Thursday, December 8, 2011

Houston, We Have a Problem


Well, I realized this summer that  I had a serious problem, the hubster would argue that he knew I had a problem long before that...which one are we talking about?  The problem is, that I am a terminal DIYer.  Yes, that one.  I have a good friend who  would rather buy something than make it and thinks it is down right hi-larious that my pottery barn catalog looks like this:

I'm not alone here am I?   Hey, if you can afford it, have a ball!  But I digress.  Let us return to that summer day when this little problem was realized.  There I was, minivan loaded with loud sweaty little bodies clambering to get to the public pool when I spotted a garage sale.  I slammed on my brakes (in the middle of the road I might add -small town, not a lot of traffic, blah, blah, blah) because I had seen this little puppy sitting prominently in the middle all the tchotchkies.


 Don't hate the playa people!!!

I clamor out of my car, rush up the driveway, and of course then  feign total disinterest (heeelllo-garage sale 101!) as I take in the perfect canning and overall fantastic condition.  I calmly turn to the delightful elderly couple (who for obvious reasons are eyeing me with total suspicion-hey, I had pulled the car over to the side of the road at this point-my problem isn't that serious...yet) and guess how much....just guess!  $10 SMACKAROOS! 10!!!  I didn't even bother to try to talk them down!  I proudly took my purchase home to show the hubster.  He took one look at my beauty and said... "Seriously".  Grrrrrrrr....no imagination.  I had plans for this little lady.
Fast forward five months and she still looked exactly like this sitting in my front room.  I got a lot of "uh, babe, are you ever gonna do anything with this".   
Yes.
I took the whole thing apart (I saved all the scraps to cut new pieces of material).  I have to admit it was a little daunting.  I have never reupholstered before.
I spray painted the whole frame with Rustoleum's Heirloom White and then lightly distressed all the edges.
The button holes had to be stuffed with batting since you would be able to see them through the fabric.  I don't have a lot of pictures of the process.  Sorry, pre-bloggy days and all.
I decided to try to make the fabric look like an old grain sack (the real deal is waaaaay out of my budget) so I got to taping stripes and painting.  

Yikes, sorry for the poor lighting.  Photographer I am not

I just was not prepared to attempt piping so I picked a pretty trim that matched the chair color
and started hot gluing that sucker down.

Uh...this pic. was taken by Mr. 8 who obviously was unaware that he was supposed to crop out my lovely ensemble, yup, and better yet I think this was at, like, 2:30 in the afternoon.  No excuses.  
Anywho....Ready for the reveal....

This angle makes the stripes look crooked, they really aren't.  My sweet mom made the little bee pillow, how cute is he?

Ok.  So maybe I have a problem but with a total spent of maybe $20, it's a problem we can live with.



3 comments:

  1. I love how it turned out! I saw a chair like this, for much more money, at a consignment shop the other week and all the piping made me nervous. I didn't even THINK to just hot glue some trim on, nice work!!

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  2. Thanks for sharing your great chair makeover with us. I have a very similar chair stashed in my basement waiting for a makeover. I, too, bought it at a thrift store... for $8! You just may motivate me to do something with that chair; but not until after Christmas. Great job!

    Kim

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  3. I have been searching for a cane chair forever. Not having luck, but I am not giving up! Love how you did the stripe off center. It's divine!

    Oh, and people always look at me so diapprovingly when I tell them "I got dressed at 6" and they realize I meant PM, not AM!

    I am your newest follower!

    Jenny

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