Thursday, June 16, 2011

Upholstry, the story of a club chair.

I have been quite spacey this week and TOTALLY forgot to tell you all I shared my chair upholstry over at Cheap Chic Home on Tuesday, oops!!

Well this post will be the first in my actual "Tutorials" tab. 

Enjoy and if you have any questions at all feel free to email me.
Jenn32404@aol.com

 "what I wanted to learn  teach myself in 2011." 

It's Upholstry!!!

You see my neighbor placed this lovely club chair by the curb last spring and I just couldn't let it remain sitting there.

As you can see, I was very eager about starting this project, so a piece here and there was taken off pre-photo.

These pieces on the arms were removed first. 
Then I started a corner in the back and kept on going. 

At some point I had to cut the fabric because it was in such poor condition all it would do was start crumbling.
The only tools I used at this point were a pair of needle nose pliers...
 And a pair of wire cutters, they were great for really deep staples as the point could begin working the staple out.

once the top arm piece was removed I worked the outer sides off.
Until everything was gone

So order of removal was back, outer sides, insides, then front and back.
Notice the orange foam?? It was dry rotted, so I grabbed a bag of rolled batting to fill in over the springs.
removed the dry rotted orange foam.

Then I laid out all my saved pieces and used them as my pattern to cut the new pieces.
Laid out the new batting
I knew the arms would be fairly difficult so after cutting the front and tucking it in I began with the inner arms. 
**note to get the fabric to tuck into the bottom cushion and on the sides sometimes you will need to sit on the chair with your knee's to depress the springs and work the fabric to the back of the chair.

Then Grab your stapler, (I don't think an electric is a must but it surely helped!!) and don't forget to notch your curves so the fabric will lay flat.
This is notching.
 On the outside pieces I flipped the fabric right sides together and began stapling from the underneath side, from time to time I used the hammer to work some of the more stubborn staples in.
Then I pulled a staple or two out and began on the arm.
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Lesson 1. this is TRULY a trial and error process!!

On the front seat I laid the fabric out and placed pins along the front corners of the chair to sew a very simple 6 " dart for better fitting.
Don't forget to cut excess fabric out before you attach to chair. 
Then you simply attach in the back of the chair 

Work your back piece on.

**note:When taking the chair apart I kept all the card board sheets and metal sheets I found inside the chair.

Here is where you will need to use some of the interior metal stripping, if any.

The big long pieces I used along the sides in the back of the chair; this added the nice straight line to make the fabric pull taught!!

Then sit back and admire your creation!!

Upholstry took patience and being able to walk away from the project for a while.

I came by the next day with a fresh mind and ready to work. 

Took me 4 days in all working about 2-3 hrs a day. 

And... saving me the $375.00 someone quoted me to upholster it!!!

Deal!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011


Wanna join me under this deligtful umbrella?

And dear heavens!! I would love to have buschels of these heavenly peonies.


Uh!!! in the words of Mary Poppins: "Pratically perfect in every way!!"
It's true.. I am positively completely and utterly Obsessed with Pinterest!!!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Ikat get enough!!!!















I must find a way to incorporate some of this amazing fabric into my life. #justsayin'

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Travel Thursday's First Ed. Disney World

 I have been waiting for some time now to come up with a series I will be really excited to share.
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Throughout my life I have been VERY fortunate to travel quite a few places.

I always see people talking about the trips (on blogs) they ARE going on and I think well.... we have a little one and just aren't traveling alot right now. But I have traveled, and I want to share with y'all some of the amazing places I have been able to see.

First thing is first.

My uncle lived in Orlando for the greater part of 20 years. He worked for the school system and as a perk often got tickets to Disney, so naturally we would visit and that would be our "outing." With that being said; I have been to disney 15 times in my life and this will be my 16th time to go this summer.

But, you see this summer is special, I get to see Disney through a child, my child's eyes. 

For a awhile there Mickey and Minnie kinda lost their luster; but not this time. We are hoping to go full force!!
This is disney 2005, for a few years this is how we hit the parks... Mainly Wide World of Sports.

Our last trip to disney is one I went on with Casey's family in the fall before we got engaged. Fall 2007




We had a great time doing "big kid" stuff. So I have had to do a tad bit of research to figure out what the "best" rides for the little one's are. 

I was severely disappointed to discover Magic Kingdom no longer has Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (my favorite ride from childhood) oh well. 

Without further adieu here is our tentative itinerary for Disney 2011.

Sunday : arrive in Orlando around lunchtime, spend the afternoon by the pool then hit up
Downtown Disney for Dinner
via weheartit
 via google
Monday:Supercalifragillistic Breakfast at the wonderful Grand Floridian Resort.
 via disneyworld.com
 The grand-jour of this hotel mystified me as a child and I can't wait to see the look on Lil' bit's face when we get here.
 via disneyworld.com
hopefully our first encounter with the character's is a pleasant one. 
(keep your fingers crossed)

After breakfast we will head to Magic Kingdom and thanks to our customized map disney sent in the mail we will know right where we are going the whole time!!
You input your "must do" rides and you can choose to either print on your own or have them mail a map to you. 
We received the fanciest envelope, and I think receiving this in the mail added to the magic of disney and further excited lil bit about our trip.

the envelope looks like this when it arrives in the mail.

After a busy morning of spinning tea cups we will head to the most magical lunch of all.
 Cinderella's Royal Table!!
Via disneyworld.com

And after lunch we will retire for an afternoon nap, after all our little princess isn't quite 3 and will surely need to rest.

Next Thursday I will map out Tuesday-Friday of our trip.

Disclaimer: for those of you who think I am crazy for posting when we will be out of town online please know I have put more thought into who will be at my house, how long they will be there, and the frequency of their coming and going than I have put time into planning this trip. If someone even thinks they are going to break into my house know... I have like 10-15 ppl coming and going by while we are out of town. So there... they will think we are having parties the whole time we are gone. haha.



Monday, June 6, 2011

Purple Room Part 2

I wanted y'all to get a true feel for the room, so I used the video setting on my iphone to do a video tour of the room.

Notice the bedding isn't done yet??

Well look below... it is now;)



Be back later to share the deets on the curtains.
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Let's just say a fellow blogger inspired the whole entire thing.
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Like... I uhh kinda, well totally copy-cated. But to an extent isn't that what decor blogging is all about? Inspiring other ppl and their projects??

Well in this instance that is what I am telling myself;)

Ps. Damask fabric is Little House Lilac by Annette Tatum
Bedding is Shabby Chic line at Target.. =complete LOVE
Shams will eventually be made out of the damask fabric to incorporate the look a little more.
Wall color is a Valspar paint, I will go look it up for you!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Purple Room

Okay sooo when we "started" to do lil bit's big girl room we kinda skimped on a few things.
1. her walls were the color of her nursery
2. the bedding for the full size bed was twin size bedding
3. I only decorated with things already in the house

Once AC started talking she informed me she LURVED the color "purtle" aka purple. 
well for the first few weeks of 2011 Casey was out of town with work and I promised her once he returned we would paint her walls.
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Fast forward to June??

(taking me longer to do things these days)
The bedding is still no where near finished but we have worked on a few things.
before:
now:
no footboard, new wall color.
at closer look notice the janky bedskirt??
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It is now much more pronounced since we removed the footboard from her room.
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remember the vintage paper doll plates I made?
{over the bed}
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I still love them but I felt the room needed more a pop.
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For christmas I asked for the Barbie skectch calendar
{ have a slight obsession with barbie}
One day I decided to use the images from the calendar to frame over AC's bed.


Shortly after getting all of my favorite's framed I found this photo.
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Apparently another decorator was inspired by this calendar too.

{via pinterest}

I also managed to find the postcards to put in some frames.



So I think we can consider this part 1 finished. The walls painted, wall decor figured out and tomorrow I will share the bedding and the curtains. 

Oh.. and from the previous post I am sure you have noticed the reading nook is complete.

Dont forget to click to the next post and see how the curtains and bedding turned out.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Painting

Soo.... if you think about it today; say a little creativity prayer for me.
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I am hoping to use this as my inspiration for the main focal point on the screened in porch. 

hope to have a reveal for you guys sometime soon.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Anniversary Countdown

Usually I am not one to countdown to stuff.
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Wait.. who are we kidding I countdown to everything.
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With that being said the hub's is taking me on my dream date this friday night to celebrate 3 unbelievably fantastic years together. 
I found this dress while still working at JCrew.
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I am so glad I got the dress while I did because all colors are sold out now except for the black.
So I will wear this cute dress in white and we will head downtown for dinner at the Majestic Grill

Their food is divine!!

We will leave there; and after 5 years of knowing my husband; we will FINALLY watch Breakfast at Tiffany's together. 

Our local theater does a summer movie series and the first movie starts this weekend. 

I think one of my favorite things about our marriage is the give and take. 
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I watch baseball/softball during the week and when a series is on we catch that too.
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Then you know we watch Sarah's House and he humors me by letting me read all of your lovely blogs to him and showing him your lovely homes. 
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You know.. the little things.. ;)