There is a reason parents don't do certain things when they have children.
Because it's impossible, that's why.
And if it's not actually impossible, by the end of the project, you're not sure which is going to give first: your patience or your sanity. Or both.
Luckily, even despite the (let's be honest here...) horrible parenting day we had yesterday, I am thankful that we were at least able to mark off a small handful of the projects I had for Stuart to help me with this past weekend.
Mind you, there is still the sun room that needs to be cleaned and the shelf that needs to be repaired, but all in time.
I had the greatest ambitions as we began our big reupholstering project yesterday. You see, the night before, I'd been blessed with an incredible energy boost - after G went down for the night, I was able to organize the bathroom closets, mix up some homemade toothpaste, refill my jars of homemade face cream and deodorant, and even scrub the shower. Booya. Plus, I finished a knitting project and read Harry Potter for a few hours. It was awesome.
Then this morning rolled around...and as much as I hate to admit it, none of us had our joyful, peaceful, gracious, and loving faces on. It was just one of those days.Patience was thin. Discipline felt either overbearing or ineffective. Dinner was cold sandwiches. You know the type of day I'm talking about.
I am going to blame our poor attitudes on the fact that it's hotter than I'll get out in Alabama at the moment. I can practically swim through the air, it's so thick, and as hopeful as I am when I peek out the window, not a single leaf is moving. It's stagnant. It's muggy. I'm very much looking forward to the 'cooler' fall weather. And so are my swollen feet and sweaty belly.
Sorry. Didn't meant to whine there. Just sayin'.
Regardless, we pushed through the poor attitudes and suffocating heat and were able to finish seven of the eight chairs! If you missed the story of the eight chairs, you can find it HERE.
Let's start with the little old wooden brown chairs from the living room. Here they were, last week:
Before, they were chipping and brown. It's not that I hated them, but I am just so. over. brown. I've overdone it, and now, I'm paying the price. And speaking of price...for (literally) $5 worth of teal spray paint...
We have new chairs!
I love the color pop these bring to the room now...and I love the fact that they distressed so wonderfully. I also love the fact that I had them painted, dried, and distressed in less than an hour combined. I made a vow to myself that if I ever paint any furniture ever again, I'm only going to use spray paint. It goes on so smooth and easily, is incredibly cheap, doesn't chip or get gooey, and is super easy to distress. Win, win, win, win, win, win. One coat of teal spray paint....
...a little buffing with a scrubber pad...
...a few extra distressed patches from super course sandpaper...
...a few hammer dings...
And that's it! It's hard to capture the cool detail of the distressing, but I think you get the idea. They are a wonderful fit for our living room now as they sit and smile from the white wall. I only wish I had some cute Scandinavian throw pillows for them...but in time.
Now, onto the dining room chairs. These chairs took a bit more thought - if you remember, I was in a fabric battle last week. Stuart helped me choose the fabric and I'm very happy with the pattern we ended up with. Because the store that I purchased the fabric from (a small downtown boutique) was having a 40% off sale that was going to be ending, I had to purchase the fabric a bit quicker than I would have liked (sorry, Dang Dave....). We also ended up having to replace the padding which added another $15 onto the project, but in the end, we were blessed with some pretty stylin' chairs:
First, we tore off the old padding and layers of fabric. Yuck.
Then, the foam pad was cut to size...
Fabric was layed out and we made sure the pattern repeated itself correctly on each chair...which by the way, is harder than it sounds...
Fabric was cut, pads were stapled to the seats, fabric was stretched and stapled...
I really wanted to post step-by-step pictures of this process, but let's be honest, I'm just thankful we survived the turmoil created by all of it and every one escaped with all their teeth. It wasn't pretty.
What are pretty are these four fantastic chairs. I'm very happy with how they turned out. Georgia's will be wrapped in Saran Wrap until she is sixteen and has proven herself worthy to eat in a proper way around new fabric.
Or I may just invest in a nice little plastic seat cover for her. But Saran Wrap would work too.
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Before:
After:
What do you think?!
The eighth chair, and biggest project of them all, will have to wait until next month. Girlfriend only has such a big fabric budget, man. Step by step. Project by project.
This week, even despite the swelting summer weather, I'd love to get a festive and simple tablescape done for the fall. And to celebrate my new chairs. I'm not one of those people that likes to have "stuff" all over my furniture and house, but I can sure appreciate a well-placed pumpkin or burlap runner.
Plus, it is September after all.
It's time for pumpkins.
And for finishing up the last chair in the hallway.
