I'll start with the current projects and work my way back.
I found 2 of these old doors at the Longleaf antique mall in Alex City. I thought they were great. And at just $15 each, a steal for solid wood. The goal is to use them as sliding doors for my bathroom, which I;m sad to say has NO doors. Yes, you heard me correctly. NO DOORS!
Hoping the finished product will look something like this....
Finally gave in and tried chalkboard paint. This oval tray was $6. I liked the raised edge with slits.
The finished product is so cute... and since you have to buy the paint in a quart, and it only takes about 2 tablespoons to cover a tray, I had to come up with something else to paint :-)
The kitchen island will make a great menu board! Now I just need to remember to buy some chalk.
PINE STRAW PINE STRAW PINE STRAW!!!The 2 words that sum up my landscaping! My yard is weird. It's bumpy and lumpy and curvy and strange. Who wants to mow that? Who wants to mow over places that aren't really even grass. So after breaking 2 lawnmowers in 1 week. I took desperate measures. I decided to spray Roundup in mass quantities and spread around a lot of pine straw. 44 bails .... and still counting!
I got this little chair at a thrift store in Montgomery. I can't remember the name of the store. Something like Helping Hands or Thrifty Hands or Dirty Hands (just kidding) It's on Coliseum Drive. It was only $5! The springs on the bottom were hanging out a but but I just finagled them back up in the chair and it had semi-broken wheels on the bottom. I just pulled those off. Now... to cover it.
I refuse to spend $20 a yard on fabric to cover a $5 chair. So, I found this GIGANTIC pile of fabric at Harvest Thrift Store. It was pretty gross and after sifting through all those bolts of fabric I felt nasty, and that I looked like I had been to the gym. However it did yield this...
... a bolt of fabric with between 30-35 yards of fabric. The fabric was $10 a bolt no matter how much was on it. I actually thought it was kind of ugly, however the back of it wasn't so bad. (The side that's mostly white is the right side. The side that's mostly brown is the back side.)I don't really know how to sew - but with only $15 at stake, why not give it a shot. Besides if it doesn't go well, I have PLENTY of fabric to try again!
I played around with the fabric and cut it the shape of the fabric already on the chair. I pinned it on the wrong side, which was actually the right side since I was using the wrong side. (see, it gets confusing doesn't it :-)
Here's the finished product! I thought it turned out cute. It's a little short, but who cares. It works!
Curtains! I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted the curtains in the guest room to look like, but I just couldn't find them. So when I saw this Ralph Lauren duvet on sale at T. J. Maxx I thought I could make it work. But first I must tell you that this duvet, which I had 19.99 for, can be purchased on line at $329.99!! I am not kidding!http://www.amazon.com/Ralph-Lauren-Crochet-Duvet-Cover/dp/B004RUHJSK
If I had paid that much I would never have cut it in half and hand sewed the sides. Just slide each half on an old-fashioned swing arm rod and you're good to go!
This is an ash tray. I saw it at Angel's Antiques twice. (Which probably means no body wanted it because it was going no where fast.) When I saw it I actually thought it looked like a lamp. Since it was only $10 I figured why not try it!
The Ash tray lamp!! I unscrewed the top part that looked like a bird bath and threw it away. (That was the actual cigarette part.) Then I took an old floor lamp I had that was way to skinny for my fatty furnitured living room. Unscrewed everything and took the guts out and thread them through the middle of the ash tray. It's not very sturdy, but it's a lamp! How sturdy does a lamp have to be! All it has to do is sit there and look pretty.
7 new chairs from the thrift store. They look pretty rough but they have good character :-) I really liked the feet at the bottom.
I used a magic potion of equal parts linseed oil, mineral spirits, and white vinegar scrubbed on with 00 steel wool. They turned out beautiful! I think they are my favorite project of the year.
Ta Da! Finished chair! The seats are covered with leftover fabric from the living room curtains.
The only problem with having great new stained chairs is that it makes your old painted black table look dorky. I looked and looked for a new table that fit my criteria (cheap and really big) but came up with nothing, at least so far. So, when in doubt, just paint it...
Table before
Table after
The back splash for my stove is made from 3 old tins bought at a salvage yard in Columbus. (Actually, I have a whole bunch of these tin tiles but I haven't figured out what to do with the rest yet.) They already had this cool red color on them. I just polyurethaned over the top after I cleaned them a little with a wire brush.
And last, but not least is this little unassuming table. It looks harmless doesn't it... don't be deceived. I have never scrubbed, stripped, or sanded more in my life. It must have at least 10 layers of paint on it. It was only after a few hours of scrubbing that I actually figured out it had metal claw feet on the bottom (they had been painted over).This was the table that beat me...
This table is the definition of Shabby Chic.
Shabby Chic = I give up. I cannot get the paint off of this thing! :-)
So there you have it. Some of the projects from the year. Hope you enjoy!
