Dining room slipcovers (Deployment projects #163-170)

They’re Finished!!!

I’ve finished all my dining room chair slipcovers!!  Eight big chairs – what was I thinking?

They look soooo much better now! 

 

Look at these before pictures.

They weren’t bad in our last house where we had orange in every room, but here, they just clashed!!  It was too much in that room!!

Now, with all the new neutral slips, this room now fits with the rest of the house.  Calm, peaceful, light and bright!!

 

If you are wondering about the walls in this room, (remembering that we are renters!) you can read all about them here. 

So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of the simplest slipcovers ever made!

 

All of these steps will be done with the right side of the fabric next to the chair.  The fabric I used was a hopscloth linen look fabric from JoAnne's.  I prewashed it in hot water and dried it on high so that all possible shrinkage had taken place!

1.  Lay the fabric over the front of the chair from the top to the bottom.  Allowing about 4” extra on both the top and the bottom, cut off your length of fabric.

2.  Lay your fabric on the floor folding it in half lengthwise.  Split (cut) your fabric along the fold.  These two pieces will become the front and the back of your slipcover.

 

3.  Pin your front piece of fabric so that it lays over the entire front of your chair and over the top back.  (You are just pinning it so that it doesn’t fall as you work with your fabric.

  

4.  Lay your second piece of fabric down the back of your chair and start pinning around the shape of your chair.  I like to use my pins as if I was drawing a line with them.

5.  Continue pinning all the way around the entire top of your chair.

6.  Once the entire top is pinned, it is time to move to the two side panels.   Cut two squares of fabric long enough to cover the side panel. 

7.  Pin around the top three sides of the square, curving it around the corners of the seat, and matching it into the back “seam” of the chair.  Repeat this for the other side.

 

8.  Step back and take a look and make sure that it looks just like you want it to look when it is finished.  Carefully pull it off your chair and take it to your sewing machine!!  I used my serger for this so that it would cut and seal all my edges at the same time.  This fabric frayed really easily and I know that these are going to get washed a lot!

 

9.  Starting with the seat portion, follow the pin line (taking the pins out as you get to them) and sew/serge all the way around the seat sides.

 

10.  Next, you just have to sew/serge all the way around the back sides and top.  Remember, just keep following your pin line.

11.  I forgot to take pictures of this last step…  put  the slipcover back on your chair (right side out this time),  mark your hem-line by pinning it.  Take you slip back off and finish the hem of your slip, the same way you would for a skirt.

 

11.  Put your slip back on your chair and enjoy the beautiful new easy to achieve look of your simple slipcover!

12.  Repeat steps #1-11 seven more times so that your entire dining room set is slip covered!!

 

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (Deployment Project #162)

Just a quick little project for the day.   It’s so incredibly hot here.  I thought it was hot living in the middle of the Mohave Desert in CA, but this humidity thing is killing me!  It makes me not want to do anything.  In fact, the biggest thing the kids and I have been doing is going to the pool - - every day!!  Even with sunscreen, the kiddos and I are turning very brown!!

I designed this embroidered pillow last night (while watching So You Think You Can Dance - - love that show!).   It’s a simple eye chart that upon closer examination reads, “Beauty is in the eye of  the beholder.”  It is a fabulous accent pillow with a cute hidden message!

 

In very exciting news - - I have decided to open my own etsy shop.  Right now, I am just putting different embroidered pillows in it.  I’ve been selling some of my designs on etsy for awhile now, but I’m making it official now!!

To see this pillow on etsy, click here!

Charise’s Bedroom Reveal (Deployment Project #161)

 

Are you ready for the big reveal of Charise’s room?  Lots of pictures today!!  Originally I was going to do a pink and white, ruffley, vintage, little girls room…BUT, it just wasn’t working for me.  That’s not Charise.  She is so full of energy, so vibrant and brings so much joy to everyone around her, I had to change directions and go vibrant!

 

I put the white quilt, the gingham balloon shades and pillows, and all the frills back on the shelf and pulled out this fabulous orange comforter set that we used three houses ago (it’s actually been in two garage sales since then, but never sold - - guess I know why now!)

 

I still need to add something more to the wall next to the bed, but I’m not quite sure yet - - -remember, I’m only using what I have or can re-do into something else!  So, perhaps that will be another deployment project!!

I took the door off the closet and hung a curtain instead.   The door couldn’t actually close with the bed where it is,  and it blocked her cute hooks that I showed you yesterday!  It is amazing that such a small change can make such a huge difference, the room seems so much bigger without that door in there!

 

I picked up this vinyl clock on clearance at Target a few months back - - this is also what the leftover vinyl birds were from.  Look above the doors and wall art for those!

Remember these chairs from Re-upholstery 101?  I have been trying and trying to find a place for them in my house.  I love them sooooo much, but I just did not have a place that they worked.  So, what’s a girl to do, but plan a room around them!  I used the same fabric for the top of the curtains.  (These curtains hung in our living room in CA, they just had different fabric on the top - - I simply clipped the new fabric to the top and tucked the bottom edge of the fabric into the braided cording edge - - -I’m telling you, make it easy, make it simple - - there was no need to make new curtains, I just needed to repurpose what I already had)

Speaking of repurposing… I just spray painted her old pink chandelier turquoise.

 

I hung a sweet little mirror right at Charise’s height so she can primp and fix and beautify herself all she wants!

The two chairs that have finally found a home!

  

A sweet room for a very sweet girl!!

*thanks Laura Kay Photography for all the awesome pictures of  my beautiful baby girl!!

High Impact – Low Cost Wall Art (Deployment Projects #159 & 160)

 

I’ve been working hard on the kids rooms and I think I am finally ready to show you Charise’s!  I still have some details to finish up and I still need to add a few little “surprises.”  But all in all, it is finished.  I had the same policy with the kids rooms as I had with the guest room.  I didn’t want to buy anything for these rooms - - only use things that I had. 

Here’s what I came up with for one of Charise’s walls.

I had this picture hanging in our guestroom before I re-did it.   I knew I was not going to use this picture again – I’ve had it in three houses already - - it had served it’s purpose, but my style has moved on.

So I took the picture, matting and glass out of the frame…

I made sure that all the staples were removed, then gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint - - I used lot’s of this wonderful spray paint in her room!!

Next, I took a set of vinyl frames I had picked up months ago on clearance at TJ Maxx and put them on the wall inside the frame.

I let Charise pick out four of her favorite pictures and put those in the frames.

 

Did you notice that I just used straight pins to hold the pictures to the wall?

 

I also had some leftover vinyl birds from another project in her room, so I perched one of them on a frame.

    

A little sneak peek of the new picture frame on the wall!  Notice more of that turquoise spray paint?  I also gave her pink chandelier a coat of paint.

 

Now, for a second super quick super easy project.  We had these three hooks in her room before the re-do, but they were always falling off the wall and every time they moved, they left a black mark on the wall – not cool when you rent!  So, I took a board that we had in the garage.  It just happened to be this size, I didn’t cut it down or anything.   I gave it a coat of paint too - - then, with my white paint pen, I added a little white line detail.  I put screws in to keep the hooks on the board and voila!  I hung it on the wall, then added another one of the vinyl birds above the  hooks. 

Total money spent:  $0

Creativity Used:  just a little :)

Cute Girls Room:  Priceless!  Check back tomorrow when I share the entire room with you!

In Our Home (Deployment Project #158)

I saw this fabulous “Do” list on someone’s blog the other day, and I cannot for the life of me find it again.  In typical Amy fashion, I put it in my idea file, but forgot to make sure I had the link saved also.  So - - I know it is on one of your blogs - - if it’s yours, send me an email and I will link you to this!!

Here’s the wall that inspired my next project:

Don’t you just love it?  I love that it is a positive twist on a household “list of rules.”  I took the words and ran with the idea, making my own movable version.  That’s what we do in the military - - we make movable versions of everything.  That along with checking the weight of a piece of furniture before we purchase it!!

I plan on hanging this on the wall in the hallway outside the kids room.  It’s actually just leaning there right now until I can go and get the hardware needed to hang it.

 

Here’s the line that really sold me, “We do loud really well.”  If you knew my family, or hung around with us for any amount of time - - - especially if Handsome Hubby is around - - you would know that we do LOUD really well!!!  We joke that my husband has the laugh, “heard around the world!”  It’s true - - it’s really loud!  When we were dating in college, that would be how I would find him.  I would just open my dorm room window - - listen for a few seconds, hear his laugh, and head off in the direction I heard it!  I love that my man is such a happy person and not afraid to share that joy - - especially with his family! 

So, yes, we do loud really well!!

 

To make the sign, I dry brushed my blue paint on my board, used my T-square to chalk some guidelines on for writing my words.  Then free-hand painted the words on my board.  After it all dried, I used some sandpaper to distress the entire sign and added some white accents using my paint pen.  It was a quick and easy evening projects that serves as a great reminder to all of us of the things we, as a family, should be doing!