Back to Black: Reupholstered Chair for Great Room

Yes, I know. I've been on a bit of a revamped chair kick recently! While at St. Vincent De Paul last week, I spotted this lovely chair. It caught my eye with the cool bevels in the wood...and the ugly fabric of course! I decided to purchase the chair to refurbish for my Great Room. Thought it would be a lovely piece to add next to my fireplace and at only $10 it was hard to pass up!

So here's the before and after! Here's how I transformed this chair for less:

First stop, Hancock Fabrics. I love to check out the remnants section. At $4 a yard, you can't go wrong! So my Great Room features deep colors that can be found in most rooms of my house: deep reds, tans, olive green, and black. My match the decor, I opted for a traditional and posh pattern with those colors. I purchased one yard knowing that would be more than enough!

Next, I took apart the chair seat from the base. Just 4 screws held the chair together.



I washed the chair to get rid of all dust and grime. Then I primed with Zinsser 123 Bull's Eye white paint. I did two coats, allowing dry time in between each coat.



While waiting for the paint to dry, I decided to work on the seat cover. I first removed the old seat cover and all staples. I reused the padding underneath, just straightened out and made sure it was in good enough condition.



I measured, making sure the pattern was completely centered on the seat. I stapled into place, and often flipped the chair seat over to make sure everything was staying aligned and perfectly in place.



When the primer had set, I painted the chair base in Krylon's flat black spray paint. Normally I really don't like using Krylon. Yes, it's cheap, but I feel like I have to do more coats than Rustoleum which actually costs more in the long run. I finished  with a thin coat of Minwax polyurethane.

So again, here's the before and after!

Final costs for this project: $10 for the chair from St. Vincent De Paul, $4 for the yard of fabric from Hancock Fabrics, $4.50 for the Zinsser primer, $7 for the two cans of Krylon flat black spray paint. I had some Minwax already on hand so final cost was right around $25!

Faux Finish Wallpaper in the Master Suite

About three years ago I wanted to wallpaper my hall bathroom, but I was very nervous since I had never wallpapered anything in my life. I was very lucky to bring wandering through the aisles at Lowe’s and happened to find Paper Illusion, a wallpaper that you tear and overlap. The sales man swore there was no way we could mess it up so we decided to give it a whirl.

Hall Bathroo

We picked out the shade Tuscan Red. My house has a red theme throughout, so this color fit in perfectly! It was extremely easy to use. The Paper Illusion comes in a roll large roll like normal wallpaper with a pre-treated glue back side. All we had to do was tear the wallpaper into random sized pieces, dip in water for a couple of seconds, stick it to the wall, smooth it out with a flat edge and wipe away the access glue.

It took me about 4 hours to finish my entire hall bath. The time consuming part was tearing the paper. I didn’t know at the time, but it really doesn’t matter what size you tear the pieces into really; it’s the homeowner’s preference. I ended up doing mostly 8x8” pieces with some smaller ones to fill in the gaps. I also tried to make sure that I covered all of the flat edges from the side of the paper with the torn edges (it makes a cooler effect).

The cost was $39 per roll and I needed two rolls to complete the hall bath (I do have leftovers as well). I also bought a new shower curtain on clearance from JC Penney’s for $19.99. I love completely changing the feeling of a room for less than $100!

So the wallpaper in the hall bath worked out so perfectly that this year I decided to re-vamp my master bathroom and also one accent wall in my master bedroom using this product. This time we chose Marble Earth and I LOVE it...mainly because it adds texture to my bland walls, plus I can switch out my bedspread and bath accessories to anything in the future and it will match!

This project took a little longer to finish, split between a couple of days. Probably around 10 hours total since there was a lot of weird angles in the bathroom.While the wallpaper is no longer in stock at Lowe’s, you can check outwww.wallpaperillusions.com for all of their products and colors. They actually have quite an assortment, plus some nice before & after shots.

The price was $39 per roll for this round as well and I needed two rolls for the bathroom and two for my master bedroom wall (I have some leftovers too just in case). Not too bad to completely transform a bedroom and bathroom for $160!

The current red accessories in my master bath are completely yack. At the time I purchased them, I wanted something red to match my bedspread, but I am just NOT digging it these days. Once I find a new comforter, I’ll get some modern accessories for my fab new bathroom. Until then, these will just have to do!

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Reupholstered Desk Chair for the Kiddo

As seen in last week’s blog here, I finished transforming an old wooden desk into an art station for my three year old daughter. While I love the way the finished desk looks, I really needed a new chair to make it functional.

Note: yeah, I just couldn’t help myself to move it into my kiddo’s bedroom. It’s just adorable!

While roaming through the aisles of my recent favorite store (Goodwill), I found a wooden spindled chair with an old leather upholstered seat for $9. I thought it would be perfect to transform this chair since I would be able to change out the seat cover fabric with something modern to match her new bedroom.

So here’s the before, and after!

OK, here’s how the transformation took place:

The chair was actually in pretty good condition when I purchased it. While it was covered in some grime (probably used as a kitchen chair in its previous life), it was nothing that a little soap & water and sanding couldn’t fix.

I first took the leather upholstered seat off the chair base. The seat was attached with a couple of screws underneath the chair base, plus adhered with a hot glue around the seat rim.

Once the seat was fully removed, I clean the entire chair with soap and water, then lightly sanded with a light grade sand paper. I rewashed the chair base when I was complete with the sanding to make sure all of the dust was removed.

The empty seat base was the nastiest. There were old crumbs and dirt wedged into the nooks, but luckily some good ol’ scrubbing and disinfecting took care of the job.

I primed the entire chair with Zinnser Bull’s Eye 123 spray paint primer. I absolutely love this primer and suggest it for almost any project! It goes on smoothly and has wonderful coverage, especially when dealing with odd shaped like spindles.

I covered some of the chair base with two coats of primer since I knew it would get a lot of wear and tear, especially from a three year old!

Next I lightly sanded the primed chair to get the smoothest surface for my final coat. I chose Valspar’s semi gloss off white spray paint to cover the base of the chair. I used two coats and left it to dry overnight.

Now time to work on the upholstered seat! The current leather that covers the seat is actually placed quite well. I was afraid to take it off and lose some of the curvature of the current padding underneath so I decided to just upholster with my new fabric over the leather.

I chose a green geometric fabric from JoAnn Fabrics to cover the seat that has some accents of cream and pink. This perfectly goes with my daughter’s desk and either play room or bedroom, depending on where I finally decide to keep the desk! I purchased one yard on sale for $2.99.

To begin, I laid the fabric upside down on a flat surface and aligned the chair seat on top upside down as well. I played around with the placement until I had it perfectly centered. With the geometric pattern, it was easy; I just made sure the center of the chair had a row of the circles going straight down the middle.

I measured the new fabric for cutting, making sure I had enough to overlap and secure into place.

Starting with the straightest side of the chair seat, I folded over the fabric and used my staple fun to secure starting from the center and making my way out to the edges. I had to make sure the fabric was smooth and tight, often flipping over the chair seat to check my progress.

I repeated with the opposite side of the chair seat, firmly pulling as I went but making sure my pattern was staying centered.

To work with the rounded edges, I made sure that any folds in the fabric happened underneath the chair seat where no one would see it. Often I made tiny folds and stapled into place to make sure I had the smoothest cover possible.

I continued along the sides, pulling firmly along the way. I ran my hammer over all the staples when I was finished making sure everything was tightly secure, then trimmed all access fabric.

I decided to pre-treat the newly covered chair seats with some Scotchgard Fabric Upholserty Protectant that I purchased some time ago from the local hardware store for about $8. I use this on my dining room chairs and thought it would work perfectly on this desk chair.

Once the chair seat was dry, I screwed it back onto the chair base. There were only 5 screws and they were mostly towards the center of the chair, so I added some hot glue around the edges to make sure it was 100% secure.

And here is the transformation! I decided to put the desk in my daughter’s bedroom afterall, and I have to say... it goes perfectly with her room!

Final costs: $9 for the chair, $3 for the fabric, $4.50 for the Zinsser primer, $3.50 for the Rustoleum semi gloss white spray paint. $20 total! Not to shabby for something totally unique.

Revamped Desk for Kids Play Room

My daughter is a budding artist so I really thought she’d love a space to create and color of her own. While I was at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, I found a great desk for $30 that was in pretty good shape. When I called my hubby to see if he could pick it up, he mentioned that his mother had an old desk in the basement from when he was a kiddo that we could have... for free!



I nervously passed on the desk from Goodwill to see if I could turn my mother-in-law’s trash into treasure. Luckily, when I saw the desk in the back of her basement covered in toys and books, it was worth the wait! While it had some scratches and dents, overall it was a steal.

So here’s the before... and after! Here’s how I completed the transformation:



The first thing I did after getting the old desk home was give it a complete cleaning. The bottom was covered in cobwebs and the drawers were a little dirty. I washed everything with some light soap and water. Then I sanded the entire desk down.

The top had a large ball of puddy stuck to the top which I had to use the power sander to fix. For the drawers and crevices, I just used some light grade sandpaper. Once I was finished giving the desk a light sanding, I wiped down the table again to make sure it was clear of any leftover dust and grime.



To prime the table, I used Zinsser cover stain with the brown label. I used a roller to cover the large areas of the desk, a brush to get into the crevices and the spray paint version to cover the drawers with a smooth finish. I decided to prime the desk with two coats since I knew it would get a lot of wear and tear, sanding the desk lightly between each coat.



Once it was fully cured, I sanded the desk down once more and wiped off all debris. Now, this desk is going in a play room for now, but eventually I hope on having this playroom turn into a nursery and move this desk into my daughter’s bedroom. So, in order to do this, I had to make sure the color scheme would fit in both rooms.

For the actual top coat, I decided to use Rustoleum white semi gloss spray paint on the base of the desk. For the drawers, I used an offsetting color of spray paint, Sweet Cream by Krylon. I wanted the drawers to pop a little bit off the rest of the desk, and I thought the Sweet Cream color would go perfectly with my daughter’s bedroom set once it’s moved.

To finish the project off, I coated the desk in Minwax polyurethane spray paint in semi gloss. This will really protect my paint job and give it some durability.



Total cost of this project: $23 for the can of Zinsser cover stain paint (with plenty of leftover for future projects!), $7 for two cans of Rustoleum white spray paint, $7 for Minwax polyurethane and $12 for rollers and paint trays. The rest of the supplies I already had in my paint closet, mostly just drop clothes and sandpaper. So, the total was $49 (yeah, remember I got the desk for free!). LOVE IT.

For the desk accessories, I found the pencil holder and organizer from WalMart for $10. I wrapped a green and brown striped ribbon around the pencil holder to bring out the colors of the room. I filled the accessories with my daughter’s favorite art supplies.



I will probably line the drawers in the future with some cool scrapbook paper and of course I need a chair, but until then it’s perfect!

Painted Storage Chest for Entryway

One of my favorite recent finds at Goodwill was this walnut chest for $30. I’ve always been wanting something for the underneath our wall cutout between the great room and kitchen and thought this piece would be perfect, but wanted to switch it to black.



So here is the before... and after! Here’s how I transformed the piece:

Once I got it home, I removed all of the old brass hardware. I was thinking of switching it out to something new and modern, but thought a coat of metallic silver might be worth a shot since I really loved the current hardware. It was a little ornate and out of the ordinary! Luckily the metallic paint did the trick and I think it will really pop against the black.



Once I knew I was going to keep the current hardware and holes, I used a light grade of sandpaper to quickly run over the entire console to get rid of any bumps. I washed the entire piece with a towel and water to make sure no grime was leftover or dust from the sandpaper.

When it was all clean and dry, I lightly primed the chest with two coats of Krylon black primer and let it dry overnight.



The next day I coated the entire unit in Krylon flat black spray paint, including the inside shelf and the inside of the doors. Once it was done drying, I used Minwax satin polyurethane as a protective top coat to give it a little bit of a shine. I didn’t want it overly glossy, so the satin was a perfect fit. At first it seemed quite glossy, but once it dried and I wiped it down with a wet cloth, the paint really became subdued.



I put the shelf back in place and attached the hardware and moved it to my desired location in the foyer. Ah, so in love with the finished product! The satin finish fits perfectly with my current pieces in the room and the black really pops off the wall.

So again, here’s the before space and after!





So, total costs: $30 for the furniture from Goodwill, $8 for the two bottles of Krylon black primer, $7 for the two bottles of Krylon flat black spray paint, $5 for the Rustoleum metallic silver spray paint and $7 for the Minwax satin polyurethane. Total cost was $57 and some change, but of course I have some leftover paint as well to use for future projects. Love it :)

Updated Chair for my Kitchen Desk

The other evening the chair for our kitchen desk completely collapsed and broke while my little lady was playing at the computer. I had always been meaning to replace that old thing, but I guess now is a time as good as any.

I found this little wooden chair at Goodwill for $3. It’s in perfect condition, just needs a little love. I decided to try and paint it to match my newly purchased kitchen buffet.



The tools I need to try and accomplish this project: some black primer and spray paint by Krylon, Americana accent paint in gray, orange, red and white, plus a wire brush to give it the same old school effect as the kitchen buffet.

The chair seemed in pretty good condition so I didn’t need to sand it, just a quick buff with some light grade sanding paper so the paint adheres better. I wiped it down afterwards to make sure it was clean and ready. Next I painted the chair with black primer spray paint from Krylon. I only had to do one coat since the top coat would be black as well.



I let the primer dry for about 20 minutes then put on a finishing coat of black Krylon spots going around the spindles...I just had to keep reminding myself to take my time! I always use two coats as well, especially on something like a chair that will get a lot of wear and tear.

Once the second coat was dry, it was time to add the accent paint to the spindles. The kitchen buffet I recently purchased has bands of orange, red and gray, plus some thinner stripes of white so I tried to match as best I could with Americana acrylic paint from Michaels. I used a hard dry brush and lightly painted over the black spindles in designated areas. I tried to keep the brush as dry as possible to get the rustic effect to match the buffet.



To top everything off, I coated the chair with a light spray of satin polyurethane from Mirawax. This really seals in the paint, give the chair a protective cover, and adds a little bit of gloss to the final product.

Final costs: $3 for the chair from Goodwill, $3 for the Krylon primer, $3 for the Krylon black flat spray paint, $4 for the Americana paints, $.98 for two paintbrushes. I had some leftover satin polyurethane from a recent project, so my total bill was $14 and some change! Not too shabby for a new chair that matches my kitchen buffet.