Sewing Room: Chair Project

So the room I am most excited about is my sewing room/ art studio!!! I'm a majorly crafty person, and I've been working in a tiny space these last three and a half years. My sweet, sweet husband built me a crafting center in our apartment. It takes up one whole wall, which was some precious living space, but it was totally worth it.

It has been really great, but I am soooo looking forward to having room to move and play. As you can see it's pretty cluttered because i have to jam everything I use onto 8 shelves (there used to be 9, but I overloaded one and it fell off the wall... oops!) What do I do exactly... well...
I

• crochet
• sew
• scrapbook
• make cards
• make jewelry
• make accessories
• upcycle
• paint
• draw
• design
• make ceramics
• and play :)

It's been pretty tough trying to do all these things in such a limited, but well organized, space. I'm going to have a whole room to play with. I get half the basement. This is pretty huge for me, and I'm really excited about it. My plans are to have scrapbooking dates, crochet small group nights, sewing days with mama and Annie (my sis), and just have a place to be artistic. Down the road I plan on developing patterns and probably writing a book. I also will probably open an etsy in the near future. Ok, I've got to stop dreaming and get back to the point.

My first project for my sewing room is my table and chairs. I love 50's diner tables, and BOTH of my moms (my mama and my mother-in-law) bought me diner tables. Cheryl (MIL) found a red topped one at an auction. She got it for $1! Yeah, rainy day auctions are the best! My mama found a white topped one with green, pink, blue and yellow flecks at a yard sale. I don't know what she paid, but it was definitely more than a dollar :) I'm gonna use the red one in my laundry room and the white one in my sewing room. The problem with both tables was chairs... neither had four chairs, or four good chairs, SO... my chair project!
I bought 3 mismatched wood chairs at an auction with my MIL, and my mom bought me one from craigslist. I've been sanding and painting like crazy. These pictures are not very good quality because I took them with my phone, but I will try to put up better ones later.
They are a sunny yellow with crazy orange, pink, and yellow damask fabric seats.

Lesson I learned: ALWAYS USE PRIMER!!! I just tried so sand this chair and then paint it... It was a hot mess, so I had to resand it (by hand no less) and then try again. ALWAYS USE PRIMER!!!
This is my MIL's favorite. She used to have these chairs in her dining room when she first got married :)This is chair #4 sans paint. My MIL taught me how to repair cracked legs. (Actually a piece o' cake if you have clamps), and I ripped out the caning. We are going to make a seat out of some scrap wood she has. I'm going to add foam and upholster it.

More pictures soon, as I finish up this project... It may be a few weeks. I have a lot of work to do yet on chair #4, and I will be making pink damask lumber cushions for all the chairs. The little slat back chair is gonna have a box cushion :)

Hope you enjoyed!

our house is a very, very, very fine house :)

My DH and I just recently, last July, purchased our first home (yay!), and we are going to be doing a lot of work on it. Two of my favorite websites are Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy. Over the past few years living in our itty bitty one bedroom apartment, I have been stock piling inspirational pictures from all kinds of design websites to one day use on a house... and that time has finally come! I've started this blog to keep track of all the designing, demo-ing, renovating, blood, sweat, and tears that go into our first place. BUT FIRST, let me post some before pictures!
Living room
Notes: 1) My mother-in-law, who is an angel, bought me paint as a house-warming gift and then spent all weekend helping me paint the living room, dining room, and hallway (which all connect). We used a light green called "Northern Pear Tree". 2) Can you say "hello, natural light!" There are TONS of windows, and they are all huge! Custom draperies are on my projects list. 3) the fireplace... it's HUGE! It runs the entire length of the wall. My DH loves it... I will love it once it's got some fabulous built-ins on top :) We used it a lot this winter, and it is fantastic! 4) That was some of the smelliest shag carpet on the planet... it was the first thing to go! because...

There were gorgeous wood floors underneath! This house was built in the 50's and they added on an addition in the 70's. Only one family lived in it prior to us. (The husband designed and built it for his wife, adorable!) The wife loved carpet... it was everywhere... even in the bathroom!


UGH! The bathroom!
Notes: 1) See the carpet? Who puts carpet in a bathroom! I think it took my longer to tear this out, than it took to tear out the carpet in the living room, dining room, and hallway because it was really hard to get behind the toilet. 2) It might be hard to see much because of the GIANT 70's vanity cabinet. It's like 5' long, has sliding doors (that stick), and a boomerang diner style top (Which I kinda dig) The only thing I'll be sad about when this goes, is I will loose my little green sink... I like it... 3) Green sink, green toilet, nice big green soaking tub... adorable older home charm :) which I lurve! They aren't even a bad color of green... it's like a minty color, so basically precious! 4) the tile... it was (because I tore it out already) plastic tile in a green that didn't really match the toilet and a weird dusty pink color. Not my thing. 4) wall paper- not my thing, has been removed. 5) crazy fluorescent tube (sconces?) also not my thing... Haven't removed them yet. 6) The mirror- was big, which is a plus, but it wasn't framed out, and it wasn't a medicine cabinet mirror... not pretty or functional.
*I have sooo much planned for this bathroom! It's got a lot of potential, and I can see what it will be... and we just got our refund check, so I may get to work on it soon :)

The Dining Room
Notes: 1) I bought a fabulous 1940's Dinette set from Wisconsin Chair Company off craigslist (oh how I love thee!) The chair in this picture is one of the captain's chairs from the set. They have a windsor blue vinyl on them. I love them! 2) This room had a NASTY surprise for us!!! Everything from the light fixture back was the addition. (They put on the dining room, a sun room, and a garage.) I've already shared the previous homeowners' affintity for carpet... well, the did not extend the hardwood floors into the dining room addition. When we pulled up the carpet we found half hardwood, half plywood... :( but Justin (my dh) is laying down some click and lock laminate over it, and then we are going to re-stain the rest of the floors to match. It's a big project, but I think we can make it look nice :) and by we I mean he... naturally...





The Kitchen
Notes: 1) I loves me a galley kitchen! (The appliances aren't great though and there's a CRAZY vent, you can kinda see it in the second picture above the stove-top. It leads directly outside and sounds like a jet plane... not my favorite thing.) We aren't going to be able to do any "real" renovating on the kitchen for about 5-10 years, but that's ok because I get to cook in it and get a feel for it. 2) About two weeks ago, I started the massive project of sanding, priming, and painting all my laminate cabinets. (Pictures... erm, soon?) 3) more plastic tile, this time yellow and black. Yellow is my favorite color, and I kinda liked the yellow and black, but it doesn't go with my color scheme for the house, so I'm trying to figure out what to do... 4) Double stainless steal sink I heart you! (When I post pictures of the apartment's kitchen, you'll know why)


The Basement
Notes: 1) Only two lights downstairs are currently working, so I can't show you everything... There's lots more. Behind the wood paneling there is a laundry room and a work room. Behind the beads (oh yes, beads!) There is a big empty space that will be my ART STUDIO!!! (I could pee my pants I'm so excited!) 2) The 70's called and they want their basement back! lol, I love me some 70's style, but this is a bit too authentic for my tastes. 3) There's a second full bathroom, but..
.
it's gross... it's better now, we've worked on it since these pics were taken, but it's still gross! It's a man bathroom, which is appropriate since I'm gonna let Justin turn his half of the basement into a man den/ family room. This will be the boys bathroom. It's a COLD place to shower in the winter!

OK, Back Up Stairs!

There are three bed rooms...

Bedroom 1: The smallest, will be the nursery for future babies, but is currently our storage room.


Bedroom 2: Middle sized, currently the guest bedroom

Bedroom 3: (which apparently, I did not take a good picture of) The master bedroom. This blue is called "Charted Voyage" and both Justin and I love it.

That's basically everything... I tried to keep the tour cohesive, but somehow I forgot pictures of the sun room, so here it is.

We are going to make it into a game/play room for us and for said future babies.

WOO! that took much longer than I thought it would, but now all the befores are up, so I can start showing you some progress pictures... not tonight... I'll do that once I've recovered from this post, lol. (Oh and if you're thinking "she must be crazy" don't worry, you're right :) I most definitely am!)