We have a winner!

First of all, let me just say WOW to the response that this giveaway got. You all EXCEEDED my goal of reaching 100 followers! Now, I know us crafters/thrifters and penny pinchers just love free stuff, especially if it goes to subsidize our Pottery Barn addiction. But you guys have gone WAY beyond with all your comments and encouragement. I love finding new blogs and new friends! I hope you liked what you've seen and will keep coming back to play. 

Image courtesy of pottery barn

That being said, the lucky duck who won the giveaway is Lisa @ A Vintage Vine! 

Congrats, Lisa! 

Go ahead and send me an e-mail at margaret (dot) schaffer (at) gmail (dot) com, if you haven't already, with your info. 

To all you lovely followers- THANK YOU for playing! And stay tuned, because you never know when I might have another....

(dun dun duuuuun) 

xo, 

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating Feature!

Oodles of thanks over to Kate at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating for featuring my $10 DIY Upholstered Headboard in this week's episode of Flaunt it Friday! 

I'm pretty honored to be in a league with some of the other AWESOME stuff that's up there: 

In LURVE with this chalkboard wall. Woah. Structured *check* Bold *check* Versatile *double check*. Dear owners of House of Chic and Penoche, I will be arriving on Thursday. 

Bold (and home made!) curtains by A Thoughtful Place.  Love those stripes!

So, Kate - THANK YOU! And congrats on reaching 1,000+ followers! If you haven't checked out Kate's blog, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, go now! (But don't forget to come back! ) :D 

Have a great rest of the weekend! I, for one,  need to go mix up some more glaze if only I could peel my lazy butt off the couch... 

xo,

$1 DIY "Vintage" Art

Hi guys! Happy Friday! 

This is a picture of our new above-the-bed arrangement. I am just in love with sailboat sketch to the right. It's vintage and given to us by my father-in-law. I wanted to incorporate it with our super pricy headboard (NOT!)  I'm sorry. I watched Wayne's World last night. Our headboard (which is a Cal King size, by the way) you can see peeking in at the bottom is one I whipped up using burlap and poster board, and cost a whopping $10. You can find the tutorial here. 

Anyhoo. I wanted to incorporate that sketch and create a sort of rustic/beachy/ vintage collection of prints. Enter THE GRAPHICS FAIRY. If you do not know who she is - shame on you. She's got an EXTENSIVE collection of vintage clip-art taken from all kinds of stuff that she provides for FREE. That's right. FREE.  

Margaret likes free. 

I could have spent hours poking around, but I finally settled on these: 

I wanted them to look like vintage scientific prints, so I added their names and a figure number using the 'ol computer. I used Mac Pages, but I bet you can do it in paint or word. 

A Gryphaea is apparently an extinct type of oyster, if this type of thing is important to you. I just printed them off using regular printer paper (note: if you've got a heavier stock around, use it, cause next we're going to... ) 

Tea stain! 

Just fill a long, shallow dish ( like a casserole) with room temperature tea. Easy like Sunday morning. Just try to make it even and don't leave it in for too long or else it will tear when you try to remove it. Really just a minute or two at most. 

For the framing, I just modified two frames I got at the dollar store for- you guessed it- a dollar each! The brown one I sanded and did a coat of watered down white acrylic paint and for the gray frame ( sorry, I don't have a before picture) started out blonde unfinished wood, like you would find in a craft store. I just painted it up with some gray acrylic paint. So I got some great personalized art for a grand total of $1 each! Can't beat that.

And here's Cali making her first blog appearance! 

Enter: Another gratuitous picture of our pup. She's a ham, this one.

Happy Friday!
xo,

Before & After: DIY Upholstered Cane-Back Chair

This 'ol gal is probably one of my biggest personal *high-fives* to date. Here she is all done, currently occupying a lonely corner of our guest room. Let's take a journey back to what she used to look like: 

The picture doesn't show it very well, but the caning in all three panels was busted through in different places- hence why it was F-R-E-E on craigslist- SCORE. I loved the silhouette, but I wasn't about to try fixing that caning. I love the look of upholstered panels and parlor chairs, so I figured I'd give it a shot (not using a sewing machine, mind you). 

Here she is primed

Painted 

And Glazed 

Now, for the upholstering. For the back I cut 3 pieces of sturdy poster board to fit inside the back panels and upholstered them using batting and my fabric of choice. I then used a needle and thread and sewed them through the caning, securing the thread on the other side with super glue. And the back will look like this: 

For the front you just need quilt batting, a rotary cutter (HIGHLY recommended) and your fabric/ trim of choice. I cut my pieces of batting and fabric as close to size as I could, and just hot glued the batting directly on top of the caning. Then, using a scissors and a rotary cutter, cut the fabric as close to the shape of the chair as I could. 

I know, the unfinished edges look AWFUL. Never fear, trim covers a multitude of ickyness.

This picture above shows the 3 panels in 3 different stages. The far left has batting and fabric but no trim, the middle is just the batting layer, and the far right is the finished panel with trim. I attached the trim just with hot glue. 

See? That wasn't so bad! And we wind up with....

yay! 

P.S. Don't forget to follow me for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Pottery Barn! You have to follow me publicly by clicking that "follow" button over there on the left. Right above the pretty faces of all your other soon-to-be new friends!

P.P.S. Between me and you, I would REALLY like to get to 100, so come on- you want a $100 gift card, right??  :D

This post linked up to:
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage 
Piece of Work Wednesday @ Primitive and Proper
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed 
Look What I Found Friday @ Vintage Revivals


xo,

$100 Pottery Barn GiftCard Giveaway!

Due to all the amazing, lovely and inspiring comments from you guys over the past day or so regarding my headboard, I want to give something back to say THANK YOU! I know lots of you have been stopping through, so now let's get introduced! To be in the running for a $100 Pottery Barn GC, follow me! All you have to do is click that fun little button on the left that says "follow". Oh, and following publicly is really nice, so everyone can know we're friends. Now that we're friends, you should know that I really REALLY like comments. They make my day. 

 So don't be shy- say 'hi'! ( I know, my poetry is beautiful. ) 

What would you do with your gift card?

Perhaps some luxe bedding to go with your super thrifty headboard??

Images Courtesy of Pottery Barn

Go to town with their SALE items? 

Or put it towards something BIG? 

So go ahead- follow me by clicking the "follow" button on the left! Contest ends on Sunday, with a winner to be announced Monday! Can't wait to meet you!

xo,

$10 DIY Headboard

As renters, our bedroom was kinda bland. Like, embarrassingly bland. Here it is before: 

I've made a headboard for our bed before when we were living in San Francisco, but when it was time to move, our Cal King size DIY headboard was just too monstrous to move cross-country. 

I wanted to do something that would have a lot of impact for not a lot of cash, so I got a bit creative. I had some sturdy poster board from the dollar store lying around, as well as some extra trim, batting and burlap. So I taped my poster board together: 

(note- I would not use electrical tape next time since it shows through the thin burlap, just a little)

Then traced my design and cut it out with a boxcutter:

And used the cut out portion as a template for the other side, so that they were even: 

Then using spray adhesive. I patched together some batting scraps I had left over from previous projects: 

This is where it starts to look a little like Frankenstein. 

I then laid the poster board on top of the burlap and upholstered it using a regular staple gun. I folded the burlap back on itself before stapling so it had a little something to hold on to. 

Then, I secured the back together even more using some twine, hot glue and staples to create a zig zag pattern that secured all the boards together even more. 

Now, to hang it- I tried using picture hangers on some parts of the twine... not good. 

Soooo I nailed it to the wall. Haha. Well, its about as much damage as a picture hanger, and it stays flush! 

Here's the cost breakdown: 

Poster board $1 ea x 3 = $3

Burlap $2/yd x 2.5 = $5

Trim $1/yd x 2 = $2

= $10! 

Not bad! For less than a cocktail we gave our bedroom a big facelift! 

Also, want to know a secret? That trim isn't glued on- nope! I just pinned it on with straight pins. So if I want to throw out the headboard when we move, or use the trim for another project, it just comes straight off!

This is a great idea for renters, who don't want to deal with bolting a huge piece of plywood to the wall. It's light enough that a nail on each side holds her up, and cheap enough that if you don't want to carry it on to your next place, your guilt factor for just throwing it out is pretty low. 

This post linked to:
Savvy Southern Style
A Beach Cottage: Good Life Wednesday 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
A Stroll Thru Life
Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

xoxo,

How to Upholster Over a Cane Back Chair

Happy Valentine's Day! I personally had a VERY productive weekend giving some love to my free craigslist chair! My first time ever tackling upholstery turned out purty darn good, I think! You're only getting the booty shot because the front isn't done yet.

If you recall, It used to look like this:

Now, given that I pretty much just dove right in, my pictures are lacking on a how-to, but I promise I will be most descriptive.

For this project I needed:
Sturdy Cardboard- I used foam poster board from the dollar store.
A needle and thread
Superglue
Fabric of choice
Batting
Staple Gun
Exact-o Knife

First, I cut the poster board to fit inside the wood frame, over the existing caning. I cut it slightly smaller, allowing about a quarter inch gap, knowing that it would be upholstered. If your poster board doesn't fit beautifully into the curves of the space allowed (as was the case with me), you can beef it up with batting before covering the board.

Next, using your staple gun, cover the board with batting, then with your fabric of choice. If you need a tutorial on how to do this you can see my technique for covering a seat cushion here. Same concept.

Now to attaching it. If possible, choose thread that is sturdy and is a color match to your fabric. Work your way around the perimeter in small sections to sew the upholstered board through the caning and securing it on the other side with lots 'o knots and super glue. When sewing, you don't want there to be a huge stitch visible. Try to pass the needle back through as close as possible to where it came through the fabric, so you get something that looks more like ( . ) that instead of ( ------).

If there are perhaps some areas where you can still see the caning shining through, I stretched the fabric and sewed it in place to cover these up. Since I still have to tackle the front, I can take some pictures on the attaching technique. I assure you, its nothing that you can't handle. The most sewing I've ever done consisted of girl scout crafts in the 3rd grade and this turned out pretty okay! Neat!

PLEASE let me know if you have any questions about how I did something - I am mentally berating myself for lack of photographic evidence, so please let me know if you have any questions.

xo,



This Post linked back to :
Transformation Thursday and The Shabby Chic Cottage

Crafternoon Tea: 'Love Notes' Wreath How-To

As you may know, I'm hosting a Valentine's Crafternoon Tea this Sunday for some ladies, and in case you were inspired to join with us in spirit, or host on of your own, I have a printable tutorial on how to make the "Love Notes" Wreath here. When you're doing a project with a group of people, I always find its easier to have some kind of printout that everyone can reference to go at their own pace.

You can download the tutorial here:
Download the 'Love Notes' Wreath tutorial! 


happy crafting!
xo,