Chair Toppers

A few posts ago I shared my slipcovered bargain chairs. 

I had a bit of fabric leftover so I decided to sew "toppers" for each of the chairs at either end of the table to give the whole thing a more "unified" look.

  I found my "stash" of buttons and chose the wood ones because they matched the table and chair legs, again, "tieing" the whole look together. 

The toppers were very easy to do...if you can sew a straight line then anyone can make them!  As always, thank you for stopping by and taking a look.  It's always appreciated!
Lesa

Your Help is Needed!

Okay...I have family coming for Easter and I've been scrambling trying to "tweak" a few things around the house.  I had an dresser at the front entrance that I used to store everything from keys to winter gear.  I guess I finally over-stuffed one of the drawers because it just fell apart.  Well, I have had it with crappy furniture and chucked the dresser in the dump!  Now, that was a few weeks ago and, in the meantime, I've been bugging my husband to build me a new console table to fit in the small space.  He finally gave in to my pleas a built me this beautiful table on Sunday and finished the final touches tonight. 

Here is is with the drawer pulls. 

I love it and can't wait to accessorize  it, but, before I can do that I need to paint it.  This is where I need your help...I need some suggestions and who better to ask than all of you talented decorators!  I need to get this done ASAP so I am hoping some of you will respond with your ideas.  This is where it will be placed...under the dark brown mirror against a cinnamon-colored wall. 

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!  Thank you for stopping by.
Lesa

Multi-Purpose Room is Done!

A few posts ago, I told that I was re-doing my multi-purpose room and that I would share pictures once it was done...well, it's done.  Before I share my pictures, I want to remind you that I was only using what I had on hand, therefore, I didn't buy new furniture, I didn't buy paint, I didn't buy fabric, I didn't buy new flooring, I didn't buy curtains, and I didn't buy accessories.  I could ONLY use the items I had around the house, stuff that I already had kicking around.   Again, I want to remind you it is not beautifully decorated like many of your homes and craft rooms, but it will be functional for my needs.   So, here are a few before pictures...as you can see, it is not a very large room and I have to store my exercise equipment in this room.

My husband built this cabinet back in 1992 and over the years I have painted it at least 6 times.

The dark brown shelf sitting on the table was built by me.  The leaning door belongs to the cabinet.

Here are the after pics...

Another coat of paint...seven layers now!

A ladder I made using scrap wood and my coffee filter wreath.  (had to use what I had on hand...just a reminder!)

The stars were green, so I gave them a coat of white paint finished with dark walnut stain to give them an antiqued look.

Now, here are some pictures with the exercise equipment back in the room.

Well, there you have it...my room on a zero dollar budget.  Thank you for stopping by...your visit was welcomed!  Hope you all have a good day and great weekend!
Lesa

Wood Tray and Decorative Flower Ball

Thought I'd share my two latest projects with you...

First of all, I needed some type of container to hold the remote controls and junk that collects on the coffee table, so I decided to build a wood tray.  It's nothing new design-wise, but it has functionality and I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

I simply used some scrap pine for the four sides and 1/4" plywood for the bottom.  I glued and nailed it together.  After a good sanding, I stained the tray with a dark walnut stain by Minwax.  I then basecoated the box with a paint color called Cinnamon Sizzle (this was leftover from the color on my entrance walls).  After it dried, I watered down Red Iron Oxide paint by Decoart and applied the paint as a topcoat to deepen the color.  Again, I let it dry, lightly sanded the surface and then applied a black stain by Saman to give it a more aged look.  I then used a water-based satin varnish to the tray. 

I drilled two holes in each end and made handles out of a product I found called "Wreath & Stem Cord".

 I liked the color and texture and thought it would make great handles.  That was it!

My next project, again, nothing new, is the decorative flower ball.  I needed an accent piece so I thought I'd see what I could come up with with what I had on hand. 

I used a 5" styrofoam ball as the base.  I then found some leftover fabric from my kitchen curtains and cut it into strips approximately 1 1/2" wide by 10" long.  Then I started making fabric roses.  I made 24 roses to cover the ball.  Using hot glue, I attached the roses to the styrofoam leaving gaps in between each rose.  I then hot glued spanish moss between the roses to cover the exposed styrofoam.  I trimmed the moss to remove the long ends.   Because it needed some color, I decided to hot glue some faux leaves to the ball.  It turned out just "okay" and I'll use it, but I know I can improve on it!

Thank you for stopping by...I love visitors and I love your comments too!

Lesa

Kitchen Table Centerpiece

I'm always looking for new ideas for a centerpiece for my kitchen table and since I just finished staining my table in a dark walnut, I needed something new for the center. 

I had this...

I bought this for $20.00...

and this came with the cage...

So...I drew the number 4.  Why 4?  Because that is my favorite number. 

Then I made a stencil.

Using a piece of sponge (I didn't have any sponge so I ripped the tip of a sponge brush off!) and "Bleached Sand" by Decoart, I applied the 4 to the black tin - on two sides. 

And, this is what I came up with for my kitchen table...

Here is a complete picture of my newly stained kitchen table, embellished table runner and my centerpiece. 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by.   I just want to thank all of you that have left such kind comments on the past posts.  Your comments are very welcomed!  Have a great day.

Lesa

Table Runner Embellished

I bought this table runner several months ago for $5.00 from Walmart. 

It's been sitting in a closet ever since and now I've decided to use it on my kitchen table.   However, it's a little boring so I thought I'd "jazz" it up by adding a fringe.  Of course, I didn't feel like driving downtown to look for fringe so I decided to use my trusty burlap.  Here's what I did:

First, I cut four pieces of burlap 13 3/4" wide (this was the width of my table runner) by 5 1/2".  I took two pieces and stitched them on my sewing machine approximately 1 3/4" from the top edge. 

I then simply started removing the burlap strands from the longest side to create a fringe. 

Once that was done I attached the burlap fringe to the bottom of the table runner matching the finished edge to the stitching line on the burlap, only to explose the fringed edge.  It was very simple and I think it adds a bit of interest to once boring table runner.

Thank you for dropping by...have a great day!

Lesa