Midcentury Modern Sofa and...new business cards

Oh me oh my...you just never know what treasures you'll find when you look at online auctions..

Recently I spotted this sofa on one that we frequently check and no one was bidding.  So I did-- thinking it would go pretty cheap, and it would be a great first piece to reupholster.  I have been wanting something this style for awhile now but most of them are already "redone" and way out of our price range.

Here she is in the bed of the truck when we brought her home...

But the photos online weren't that great.  And at the end someone started bidding against me.  What!?!?!?  Which extends the auction by 5 minutes.  So it was going alot higher than I anticipated but in my mind I had already redone it and--I can admit it--  I was emotionally attached.  After 3 extensions on the time I finally won my sofa...only I was worried I was going to be sorry how much I'd spent....$140.  But when we picked her up...

I was thrilled--she is in incredible shape! 

It has these cast metal legs---one of which was broken (in the back) so I used the same legs I used on the shelf I turned into an entertainment center.  They're about $4 apiece at Lowe's.

And I gotta admit I am really digging the leopard print on this sofa :) now I'm taking my time picking out what fabric I'm going to buy to make a slipcover....I just can't reupholster it...

And my orange pillow cushions don't look half bad on there either...

This sofa is awesome.  Whoever it belonged to probably rarely used it...the cushions are like new...

So I rented the steamer from Lowe's and cleaned it GOOD.  

And our carpets are shockingly clean now...

This little folding metal table came from the same auction site, and you can see the replacement legs in the back of the sofa in this photo too...

She's got personality to spare...

I'm pretty sure I have a paint color picked out for the walls...I've been looking at it for about a week now making sure it's what I really want.  That's coming soon too and long overdue...

On a different note my multi-talented husband whipped up this label design and we had some printed up on business cards...

They came today!

  We've been wanting something simple to "tag" our things with...so this is what he came up with.  What can I say...the man has great taste!!!

Pepsi crate shoe organizer

 Latest and greatest epiphany.....you never know when inspiration will strike....on this one I was working out in our crazy, scary basement and thinking about Mighty's collection of shoes...

(she's only 1 people!!) 

and she has MANY shoes already...her  mother's daughter for sure!!!

 This Pepsi crate has been in our house all kinds of places.  But lately had been sitting in our basement....waiting for this apparently :)

 I have said before our house is small and our kids share a room so most things around here have to serve a purpose or there is no space for them.

But I couldn't get rid of it ---I really love it.....

I used a Coke crate in this post as a key holder/organizer...for the same reason love it but it needs to serve a purpose OTHER than gathering dust...

 It would be really great under a bed but you can see below what would happen there...and this one would change her shoes every 5 minutes if she could reach them....

 So on the closet wall it goes!!!!  Still a pretty unique way to store your shoes....especially when you're one...

 And actually I could really use 2 crates....this one's pretty much full already....

Valentine's Day

My sweet husband and I are soul mates...there's just no way we would have made it through each of our first marriages and gotten together without God...

Below is a link to a beautiful song that reminds me of us....

I've Got This Friend...by the Civil Wars

We enjoy doing everything together ---raising our family, serving in our church, making just about anything and everything,

just making a life together...

And we love to shop flea markets and antique shops together...

finding unique things to create our home

I found this set of eight Pyrex cups and saucers and had to have them.  They are timeless....

 The color is gorgeous... And the red striped towel (in the photo below) I now have three of...vintage linens are yummy...

 I saw a lot of other Fire King and Pyrex pieces (mixing bowls, small cereal bowls, etc.) I'd love to have...something fun to hunt for when we're out scouring the flea markets and antique stores...

 My husband is a bit obsessed with collecting lunch boxes and thermoses so the red one with the black stripes is our latest addition...

 And I have been on the hunt for a chair to add to our living room for quite awhile... over a year.

We don't have a lot of space, so I was thinking a small armchair that I could slipcover or reupholster....then we saw this set....

And they are actually really comfortable.

Perfect in scale and two instead of one.  They're good for now...eventually I may have to reupholster them, but I'll live with them for awhile before I decide.  

I love creating a unique home.  We buy what we love and that's it.  Doesn't really matter if it's old or new or where it comes from...

It's ours and that's what matters....

Slipcovered Chair

This is what she looked like before.  I know it's only the cushion...Things were a little busy around here and I kept intending to take a photo before I got the slipcover finished and on the chair...

And here she is after...

First thing I do is measure out and sew all the piping...

Then I start with the largest pieces and cut the fabric for each of the sections of the chair.  For this piece it was the back because that's one large piece and I decided to make a large box pleat since the back of it will show...

For this chair I used almost 7 full yards of 54" wide upholstery fabric.  It has a loose back cushion and seat cushion so that definitely adds to the amount of fabric you need.

From there I pin it together piece by piece inside out...

 I just fell in love with this fabric...it's Annie Selke

 It has a nice texture like a linen almost....

 There's the box pleat in the back which will show where she'll sit in the room...and the chair rocks and swivels so I thought this would be best...

 The crispness of the pleat suits the style of fabric too

 Piping makes the slipcover I think.  Gives the appearance of being upholstered...

 Nice change...a great update for a perfectly great chair that just needs to be dressed up!

 Slipcovering is a lot of work...I have about 12 hours in this piece....but worth it if you want this look and you already have a good piece of furniture.  

And here she is in her "real" home!  Thanks for the photo friend...you know who you are...

Industrial Stool make-over

I could've sworn I took a good before photo and this one's quite the dramatic make-over...

but I cannot for the life of me find it 

so here's what I have....

There it is lurking in the background behind my son with paint on his nose...Now THAT'S an honest photo of what it's like around here :)

So my husband took her all apart and actually sand blasted the base.  

I used Formby's to strip the back and metal bracket....

There's the bracket all striped down...but you can't leave the metal it has to be sealed so right before I sprayed on a clear poly to protect it I wiped it down with lacquer thinner.  You can also use wax and grease remover which I talked about way back when we refinished the metal lockers...you can see that post here...

And we originally bought the purple stool because we wanted the seat for a set we have.  One of ours had this busted seat...so we swapped the seats out so our 2 would match.

You can see the pencil line on the top right corner where my husband cut it off with the jigsaw.  To make the seat symmetrical I traced (onto paper) the good half of the seat then flipped it over and traced that on the broken side.

My husband re-drilled the holes for the bolts and I used some of this spray adhesive....

to attach a piece of 2" thick foam (this came from Hobby Lobby and was pretty inexpensive)

I used a razor blade to trim off the top edge/corner of the foam since we were going to upholster it with this leather seat I sewed up...trimming that off helped the leather pull around the seat better and lay smoother.

We stained and waxed the back and put it back on and got the seat all upholstered up...so now she looks like this...

 Metal, wood and leather...all my favorite things!!!

 Love leather...and this was the end of some I've had for awhile...

 Very masculine...but waaaaay better than the purple...

 The seat adjusts up and down with 4 bolts...

 Nice lines and details...

 These photos were taken on a nice sunny day...it's dreary and snowy today...

 Very happy with how it all turned out...

Linking this too....