Vanity to Desk Makeover

So, I've been teasing y'all with this project for months now, but that's how long I have been waiting to get it done!  It ended up being way easier than I thought it was going to be.

This is the vanity that I started with.

It belonged to my godmother, Stephanie.

Stephanie was the ultimate Southern lady.  She didn't write the book on etiquette, but she could have.  She certainly knew it by heart.  

The woman who had everything, from jewelry to a set of china for every season, she was every little girl's dream.  A true fairy godmother.  

Because of Stephanie, I have beautiful pearls, Christmas china & {also thanks to my other dear godmother, Sally} a beautiful set of fine silverware. 

But, more than this, I was blessed by her amazing spirit...she was never without a smile on her face or a kind word to say.  

Stephanie passed away this year after a short battle with cancer.  I miss her every day.  

She gave me this vanity along with a beautiful antique dresser.  I don't have room for the dresser right now, but I love the vanity.  

But I decided one day that it would get a lot more use as a desk than as a vanity.  

And after considering just removing the mirror altogether, I decided that this would be more creative and much more useful!

First, I very carefully removed the backing from the mirror which was just tacked on with small finishing nails.  

I put the mirror aside, I'm not sure yet if I will hang on to it or not.

Next, I purchased a small roll of cork board from the craft store for $10.

Using the mirror as a guide, I cut a piece of cork board out and glued it to the inside of the backing.

I then stapled batting around the backing and then...the peacock fabric!

That's right, my favorite Thanksgiving in Summer themed fabric that I showed you here!

And...

Voila!

my new desk!

I love, love, love it!

And now I have a cute cork board right there for notes, ideas, pictures, etc.

These are my sweet fabric pinwheel push pins from Anthropologie that I love.

See how nice and organized it looks?

It's not.  Those drawers are full of junk.  Each one of them.  

It will definitely be an Organizational Wednesday project.

But isn't it pretty?

I just love it!

So, I love my little corner of our office.

I obviously still have a lot of work to do in there before I give you a full tour, but again, we're getting closer!

Until then, here's to you, Steph.  I hope you like it.

What can Metallic Spray Paint do for You?

I got into another upholstery project this week.

I wasn't planning to, it started while I was playing with some metallic spray paint.  {I have plans to spray paint an old chandelier that my future mother-in-law gave us.}

So, I wanted to test out some spray paint to see how it works.

I have an old Vodka bottle that I have held on to for years.  My dad bought a bottle Rain Organics Vodka for me a few years ago...and, my apologies to the Rain Organics people, but it tasted terrible.

I loved the bottle, though.

So, I've seriously held onto this bottle for years.  Never really knowing what I was going to do with it.

{The sort of behavior that my sister & my fiancé would discourage...the behavior of hoarders.}

But something told me that I would find a good use for this fun bottle.

I also wanted to test out the spray paint on some hooks for a coat rack.  You saw the coat rack here in my old apartment.

I'm not sure what possessed me to spray paint the whole darn thing off-white.  

But I sure did.

So, I took the hooks off a few weeks ago, {and stored them with their screws in a labeled plastic bag...smart.} to wait for the metallic spray paint.  

Here we go.

So I used the screws to stick the hooks into the cardboard which made it really easy to spray them from all sides.  Also, this only took one coat of paints...very impressive to someone like me.  I loved using this spray paint.

I had been planning on painting the piece of wood for the coat rack.  I wasn't really planning on completing this project that afternoon, but then an idea struck me & I couldn't be stopped.

I had the idea that scrapbook paper would be cute instead of just a solid coat of paint. 

Then I thought, "I wish it would be easier to fold scrapbook paper around the edges neatly...like fabric."

{GASP}

"FABRIC!"

I had batting leftover from my chair upholstery project AND I had a yard of gorgeous fabric that I bought for another project, {more on that later,} but I knew that I had enough for both.

So here it is:

Right?!

"Are we going for a walk, or what?"

Don't you love that fabric?  I do.

Side-story:

Brian and I were at Joann buying this fabric & I don't know if y'all's craft stores are anything like ours are, but I am pretty sure it is a pre-requisite that you have to be at least 70 years old to work there.

The woman cutting the fabric for us said, "oh, this is nice, sort of a Thanksgiving in summer theme."

Brian and I looked at each other in confusion but agreed politely with her.  It didn't occur to me until we were walking out of the store that she thought the peacocks were turkeys.

But a Thanksgiving in summer theme would be nice.

So, I am really excited about my coat rack.  I love that it is the first thing you see when you walk in.

It's gotten me excited about getting more done in our foyer.

Oh, I almost forgot!

Check out the vodka bottle:

See what would happen if I wasn't a hoarder?

We LOVE our new vase!

So, seriously, I love metallic spray paint.  It's my new favorite thing.  The wheels in my head are spinning trying to come up with something else I can paint.

Tomorrow morning I will be spray painting that chandelier I told you about, not this silver color, but a rubbed oil bronze.  Then I will be trying to figure out what to do about shades for it, too!

Until then, if you have to work on a Tuesday night, here's hoping it looks something like this.

Easy Chair Makeover {and another before-and-after picture!}

Hi, everybody!

Well, I have had a glimpse this week of what motherhood might be like for me.  

Atticus got sick again twice this week.  We took her to the vet today and they are treating her with probiotics and antihistamines, in case she is allergic to something.  But they say her behavior appears to be epileptic.  Oye.

So, we are hoping that it is just a GI issue and that we can find the trigger!  

But I have, shall we say, not been handling it well.  I really don't know how I am going to handle it when my babies get sick or hurt.  I'm banking on the fact that my maternal instincts will make me stronger.

Here's hoping.

But on another note...

I wanted to share with you a fun project I finished last week!

I actually "rescued" these chairs from an old building at my church before it was torn down last year.

When Brian and I decided to make the second bedroom an office, I liked the idea of making it a couple's office.  

Two desks, one "male" and one "female," but I thought it would be cute if we had matching chairs.

So, I thought of these poor little abandoned and abused chairs.

I headed out and bought some off-white spray paint and spent {what felt like} 3 or 4 hours browsing fabric at the craft store.  

I finally decided on this.

Love it.  

So I, by no means, am an expert on re-upholstery.  

I honestly was winging it on this project.  I've seen it done a few times and I figured it couldn't be too hard.

And it wasn't.

So, if you're a beginner and have some chairs you'd like to makeover...

Please don't do this...

Do this!

So, here we go.  Flip it on over and look for the screws that are attaching the seat to the chair.

Take it from me, put the screws in a baggy and label them.

If you don't get around to finishing this project {and you're anything like me} I guarantee that in a few weeks you will be straightening up and ask yourself, "I wonder what these screws go to..."

So here is what you'll need:

Fabric, I was able to do both chairs with 1 yard.
A heavy duty staple gun, {about $20 everywhere we found one.}
1/2" foam and 1/2" batting.
*not shown, a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Here is our awesome spray paint booth that Brian built for me.

This picture is deceiving,
this is in our garage, not our house!
But nice dry wall and molding for
a garage, right?

I haven't found a favorite spray paint brand,
{I tend to just pick by color}
but this fancy nozzle they've got going
actually did keep my trigger finger
from cramping, {no joke.}

I definitely think the white is a huge improvement to the lovely bamboo.

Now we just had to tackle the faded yellow vinyl...

It might take some work, these chairs had a bagillion, but pull all of the staples out.  

Supervisor.

Keeping the base, I put the foam on first.  Just lucked out that it was pre-cut to the perfect size, {livin' right bonus.}

Next, I wrapped the batting around the foam and stapled it to the bottom of the base.

Theeeeen, the foam that was already under the lovely faded yellow vinyl was still in pretty good shape, and since it was already fitted to the base, {and covered the sharp corners,} I decided to keep it.  

So, I put that on top of the first layer of batting.

And then added a second layer of batting.  These are comfy chairs, y'all.

Now, I can't believe I didn't take any more pictures between this stage and the finished product, but...well, I didn't.

The next step is to pull the fabric tightly around and secure it with staples, just as you did the batting.

I always hear and read that you should be sure to pull the fabric really tight.  But I found that I ended up with an uneven edge, sort of smooshing down the batting too much.  

So, I kind of hate to say this, but eyeball it.

Pull it tight, but not too tight...

Then plop it back down on the chair and put the screws {that you know the exact location of} back in.

And...drumroll please...

Oooooh.  Aaaaaah.

Love it.

So, while I was really sad to see the faded yellow vinyl go, I love my new chairs!  

And, I love that my feminine desk and Brian's masculine desk have matching chairs.

More on our office later, we're not ready for a full tour just yet, but we are well on our way! 

Until then...

Damn, I love before-and-after pictures.