Freebie workhorse chairs...

Sometimes a freebie proves itself valuable over and over.
I rescued these 2 chairs that had been discarded in the alley behind my former house years ago, and this is third time I've repainted and recovered them. They've been used in my living room, guest room, office, and now in my craft room. I had recently recovered my bedroom headboard with grey felt and removed the existing green print fabric that was still in perfect condition. I unscrewed the seat cushions and stapled the repurposed headboard fabric over them. Then, it was just a matter of repainting the chair frames white to give them both a fresh look.

What I learned from this project:

1. Not too much since this was the third time I've redone these chairs.

2. But I still had enough fabric left over to make a yoga mat carrier. (Learned how from a tutorial on YouTube)

3. I hate yoga.

Not your parents' card table...

Remember sneaking out of bed when you were a kid and peeking around the corner when your parents had some friends over to play bridge? Two couples seated around the ubiquitous card table, sipping "highballs"...me neither. My parents didn't play bridge...ok, well I remember the "highball" part. Anyway, everyone had a card table that got dragged out for those poker nights or for the ever dreaded "kid's table" at Thanksgiving. And it may have been a temporary stand in for a dining table in your first apartment.

 

The point is, they are useful...but they are also  ugly. And the more use they get, the uglier they get.
Here was my parents' card table after many years of abuse until its final banishment to the garage where all manner of further abuse made it all the more unsightly. 

But that was about to change.


I wanted something fun and colorful that could stand on its own without needing to be covered with a tablecloth. My supplies were a fruity patterned oilcloth purchased online and some orange spray paint. I unscrewed the table top from its metal base and just wrapped the oilcloth around the top, then stapled it to the underside. Then I spray painted the frame orange and screwed the top back on after it was dry.
Done.
Now, where's my highball???

What I learned from this project:

1. Be careful to make sure the staples aren't so long that they poke through the tabletop. The first staples I tried were a little too long and so I had to switch to shorter staples.  

2. After initially thinking I would use vinyl, I decided on oilcloth since it's more pliable and durable, especially if you are using the table outside.

3. I don't like highballs.

                                                               

Drama Queen...

It's summer and it's been a good 3 months where the house has been relatively calm and chaos free. Well, we can't have that, can we?
Time for more remodeling...

total tile cost for this bath: $5.50 !!

gutted powder room

Next up on our project list was to redo our first floor powder room and to finally rip out the carpeting (ewww!) from this and 2 other bathrooms and replace it all with tile. We had enough gray porcelain tile (just barely) left over from the basement bath remodel to complete the floor in the powder room. All the tile cost us a whopping $11 on Craigslist. Not bad for 2 bathrooms. Looks great (see above).





The powder room needed to be completely gutted, so I searched CL for a replacement vanity. Sadly, nothing inspired me.

The floor tile was our only CL score, but we did repurpose a couple of items we already owned. An inexpensive Target framed full length mirror ($14) now serves as our tall vanity mirror. Using that simple item saved us hundreds of dollars that we otherwise would have spent for a custom framed mirror.  LED lights from Home Depot hide behind it and make the whole mirror GLOW when the wall switch is flipped on. We splurged on the tile behind the mirror, but since it was for a small area, we didn't need very much.

We finished off the bathroom with some framed artwork we picked up at a local art fair and some framed Chicago postcards.

And the shutter leaning against a wall is part of a closet door salvaged from our basement remodel. I spray painted it a grape purple and display folded cards over it.

A little drama in a little room.

What I learned from this project:
1. Small room does not equal short time. This project took FOREVER, because we ordered some key items (waiting, waiting...)

2. And many steps were dependent on a certain thing being completed/installed before we could order the next material.

3. So we threw a party when it was finally done...a small party...only as many people who could cram into the powder room at one time were invited...that would be 4.