Grandpa's Foot Stool Re-do

The oldest piece of furniture that we own is this little wooden foot stool:

(Which is currently actually used less as a foot stool and more as a road block so our little munchkins can't get into the TV cabinet and mess around with all the videos and DVD's that are kept under there).

It actually used to be just a short little table--It was my grandparents--and I believe it was one of the few things that they brought with them when they immigrated to Canada from South Africa many years ago.   

It was given to me when I was in high school and it sat in my room for many years with my Ghetto Blaster on it.  After I got married we turned it into a foot stool by adding some foam padding, batting and fabric to the top.  It has looked like this for around 10 years--and I have been thinking it could use an update--but have not been able to find any fabric that I liked UNTIL the other day at Walmart I found THIS FABRIC:

I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT!!!

So here the project starts!

I decided I wanted to paint the legs a darker brown to match the fabric better.  So I cut open a garbage bag and taped it around my existing fabric.  (Even though I was going to remove the fabric--I didn't want paint to seep through and get on the batting and such--so I decided to just cover it up)

Next I took it out to the garage and sanded down the legs with a fine grit sand paper.

I wiped them down to get rid of any dust and debris.  Then I got out my trusty friend: SPRAY PAINT.

After a couple coats the legs were looking PERFECT!

Then I took off the plastic and went to work removing all the old staples and fabric.  (BEING CAREFUL NOT TO SCRATCH MY NEW PAINT JOB!)

Just as a side note: whenever I upholster anything--I ALWAYS staple the batting down separately BEFORE adding the fabric on top.  That way if you ever want to change out your fabric later on--you don't have to start ALL OVER. 

So this is what was left after removing the fabric.

The batting had shifted a little over the years and pulled away in some areas.  So I just repositioned it over some of the areas and re-tacked it. 

Next I started stapling my fabric around the under side edges of the table.  I turned the fabric under about 1/2 " as I went--so it had a nice finished edge.

I did all my sides this way right up to the corners. 

So when I got to the corners they looked like this:

There was too much fabric there to tuck in nicely--so I trimmed them off to look like this:

Now there are many ways to finish off the corners--for this foot stool I wanted it to look the same from all the different angles--so I just folded down the excess fabric in kind of a gathered pattern around the edge.  Then I stapled it in place.

And that is it!  My Grandpa's little table is now an AWESOME little foot stool.

And here it is in its natural habitat as a road block in front of our TV cabinet (That needs a make over too--I know!).

AND YES--I did say the words "Ghetto Blaster" earlier on in this post, and YES that is the original Nintendo System.  And YES, we have BLUE CARPET.  I LOVE the 80's--minus the blue carpet thing!  But there are SOME THINGS that even spray paint can't fix!

OK--my Favorite Part...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think my Grandpa would have been proud!

I'm Linking up to THESE parties!

Bench Bliss

I have a tiny little porch on the front of my house.

A couple of years ago, our neighbors gave us this little bistro set when they were moving--and it has been sitting on our little front porch ever since. (Minus the cute new pillows that I just got at the garage sale--and forgot to take a picture of it without them! Oh and minus the pot on the table that just magically appeared (was dropped off by my friend who owns The Dollar Thrift Store--as she saw me eyeing it! What a sweetie!)

So it was cute--but just a little ho-humm. I had ALWAYS wanted a little bench to put there--but never wanted to spend big bucks and since this bisto set was free--well it was just staying like this!

UNTIL Saturday morning--I looked out the window and what did I see? My neighbor across the street was having a garage sale and had THIS little bench sitting outside!

I jumped up and down with glee, rudely hung up the phone with my sister (sorry again Michelle) and RAN across the street knocking down all the other garage salers to get to it.

And guess how much it was?

It was only $5!!!!!

I was dieing!!!!

It was EXACTLY what I had ALWAYS wanted!! And in my cheapy budget!!!

So I wasted no time and bought it--along with all of the awesome outdoor throw pillows that she had (that were only $2 each!!) I really love how the pillows give it that fun punch of color--and softness. They really cozy up the space!

So I got this bench and 5 pillows for $15!

I am in serious LOVE with this thing! I peek out at it several times a day--just to admire it!

I did have to put the bistro set away as we don't have enough room for both--but I did buy two extra pillows so someday when I eventually get a bigger house--I think the bistro set and the bench will make a cute little set (once I spray paint the bistro set black--that is)!

Dresser Found Dead on Roadside

A couple of years ago, we found this dresser on the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on it.

At the time we had just had our 4th baby, and were actually in the market for another dresser--and nothing beats FREE!

So we piled it up into our van and brought it home to our garage where it has sat for the last 2 Years!!!

Until 2 weeks ago--when I sweetly asked my hubby to do the necessary repairs on it so I could finally paint it and GET IT OUT OF OUR GARAGE!!!

Which he did. And we soon realized why it was dead on the side of the road!

It needed a bunch of work done.

So here is a picture of it all taken apart as my sweet hubby repaired it.

Once he was finished I got to work with the priming and painting.

This dresser took 2 coats of primer and like a million coats of paint!! (I think a million actually equated to 4-5 coats--I lost track)

It just soaked up the stuff like it had been in a draught!

Here it is in our garage getting all painted:

The dresser didn't come with any hardware. And because it was a FREE kids dresser--I didn't want to spend much $$ on this little project. So I bought the cheapest little wooden knobs that I could find and painted them to match the dresser.

I stuck them in the bottom of a plate to make them easier to paint.


And here is the finished product.

One kids dresser all painted and ready to go!


Free is good!

Headboard for $1

Here is yet another steal of a deal that I picked up at my friends $1 thrift store. (Yes you heard my right--I got this beauty for 1 dollar!!!!)

I LOVE THAT STORE!! I am a little bit addicted to it!!!

ANYWAYS, I found what I thought was a beautiful, yet very scratched up headboard and thought it had potential so I bought it. When I got it home my hubby informed me that it was actually a FOOT BOARD not a HEAD BOARD. But being the clever little guy that he is--said he would do some magic and make it into a headboard.

So--this is the bare bones of what he came up with--just using stuff we already had (OK--so I fibbed just a little--we had some plywood at home but it had been outside so it was a little gross looking--so instead of using our plywood he did buy some new stuff--but it wouldn't have cost us anymore if we would have used the stuff on hand).

Since we were planning on painting it white to match our room, he wanted to keep a nice white edge all the way down to the floor on the sides--so if any of it was peaking out behind the bed you wouldn't see the plywood. So he used some pieces of white MDF that we had on hand and screwed them and the headboard all into the plywood at the back.

My hubby sanded and primed it--and I painted it and POOF--we have a NEW HEADBOARD!

This is the very first time in my whole life that I have had a headboard of any variety.

I feel SO grown up in a big girls bed!!!

And THANK YOU my hubby--for making it all possible!
(I love you and your mad carpenter skills!)

Dollar Deals Make Me HAPPY!

I am linking up to THESE parties.

Chair Redo--and Lessons Learned

SO--I went to my favorite little store--My friends Dollar Thrift Store (where EVERYTHING is $1) and found this awesome little chair. I thought it would make a PERFECT chair to sit at my sewing table.

Isn't it so cute? Doesn't it have potential? AND FOR ONLY $1!!! How can it go wrong?

So I figured I would just spray paint the thing white and redo the seat and VIOLA--it would be awesome. WELL--HERE COMES THE LESSON LEARNED WITH THIS PROJECT...

ALWAYS, I repeat, ALWAYS--prep your wooden surfaces before painting. I am not an expert at painting--so I did not sand this chair before starting--BIG MISTAKE!!! I primed and painted only to have the paint crackle and bubble and peel off!!! SO--then my hubby and I sanded it a little and did the whole thing over again! And learned another important lesson...

A little surface sanding OVER paint (if you haven't sanded properly in the beginning) does NOT FIX THE PROBLEM!!! How did I learn this you may ask? WELL--because after sanding it a little--we primed and painted AGAIN. Only to have the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS--CRACKLING and BUBBLING and paint coming off!!!

By this time I had used almost 2 cans of spray paint and 1 of primer on this little adventure. AND I had definitely used up all my patience!!! SO at this point I said I don't care anymore--lets give it one more light coat and call it good.

So here are the pictures of the seat re-do:

If you are adding batting to a seat while covering it--I recommend stapling the batting on separately instead of doing the fabric and batting all in one step. This way if you ever want to change out the fabric--you don't have to re-bat the whole thing.


And I didn't bother to take off the original covering because it wasn't going to hurt anything by keeping it on. I just cleaned it really good and stapled everything right over top!

So here is the finished project (don't look too close)--but as my dad always says--from the Post Office it looks great!

And here it is in my little sewing area. Even though I hated the process--I still think it is a cute chair and I think I will like it a lot more as time heals my spray painted wounds!!

$1 Cabinet Makeover

SO--We live in a SUPER small house. We're talking 6 of us living in 1200 square feet! Lets just say it is cozy. We have our computer AND my sewing area all in our Small Master Bedroom. Up until now I have had a tiny sewing table right next to our computer desk--and my sewing stuff stashed in any small cubby space I can find. But my awesome hunny wanted me to have a nicer space to sew and suggested we move things around to give me more space, AND he wanted to buy me a cabinet to house all my sewing stuff. So the project begins!


We decided to check out our local RE-Store (Like a Good Will for home improvement stuff) and we came across and awesome find! A small two door cabinet for only $1!!! All of the other cabinets were $20--but for some reason this one was ONLY A BUCK!!! I'm sorry I don't have a before picture of it. It was brown and ugly and the sides of it were un-finished. BUT it had potential.


SO we took it home and my hunny painted it white for me and added cork (from an old cork board that we already had) to both the unfinished edges so that it became a cork board for me to hang patterns and stuff while I am working on them! Here is as close to a before picture as I have:















Then I used my 50% off coupon at Joann's and SPLURGED on this thread holder ($7.50):

















Which we then painted white and hung on the wall which is SUPER functional and REALLY pretty too!















Then I found a great blue wicker basket at Joann's that was already 50% off and it was a little damaged so they gave me an additional 10% off and so it only came to around $5.75.


THEN the dollar store came thru for me for the additional side baskets that I put on top of the cabinet. AND while I was at that same awesome dollar store--I happened upon the most awesome baskets for the INSIDE of my cabinet! FOR ONLY A DOLLAR EACH!!! AND they MATCHED EVERYTHING!!! It was meant to be!!


So adding up all the spray paint and EVERYTHING--I spent under $25 for the most AWESOME sewing area ever!!!

And Ta Da.....(drum roll please).... Here it is all together:

Let the sewing BEGIN!