Farm Table and Chairs Reinvented.

I have been searching on Craig's List for some time now to find a table and chairs that would work in the new house.  Finally...I found it!  

Yes, it was going to need a little TLC.  The chairs were stained, the table was scratched and there was four kids worth of jelly and black raspberry ice cream to scrub off.

I started by trying to clean the seats with upholstery cleaner...that was a fail.  Then I thought why not try to paint the seats with ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint)...epic fail.  The painted fabric looked horrible.  My only option was to reupholster the seats.  

 I found this gray and green outdoor fabric for 50% off at our new and very beautiful JoAnn Fabrics store.  I'm very pleased with the after.  The more I craft the more I realize that a mistake or a failure usually causes me to have a final product that I like even more.  I truly believe there aren't any mistakes in crafting. 

The next item I needed to tackle was the table top that was in bad shape.  I was off to Home Depot to buy on orbital sander and sand off the whole top.  I have started to really enjoy using power tools.  There is a strong sense of satisfaction when you can cut or sand wood.

It turned out that the top was made up of very thin pieces of wood and the sanding actually took it down to the wood underneath in some spots.  I was sick to my stomach.  My only option was to trudge ahead and hope for the best.  After three coats of stain (Minwax Honey) and two coats of polyurethane this is my final product.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  I was very proud of my first refinishing project.  I do admit I was a little over the top when I called the kids into the room and had a moment of silence to stare at my table.

For a total cost of around $400 I now have a table and six chairs that I think will look pretty snazzy in our new digs.  

Here she is waiting for her first meal with the Ritter family...pizza.  Don't you love the boxes in the background?  The new house can't be built fast enough.

Chevron Frame

It is fair to say that I'm a little obsessed with chevron.  I can't seem to get enough of the fun squiggles.  So when it came time to paint a picture frame it was obvious that I would turn to two of my favorite things...chevron and typography.

I first saw this frame on Pinterest (of course) which was a pin from The Winthrop Chronicles.  I decided it was adorable and I would give it a try.  I picked up the wood frame and some paint at Michael's and got started.

This was my first attempt at painting a chevron pattern so of course I turned to Pinterest and did a little research.  I used a triangle and just started taping off the pattern.  This was a little time consuming, since I'm far too uptight for anything to be crooked.

I held my breath when I took off the tape.  Unfortunately,  there were some areas that didn't have straight edges.  I've learned with crafts that when something doesn't turn out or gets messed up that the fix usually looks better than the original plan.  I grabbed my sanding block and roughed up the edges of the lines and I really liked the distressed look it created.

Next I used my trusty Annie Sloan wax.  I first used the clear wax and then I put on a little dark wax on top.  I didn't go crazy with the dark wax because my short blog partner doesn't like when I make our projects look too "old".   I painted a wood R that I got at Michael's and sanded the edges a little bit.  With a little hot glue on the back of the R and it was ready for the last step of adding a picture.  I decided to use one of the instagram pictures that I just got in the mail from Foxgram. This site will print your instagram pics in 3x3 prints and mail them to you for 99 cents.  Voila...one more project in the bag.

Facelift for a Tiny Stool

It all started with some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. 

So I had been seeing ASCP all over the web on blogs and Pinterest and I was wondering what all of the fuss was about.  After we moved to Philly and I had some time on my hands I thought I would search out a shop that sells ASCP and try it for myself. All of the choices of colors were a little overwhelming so I decided to
grab a quart of Duck Egg and see what happened.

I had the paint, the clear wax and the dark wax and now all I needed was something to put them on...
For this I would visit a thrift shop and look for anything cheap that was made out of wood that I could paint.

That's when this little beauty entered my life.  Boy does she need some lovin.  I figured for a whopping $3 what could I lose.

I carefully removed the upholstery nails and ripped off the horrible fabric.  I cracked open the can of Duck Egg Blue and painted only the bottom because I decided to purchase a cute chevron fabric to reupholster the top.  

This is what I had at the end of the experiment.  Not too shabby! 
I think I've just been bit by the chalk paint bug.  What can I paint next?
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