Polka Dot Play: Slipcovering Glider Cushions

As you know, if you've checked in at all here at Design-Aholic recently, we've been working on finalizing our baby boy's nursery.  Last weekend, I took an extra day off to make the labor day holiday a 4 day weekend.  I mentioned last week I got a lot done, but unfortunately, lost all my energy during the week and didn't show you anything!  At least now, I can finally unveil the recovered/slip-covered (depending on how you want to view it) glider cushions!

First, since I'm proud of myself, here's the "after":

Do you recall the "before"?  Dirty, plain light blue fabric.  While the slipcovers were constructed well (maybe even better than mine) the ottoman was a joke.  Some things you improve, some things stay status quo.  At least the overall looks MUCH better than it did when I bought it with my friend Annie (check out her blog here, at Confessions of a Navy Wife.)

So, to get started, I cut two squares of fabric from my humongous piece of polka dot fabric that would work for the size I needed.  (seriously, what was I thinking?  I could cover two more full ottoman sets at LEAST with the amount I have left!!! I think I got something like 4 yards of 54" fabric?  Good thing it was a STEAL...)

Then, I removed the blue covers from the cushions (which just sit in the chair form, aren't snapped, banded, or otherwise actually attached to the frame) and laid them out on my wrong side up polka dot fabric.

I laughed a little when I saw the backs and bottoms of the cushions were just hand sewn together...

There were two cushions to slipcover- the back, and the seat cushion.  The back was more or less a square, but had the trickiness of needing the loops to hold the cushion to the frame sewn in.

Let me just pause here a minute.  Did I even mention to you that I haven't pulled my sewing machine out in months, and now I was planning to tackle making my first slipcovers?  No?  Well, yes, I was petrified.  The last thing I made were these straight seam orange curtains, and these envelope fold chevron fabric pillows... For some reason, winding the bobbin, sewing rounded seams instead of straight... all these things gave me the heebie jeebies.  I don't know why I was so scared.  Really.  I think I was most concerned about getting the tread all tangled up in the insides of the machine because I did something small and stupid.  But, alas, reading directions helps!  Even though the poor translation of these Janome instructions made us laugh the first time I used the machine, months back, this time was serious and I had to pay attention to what they said... Outcome?  It worked.  Just fine.  Now I'm not scared.  End the pause.

I attempted the back cushion first, and it went relatively well.  I left the bottom seam open until I tried it on the cushion, and fit it to the chair.  When I realized it worked, and was finished with my happy dance, I sewed the bottom cushion closed.

The rounded edges of the lower cushion posed a slight problem for me, but going slow with the foot pedal, (no, I guess this was not the autobahn) it worked out.  For this cushion, I had actually traced the pattern with a pen as well as pinning it, so that I had a guide to work by.  Since the fabric is so heavy duty, it doesn't show through at all, and me being scrappy, I had just used a ball point pen anyway to do the tracing.  :)

Is it just me, or does this look like a piece of toast?  No?  I'm just pregnant and hungry you say?  ok, fine...

Sewing this cushion together at the back (the last seam) was trickier than the first because I hadn't left much excess fabric to work with.  After some help holding it properly from Z, a broken nail, and some severely sore and tired hands, the cushion was closed (but looked like crap on that back seam) and fitted to the chair.  Shhh, don't tell anyone how bad the back seam was.  :)

Anyway, even though the nursery isn't being re-assembled yet, we're already enjoying the glider.  It's still in the family room, and I just love the polka dot fabric.

And, as a nursery checklist reminder, the following projects still need to be completed:

- Chair rail added above the beadboard (in progress today, weeeeeee!)
- Baseboards added to the floor (in progress today, weeeeeee!)
- Furniture (well, the crib at least!) to be built
- Furniture placed (dresser is in the garage still, and yes I "won" the one I saw on craigslist!)
- Artwork Hung

... The curtains are finished, I'll share those with you soon too... Here's a sneak peak:

Here's the mood board, again, for the eleventy-billionth time:

And, to my (really, my sister's) sewing machine, I'm sorry to have doubted you.

So there's the recent progress... We're getting there, and so is the final baby countdown.  As of today, I'm now 35w1d... time is closing in on us :)

Recovering a Glider Ottoman: Polka Dots

I was excited to have energy this weekend, but I'm disapointed at how fleeting that little bit really is...  Sunday became the day to do some of our first nursery projects (9 weeks now, we should get moving!)

My first project- one to really dig in and finish wasn't small- well, the piece itself is small, but the project wasn't!  Today I recovered the ottoman that matches the glider I purchased for the nursery:

I've recovered furniture before... in fact, these two projects, Tiny Footstool, and the Grey bench should have given me the practice I needed for this project.  I should tell you though, that Dutalier, the manufacturer of our glider, really makes quality product, which made the initial dismantling more difficult than expected!

The blue fabric was the victim of a horrible recovering job (I purchased the glider chair and ottoman at a garage sale in a nice neighborhood by our house).  They just stapled blue fabric OVER the existing dirty upholstery!  So while the first layer of fabric came off easy, the second did not.  Using the best tools I knew, I pried about 150 staples out of the cushion until there was a clean (enough) layer to work with.

(yikes!  The fabric was just trying to JUMP off this ottoman because it had been done so poorly!)

(surprise!  There's another layer of fabric under there!)

Turning it upside down allowed me to remove the cushion much easier

Conveniently, the black mesh covering had holes cut out for where the screws held the top to the bottom

Take a look at all those staples!

Then, finally was the *easy* part: laying the fabric out, cutting to size, and stapling the new fabric around.  The corners were tricky, but I did them the same way I have on my other pieces (they have two folds rather than the typical "professional" way of having one fold on each corner.)

I left the black mesh backing on so that the screw holes would remain visible, thus making screwing it back together easier.  And also, I left a small amount of the old fabric and staple lines on the underside.  It just wasn't worth prying them ALL out.

(picture with flash...)

(picture without flash... in a poorly lit room...)

I'm pretty happy with the results, and glad that the chair/glider itself just needs the cushions recovered, which should be made quick work of with the sewing machine.

A full shot of the glider, which is next:

Until then, I leave you with a few more progress sneak peaks of the nursery-to-be.  Oh, and let me just tell you that we DID purchased the following today:

-  40 ft of beadboard
-  Chair-rail to cap beadboard
-  Baseboards (for the 3 carpeted bedrooms!)
-  Olympic NO VOC paint in PPG color "Lime Green":

Z filled holes, sanded, and painted the ceiling today.  Now we're really on our way!  I'll be hitting that green (in more ways than one!) paint up this week.  :)

Tons of small holes were filled, and the closet doors were removed...

...which left some really hefty holes that required wood fill, not even spackle would do the trick on those bad boys!

Baby steps to the finish line, but it feels like we're on our way now.  I can't wait to see the paint up!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Candy Cane Hearts

I made hearts today out of candy canes.

Let's back up.  I was cleaning the house, and dusting my shelves (as I get ready to revamp the decor on it after the dilemma party!) and found the silver compote from the holidays, and it was still filled with candy canes.  Yes, holiday candy canes.  What a waste, I thought at first... as I took them out of the compote, a few fell on the counter in a familiar shape, and the light bulb went on!

Why not turn these into cute hearts for a final Valentine's Day Project!

Super duper easy, and I figure someone else has already done this, but I'm reveling in the fact that I thought it up today...

I was able to make 13 hearts!  Just a dab of hotglue on each end of one of the candycanes.  Then, just sit the other candy on top in the cute heart shape.  :)

 

  

  

 

Then, place them around the house, and tie some with a pretty ribbon and give to your coworkers!  (or valentine's at school?!)

 

(yep!  That's part of the new decor from the designs dilemma post... stay tuned for more)

  

  

So, happy early Valentine's day everyone!  I hope you have a day full of love that day and moving forward :)

That Magic Red Lamp

ok, Ok, OK.  I finally got up the courage to finish my Milk Jug Lamp.  Yes, yes, I posted about him weeks back.

What do you think?

This baby took a while, because through the process: 1. I changed my mind (shocker), 2. dealt with rain and bad weather (CA has seen some bad storms lately) and 3. I had to re-sand him down after the first coats due to paint drips.  What can I say, I was over zealous with the spray paint in a few areas.  :)

Another thing I learned?  Red is hard to paint with.  To get full coverage, no streaks, and no white spots (on the first try) takes talent I sure don't have.  I understand the art of painting a car now.  Plus I was once told that red is the most difficult color to match.

Anyway, I digress.

I started with this lamp, and these two main inspiration photos (one from Pottery Barn, and the other from Shades of Light)

 

 My $10 thrift store find

  

Pottery Barn, $189

 

Shades of Light, price unknown, but over $200...

What, you say?  My lamp looks nothing like either of those?  Refer to point #1 above.  After getting the primer on the lamp, and choosing an off white called "Ivory" (Rustoleum Heirloom white would have been 1000 times better) the lamp base started to look more like the original version from the store!  Totally not what I was going for.  In fact, very far off, from what I was going for.  Sigh.

 

 

Z suggested some color (love him!) and so, I took out my colonial red spray paint, and proceeded to cover the horrible ivory.

Now, as I mentioned in point 3 above, I had drips all over!  I guess I wasn't patient enough to do many light coats this time, which could have helped on that front.  It seemed like after the third light coat though that it wasn't covering so I kept it on some areas longer than spray paint should be.  And got drips.  Sigh.

So, I sanded it down last weekend in the areas where I could really address the drips, and started fresh.

And here, today, with the lamp shade I purchased at Target:

 

...not the greatest photo of the color, because it nearly looks the same color as my new orange drapes.

I'm done.  Finished.  Finito!  I'm putting this lamp somewhere.  I swear. Yep.  All finished, and no home.  Maybe that's because he started hissing when I plugged him back in tonight.  Notice I'm referring to the lamp as a him?  That's because it was an annoying project, and sometimes men are annoying projects.  Teehee.  Just kidding.

All in all, I really do like the color, and the shape, and the drum shade I found ($10 at Target and it's linen).  Just have to find a home.  And a cure for the light buzz he has.  Any idea on how to get rid of that annoying noise?  I don't think it's a lightbulb issue because it has an CFL in it.

For now, that's all.  Laters!

PS: do you think it looks unfinished?  Like it needs a fleur-de-lis stencil, or a number (say our anniversary date) on it?  I was contemplating roughing it up a bit and using paint glaze for the first time.  Thoughts?  Like it the way it is?  Horribly ugly?  Tell me!