furniture to fit your needs

Years ago I bought these unique and gorgeous end tables from a storage unit sale.  The bottom of the table is a huge, heavy iron tree branch and the top a beautiful piece of black marble.  I saw them and instantly fell in love and had to have them.  As fabulous as they were to look at, they weren't super functional as the top was only 12" in diameter, and because of the marble, the table was incredibly top heavy and fell over easily. 

After living with these tables in my family room for about 18 months, I decided that they needed to be replaced with something a little more useful in this particular room.  But, I was so in love with them, I just couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of them.  So, I had to come up with something different. 

I was at Home Depot buying some lawn fertilizer the other afternoon and found myself in the wood section.  I honestly don't know how I ended up there.  It's like my internal compass just sets this section as it's favorite destination.  So, while I was wondering the wood aisle, I looked over and saw the pre-cut wooden cirlces.  And they just happened to be 24" inches in diameter, and thick enough to make a lovely new table top.

THAT's IT!! I had to have these wood cirlces and could use them to replace the table tops on my favorite end tables of all time and I wouldn't have to get rid of them after all. 

So, I took them home and removed the old marble table top, and put these new ones on.  Then I headed out to the garage and stained them with an ebony colored wood stain.

I loved the knots in the wood on top of the table surface.  It made it look so much more "tree" like and went perfectly with the base of the table. 

And once they dried, they were moved back into my house and ready to be used.  Although I replaced marble with wood which is a bit of a downgrade, I think, these tables are now more stable and definitely more usable. And quite honestly, from a distance, they look just as stunning. 

Perhaps in your own homes, you have furniture items that you wish were more useful.  With a little creative thought, perhaps you can find a way to revamp it and make it  piece of furniture that you can use and enjoy.

From drab to FAB!

I am trying to figure out a way to organize my life this spring and am making it all more of a mess than I am helping the situation.  But, at least the effort is being made.  I feel like I should get points for trying.  I recently scored this old filing cabinet to help aid me in my journey, but it needed to be spruced up a little before I wanted to put it to good use. 

When I first acquired it, it had an old smoky, musty smell that made me want to never open the drawers let a lone put stuff in it.  But I learned a little trick to ridding it of the smell.  The magic of coffee beans.  I put some in a paper cup and set the cup in each drawer for about 2 days.  I don't know the hows and whys of it, but the smell was gone, and my quest for organization could continue.  

I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased some cute contact paper to use to cover this old thing and make it look fancier.  I am not a super patient person, but I have learned that if you want to use contact paper, that is a quality you have to develop. 

I removed the hardware from the front of the cabinet and began wrapping it with the contact paper as if I was wrapping a large gift. 

And look how nice it turned out. 

Now, I am excited to display this newly renovated piece of furniture in my craft room,

and let the organizing begin.

Now isn't that crafty?

A side table ironing board

I have found myself spending a lot more time sewing these days.  When I'm working on my projects, I like to stay in one place as much as possible. Especially when it comes to ironing seams and hems.  Instead of having the ironing board up in my craft room all of the time (it takes up a lot of space), I came up with the idea to have a side table ironing board, so that I can just be as lazy as I want and simply have to turn when I need to press something instead of getting up and walking to another part of the room.

It's nothing more than an old T.V. tray I picked up at the thrift store and covered it with some natural fiber batting, and used hot glue to attach some scrap fabric to the top as the cover.

See, there's nothing hot glue can't do.  That's why I love it so much!

And there you have it.  An ironing side table perfect for all sewing projects.  You would be surprised how much faster your projects go when you don't have to keep getting up and down.

Now............SEW ON!!

A fancy bar stool

I am trying to spice up my house with a little extra color.  I find myself sometimes getting bored of the two toned color and like to express the bold side that sometimes I keep hidden.  Since I am on a bit of a budget, I have to work with what I've got.  So, I turned to the kitchen and saw my boring old bar stools sitting there needing some serious attention. 

I painted them black for starters and then here's where I went crazy...

At Michael's Crafts in the scrapbook paper section, they have these papers that are quite fantastic and look like lace.  I had to have one.  Didn't know what I was going to do with them, but I felt drawn to them. Then I thought back to the bar stools.

I decided to put them on top of the bar stools to add that much needed color and instantly fell in love.  

Now there are three things in life I have found that I cannot live without.  

1. Spray Paint

2. A hot glue gun

3. An air compressor with a nail gun/stapler.

Well, one more thing has now been added to the list of "can't live withouts"

MODGE PODGE

People, if you have not discovered the splendor of this product, then I suggest you get acquainted.  

I cut my paper lace to fit the top of the stool, Modge Podged it on (which puts a coating on it so it becomes no longer like paper, but now wipeable)

And VOILA! Here they are finished.  Just that little bit of color I was craving.  

I think it's all PRETTY CRAFTY!

A new bold color

I have been so fortunate in my home to have a room where I can craft to my heart's content.  I don't have to put things away, I can leave multiple projects out until they are done....but most important, it is a CHILD FREE ZONE!!  I know, it's my own slice of heaven.  I have had this desk in there though that is literrally falling apart.  It was supposed to have a nice glass top to it, which was broken in a move and so here sits this pitiful desk with holes in it where the dowels were supposed to be to support the glass.  It makes it real hard to do large landscape drawings when my pencil keeps finding these darn holes.  Something had to be done.

I found an old kitchen table someone was getting rid of and a light bulb went off in my head.  Best $10 I spent. I took it home and sanded it within an inch of it's life trying to get all of the nicks and marks off of it.  During the process I found out a pretty cool trick.  If you have a piece of furniture that is pine, and it has been dented ('cause pine is kind of soft) put water on the dent and it will swell and the dent will fix itself.  Now don't ask me how it all works....just go with me here and know that it works.

I never used to prime anything before I painted it, but I have learned that if it is a piece of furniture that has ever had any kind of glaze on it, or is going to be used alot, primer is necessary.  It gives the paint something to hang on to.

So after a good layer of primer, I had an out of my mind moment and decided on this CRAZY color of hot pink.  Who doesn't love a bit of color, right?   Well, I thought, "if I hate it, I can always repaint it."  Turns out, I KINDA LIKE IT!!

And although it is super bright and crazy, it makes me smile and want to sit down at it and get right on crafting. 

I guess the point I am trying to share with all of this is.......don't be afraid to be bold.   It's just paint. If you hate it, START OVER!!

Happy Crafting!

A Foot Stool Do-Over

I am in the middle of redecorating my master bedroom-yet again- but this time this redecorating does not involve painting.  Hard to believe I know.  I have decided it is time to update my bedding and some wall hangings and see if that satisfies my need for change.  This will definitely be a change done in segments and as the change unfolds, I will update the progress. 

My first re-do, the foot stool that is positioned at the end of my bed.  It is made of a faux leather, and in it's day was quite nice.  After years of my husband and eye "plopping" down on it, a few of the buttons and stitching have come undone, leaving it looking very worn and well used.

So I started with taking off all of the hardware. 

And carefully removed the leather material from the bench trying very carefully to keep the

foam underneath in tact.

Here's what it looks like without the covering.  I was debating about putting a thin piece of foam over the top so the creases from the previous tufting wouldn't show, but after letting it sit for a couple of days, the creases popped up and created a nice flat top.

I found a fantastic website that has the cutest,  most colorful fabric at such fantastic prices.  Since I couldn't find what I wanted in local fabric stores, I turned to this website and found exactly what I wanted.

Check it out fabric.com

I gathered my air compressor and my air stapler (LOVE THE AIR TOOLS) and started recovering.

Reupholstering is not as daunting a task as some may think.  Especially a bench like this that is pretty square and is much like wrapping a present.  And since I wasn't going to do tufting on the top again, it was pretty straight forward.

I started with the lid.  With a nice ironed fabric, I wrapped it around the top and tightly stapled it to the underboard on all 4 sides.

When I turned it over, this was the result.

Now, the bottom.  I cut 4 strips of fabric that were long enough to cover the various sides of the bench.  And then, simply began stapling.

Here's a view of the corners on the underside of the bench.  To me, reupholstering is nothing more than trial and error.  And who cares if the unseen side isn't pretty.....remember, it's unseen.

Now that that is done, I redirected my focus to the lid again.  Since the underpart of that is seen when the lid is up, I wanted it to look nice and finished.  I used a matching yellow fabric and lined the underside to hide my stapling mess.  I attached one side with staples, the rest was done with heat and bond and hot glue. 

And here is the end result.  I think it turned out FABULOUS!!!

I am going to use the remaining fabric to make a few pillows.  But that tutorial will have to be for another day.