Decorating With the Dog- Tip #2

When deciding on the best fabric choice…it’s best to sleep on it…

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Read Tip #1 here!

***Ike and I would like to thank the following blogs for their nice "shout outs" to our newbie blog...
NewlyWoodwards, Relatively Unique, and DDZine.  Thank you so much for sharing our little spot in the blogosphere with your readers!!  Seeing our blog mentioned in your posts made us smile...a lot...both of us.***

Enjoy your week-end!!

How to Make a Chair Pretty Again

If you’ve been wondering how I did this....


….you are in luck today!
(That’s my nod to St. Patrick’s day….weak…).

On a side note….Nate refuses to wear green today.  Mainly because he knows it irritates me.  We go through this every St. Patrick's day...husbands.


Maybe I’ll change the font to green to honor the occasion….

Here we go with the chair make-over....

Step 1: Flip the chair over and unscrew the seat cushion…I forgot to take a picture of this during the before….baby blog steps…

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You now have 2 pieces..the chair and cushion…

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Step 2: Remove the lovely fabric from cushion.  This involves removing/loosening 100 staples or tiny upholstery nails.

I usually don’t bring these nasty chairs into my house until I’m done with them because I don’t know what is living in them…
but I was living on the edge with this one…I figured vinyl was safe….and I had an investigator checking for any problems...

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Step 3:  Use the nasty old fabric as a template for your new cover.  Cut fabric.

Step 4: Staple new fabric onto cushion.  Try not to staple the dog...

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Step 5: Clean, sand, prime, and paint the chair. (Read more detailed instructions here.)

I spray painted this chair because it had a lot of nooks and crannies. This was the first furniture piece that I used spray paint on.

After sanding, I started with the first coat of Kilz primer. 
I'm not sure if I didn't sand enough or if I was too impatient with the primer but it ran...A LOT.  I let it dry, sanded down the drips, and started over.

I learned that it’s important to do a nice, thin, even coat…then check a few blogs, do some laundry, take a nap, and then do another nice, even coat…or two. 
Patience is a virtue...one that I do not possess.  So this was hard.

Spray painting is nice though because each step is quick.  I have the attention span of a gerbil so this project ended up being perfect for me. 

After the primer, I did 2 coats of spray paint and let the chair dry.


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Step 6: Screw the cushion back onto the chair and you’re done. 

I told you it was easy. 

Any questions???

More importantly, do you have a significant other/family member/friend who is also a fun hater on this day of green?

Kitchen Island Bead Board- How To

This is what our kitchen looked like in January of 2010.

DIY Tutorial Bead Board Kitchen

Bland.  The island needed something…and that something was bead board!

How to add bead board to an island
How to add bead board to an island

How’d we do it?

(We did this prior to blogging.  I apologize for the lack of pictures!)

  • We purchased beaded tongue and groove boards from Menards.
    • We had originally planned to buy a sheet of bead board but neither of us was crazy about the look of the sheet.  We preferred more of the classic tongue and groove look.
    • Nate cut the boards (using a miter saw) to match the height of island.
    • I primed and painted all of the boards before we hung them.
    • We started on one end and nailed each board on top and bottom (and we used extra nails everywhere there was a stud for extra stability). Once a board was fully nailed we joined the next board and repeated until the corner.
    • On the corners, we cut off the rounded edge of the groove..which left a little gap that we filled with a dowel rod and some caulk to simulate the bead. Easy disguise! (Looks like we need to re-caulk!)
DIY tutorial bead board kitchen
  • We used window casing on the bottom in place of traditional trim and a decorative trim piece to cover nail holes on top.
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DIY Tutorial kitchen bead board
  • I then filled in the nail holes and painted the edges.
  • And wah-lah, a pretty island.

Neither of us remembers the cost but it was pretty inexpensive.

 

Tips to add bead board to a kitchen island!.jpg

Made any inexpensive upgrades in your kitchen?

 

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