Then there were three

I'm about to run out with Doc to finish ripping out the grass from our vegetable bed so that we can begin planting tomorrow, but before I go, I wanted to post this update.

Remember this chair? I found it on the Philly streets, sad and broken. I breathed new life into it and I love it! Now it has company. I found two chairs in Portland as a neighbor was cleaning out his grandmother's house. One was missing an arm and both were in terrible need of reupholstering, but they had nice structure and were in decent shape (much better than their older sibling.)

My plan is to collect five "street chairs" total, fix them up, paint them the same color, and cover the seats in the same fabric. They will sit around our lovely farm table, coordinated, but not too matchy. Two more free chairs to go!

A preview of what's to come

Under the guidance of a Mr. Joel Verdon, I have been working on several furniture building projects of late. Most excitingly for me, I've begun work on a work/storage station for the kitchen. This beaut will sit in my "nook" area and will house spices, herbs, teas, produce, oils, vinegars, etc. I've installed two rustic shelves full of vintage mason jars containing beautiful legumes and grains above where the station will go. I love how it looks and can't wait until the station is complete!

So far, we've created the legs, beautifully tapered by Joel, and the apron, the front of which will also become drawer space for spices and teas. I brought in a jar of mung beans to my local paint store and found the PERFECT color to match. (This is my absolute favorite color- love it!) The legs and apron have been sanded a few times and painted twice. Each leg has a double bolt to provide extra stability for those awesome doughs I'll be kneading.
More photos soon! Hopefully the entire project will be complete by next week.

A couple of cuddling doggle shots:

Andy and Em enjoying the fleeting sunshine. Notice Andy's arm around Emerson.

Doc snapped this one when Emerson came to cuddle with me on the sofa last night and put his arms around my neck. A very unflattering photo of me.

rescued loveseat gets another look

Anyone remember this love seat?

Before

After

After After

I grew tired of the bright orange and decided to subdue it a little with varying shades of green. You'll also notice I added another back cushion. The middle cushion cover came from Ikea a while ago. The other two I purchased on Etsy.

A Chair Without a Seat

Two months ago (yikes, has it been that long?!) I found this sad-looking chair out on the street, awaiting the garbage truck. Where you ask? On my very short walk to work, of course! I've found four pieces of furniture this way. From what I can tell the chair is fairly old, I would guess antique. I wore a mask while removing the paint, as I wasn't sure if the paint contained lead.

Before


After

As you can see, the chair was missing a seat. My father-in-law graciously cut the wooden base for the seat. I ordered a piece of foam from a company on Ebay that cuts it to your specifications, and used leftover fabric from the previously featured love seat that I re-created to upholster the seat. Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I actually just hot-glued the fabric to the foam/wood!

This was my first time chipping off paint. I wasn't totally successful, even with sanding it afterward, so if you look at the chair closely you can see that the paint's a little uneven. Oh well. I primed it with a recycled paint provided by my coworker and finished it up with two coats of a honey yellow paint sample I picked up from a home improvement store. (I attempted to find leftover paint on Craigslist, but no such luck.) The sample turned out to be more than enough and I've already used it on a couple of other projects!

This wasn't a huge project, but I love this little chair. And now we can seat one more person for a potluck!

A Rescue of a Different Kind

Recently I discovered designspongeonline.com and one of the projects posted in the "Before and After" section really caught my eye. Ever since I've been on the lookout for a couch to remake into something like Tiffany's Couch. Being without a truck, I had a harder time coming up with something feasible, but walking home from work one day I spotted a semi-hideous love seat on the sidewalk, awaiting trash day. When DocDufresne got home, the two of us headed out on our rescue mission. I got to work right away, taking off the seat cushion covers before realizing I should get a "before" picture. DocDufresne and I spent many hours ripping off foam, filling, and fabric, pulling out stubborn staples and even more stubborn springs, sanding wood, and filling in scrapes and holes with wood putty. What's the deal with dust ruffles anyway?

Andy examines our new addition.

DocDufresne diligently works on removing the stubborn springs.

DocDufresne removes the last of the thousands (maybe I exaggerate) staples.

Andy assisting, yet again.

After spending hours researching upholstery foam and finding that out that it was really much more expensive than I was thinking, I had an epiphany! In anticipation of adopting Andy last August, DocDufresne and I bought a floor model crib mattress in Ikea's clearance section to use as a dog bed. If my memory serves correctly, it was about $20. Well, Andy never took to it. I am still amazed that I thought of using the mattress as the seat cushion. It is an absolute perfect fit!!

Epiphany number two: Why sew a seat cushion cover when I could just buy a fitted crib sheet? They're so much easier to take off and throw in the wash! I decided to buy one from CLGentry, who makes the sheets and sells them on Ebay.

I bought machine washable orange fabric at Ikea and sewed two 28"x28" envelope-enclosure cushion covers.

For the trim DocDufresne and I found an upholstery fabric that we really liked. I also bought batting on Ebay.

We painted all the wood with black paint that we had purchased several months ago for a tri-fold screen project. We also salvaged three planks of wood from a leftover flooring project to replace the springs previously installed in the back of the piece.

For the final touches, I covered 6 shank buttons with the red part of the upholstery fabric, using orthodontal rubber bands to hold the fabric in place. I trimmed the fabric and glued the buttons into the 6 holes on the wooden arms of the love seat.

I created a wall piece to match, using materials I already had around the house: faux poppies, acrylic paints, Mod Podge, and cut circles from the upholstery fabric. I adore the two 14"x14" pillow cases I purchased from Etsy seller, MelissaJVerch.

A close-up of the pillow cases purchased on Etsy.

Total costs:
Couch: free
Crib mattress: free (already had)
2 Ikea 28x28 cushions: $20
2 Ikea 14x14 pillows: $3
3 1/4 yards orange Ikea fabric: $21 (bought more than I needed!)
4 yards upholstery fabric (Ebay): $47.50, w/shipping
2 Etsy 14x14 pillow covers: $28, w/shipping
1 Crib mattress fitted sheet (Ebay): $18, w/shipping
4 yards batting (Ebay): $15.97, w/shipping
Wood putty: $2.40
Black paint: free (already had)
Wood scraps: free
Shank buttons (Ebay): $2.50 with shipping
Staple gun and staples: free (borrowed)
Sandpaper: free (already had)
Mod Podge: free (already had)

$158.37

Before

After

I have to say I'm not totally impressed with my upholstery skills, but I can get past that and enjoy the love seat for the brightness it brings to the room. Plus, I love how all the orange fabrics look together. Overall, I think my first excursion into remaking furniture was a success! Beware of spending too much time on DesignSponge, or you too will become preoccupied with redesigning pieces in your head everywhere you go!