My Couch Baby

Ever since the screened-in porch on the back of our house was just an idea, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a great wood or bamboo couch to settle in back there.  The tough thing though, is having the idea and then actually finding something that would be perfect, only to realize that you have zero room in your house to store a couch to put in a space that may or may not happen.  Sometimes I feel like that’s the story of my decor life, I find something that would be perfect in some space in my mind but a space that I don’t have or don’t have yet in my house.  Womp.  Two years ago when we were searching for the perfect entertainment center to turn into the girls’ play kitchen, we stumbled upon the coolest wood frame couch in a thrift store in town and man, I wanted it for the porch we had just started saving up to build.  Like, I wanted it bad.  It was marked at $60 and it had clean lines and a concentric, cut-out circle pattern in wood on each side and in white, it’d would’ve been amazing!  I left a piece of my heart with it when I walked out those thrift store doors that day.

But it all turned out okay and I have no regrets because right after the screened-in porch was built, I was at another of my favorite thrift stores here and out on their front stoop they had a wood frame couch with a piece of computer paper taped to it that said “Please take.  I’m free!” 
I guess they had tried and tried to sell it but nobody wanted it.  I can’t imagine why…

It wasn’t my style at all – too many big curves – and the springs holding the bottom on were broken.  The fabric was awful (but I planned on reupholstering whatever I bought anyway) and the wood faded and in need of a good sanding and paint job.  But, it was FREE.  I was so torn.  Either way, at the moment I saw it, I had all the kids with me and no way to get it home so I snapped the picture above and home I went to later bring it up to Anthony.

Then, as fate would have it, we drove by a few days later on our way to church and the couch was still there.  We decided that, since we really wanted to get our porch put together, that’d we’d go grab it and see what we could do about making it look more ‘our style’.  Better than in a landfill, right? 

Here she was, home and in all her vintage glory:

And this is the story of how we made her a little, or a lot, happier…

First, Anthony removed all of the springs/metal rails that held the bottom in.  Like I said above, many of them were broken which made sitting in this thing impossible or dangerous at very best.  Then, I unscrewed all of the metal loops that held the springs in place along the inside of the couch. 

Now since there weren’t any springs, there wasn’t anything besides the two support bars left to hold seating.  This is where holding onto pieces of construction material for long periods of time comes in handy.  We have had a sheet of plywood stored away from our previous home (yes, we moved down the country with it) just in case we ever needed it.  Well, that day came.  Anthony cut it to fit down into the recess of the couch seat where it sat snugly atop those two wood support bars.

It’s so much more firm and sturdy than springs; nobody’s falling through now.  Stay away Dumbo.

To reign in slivers and to keep up appearances though, I grabbed some thin cotton fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and upholstered the side of the plywood that would be facing up.  It was as simple as laying my fabric out on the floor, cutting it so that I had a few inches of extra fabric all around, wrapping it around the plywood, and stapling it down.Since no one was going to see the underside of the couch lest they were a feline or pup, I wasn’t too particular about making straight cuts.

Lazy?  Maybe.  Efficient?  I vote yes.  ;)

Next up was prepping for paint.  After I had all of the looped screws out, I had to pry the fabric-covered piece off the front of the couch.  I didn’t know what it looked like underneath but there was no way on God’s green Earth I was keeping it there so find out, I would.

A flathead screwdriver did the trick nicely followed by a needle-nose pliers to get any remaining nails pulled out.  Luckily, all that remained was the flat piece of curved wood at the front of the couch and some nail holes.  After filling all the holes left behind by those nails and giving the entire couch a good sanding (a workout, let me tell you) to roughen it down to a matte finish, I was ready for paint.

Because it was wood and wood can bleed through latex paint, I opted to prime the couch with two cans of RustOleum spray primer in white.  Spray paint is typically oil-based (or maybe it’s all oil-based?) and better at inhibiting wood-bleed.  (Don’t ask me where I read this little rule but I’ve found it to be true in both following and not following that direction.  I’ve seen wood bleed through latex paint and primer and so I’ll stray from that combo as long as I live.)

To paint, I used a latex paint (Swan White by Glidden in an eggshell/satin finish) sprayed on using this paint spray gun*.  My friend Jesse let me borrow her Critter paint gun I had read great reviews about and then, at Christmas, I used some gift cards to buy my very own on Amazon.  It’s really as awesome as I had heard!  My favorite part is that it uses mason jars to hold the paint so, if you’re doing a big job, all you have to do is have a few mason jars lined up to be screwed on and you’re good to go until you’re done.  There’s no stopping because you have to refill the paint canister.  My other fave part is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg…it’s under $50 (I paid $41.97).  (However, it does need an air compressor to run so if you can’t borrow one from someone, you’ll have to tack that onto the cost.)

A few days after painting, I ruined the paint job.  Okay, not really.  I just upped the ante by distressing it a tad.  This part was the most fun of all.  I grabbed a hand-sander and some light-grit sandpaper and went around sanding down some of the edges of the couch.  Nothing to crazy.  Just a slight distressing for a slightly old piece.

So, the couch was painted and distressed and looking quite jolly but the cushions?  Even though the white couch made them look like they might convert to a cute outfit (distressed white jeans below with a plaid button-down up top), they did absolutely nothing to help aesthetics on the couch.  Plus, they were so old and worn that if you rubbed them, they’d start crumbling into tiny pieces.  Ewww…

I’d never reupholstered couch cushions before so the task ahead of me was very (very, very, very, very…) daunting but then I found this tutorial on how to sew box cushions by Christy from Confessions of a Serial DIYer.  I ordered 5.5 yards of this Robert Allen outdoor fabric (it’s says chocolate but after seeing it in person in JoAnn Fabrics, I’d say it’s more of a charcoal gray) from fabric.com and I followed Christy’s directions almost to the T; the only difference is that I wanted to make mine zipperered so I removed the zippers from the old cushion covers using a seam ripper and re-inserted them into my new covers.  I inserted the zippers first and then sewed the side seams and corners.  The foam cushions were in good shape, albeit a tad smelly and minus a large stain one had that looked like a big glass of wine was spilled (or at least I hoped it was just wine or coke or something not gross).  Oh the foam; cleaning it all was an ordeal.  I scrubbed and swelled with soapy water and squished and repeated that process with each individual cushion in our bath tub and then, when I was done scrubbing, I threw each one into the washing machine with some clorox.  My guess is that they had never been washed (because who washes couch cushions?  I know.  Not me.) and, even though they still held their shape, I didn’t want to recover them with brand new covers much less sit in them without knowing they were oh-so-fresh-and-so-so-clean.  Washing those was a labor of love, let me tell ya.

After washing, I cut the top cushions so that they were a tad shorter and only just hit above the back of the couch by sawing a few inches off the bottoms with a serated knife.  The bottom cushions, even though in good condition, had seen fluffier days so I wrapped some one-inch thick batting (from JoAnn Fabrics) around them to fluff them up.
Butttt also, I made the mistake of sewing the covers for the bottom cushions a little too big so the fabric was really loose and wrinkled once on.  I tried to figure out a way to resew and take them in so that they fit more snugly but, with the zippers, I couldn’t, so batting was the answer for that too.  Win, win.

Anyway, in case I lost you on all the details ten paragraphs ago, here’s the 1000% better after:




It’s not pictured outside in the screened-in porch because, in the time that’s passed since I finished this piece, we found a bamboo set for $40 on a resale sight and that couch and loveseat are currently waiting to be snazzed up.  I love you old, vintage, wood couch, but the bamboo really has my heart and so my heart I must follow.  We don’t really need the loveseat from the set so my plan is to fix that up and sell it but the couch will be my resting place all summer so you can be sure I’ll have all the details on that makeover.  I’ll be sure to write some better tutorials on how I sew the new cushions and wash the foam (if need be) on that since my first try was successful and now I kinda know what I’m doing...kinda.  Stay tuned.

As for this wood couch, we staged it for a blog and sale picture and sold it within four hours of listing it.  It’s a little bittersweet but the sweet lady who bought it is putting it in an old building in her backyard that she’s fixing up to be a little retreat; pinterest-style.  It sounds so delightful and this mom’s happy my couch baby went to a good home.  Okay, couch baby Sheena?  I know, forgive me of my unhealthy attachments to furniture…

But, it’s yet another furniture project in the books; quite possibly the most demanding furniture project to date.  I’ll be taking a short break from those to recover and working on some simpler stuff.  If you’re sitting back wondering how I got this thing done with three four kids under my belt, know that this took me weeks to finish.  I know it all looks like I did this in a day or a weekend but let’s be realistic, shall we?  Things around here happen slowly.  Just ask Dwija.

.           .          .

So, let’s talk Labor of Love’s:  Home Edition?  What’s been yours recently?  Maybe painting a room?  Sewing?  Remodeling?  Give me all the details!  It’s my love language.  This week I’m deep-cleaning the kids’ bathroom and you know what that means…project in the bathroom time!  Here’s a sneak peek if you’re interested.  :)

Have a fantastic week eeerbody!

*affiliate link to paint sprayer gun I purchased

Fan Fail

(First and foremost, if you’ve been reading my writings for some time now you probably know that I usually post on Saturdays.  I’m switching that pattern up on y’all though and am going to start posting on Mondays with a few posts sprinkled in between due to family scheduling around here.  So, look for me at week’s beginning from now on!)

I tried something that’s been on my to-do list for awhile this week – updating the ceiling fan in our master with some sort of DIY light kit.  Success wasn’t on my side this week though so I’m considering the whole project a semi-fail.  But, I’m going to blab about it anyway just so you know it’s not all sunshine and roses, perfection and bliss over here when it comes to showcasing completed projects.  :)

So, at the beginning of the week, this is what our fan looked like:
 
Blah.  Thank the heavens it’s brass and not shiny gold but…blah.

Well, a couple of months ago I found this lamp shade on clearance at a local gem, Old Time Pottery, for $6 and thought it had great bones and once I put my crafty pants on, would look great hanging from any one of the boring ceiling fans in our house.  (I actually hung a shade from the ceiling fan in the girls’ room and love it, so I knew it could work.)

The fabric however, had to go.  I could’ve just glued my new fabric right over the old but I was planning on using a white fabric that was a tad bit transparent and didn’t want the old fabric’s pattern showing through.  Also, as the old fabric was a darker color, it would’ve let less light through.  I removed it by running a seam ripper along the frame, bottom and top, in between the fabric and plastic lining. 
 

After that I was left with this:

The old fabric was glued to the plastic liner so all I did to remove that was gently pull.
 

Unfortunately, the plastic liner wasn’t as durable as I thought and when I first starting ripping at a corner, I tore it…boo.  Thankfully, the next step saved me…
 

The last change I made to the original shade was cutting it down a notch.  I simply made a bunch of marks two inches above the bottom (making sure I was cutting off the edge with the tear), drew a line, and cut.

And this is where things all went slightly downhill.  Before I started the reupholstering process, I wanted to make sure I had cut the shade down enough so I had Anthony hold it up to the fan for me.  It was then that I realized that with the  plastic being an off-white color and not white or clear, it looked a little dingy.  Had I planned on using a dark fabric for reupholstery it wouldn’t have mattered, but I wasn’t.  Dang.  To make a long story short, I searched Lowe’s, Home Depot, the internet, and finally some craft stores with zero luck.  The only stiff white or clear plastic I could find that was at least the 42 inches wide I needed it to be was on ebay for $49.99 a sheet.  Umm, “no thanks” said the chick.  “I’m cheep, cheep, cheep.”  So with the brainstorming help of a Hobby Lobby employee, I finally decided to see how a half yard of thick tablecloth vinyl would work.  Cost me $3.  What was there to lose, right?  Hmmm…

Back to work, I cut myself a piece of vinyl the same size as the original liner.

And then I cut out my fabric…both layers.

You see, I never make things easy for myself.  I used some leftover white lining fabric from our dining area valances on top of the clear vinyl but under the sheer portion of a patterned Target shower curtain I found at Dirt Cheap for $2.  I really liked the idea of the pattern on the shower curtain to be subtle, white on white, but ‘in yo face’ when the lights were on…you’ll see.

(Side note:  The next few pictures are bee ay dee.  Sorry.  They were taken after bedtime and under the soft-white (why do they call it soft white?  It’s yellowy/orange/ugly.) lighting of our dining room chandelier.)

So after cutting both layers of fabric a smidge larger than my vinyl (1/2 inch on all sides), I grabbed some spray adhesive (Loctite from Walmart) and first sprayed the vinyl, attached the lining fabric, then sprayed the sheer fabric, and attached it to the lining.  You have to be really careful when you’re laying the fabric down on your adhesive that 1) it’s straight and 2) there aren’t any air bubbles/folds.  If you’re using a pattern like me, you also have to make sure it’s straight…read, pain in the butt but so worth it.  After my fabric was securely attached to the vinyl, I used hot glue to attach both short ends of fabric before gluing the tops and bottoms to the frame.
 

This is where, if you make a shade from scratch for yourself, you’ll need an extra set of hands to hold the frame while you glue.  It’s also where you’d need a whole ‘nother set of hands to take pictures…we didn’t have that luxury so I hope my explanation suffices.

While Anthony held both frames and the fabric-covered vinyl was laid out across our dining room table, I started at one end and glued small sections at a time, top and bottom.  Anthony rolled the frames along as I went.  As for how I situated the fabric and vinyl, the frame was set on the very edge of the vinyl and the fabric was folded right over  it and glued to the vinyl on the inside of the shade.  See?

[Update:  And then she finds this forgotten iPhone shot which she promptly adds.]

Behold, the finished product:
 
But wait, I know what you’re thinking.  “It looks all wavy and stuff!"  I know, I almost cried.  So the vinyl wasn’t a great idea.  Because it’s not as stiff as real plastic, it rippled, therefore ruining my idea, therefore ruining my shade.  I tried to make sure it was nice and flat as we glued it to the frame but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be part of a lampshade. 

Here’s a closer look at the mess:

Howeverrrr, the ripples aren’t noticeable at all when the light is on.
 

And see what I was talking about with the subtle pattern?
It’s hard to capture via camera but it’s looks so cool in person.  :)

At this point I was annoyed/frustrated/felt like I just wasted a ton of precious time.  I didn’t even feel like starting Part II…but just because I had a naptime and a crazy hair the next day, I did, just for kicks.

The large shade was not made to be alone.  No.  It was made for a smaller shade to complete it.  Namely, this one:
It was a Dirt Cheap find that only cost me a few bucks.

It had a white plastic liner and instead of cutting a new vinyl one (my original intention but seeing how the first turned out…), I just used the same process to attach, remove, and reupholster it as I did the larger shade, minus replacing the liner. 

After that was all done, I grabbed a couple of twisty-ties and attached the middle bars of each shade to each other like so:

Except when I went to hang the shade I realized the light bulb was too big to fit in between the two crossbars.  Enter the sign for Wits End with this project.  Sheesh…what next?

String?  No.  Fishing line?  We don’t have any………..  Paper clips?  Yes!
 

TA-DA!!

Last, not wanting the view from below to be all wires and stuff, I cut out a piece of cardstock and stuck it to the bottom of the small shades frame with some sticky tack. 

Once again, I know, it’s much too small and not any easier on the eyes.  I just haven’t gotten the chance to cut a larger circle but I think that should solve that problem.

So, ripples and all, here’s the finished product.
 

I’m definitely not in love with it and it definitely looks “homemade”, something I try to stray far from when DIYing home decor but for now, I’m going to live with it until I get another dose of motivation to switch it up or fix the large shade…speaking of, anyone have any recommendations on where to find some plastic lining?

  

I’ll be back sometime this week with details on what I’m thinking of whipping up next for this sorry fan and lots of other DIY light kit ideas, including where I got the inspiration for this shade.  Stay tuned!  It’s gonna to be good!

Rockin' Chair

Behold, a glider.  It's a glider my mother-in-law rescued from either a curb or someone ridding themselves of extra furniture...I forgot the real story.  Either way though, it was free and my sister-in-law took it in as her own with hopes of reupholstering it and making a new seat bottom.  And that's where I come in.  :)  Making a trip up to New York (where Anthony's fam is from) for a wedding, gave us a great weekend to recreate this glider together.  It was my first experience ever sewing upholstery and it actually turned out pretty darn good...although I had an incredible sister-in-law-sidekick who actually did most if not all of the actual sewing...her first time too!  I tried to take a bunch of pictures of the whole process but we were so hard at work I ended up limited in the pic department but I'll do my best to explain.

I might mention before I start too, that this was a very, very low budget project (the story of my life).  With that in mind, we first had to find a seat cushion.  In comes my wonderful mother-in-law.  She found an old couch cushion that we cut up just a little here and there, fit together like a puzzle, and glued back together.   

I know the picture looks a little rough but before making a fabric slipcover for it, we used some "improvised batting" to smooth it out.  You see, normally we would have just used regular, store-bought batting from the store, but we didn't think about buying it while we were there, went home without it, and then didn't want to make the trek back out to the fabric store.   Soooo, we used...one of Alicia's old fleece blankets! I had heard once before of someone using fleece as a substitution for batting but never had the chance to try it until now.  Basically we just wrapped the entire homemade cushion up and then glued the fleece together along the one and only seam. 

 Then we concocted our new fabric slipcover.  Unfortunately, I didn't take one picture of us making the slipcover but basically we sewed together six pieces of fabric - a top panel, a bottom panel, and four side panels.  Pinning the fabric together inside-out over the seat cushion, then removing it with the pins intact to the sewing machine helped us to get a perfect fit.

As for the seat back cushion, we decided to just sew a fabric slipcover right over the existing fabric to make life a little easier.  However, the existing fabric was a little too textured to remain completely smooth under the new fabric so first we covered it with...yep, the same fleece blanket!  First we wrapped the cushion in the fleece, glued it together along the seam in the back, and then pinned our way along the curved edge.  After sewing along our pinned edge, we had a perfect fit.   

To make the new fabric slipcover, we used the same pinning technique using two panels of fabric.  We pinned along the cushion while the fabric was on the cushion, removed the cushion (very carefully so none of the pins came out), and sewed along the pinned edge.  Here's the finished slipcover, ready to be put on:

Alicia then used her mad hand-sewing skills to sew both slipcover openings (top and bottom cushions) closed.

That was the extent of what I witnessed that weekend.  Alicia was left to recover the arm rests herself...and she did an incredible job!  Here's a picture she sent me a couple weeks ago of the finished product:

Doesn't it look incredible!  It's a whole new chair!  Seriously!  Add a cute, patterned throw pillow, Alicia, and her future babes and it'll be one rockin' chair, huh?  :)

The fabric Alicia bought was from JoAnn's.  It was a soft, faux, blue suede and cost around $30.  I can't remember how much we bought so I'll have to put in an update once I find out.  Everything else was F-R-E-E.  So, 30 beans for a brand new glider and a wealth of sewing experience for both of us...not too shabby! 

Anyone else taken on revamping a glider?  I'd love to see pictures!  Send 'em on over!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I'll be back next weekend to tell a couple of secrets we've been keeping from y'all!  :)

Oops...and an Update

So, you Saturday readers of mine, you might've noticed I just might've made an oops last Saturday in the form of zilch for a blog post...so sorry.  We got some ground-breaking news on the home front (I'll divulge later, gotta love cliff hangers...whatever keeps you coming back, right?) Friday and then celebrated our four years of blissful marriage in New Orleans on the day when I should've been pressing PUBLISH.  (I was just gonna write this here post a week late becasuse of my blunder but my kindly sister sweetly reminded me that she had been looking forward to a blog post last weekend and guilt-tripped me into this little post here...just kidding, she just provided the mid-week motivation I needed.)  Ah well, it's now Tuesday and I'm currently in the middle of whipping up some oh-so-good enchiladas for dinner so I'll give you a spoiler for being so patient with forgetful me.  Since I don't have time in the present to write a whole this-is-what-I-did post for ya, I'll just post all the delish pictures and you can figure out your own story line until I get a couple of minutes (or an hour) to fill in all the words.  So, here ya go people!  Imagine away!