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Do you think Bob Marley had any buffalo check pillows? Where does 'buffalo check' come from anyway? Totally off topic. Moving on...

Many of you were super curious about this teaser pic I shared last week.


Well, I would love to say that these beauties are now sitting pretty in my dining room but actually I recovered them for a client. I'm working with a cute and energetic young family on their new to them house. We'll call them Family F (for fun).

Mrs. F inherited her mom's dining room furniture and wanted to give it a refresh for her family. Here is what we started with.


The chairs are in great shape, but the fabric had seen one too many dinners.


We are going to be working with blues thru out the kitchen, dinning room and living room so this navy and white buffalo check was a great base. Me and Mrs. F love a good buffalo check.


Now there are 6 of these suckers, so it took me the better part of a week to get them all done. Sadly though I didn't take pictures during the process. Bad blogger. I was just too busy concentrating.

But no worries, I'll reenact it for you - unscrew, rip fabric, pull staples, many staples, cut fabric, attach new foam, staple fabric, staple more, re-screw. Repeat. Thank god for Bravo and DVR.

There were many squeals and happy jigs when the chairs were delivered. And Mrs. F loved them too!


I love a good furniture refresh! This room is off to a great start and I'll be sure to share more as it progresses.

So what about you? Any fabrics or patterns you are in to lately? C'mon now, wouldn't these look great in my dinning room?

I've been workin' it like Tina in her best leather mini skirt all weekend long. And I've got the pictures to prove it. Here are some sneak peeks...





More on all of these things in the coming days.

Now I need a weekend to recover from my weekend! Did you do anything exciting? Jump in any leaf piles? Discover that you love cucumber water? Me too!

The upholstery bug bit me again and I blame Craigslist. I found these chairs for an incredible steal ($25 for BOTH) and I couldn't pass them up. The lady was as nice as could be. They were her mother's chairs and have sat in her garage for months. They "just weren't my style" she told me. Well, they are my style lady. Me and your 95 year old mother.


These will be easy peasy compared to the couch and I'm wanting some fun fabric this time.

AND, I'm going to try the cushions myself as I also scored a sewing machine on Saturday at a garage sale. Never been opened, brand new. Raise the roof to that people! Keep in mind I don't have the first clue how to sew, but I'll worry about that small technicality later.

The bulk of the weekend however was working on the deck. And aside from a few flower pots we're done. My house's reverse mullet has officially been cut. Stay tuned for the reveal.

How was your weekend? Anything exciting to report? Anyone know of any wonderful fabric sales going on?

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?

I've been keeping a secret from you.

I know, I know. Its a terrible thing to do to a friend.

Its a dirty secret too. And pretty smelly...with lots of earwax gold. And I suspect some cat hair.


I had long wanted a loveseat for our living room and a year (or so) ago I got this one for my birthday. Whoop whoop. Perfect in so many ways - nice lines, structurally in good shape and full of potential. So like anything with potential, it sat in my basement for a good 10 months. As you can see though, sister has seen better days. Judging from the fabric, those days were in the 60s. And not the cool mod Mad Men 60s. More like your grandma's doilies and tupperware 60s.



When prepping the house for our recent first birthday party we moved it out to the garage (we didn't want to scare our guests) and that was enough to push me over the edge. I officially have a bee in my bonnet.


I'm ready to tackle the old girl. So now, the big decisions.

via From The Right Bank

Do I want to paint it? What color? Do I want solid fabric, or a pattern? Nail head or piping? And the biggest question of all...do I attempt to reupholster this myself? Keep the tufting or loose it? So many decisions! (the only thing I know for sure is I want one cushion rather than two) What do you think? I'd love your feedback!!

via Bijou and Boheme