Thursday, August 16, 2012

Lets Chip It, Baby!

Hello Folks!

I hope you are having a great week!  I went to my aquatic aerobic class this morning and finished little odds-and-ins that needed to be taken care of like return phone calls, filing, and working on my “To Do” list.

Now, to what I have wanted to do for quite a while!  Since, Sophie, our exchange student, went home in June, it is time to tranform her bedroom back into a guest bedroom.  I do not want to go back to the "Grandma's Bedroom Room Look" in the guest bedroom. (even if I am ENVIOUS of all my friends who are Grandmas, now!)

Back in June, I purchased this striped quit to use in the room at TJ Maxx. The colors are totally different from the red and brown room I used before Sophie and the purple, teal and brown used during Sophie visit.

Quilt

A couple of days later, I managed to go to a local fabric store and found this material to go with the quilt.

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This material just cried out for me to take it home. I loved the graphic design print and the colors!  I thought with the curtains made in this print or at least trimmed in this print with a couple of accent pillows (also, made out of the same print) on the bed and the chair, the room (with the right paint color on the walls) just might pull together for a new contemporary lighter look.

Now, here it is August and I need to get moving on this room.  I thought about painting the bed, dresser, and chest-a-drawers.  Mr. C did not like that idea and I agree I can always go back and paint furniture. However, I do have this gold chair, I can paint and try my hand at upholstering. You can see where Diablo, the cat, has used the chair as a scratching board!  BAD CAT!

Gold Chair

For those people who know me well, don’t you dare laugh at me for even thinking about upholstering this chair!  If I can try to do it! YOU CAN TOO!

Everyone has been going to Lets Chip it by Sherwin Williams, so I did.  I love it!  You just up load your photo and "Lets Chip It" will give several choices of paint to choose from and you can save it to your computer.

Here is what "Lets Chip It" offered on the quilt photo.

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Then I laid the curtain material swatch on top of the quilt. Here are the choices "Lets Chip IT" gave for quilt and the curtain swatch, together.

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I am Very Excited over this tool, Lets Chip It by Sherwin Williams!  Try it!  I think you will love it too!  It has given me several choices that I can paint on the walls and consider for the chair. Plus, you can chip colors from your kids art.  NOW, I need to shop for a coordinating fabric for the chair!

Are you getting ready to redo a room?  Paint the walls? Paint the furniture? Pick out new fabric or flooring?  It takes time and imagination to pull a room together.  Honestly, I do not think any of my rooms are pulled together.  Sometimes, I think I have too many different looks in one room (like a person's short attention span).
  
Which is me!

Wishing you a blessed week!  

Thank you for following my adventures! All of your comments on Face Book and on my blog means so much to me!  

Wanda

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Stencil "C" Pillow

Hello Friends,

Earlier this week, I shared with you my three-year chair project that I finished last Saturday Morning.  Today, I would like to share with you how I made the initial "C" pillow to go on the chair. 

Also, I used Microsoft Windows Live Writer for the first time to write this post, (I know I am a little late to the game, but I liked it). I accidently published the post instead of moving it to blogger prior to it being finished.  If you saw the first post, ignore it, although I understand it is on the internet FOREVER!

Since the chair was going to Tom’s house, I had to make sure the pillow was masculine. Tom HATES decorative pillows!  So, the only thing I could thing of was a monogram “C” using the popular “Stencil” font . 

I decided I would use the pillow form from one of the old pillows I had purchased at “Target”. (I know all of you know how to pronounce “Tar-Zhay” the French Way.)


Pretty Darn Simple! Right? WRONG!  When I opened one side of the pillow to pull the form out, I realized the casing for the pillow stuffing was attached to the pillow.  (Maybe, all of you knew this, but not me!)


See! Then, I proceeded to open all four sides.  When I finally opened the pillow, this is what I found!


A little stuffing had been sewn into the seam line. I put aside all the stuffing and used the pillow as a pattern.  I used  painter drop cloth (left over from another project) for the pillow.


I thought the pillow was too large for the chair.  So, I measured 1 1/2”  around and marked the casing to cut the casing for the smaller pillow. Then I used the smaller casing as a pattern and cut the drop cloth material (already cut out) smaller.  I sewed the casing and put all the stuffing inside and sewed up the casing.

Now, Finally, I had to figure out the size of the Stencil to go on the pillow.  I went to the “Word” program and opened a blank document.  I typed a capital ‘C” on the page.  Next I highlighted the “C” and chose the “Stencil Font”.  I clicked the the font increase size button to make the “C” as large as I needed and then printed the pattern out on the computer. (you can always take your chosen letter and increase the size with a copier, our copier is on the blink!)

I realized I was out of Freezer Paper.  Mr. C, being the sweet man that he is, went to the store and picked up freezer paper for me.


While Mr. C was at the store, I taped the "C" onto a card board box lid.  When he returned with the freezer paper, I taped the freezer paper (wax side down) on top of the "C".  (you can see my tape came undone.)




I used a mechanical pencil (you can use the old fashion type pencil) to trace the “C” on to the freezer paper. Guess where the cardboard box lid came from? (By the way, I am not being paid to promote “Office Depot”…it is what I had in the garage.


After tracing the “C”, I used an exacta knife to cut the stencil.


Now, here comes the fun part.  I ironed the stencil (wax side down) onto the front pillow side.  The wax side of the freezer paper really sticks to the cloth!


I pulled out my almost 20 year old black acrylic paint and started sponging on the paint.


I hung the stencil pillow front outside to dry. With our weather in Oklahoma, it dried pretty quick!  I sewed the front and back sides together, leaving an opening for the pillow form on one side.  I turned the pillow inside out, put the form inside the pillow, and hand-sewed the open end (you can use a sewing machine to close the pillow).

Here is the PILLOW sitting on the chair at Tom’s Front Porch.  The freezer paper kept the outline of the “C” crisp.


I had never used Freezer Paper for a stencil.  There are plenty of tutorials on stencil making in Blog land.  I just wanted to try this thrifty idea! This project would have been faster,  had I used the copy machine to increase the font size or ventured to Hobby Lobby to purchase a stencil, but then I would not have had as much fun as I did on Saturday!

Have you used any kind of stencil around your house?  I know wall Stencils are famous right now!

This week I am going to party at the following places:



Once again, I want to say a “BIG” Thank you for following my adventures!  I love LOVE your comments on the post directly and on Face book. 

Wishing you a great weekend!

Wanda

Painted Front Porch Chair





HI Y’all!
This past Saturday Morning, I was up and moving around by 6:15 am!  After days of HOT weather, the morning was beautiful outside.  I took my "Free Chair" which had been sitting in my garage waiting for attention for THREE YEARS!   Yes, this is the same chair that I mentioned back in 2011, that I was going to finish within the next month to share with you!  TIME FLIES is my only excuse for not finishing the chair earlier.
Here is how the chair looked in 2011

Free Chair

During this past school year, several times, I ventured out to the garage and spray painted the chair with “Valspar Gloss Exotic Sea” and sanded down the chair in different spots.
So, on Saturday Morning, I used a damp cloth to get all the dust off of the chair.


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A closer look at the chair seat.  You can see a couple of sanded marks on the chair legs.

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I wiped Ralph Lauren’s Tobacco Glaze all over the chair.


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I still love this glaze.  I know most people are now using dark wax to enrich the color of furniture. It dries quickly and I already had it in the garage.
Later in the morning, the temperature was rising outside.  I brought the chair inside and placed it in on my kitchen island. I put two coats of Annie Sloan’s Clear soft wax on the chair.

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Here is the finished chair on my front porch prior to carrying it to Tom’s House.  With his permission, of course.

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A quick look at the backside of the Chair.

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Here is the chair on Tom’s front porch.  See the pillow?  I made it Saturday afternoon.  I plan on sharing how I did that later this week.

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One more photo to show the final project completed.

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What do you think?  Notice the little planter on the porch.  That was a garage sale find!

This is what I did on Saturday!  What did you do on Saturday?  Did you finish any projects that has been hanging around your house for a couple of years like me?

Thank you for your comments and following me on my adventures!  Wishing you a great week!

Wanda