Upholstered Chairs

While I have been on a project hiatus my mom has been busily working away. Today's post showcases a pair of chairs she re-upholstered. She bought these chairs for $7 each at Goodwill. $7!!!!

Here they are before she worked her magic:

In case you any of you upholstery fans are interested, here are the "insides" of the chair.

And now here is the after. Aren't these amazing?! My step-father used his carpentry skills to fix the arms and my mom has some serious upholstery skills!

Hutch Much?

Almost two years ago I turned the bottom of this hutch into a bookcase. Yes, sadly it has taken me that long to refinish the bottom. Here are the before pictures.

I painted the hutch a pale green color, and glazed it with my favorite Martha Stewart black coffee glaze. The top I stained a darker brown. And wha-la!!! Here is the finished product.

Chest of Drawers Refurb

Today's project is a chest of drawers I picked up at a yard sale. I loved it's details and especially it's handles. I don't know why but I'm a sucker for this type of drawer pull. It's a vintage piece with dove tailed drawers. Alas, it had seen better days. I had to do some extensive wood putty work along the bottom right side. Unfortunately, I got a little excited and started working on it without taking good before pictures so the only one I have was actually taken at the yard sale itself.

I painted it a grayish-blue (Britannia Blue by Benjamin Moore) and used the Martha Stewart black coffee glaze to bring out the details.

You might recognize this picture from my red bed post, but I love this stuff. It's so easy to work with and very forgiving. Not enough? Put more on. Too much? Wipe more off. Started to dry? Put on a fresh coat and resume wiping. I also like the small hint of metallic in the glaze. It gives it a little shimmer.

I tried to stain the top, per my standard MO but the wood took the stain too differently. Way too differently. Frankly, it looked awful. Have no fear fellow furniture refinishers! Should something not turn out the way you had planned or envisioned there is another way. Here I decided to paint the top black and put a coat of polyurethane on for protection. Do I like it as much as the stained tops? No. Do I still like it? Yes.

Without further ado, here is the finished product!

The Power of Spray Paint Part II

I have a couple of large projects I am looking forward to sharing with you over the next few weeks. For now, a fast, simple little project. I want to showcase the power of a can of spray paint! I found this cutie at Goodwill for $6.

Here it is before. Not bad looking of course, but I wasn't a fan of the natural wood frame.

And here it is after.

A reminder to keep your eyes open at Goodwill for pieces with great "bones"!

Best Buffet In Town!

Today I bring you a refurnished buffet. Here are the before pictures. You can see the buffet has a beautiful shape but it was suffering from some years of neglect. On the drawers the veneer was chipped so bad I had to steam it off. (Word of caution: Don't use your main iron. Buy  a spare!)

The top of the center section is actually ... SURPRISE! A silverware drawer.

The decorative piece on the bottom had been gnawed to death by a dog but luckily, I found a matching piece in one of the drawers. I very carefully popped the old piece off and glued the new piece in its place.

Without further ado, here is the after! I painted the buffet a bluish-gray and stained the top and the decorative medallions on the front the same color. (In some of my pictures they don't look the same but unfortunately the glare from the sun and the reflection from my house distorted the pictures.) Isn't she the best buffet in town?!

I'm partying here:
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Swing Into Spring Party @ DIY By Design

Sofa Table Refurb

I actually found today's project on the side of the road. Yep, you read that right. The side of the road. I was on my way to my parents and saw these 4 curved legs sticking up from the grass. Of course, I had to turn around and investigate!

Those 4 legs belonged to a wooden sofa table. The top was very scratched where it had fallen off the back of whatever vehicle it was riding on. Here is what it looked like before.

I painted the table a dark olive green to go with the green in the fabric on my cushions. Next, because the top was scratched so deeply that I couldn't stain it, I decided to modge podge sheet music to the top. Lastly, I stenciled a song bird on top to go with the musical theme. Here is the finished product.

And a close-up of my favorite few musical bars on the table!

I'm partying here:
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Swing Into Spring Party @ DIY By Design

I'm Starting with the Fan in the Mirror

Hopefully, thanks to the title of this post, you are now singing the Michael Jackson song...I found this mirror at Goodwill for $8. I think it has a unique shape. While it looks like it has a wooden frame it is actually plastic. "Wood grain" texture and all!

Here is a before picture. It is hanging on my fireplace (sorry for the ceiling fan reflection but that's what gave me the inspiration for the title!) as that was its original intended home.

I originally painted this mirror red to match the two red vases on the mantle. I'm a huge fan of mirrors - there's at least one in every room of my house - but this one just wasn't working on the fireplace so I took it down. Maybe it was the reflection of the fan that kept staring at my every time I looked up.

I decided instead to hang it behind the tomato red bed. I painted it the same color as the nightstand and glazed it in my favorite Martha Stewart glaze.

Here's a photo after I had painted and had just started to glaze.

And here is the after! I started with a fan in the mirror and I asked him to change his ways (sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself). I like the mirror much, much better in its new home. Plus, that wall above the bed was looking a little bare!

Upholstery and a Lesson In 8-way Hand Tied Springs

Hello friends and welcome back! I don't know about where you are, but we've had a COLD winter down here in the deep south. Well, by our normal standards at least! Today I'm sharing with you a rocker I upholstered for my friend that involved a little 8-way hand tied spring action. Here is a before picture.

Here is a close up of the upholstery.

You can see the fabric has become threadbare and is held in place by upholstery tacks. Once I got all that upholstery off, here's what I was left with.

At one point these were 8-way hand tied springs but time and dry rot had taken their toll. Most of the strings holding the springs in place had broken. If you aren't familiar with 8-way hand tied springs it is where each spring is individually hand tied and set in place. 8-way hand tied springs are a hallmark of fine furniture and are praised for both their comfort and durability. I removed all the old strings and nails and was left with a clean slate. You can see this is a true 8-way system as the springs themselves are set into the frame of the rocker.

Next, the process of hand tying the springs. In an 8-way system each spring is tied front to back, side to side, and diagonally two ways, 8 in all. Each point where the string touches the spring is considered one of the "ways". Each row is tied with a single string. I didn't do a tutorial as there are already several good ones online. Just Google "8 way hand tied springs how to" and several results will show up, including details on how to make those knots. Here's the final result.

Now, is this a perfect job? Absolutely not. Am I proud? Darn right! I am helping preserve a dying art!
Once the springs were retied it was time to move on to the upholstery.

For such a small upholstery job this one was quite difficult. The sides have a slight curve and in the back and at the arms there isn't much room to work. However, once the fabric was down, I chose not to use the upholstery tacks on the side. Instead, I chose to cover the staples with a row of double cording. And here is the final result.

Much improved I think! And pretty comfortable with those 8-way springs!