slow and steady wins the race

Just a little update.

(You can also see the new gray trim of my bedroom.)

finished ottoman and chair guts

Two posts in one day! Crazy. The first photo is of the ottoman I reupholstered, of course I didn't think to take a picture until I had already unpeeled the layers. But, this poor ottoman had seen some things. At some point they straps/webbing had given out. The previous owners had wedged a metal rod underneath to support the piece of wood they were using to replace webbing. The original foam had dry-rotted, so to keep the ottoman in use they then placed a thin piece of foam on top and used another piece of fabric to cover and used a combination of nails and thumb tacks to secure.

I had already wiped the wood legs down with danish oil, and then after the layers were removed I used jute webbing in a basket weave pattern attached with a staple gun. I then used 3'' foam and a nice layer of batting to bring back the cush. For you that haven't had to buy new foam you may not know how expensive it really is. The foam I used from Joanne's fabric is 24'' wide and cost $49.99 a yard. My ottoman is 24'' by 21'', so this means that the one cut they give you at the fabric store was perfect for my project, I just bought exactly 21''. So, a little over half a yard and I had a 50% off coupon, I got my new foam for about $13. Good deal.

I then just put the felt on upside down pinned my corners, stitched with my sewing machine, stapled in place, used upholstery nails on the corners to insure no shifting. I covered 4 matching buttons, used a large upholstery needle to pull them through, tied them underneath with some scrap felt in the knot so they won't pull through. That's it, pretty easy project.
The last picture is of the matching chair that I started to take apart last night. There is one more chair that goes with this set, it has a lower back, and is considered the Mrs. chair. They all belong to the same set as the couch I just finished. I know it doesn't seem too imaginative to be using gray felt again, but I change and move my house around so much that I've found to stand the test of time, neutral is they way to go. Everything else can change around your major pieces without ever having to change your furniture.

bedroom inspiration

I am still slowly tinkering around at transforming our master bedroom from a kids playroom back to where adults sleep.

The first photo I believe is from AT, and I loved the trim color around the windows. I wish we had some exposed brick, but that can be a later project.
The second photo came from the brick house archives, and I believe she used it as inspiration for her DIY handles on her bookcases. We have two crawlspace doors in our bedroom that I want to make a pair of these handles for, and stain walnut.
The third picture is a window treatment that I have been looking for, for a couple of weeks now. I have seen it many places, but when you start to look for the picture it can't be found. I finally found the picture via Doorsixteen. I'm thinking unbleached and gauzy, but with two hooks on either corner of my windows and may be just two grommets on either corner of window panel.
The last photo is from D16 also, and I like the box spring cover. Our mattress and box spring is on the floor(since I sold our bed frame)and I have already covered it in unbleached burlap.

Things are starting to come along. I am also working on reupholstering a set of chairs and an ottoman for the bedroom. I finished the ottoman this weekend and I will try to post a pic later today.

Urban Eggs

Our hens finally started laying, and I have to say I feel like a proud mom. We are all very excited to have fresh eggs waiting for us in their nesting box everyday. We have the 4 hens, and right now we are getting between 2-3 eggs a day, and they are delicious.

Almost finished...

The sofa is almost finished, its hard to find time to work on it, with a three year old running around the house and wanting to help, or claiming that the tools that I'm using are actually his tools. The sofa is so large, and by far the biggest upholstery project I've done, and I have had to work on it in place. I have yet to do the back panel of the sofa, but that should be straight forward.

As you can see in the last picture, the previous owners used a 2x4 to support the right leg. That issue will also need to be addressed, but since it is solid I haven't been in as big of a rush to deal with that issue.

We have also had some other things going on around the house. We decided it was time to take the master bedroom back over, and my husband built a loft bed for Baby J in his new room. When I feel these projects have been completed, I will also post photos of our once again master bedroom, and Baby J's bed up in the air.

A little update...

There have been a few computer issues at our house, and that is a big reason that I have not been able to update this blog.

I also have been working on a few projects.

This is just one of them. Sorry the first image is of the almost finished couch from the second image. I have put a lot of hours in to this little craigslist freebie.

We love it. It is so long. so comfy. I will update more later, just a little peek at what I've been up to.

We've been busy...

Well, I'm not sure where to start. But, we have been very busy and I haven't had much time to blog.

I will start with the first two photos. I found this chair and a vintage scoop back chair in an alley not far from here, dirty and alone, about to be poured down upon. I snatched them both up, the white one being my favorite. I've seen this shape before, but at this point I can't turn anything up online. If anyone knows anything about it, please leave a comment.

The next photo is of a chair we found at a thrift store in Rolla, when we were on our way to go camping, at $5, I paid for it, and hoped we had room for it on our way home. After a weekend of fly fishing, floating, and camping, we picked it up on our way back through and my husband tied it fown to the roof of the car. It made it home in one piece. I thought it might be made by Dux, but I can't find any markings. The webbing was shot, so I went ahead and re-webbed the underneath. The cushion was dry rotted, so I found a new cushion, and now its just about good as new.

Some of the photos online of the Dux lounge chair had an ottoman to match, which my husband thought was great, so I've been also working on an ottoman we've had in the basement, trying to stain the wood to match the teak base of the chair.

The next photo is of a tray table that I found at an estate sale. I found the base folded and tied up in the basement, the woman at the sale had not a clue as to what it was, and charged me a $1. The next day, I went back to see what else I could find at half price. I found the brass tray, priced at $38, but at half price $19, I got this beautiful Middle eastern tray table for $20. I found the same one on 1stdibs, for $2200. Not bad.
And last but not least, we spent all day in the car(with a few thrift stops)on our way to check out our next big project, a vintage Yellowstone camper, that is sitting on a piece of property that my parents just bought. We were almost to the Iowa border, it was probably the hottest day of the year, but we were able to take lots of photos, do lots of measuring, and lots of dreaming about our new camper.