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.

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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!

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Removable Chalkboard

I know that chalkboards have been done over and over again, but I didn't jump on the bandwagon until now. I'm not really sure why I waited so long because I love it!! At the end of a row of cabinets in the kitchen, there is an empty wall and I knew it was a perfect place to have one. Our cabinets are laminate (boo) so I wasn't sure how well chalkboard paint would work and I also wasn't sure how the hubby would like it (he does!) so I wanted something that would work on laminate and could be easily removed in case he hated it. I then stumbled upon a post on Irma's blog where she used chalkboard contact paper - brilliant!

I went right to amazon.com and ordered a roll for myself.

My cabinet width was 24" and the contact paper is 18" so I measured 3" on each side (24-18=6/2=3) to center the roll. I also cut it to 30" tall and eyeballed how high I wanted it to go.

I carefully peeled off a few inches from the top and placed it down.

Then, unpeeling a few inches of the backing at a time, I carefully smoothed all the bubbles out. I first tried using a credit card, but I found it made tiny little nicks so I just used my hand.

After it's up, you have to prime the chalkboard by rubbing a piece of chalk on its side across the entire surface. Erase the chalk and then it's ready to use.

To dress it up a little, I wanted to put a frame of moulding around it. I took a picture on my phone of the moulding around the doorway of the kitchen so I could find something similar at Lowes. I came home with a pre-primed piece that looked great. Even though it was primed already, you should still sand down to make a perfectly smooth surface.

I did a few coats of spray paint before cutting it down and then another couple after to cover up any scratches that occurred while cutting.

I haven't quite gotten over my fear of power tools so I'm still using a miter box, but it really wasn't so bad cutting all the angles. It just took about 200 times longer than if I had a compound miter saw. Oh well...

This vinyl adhesive caulk worked great for attaching all the sides together.

I don't have any clamps either, so some frog tape came in handy keeping the pieces together until it dried. (Just a word of advice - even though it says you can paint after two hours, that doesn't mean it's actually dry after two hours so do yourself a favor and leave it overnight. Just saying.... :-)

My favorite way to temporarily hang something up is by using the amazing Command strips.

Just four sets of these velcro strips and it's not going anywhere!

Make sure to use a level so you know it's straight. And if it's not, it's as easy as pie to adjust it!

Now I've got a great memo board / message spot / menu / shopping list / etc. etc. that the whole family can see when we go in and out of the kitchen! Love it!

Do you also write like a third grader whenever a piece of chalk ends up in your hand, or is it just me?

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Painted Front Door Reveal

Now for the long-delayed follow-up to the original door painting post! I forgot to mention previously, the the last two steps I took before the actual painting was wiping the door down with a tack cloth (man, are those things sticky!) and using a liquid deglosser as a final step to making the door ready to paint (much easier and cleaner than actually sanding).

The painting took most of one whole Sunday. I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra (paint + primer in one) so I knew I would have better coverage than using regular paint, but I was not still not super-impressed with the coverage, more on that later.

I would have loved to replace all the hardware on the door since with some Oil Rubbed Bronze ones but it was not in the plans for now. The door knocker screw is painted over on the other side so I couldn't take it off and I was too nervous to spray paint it all. You can see that the originals are weathered and discolored.

I have seen many bloggers use Rub n Buff so I thought that might be a good temporary solution to freshen up the brassy color. It took me a few minutes, but then I got the hang of it. I squeezed some out onto a paper towel and just rubbed it around everywhere until it was looking nice and shiny. Again, gold would not have been my first choice, but since the locks were already that color I was definitely the budget-friendly color to choose.

Here's the full view from the inside. I love the burst of color when the door is open!

And here is the door from the outside. I think the color really pops off the red bricks. From the outside there's gold door fixtures, nickel storm door fixtures and ORB light and mailbox. Color overload anyone? In due time we'll change them to be consistent throughout.

Here's a full house view.

Just to remind you, here's the house with the old white dingy door.

Major improvement!!

I didn't intend for this to turn into a product review and I'm certainly not getting perked for anything, but I just wanted to share two things with you. First, Purdy paint brushes are a-ma-zing! I left the paintbrush in the paint tray wrapped in a plastic bag for over a week because I was too lazy to clean it up after spending all day painting. I was really nervous that the paint would be caked on and I'd have to throw away the brush, but every last bit of paint washed out. I was so happy!! This is the paint brush after sitting over a week in dried out red paint. I don't know if it was because it was wrapped in plastic or a combination of it being an amazing brush, but either way I am very pleased.

Now for the paint on the other hand... I paid a little more money to get the paint and primer in one because Behr claims that it has superior coverage and stain blocking.

Uh, not so much. This is after four coats of paint: You can still see scuff marks towards the bottom of the door. I think they are mostly from knocking the stroller tires into the door, but I was disappointed that four coats of paint did not cover them. I ended up doing 6 coats in certain areas and you can still seem them if you're looking. I was surprised because we've always used Behr paint and have never had a problem before so I don't know what happened this time around. Just wanted to give you all a heads-up about that.

So tell me what you've been up to! What brands of exterior pant have you had luck with? Anyone else have neighbors comment on their door colors?

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