April 05, 2011

In Over My Head

April 05, 2011/ Michelle Scheibe

Have you watched that show on HGTV called “Over Your Head”? If not, it’s a show where a professional from HGTV saves someone from a DIY disaster.

Wonder if they have this show for furniture disasters?

I purchased this chair at the Salvation Army for $7...

The lady in line behind me was purchasing a book about Leonard DiCaprio. Her son (probably about 10 years old) kept asking if Leo was dead. Man, I feel old.

Who got the better deal....me or DiCaprio book lady?? The verdict is still out.

I knew this chair was going to be more difficult than other chairs I have tackled because it’s a wingback. It was just too pretty to pass up and I was feeling pretty adventurous that day. I figured that I’d only be out $7 if it didn’t work out.

I brought it home and tried to tear it apart…..it was hard. This chair is a beast. I usually tackle furniture projects on my own but I called in reinforcement on this one…in the form of Nate.

He used his man powers to start ripping off the 100000 million trillion staples….this chair was upholstered well. He ripped most of it off and told me I was on my own with my craziness. Seems fair.

After removing the fabric from the seat cushion, I left the project like this…

I need some time to recuperate. We already have about 30 minutes of destroying time in this chair. I’m excited to sand and prime the chair but I’m extremely nervous about reupholstering it. I have found some decent tutorials on-line and will give it a shot next week-end…which means this post is….to be continued!

Have you tackled something that was “over your head”? How’d it turn out?

Have you reupholstered a wing back chair? Any tips?

Do you think the Leonardo DiCaprio book lady got a better deal? It's okay. I can take it...

April 04, 2011

Loving Lowe’s and Crown Molding

April 04, 2011/ Michelle Scheibe

Last Friday morning we opened our e-mails to find this…

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Nate that I would like to start on crown molding in a few rooms. He laughed at me and told me “Good Luck with that.”

A week later he brought me an ad in the Sunday paper and wanted to know what I thought of the crown molding. I love planting “thought seeds” that grow beautifully.

With our coupons in hand, we headed off to the molding section of Lowe’s that night…

Unfortunately some man beat us to the molding we wanted and took all but three 8 foot boards. They had 12 foot boards in the same style…unfortunately 12 foot boards don’t fit well in a Jeep Liberty. I tried staring the man down hoping he would move on and leave us the boards…but it didn’t work..and Nate was embarrassed.

We did decide to purchase the three remaining boards (and a few cleaning supplies) that night and come back for the 12 foot boards the next day. On the receipt of that purchase was another $10 of $50 coupon. Bonus!

We loaded the 8 foot boards up in my Jeep and called it a night…

We returned on Saturday and purchased our remaining boards and made the slow 15 mile journey home with 12 foot boards hanging out the back of Nate’s parents’ truck…on a nice and windy Iowa day.

We purchased $200.00 worth of crown molding. Using the 4 coupons (2 web coupons and 2 store receipt coupons), we saved $40. The $200.00 worth of molding should complete our dining room, master bedroom, and office. Crown molding is expensive but we feel it is a good investment…especially since we saved $40 on molding we planned to purchase anyways. This project will be our main house expense for April…and probably May.

And most importantly….here’s the style we picked out…

We’re excited to learn how to install crown molding and see how it looks in our rooms….but unfortunately it’s still tax season so this project will need to wait a few more weeks!

Any experience with crown molding? Any tips?

What’s your favorite big box DIY store? We’re Lowe’s fans…mainly because of this and frequent coupons!