Changing chairs

I’ve had a nice break and was able to concentrate on my new job, but I’ve been dying to show you my new chair.

Back in May I was fortunate enough to find 2 faux bamboo Chippendale chairs for $50. I had to get some repairs made to my vehicle, so I had to let them go. I made a nice $500 profit, so it didn’t hurt too bad. I also sold my rattan pagoda etageres and again I made a good profit on them. The good news is that my van is purring again :)

One end of my living room looks so bare. I am considering making faux built-in bookcases using billy bookcases, so I’m pouring over Kijiji looking for a good deal on 4 of them.  While looking I came across a chair that I wanted as soon as I had laid eyes on it. The buyer was asking $100 but I noted that it had been up for a week, so I sent an email offering $60 and I got it.

This fretwork pagoda chair is made by Century Chair Company in Hickory, NC It’s from the 80’s and in very good condition. The only unfortunate part is that it’s hunter green. Do you think I should wait for hunter green to come back in or should I banish it  back to the 90’s where it belongs?






It came with a ripped seat so as a temporary measure, I replaced it with some crushed velvet that I already had.



I did a little digging around to find out more about this chair, but was not able to find out much about it. I did find a pair of armless chairs, but done in a silver leaf finish on 1st dibs for $4800. for the pair!!! that’s outrageous!

source

I doubt this will live long in my house, so I have to come up with a finish and fabric that will make it resalable. What would you do with it? I can picture it as a perfect desk chair.

I’m off of work until July 2nd, this weekend is Canada’s birthday and I’ll be heading in to Toronto for some festivities.

I’m so sad to see Google Reader go :(   If you follow me via Google Reader, I hope you will continue to follow me via BlogLovin or or sign up for email via FeedBurner, they are on my sidebar (right there on the right). 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Where is my fridge? – Inquiring minds want to know

Just a brief pop in to answer the question: Where is your fridge?

After Lindsey from Better After featured my kitchen makeover, I had a lot of questions as to where my fridge went.

I sometimes forget that there are people that may have not seen my posts as I documented every step of the way. For those of you that are wondering, my fridge is here, I just didn’t post any pictures, well, because it’s an old ugly fridge LOL

There it is, next to my pantry. I wish I could make it disappear, but it’s a necessity. 

Others wanted to know if my cabinets are the same, and yes, they are the same cabinets.  If you take a look at this post, it documents how I added moulding and new handles to change them.

Thanks for all of your sweet comments, I really appreciate it.

Blogcation

After working for a few months on my kitchen, I feel the need to take a break from all of the diy stuff.

 

I recently started a new job and the learning curve is exhausting; who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? *smile*

I’ll see you all in July, rested and rejuvenated.

DIY kitchen makeover reveal

It’s done!  I could tweak it forever, but all of the hard stuff is done.  Thank you so much for sticking by me as I posted yet another step in my makeover, but I wanted to be sure to capture everything along the way.

I had to include some before and after pictures, of course. Moving the fridge to where my desk used to be really opened up the space.

I left most of my receipts at work, so I don’t have a cost breakdown, but I was not able to buy a new fridge as planned, but soon very soon :) 

I am sure I have not gone over $2,000.00. Here is a breakdown of where I spent that money

new subfloor and Allure vinyl flooring after removing 5 layers of flooring

new microwave

new countertops

new cabinets where the fridge used to be

new pantry door

new lighting

new backsplash

new cabinet handles

new to me chairs

paint, brushes, rollers, new skill saw, new circular saw, wood and moulding and innumerable trips to big orange.

 

This was the biggest project I’ve taken on yet, and I’m so glad it’s over. No more thinking about what colours to paint, what backsplash to go with, what flooring, how to install counters, how to install cupboards; it was a whole lot of thinking and a little less doing. LOL.

 

And now some gratuitous photos because I’m just so proud of getting this huge task done.

 

Thanks again for sticking with me throughout this process, and for your sweet comments that encouraged me along the way.

I will post later on the details of what products I used and how I solved issues that came up along the way.

Sharing at:
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Junkin Junky

DIY wall clock

Using some of the left over planks from my backsplash, I made a clock.



I used a kit that I had found many months ago for $4 at the Sally Ann.



I know it’s a little wonky, I’m still working on my jig saw skills :)

My drive to pick up my chairs this morning was only 5 hours instead of the anticipated 6 hour round trip. It was well worth it as the chairs are in excellent condition.



Now I have to decide what I want to do with them. My instinct is to leave them the natural wood colour because I have so much painted furniture already. Make some new cushions for the seats and use the fabric as the pop of colour?  Yes, I think I like that idea. What would you do?

Sharing at

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Junkin finds – another amazing find

The weather couldn’t have been any better for this long weekend and I didn’t get anything done in my kitchen, but I did manage to do some junkin’.

This lamp was $15. It came with a bell shaped shade which I didn’t like much, so I changed it to this one, but it may change again :)

3 meters of this upholstery weight fabric for $7.99, it just may find a place on the next find I am about to share with you.

I don’t actually have these yet, I am leaving tomorrow morning at 6:30 to drive 3 hours to pick them up. I know I sound like a crazy woman, but wouldn’t you drive for 6 hours to get these for $25 each?!

Faux bamboo Chippendale arm chairs … here’s hoping that I don’t get an email overnight telling me they were sold to someone else, I think i will cry.

And my daughter picked some lilacs for me. Nothing says spring like lilacs.

I hope you had an amazing weekend too.

Weathered wood planked backsplash

The backsplash is done! A huge thank you to Debbie at Me and My DIY, who inspired me with her amazing planked wall and then she wrote an awesome tutorial on how to achieve the look!  You can find the tutorial here.



What I was trying to achieve was a transition between the white cupboards and the dark wood floor.

Following Debbie’s tutorial, I first stained the planks in American walnut.



I used a brush but found that I didn't have a lot of control of how heavy the stain was, so for the pickled white wash stain, I decided to use a lint free cloth. It was a whole lot easier to layer the wash over top. Then I used the brush to add another layer to make it look like the wood had naturally aged over many sunny days.



The planks are not perfect and I had to deal with uneven walls, so getting the first row straight was impossible. I used my brad nailer to put the planks up and didn't  bother to fill the nail holes in, but that just adds to it’s character, right? *smile*

Next I did two coats of Minwax Polyacrylic to protect the wood, especially since this is a kitchen and it’s bound to get messy.



Next to do is caulking between the counter and backsplash. I am in the home stretch with my kitchen reno with only some touch up painting to do.

This is a long weekend here in Canada and I’m a little busy, but I hope to get some work done for the final reveal. My sister is coming to stay with me for the weekend, maybe I can convince her to help me paint :)



Sharing this project at

Remodelaholic Anonymous Party
Show & Tell Saturday at Be Differnet...Act Normal
Saturday Spotlight at Classy Clutter
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Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Give me the goods Monday party

Kitchen Progress – sneak peek

This is the third time I’ve changed my mind about my backsplash!  Debbie at Me and My DIY did the most amazing planked backsplash in her son’s bathroom, that it totally inspired me!

So far this has taken me three hours, probably another couple of hours to finish getting the planks up, then it’s time to stain. I’m so excited!

Happy Mother’s Day

How amazingly lucky I am to be a Mum, to have a Mum and to know so many amazing Mums. Even if you are not a mother, it is still a day to celebrate, as we are all born of Mothers.

Yesterday I got to spend the day with an amazing mother, my best friend, Lorraine. We shuffled off to Buffalo to do some shopping. We had a blast and came home with some thrifty treasures. We did not intend to go to a thrift store, but we found one and came home with some great treasures.  I also had it out with my GPS whom decided to give up on me as we were leaving. Grrrr.

We hit up Hobby Lobby and Joanne’s, neither of which I had been to before. I was finally able to get my hands on some Rub N Buff. I bought the golf leaf and although it said it was only for porous surfaces, I decided to try it on this pot. It’s a little blotchy but I love it. It definitely kicked it up a notch. Now I’m looking around to see what else can use some gold leaf around here, nothing it safe :)

 

Target was our next destination where I picked up this Ikat like shower curtain to make some cushion covers.

At the thrift store I found a pair of white linen pants, some new Converse Chuck Taylors with pink trim and this groovy pair of Franco Sarto shoes.  I have a thing for patent leather and loafers, so these were a steal at $3.99. Love them!

(excuse the pasty white feet)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Junkin Finds

My daughter and I went out junkin yesterday to look for some summer clothes. She scored big time with some great brand name stuff. I told her she is lucky that we don’t wear the same size, or I’d be raiding her closet.

I also found some pretty neat stuff. For a dollar each, I found 8 of these fab place mats. I just love the pattern and the colours.  I used 4 of them to make cushions.

And 4 of them for a make shift table runner, that will be moved when I need to use them at a place setting.

Last week I showed you some of my favourite tea pots. I found another one!  A little darling bunny for 3 dollars!

Add colour to the entry

I came home from work today and as I walked up to my door I noticed how boring and blah it looked. After such a long and snowy winter, I am craving some colour.

I dug in my stash and found some bright spray paint and fabric and within an hour I added some needed colour. 

This is what I came home to, how depressing.

Much better

We don’t have much blooming yet in this part of the world, so I picked up some potted pansies that were marked down 50%, left overs from Easter. Speaking of this part of the world, I’ve added a “Meet Mel” page (at the top), maybe some of you would like to know a little more about me than just seeing a picture of my face :)

I hope to work on my kitchen this weekend if my chest infection will allow me to work without hacking up a lung or two. Have a great weekend.

Kitchen progress – the end is in sight

I have been side lined with pneumonia and wasn’t able to work on my kitchen for two weeks! It felt like an eternity because I had picked a paint colour (finally) and purchased all the new moulding, but my body had other plans for me. I’m still not good, but I am getting there.

Last night I had 3 hours of sleep in a row and felt positively rejuvenated :)  I got up bright and early and got to work.



I started by painting the ceiling and installing a new light fixture. The ceiling paint is a very light blue, barely noticeable.



Next, I cut the bamboo blind down to fit into the frame rather than outside the frame. I should have done this a long time ago, it’s made such a difference. Before it was too small for the window and I had it sort of centered, but it was weird. See what I mean?



After trying out a lot of different paint colours, I settled on French Silver by ICI paints. It is blue during the day and grey during the night, love it. I had some repairs to do to the walls, so it nearly took me all day just to get a coat of paint on.



I framed out the new pantry door and added a handle to match the cabinets.



This is the eat in area. My daughter pleaded with me not to remove the chalkboard wall and although I’m tired of it, she isn’t. I picked up some wrought iron and wicker chairs for $10 each. They work better in this space than my old chairs. 



I have a few teapots that I adore, so I decided to display them together.



The tiling is next and it’s going to look smashing! I hung a couple of pieces up on nails to see what it is going to look like.



It’s coming together.



Still to do. Install the tile. Paint all of the baseboards. Get a new panel made at the end of the dishwasher as the old one is now too small, after removing so many layers of flooring. Install the same flooring in the dining room.

Oh, and clean up this mess!!!!



I hope you are having a great weekend!