Distressed Chairs DIY

Well hello there little Tucker Bear!  This is my favorite Tucker picture thus far! 

A little blue bird that I have been tinkering with the last week.  I have been super busy but am trying to find some time to work on my art and not just my "projects".  

SO! What projects you may ask?  Well, with the ending of the option period on our new house, I have decided I must figure out how to furnish and decorate a space that is almost double the size of our current home.  Of course, I will not get to all the extra rooms, but I do have a lot of furniture left over from apartment life and so does my brother!  We both left all these goodies at my parents house, so I went outside to my dad's workshop and started shopping! I found a great round table and 4 ladder back chairs in a lovely....cough hideously outdated....yellow pine!  I decided to go ahead and re-do this set in a distressed gray.  I went shopping and found a lovely ikat pattern on a shower curtain for $9.99 at the old bed bath and beyond.  I think it was returned, but who cares!! It is cheaper than buying fabric at the fabric store!

Here is my mini DIY: Chairs only (table to come)

1st:  

Remove the seats and toss those beauties to the side.  Mine were in great condition other than the ugly fabric, so no repairs were needed.  

2nd:  

Take a before photo, because you know you'll want to remember all your hard work when you are finished :)  Also, go ahead and SAND an entire chair! you can do them all at the same time, or sand one and move on.  I like to complete the entire process on one and then move on to the next, but that's because I usually need some motivation to finish the set! 

3rd:

Lay out some cardboard and find a breezy spot (if you can).  Texas was rather still the day I worked on these and so I ended up with gray hair and spray paint boogers. Don't laugh...you know what I'm talking about!!  Then, spray away!  I recommend only one kind of spray paint.  It is my most trusted and favorite kind.  I spray one coat and I am done! 

That's right...Rust-oleum ultra cover 2X.  It is amazing!  Also...I did in fact use the gray primer on this project.  I liked the matte finish and well, each can was like 20 cents cheaper.  PLUS it is the right color of gray that I was looking for.  Bonus!  (Got it at home depot, but wal mart carries it too)

4th:

Let that completely dry!   Then, go over the edges with that sand paper again.  You want to sorta scruff up the edges that would get regular wear and tear.  This will make it look a little more naturally beat up ....err distressed and also will help when you do actually get some little dents and scratches from use in the real world.    

5th: 

Then I used some old stain I found in the garage. It is a dark brown mahogany color. Make sure have a wet/damp cloth and a cloth for the stain. After applying some stain to your cloth, rub it along the edges you sanded to darken the color.  When you decide to add stain in random areas about, make sure to use that damp cloth QUICKLY to wipe off the stain or smear it around.  That stuff dries fast!

This sort of made 3 tones of color: the original yellow pine, a light mahogany glaze, and the gray paint!

6th:

Spray with a clear coat of some kind!  Or you could brush it on if you're feeling like that is necessary.  I don't mind if I get more scratches along the way, so I didn't stress out too much on the clear coat.  Also, in all likelyhood, next year I will repaint this a new color!

I used a basic matte clear coat Rust-oleum ultra cover 2x.  

7th:

It was hot so I went inside and finished covering the seats.  Cut the shower curtain into the size I need.  (Score! I have enough left over to cover 2 pillows, too!) Then I just used the staple gun to fit the fabric around my seat cushions and screwed them back onto the chair base!  I love them! I can't wait to stain the table top and finally get it to the new abode!!  

So far this project has taken me about 7 hours...but that includes frequent breather breaks from the spray paint and the 100* texas heat!  Totally a do-able weekend warrior project :)  

I will post soon on the finished set with table included!

Hope everyone has a splendid evening!  

Baby Steps

Hello world!

I have been so busy this week I have failed to be a good blogger!  Big surprise I'm sure :)

My new camera came in and I have been snapping away at some artwork and well...dogs mostly! I will post some up soon, but since they are gigantic, I need to scale them down to upload.

The most important news is that I went to Austin on Monday morning to start the ever threatening house hunt!  Our realtor was amazing and she had some good ones picked out.  She said there were more options but she refused to allow us to live in some of those areas. We don't know the neighborhoods that great, so I am thankful for her wisdom.  (which she will be paid for in full...3% in full!)  We checked out 5 or 6 houses and the last one we saw was in the best location, near a great school,  and low and behold the cheapest per square foot.  It had been on the market one day and had already been viewed by like 10 people! In fact we crashed one viewing for our own (we had an appointment people!!)  We made an offer that afternoon and we got it!  THank goodness we did, because there are others interested and 2 backup offers waiting in case ours falls through.

 Our option period ends on Tuesday, but may be pushed for more inspection work.  God has been SO faithful through all of this.  Well, let's be honest, He would be faithful even if this process was miserable and hard and we could find nothing!  But, He has certainly blessed us with finding a good fit and keeping our hearts open to where he wants us to be now and for our future.  Keep us in your prayers as we move forward in selling our current home and purchasing this new one, since if our sale falls through, so will our buy.  :-/

I am certain God has got us covered, even if it ends up unexpected or not according to our plan.

Obla dee Obla Da!

So this week has been one of those where the days seems incredibly long, but the week seems to have gone by quickly.  Perhaps it's because I have been at work a different schedule than normal, but Chance comes home already tomorrow from his week off in Austin!  A couple of exciting things have happened  this week.  The biggest hasn't arrived yet, BUT  is in transit!

The last couple of days, I collected my change and headed up to coinstar to exchange it for some gift cards.  No fees! weee!  So here was the plan.

Sure, there were some kinks along the way, like me thinking I froze the machine and would never get my money back, to having an old man help me pick up my fallen quarters and dimes, to a teenage boy waiting patiently (but with a very annoyed look) for me to finish up so he could get his $10 in change and go buy a new app for his phone. But after all the awkward coinstar moments, my amazon.com gift cards popped out of the machine in the amount of several hundred dollars.

And the plan worked!!  I spent $790 in change to purchase a new camera, lens & sd card.  I have been wanting a nice camera for a while to take photos of my work for both prints and quality images for my etsy and my blog, but just never really wanted to spend the cash.  I feel like I'm getting it for free!!  I had a professional photographer friend help me out on what to purchase for my specific needs.  It's nice to have the input from someone who is not trying to sell you something.  Although I'm sure I'll regret not taking a photography class in college.  ....history of photography counts right? :)  Here is a better view of the camera.  The Nikon D5100 16.2 MP with a lens upgrade to the 50 mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR FX.  Can't wait to get shootin'!

One last thing before I scoot off to sell snow cones.  I was so lucky to get to see my girlfriends again last night for dinner and custard!  I will miss them a lot when we move, but I am also excited about making new friendships!  Love these ladies.

Until next time my friends!

God is incredible!

Matt Chandler one year interview after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer

Still in awe at what God has done through this man and his seemingly horrific trial. God is so good!

August 1st

AUGUST FIRST!!!!

What on earth!? Where did the summer go??? It just always sneaks up on us, doesn't it? I really am not totally complaining, except that I haven't gone swimming one time yet!  I am feeling very odd during this end of summer time. Usually I am preparing stressing out about the next school year.  I usually try to start getting back into teaching routines like going to bed by 10/11 and getting up and moving by 7, but rarely does that work out.  Instead I tend to say "Forget this madness! I only have 2 more weeks to sleep in and you betcha I am gonna sleep in later than I ever have!"  Unfortunately (and fortunately) I will not be teaching this year, and so I have to figure out a way to get self motivated!

I usually am a very driven person, but if I get in a funk, I just piddle, stall and "waller" about until the next thing I know it's dinner time! I need a routine and a schedule to follow to be my most successful   I love checking things off a list!  As one way to help myself get motivated to go to bed decently and wake up decently, I have somehow been convinced to run (ya know or walk) a 5k with some girlfriends.  Honestly, I think I may have actually volunteered.  Who am I??  Chance and I jogged a few times in early summer to start getting fit, but ya know...Texas heat is a great excuse to not work out, since it's 95* all night and early morning long!  EXCUSES!

Living at home, I feel much safer to jog at the school track or in a neighborhood.  I just don't like going alone especially in early morning or late night, which are my only options with my snow cone runnin' schedule! So if I don't want to let my lovelies down for this hot chocolate run, then I must start getting in jogging shape.

While this morning was a total fail, since I woke up at 9, I  decided to spend a little time organizing my mess and spending some time listening to Matt Chandler.  If you haven't heard this man preach, you are missing out! God is using him in big ways and I feel so inspired after hearing each sermon.  The village church is definitely one of the things I will miss the most about Dallas. I've attended the highland village campus, the denton campus, and now the dallas campus during the last 10 years of my life.  It was one of my main reasons for not being willing to move. However, the Lord showed me that the church is everywhere and my heart feels led to find a new home church in our new city. And ya know podcast the ol' village sermons on a weekly basis :)

Off to work,  peddling snow cones to sugar lovin' people!

Fare the well!

P.s. sorry no pics! My phone camera is ghetto and I can't find my digital. Story if my life!