Dining chairs, one of four

After finishing my dining room table I needed to find some chairs to go with it. I wasn't sure of the direction I wanted to go and decided to hold off until I found just the right fit. I scoured the internet looking for inspiration when I stumbled upon this image. I just loved how the turquoise looks so vibrant against the natural wood and the black. Knowing full-well that I would most likely not be able to afford chairs like that I thought I may be able to achieve a similar esthetic if I searched for some parson chairs. I was originally going to get some chairs from Ikea but at $50 a chair it was more than I really wanted to spend. Then I came across these parson chairs on craigslist for $40 for the entire set. PERFECT! 

So I got to work on my first upholstery project, I thought this would be a good starter project as I have some tufted chairs that I would like to reupholster in the near future. Little did I know what a tedious project this would be, sooooo many staples. I decided to tackle this project piece by piece since I don't have very much room in my apartment and I would like to have some chairs that are completed at my house that were finished.

I have finished one chair and am very pleased with the outcome. I know there are imperfections but from a distance it looks quite nice and I am sure by the last chair I will have gotten a bit better. 

I'm so happy with how nice it looks with my table. 

I was running a bit short on fabric as I forgot to factor in the fact that I wanted all of the birds to be facing up. I decided to stitch together two skinnier pieces and finish it off with some buttons down the back. It turned out great and now I just need to get going on the other three. 

Thanks for visiting. 

~Hannah~

first flea market trip, i would call it a success

My sister and I went to our first flea market last weekend and I think we did a pretty good job, I got myself a wooden work bench and a wooden/metal crate for $30. Once I got home I spent some time cleaning up the bench and thought it would make a perfect coffee table since we've been using an end table as a filler. After some extensive scrubbing I finally got this bad boy cleaned up, take a look.

When I found this crate I thought it would be perfect to hold the blankets in the living room.

I also scored myself a table cloth for $2 and a light meter for my grandpas camera for $5. Now I just have to figure out how to work it.

finished...well almost

I was finally able to bring my kitchen table home, I simply have to put a last coat of polyurethane on the table top and attach it to the base. Here's what it looks like. 

once i finish attaching the table top the boards should straighten out, hopefully

getting there

I am making some slow but steady progress on my dining table and I thought I would share. Enjoy :)

 Here is the table top so far. I still need to sand it, fill in the holes, and polyurethane it. Also I plan to cut to top apart and so I have two leaves that will go under the table top, similar to the original design.

Heres the bottom of the table. Originally I was planning on painting it glossy black and I am so glad my dad told me to paint it a flat black. The look it so much softer than I anticipated and I am very pleased with the outcome so far. 

Cant wait to finish it up. :)

its so good to see you, its been way too long

I'm a bit embarrassed to realize that I haven't written a post since February, originally my plan was to write a new post everyday but apparently I didn't count on life getting in the way. However, schools almost done and I plan to fill my summer with loads of projects.

I just bought a table and chairs on craigslist for my friend Emily and I's new apartment and I have big plans to make it stunning. After being a bit discouraged to find that I probably paid too much for it I decided to put that aside and look ahead to what I want it to be. Here are the before pictures. I am hoping by posting these I will be determined to get this project done in a timely manner so I can show you the results.

I love the style of the bottom of this table and it was also one of my reasons for purchasing. I'm not sure what to do with it however, I really like this dark wood look but I need to fix some of these scraps. I am considering painting it black but I just love the look of wood so I may just leave it. My indecisiveness is taking over as you can tell. I have decided for the time being that I will just sand down the scraped parts and assess the situation later. To decide another day.

As you can see the table top is in crappy condition and I plan to replace it. What I really wanted from this table was the workings of it. I wanted to have a small table that could be made larger. There are leaves that slide out on the sides and pop up to align with the top piece, I just love all of the mechanics of it. 

Last weekend I spent a surprising amount of time taking the old seat covers off, finding that underneath the pleather was the original fabric and wood fibers used as a cushion. It was pretty dusty and one of the seats was rotted so I need to make a new one.

Now I need to decide what kind of fabric to use for the seats. I think I'm going to leave that for last, since its my favorite part. Any suggestions?

I need some suggestions

I finally settled on a duvet for my bed and it came on Friday. Now I am just waiting for the new comforter to go in it. The only thing I need to figure out now is what kind of sheets I should get. Originally I wanted to dip dyed stripes but I'm not exactly sure how it will look with my duvet cover. 

Here are some pictures of my new duvet cover. I got it on sale from Urban Outfitters. 

and here is what I was thinking of in terms of the dip dyed sheets except in reverse, with the blue stripes being skinnier and the white stripes being wider. 

I'm not sure if this idea works anymore but I do want a pattern of some sort. If anyone has any ideas feel free to share. 

Holy snow

I got up this morning wondering how much snow we got. So I took a quick peak out the front window. It looked like a lot of snow but not too bad. It wasn't until my roommate went outside and told me to come out that I realized that the other side of the street was a completely different story. 

Heres some pictures from our balcony of the one side of the street that got all of the snow.

You can see how the other side doesn't look nearly as bad. I was going to go to a few places today but the buses are shut down for the day, so I guess thats not happening.