Ordered. -New Dining Room Chairs!

I’m so excited!  A few days ago, we ordered new dining room/kitchen chairs!


Up till now, we have been using chairs that we bought at a garage sale when my husband and I first started living together many years ago.  They are ugly, I mean UGLY.  They have pink seat cushions and a vinyl brown back.  I’m guessing they were from the 70’s, 80’s and someone previously decided to give them a little flair by adding the pink seat cushions.

So many years ago, I made some neutral slipcovers so no one would ever see how hideous the chairs really are.  But slipcovers and fabric on kid’s chairs just don’t work.  At least not on my kid’s chairs.  I have washed these poor slipcovers so much they look dull, and have shrunk.  We don’t even put a slipcover on my youngest’s chair, it’s a losing battle.  We just place a towel over the pink seat cushion and strap the booster seat on top.  The towel helps hold the booster seat in place and also is easier to wash than the pink cushion.

We have wanted to get new chairs for awhile now.  Since my husband made the table, we have been keeping an eye out for possible chair choices.  Here is our final choice!…

We got 2 Marcel Armchairs for the ends of the table:



And we got 4 Remy Side Chairs for the sides of the table:



You guessed it, from Restoration Hardware!  This is my first time ordering from them.  I love looking at their website and catalogues, their products are beautiful.  I love their store and wish I could take everything in it home.

We chose these chairs for many reasons.  They will hopefully match the steel on the table well.  I like them because they don’t have any fabric on them to try to keep clean with kids in the house.  The finish for the chairs are gunmetal, but there are 5 different finishes available.  They are currently on sale: $179 down to $129 for the Marcel’s and $139 down to $99 for the Remy’s (USD+shipping).  We only needed 6 chairs in total because my husband is hoping to build 2 benches to match the table that we will also use when company comes over when we put the leaves in the table.

I just got an email from them letting me know the chairs have been shipped.  I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!  I hope the delivery goes smoothly!  Have you ordered from Restoration Hardware before?

As Always,
Sandra

Laminate Office Furniture-- I'll Take it!

So when we sold our house this year, we also decided to get rid of lots of our old furniture.  Over the years, we had collected mismatched furniture.  When my husband and I were furnishing our first home we shopped garage sales and took freebies.  Don’t get me wrong, I was fortunate to have found these deals and donations.  Till this day, I still can’t believe the dining room table and 8 dining chairs we scored for $40.  We still have the dining room chairs, although I did have to make some slipcovers to cover their pink seats and brown faux leather backs.  Ick.  Thank goodness for slipcovers.

In our old office, we had garage sale mismatched IKEA shelves, a clearance priced filing cabinet and a desk my husband had from his college days.  None of the furniture had any style.  They were not made out of solid wood and were laminate pieces.  In my error to try and force some cohesion on the room, I decided to paint the desk and filing cabinet white.  Bad move.  Learn from my mistake… Don’t just use any kind of primer.  Make sure it is an OIL based primer (eg. Zinsser Cover Stain Oil based primer) then use whatever latex paint you want on the next coats.  The paint never adhered properly and would come off in chunks easily.  My Bad.  Lesson learned.

Needless to say, we garage saled our poor desk and filing cabinet before we moved.  After we were in to the new house, we needed to find a new desk solution.  I wanted to find pieces of furniture on Kijiji and refinish them white for our new office.  My husband was quite leery of this option (I can’t blame him, especially since my last office furniture painting experience was a disaster).  We compromised and settled on getting new furniture from Source Office Furnishings.  I know… still laminate, not my first choice.  But at least it all matches, has a clean look and is not as expensive as real solid wood. 

Here is what we chose…


We got a 3 drawer filing cabinet and a storage cabinet, which we placed in the corner by the window.  Then a ‘U’-shaped desk with a hutch on top.  All pieces are espresso in color. 



So far, so good.  Looks like I’ll have to find some other furniture to experiment on!

As Always,
Sandra

Chair Remodel for a Baby’s Room–Guest Post

Check out this amazing transformation from one of my readers who remodelled a chair for her expecting friend’s nursery. 

Hard to believe it is the same chair!…

The Story:

So the chair was found on kijiji…


First things first, I started by removing all the old fabric, and of course I discovered linoleum and duct tape hold back the springs... good thing I decided to redo the chair and not just fabric paint it!! ...


There I stripped it all down.  I decided not to reuse any of the old batting, I didn't want any allergens contaminating the baby's new room.  Next, I used new burlap over the springs to hold them back ($4.99 for an 18" x 18" section at WalMart).  Then, I did a layer of quilt batting over all the wood and cushion areas (over the wood because it is in a baby’s room.... didn't want any extreme hard edges).  When attaching the batting, remember to fasten the staples farther away from any finishing edges, you don't want to run the risk of doubling staples when putting on your finish fabric.

The cushion for the seat was originally built in, but for ease of cleaning, I made it into a separate piece. I used 1 inch thick memory foam pieces and layered 4 of them to give the correct cushion height ( 1" x 20" x 24" at WalMart for around $10.00 each).  Each layer will adhere to the next pretty securely, but just to be safe use spray adhesive between each layer.


Then, I recovered the chair with the fabric ... I used curtains ... yup curtains ... they were the perfect style of fabric... and the perfect weight and since I don’t live near a fabric store it was fate.  It took 2 panels (40" x 84").  I used the already seamed edges on the curtain to use as the skirt, it saved some time.  I used an old green bed sheet as a hidden pop of colour underneath the seat cushion. PS: fabric shower curtains are a great alternative too (especially if you need something that will resist stains on smaller projects). 

       

An air compressor and a staple gun is your best friend for this project.  Place staples about every 3" apart, and add extra staples in every corner.  Start at the top and work your way down, start at the front and work your way back.  Your back panel is always the last piece to go on.  You can use a cardboard tack strip for any straight edges, it'll help make the perfect straight edge.  I didn't use it on this project, but I don't recommend it for beginners.  Oh and measure once add 6 inches and don't bother measuring again.  The fabric moves, stretches, shifts while you are lining up patterns and tucking corners. It is easier to cut off excess than to try and get it perfect prior to getting it on the chair. 

I sanded down the arms and did a few coats of Krylon Dual Paint + Primer Silver spray paint then a clear coat.

TA DAAA! 


Thanks to Anita for submitting this post!  All the best to the soon-to-be Mom who will be enjoying the updated chair!

As Always,
Sandra