Grandma's Chairs Re-Do

So a few years back we were given my grandmother's dinning room chairs.  Great antiques from the 1940s and very sturdy.  The only problem is that they did not match my color scheme for the house.  So it was time to upgrade them a bit.

As much as I love my grandma, she was a bit too fond of mint green.  These chairs were covered with mint green velour fabric that had been on the chairs since I was a kid and I am pretty sure my mom was a kid.  So the mint green had to go.  First step was to remove the seat of the chair and put it aside.  Next was to sand down the chair and re-stain them.

We sanded down the cherry stain and added a darker stain to the chairs to match the rest of our furniture.  We used Rust-Oleum's Black Cherry stain with a polyurethane gloss to protect the stain.

I picked out some pretty, yet not too girly (per the husband's request) from JoAnn's Better Homes and Garden's collection called Mateo Navy.  After some cutting and stapling all seven chairs were done. 

The hardest part was getting the striping straight.  Start at the center and work your way in.  It was a fun and easy weekend project to do, unless you ask my husband.

*Side note, I am now looking at switching up the fabric on the chairs to something a little more kid friendly now that Monkey and Princess are out of high chairs and booster seats.  This fabric is great for an adult only home, I would recommend an outdoor fabric for houses with kids or clumsy guests who like to spill red wine.

Back from Hiatus

Hello people I don't know, but have viewed my blog.  I am finally done with my MAH giving me the time that is needed to devote to my house and getting it ready for a move.  I have been doing some projects here and there and when I have a few minutes this week, we are redoing the flooring in our master bedroom, I will post them.  Sorry for the long break, but I'm back.


~M

Easy Room Updo-Lighting Fixtures

So one of the things that can bring an impact to a room, for very inexpensive is a lighting fixture replacement.  With a bit of paint and a new shade or sconce you can switch things up and make something that is inexpensive look lux for a few bucks. For example; this table lamp, I was in love when I bought the pair for $25 at a furniture store liquidation.  Fast forward five years and I got tired of having to polish the lamps and hand wash the shade.

After a few coats of oil rubbed bronze paint and a new shade, the lamps make a bolder statement than the chrome and white shade look.

As you can see, looks much better and blends in with the cherry end table and blue palette that is in the room.  I also used the oil rubbed bronze on many other items such as a few more fixtures and patio furniture.  I was able to pick up quite a few fixtures from thrift stores and garage sales.  Some were left in the house and I just up-cycled and repurposed them.  In the dining room was a relic from the past in bronze (most of the lights were relics from the past) and glass.

As you can see, it is just there and does not really make the statement that I wanted.  We replaced it with this light I was able to pick up from the thrift store for $15.

It was originally a oiled bronze color, but I repainted it to give it a fresh coat.  I was able to find the sconces separately on another thrift store run for $3 a piece.  All in all the fixture cost me $35.  I am rounding up to include the $2 ceiling medallion that we picked up to cover up the hole in the ceiling since this fixture does not do a flush mount.  When we were picking up the medallion I saw that fixtures like this cost anywhere from $90-$325 brand new.  We took the original dining room light an placed it in the kitchen after a quick fix.  Here is what was originally in the kitchen.

It made the whole kitchen dark and I hate cooking in the dark.  I painted the old dining room fixture with the oil rubbed bronzed to keep the look uniform and discovered that I could turn the arms upwards.  After new clear glass sconces that cost around $4 a piece, here is the new version of the old dining room light.

And so you don't have to scroll up here is the before again.

Night and day difference.  We also put the kitchen light on a dimmer so I can adjust the lights as needed.  Oh and we are painting the ceiling and adding medallions to most the chandlers, someday....  I did not stop there with the fixtures, you could say I was fixated upon fixtures for a while.  In the bathroom we had the old 1980s looking vanity lights with the large bulbs.

I am not really a fan of bright harsh lighting and really wanted to put to use this vanity light I found with sconces at the thrift store for $10.

The picture is a bit dark, sorry, but you can see the lights give the room a different look even without changing out the mirror.  I did not have to paint this fixture, so I was really glad about that.  In the master bedroom there was this huge fan that I really did not want to sleep under.  It would be like sleeping under a helicopter propeller.  So we moved it downstairs to Josh's Man Cave.  And it looks 10 times better down there and helps to circulate the heat upstairs when we have the wood stove going.

While we were changing out that fixture we also updated the fixture near the bar.  I found these two pendant lights for $5 a piece and the sconces for $2 a piece, but so far have only been able to use one.

Prior to being there in the Man Cave and in the hallway was this lovely gem.

The hallway was replaced with a flush mount that we broke down and purchased from the home improvement store for $20 for two.

It also went into the guest room to replace this.

We placed a similar light like the dome in the hallway and guest room in Liam's room, but his is white.  That one I was able to pick up at the thrift store for $2.  But my favorite piece is the one that replaced the monster fan in our bedroom.

This one I got from a yard sale for $3 including the sconces.  With our room being a combination of chocolate browns and slate blues with heavy mahogany furniture, having a bit of feminine whimsy helps.  We also replaced the same boring old grandma light...

That was in our walk-in closet with a really cool, what started out as a hanging light, that I picked up for $6 from the thrift store.

Not only does it make the closet look a bit more modern, but it gives off better light.  It is very easy to replace a lighting fixture, you might want to read up on it first before you start though.  Luckily I have a husband who dabbled a bit as an electrician before enlisting and he has taught me quite a bit.  If I can do it, trust me you can do it.  Just make sure to switch the breakers before you start though.  And even thought he has replaced just about every light fixture in this house, Josh does agree that it makes the whole house look better.  So next time you are out there thrift shopping, don't hesitate to browse the lighting fixtures area.  You might finds something that will change your whole room for less than you think.

Happy Re-Mollying!
Molly

Football Season

It is truly amazing how much time can be wasted, sometimes worth it though, watching football while there are chairs to be sanded and stained, stairs to be carpeted, lighting fixtures to be installed, etc.  Thank the Gods for this Four Day that we had.  We were able to get the chairs sanded and stained (going to reupholster them tonight), stairs carpeted and didn't even kill each other.  Granted I have a lot left on my list of must dos before the Holidays set in, but it feels good to get the stairs and chairs done.  Now it is on to the light fixtures, kitchen pendant and outdoor lights, as well as the board and batten in the dining room, bead board in the bathroom, trim in the guest bedroom (as well as the curtain holdbacks), and just life itself.  And as much as I love seeing my Irish and my Vikings winning this season, for the first time I am starting to feel like a football widow who needs to get the house done for parties.


Molly 

Filecabinet/Bench UpCycle

So we had this large freestanding wooden filing cabinet given to us by a friend.  Having no clue what to do with it, it had various uses in the old house.  The drawer that held the files was broken off so it was just a large wooden box on legs.  After moving we face the common conundrum of finding a place for all the furniture.  Since the thing was taking up too much space and I had a free weekend (Josh was in the field) I came up with the somewhat ingenious plan of turning it into a bench for at the foot of our bed.  WARNING: Have a plan first, unless you like to aggravate yourself and burn out your husband's rechargeable battery for his drill.  I had to buy him a new one soon after.  Here is the best before picture I could find of the box with legs, I got so excited that I forgot to take some pictures during the process.

I started out by unscrewing everything within the reach of the drill.  I figured that I wanted to get rid of the three sides and use the top for the cushion.

Here are the pieces that I stuck with.  As you can see it is a lower to the ground bench, but it is perfect for Josh to take his boots off after work and to allow Liam to crawl into bed with us.  After I tore it apart it was time to put it back together with the fabric that I chose.

It was actually a bedskirt that I found at the Goodwill for $5 and I just dyed it to match our bedding as best as possible.  I measured out three sections that matched up and then sewed them together. 

After they were connected, I stapled the edges to the underside of the top of the file cabinet leaving room for the stuffing that I would use for the cushion.

 After I went through a few times of stapling it the right way, I had to redo it because I forgot to remove some of the trim on the top, I stuffed it full with as much batting as I could.  Once it was stuffed, and Josh was home by this time, we went about tufting the cushion.  As you can see there is some variation in the coloring of the material from dying it.  I didn't mind it too much, but if you are picky you can always spend longer to dye it how you like.

Josh is drilling screws into the cushion to tuft it.  I would recommend not doing this, but hammer nails in instead.  We just figured that screws would work just as well and faster, but it tears up the material a bit.

Here is Josh sitting on it to make sure that no screws that connected the top to the bottom came up and stuck him in the butt.  He is such a good guinea pig for me.  All in all, I wish I had directions when making the bench, but my failure can be used for your success.  I would have also used a material that I had more of so I could do one piece of fabric rather than three.  I also would have used more batting as well as nails for the tufting.  Here is the finished product (that may be redone in the near future).

As you can see, it compliments our bedding and bedroom.  But I am not 100% happy with it.  Maybe once things slow down a bit I can redo it and update this with a better looking bench.  But in all the project cost us $20 all together, $5 for the material, $10 for the batting and $5 for the dye.  I guess this also shows you what you can do with those free or handed down pieces of furniture that you have no clue what to do with.

Happy Re-mollying!
Molly

End Table Redo

So it has taken me awhile to post this due to the flu hitting our house pretty hard.  I was finally able to finish last night.  These end tables we bought at a garage sale for $20.  I loved the look, just not the stain.  I used the General Finishes Gel Stain Georgian Cherry on them and I think they turned out great.  Here is the before.

 After cleaning the table off, they were in the garage for a bit collecting dust while I worked on other projects.  I was working up the energy to sand them, but with the gel stain I did not need to.  I removed the drawer and legs and started on the base.

I love this stain, look at just one coat.  Although I did not go all the way to the end of the base. I wanted to see what it looked like and was so excited that I went ahead and took the picture.

 Here is the table, drawer and legs after one coat.  I think it looks pretty good with the darker cherry stain rather than the light wood look.

Unfortunately, Liam decided that while it dried it needed his footprints on the top of the base, so I had to add one more coat on the top.  But here is the finished product.

I used the foam brush technique, it put the stain on more smoothly and evenly than a rag or sock did.  The sock method is great for unfinished wood, not really for wood that has a coat of poly on it.  It took me a few days to do because the flu hit us and then the added bonus of wee footprints in the stain.  But it was a fun project. Here is the before and after of the tables.

I think the cherry makes the tables look richer in color and more "antique".The total cost of this product was around $45.  $20 for the tables, $20 for the stain and $5 for a large pack of foam brushes.  I'm telling you this stain is the best, even to just have around the house for quick projects.



Happy Re-mollying!
Molly

New Look

Yup, updated the look of the blog.  I figured since the holidays are approaching I would keep the background generic and switch it out according to the holiday, or my mood.  I did have a blast with the header though.  Things has slowed down just a bit here at the Lyonsden, Northwest edition.  Now that my workbench is built it is just a matter of moving all my craft and project gear downstairs and putting it all away.  Only problem is that I have also been buying more with the holidays approaching and my thinking I'm crafty enough to make all the presents.  My next big project is to make little man Liam a play table for upstairs.  I am trying to curb his wanting to color on the walls with sitting him down at a table.  Let's just hope that I can convince Josh to make it or help me make it.  I am also looking forward to making table runners for my relatives who celebrate Christmas.  When I come home, packages in hand, Josh just shakes his head in wonder.  To all the men out there, never let your wife/girlfriend hit up craft stores on Labor Day when they have 50% sales.  Speaking of packages, I am not so patiently awaiting my remaining gel stains from Amazon so I can finish the floors as well as start my refinishing of two end tables, seven dining chairs, as well as our flooring upstairs.  I am really looking forward to getting rid of the light colored wood.  I will be posting pictures of the before and afters of the projects.  I also will be posting the before and afters of the different rooms as we finished them.


Happy Re-mollying!
Molly