair was, yuck!!)

After ripping the seams, I used the pieces as my pattern:

Pinned it all together, and sewed--

the completed top piece, attached by stapling the fabric to the bottom of the back rest

Now, on to the seat:

After removing the old foam-- I added new "foam" (headliner) to the front of the seat:

Then stapled the new foam onto the frame, I had no idea that foam was so expensive, I was glad I got it for 50% off!!

The foam stapled onto the frame

Back to the sewing machine, time to sew up the "corners" on the seat fabric:

Then I stapled the fabric back onto the frame, and completed it with the webbing (yes, I did manage to save it)!

The finished bottom of the seat

Now on to the legs/arms:

My arms are still telling me about this part of the project! :) At first I thought I could just sand the old finish away... ha ha ha ha, not so. After a quick trip to the hardware store, I bought some furniture stripper (and boy is it MEAN stuff!!), and came home and took the old finish off. **Note: This stuff ate through my rubber kitchen gloves, I guess you can buy special gloves for this, but I didn't so I went through 2 pairs of kitchen gloves in this process!!**

The arms/legs after they had been stripped

Next it was on to sanding-- twice, once with 150 grit, and then once again with 240 grit (per the directions on my stain).

After staining the arms/legs (2 coats), I let them sit overnight before reassembling.

Finished arm/leg

Now to put it all back together:

Thanks to my husband, it got put back together in record time!

The finished product:

In it's home in the guest room!

It sure matches the bedding better than the old version! :) Next up on my "to do list"-- the window treatment for the room with the extra material!

Thanks for reading along!

This mess was brought to you by,

Valerie

This post is partying here!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Spring Subway Art {Printable Freebie}

Here's a little printable I put together using a bunch of free fonts. I made it to fit a 5 x 7 frame (mat). I tweaked the colors a bit to give you some options! Enjoy!

Here they are for download if you want one:

Version 1:The original

Version 2: Darker Colors

Version 3: Slightly different

Version 4: Turquoise

Version 5: Chocolate

Brought to you by the main mess-maker,

Valerie

P.S. This was the smallest mess I made all day! :)

I participate at these awesome parties!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring Has Sprung {Canvas Board Tutorial}

This is an idea that I have had for a couple of days, and after looking at so many great ideas out there for spring decor, I played around a bit with my Cricut, SCAL2, some paint and a canvas board, and wah-lah....

Spring has Sprung!

Here's what I did:
Materials used:

Foam paint brush
11x14 canvas board
Acrylic Paint (I used 2 colors, Sage Green and Suede)
Fine grained sand paper
scrapbook paper and card stock in coordinating colors
Cricut or other Craft cutting machine
Cutting machine software (I used SCAL2)
adhesive (I used Creative Memories tape runner)
Mod Podge (if you want to make it "permanent" - I did not, as I have other plans for this canvas board)
11 x 14 frame

Instructions:

Paint your canvas board whatever color you have chosen (Sage green), allow to dry, and then put on a second or 3rd coat (mine took 3 coats).

2. After it dries, "whitewash" the board with a lighter color (I used Suede)-- you take a little bit of the paint, and add a couple tablespoons of water to it, and mix it real well.

3. Lightly paint this over the top of the darker color (1 coat is all you need). Allow to dry.

4. While the board is drying you can be cutting out your letters (mine about are 4 inches tall), and butterflies. I used my SCAL software to create the "shadow" and letters for "SPRING" and then used some free butterfly svg files that I got here and here.

The "Shadow" (used Cheri font I found for free)


I cut 3" x 6" strips of paper, and put them on the mat, so that I could have each letter/butterfly in a different paper


I used 3 x 6" strips so that each"quadrant" of the mat was a different color

I used Baroque Script font (found it free online)

I should have taken pictures of this process.... but I was so "into" this project, I forgot! sorry! :(

5. Cut out the letters, adhere the letter's S P R I N G to the "shadow" of the the word.

6. Next, cut out the butterflies (my patterned paper was only patterned on one side... so I cut out extra so that I could glue 2 together so both sides of the wings would be pretty!)

7. Now, go back to your canvas board and take the sand paper and sand over the board. I sanded enough for the canvas to show through just a bit in a few places.

It depends on how "distressed" you want your sign to be-- sand accordingly.

8. Wipe off the extra "dust" from your sign.

9. Use the adhesive of your choice to attach the words to your sign. (I just used Creative Memories tape runner).

10. Fold the butterflies so that their wings are aloft-- and then using your adhesive, attach them on the project (you may not like my placement-- go ahead and pick your own places).

11. Place your sign in a frame, and enjoy! :)