Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New face for an old stool

Today was sunny and warm, a nice break for the chilly weather we've been having. Ive been having spray paint withdrawals so today was the perfect day to tackle a little chore that's been on my list of "to do's". A little while back I purchased this chair at a garage sale to use as a sewing chair.


It was heavy duty and in good condition besides a dirty seat and a few rust spots. I've never reupholstered a chair before but found this chair to be super simple. I simply unscrewed the seat so it looked like this.


Next I took a can of rustoleum hammered spray paint and gave it two coats to cover all the rust spots. I just love the transformation a little paint can make! To recover the seat you want to cut a piece of fabric that's several inches larger on each side than the actual seat.


I bought my heavy duty staple gun at Hobby Lobby and it worked perfectly for this. I just folded the raw edge under and then stapled about two inches of the fabric onto the seat. The tighter you pull the fabric the less wrinkles there will be along the corners. I was pretty generous with the staples. I want this critter to stay put for a long time!


And now she's all done, just screw the seat back on and you are good to go! Easy peasy. I'm quite tickled with how it turned out.


This only took about an hour to do, even including the time it took me to hunt down my missing can of spray paint after my little "helper" ran off with it! Just in case you were wondering the cost of this project was,

chair = $15
fabric remnant = $5
spray paint = $5
Total = $25
Not too bad! Unfortunately I cant keep her. She's a little too tall and wide for my sewing area. Some lucky craigslist shopper will get to enjoy my polka dotted friend. It was good practise for me, I have my whole dining room set of chairs, plus a few others to do. Fun times ahead!



Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The best way to do, is to start

     I suppose it is customary to begin New Years resolutions on New Years...but I don't suppose one gets a fine for beginning early! I love to write and I love to make things, so naturally a blog appeals to me. I've been mulling over the thought of beginning one for some time, so here I am! I do a little sewing, crafting, furniture refurbishing and that sort of thing. I have all sorts of grandiose schemes for the upcoming year and cannot wait to share them all with you. You wont see anything professionally done or fancy, but maybe we can learn a few things on the way. At any rate, I intend to have fun with this!
     The title of this blog comes from my favorite hymn, "Great is thy Faithfulness". The best line in the song is "morning by morning new mercies I see". Often the daily grind blinds us to the many mercies God has sprinkled through the day. I want to be better at focusing on the blessings. I want learn to shine in the roles I have been handed. I want to enjoy right now...today...and having dishes to do and dirty diapers to change is no excuse not to!
Happy New Year!