Thursday, June 17, 2010

Wooden Scissors Transformation

Well, I don't have a before picture of this, but it was a gift from one of my friends. She found these and bought one for each of us, knowing that we would transform them because they were just a stained brown wood.



I painted them black a long time ago and knew I wanted to write some text on them but didn't know what. I'm glad I decided while I had the paint still out from the last project! Done and hung! Check, Check!

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Transformed Index Card Box


BEFORE: I love this old wooden index card box from the Army days. I just never liked it as it is. And then along came some inspiration!

I must've used it for addresses way back when. It still had our army address inside the lid. Including his social security number.



AFTER: I love the fleur-de-lis and Harlequin pattern on just about anything. I painted it black, stenciled the fleur-de-lis and drew the Harlequin lines, and then antiqued it with Minwax stain.



I may distress it more with some sandpaper on the edges.


Ta-Da! I love it now and I use it on my desk.


The calendar on the left was my inspiration piece; it also sits on my desk.
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Recovering My Dining Room Chairs

I have been recovering my dining room slip seats. The one on the right is BEFORE. Admittedly, I did the before! It was my first attempt to recover them when I didn't know what I was doing. I used 2" foam and a velvety fabric. You wouldn't know it, I never COMPLETELY finished them because the underside does not have a dust cover. I finally got tired of looking at them.

I can only work on one at a time. By that I mean I could not pull the staples out of all four of them at once. The staples were put in in an ant-trail pattern side-by-side and there were A LOT OF THEM. My wrists are very sensitive after doing years of massage therapy and I just couldn't hack it. See, each staple when I pulled it, snapped into two pieces. Then I had to take the needle nosed pliers and pry the two pieces out torquing my wrist in order to do it.

Enough about my "woe is me". With only one more chair to go, I figured I'd better take that BEFORE photo!
The one the right is the BEFORE. See how lofty it looks! Ugh! I wanted to keep the same color I had used before. The fabric that my dad picked when I recovered his parsons chairs was perfect so I bought an extra yard.

Here's a better view of the LOFT I was talking about. I just couldn't take it anymore! Please not another Christmas with these ugly chairs!


So now I have peace of mind, only one more to cover, and they are completely finished with the cambric dust cover underneath!