Christi found this great vintage chair, yet again, on the side of the road. Check out her other projects she’s submitted to CL here, and here) Literally, there should be a drinking game for this blog, take a drink every time I mention dumpster diving, side of the road, or spray paint. Haha, but be careful! Anyways, the chair Christi found is one of those worn out mid-century chairs, probably from the 50′s, with a woven bottom. The chair had great bones and Christi knew just what to do with it!
Her pinspiration.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4
She cut off the existing woven fabric with a box cutter, and did not even need to strip the remaining stain from the chair. Look at those bones!
Christi is a regular pinterest challenge contributor, so she had some left-over stain from her previous pinterest challenge she used for this chair. It’s Jacobean by Minwax and since the chair is quite old the wood absorbed the stain like nobody’s business. This was after one coat:
And after three coats of stain, it started looking much more rich and polished.
To create the seat “cushion” Christi went to Goodwill and bought ten black belts at $1.99 each. She started stapling belts vertically to the chair, 5 in total. She used garden shears to cut the belts to the correct size. Then, going horizontally, she began weaving the belts through the existing belts, and then secured those with more staples.
She was a little nervous about the staples holding the belts securely to the chair, and was afraid the belts might buckle (Haha, pun intended) with weight added.
But lo and behold! Everything stayed securely fastened. The total cost for this project was only about $20 since all she had to buy were the belts and the stain she already had on hand. Not a bad antique for $20 I would say.
Please take a second and follow Christi on pinterest and feel free to share your pinterest projects in the comments section! Also please make sure to check out the lovely blogs who help put this whole shebang together Younghouselove, Bower Power, Our Fit House and Ugly Duckling House. Don’t forget to follow Compartment Life on Pinterest! Happy Pinning!
My roommate and I went all out for Halloween this year, and I mean we decorated till we collapsed. I have never been so tired, but on the plus side, the pinterest challenge spurred me to make one of the crafts I pinned to my Halloweenie board.
I followed the directions, switching out batting for the Halloween spider web you find everywhere,.
Tools and Materials
- 1 foam egg (I used a Styrofoam ball)
- spider web
- 1 white stocking
- Plastic spiders in various sizes, I used two sizes – tiny and regular
- Hot glue gun
Spider Egg Sac How-To
To Make each egg sac, I wrapped the Styrofoam ball in a layer of white spider web. Make sure the layer is plenty thick. Starting with the smaller spiders, I hot glued spiders to the webbing. Then I pulled a white socking over the ball and webbing. I finished it by hot-gluing larger ones on the outside.
I wound up making two egg sacs and I hung them from the entryway chandelier at two different heights.
Check out the close up of these “eggs” ewwww. I really even gross myself out sometimes.
The rest of the weekend was spent decorating the rest of the living room and house. If you follow me on instagram you may have caught a few glimpses.
Like in our living room where Ryli wrote a warning to all of our party guests…
We found some great fake barbed wire at Walmart, and we originally planned to “barb-wire” our front door until we realized we had about two feet of it. Then we decided the fireplace was the next best thing.
We were also channeling some Batman this weekend as well. Ryli made some very cute black bats out of egg cartons and suspended them with fishing line so it looked like they were flying.
Did anyone else make a Halloween themed pinterest project? Who else hates scary stuff but seemed to theme all their Halloween decor around it? Please share your pinterest projects below! Also please make sure to check out the lovely blogs who help put this whole shebang together Younghouselove, Bower Power, Our Fit House and Ugly Duckling House. Don’t forget to follow Compartment Life on Pinterest! Happy Pinning!
Sweet relief came to Dallas this weekend in the form a nice, chilly cold front. My roommate and I spent some time on our back patio, sipping some hot chocolate and tea while bundled up in blankets. It was glorious. It got me to thinking about doing some quick patio decorating to officially get in the fall spirit.
I went outside with a small bucket and started picking up leaves in my neighborhood. I can’t even begin to describe to you how silly I felt, but I powered on grabbing any leaf with some semblance of color. For whatever reason it was slim pickin’s, but I made do with what I could find and then went back inside and gathered the rest of my supplies. Some thread and a needle was all I needed and I went to work.
It was a simple as poking the needle through each leaf and pushing them down to the bottom of the string. Make sure you tie a knot at the end first though!
I picked leaves at random out of the bucket, and even if they were sort of dried out the needle went through cleanly enough that nothing tore or fell apart. Then I took my garland outside and hung it up underneath my back-porch overhang.
The whole cost of the project was free. It’ll be fun to look at during the fall season and hey I might just make a few more to add more texture and layers. What did you guys do this weekend? Any fun nature craft projects? Did anyone else weird out their neighbors by clearing their yards of dead leaves?
Not every project needs to be a huge undertaking. For me, I like to complete small projects when I can, it helps me feel productive, like I’m actually getting things done around the house. I try to keep in mind something I once read in a book called “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. She makes a point to tackle tasks that take three minutes or less in her day-to-day life. I sort of apply that to DIY projects. If it will take less than an hour, why avoid it?
I found a little table tray on the side of the road one night before trash pick-up.
The straw was a little broken on one side but I figured a coat of paint would help camouflage that side, and if not I’d just face that side to the back. Well, I’m not sure how or when it happened but when I finally decided to paint this tray I found this…
It wasn’t a terrible wax spill but I knew I couldn’t simply paint over the wax. The wax had to go. Enter pinterest solution. I had read a while back on a pin (can’t remember where sorry) that if you place a paper towel over the wax and use a hot iron on top of the paper towel, the wax will come right up. Couldn’t hurt to try right?
Well what do you know? It worked!
I was pleased, so I brought my little tray outside to spray paint her a glossy black coat of Rustoleum’s Glossy Black.
It took about four coats before she was completely covered. Once I was satisfied with her gloss factor I brought her inside. But, once I piled all the magazines back inside her, she looked like she was missing something…a glam factor maybe?
I had just the remedy for that, enter Señor Gold Paint Pen.
I just lined the edges of the tray in gold to glam it up a bit. I briefly considered free-handing a design on the flat bottom of the tray, but then remembered I do not have a very steady hand, so I threw that idea out the window. Plus, if the trays purpose is to hold things, I feel like most the work would not be seen. I think just the touch of gold really added a special something.
Once again, I added a few things into the tray to give it a sense of completeness.
For now my tray has the gig of door greeter. Once I make a move on a coffee table, I’ll probably move the console tray into the living room to hold console-y things.
Have any of you spray painted something only to be underwhelmed with the change? Have you ever used a paint pen to take a project to the next level?
Being someone who has a hard time with media selection and pretty much all things living room, when I saw Jamie’s dresser turned media stand I had to share. Here’s her letter:
“This was a dresser my mother bought ~10 yrs before I was born so prob between ’74 and ’78 somewhere. Bought it off of a neighbor who was moving for $10. No clue how old it is, where it came from, the brand or any of those shenanigans. Not even sure how she used it until I came along but it’s held a plethora of different elements of my stuff in it since ’85. Now that it holds up my tv it stores – go ahead and laugh here – my old vcr and TONS of VHS’ that I am kind of hoarding, but at least they’re home videos of old school plays and stuff…. mostly haha. I may or may not have recorded some (read: several) episodes of Dawson’s Creek and kept it… shhh. Clearly I didn’t take great care of the dresser through the teen years so I decided it was time to make up for many years of mistreatment. Poor thing needed some serious love.
I did most of the sanding in my back alley. I spent 3 hours sanding it (electric hand-held sander by Black & Decker) on a lovely 107 degree day (not sure how many calories I burned…but I was satisfied that I at least got rid of some of those bad boys).
I used a textured, paint-able wallpaper to apply to the bottom two drawers by Allen + Roth. I painted the whole dresser, including the wallpapered drawers a lovely shade of pale blue, Valspar paint and primer in Fountain Mist. I only primed the drawer to help the wallpaper stick since I hadn’t ever used wallpaper before, but since the Valspar paint had primer in it I didn’t prime the rest. The image on the far right is Darius, my off-white ceramic owl, who wanted to help show that even though the dresser looks a little white on camera, it’s actually a very beautiful, light blue.
Here is the dresser all polished and complete. Thanks for checking it out!”
-Jamie
I love that she used not only a wallpaper to update her dresser, but a textured wallpaper. It’s such a great piece, and good wood is hard to find. Great job Jamie!
I’ve been slowly injecting the color red into our downstairs. It just started coming in organically. First, it showed up in a picture above the bar, and then we noticed my plates and bowls were red, and then finally Ryli decided to paint her bedroom red.
Which lead me to say “What the heck, why not?” and start spray painting a little bit of red into the house. By which, I mean giving several items in my house a new coat of spray paint, not my walls. Starting with my kitchen clock. I’ve spent the better part of my ownership of this clock disliking this color. Which kind of makes me wonder, why did I buy it in the first place?
I think I bought it because I liked its shape. Problem is, I’m really not a fan of that kitchy-distressed look. Which is exactly what this clock is. Why not sell it/craigslist it you ask? Pretty much because it’s the only piece of “decor” in the room. So for now it stays.
I taped the inside of the clock off and protected the glass with a plastic bag. Yes, I know there are two empty painters tape rolls in the picture. I promise, I didn’t use two full rolls of painters tape to tape off one little clock. There were just a few pieces left on each roll from my painting extravaganza, part I and part II.
Actually, Clide found great fun in the empty tape rolls.
If you follow me on instagram – Compartment_Life – you know I have to paint in the back yard now….with bigger pieces of cardboard. If you haven’t seen the evidence, last time I painted out front I managed to get spray paint all over my front walkway and I’m still cleaning up my mess.
I used Rustoleum spray paint in Colonial Red. After a few coats (and with no mess!) my clock was ready to be place back in his spot of honor above my bistro table.
Okay, so I really need some more decor in here. Badly. Curtains for one, I’d love to do a pattern, nothing floral though because I’m trying to steer away from the country-kitchey look. My poor clock looks so lonely, if he had a theme song it definitely be called “Red Solo Cup Clock”.
I’m so much more relieved about this clock color, still a little kitchey but I think that’s partially due to the clock face. For now, he’ll work. Man, never has post made me feel so inadequate about a room….kitchen updates….here I come!
What about you? Are you feeling his new bold red coat? Do you have any decor you’re hanging onto even though you’re not in love with it? Maybe your dogs also like to play with left-over project bits like mine?
When last we left off, my bedroom was in a state of chaos, I was debating between several coral colors for my accent wall, and I felt the gray I had painted that weekend might not have been the right shade of gray.
In a surprising turn of events this past Friday, I made several decisions. First, thanks to my friends and everyone here on the blog, I picked a coral for my accent wall. I went with Cool Lava by Behr. I also decided not to live with a gray that I despised. That’s right, despised. I had hastily picked a “gray” and it turned out blue. It was Burnished Metal by Behr. If you don’t quite remember, let me jog your memory.
I tried for a whole week to convince myself to keep it. I really did. In the end, I truly hated it. So, on Friday, I made several trips to home depot getting paint samples of different grays. I picked out a Glidden color this time called Seal Gray. I had used this color before on a table I repainted for a pinterest challenge so I already knew I liked it. I color matched it with Behr because they were having a rebate sale – buy one gallon, get $5 off. Well, the actual color is too dark for me since my goal was to go with a light gray. However, I recently discovered that you can get a custom color by asking for the paint you like in shade percentages. So, if there is a color you like but it’s too dark, you can say “I want this color but at 50%, or at 75%.” I bought 2 samples, one at 50% and one at 25%. The paint department at home depot would dab a little bit on the paint chip for comparison each time. In the picture below, the 50% is on the right side of the chip and the 25% is the two dots in the center of the paint chip.
I purchased two gallons of the gray at 25% after a little debate and a quart of the coral in Cool Lava and my good friend Caitlin and I went to work. We got started painting around 9 pm. We painted well into the night and finally finished around 3:30 am. It came out really nice. The toughest part was, of course, the ceiling. In the first round of painting, the weekend before when I accidentally painted the gray-blue, I didn’t even get to the ceiling. Since we were lacking proper tools and extra energy, we only painted about 3/4ths of the way up. Let me tell you, the 16 foot ceiling above my door was really challenging. Even on an eight foot ladder with an extension rod for the paint roller we could barely reach the top. This is a shot looking straight up from my doorway.
Once all was said and done, I was really pleased with the results.
The wall above the window nook was no picnic either. I used a tool I found at home depot to reach the edges of the ceiling called an edge tool. It worked rather well for my purposes, I still need to do a few touch ups but those can wait. For now, I’m trying to decide what type of window covering I should do. I know I want something soft and white, but I’m not sure what type of shade/curtains I want. Roman maybe?
One of my favorite parts of the paint job was doing the high ledge. To me it was probably the easiest part of the room to paint, except that it was a little scary being up so high. After spending time up there paint, I want to find a cute ladder to leave permanently so I can access my high ledge whenever I want. I would put it right where the tripod is currently leaning in the picture below. Maybe I could put a “library” up there, you know a couple of bookcases and some vintage books? Just a thought.
For comparison, here is the loft before the painting frenzy began:
And the loft in the midst of the gray-blue painting fiasco:
Having color on the walls really brings out all the architectural details in the bedroom. There are multiple peaks in my ceiling that get lost when it’s all white.
Once my bedroom was completely reset, my friend Caitlin pointed out that both of the colors were in the scarf I like to keep draped on my lamp. She said she thought it was the reason I chose the palette that I did. It wasn’t, but I love happy accidents!
During all this painting mania I also started a little collection. Viking Glass. Here’s a quick preview. I’ll save the rest of the details for a future post.
I think Josey liked the new paint choices although she doesn’t seem so happy about having her picture taken:
The view from my bed now includes the reclaimed wood shelf I told you about in the last condo update post.
And for a final comparison, here is an old picture from when I first moved in:
And now complete with a paint job:
I’m so happy I finally found the right gray. It was like the moment all brides-to-be talk about when they find the right wedding dress….only mine was with paint. Go figure. Not only does my room feel softer but the coral accent wall makes me feel girly. In a good way though. I don’t think I’ve had pink in my room since I was 8.
After everything, how do you all feel? Are you a fan of the coral I went with? What do you think of the new and improved gray? Does anyone else share special fond moments with their paint choices? Tonight I leave for a trip to new Jersey, don’t worry though. I’ll have a post for you guys tomorrow still! Have a great weekend!
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