Club Chair Before and After

After our little family trip to wine country last week my mom stayed a few extra days in California to help me with a little project called upholstery 101. My mom has upholstered numerous couches and chairs, and when she was my age she even had her own futon making business. So I was thrilled when she volunteered herself to help me out with reupholstering my found club chair. I’ve done a few seats before, but nothing this large scale, so it was nice to have a guide. Remember what it looked like before? It was in a neighbor’s yard, all ready to be thrown out. And boy, was that brown faux leather gross. It was sticky and dirty and ready to go.

And now it is gone! I didn’t even tell you which fabric I really picked after going back and forth and back and forth. I finally ordered Annie Selke Links in Taupe. I ordered 7 yards from joann.com and it was plenty. I think I have about 2 yards left (any takers for the extra?), and joann.com ships much faster than ordering custom fabric from the brick and mortar Joann.

We put the pattern on sideways so it would have a vertical effect on the low chair. I sanded and re-stained the legs so they would look nice and clean, like the new fabric. It’s all new and shiny and I just want to sit in it all of the time. Do you see all the cording? I think that may be my favorite part. That, and the sexy, sexy legs.I took Monday and Tuesday off work so I could learn about the process and help my mom as she worked. She mostly told me what to do and it took us both full days of working 8am to 5 or 6pm to finish it. Not a quick process.

I am proud of us, and proud that it looks really good. My grandma even told me it looks ‘professional’ on facebook. And she has definitely worked on her fair share of sewing and upholstery!

I am also proud that I only needed to take one trip to Joann in the two days of work. I had anticipated about 3 or 4, but we dealt with using thread that wasn’t meant for my sewing machine, and I was able to buy most of my supplies online beforehand. (I used onlinefabricstore.net, and despite a few bad reviews online I received all the correct supplies very quickly since I expedited shipping for 3 business days).

I’ll share some in progress photos and more about the upholstery process in a later post. Meanwhile, you can imagine me sitting curled up in this chair drinking a big cup of coffee (very careful not to spill any on the new fabric!).

-Liz

 

Want to know more about the process and how to recover an old chair? Check out my tutorial!

Mood Board Monday: Mark Rothko

Rothko at the DeYoung via Mr Ush on Flickr

I spent the afternoon at the DeYoung Museum at their traveling Picasso exhibit which was fun. I am a big Picasso fan! I also took a few minutes to look around the permanent collections and saw this beautiful Mark Rothko piece. The colors are great, and I thought that I could make a mood board inspired by this Rothko.

Here goes:

The space is an open loft that needs to be used for work during the day, dinner at night, and living in on the weekend. Very versatile, yet glamorous and fun. (and colorful!) I didn’t hold back with a realistic budget– I just used what was pretty! My favorite piece may be the gorgeous round bookshelf, which would define a space, and the Celestial Coasters (which I may actually buy for my living room anyway).

-Liz

Sources:

Chroma Candlestick from Antrhopologie

Celestial Coasters from Anthropologie

Dinerware from Palais XIII

Rhys Chair from Anthropologie

Handmade Contemporary Majesta Rug from Overstock

Metal Truss Work Table from West Elm for a work space during the day and dinner at night

Henry Sectional from West Elm inDandelion

French Column Glass Swing-Arm Lamp by Restoration Hardware

Kansai Bookcase from Anthropologie

Design Love: Navy and Dark Wood

I’ve recently been attracted to some images featuring navy blue walls and dark wood accents. Can I make a space like this in my house? I may be running out of room for decorating…

Image via Centsational Girl

Image from Lonny via Bryn Alexandra Interiors

Image from Lonny via Name 5 Things

Photo by Laure Joliet

Pictures that didn’t make the Small/Cool cut

I took a few other pictures last week in preparation for Apartment Therapy’s Small/Cool contest (thank you thank you if you voted! and if not, click here), and thought I’d share them. First off, Daphne being chill (for once) on her new doggie bed.

This is part of the bedroom. I need some more art.

That chair is never that empty. There are always clothes on it.Another bedroom pic. Love love love that lamp and the fuzzy pillow! Please note my Martha Stewart business book on the side table.

Another picture of the living room with my Alameda Antiques Fair lamp and and candle holder, handmade pillow, and etsy GG Bridge print.

-Liz

Korin’s Bold, Modern, and Geometric Living Room Ideas

I mentioned that I was helping Korin decorate her open living room in her new SF apartment, and I thought I’d share what I put together for her living room. Remember what her living room looks like now?

Ideas for her bedroom and den still to come.  Here’s the scheme for the living area:

Colors: Gray, mustard yellow, tomato red, and silver finishes

With the use of shades of gray as a neutral base, the living room will be comfortable and cozy, without the stark white of a new apartment. Accessorized with shades of tomato red and mustard yellow (which already exist in pillows on the current couch!), and geometric shapes as accents (a well placed cb2 cubist sculpture on the TV console to mimic the current geometric side tables) the room will have a fun, playful atmosphere, while still feeling grown up. The window wall can be covered with gray wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling curtains on a track to soften the room’s geometrical shapes. New art (from 20×200) framed in silver above the couch match the colors of the room and the geometrical theme, and a red comfy chair can replace the ikea lounger.

Two bookshelves (like this or this or this) flank the TV to add depth and interest to that wall. Accessorize with silver vases, red and yellow flowers, and books (free up space in the den!). Storage baskets on the bottom of the shelves can hide TV accessories and other living room staples (games, blankets, etc).

Modern Geometrical Mood Board:

Sources for Mood Board:

CB2 Parlour Chair $699

West Elm Geo side tables (already owns)

Art from 20×200 $50

West Elm gray sofa (already owns)

West Elm Bello Shag Rug $849 for a 9×12

Yellow chevron pillow from etsy $26

What do you think? Would you decorate using a plan like this?

-Liz

Sarah’s Oakland Bungalow (In Progress)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent most of last Saturday helping my friend Sarah (of Urbivore) fix up her new home in Oakland, CA.  I’ve known Sarah since 9th grade or so, and owning a home has been her dream since she moved out to CA over a year ago. Her new old house is 1950′s bungalow style, with nice newly refinished wood floors, lots of light, and lots of imperfections on the walls, which I became intimately familiar with as we spackled, sanded, swiped, and painted during the day. The living room above is the prettiest room in the house with TONS of light from the east and south facing windows. Her fireplace is really cool too, and has a bit of potential for awesomeness! (The pink mirror above, less so)

Here’s Brentan and Sarah in the entryway, right before we went out to get some delicious tacos for lunch and primer to fix that ugly patch on the wall in the following photo.

Sarah had picked out some paint colors before we arrived, and here is Lori (Sarah’s friend from college) looking at the mess we need to clean up. This room is the dining room, and I can just see a cute chandelier with Sarah’s vintage modern turquoise chairs and teak table so well in here! We painted this room grayish blue, but I didn’t manage to snap any during or after pictures.

Sarah’s eventual plan, and instigator of buying her first house, is to transform the yard into an urban edible garden, complete with chickens!

I’m going back next weekend for any support Sarah needs. Stay tuned for more updates.

-Liz

I Made a Pillow and You Can Too!

Do you like how easy I made it seem in the headline? I swear you can make this pillow cover.

But first off, let me tell you that I finally finished the bench that I’ve been working on since… November? Remember my fabric saga (here, here and here)? And remember what the bench looked like before? Yuk.

The finished bench turned out cute, but a little lumpy. I probably should have put new stuffing in, instead of reusing the 50+ year old innards. I had to sew the piping on, which also is a bit uneven. But I notice all my little details.

I painted the legs too, with leftover bronze spray paint from my coffee table.

Geometric Upholstered Bench

I had a bit of leftover fabric, and decided to make a quick pillow cover, for an old Ikea pillow that I don’t use anymore.

Here’s a super easy way to make a new pillow out of an old one. All you just need is cute fabric and matching thread, and some velcro or a large button if you like.

• Measure the size of one side of the old pillow cover.
• Cut out one piece of your new fabric that is 1″ larger in length and width than the old pillow cover. This will allow for a 0.5″ seam.
• Cut out two pieces of your new fabric in the same width (plus an inch), and length divided in half plus 4 inches (0.5l+4 if you remember algebra). This will give you enough room for a 0.5″ seam and a bit of overlap so the pillow cover is like an envelope. For example, if your original pillow cover was 21″x16″ these two pieces will be 21″x12″. The back will eventually turn out like this:

Detail of the back of the pillow

• With the right side facing down, fold over about 0.5 inches on the long side of the smaller pieces. Then fold it over again. Use an iron to get the creases to stay.
• Unfold one of these creases and sew straight down the piece of fabric to create a seam. Fold over the fabric (where you ironed it before) to hide the seam. Repeat with other small piece of fabric.
• Pin the 3 pieces together with right sides facing each other and the two smaller pieces overlapping so it makes a rectangle as large as the largest piece of fabric.
• Sew all the way around this rectangle.
• Turn inside out and place on pillow! Here’s where you could also sew a piece of velcro or button onto the back of the pillow cover to hold it together, rather than it gaping open. I would have, but didn’t have either of these notions on hand. (Don’t you love the word ‘notions’!?)

Ta-da! New, custom pillow!

Are my directions clear enough? I basically figured it out as I went.

New geometric pillow!

I did learn a few things, namely that my seams were not 0.5″, and the case turned out a little large. No big deal though. I’ll probably change my mind on the pillow in a few months anyway. Any sewing projects that you have coming up or just finished?

-Liz