Tiki Torch

I have been saving wine bottles for some time now.  My husband looks at the amount and ask what am I going to do with all of them.  Give me time and I will do something with them.

My first project was making tiki torches for the backyard.  I used my Cricut machine to cut out some contact paper.  Once the contact paper was cut I adhered it to the bottles and sprayed them with frosted glass "paint" by Krylon. 

I really like how they came out.  I have made a set for my brother-in-laws house.

Revamped Patio Chair and Side Table

Lately, I have been crazy busy with both boys being in lacrosse.  I ended up becoming the High School Lacrosse Booster's President (v.p., treasurer and secretary).  So that has taken up the rest of my free time. 

In between the craziness, I managed to repaint my new (new to me since I bought them at an antique store) patio chairs and make some cushions for them. 

I saw the outdoor material at Walmart.  I love the playful look of it.  I found the foam for the cushions at a local store (not a craft store).  One morning after the the boys went off to work and school I started to mae my pattern for the first set of cushions.  Boy was this a pain in the behind.  But, the look is more "tailored" than the one I took the short cut on.  Although the short cut used less fabric.  Oh well.  I do like the way they came out.

Before

After

Now onto recovering my pool lounge chairs.

The King and Queen are Reunited

A while ago I posted a photo of a Bergere chair I had reupholstered for my livingroom.  I knew I wanted another but could not find one anywhere.  After giving up hope, I was looking around Craigslist and found an ad for two chairs.  One of them is a Bergere style but smaller than the one I had.  I sent an email to the listing sellar and picked it up the next morning.  In the picture below the one of the left is the one I really wanted but got both chairs for $40.00.  Both are in great shape.

 

The chair project got put on hold due to the fact it was summer and awfully hot in the garage.  Then my husband and I repainted the livingroom.  Once the livingroom was repainted I knew it was time to get working on the chair.  I can honestly say I do not like caning on a chair or at all.  I spent many many hours ripping out the caning on the backrest.  When the spackle to fill in where the caning was, I worked on stripping/sanding and repainting the chair.  I am so glad I over ordered the fabric since I had to rip the seat cover off twice.  Do you know how hard it is to remove upholstery staples???  When I got the seat cover under control I stapled all of the double welt on the chair.  Now it was off to the sewing machine.  I had ripped apart the original seat cushion to use as my pattern.  I have found every sewing project I do I always end up ripping it apart.  I realized when I was half way done with makine the slipcover for the down cushion, I sewed the zipper on the front side not the backside.  Let's just say me and my seam ripper were good friends.  lol

Well enough of my ramblings, here is the find chair with the king sized match. 

My husband thinks the cushion on the "queen" looks funny but I keep telling him it is because of the feathers in the cushion.  I also make a back cushion for the "king, which you can not tell by the photo.  The red throw pillow were store bought.

Off to the next reupholstery project (the pinkish chair in the first photo).

Black and White Bergere Chair

My last project was reupholstering a Bergere Chair.  I guess I have been watching too many Nate Berkus shows.  He always talks about thrift store shopping.  I always thought shopping at a thrift store meant welfare.  Sorry if I have offended anyone.  But, watching the Nate Berkus Show I see there is more than clothes in these stores

One day I was all set to go to a local Salvation Army to look for a chair.  I went in with the notion I wouldn't find anything.  I walked past all the clothes and found myself in the furniture areas.  As I looked straight ahead what do I see.  Yes, the exact type of chair I was looking for.  Here she is before the "facelift".

After several hours over the course of 2-3 days, I think I took out hundreds of staples.  Not easy on the hands.  I sanded the chair down several times.  Then I primed the chair with two coats of primer.

Then came the black satin paint.  I loved it as soon I put the first coat on.

After the chair was dried I applied two coats of poly on it.  Let me say this is a project I honestly thought what the hell was I doing.  I had never sewn double-welt cording before.  I remember sitting in the living room with the fabric rolled out thinking how in the world amy I going to make the pattern flow once the chair is completed.  Oiy, my head was spinning.  Then on night it came to me.  I knew how I was going to do it.  I got up the next morning, rolled the fabric back out and got to cutting.  I stared with the pieces that I had to staple down.  How much could I screw that up, I thought.  I bought new foam for the cushions, layed that down and stared stapling.  Once I had the first piece stapled I knew I liked it.  My confidence went from "what the hell was I doing" to "yes, I can do this."  I managed to figure out the double-welts and the piping.  With all that hard work behind me I can honestly say I loved how my chair came out.  I am currently looking for another one.

My modern Black & White Bergere Chair.