Weekend Project: repainted porch furniture

Last weekend I was given a set of porch furniture. It used to be Steven’s aunt’s at her bed and breakfast in Natchitoches ten years ago, then my mother in law had it a while, then it was passed to me. At first I thought it was wicker, but upon closer inspection (and trying to pick it up!), I saw that it is some sort of nylon that looks like wicker.

I looked some sets up online and they range in price from $600-$1,000 new. Wow….

10 cans of high gloss primer and spray paint and…voila!

I bought the bird seat cushions and pillows from Pier1 and the Khaki sofa seat cushion. I bleached the burgundy/green pattern from the original seat back cushions so they would match better.

I made the blue pillows from fabric I had. The stripes are dress front pin tuck things. Not sure what their proper name is. I bought a box full at a flea market for $2 with the intent to make pillows.

The polka dot pillow is old, old. I had it in a container in the attic. It matched (somewhat), so it got tossed on the porch.

I spent $150 on pillows (they were on sale and I asked for a discount on a couple that were a little dirty. They gave them to me for 45% off) and new seat cushions. I reused the original seat back cushions and made pillows. Cost: $0. The spray paint/primer cost $38. Total: $188. Not too bad for saving $600-1,000 for a new set.

Great Hall Interest Wall

I was flipping pictures and found some from when I put up the interest pieces on the hall wall.  For quite some time I have gathered pictures and ideas on what I wanted to do with the wall once everything was painted.  In between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we completely finished sanding and painting the wainscot and refinished the floors.  My hall wall was ready!!!

Here are a couple of my inspiration pictures:

Here is what I scrounged the shed and attic and found:

I laid it all out on a quilt in the hall to see how I wanted to arrange it all.  I disliked the different colors and decided to use some Martha Stewart metallic paints to unify them.  I also bought some black silk ribbon to hang some of the frames and painted some clothes pins with acrylic paint to match.

After laying it out and measuring the wall, I realized that I did not have near enough items to cover the wall. So, back up to the attic for a couple black shelves and a couple other misc. items.  I come back and find my daughter like this. She told me that she was “framed!”. It made giggle…

 

More items……more paint………more arranging………..and here it is:

 

I am looking for a small flat sign that says “FAMILY” to go in the top right ornate frame. I may either make or order a decal. I haven’t gotten that far yet.  The above picture was taken right after i got it all on the wall late November (I believe) and below is a picture I took today.  I need to fill in the empty picture frame. I really like the shelves. I have moved things around according to season and according to what I want to look at.  Overall, I was pleased with it.  You will notice that I did not repaint the pew. I think the color has grown on me.  Most of the frames I bought from garage sales or goodwill.  The black shelves I had in the study, but when we added the bathroom, they came down and I had nowhere to put them…until now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Painted pew

About five years ago, Steven bought me this pew in New Orleans for an anniversary present. I was ecstatic! Now that our floors are refinished, We were able to pull it out, wood glue some of it back together, reinforce it, and get it ready for its new debut in our hall. Steven picked out Moroccan Red by Benjamin Moore in the pearl
finish for the pew (shout out to Joseph’s Paint on Bolton Avenue. BEST customer service—buy local!!!!) and I went to town painting today. Here are the results. I will be back tomorrow with a picture of it installed in the hall.

I was really pleased with how it came out.

Andrea

Dining Room Chairs

For a long time now, we have had folding chairs around our 10 person table. While I thought it was an ok solution for the time being, I really yearned to put “real chairs” around the table. The folding chairs, I bought wedding chair covers for the time being hoping that I could figure out how I could afford 10 dining chairs!!!

Anyway, fast forward a couple years later….I saw a couple pictures on Pinterest where some really crafty ladies have taken mismatched wood chairs and painted them all the same color to unify them. I thought this was a great idea! I had 4 wooden chairs in my shed from a couple people giving them to me. I just had to find 6 more. I called a friend who owns a flea market and she rounded up 6 more chairs. All total, I spent $80 acquiring the chairs.

Pinterest picture:

Now, all I had to do was figure out what color to paint. I really wanted to paint them turquoise, but I worried about it being too bright. I pittered and pattered and pondered….

My mood board and ideas. For accents, I could not figure out if I wanted to do yellow, chartreuse, lime or acid green.  I think I settled on somewhere between chartreuse and lime. 

So, the day I decided to paint, I bought 6 cans of 2x coverage Rustoleum satin black spray paint. I sprayed them all black. I had a gallon of leftover turquoise satin paint from when I painted a room in the house. I intended to leave some of the chairs black and paint some turquoise. Then after it was all said and done, I didn’t like it, so I painted them all turquoise. I am glad I did!

Even though the turquoise is bright, I think the dark color of the room and the other accessories blend in together nicely.

I also had a beautiful medallion my mother in law gave me. It has moved from room to room as we have remodeled and worked. Finally! I am able to give it a home! I painted it a darker turquoise and had my handy hubby hang it over the fireplace. Perfect!

So excited! I can now call my dining room done…errr…ahem…for now! Until I get a hankering to paint again….if you don’t know what I am talking about, click on the tag dining room and see the several transitions it has made. ha!

So, this is how it all came out. I am happy with it!  I repurposed a cream colored metal tub that I had in the attic and painted it navy blue for the flower centerpiece. The flowers were bought from Michaels and Hobby Lobby this week. The two owls were bought at Hobby Lobby. The turquoise bird was one I had. It was green. It got painted 🙂  I am known to paint things to match my room. I usually shop in my attic first before buying anything new and repurposing what I can.   Soon, I am going to post 360 video tours as we have just about finished every project in the house. Hopefully sometime early this Spring those will get posted.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and you got something crossed off your list!

Andrea

Piecing together porch planters

My brother took the idea I had and he and Steven put together one of the front porch planters today. He cut the side slats first so I could stain and paint them. I bought 15×15 plastic plant pots to set into the planter. Here are a few pictures of us putting one together today. I still have to stain the top and feet. When I put the other three together I will take pictures and a tutorial on how we did it. Everything but the plastic liners was leftover stuff from other projects. I paid $24 for the liners at Home Depot. The side slats came from when we had to cut porch boards down to match the existing porch board size. The other pieces are left from misc. projects. The paints, stains and wood screws were leftover too.

***Update: sorry the pics are posted in reverse order. I am still trying to figure out the iPhone WordPress app. Anyway, here is our one finished planter installed on the front porch. It looked huge on the back porch, but it looks tiny on the front!

Studio Calico Sketch

I loved this SC Sketch.  Received it in an email today.  Hope it inspires you!  Click on the link below to go to the source.

Source: Sunday Sketch

American Heart Association Crop 02-19-11

SCRAPBOOKERS UNITE FOR HEART

Ok ya’ll!  The American Heart Association Crop is on 02/19/11 from 9 am til 9pm.  This located at the Cabrini Mediplex, Alexandria, Louisiana.  The cost is $40 and all proceeds benefit the American Heart Association.  What you will receive is: a goody bag, crop space, chances to win doorprizes, participation in vendor techniques, meals throughout the day and the warm fuzzy feeling that you are doing two things: 1) getting some of your scrapbooking done; and 2) benefitting a great organization!

Please see the flier for details.  American Heart Association Crop Registration Form

Registration is closed 2-14.  After 2-14, the cost is $45 per person.  I am working on setting up a booth for Close To My Heart and I will have the latest products there for you to view.

Hope to see you there!

Andrea

Scrapbooking, cardmaking, crop, Alexandria, Louisiana

Recycle Altoid Tins

Ok, I am a sucker for a great recycle and this was just so cute and easy to do: Making Mini Toolboxes from Altoid Tins.   I am reposting (Thanks Alpha Mom).  Click here to view the tutorial on how to make these.  Another good site to get ideas from is: www.craftingagreenworld.com

I have quite a few recycling projects that I took pictures of and am working on.  When I get the time, I will post more ideas on ways to recycle things around the house and on how to recycle packaging.  For now, here is a short list.

Our local recycler accepts cardboard, plastic, tin  and aluminum cans, but not glass.  I have quite a collection of glass jars!  In fact, it gets so large that I have to throw some out from time time…YIKES!  So, I am always looking for great ideas to reuse the jars or repurpose them.  We have made special cake mixes, coca mixes, etc. and poured the dry ingredients into a jar so all the recipient has to do is add eggs, water and oil; or in the case of the cocoa: milk or water.  We also use them to store odds and end hardware like screws, nails, bolts, etc.  Here are some great ideas to recycle glass: Jars=vases, carrying soup, storage.  Glass bottles= Spring time flower arrangements (think gerbera daisies), display in a window.  http://www.ehow.com/how_2271399_make-coke-glass-flower-arrangement.html; or http://www.alittletipsy.com/2010/05/2-spring-soda-bottle-flower-arrangement.html; or http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/158372/how_to_recycle_glass_bottles_into_decorative.html

 

I keep all of the Folger canisters I buy and I reuse those to line a shelf inside the kitchen cabinet.  I make labels to recover the canisters and store flashlights, batteries, drawer pulls, and larger items.  Why buy a storage container when you have one to throw away?  I also keep all of the plastic ice cream buckets, butter bowls, etc. and reuse those to package up food leftover from potlucks at our house, and send them home with the guests.  Sometimes, when friends have a new baby, or there is illness, I cook food and put it in the big ice cream buckets and bring it to their house.  That way they do not have to worry about getting us our storage containers or pots back.

My favorite thing to do, is recycle the packaging that curtains and sheets come in.  You know those thick plastic bags that have a zipper, or button?  I use those to store my sewing supplies and the larger ones, I put the whole entire project into it.  For example, if I am making potholders, I will put the potholder material, stuffing, matching thread, etc., all in one bag so all I have to do is pull out one bag and everything for my project is there.  Click here for pictures of that.

Some of the smaller packaging bags that Tshirts, childrens’ underwear, and different things like that come in, I reuse as pencil cases or a mini office to go.  I cut out fabric flowers or paper flowers, (or whatever design you want) and sew them or hot glue them on.  The great thing about these bags are that they are see through.  I am very visual, so I like see through storage.  Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind applies.  The containers that are not see through, I put a large label on so I can readily identify what is inside.

Lastly, I like to recycle hard acryllic plastic packaging.  The kind that toys come in.  I put the cardboard part of the box in the recycling bin and I take the acryllic part and punch out shapes with my paper punches and then use them in a layout as windows.  You can almost recycle everything!

If you have any great reuse tips, please post them in the comments!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!  Happy toolbox making!

Andrea

CLSH Dairy Barn, Pineville, Louisiana

Along with other preservationists, I had the privilege of touring this barn today.  It is a pretty lady.  Here are the pictures from the tour.  If I did not have midterms and a host of other pressing things to do, I would give a narrative of the tour.  Maybe another time.  Here are the beautiful pictures.

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Recycling Services in Louisiana

I would not call myself a super recycler, or anything, but I do try to do my part.  One of my friends told me that the following company on Broadway now takes plastics too.  This is copied and pasted from the City of Alexandria’s website.  They do not list plastic as an item they accept, but they do accept anything plastic with this symbol:

Recycling Services
2510 Broadway Ave.
Alexandria, LA
(318) 473-4441
paper and cardboard

If you are interested in recycling cans or aluminum, you can drop off your items at:

BEST Metal Recyclers
715 Melrose St.
Pineville, LA
(318) 767-6585
cans, metals, aluminum, etc.

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Andrea