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Simple Outdoor Chair – Beefed Up

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Jun 242012

Now that we’ve moved to northern Colorado we spend quite a bit more time outdoors. Summers in Texas were usually spent hibernating inside to avoid the 100+ degree heat (although we hit 100 here yesterday – what’s up with that?) or at the local pool trying to stay cool. Our back deck stayed vacant most of that time due to the combination of crazy heat and the bajillion mosquitoes attacking the moment you stepped outside. But now that we usually have more reasonable temperatures during the day and pleasant evenings paired with no mosquitoes, we spend significantly more time on the back deck. This means our portable, fold up canvas chairs just won’t cut it anymore.

The first chair I put together was for the boyfriend because he spends more time than anyone else just relaxing on the back deck. It’s his favorite spot to chill out after a long day at work.

The plan I based it off of was the Simple Outdoor Chair from Ana-White.com. Instead of going with 1×4 lumber it was beefed up to use 2×4 and 2×6 lumber. I also increased the width and height to create something more comfortable for the big & tall boyfriend.

The seat cushion was a bargain to create by purchasing a couple of outdoor cushions at the local goodwill for $4 a pop. They were the perfect size. I couldn’t believe my luck. I simply took them apart and used the foam from two of them to create a nice fat seat cushion. The fabric isn’t indoor/outdoor because I just couldn’t find anything that I really liked in that section. This fabric should do fine in the rain, but will probably fade sooner than a treated fabric. I do have some Scotchgard on hand, so maybe when I’m feeling ambitious I’ll spray it down.

The plan was to also sew a back cushion, but the boyfriend preferred to go without one. This works because it leaves me enough fabric to sew another cushion when I get around to building my own chair. Which will hopefully happen before the end of summer, because something tells me we’ll be spending a lot more time indoors during the winter months than we ever did in Texas.

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Sometimes it is the simple things…

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Jun 142012

Like how you hang the curtains. When we first moved in to this house there were these lace things hanging in place with a dark blue valance. Very dated. I think I took those down as soon as we moved in, even before I had anything to replace them. I had a serious dislike for them.

A standard rod was in place when we moved in and it functioned well enough, so I used it (you can almost see the original rod buried under all the lace). Never loved it, but it worked so why spend money on a window you don’t own, right? To replace the curtains from above, I found some great quality panels at the local GW and created this (you can read about them here) …

A definite improvement, but as I continued to make changes to the dining area it no longer worked in the room, so down it came. Actually this guy has since been deconstructed and turned into curtains for the boyfriend’s office. In it’s place went some inexpensive room darkening panels from Wally World. The panels are in a basic taupe and will work with most any change I throw their way. Initially they were hanging on the same rod as shown in the picture above, but recently replaced it with a universal track rod. The universal rod was originally purchased for another project, but it didn’t work out. I love it over the sliding door.

All was good until I read a recent post here about how to create faux pinch pleat panels. It was such a simple idea, but I knew it would definitely improve the look of my panels. Here they are before the change (sorry I forgot to adjust the white balance)…

and after…

Better, right? Anyone else out there addicted to constantly tweaking the smallest things? Sometimes I feel like I obsess over the littlest of details while giant messes pile up around my current obsession. It’s like some sort of tunnel vision.

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The Simple Four Poster Platform Bed…aka the Princess Bed

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Jun 062012

This bed was super simple to put together and inexpensive to build, if you don’t count the cost of all the bedding. It was a birthday gift for my now 5 year old daughter. Five. Years. Old. My little baby girl is no longer a baby anymore. She doesn’t even allow me to call her ‘my baby’. The correction comes almost as soon as the words leave my mouth. “Mom, I’m not a baby. I’m a grown-up girl.” Sigh.

Anyways, back to her new bed.

Pretty cute, huh. I have a more tweaks to make before I’m completely satisfied, but they are only little things I notice. Not the birthday girl, she loved it.

My daughter loves pink as demonstrated on these little projects, here and here, but for her new bed I wanted to create something that would grow with her without being too over the top. That is why there are hints of pink versus an all pink bed. The sheets are hot pink too, so when the bedspread is pulled back there is more of a pink explosion.

Before we moved, her bed had been a simple loft bed that I built from these plans. But I tore it down and donated the wood, so no bed frame for baby girl once we arrived in CO. This is what her room looked like before the bed (and a really good cleaning)…

Can you even spot the bed amongst all the chaos? As you can tell, she definitely needed something and the idea popped into my head a few days before her birthday that a new bed would be the perfect gift. With that decision made, my first task was to find her new bedding, this included both a comforter and sheets. After a long night of browsing online, I found what I wanted and ordered it. Lucky for me everything arrived on her birthday. Whew.

Now that bedding was on the way, it was time to find a bed plan that was both simple and inexpensive to build. I was on a serious budget and the bedding took a big chunk out of that. How can fabric sewn into a simple rectangles be so expensive? I just don’t get it. Back to the bed plan searching. My daughter would have been happy with her original bed, but I wanted something that was going to work for the next 10 years not two, which meant compromise.

I was thrilled when I came across this plan and the pure simplicity of it. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I wanted to do. Build the basic platform and then create the look of a four poster bed. The inspiration for the four poster actually came from a photo in the plans from her original bed.

The platform was super simple to build, even with a few minor modifications. I used 4×4′s for the legs, increased the overall height (28″) and built the platform to the actual width of the mattress.

To create the the 4 posts, I used 2×2 lumber cut to 7′ in length. The create the two foot boards, a 2×2 was screwed into each end of the platform (after bed skirt was in place, so I did screw through the fabric). The head board was created with a 1/4″ thick mdf handipanel cut to length & then nailed into two 2×2 boards (you can see those in the photo below, before they were nailed together).

Once I had the headboard assembled, everything (end posts & headboard) was spray painted white. The next day I used 1″ foam along with a sparkly hot pink piece of fabric to finish off the headboard. The fabric is just pulled tight over the foam and stapled to the back of the mdf panel. Sorry I don’t have any in progress photos. I was working under a serious deadline.

The mattress and bed skirts were put into place before attaching the headboard and end posts. The polka dot portion was made from the flat and fitted sheet that came with the comforter. The flat sheet was halved lengthwise and then halved again to create two panels for each side. The end panel was cut from the fitted sheet. The solid black is the actual bed skirt that also came in the package.

After I attached the posts, the work of figuring out how to hang the drapes began. Originally, I drilled holes at the top of each post and had planned to have the rods just sit inside those holes. That plan fell through soon after I put the first rod into place. As soon as there was any movement on the bed the rod fell out. So after thinking and thinking some more, I came up with the idea of bending the original hardware that came with the rods. Using some pliers I bent each piece about 90 degrees back, so the hardware would wrap around the post and place the hook in the proper position. The panels hang great now, but I have to go back and cover the hardware in white paint. You can see some of the gold shine at the top of the two end posts in the photo below.

And, that’s about it. The princess bed was complete and the birthday girl was completely surprised by the whole thing, even though she knew I was up in her room working on a birthday surprise for a couple hours. Thankfully, she never put it all together and my son did help with keeping her distracted as I carried pieces up into her room. Lots more to do in her room like sew new curtains, repaint her pink bookshelf to white and find her a fun rug in shades of pink (of course), but I’m happy another big project is off the to-do list.

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Slipcover Saturday – The Sofa Makeovers

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May 312012

A couple weeks ago I took a day off from my day job of sewing to spend a day doing something really fun…more sewing! A lot more sewing. The decision was made (in my head) that I had procrastinated long enough and it was time to get the sofa slipcovers completed. With both the fabric for the seat cushions and the slipcovers for the sofa bodies sitting in my sewing room, I was ready to go.

One of the pre-made slipcovers had been previously fitted on the largest of my two sofas and it had definitely been a tight fit (you can read about it here). Each slipcover would only be large enough to cover the body of each sofa and none of the cushions. Even though it included a separate slipcover just for them. The sofa cushions were just too large. This left me with the task of finding matching material to cover the 6 very large cushions on each couch. Which took forever to track down and purchase for a reasonable price (you can read about that here).

Now the idea of seeing my couches in matching charcoal gray was very exciting, but the idea of sewing 12 large seat cushions (some of them odd shaped) was so not. Until finally on this particular Saturday I decided it was time. I figured my day was going to be spent sewing one way or the other, so why not put all that time and energy into something I really wanted to see completed.

The sofas pre-slipcovers…

Monster #1 – Brownie. This is the boyfriend’s beloved sofa. Super comfortable, but in a blah brown. Also try to ignore the crazy ugly curtains, wood paneling and anything else unattractive in this room. The living room is completely untouched (decorating wise) other than having furniture moved into the room.

and

Monster #2: Greenie. My beloved sofa. Also super comfy, but have always wished it had been available in a more neutral color.

Why do we have two completely different style sofas? When the boyfriend and I moved in together several years ago, neither of us wanted to part with our monster sofas so they merged together when we did. My hope was that once the sofas were in matching colors the obvious style differences would be a little less obvious.

Let the sewing begin. I started with the green sofa and if you look at the picture above you may just spot one of my first slipcovers. Construction was fairly simple. The task of measuring and remeasuring was where most of my time was spent. Due to the size of these cushions I wanted to be VERY sure of my measurements before slicing and dicing up fabric. Once I was confident on the size fabric was cut and a slipcover was sewn for the first cushion.

I basically followed the same directions I used to create the canvas pouf for my daughter, except for one change. Instead of leaving an opening in the band that connects the top and bottom of the slipcover, I used two pieces of fabric and overlapped them to create the bottom piece of the cushion slipcover. So the top was a solid piece and the bottom was two overlapped pieces. Once everything was sewn together this created a large opening the width of the cushion to allow room to squeeze the everything inside. Squeezing the cushions inside was probably the most difficult part of the whole process.

With the first slipcover there was a little stitch popping along one of the edges, where there was huge amount of stress during the stuffing process. To eliminate this for the rest of the cushions I made sure to double/triple stitch the seams along all the stress points.

The green monster sofa was completed first, because all the cushions were simple rectangles. The loose pillows haven’t been covered yet, so you get an idea of the color change. The pre-made slipcover is a velour twill and the cushions were made from this super soft vintage-style suede fabric. I plan on using some of the fabric from the pre-made seat slipcover as backs for the smaller pillows to help blend the two fabric together even more.

The brown monster sofa was next and took a little more time due to the end cushions having that weird little kick out. There wasn’t much more sewing time involved, but the measuring and calculating took my math challenged brain f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

This sofa really had the bigger transformation and really love it now in the new charcoal grey color. The back seat cushion slipcovers were sewn in the same style as the ones on the green couch, so sliding those over the existing pillows also helped to create a similar look between the two sofas. Can’t wait to decide on some fabrics for the smaller pillows, so I can really tie the two sofas together.

No more excuses not to makeover the coffee table now… Or maybe I’ll wait till after I figure out what fabrics will go on the smaller pillows or maybe after I figure out some curtains to replace the current ones…hmmm.

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Life as a Renter: A Room Divided

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May 272012

I’ve never really cared for this open space between the bottom level, which opens to the living room below, and the main level of this house. I understand why it’s there. At least I think I do. My guess would be that it keeps the living room from feeling too much like a closed in basement and creates a more open feeling in the small kitchen too. But what it really does is provide my youngest with a banister to swing on every time I turn my back and perfect drop off for a multitude of items like crayons, trash and even food. My kids would routinely try to eat snacks with their faces practically sticking through the railing, if the TV was on.

Try to ignore the chaos, if you can, and focus on the lovely opening. I have the table pushed further back then it would normally be, because as usual I had already started to tackle this project before remembering to snap a photo.

My original plan was to use one of these…

It’s a universal track kit and has the option for either ceiling or wall mount. Purchased it online and it arrived in about a week. Opened it up and loved it. Installation was easy and I quickly hung the curtains that I also purchased earlier in the week. That’s when the disappointment set in. I didn’t really like the look and I had completely forgotten that there would be a small gap between the hooks and the curtain itself. See part of the purpose of this divider was to keep the light from causing glare on the monster tv and this new divider left a nice, big line all across the top of it. Not cool. Now here’s the part where you get to pretend I have a photo of my disappointing curtain hanging. Oops.

So after realizing the new setup just wasn’t going to work, I went to work on plan B. See being a renter changes how I approach these type of projects. The fix has to be fairly inexpensive and most definitely temporary. I was a little bummed that I had spent the money on the universal track kit and now couldn’t use it, but it didn’t take long to find a new home for it. My new plan involved some lathe strips from the local HD (I had used them previously on the art rail you can see hanging in the photo above). two C channels (photo below) and the original curtain panels.

Having no idea if my new plan would work, I didn’t really take any photos. Basically I created two panels using the lathe strips (they come in 4′ lengths), wood glue & staples. Then I took the curtain panels and stretched them over one side, stapling them to the other side. Once the panels were completed, I took one C channel and screwed it into place along the top of the opening. The panels were then inserted into the top channel and then set into the bottom one at a slight angle, so that the whole thing could be pushed into place. Being a renter, I didn’t want to screw the bottom C channel into the wood base of the bannister. Which still worked in the end, because it’s a nice tight fit.

Here’s what it looks like now…

With screens in place I was able to lower the art rail, so we’ll have more room on the wall for some of the kids art work (which still needs to be hung). You may also notice if you check out the top right of the photo the new home for the universal track rod. I love it over the sliding door. Now if I could just find a rug this little area would be mostly done, except for a few minor details.

The mostly done dining room (I wish I could hide the trash can more, but there just isn’t anywhere else in the kitchen to put one) …

The border along the ceiling actually coordinates more with the table then in does in the photos. For some reason the table always photographs more blue then it is in real-life.

In case you wondering what exactly I did to this little room, here is where I tweaked the ceiling fan, covered the ugly kitchen border with something less ugly, cleaned up my little bowl on the table, made over my kitchen table and chairs.

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