FAB-U-LESS

I recently got the opportunity to meet a wondeful and talented woman who, along with her husband, is opening a store in Akron for local artists and artisans.  She has her own design business and her husband has his own framing business (I think they might be my biological parents! haha) and they will be running both of those out of this building.  More of that later when it's more clear what will pan out.

I met with her this week and she took me to a fabric warehouse for a company located in this area.  When I say warehouse, I mean a fully stocked warehouse-sized building FULL of fabric.  We shopped the heck outta the clearance center where, wait for it....the fabric was $3 a yard!!! I bought 10 :)

Here it is all piled up in the corner ready for action!

Excellent!!

Chair-ity Work

Boy, do I have my hands full! This is just half of the 8 chairs I have sitting around, waiting for some lovin'.  The other 4 are captains chairs I found at a garage sale for 5 bucks a piece.  I wheeled them home in a little wagon :) 

This one I found on the side of the road (my favorite kind of find!).  I drove past at first, and then made a U-ey and went back.  If the people in the house were watching me, they probably wondered how the heck I was gonna get that in my bug!

Ugly, I know...have faith!

These next set of cuties I rescued from the dumpster in my apartment complex.  I was leaving for a meeting and saw them sitting there.  I didn't have time to stop, so I told myself if they were there when I got back, then it was meant to be.  And, well.....

The metal is a little rusty/pitted in spots, but I think I can clear that up.  The seats will obviously get recovered and the wooden backpiece, well I'm not quite sure what's going to happen with that.  But what drew me to these beauties that someone else had abandoned was the metalwork running up the back.  Pretty cool, huh?

This last one I actually purchased for $18, but I justify it by saying that the others were all free :)  I picked it up at a secondhand store called Abbey Ann's.  This place was something to behold.  It was so packed full that I  had to turn sideways and step over things most of the time (felt like I was on an episode of Hoarders!).  I had another chair in my hands when I saw this one buried and unearthed it.

I liked the extra-wide size of it and the fact that it had arms.  I plan to reupholster the seat and probably add some extra padding since it's kind of flat.  I was going to repaint it, but I actually have fabric I like that will match perfectly and it's already in good condition.  One day I'll have a workroom where I can put all of my tools and sewing machine, etc.  I see this as the workchair maybe with casters on the legs so it can move around easily.

So these are my current works-in-progress (only half of them!)....think I'm overdoing it a little?? haha

Steamer Trunk Sale!!

For my 21st birthday my mom bought me an awesome gift! This antique, authentic steamer trunk complete with travel stickers from different ports!  The inside smelled musty and was an ugly floral pattern, but I loved it!

Isn't it cool??

It sat closed up under 3 other trunks in my bedroom at my parent's house until I moved out.  I left it behind because it was sooo huge and incredibly heavy and I had no idea what to do with it.  I didn't want to get rid of it, but its purpose was still unclear to me.

Then it hit me!

At my parent's, my mom has entire rooms dedicated to crafts and sewing.  But my apartment? Not so much.  So all my supplies were stuffed into a rolling plastic cart.  Not anymore!

I recovered the drawer faces with random fabric that didn't have a home yet.  Then I sprayed the heck outta it with Febreeze!!

Before

After

It now holds all of my arts, crafts, and sewing supplies!!

Just a Bench For 2

I found 2 of these retro side tables at a church garage sale almost 2 years ago for a buck a piece.  I surprisingly managed to fit them both in the bug!

Ugly right??

Well I saw an idea for something like them in a magazine and took it a few steps further.

Put end to end they make a great bench!  The cushion still needs covered (haven't found the right fabric) but after 2 years of prep work, it's mostly finished.

I bought random plates at garage sales and then dropped them on the sidewalk!

I pieced them together, then glued and grouted them to the table tops in a mosaic attempt. 

I cut scrapbook pieces and puzzled them together all along the edges using Mod Podge. (took FOREVER!).  The raw wood edges still need decorative moulding to finish them off but I can't find any I like.  I painted the legs white and stuck them together!

It sits under my huge window in my apartment.

Still a work in progress, kinda ugly in a cool way, but totally me!

A Tailored Look

When Dan first moved in, he needed something to cover the windows in the living room.  Now, given my hatred for miniblinds, I set off to buy him curtain panels.  I unintentionaly started a color scheme of light blue and brown (the walls are light brown).  I bought brown suede curtain panels (full curtains this time, not just toppers) and light blue sheers for behind them.  They hung for months and everytime I looked at them when they were drawn closed, it looked like a big brown blob.  Dan, of course, would have been just fine leaving them as is.  I, however, was unsatisfied.  So the wheels began turning.....

Something needed to happen to the top of the curtains so that they lost that "square brown box" look that I wasn't liking.

I decided on cornace boards.

I found the prettiest/manliest fabric at Joann's and bought 3 yards of it!

I bought a couple 1x12" pine boards and cut them to form a 3-sided box.  I cut quilt batting to size and placed that over the top and wrapped the fabric around it and stapled to the back.

They fit over the curtain rod and give it a more tailored look.  We still haven't figured out how to hang them :)

His front door needed something too because you can see right in from the road. I mean, the guy left his Christmas wreath hanging until late March just to provide privacy! So, I made a curtain to emulate the cornace boards.

I didn't realize when I was picking out the sheer brown fabric that it had "sparkles" on it.  I was told, in no uncertain terms, that the "sparkles" had to face out so that he couldn't see them in the room.  O, silly boys!

More Femininity....don't tell him though ;)

Once the kitchen valances were done, I went on to tackle the spare bedroom. We had painted the room a really bright, really cool blue. He bought an all white down comforter and red sheets....so the theme had started. I found really cool striped curtain panels at Wal-Mart for $15.00 and cut them down to make valances (the man isn't a fan of full curtains!). For the longest time, we never got around to actually hanging them, so the room remained big and blue w/ nothing else.
We went to Home Depot and bought a 6' long white wooden curtain rod and the fancy finials for the ends and brackets to hold it. We cut the rod in half and used it on 2 windows. I installed the brackets, attached the curtains to the rod, and there ya go!

I found inexpensive wide-slat white wooden blinds that would look great in this room...just have to pick them up!

With the leftover pieces of fabric that I cut off to make valances, I was going to make decorative pillows for the bed, but....

....I decided to make a headboard instead!  I bought some 1x2's and built a frame then nailed a sheet of luane to the top.  Then i took the leftover fabric and stretched it over the frame and stapled the heck out of it on the back.  A D-ring picture hanger on each side and 2 hooks in the wall and finished!  It really helped break up some of the BLUE that was in the room.  Plus it looks really good w/ the matching curtain valances! 

Feminine Touches to an Otherwise "Manly" House

Taking a timeout from MY apartment, I started helping my boyfriend Dan "accesorize" his new house.  We painted all the rooms back before he even moved in, but after that we kinda stopped updating anything.  So I wanted to put up some kind of window treatments in the kitchen for starters. He was hesitant "curtains in the kitchen??" but I easily convinced him when he saw what the fabric was!

I mean, how girly can curtains be when they have beer steins all over them!!  I made small valances for the top of each window and used shower curtain hangers he wasn't using anymore to hang them on the rod.  Simple, easy, fun, and cute (I mean manly).