I'm a bit of a fabric whore

and I cannot WAIT to put THIS gorgeous gray ikat linen ( found here on etsy)

 onto these:

This is about my 3rd fabric purchase in 1 week. Our little secret, k?

xo,

Margaret

I'm Blue da ba de ba da doo...

Do you remember that song from Eiffel 65? In case you're looking for something to get stuck in your head for EVER:

Hi guys, 

Thanks for bearing with me the other day. Perhaps I was taking out my "blue" mood is some subconcious freudian way this weekend, because someone *rasies hand* went a little nuts with the color blue in the master bedroom. Or should I call it the master BLUE room. No? Ok. Well- see what I mean:

 Here's a close-up of those curtains.

 I have been eyeing this fabric for EVAH and this weekend I stumbled upon it at my favorite discount fabric store, Boca Bargoons Fabric Outlet, on 20th street in Boca Raton. Where it was $21 a yard after their 40% off everything sale that they always seem to have going on. Sooo...  This is a splurge for me, considering that curtains generally require 6+ yards, but in my mind, sooo worth it. Our room was threatening to win the world cup in beige-ness.

Here's a peek before:

ew. 

Here's after I made my $10 DIY Headboard

 Ah, much better. Now to add some pops of color! 

I'm a sucker for indigo. I'm an indigo girl.

I made those drapes, BTW. With my buddy, Mr. Sewing Machine. You can see that only one has the blackout lining done because I am lazy, and that first one was a BIIIITCH. 

Also that bedskirt is probably one of the more genius thing's I've ever done. I was going to actually MAKE a full on bedskirt with like, measuring and adhesion and stuff,  so I tucked my fabric in and around the box spring bedskirt-style to see how I liked it, and guess what happened? It stayed there. New home. New bedskirt, no sewing. Bam! Which is just as well since I'm not totally sold on the fabric. Too matchy-matchy? 

Dirty secret: Only my side and the foot of my Cal-king size bed has a skirt, since I folded my 4 yd piece in half.  Zach's side is nekkid. Shh!!! I don't think he's noticed yet.

Anyhoo- temporary/easy-to-take with me and not getting locked into anything is the name of the game these days. Which is why I decided to make my purty fabric into drapes instead of locking into a piece of upholstery.

I even kept an extra 4 inches at the bottom of each curtain and just basted the hem so that if we go somewhere that needs longer drapes, I can just let out the seam! 

In any case I'm glad that we are no longer in the running for the "Bedroom that looks most like the inside of a milk carton contest".

Did I mention I like indigo?

How to upholster over a cane back chair: Take two!

This method is seriously a big-time improvement.

 Before we begin, some notes and reflections: 

Reflection #1: Really take the time to cut your fabric as close as possible to where you want it to go. Trying to trim off the excess like a pie crust after you've glued it is pretty difficult. Plus, you've got fraying to contend with. 

Get your materials together: Batting, glue gun (glue gun sticks, obvi), Fabric and spray adhesive if you have it. 

I put two layers of batting down, using the spray adhesive to hold it in place while I worked. 

Then, cut your fabric as close to size as you can, and begin to hot glue it around the edges. My method for this is put the glue as close to the edge, directly onto the caning and carefully place your fabric over it. 

And it should look generally like this. 

Easy, right?! 

Now just add your trim of choice and you are done on the back! 

The front is just exactly the same thing. 

Two layers of batting, hot glue and fabric. The secret is to trim trim trim before gluing to get a really good fit. 

I have it shown here without trim so you can see. The batting really gives it a nice comfy-lookin' poof doesn't it?

Ah, sweet success! 

Does this not look wonky?

Well, it totally does, right? Gaaah! I tried to do the stretched canvas approach, whereby I streched the fabric across the opening on the back and stapled it in place, and used the gimp trim to cover up the staples. Bad idea. 

So, I cast that chair aside (for now) and focused my attentions on my pretty distressed gray chair of the set. Yes, this one chair is different from the rest of the set. I was in an experimenting mood. Don't judge me! 

I love how this gray chair turned out. The patina is just too pretty for me to paint over to just plain white. So I kept it. And decided to try another method for upholstering the back since the caned back was busted through. 

Oh, hey, what's that? Yeah. Totally looks like a chair. An awesome chair. Woot woot.

It's not trimmed, but is this not so much better? Forget what I said about using cardboard to upholster over a caned back. Well, no, don't forget it. You could still use it for simple shapes, but this is WAY easier when you have a fancy shape that you need to get exactly freaking right or else it just looks like it belongs on the short bus. Like this guy: 

Blerg. Anyone know how to remove trim that's been hot glued on? Anyone?

I'm working on the full tutorial on how to make your upholstered caned back NOT suck, but the gist of it is: 

You need batting,  your fabric, scissors and a glue gun and that is it. 

If you've got spray adhesive it makes things that much easier for you. I used staples at first. no. don't do that. Not necessary. Glue gets it so much more precise every. single. time.

P.S. The wonk-ified chair is the back to my ikat upholstered french chairs! I'm totally gonna do it, you guys. I have 3 of 4 chairs in various states of non-matching-ness, so I really ought to quit typing and start upholstering.

Toodles!

xo,
Margaret

Crafting Kabosh

Man, the crafting Gods really don't want me to get anything done today! Seriously, I was all crazy nervous about doing these chairs, and I finally got up the guts to start, and it was just not happening, folks. The method I wanted to use, that I used for this chair:

did NOT work for these. 

Cause of the fancy-schmacy back, I couldn't get the poster board cut quite right. So. Where does that leave us?

STAPLES!

Now, I've never used a stapler to upholster onto a frame, it's mostly been just upholstering around a cushion, but I know that the manual ones would kill your hand in 10 seconds flat. So I borrowed an electric one from my father- in-law, who has pretty much every tool known to man, and it was MISSING A PART. GAAH! 

Buzzkill.

Don't you just HAAAAATE when you get the balls/time/all the rest of the materials to do a project and the roadblocks crop up?

Anyway. Now I am sitting on my ass, giving my unfinished chairs a death stare and grumbling. Good story, right?

I fart on staple guns.

All I want to do is put 

THIS. 

onto THESE

grumble. 

Thanks for taking this ranting journey with me. 

On the bright side, I am going to cajole my hubs into getting me sushi take out for dinner tonight! 

Sweet, sweet consolation. 

Your grumbling, sushi-eating pal, 

Margaret

Perfect Fabric Happy Dance!

As this title suggests- I found the perfect ikat for my french dining chairs. Whee! 

My needs were simple, yet the search was extensive and HARD. I went through dozens, literally dozens of samples. Ordered swatches online, waited impatiently for then to arrive, then I compared, scrutinized and compared again. Narrowed it down only to realize that the fabrics I selected were $30/yd. Yeah, no. 

I considered scrapping the idea once or twice. 

And then yesterday my swatches from LS Fabrics showed up. And this beaut was among them: 

 Me: "oOOooh!" This could work...

OH! This is it! Yes! Yes! Yes! 

I sprint to my computer, whip open the screen, type the URL feverishly only to find ....

SON OF A....

I started praying and googling at the same time that I could find this PERFECT fabric. Well, I did. Except it was $44/yd. Yeah, no.  So I did what any mature adult would do. Spent the next 12 hours grumbling. 

But never fear, friends. There is a light at the end of that tunnel. Because TODAY I found this: 

From Tallahassee Decorative Fabrics

*Insert Liz Lemon manic laughter* I BEAT YOU, LS FABRICS! I WIN! AND FOR $1 less! HA! 

Anyhoo, I ordered it and now I am mucho excited.

The End. 

xo,

Chair Redesign HELP Needed!

Here's the thing. I have this set of four chairs. I got them because we had no chairs when we moved into our apartment in December 2010. The chairs are not bad, really. As a matter of fact I think a lot of people like them; I like them too. BUT I have a feeling that my dining room is taking a turn for the worldly- eclectic thing instead of the shabby chic french thing. My dining set is VERY fransch (thats 'french' with an accent) shabby chic. 

Should I redo the chairs in keeping with the french style and try to sell them all together as a set and start over from scratch? Or should I try to upholster them and make them more... current. My fear is if I try a bold pattern like ikat or chevron, they'll wind up looking puke-tastic.  Like peppy le pew in a cowboy hat. Doesn't work. He's french. They don't do that. Also, funny story. These chairs have been repainted 2 times now( in 4 months) because I can't figure out what the heck I want to do with them. See? I am nuts. Seriously. Head problems over here, people. 

white

gray 

My inspiration that tells me maybe, just maybe I can pull this crazy crap off : 

see? doesn' t that look so good?!

I should note that I plan on upholstering the caned back too... 

Here are some fabric choices I am considering: 

Are we noticing a trend here? Textural but still soft. 

What do you think? Honestly. But be nice to my poor muddled brain. I have no flippin' idea. I need help from all your fantastic designy-ness. 

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,

$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,