The Rocking Chair Makeover!

This week I offered to help a friend reupholster an old chair she had. After a little hard work, I ended up with this to give back to her.

It definitely did not start out looking like that. When I first arrived to her house, this is what greeted me in her garage.

It was purple and literally had a bag over it.

We decided to spray paint it with some high gloss brown spray paint and recover it with some beautiful fabric she picked out.

I trimmed the seam areas with matching red trim simply using hot glue. It covers up any imperfections and makes it look pretty.

I definitely think it's a huge improvement!

For more information of reupholstering old chairs, please visit these posts here, here, or here.

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DIY Gold & White Striped Mirror

I love stripes. That's just a fact. I've striped my bathroom and my bedroom, and I'm sure there will be more stripes in my future.

Today I created this gold and white striped mirror!

It was so simple to make. All I needed was masking tape, white spray paint, and gold spray paint.
First I spray painted the entire mirror white. Then, I taped off where I wanted it to stay white, and spray painted it gold. 

It took a little while to tape it up, but it was worth it! I also distressed it a little with some fine grit sandpaper.

I just love the way it turned out!

You can pin this post so that you can find it if you ever want to make this on your own.

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Learning To Sew: The Painted Pillow Project

My mom tried to teach me to sew earlier this week. We started out by making some pillows for the guest bedroom.

The pillow in the front I painted!

I made a simple envelope pillow using 3 pieces of fabric.

I stenciled the front with some leftover blue paint that I converted to fabric paint and the same stencil I used on the bedroom vanity table. 

I also made a pillow for the chair. 

I got that blue fabric from a shower curtain.

I'm no sewing master yet, but I'm trying to learn! Little by little...

I'm not sure sure I will be a skilled seamstress anytime soon, but I gave it a go.

But eventually, I kinda got the hang of it. Kinda.

and now I'm SUCH an accomplished seamstress that I can make a pillow.

Oh the joy!

Update: Here are my pillows made with glue....aka when I finally came to terms with my lack of sewing skill. 

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DIY Ballard Designs Knock-Off Caned High Back Chair Makeover

I got my Ballard Designs catalog in the mail yesterday. It's like a visit from Santa every time it arrives. (I believe! I believe!) After 30 minutes of devouring every single page, I came away with one cold hard fact: 

I'm pretty sure I have that exact same chair in a closet in my basement...
That I got from Goodwill 2 years ago...and I had no idea what I had on my hands!

Until I saw this in the catalog yesterday:

Look closely.  STARTING at $449 PER CHAIR.

OR, you can get lucky like me and find THIS for $5 at Goodwill:

It's probably not actually from Ballard, but it is seriously identical...even down to the intricate leg detail.

It was dark brown wood when I found it (which was 2 years ago, and that was BEFORE I blogged, so no before pictures...sorry!) and didn't have a seat cushion, but at the time I thought it was neat.

Plus, for $5, I knew I could do something with it.

So, I painted it

 cut a plywood seat and upholstered it

 and trimmed it.

Here's what I ended up with:

I'm not sure where I'll put it yet, but I'm sure it will end up somewhere in the house.

Not too bad for a $500... $5 chair, huh?

To see my top 10 chair makeovers you can visit this post.

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