Dining Chair Dilemma

Several months ago, I recovered our dining room chairs in attempt to save the cushion from liquid spills.
You can read about that process HERE.

The short of it, is I choose a new and heavier upholstery fabric.
BETWEEN the old and new fabric, I put vinyl - like that commonly used in restaurants. 

I never thought my idea was so brilliant until a few weeks ago. 

My son brought a stomach bug home from pre-school.  A stomach bug that I did not discover until we were eating lunch. 

I had my children nibble on string cheese and yogurt while I was making the main entree. 

Before my son could finish his yogurt, his clothes, the counter and my DINING CHAIR were covered in vomit. 

I stripped him, thew his clothes in the kitchen sink and jumped to clean up the vomit on the floor before our doggie could clean it up for me. 

After a quick bath and new clothes, I returned to the kitchen wondering what comes next. 

I was convienced the chair was ruined, and I would have to figure out how to replace an entire cushion. 

I took a deep breath, grabbed the screwdriver and got to work.
After the cushion popped off, I undid the staples on the bottom and ripped off the fabric. 

The fabric had "leaked" quite a bit and underneath, I remembered WHY I put the vinyl on in the first place! 

With a wet rag and some disinfecting spray, the chair was perfectly acceptable again! 
The vinyl had prevented any liquid from soaking through any further. 

For now, the chair remains "naked" with only the vinyl. 

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And I recently discovered other products that could be used in place of the vinyl - which are a lot prettier. 

Both Laminated Cotton and Oil Cloth are available online and in fine fabric stores (a place like JoAnn's won't have this in stock). 

Here are a few projects that have been done with oilcloth.

Check out these Lunch bags and Chair covers!

Picnic Table: The Finished Piece!

I completed this picnic table  from plans  Knock off Wood. 

Since last posting about my project, I used wood filler and filled in all of the screw holes...

After the wood filler dried, I pulled out my super cool sander for the first time.

I have wanted one of these FOR YEARS! 

But it isn't something that I would buy for myself...

But if you send your husband to Lowe's in the wee hours of Black Friday, he will bring you what you want home...

Sanding was super fun. 

I let the kids loose in the backyard and got to work smoothing out everything.

I used KILLZ interior/exterior primer to seal everything and to further cover the screw holes.

I let my babies "help me" prime for as long as I could tolerate...

Richard (happily) helped me paint the picnic table a lovely shade of orange this weekend.

I chose several paint samples and from those Lucas chose Nectarina by Olympic.

We purchased a quart of exterior semi-gloss.  

I am not sure about our facination with the color orange right now, but it is perfect!

We were sooo happy with how the color turned out!

Lucas and Meredith adore the table even more than they did before.

 

What do you think? 

Easter Baskets!

Lucas and Meredith needed an upgrade on their Easter baskets. 

After exploring the basket options in the local stores, and Lucas chose a PINK one, I decided to go a different route. 

I don't mind him having a pink basket, but a few years from now, he may --

and I knew Richard would never go for a pink one.

After looking at the rows of painted baskets, I thought

"Why don't we just paint our own!?"

So I had them each pick a paint color and a basket...

Lucas painted with his favorite color - GREEN

And Meredith chose purple!

The baskets were left to dry...

I didn't think they look awful...they looked like I let my little kids paint them...

Until we arrived at our egg hunt for the weekend!

There we were surrounded by children with their $30 dollar lined and monogrammed PBK baskets...

Luckily, my children didn't notice...

They were too busy collecting eggs to even care....

But mommy and daddy noticed...

After the hunt, I ventured off to look for replacement spray paint in the desired purple and green colors.

And spent the evening putting on multiple coats, in the dark...

looking at the photo now, I notice they may need one more coat... 

I had planned to make liners with scrap fabric, but since my sewing machine hates me right now, that project will have to wait...

Luckily, I finished the baskets in time for the infamous Bunny's arrival.

I hope you have a Happy Easter!

First Wood Project: Picnic Table

A few months ago, I found this AMAZING site called Knock Off Wood.

Ana had designed plans to copycat so many things I had torn out of magazines to make one day...

She gave me a starting point to create, and I started to make a list of all the things I wanted to build, and the schedule of when Richard and I would be able to tackle them. 

Then one day last week, she posted plans for a miniature picnic table! 

Something about that post inspired me to get my feet wet and tackle a large project NOW- much larger than "designing and building" a jewlery holder for Meredith.

We bought the FIVE PIECES of wood on our trip to the Build and Grow Session at Lowe's.  (A grand total of $18.01)

They will STRAIGHT cut for free, so Richard had them cut to size, while I searched the store for the other necessary supplies. 

Let me tell you, when your husband tells you to go pick out screws - it is HARDER than choosing a color of nail polish. 

There is a two-sided aisle dedicated to various screws.  After about 10 minutes of searching, I returned to the wood desk with a very impressed husband. 

With the wood in hand, I was ready to begin!

After putting the kids to bed, I put on my pj's and got to work in the living room.

Richard stayed to "supervise"  and snapped a few photos before he went upstairs to read.

I took special care in countersinking all of the screws.

This means that the screws are driven into the wood and then covered with wood filer so you cannot see them on the finished product.

I had to welcome my Mere downstairs, after a bad dream.

She carefully assisted in the final drilling.

And happily tested it out!

I am so excited about it!

I think it is incredibly beautiful. 

Something about making something yourself gives you such a great sense of accomplishment!

I will post full photos after I finish it. 

I get to test out my sander that Richard gave me for Christmas, and paint this baby!

Thank you Ana for your wonderful inspiration!
My children are in heaven!