Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?

Not me!  My friend snagged these chairs for me last summer while doing a local mission project.  They were headed to the dump and she thought, "Trish, can do something with them."  Although I tend to steer away from mid-century style, I thought they were pretty cool and that they would look great in our playroom.  They are low to the ground which is perfect for kiddos and 5'-2" mommas.  Like most of my projects, they sat around for a while until I decided what I wanted to do with them.  I hate rushing into a project only to be dissatisfied with the end results due to poor planning or rash decision making.  Last year, The Nester blogged about a fur ottoman and I filed it in my noggin (I would have "pinned it" but I hadn't sold my soul to that craze yet).  These chairs seemed like a perfect opportunity to remove said inspiration from my imaginary file cabinet so I began...

It was October and Hancock's had their fur on sale for 50% off.  Since that stuff costs $20/yd and I knew I'd need around 2 to 3 yards I figured this would be the time to grab it.  I went to the store that was most convenient to me and found the color fur I liked best; described as "the big bad wolf" by the lady at the cutting table.  Unfortunately they only had 1 yard left.  I bought what they had and started recovering the bottoms that afternoon (legs had been spray painted a few days before).  Big mistake.  After several trips to other Hancocks, I came up empty handed on the matching fur and here I was with my chairs 1/2 finished.  Doh!

I waited a few weeks to see if they would get another shipment and when I went back they told me, "Oh that fur was for Halloween we don't keep it in stock.  We'll probably have something different next year.  If you have your receipt, we can use the number to locate some."  Riiiight.  I never keep those things.  Discouraged, I went home and tried to think of another idea (1/2 fur, 1/2 something else??) and started moving things around in my junk craft room.  To my delight, I found a receipt under a pile of randomness!  Not just any receipt but a receipt that had the words "faux fur" written on it!  Seeing as this isn't something I buy on a regular basis I knew it was my ticket to finishing my chairs.  I took the receipt to Hancocks and a kind man tracked down the last bit of fur in Memphis.  Yeehaw.

After all this fur tracking, I dropped one of the chairs, breaking its back leg but Papa Clarence came to the rescue and helped me fix it with his super-clamps and wood glue. 

Now they are done and I love them and I need to vacuum my craft room.  Hope you enjoy!

Home Renovations - Playroom - Progress 2

Progress is still being made on the playroom.  I'm almost done with all of the painting.  I just need to roll the walls one more time and I should be done.  I finished cutting in the other day but ran out of time to roll.  After that, it will be onto the big project which is the built-in.  Between my busyness and my friend's, we haven't found a weekend that works for both of us.  In the meantime, I knocked out a little sewing project and wanted to show you all.  Here are the new shams and throw pillows for the couch - which has also been moved to its new home.  I love the color they add and look forward to finding more places for use of fun fabric in the room.

I bought the fabric from a local store called Premier Fabrics.  They only sell a line of fabric called Premier Prints.  They have TONS to choose from and lots of coordinating choices at a really good price.  I found that they sell Premier Prints on Fabric.com for an even better price and if you spend $35 you get free shipping so it's a steal.  It's hard to tell in this picture but the two outer pillows are red with small polka-dots.  The green pillows have dandelions on them.  The only thing that is unfinished is the larger pillows are going to have 3 buttons each on the ends to "seal" them.  I want a bright green button but haven't found one I love or fits in my budget so I will wait until I find something for a good price and is exactly what I am looking for. 

Home Renovations - Playroom - Progress 1

I have been up to my elbows in paint since my last post (ok, that's a bit exaggerative) but I've made some decent progress on the playroom and thought I'd show you how it's coming.  I know this renovation isn't going to be fast since I can really only work when the kiddos are sleeping and I need to honor any sewing obligations too.  BUT I am pleased at how it is turning out so far.  I have painted at least one coat of the brown on the bead board all the way around the room and have painted two coats on some of the walls.  This is time consuming as it requires a brush to get down in all of the cracks.  I will finish that in the next few days and start the walls.  I'm hoping this weekend is going to be my building weekend for the built-in so I need to get wall "3" prepped and painted.  I went ahead and painted the little bookcase on wall "2" because I wanted to see some COLOR with the brown.  I really like it but I made some painting errors on it.  I should have sanded and primed it first because I know it's going to scrape off as the kids use it so I may be painting it again down the road.  I sold the entertainment center on Craigslist so that is out of the way and adds another 50 buckaroos to the pot.  Cheers for progress...

I'm going to keep the same numbers from the previous post so you can look back at the before and know which wall you are looking at.

 This picture shows the old paint (left) on the bead board with the new chocolate paint (right).

I love the punch the green adds to the brown.  I had the guy at Home Depot color match one of the leaves from the decal that will be going on the wall to get this color.

 Here's a little swatch of the blue that will be going on the walls above the bead board.

Tootles to the old cabinet which is now in the storage room behind that door you see serving a new purpose.  There was some wallpaper that needed removed and check out that wild red!  I like me some red but this color is not very pretty in person and I cannot imagine a room this size painted that color.  Makes my heart start beating fast thinking about it.  I've decided to go with a khaki color on this wall behind the built-in to keep it pretty neutral.  I did a little swatch of the brown and felt it was a little much for the whole wall.  The actual built-in color is still TBD but I'm leaning towards a blue just a shade darker than the other walls and then the part that bumps out for the TV using the pumpkin Orange.  Or the whole thing may be orange.  That still may change :).

Home Renovations - Playroom - Before

Ok, Ok, I know I never did blog about the house like I promised back in the fall although I still hope to do that. Maybe by the anniversary of our purchase date which is March 27?? Anyway, when we bought our house, nothing needed immediate attention but there are certainly areas that I want to put my touch on. I'm a designer by trade so my mind is always swirling with ideas. My wallet is not necessarily swirling with extra green stuff. Jacob and I don't believe in debt (other than a mortgage) so any home projects are always paid with cash which means they sometimes get put on hold. Now that we have been in the house almost a year and I've set aside some Critterbug & Cricket moolah, I'm ready to start tackling a project. The first room on the agenda is our playroom/craft room because we have a serious storage situation in there. After 2 more birthdays and a Christmas, we HAVE to figure out how to store the toys better. They are currently hugging the perimeter of the room in a very unpleasant manner. My current sewing area is no better and I'm embarrassed to even show it. I know it appalls Jacob but I call it "organized chaos." I like to believe that once I have the space "perfect" then I'll be a little more organized.  Right.  As creative as I can be - organization is not one of my strong points - but I desire to improve. All that to say, I thought I'd go ahead and post the before pictures of the playroom and craft room so that I won't get too behind later. It is a big room with LOTS of potential but it may take a little time. If you have any thoughts, share them!

The theme of the room is going to be modern/woodsy.  We live in the woods so I want to respect that but I also want a room where I can just have FUN with some wild colors and unique decor.  What better room than my craft room and the kids' playroom.  Color scheme - light blue walls above bead board, chocolate bead board (think land and sky).  Other prominent colors to be used - ORANGE, lime (ok, that color scares Jacob a little so we'll see) & Cherry.

Not much is going to happen on this wall.  The wall and bead board will be painted and I'll put some pictures up.  Down the road I would LOVE a mantle but that's not a priority.

Left of the beam is going to define the "learning" space as I am calling it.  The bookshelf will stay under the window because it's a perfect fit but I hope to paint it a fun color.  I bought maps of the 7 continents to hang on the wall.  I would like a long rectangle table that could seat 4-6 kids (NO I am not having that many!!) where crafts, puzzles and the like can take place.  To the right of the beam will define the toy nook.  The couch will be up against that wall.

This will be the future toy nook and t.v. watching area.  I'm treating it as its own room defined by the beam above.  The couch will be on the left wall and the wall right of the door will be a built-in for the t.v. and bins, bins and more bins for toys.  I bought 2 adorable decals for this wall from Graphic Spaces on Etsy.  The tree branch will be on the left pointing right and the raccoon will be running along the bead board pointing left.  I'm also going to remove the track lighting that runs parallel to the beam.  So I don't have to mess with patching the ceiling I will just put a swag-type light in it's place and center it in the "nook".

Isn't this stinkin' cute??  The only differences in the one I purchased and this one are that I chose orange birds and a darker green tire swing.  Oh, and it says, "The Cartners".

I really like this fabric and would like to make some large pillows for the very faded and stained Pottery Barn couch that I can't afford to recover.  I'll hopefully find several fabrics to coordinate.  I'm not 100% sold on this one yet but it's in the running.

 This entire wall will be a built-in.  Floor to ceiling and corner to corner.  There will be an assortment of depths and heights for the shelves.  I am in search for fun/unique bins for it.  Lots of color.  The color of the actual built in is still undecided.  The TV and VCR (Yes, I said VCR.  All of our Disney movies are on VHS) will be housed here too.

This area will now house my sewing stuff including my sewing table and my craft table that my father-in-law built for me.  I would like this wall to have my dry erase board and possibly some fabric covered cork boards and a ribbon rack.  I love these prints of puppies on the docks done by a Greenville artist that my parents bought in the 80's.  Unfortunately they still look like they would fit that time period.  I hope to remat and reframe them to give them new life and put them somewhere.  I'm all about recycling!  Dad actually saw this guy at Artisphere this year and he's still selling the same prints.  Ha.

This is just another view of what will be my crafting area.  Not sure what I am going to put on this wall but I am in desperate need of a clock down here.  I would love a huge clock but so far I haven't found "the one".  If you find one, let me know.  It needs to be a decent size (and decent price!).  Anybody need an entertainment center?

I didn't mean for this to turn into a dissertation.  Obviously you can see my excitement...and in the time I just wasted writing this, I could have gotten a coat of paint on the walls :).  More to come later!