old sofa, new look

I know exactly how long Alex and I have had our sofa because I know how long we've been married, and I know it was the first piece of major furniture we purchased together. The faux suede chocolate brown made have been hip eleven years ago, but I was not about to drag that thing into our new house with eight years of dirty kid prints covering it.

Truth be told, however, I had a mind to change the sofa before we ever signed the contract on the house. In fact, it was having our offer declined right before Christmas that propelled my eagerness for change forward. I found an amazing deal on a designer remnant fabric online (Fabric Guru is the place if you're looking for a steal) and snatched it up right away. The fabric sat propped up against the kitchen wall in its shipping package until last week when Alex and I hauled it, along with our outdated sofa, to our upholstery guy. We have a guy, and he works fast. We had the sofa back in time for our Super Bowl party on Sunday, but I wouldn't let anyone sit on it and ended up covering it with a blanket so I wouldn't stress over guacamole and salsa stains. Was I crazy to get a white sofa? The kids are totally mature enough not to destroy it at their ages, right? I mean...just look at these little angels...

shattered

So this happened (on Mother's Day, no less). I was in the room when it happened, so I know the story. But the big kids were quick to point the finger at Tillie seconds after my beloved elephant table went crashing to the ground. In their defense, it was Tillie who knocked it over while she was trying to climb on top of it; however, I hold them all responsible for showing Tillie that it's okay to climb on it in the first place (which they've all done). I'm sure I'll be over it soon enough--and now I have an excuse to go shopping for a new piece of furniture--but where am I going to put my wine in the meantime?

a bed for tillie

Meet Tillie's new toddler bed (and meet the newly painted trunk and the dressed up IKEA Malm dresser). It's a funny story how we came across the bed for Tillie. Remember how Alex was home this weekend and we had a six year-old birthday party at the neighborhood park? On our way to the party, I happened to spot a perfectly pristine toddler bed sitting on the curb in front of a cute house with the sign "Free Kid's Bed" taped to the footboard. I told Alex to stop the car immediately and open the lift gate--we were taking it home. The kids were all bummed that we had to drive five blocks home to drop off the bed and then drive all the way back to the park--a total trip of five minutes--but I was determined. Ever since my days in New York, it's very difficult to pass up good furniture sitting by the side of the road (or even bad furniture, for that matter, if you have a "good eye" as I've been known to brag).

Scout, in the meantime, is still sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but at least I have a jumping point for a new project. Looking back at pictures of how the room once looked (see here and here) I'm a little embarrassed. The room is tricky to work around with the stairs/door that lead up to our bedroom and the tiny closet tucked away in the corner, but I think it's getting better. I hope it's getting better...or else I need to focus my creative energy elsewhere. Stay tuned: one of these days Scout will have a bed again.

spring break revisited

Remember a couple of months ago when I was bragging about all of my spring break projects? I am happy to report that I have finally completed spring break project #3: the IKEA Malm Dresser in the girls' bedroom.

It took such a long time to complete that my enthusiasm for this project has waned--or that might have something to do with the crooked drawer pulls (see below)--but here's what went down in fifty words or less:

1. Bought IKEA dresser.
2. Painted IKEA dresser (Benjamin Moore, Elephant Tusk, Semi Gloss, three coats after one coat of primer).
3. Bought vintage, mid-century drawer pulls on eBay.
4. "Installed" drawer pulls.
5. Stepped back and looked at crooked drawer pull on top left drawer.
6. Decided not to care about crooked drawer pulls.

Behold the before and after:

cow chairs 2012

Image from apartment therapy

Now that I'm finished buying curtains for the house I've given myself a new project to complete by Christmas: another Eames DCW rescue/renovation. The picture above (and the title of this blog post) is a hint at where I'm going with this one. Stay tuned for updates and before/after looks. At the moment all I can say is that if I never pull another tiny upholstery nail out of a plywood seat, it will be too soon.

land of knock off

Jenny Lind Bed, Land of Nod

This is the Jenny Lind twin bed that I wanted to get Scout from Land of Nod. I loved the look, but I did not love the $549 price tag--especially considering I'll change my mind about it before she grows into it. Furthermore, I pretty much refuse to pay retail. With that mindset, I set out to do it on my own. Step one: find a reasonably priced Jenny Lind twin bed.

It turns out that step one wasn't so easy. I found a cheap Jenny Lind head and foot board on target.com, but the reviews were horrible, and it was apparently impossible to find the correct bed parts (whatever they're called) to assemble it. The price was $139, so I considered pulling the chord until I revisited it to find it was no longer in production.

My next venture was consignment/antique/vintage furniture stores in Austin. No luck. Twin beds are pretty tough to find (in general).

All the while I was keeping an eye on Craigslist hoping for one to show up. And then one did. A guy in San Antonio was selling a Jenny Lind twin bed for $150. I made Alex text him--I'm still a little freaked out by Craigslist after the whole killer thing--and he made an offer for $135. The guy accepted his verbal offer, but the only catch was that Alex had to drive down to San Antonio (1 1/2 hours away) to pick up the bed (hoping it fit into the Explorer) and be back in Austin in time for me to take Tillie to her doctor's appointment. We basically had a 3-hour window to execute, and Alex had to stop for lunch and gas.

He made it (and the bed fit!). This is how it looked when it first arrived in our house. Although the structure wasn't exactly like my Land of Nod inspiration, I knew I could work with it. I was eager to paint it, but more anxious to move Scout into her "big girl bed," so I let it hang out looking like this for a few weeks.

Finally I couldn't stand it any more, so I had Alex move the bed outside so I could prep it for the paint job.

Fifteen minutes and two cans of spray paint primer later, I was ready to go back to the Home Depot to finalize my color choice. You might not think so, but there are at least twelve shades of turquoise (or azure, as Land of Nod calls it). I had to go back for two different sets of swatches until I found the color I wanted.

In the meantime I was looking for the perfect quilt. I had an idea, and a search on eBay turned up exactly what I wanted: an Indian kantha quilt. I just had to decide on the color. I changed my mind six or seven times until I stumbled upon this print in bright orange.

In the end tahitian breeze is the turquoise that won. 

The end result. Not bad for $135 bed, an $18 can of paint and a $58 quilt.

I just hope this picture of Scout isn't a reflection on how she feels about her new bed.

Just kidding...she loves it! It was the fancy pillow on top of her bed that she was throwing a fit about. The girl likes to do her own accessorizing.

somewhere in california

I'm supposed to be packing and de-cluttering, but I couldn't resist doing the complete opposite when I found this Jonathan Adler "Fresno" pillow on eBay for $17. And after I found that I had to come up with something to compliment it, so I invested in two brown and white chevron pillows from etsy for $28. The only question that remains is...where exactly is Fresno, anyway?

the elephant in the room

Given to myself as a birthday present back in 2010 (I found it here when we lived in Charlotte, NC) this little elephant has been on my list of things to do for...well, since I got it. It lived in the back of our Explorer for about a year while we were trying to sell our house, and I finally gave it a spot in our living room when we moved to Austin. Last week I was dying for a project and decided the elephant's time had come.

After a quick trip to the Home Depot for sandpaper and a quart of white glossy paint, I was ready to go.  During the sanding process I learned that this guy was from Mexico--who knew?

One coat down...only three (or was it four?) more to go.

The final product: I dig the white. After the first couple of coats I thought the gloss had been a mistake because it highlighted the imperfections. It might have been the paint fumes playing with my mind, but after four coats the look grew on me.

primary seating

We weren't always heathens. There was a time when Catcher actually sat down at proper* table to eat his meals. Scout was too young to join him, but her high chair was saddled up next to the table and we enjoyed quiet conversation and baby babble over sweet potatoes and chicken nuggets. Our dining table was one of the last things to go before moving to Austin, but because I was pregnant at the time and it only seated four, we knew that our soon-to-be family of five would eventually outgrow it. That left us with no where to eat once we arrived. It was fine--yet not ideal--at first when Scout would still cooperate in her high chair and Catcher would sit still at the coffee table for his meals. But eventually toddlerhood took over and Scout became a wandering tornado of PB&J and apple bits (not to mention sticky fingers) and Catcher would get up from his otherwise peaceful meal to tell me that Scout had knocked over his milk or Scout had stolen his taco or Scout was smashing Cheerios into the floor. Vacuuming three times a day and spritzing down the coffee table with non-toxic cleaning agents ten times more than that was getting old.

Then we got a surprise from my mother-in-law--the Avery table and chairs--that arrived at our door last week (we're still waiting on the red chair but we couldn't wait to get started on a new project).

Catcher "organizing" (his word) the boxes before we open them to begin assembly.

After carefully reading the "constructions" (again, his word), losing (and then finding) a spring washer in the carpet, the table was complete. 

Catcher testing out the first chair to be assembled. I had the legs on backwards the first go-round and then discovered the little arrows pointing you in the right direction.

Sixteen screws, eight legs and four Allen wrenches later we were ready for a real test drive. First order of business: Catcher assigned chair colors to everyone. He's blue, Scout's yellow and Tillie is green.

Mmm...dinner never tasted so good.

*proper meaning dining table, not coffee table like we've been doing for the past six months

a classic redo

In between visits to the children's museum and story times and the park and Catcher starting preschool and Scout's naps and getting ready for the baby, I carved out a little time for a project that I've been dying to work on since I first spotted a pair of Eames LCW chairs in my in-laws' garage. Below is a restoration recap:

[Not pictured: Alex and me rummaging through a box in the garage where we discovered the chairs].

Step 1: Sand...and sand again. After a trip to the Home Depot for some trusty sandpaper (150 grit) I put my patience to the test as I hand sanded the backs, seats and bases of the chairs. I didn't trust myself to use a hand sander because I was worried I would apply to much pressure and completely destroy the wood, so I sat out on the balcony and sanded the hours away. Pictured above and below are the chairs before...

and after the sanding. 

Step 1 1/2: Find something to make it stick. The shock mounts on the chairs were in surprisingly good condition, but we had to find the right glue to hold everything together. After googling and researching, I found a guy on eBay who sells an epoxy resin that is strong enough for the job. At $14.99 I figured it was a good deal (especially considering that I read somewhere that Herman Miller charges $250/chair to restore the shock mounts). The glue arrived but first the varnishing.

Step 2: Bring on the shine. I used an oil-based clear coat poly (gloss finish) to bring the wood back to life. Here's a look at one of the bases (above) and underside of one seat (below) during the process.

Step 3: Re-assemble. Alex was called in to mix the epoxy and then glue and screw the chairs back together. He tends to be more precise than I do when it comes building furniture.

Step 4: Freshen up. I applied a final layer of gloss to cover any imperfections that may have occurred during assembly.

Step 5: Rearrange your space. I know the lighting is terrible in this picture, but here are the chairs in their final resting spot. I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I'm already looking for my next project. Do you think there's time before the baby gets here next week? 

afternoon remix

It has been raining all day. I can't--in good conscience--possibly complain about the weather when we're in the middle of a severe drought, but it did make for an interesting afternoon pent up in the apartment. Halfway through Scout's nap, and a quarter way to crazy, it was time for a little furniture remix. My mother-in-law came to visit earlier this week and delivered this chair that had been in her basement, so there was no better time to give it a home.

First I placed it in the corner of our bedroom, which was my Plan A. My thought was that it would make a nice little seat for middle-of-the-night feedings when the new baby gets here.

The chair looked okay, but I wasn't wild about its placement. Having the legs half-on/half-off the rug made it look lopsided and brought out my OCD side, so I decided to try it out elsewhere. Next stop: the living room to replace the lucite chair from the reading corner.

It didn't work. The problem here was the scale--the wing chair dwarfed the corner and looked like an afterthought. After strike two I was running out of ideas. For a millisecond I toyed with plopping it in the middle of the living room (see below), and this is when Catcher got in on the action and started moving furniture around, too. The coffee table, cow and rocking chair placements are courtesy of his vision.

Of course the chair looked ridiculous and out of place with our furniture. Another drawback was the lovely sketch on the back--courtesy of a young Alex--that was clearly visible from this vantage point. So after staring at the room...and then the chair...and then the room...and then the chair again, this is where it ended up:

Sometimes you should just go with your first instinct.

out of the box

After finishing the headboard last night and feeling extremely accomplished, today I decided to finally open the box containing my Roche Bobois eBay purchase from a year ago. Now that I've caught this project bug, I'm ready to move on to my next victim. Standing by to help was my [second] assistant Catcher.

After dragging the box out of the closet and opening it, we had to assemble the actual chair (*note: assembly still incomplete). In our first attempt we had the actual seat and the seat back in the wrong places, but we quickly figured it out. Once we had the seat together we had to figure out how it attaches to the base. It was backwards on the first attempt, but we weren't actually screwing it into place, so no stress. Then I dragged out my Chaing Mai fabric to see if it would cover the chair, and I'm no upholstery expert (despite my recent headboard success) but I think there's enough to cover it (yay!). I won't attempt the recovering myself since my skills are limited to a staple gun, so I'll have to find a good source here in Austin.

In the meantime, here's a look at how the assembly went down (these pictures may be out of order because I'm blogging from my phone, but you get the idea).

and for my next trick...

Could it be that nesting thing kicking in? Six months into this pregnancy, and my brain is flaring with new ideas, which are actually old ideas, of projects that must be done. The first is the headboard. The second is recovering the vintage Roche Bobois chair I bought on eBay somewhere between the first and second year that our house was sitting on the market in Charlotte. The chair was delivered to my doorstep and promptly found its way into the attic where it sat until we loaded up the PODs for Austin. It is now sitting--still in its box--in the kids' closet. I've never even taken it out to look at it, but from what I remember of the pictures on eBay, it looked something like this:

Mine is a charcoal grey--I do remember that much--that I've imagined recovering in my Schumacher Chiang Mai Dragon fabric that was another eBay find. Of course, I don't know if I even have enough fabric to cover the chair. Maybe I should start with taking the chair out of the box...after I finish the headboard project.

furry ghosts

It rained today. As I watched giant drops of happiness splash off of my ghost chairs, which are temporarily serving as balcony seating, I remembered my idea from the past about how to decorate my dining room in the future. Ghost chair + sheepskin throw = cozy and chic dining for the family. Unfortunately I can't take credit for the idea, but I do know a great source for an inexpensive sheepskin (hello IKEA!). Here's a look at the dining room of fellow Texan Judy Aldridge, where I fell in love with this juxtaposition of textures:

Images from CasaSugar

And while I'm on the subject of sheepskin, here are two other ideas that I found too cute and cozy to resist:

apartment therapy

The Second Rvivl