The Trashed Chair Project!

One mans junk is another mans treasure...I highly stand behind this saying!  

A couple of months ago I found this Gem of a chair in the trash by an apartment building in Brooklyn.  The cushion was ripped apart and it was a mess, but nothing a little TLC wouldn't fix! 

I brought this baby home and immediately brought it to the backyard where I performed upholstery surgery! I stripped it completely of all fabric, cushion, nails, springs and tacks.  It took me a good 2 hours to remove everything and bring it down to just the frame.

I purchased gorgeous fabric at $3.99 a yard.  I purchased 3 yards and probably used about 1.5 yards total on this.  I used about 200 upholstery tacks as well.  I made a template for the seat and had it cut out of wood.  

I painted the entire chair with antique black paint, I made sure I got every nook and cranny of the details.  When completely dried, I then used a dry brush and lightly painted with metallic gold paint and then metallic silver on certain spots. I made sure to only paint the outer parts of the wood so that the black would show giving that antique feel.

 I drilled the seat on, added foam cushion which cost about $2.00 and also I added a feather down pillow for comfort. The next day I sewed the material to the cushion for the top backing of the chair.  

This was such an easy and fun project to work on, and the end result made me proud!  In all I spent about $20.00 on this baby! 

I am very pleased with the end result and it is beyond comfortable!  I made an ottoman for it as well from an antique piece my mom had given me years ago.I will post that soon.

So the next time you see a great find in the trash and it's looking a tad dingy, take it, call it yours and re create it!

xoxo

Busy Busy Crafter!

Well this summer has been one of many pleasures...spending quality time with my children, husband, family and friends and spending whatever free time I have crafting!  I have been working on refinishing and reupholstering a charming old antique chair that I grabbed out of the garbage.  I will be posting before and after photos along with instructions on how to do this for under $20.00.
Craft on!
peace, love & paintbrushes!
~neen~

Spring-a-licious

The birds are a-chirpin', the sun is a-shinin'.

What glorious weather is ahead!  I love Spring and so should you!  :)

Mother Nature was very kind this past winter, I just hope that she does not get her revenge with a brutally hot and sticky summer!  I'm hoping for the bestest!

I took these photo's last year at this time at a nearby park.  Enjoy! xoxo

 

~ This was a mother with her little girl, they were priceless together! ~

Unconventional Family Scrabble

~ We love Scrabble ~

*CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

The kids and I decided to play our own game with the scrabble squares.  Actually it was more of a fun "Photo op" of course!

Anywoo getting back to our letter-y fun... 

We grabbed whatever embellishments the kids were already using from our massive scrap collection and went from there.  Here is what me and the kiddo's came up with.

This is a really fun little project to do with the family.  We even had them printed- now they need to be framed! xoxo  * CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

 

Vintage Goodies

I went to a church sale in the Long Beach area of Long Island this past weekend. 

I decided that I would limit myself to $20.00, which for me is somewhat a challenge!  I pretty much know the value of things from years of experience as a flea market junkie and I always do my research.

  Well, it was a successful shopping experience and I came home with quite a few goodies worth about $500.00.  

My favorite purchase was a huge vintage silver cruet set that has 6 decanter holders.  3 of the Red Bohemian glass decanters were with the cruet.  I love this piece, it is quite stunning!  Now I am on the hunt for matching decanters for the set!  I also found a lovely brand new piece of Kosta Boda Sweden glass that retails for over $100.00 which I scored for $2.00.  Another find was a lovely old wine decanter from the company Bischoff Cherry, probably worth a little bit under $100.00.  Next was a gorgeous vintage pewter lotus compote bowl with a 3 candle candelabra ( I cannot find anything similar on the internet so I have no idea of it's value but I would estimate it to be worth atleast $200.00) .  I collect lotus items so this was a major big deal for me!  The last purchase I made was a lovely milk glass bowl to go with my milk glass collection! 

I realize that I should have photographed my items before I packed them up for storage!
 
The value of the items is not all that important to me, because I never sell any of my finds.  I love the story that antique and vintage items tell.