Chair Makeover - The Remaking a Curbside Chair for Under $20

So I drove by this chair sitting out by my neighbor's curb and absolutely loved it but had no space for a green chair (or any chair) in my house. After thinking about it for the evening, I decided I couldn't resist this freebie. It may have been the half bottle of wine, but I somehow convinced my husband to walk with me to get it. Here's what we picked up:

Cute, right? Once I got a closer look at it in the daylight, though, I just about completely regretted my decision of picking it up for a few reasons:

1. The vinyl was stained. No cleaning would get it off.

2. It was really dirty. There was no getting the dirt and nastiness out of the seams of the cushions. 

3. The bottom burlap was torn and the padding underneath clearly needed to be replaced.

4. There were spiders everywhere in the underside. Eeek!

I decided that I'd take a stab at recovering it. It doesn't have arms, which I thought would make it easier, and the frame seemed in good shape. If you're planning on recovering a chair, make sure it has a good foundation. This one had springs and I decided to keep them rather than switching to plywood since the springs looked okay. I took a lot of photos taking the chair apart to make sure I knew how to put it back together. I also made sure to keep the outside pieces in good shape to reuse them as a pattern.

Then I cleaned it with disinfecting soap and got all of the spiders and spiderwebs out of the underside. Yeesh, that was gross. I then let it dry, and primed and painted the wooden legs and back support a mint color from a paint sample. After those dried, I used an old burlap bag to cover the springs. This bag was free from a local coffee shop and was washed so it would shrink and not ravel as easily.  I purchased a couple yards of quilting batting from JoAnn's using a coupon for padding the chair. I stapled one layer of batting around all sides, used three layers for the seat, and two layers on the back support. It's turned out to be really comfortable. 

Making sure the cover would fit over the batting.

Then I used the old cover pieces to make the new cover by tracing them on the new fabric with a half inch seam allowance. The new cover is made from a 6'x9' painter's canvas drop cloth I bought from Lowe's for $10. I still have over half of it left for other projects too! Then my husband and I stretched and stapled the cover to the underside of the chair, covered the back and reattached the back to the chair. Here's how it turned out!

Before and after:

It's perfect in our living room and makes it seem more welcoming than before when we had just our gigantic sectional and one chair. I'm so excited to have this pretty chair in my space, and only for the cost of some batting and a drop cloth. 

On a side note, check out this sweet compound miter saw I found at a garage sale this weekend for $60. Barely used. Guess I have some projects to get started on!

Crochet Cushion from a Twin Sheet - Free Pattern

This project originally came from wanting to make a crocheted floor poof. I thought that a twin size sheet would totally make enough fabric yarn for something that big ... Wrong! It did, however, make enough yarn to make this 12" couch pillow/cushion. See below for instructions on how to cut the sheet and the pattern for you crocheters.

Free Cute U.S. Map Printable Download

I created this map to put pins in where I've made sales in my Etsy shop, but you could use it to mark places you've been, teach children (or adults!) the states, or frame it and use it as decor. Note that Alaska is shown at 50% scale because it's huge!

For printing, I took it to Office Max and had it printed on card stock for $0.70. If you have an inkjet printer, just watch your print margins and try it as "fit to page." Download here on Google Docs and enjoy!

DIY Plant Markers from a Plastic Bottle

After last year's seed starting fiasco, I considered not starting my own seeds again this year. Buying plants at the store is so inexpensive, you don't have to worry about your cats eating them, and you don't have to spend the time taking care of them. But, my super great husband got me this four foot grow light for my birthday last year, and so I plant again!

Planting seeds is really only worth it, in my opinion, if there are varieties of plants that you want that can't be found at the store. Yesterday I only started some heirloom tomatoes and peppers, and some random seeds I had left over from last year. I put off planting these for close to a week because I didn't have plant markers and didn't want to spend money on buying some (I know, I get hung up on little things when it comes to getting things done!). Many of the DIY plant markers require rocks, wood, popsicle sticks, or clay, none of which I had on hand. So I roughly followed a tutorial on how to make them out of a plastic bottle.

Click on photo to enlarge.

1. Get your container. I used a vinegar bottle, but you can use a milk jug or any plastic container you can cut through. 2. Cut down the center of your bottle. You may have to use a craft knife to get it started. 3. Cut off the top. 4. Cut off the bottom. You will now have a sheet of plastic. This is the time to wash the plastic well. 5. Cut the strip into 3/4" or so strips. 6. Plant markers! You can cut the bottom to a point but I found it unnecessary. Just write on them with a permanent marker and you're good to go! The tutorial I saw this on said they would hold up to watering, but I have yet to find out.

Cross Stitched iPhone Case

My sister bought this case for me as a gift for my birthday back in November, but I just got around to spending some time on it in the last couple days. Isn't it cute? I saw a similar pattern online, and used some thread I bought from a garage sale. The case I have is no longer available on Amazon, but you can find a similar one here.

Friday Findings - Tutorials

anemone magnets :: fabric project baskets :: fake calligraphy :: crochet garland

Andes Mint Cupcakes

Here's another sweet treat I made for my mom's birthday (along with the coffee syrups) and they were so yummy. I halved this recipe to only make about 16 cupcakes for a small celebration, but you can see the full recipe here. It looks intensive because of the long ingredients list, but it was really pretty simple. You could even use a box cake mix for the cupcakes and just make the frosting and ganache. Also don't substitute peppermint essential oil for peppermint extract like I almost did. The bottle was open, ready to be poured when I had an "aha!" (or maybe more like a "stop it stupid!") moment to make me come to my senses. Peppermint is known to be awakening, after all.