Posts Tagged ‘before & after’

Zero Budget Project: Upholstered Stools

December 7th, 2012
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I’ve had these stools stacked up just taking up precious floor real estate for three months. If I want to do anything, I have to move these out of the way. So in my attempt to really clean out my studio, I knew I needed to actually finish this project.

I messed up a few times, but overall it didn’t take too terribly long to upholster these stools.  And figuring out the dimensions for the fabric was really quite easy. Particularly since I did the pleating on the top.

I haven’t quite decided where I’m going to put these newly awesome stools. I think they’ll tend to float, because they’re perfect for additional seating for parties, etc. They would look nice in our bay window in our Master Bedroom. I’ve got to get about 16 paintings out of the way before they can hang out there, though.

This project cost me less than $1 to make (hence the Zero Budget categorization). The fabric was $2 for 3+ yards and I used less than 1 yard to make this. Chris’s brother was about to donate a perfectly good memory foam mattress topper, so I used the foam from that. Since it is memory foam, these cushions feel quite nice. I’m really happy about the transformation, but I’m not sure how Chris feels about it. He mentioned that the floral was a bit girly. Maybe so. But I think they’re pretty rad. Read more for instructions on how to make your own.

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Before & After: Rocking Chair

December 4th, 2012
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Chris and I made over this chair years ago. We found it at a second hand store in San Mateo for $30 and was clearly in need of some TLC. The previous owner had tried to make it over with a half-hearted effort and a can of black spray paint.

This was our first rework with paint remover and a tinted stain, and it took somewhere around 30 hours to rework. The spindles were definitely the hardest. Perhaps that explains why I went for a dresser with such clean lines.

This rocking chair looks worlds better with its new stain, and since we did it right the first time, the finish has lasted 5 moves! This is exactly why taking an extra hour (or 20) makes a huge difference when reworking furniture.

Zero Budget Project: The Dresser

October 5th, 2012
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I finished the dresser. It’s been nearly a year and a half since I bought it with the intention of revamping it. I knew if I wanted to get it done, I had to do it before the cold set in and I’d only be motivated to cuddle in blankets and drink a cup of hot abuelita (I’m hooked thanks to Celeste).

This dresser was originally going to be stained yellow like my rocking chair, but I kept feeling a nagging feeling that I’d be falling back on a crutch. I tend to fall into color ruts from time to time. In high school it was burgundy and navy. In college it was red and black. When I first got married, it was just black and tan. When we moved to Utah, it was yellow and black. Then it moved to yellow and orange.

Picking this color was a huge risk, because the guy behind the paint counter just mixed a bunch of colors and I went for it. There were no samples to go by (besides the paint stick he stained). I knew the wood on the dresser would take the stain differently because it’s not pine. It’s a veneered redwood or something warm like that. Maybe cherry?

I’m glad I went for the stain as opposed to an opaque paint, because the color and grain of the wood really shows trough to add a lot of dimension to this piece.

Also, I never consulted Chris on this color. I knew I was taking on a big risk by not asking him what he thought. While I was mid-job, he rolled in from work and I got more than a bit nervous for his reaction. Turns out he loves it! Bullet dodged. I do need to be better about communicating my home decor plans with him, though. He, too, bought this house.

Chris lets me use this dresser just for my clothes. He’s really nice about that. Atop the dresser I have a little ikea runner I made (fabric I scored for $1 a yard at a garage sale) to protect the finish from my accessories. My accessories are stored in Spice of Life jars and on an old 1950s lunch tray.

I’m proud of how this dresser turned out. Now I need to get our bed situation figured out. It looks like we’re going to buy a new bed for our room soon. And I want to make my first quilt for our room, too.

So have you ever stained wood a color before? I definitely think I’ll be doing that again with any other wood rehab projects I work on in the future.

Before & After: My Old Chairs

September 6th, 2012
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Do you remember this chair? I bought a pair of them off my friend for $10. I always had the ambition to reupholster them, but while we were at our last house, that ambition died and I sold them to my cousin’s wife.

I was happy to sell them to her, because I knew they would make their way to a good home. She’s an interior designer, and works on some really amazing projects, so I knew she would see their true potential.

And she did. She had them restained with a walnut finish (love the walnut color so much better) and reupholstered with a cool dot print. Check out Christa’s blog to see how they look in their new home. (seriously, I was drooling).

Black & White & Loved All Over Redesign

January 4th, 2012
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During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. WE had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog.

Ellen was an absolute dream to work with. She’s been commenting over here on ISLY for some time, so I was familiar with her adorable family-centered blog: Black & White & Loved All Over. When she signed up for her bloggy face lift, I was SO excited to do it for someone I was familiar with!

Her before (above) wasn’t terrible, but it lacked a lot of cohesion. The font she had chosen for her header wasn’t bad & I definitely appreciate that she used it only in the header. With that in mind, I hand-lettered her masthead & used organic elements to keep things cozy & familiar.

I didn’t want to do a literal translation of Black & White the color, so I leaned more towards grasping opposites and mostly in font weight. The color palette we kept slightly muted to create more warmth & I included a large profile picture to add a personal touch. As someone who reads a lot of personal & commercial blogs, I want to know what the writer looks like. I want to see his/her face so I can get a sense of who they are. I love the about picture of Ellen. I don’t know her in person, but I feel like her picture embodies someone approachable, creative & kind. Which I assume she is, since she was awesome to work with.

I’m totally in love with the vintage handkerchief teeshirt update pictured above. Ingenius! I’m a firm believer that clean & cohesive design elements will help make her already awesome projects shine. So on to the first design tip:

• Blog tip #1 : COLOR! •

Don’t be too literal with your color scheme, but not so over the place, either. Find an image that inspires your style & glean your palette from that. I head over to Color Collective frequently for a starting point for color palettes. Lauren is great at picking very inspiring images (she credits them all correctly, too). It’s a fantastic resource for cohesive, beautiful & unexpected color combinations.

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