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OK, so it wasn't a bar, but it is still a good story. Two good stories.

First, remember this little gem I found a few weeks back?


Well after several trips back to the store to measure, stare and contemplate


the old girl is at home where she belongs. Our messy home. Sorry for the picture, but that's life.


She fits like a glove and I love her color, finish and pretty much everything about her. Now I just need to rip down that wallpaper. And paint. And get a new mirror. And pillows. And rug. Don't tell the hubs, but we've got another project ahead people.

Story #2 is a story of surprise, drama and intrigue. Or, if you follow me on instagram (follow me here) then it's a story you've already 'heard'.

Last Saturday I was on my way to a little store I love to source a table for a client. But I was early and they weren't open yet so I went next door to the Goodwill to waste time search for good finds.

And as I turned the corner I saw this.


Allow me to read the tag for you. $30 people. (ok, I added the 'people')

I took a picture immediately and then took a seat. Comfy. I lifted the cushions. Clean. I looked for stains. Negative (with the exception of one small crayon mark).

So with all of these good check marks I of course...walked away. I went on my way next store and went about my regularly scheduled errands. But I kept thinking about it. And thinking about it. We need a new couch for our family room. We'd been planning on just getting a slipcovered couch or sectional.

Plans change.

That night I googled to find out what time Goodwill opened and made a plan to go and get my little honey. Even the biggest snow storm we've had in 30 years wouldn't stop me. I piled my girls in the car, drove 10 miles an hour thru some heavy falling snow and slapped down my $30.

Whoop Whoop.

She is now were I put all my best couches, the garage. And my head is spinning about what to do with her. What colors would you use with her? What patterns? I think I feel an inspiration board coming on. Prepare to hear a lot more about this girl over the next few weeks.

Happy Weekend!!

I was lucky enough to win a design consult with the lovely Jessie at Mix and Chic and we have been working on our family room/playroom. She has come up with some really great ideas and I can't wait to start working on the space, but it has brought up an ongoing discussion in our house.
The hubs and I like our couch time. We log many hours on that sucker (isn't it our duty as Americans?) and we require comfort.

Our first couch, god rest its soul, was the single greatest couch created. We scored it at a consignment shop when we got our first apartment and that thing was sent straight from heaven. Perfect for napping, spooning (TMI?) and plenty of room to seat an army. It wasn't a sectional but was the size of a barge. And it made it thru three apartments before it just got too big and too beat up to drag along any longer. Insert lone tear here.

So when we moved into our current we got a new couch for the family room and 5 1/2 years later the thing is beat up, full of saggy cushions and frankly, not that comfortable. So the sectional debate begins again.

For whatever reason, when I thought of sectionals, I always thought of those bad 80'couches that take up a whole room with bad burgundy fabric and overstuffed head cushions and la-z-boys at the end.

But, sectionals have come a long way baby. I think I am in love. And so the discussion has shifted to what kind of sectional.

A full sectional?

via Lonny Magazine

via Pinterest

via Lonny Magazine

via Pinterest

via Rue Magazine

via Sarah Richardson

For those of you just joining in, you can catch up on the sofa saga with part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

I'm not a tease, no matter what you may have heard about me. But I feel like I've been dangling a carrot in front of you for too long.

Now technically I can't call this 100% complete as it is missing one rather important piece (the cushion is unexpectedly delayed) but I couldn't wait any longer. And anyway, my Polly Perfect card expired long ago, so I figure its better to show you real life, right?

There are so many great tutorials out there for reupholstering. Linda, Tiffany and Erin can all school you on the ins and outs. So I won't reinvent the wheel, but I will share some of what I learned about the process. (I'm going to go ahead and pretend that you are going to actually read this list and not just scroll thru to see the final pictures.)

It was easier than I thought. This is not to say that it was an easy project, but I had imagined bruises and cuts from ripping out old fabric and -not kidding - 3,000 staples. I thought there would be screaming, crying, punching, cussing. (Obviously I have a very dramatic imagination). But I made it thru with only one small cut. I did cuss through the whole thing, but I pretty much cuss thru everything so that's not unusual. I did find though that there were a wicked number of opportunities for 'That's what she said...' in upholstery. But that's a story for another post.

BYOF. That F is for Friend people! There are many areas of this project that are a two-person job. For me at least. I am sure there are master upholsters who can hold the fabric tight with one hand on both ends while stapling. Their friends probably call them 'The Octopus' or something cool like that and they wear hats with funny sayings on them. I am not one of those people. The hubs was a huge help in keeping things taut (that's what she said) while stapling. We were a rockin good team on this project and usually we don't work well together on DIY stuff, so that is a "bold statement" as John Travolta would say.

Upholstery is not a no-sew project. I don't sew, hence me sending out the cushion, but I now think I wanna. After my dear friend Becca (who also designed my blog header) helped me to sew the piping, I realized sewing isn't as intimidating as I always thought. Btw, when I say 'help' I really mean she did everything while I stood over her shoulder yapping in her ear. But it looks fun. I think the trick is figuring out the machine. Once you've got that all you need is time and the fabric world is your oyster!

Foam is a B@*#$. It comes in all different depths and densities. The ladies at the fabric store expect you to be as knowledgeable as they are on the subject and it never seems to want to cooperate. Don't get me started on foam.

All in though, I enjoyed this far more than I anticipated and I'm over the moon with how it turned out. I anticipated an epic failure, when in reality I've saved myself over $600!

So on to the eye candy. Let's remember first were we began.



And here is where we are today.

Sorry for the crooked angle, I was blinded by staring into that crazy window

All taut and piped up. Not bad for an old lady.

I really need to learn how to un-yellow my nighttime pics

So there she is, in all her 95% glory. I'll take some legit beauty shots when the cushion comes in. Does this give you the upholstery DIY bug? I say go for it! You might surprise yourself.

I'm linking up to POWW @ Primitive & Proper 

Raise your hand if you have a half dressed couch in your garage. Wahoo!

I'm feeling good. I'm in control, as 80's Janet Jackson would say. I made legitimate progress, and there wasn't even excessive cussing. (no more than the normal daily amount that is)

I have no idea what those hieroglyphics are btw

don't worry, all old staples were removed before new stapling began

Some staples wouldn't go in all the way, as you can see. So I'd have to pull it out and restaple. But again, not nearly as bad as I had feared (so far).

It actually went a lot quicker than I had planned (knock on wood). So quick in fact that I got both outside sides down in just a little over an hour.

High and tight - just like a good soldier haircut.

I will pause now so you can raise the roof with me.
There was a bit of excess to trim, but for the most part, the template did a great job of using just the right amount.

As an old boss of mine used to say, "now we're cookin with steam!"

Momentum is gained and the train has left the station. (what other lameo phrases can I think of?)

A big thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I've decided to give this upholstery a try! I anticipate much frustration, lots of cussing and the occasional breakdown, but I'm ready. In the words of LL Cool J - I'm gonna knock you out!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Since my last progress report, I had my antique and furniture refinisher experts (my parents) look the couch over. And they confirmed what I had thought - this wood is not a staining kind of girl. Boo hoo. Black it is.

We took her outside and gave her a coat of primer. (Primer in background next to vintage LipSmaker found in part 2.)

God bless spray paint. Can you imagine trying to paint all that carving? Ugh. Sanding it was bad enough.


What? Your couches don't levitate over your recycle bin in your back yard?

I then got on the first coat of black before the wind picked up. And its stayed a bit too windy for my liking (which is actually rather odd for this area. Hmmm, maybe it was mother nature encouraging me to loaf instead of work!). But this weekend is supposed to be perfect, so she'll get her second coat of black and then the real work begins.

The fabric has been purchased and is exactly what I wanted. A perfect, neutral linen for the girl who changes color schemes once a quarter. (that's me in case you didn't know.)

So this weekend - Commence to start! (one of my favorite lines from Father of the Bride 2. Stop laughing, it was a funny movie...in parts.)

The plan is to do one panel, and then re-evaluate. Making sure its turning out well and I'm not just wasting good fabric by butchering it with my 'skills'.

This will be either really awesome, or really funny. Either way, I'll let you know.

Happy Friday everyone!

When we last left our sad little settee she was moping in the garage, trying to suck in her gut and look a bit more attractive in the poor garage light. However I have no sympathy. I'm hard as nails I tell you. Someone needs to be honest - Sette, you are ugly.

But she's got a good personality (aka comfortable). And as anyone who has watched Can't Buy Me Love, She's Out Of Control or any o80s ugly duckling movie knows, settee's looks are nothing a day at the spa and a shopping spree montage can't fix.  Cue the montage music!

First spa treatment is piping removal (pretty similar to an eyebrow wax). This proved really easy as there were already a few spots that were frayed and just begging to be pulled. If only the whole project were this easy.

Next I dove into removing the fabric, and no fewer than 8,000 staples. Too bad there aren't any DIY projects on Pinterest using old upholstery staples. I'd rock that project out with my extensive supplies.

Even though I'm still on the fence about upholstering this myself or sending it out to a professional, I've read enough tutorials to know that its in my best interest to keep all pieces of fabric in tact so they can be used to make templates for the new fabric.

So we were very careful to keep all pieces in one piece

and label each piece so we (or the upholster) would know what goes were.

yes, that is a cigarette and vintage lip smackers

Next up - sanding and refinishing/painting. I think that's going to be an 11th hour decision.

What do you guys think - do you think I can tackle this upholstery job myself? Keep in mind, I've never upholstered anything. Ever. (But when has that stopped me before?) Anyone need some old school Lip Smacker for your collection?

It was the whole point of starting this blog after all, so I might as well commit them to (digital) paper. Its been a yearly tradition, even before we had a house, for Luke and I to have a glass (or bottle) of wine and write our 'house list' for the next year. And while I won't share the whole list with you (#12 get new basement windows) here is the top 5. Does anyone hear a drum roll?

via From The Right Bank

1. Redo the master bedroom. We swapped bedrooms with Amelia right before I got pregnant with Eve, as they are roughly the same size (the rooms not the girls). But a year and a half later we still haven't gotten around to doing anything to it. A common problem I know. I'm over the lavender nursery walls, and we need some grown-up curtains, among other things. The room needs some major love.

 

via Elements of Style

2. Repair and redo deck and stairs. This has been on our list since we bought the house (can you tell how much we are dreading it?). In fact, when we were doing our walk thru the inspector said, "You are probably gonna need to redo those stairs in the next year or so." Five years later...we are finally getting around to it. I think it was the visible jiggling they make when our 30 pound dog runs down them that made us push this up the list. They are officially unsafe and so they're outta here. There are also several rotting boards to replace and we need to redo the railings. We have never used our deck as much as we'd like for these reasons so its time to give this extra room a spruce. This is going to put Luke's wood working and midar cuts to the test.

3. Plant a herb garden. We've got the space, I've got an interested and energetic 4-year-old helper and as many herbs as we use, it might even be a money saver.

via Pinterest

4. Lighting. Always on my list. We need to resolve the chandelier issue in the dinning room ( i.e. I hate it), replace the light in the hallway and twist someone's arm into helping me figure out a way to add outdoor scones to the deck. Ugh, that damn deck. Its gonna kill me. Refer to number 1.

via From the Right Bank

5. Reupholster couch. I got the best little love seat for my birthday last year but it has one flaw - the nastiest, ugliest fabric on earth. Unbearably ugly. Since its can't get any worse, I'm toying with the idea of taking a crack at it myself. Stop laughing, its not the worst idea.

via Bijou and Boheme

OK, I showed you mine. Now your turn. Fess up. Do you have any plans, goals or resolutions? House related or otherwise? Are they repeats from last year?