Upholstered Bench

Hey all! I know I've sort of fell of the face of the blogosphere for a while, but that doesn't mean I've stopped DIYing. I have a bunch of projects to share with you, it's just taken me a while to get my act together. Here's one of the projects I recently completed for my sister.

My brother's next-door neighbor was giving away this bench from her grandmother for free and my sister quickly snatched it up. She wanted something to put at the foot of her bed in her new house and this was perfect because she knew she had someone me to fix it up.

As you can tell, it had definitely seen better days, but it has great lines and I love the little key hole detail. 

I did a little research when I saw the manufacturer's label on the inside of the lid. It turns out that the company was started in 1907 and was the first company in the US to manufacture cedar chests. How cool!

My sister and I went to JoAnn and picked out this gorgeous fabric. (Unfortunately, I gave her the rest of what I didn't use so I don't know the name offhand.)

I took the lid off the chest and with some 2" foam and batting, I turned it into a comfortable spot to sit down and put your shoes on every morning.

There are a bazillion upholstery tutorials around so here's just a quick rundown: Lay the fabric upside down, then batting, then foam, then bench seat upside down. First staple the batting, pulling tight and then staple the fabric, making sure there are no wrinkles or too-tight areas.

Also, make sure to cut around where you need to screw the bench seat back into the base.

This is what it should look like when you're finished:

And flipped over:

The next step was to work on the base. I used my new orbital sander (thanks Dad!) and it was ah-ma-zing. Never will I go back to sanding by hand!

Then I used some tinted primer (left over from this project) and gave it two thin coats. I didn't want any of the wood to bleed through.

I brought the fabric to Home Depot and had them color match the gray in the fabric and they really did an amazing job. Two coats of paint later and it was done!

My sister really wanted their family initial on the front so I asked a friend of mine who does vinyl decals to whip something up for her. I measured the center of the bench and marked it off with Frog tape to make sure that I knew exactly where to place the letter.

It took a couple minutes for me to figure out the best way to apply it since I had never worked with vinyl before, but once I figured it out it went on very easily. (Hint: do not remove the entire thing from the backing at once - do it in sections!)

Here it is all finished:

I think it's a tie of who loves it more - I or my sister :-)

Tell me what you think! Have you ever had paint color matched to fabric before? This was my first time and I'm definitely going to do it again.

Linking up: 
twelveOeight | Home Stories A to Z | House on the Way | House of Hepworths | The 36th Avenue | Craftionary | Serenity Now | DIY Showoff | Miss Mustard Seed |

Stenciled Coffee Table

I belong to a Facebook group of moms in my neighborhood where people post anything from suggestions for plumbers to advice on child raising. Not too long ago, someone asked if anyone was interested in redoing a coffee table for her. Of course I jumped at the chance! We don't know each other (though we have a few mutual friends) so I was surprised that she took me up on my offer.

Here's a sneak peek at the final product (I photoshopped the background out since I don't have a picture of it in its final spot, only in my junked up basement work area).

The coffee table was in pretty bad shape to start with. I'm not sure how much of it was original to the piece and how much was added on after the fact.

You can see from some of these close-ups that I had my work cut out for me!

I spent a loooong time sanding it down. It was not easy! The woman gave me a belt sander (which I have never used before) and man, are those things heavy! But it got the job done, that's for sure.

The next step was two coats of gray primer. Since she wanted black as the base coat, I figured that a tinted primer would make the job easier.  I used a sample size of black paint (because it's a small surface) and did two coats of that also.

The woman bought this Indian Inlay stencil (from Cutting Edge Stencils) that she wanted me to use on the surface. Now, when she originally told me that she wanted it stenciled, I thought it was one of those sheets that you just use a roller across. You know what they say when you assume... This particular stencil comes with five separate pieces! Please don't believe it when it says that this is a beginner level stencil. Each strip has to be measured and centered so you don't end up with half a design when you get to a corner and want them to meet up.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed working on this project, but it took many, many hours.

Here's a close up where you can see some of the imperfections (that naturally go along with stenciling). I used the same foam stencil brushes that I used on my book crate, with different size brushes depending on the size of the stencil. As a final step, I put a few layers of a satin polycrylic to protect all my hard work.

And here it is in its finished state:

I think it came out great, even though not everything is perfect or exactly centered.

And my new facebook friend loved it so much, she asked me to do another project with her dining room table! Woohoo! Do you have any favorite stencil tips or tricks? Please share!

Linking up:
Home Stories A to Z |  House on the Way | Craftionary | Miss Mustard Seed | Beneath My Heart | Serenity Now | House of Hepworths |

IKEA Rast Hack

After I finished my daughter's night table, I couldn't leave out my son so he got a dresser of his own also. I started out with a plain IKEA rast dresser.

I got the inspiration for this from the lovely blog Aubrey and Lindsay. I really liked what she did, but I wanted to make it a little more masculine for my big boy. First I assembled the dresser, but did not insert the drawers. I used Miniwax's Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner because it was the first time I was staining something, I wasn't sure how great the IKEA wood was, and I wanted it to come out good the first time around so I wanted all the help I could get. After following the instructions on the can, I stained the frame of the dresser - top, sides, and toe kick on the bottom - with Miniwax stain in Dark Walnut. I wanted a really deep, rich color and I got it after using two coats.

In the meantime, I primed and painted the drawer fronts white and then brushed on two coats of poly to help it stand up to the wear and tear it would get from a precocious little boy. After they dried, I switched out the plain wooden knobs for the glira knobs, also from IKEA.

And here it is all complete! I really love how it came out and it's great because it's a piece that can grow with him and last for many years.

  

This is another shot of the dresser with some of his favorite thing - books with Billy book-end, mr. fix-it picture frame and fire engine charity box.

 

 

Night Table

While I wait for the tree company to return and grind the stumps before I post some "after" pictures of the yard, I'd like to share another fun furniture project I recently completed.  This time I worked on re-finishing a night table for my daughter.

I had been looking all around for one, but was unsuccessful finding something that was the look and size I was going for. Enter in my mom, who happened to have a plain wooden night table (still in the box) that was the perfect victim piece for me to test out some new skills.

This isn't a true "before" picture since I forgot to take one, but this is basically what it looked like.

 

After assembling it, I sanded it down to remove the glossy-like finish to it and then used some white latex primer and two coats of white paint that we had lying around. I used a brush, but I think in the future I would like to experiment with a small foam roller because that seems to be the latest technique that people have been successful with.

It still needed "something" so I went to Anthropologie and got a pink crystal pull to replace the plain one it came with. It is the same one I used for her desk because even though they aren't in the same room now, it is highly likely that they will end up that way. 

But it still wasn't finished yet...  I went to Michael's and got some scrapbook paper to modge podge onto the sides and drawer front. Now we're talking!

Needless to say, my daughter loved it and has already filled the drawer with her "treasures"!

Linking up here:

My First DIY Project

My first DIY furniture makeover was a desk for my daughter. I knew that she would need a desk to do her homework on and we really didn't have a good spot for her to do that. I had been reading blogs for a while and seeing all these amazing transformations of ugly, dingy furniture that had a Cinderella-like transformation and I thought to myself, "Hey, I can do that, too!"

So here's what I started with:

These are the photos from the Craigslist posting, so excuse the size/quality. It was $15 and the woman who was selling it included the chair also. It didn't match the desk, but I knew that with a little paint, I could make that less obvious.

After a deep sanding job - check out the scratches on the surface! - and a coat of primer, it was starting the look a little better. I admit that the curvy detailings of the desk legs were a bit of a challenge for a first timer (I think I would use spray paint in the future) but it was all a learning process! Two coats of white paint later, the desk and chair looked as good as new!

I got a pull from Anthropologie to replace the plain wooden one and that really glammed it up. For the chair, I had to be a little more creative. There was no cushion or fabric that I could just recover and I didn't want my princess to have to sit on a hard chair. So I went to JoAnn and got a piece of foam, batting, and some cute polka-dot fabric.

Sorry I don't have any in-progress shots, but I did this before I even considered having my own blog. I unscrewed the seat from the chair and put it upside down over the foam. I then traced around it and cut off the excess foam. If the seat would have been flat, I could have laid them both over the batting, but as you can see, there is quite a bit of a curve so I had to glue the foam to the seat so it wouldn't keep popping off. Once that was dry, I laid the batting on the floor and put the upside-down seat on top. I kept about a 1 1/2" border and cut off the extra batting. Then I stapled the batting to the underside of the seat, pulling fairly tight, but not too tight that the curve of the seat would disappear.

I did that some process with the fabric - laying it upside down, cutting off excess around seat, leaving a small border and then stapling it on the under side of the chair. I did the corners like you would do the corners of a present, and then cut off any bulky sections where the screws needed to go. The final step of the chair was screwing it back on to the frame and voila!

The inside of the drawer was pretty nasty so I wanted to do something about that. I couldn't believe it when I walked into Target and found polka-dotted wrapping paper that matched the chair fabric perfectly! It was a bit difficult to work with because it is thinner than scrapbook paper so I had to use very thin layers of modge podge, but I (and my daughter) think it came out great!

My husband and I decided that we should invest in a glass top to protect the surface and it was a great idea. The rounded corners added a bit to the price, but it was definitely worth it. My husband's friend works in the glass business, so he came out to the house and made a template so the size was perfect. Now my daughter is able to slip her favorite drawings underneath the glass and switch them out when she wants to. We also picked out some storage boxes for some of her "treasures."

First DIY project = success! What do you think?

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Our Fifth House