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ottoman before & after

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About a year ago, I found this ottoman in my neighbor’s trash…

It was in pretty bad shape, but sturdy nonetheless…

Obviously trash picked, since there was even garbage in the springs…

Gross, but salvagable!

So, I let it cure in my garage for a year.

Eventually I picked up some zebra faux fur, which I bought from Joann, using a 50% off coupon from the Joann app on my iPhone. I bought a yard and a half, which cost me around $12 with the coupon.

This weekend the moment of inspiration finally struck!

I already had high gloss black spray paint, so I cleaned up the ottoman and spray painted the legs.

I didn’t worry a whole lot about getting paint on the original fabric, since the faux fur is thick enough to cover any discoloration.

The legs weren’t looking too bad…

It’s amazing how much of a difference just the black paint makes.

And now for the faux fur…

I began by stapling the prewashed fabric in the middle of the wider side of the ottoman.

As an aside, if you’re in the market for a staple gun, let me recommend that you consider an electric staple gun.  They’re just a couple bucks more than a manual one, and totally worth it, because the electric one won’t kill your hands the way a manual one does. It’s still a workout and you’ll still break a sweat, because you need to press firmly to release the safety and you’ll need to pull the fabric taut as well. But overall, it’s much easier to use.

After stapling several places in the middle, I stretched the fabric taut and stapled similarly on the opposite side.

I stapled my way out from the middle, and then did the same on the shorter sides of the ottoman, working my way to the corners.

When I got to the corners, I folded them like I was wrapping a present, tucking them in and under as flat and tight as possible.

So that it looked like this on the side after stapling…

And like this underneath…

I wasn’t terribly concerned about how things looked underneath, just as long as it looked good on the visible surface. And I think it turned out looking pretty darn good!

Isn’t it adorable?  I love it!

Best of all, it was a super inexpensive project.  Only cost me $12 for the fabric, plus the spray paint I already had on hand (approx. $4), and my time an effort.  Can’t beat that!

I’m not sure if I’ll keep the ottoman with the red and orange chair, since they’re both pretty bold, but the combination is growing on me, and boy do I love the zebra faux fur ottoman!

Would you keep the chair and the ottoman together?

Showing off my new ottoman at Funky Junk Interiors and Kammy’s Korner. And jumping into the contest over here…

 

 

2012 – the year of the blog

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2012 may be the year of the dragon on the Chinese calendar, but in my world it’s the year of the blog.

This is the year that I’m going to honor myself by taking the time to do what I love and feel passionately about – decorating – and enjoy the thrill of writing about my experiences and sharing them with you.

Like so many of you, I spend the vast majority of my waking moments tending to people and things other than myself. Raising my kids as a single mom, working full time to pay for everything that my family needs – from basics like food and housing to college tuition for my college-age kid.

Of course all of these things are important. But I’m also finally beginning to learn that in addition to meeting everyone else’s needs, I also need to tend to my own needs. Especially when I hear a voice inside of me, dying to come out.  A calling. I owe it to myself to heed the call. So beginning this year, I will begin to peel away the layers of the onion. I will heed the call to be creative. To create. With my home as my canvas.

But I’d be kidding myself (and you) if I said any of this would be easy. I’m busy. I’m tired. I’m stretched too thin already. Single mom. Full time job. Kid at home. Kid at college. Chronic fatigue. Not enough money. Not enough time. All valid reasons to do little or nothing.

Until I realized that maybe I need to push myself. If I love this – and I do love this – then maybe I need to sweep out a corner of the world for myself. To fulfill my dreams, and not just contribute to the fulfillment of other people’s dreams.

A time and a place for me. Life is too damn short to let it pass me by when I have a passion so strong.

It’s time to heed the call.

What’s the little voice inside of you telling you to do?

house goals – 2012 edition

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Now that we’ve rung in the new year, it’s time to set some goals for 2012…house goals!

Last year was the first time I set house goals, although I was probably a bit too ambitious with my 2011 goals!

Not to be outdone by myself, I’ve set equally if not more ambitious house goals for 2012, and hopefully I’ll complete a few more than last year.

Here are my 2012 house goals, in no particular order…

  1. Create a striped painting for an empty wall in the family room
  2. Finish dining/living room walls with bamboo wall treatment
  3. Mod up the family room by completing new pillow covers
  4. Continue the drop cloth revolution by making drop cloth curtains for kitchen sliding door
  5. Sew dog pillow beds
  6. Add board & batten to front door entry hall
  7. Paint master bathroom
  8. Paint master bedroom
  9. Create family photo wall
  10. Build Ikea hack cat box cabinet

And last year’s projects still to be completed…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Clean up my office
  3. Scour my teenage daughter’s room
  4. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  5. Buy a dishwasher
  6. Tile the kitchen back splash
  7. Paint the kitchen
  8. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  And seeing how much I didn’t complete last year, I’ll have to work twice as hard to get through my list this year, so wish me well!

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Create a striped painting for an empty wall in the family room

Here’s the empty wall…

Here’s the inspiration from Jen’s house over at Wanting What I Have…

You can see a tour of her house at The Handmade Home. Jen’s home and style is A-MA-ZING!

Been thinking of making a striped art piece for a while now, and now it’s time to get moving!

2. Finish dining/living room walls with bamboo wall treatment

I literally dreamed this one up.  Had a dream that I was doing this wall treatment, so when I woke up, I thought, what the heck!

Here’s the space…

You can even see the bamboo in the corner.

The rest is top secret until do the project!

3. Mod up the family room by completing new pillow covers

I started to add a touch of mod around the house, especially in the family room, in 2011.

I also purchased fabric to sew new pillow covers that will add more of a touch of mod to the family room.  Need to get sewing to finish up that project.

4. Continue the drop cloth revolution by making drop cloth curtains for kitchen sliding door

Currently we have white plastic vertical blinds.

Need I say more?

5. Sew dog pillow beds

Will this make the little dog stop climbing on the furniture? I sure hope so!

6. Add board & batten to front door entry hall

A seriously ambitious project, but now that I’ve got it in my head, I’m dying to do it! I think it will give an otherwise boring area a bit of character and visual interest. (Please ignore all of the Christmas undecorating whatnot. As you may have guessed, that’s not part of the design. That’s just keeping it real.)

7. Paint master bathroom

Or perhaps I should say hire someone to paint my master bathroom.  I’ve had the color picked out for about 5 years, so I’m thinking that this project has cured long enough!

8. Paint master bedroom

Ditto on hiring someone to paint the master bedroom. With vaulted ceilings, this is not a room I will be painting on my own.

Currently shopping in the gray department.

9. Create family photo wall

I’ve been percolating on this idea for a while now too. Planning to combine family pics with a collection of something vintage…more to come on that later.

10. Build Ikea hack cat box cabinet

Now that I’ve discovered Ikea hackers, I feel that I must build a super-secret cat box cabinet.

And then, there are the projects still lingering from last year’s house goals…

11. Repaint the stairway wall

The stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat.

Apparently it’s taken me a while.

12. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

13. Scour my teenage daughter’s room

While I’ve already started this project, there’s still plenty to be done before it can be considered safe to be inhabited by non-teenage humans.

14. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

It’s still there. Waiting.

Need to find a reasonable roofer.

15. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 5 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

16. Tile the kitchen back splash

Still planning to tile the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

Hopefully it will happen this year!

17. Paint the kitchen

Definitely need to add some color. Enough said.

18. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

There’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  This is an ongoing project for me, and this year I need to hit it extra hard. I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my house goals 2012 edition…what are your 2012 house goals? Do tell!

house goals 2011 wrap up

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

So for 2011, I decided to participate in the house goals project.  My 2011 house goals were ambitious…perhaps too ambitious!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.

So were are my 2011 house goals & their current status…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall – incomplete
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office – IN PROGRESS
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college – IN PROGRESS
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof – incomplete due to lack of funds
  8. Buy a dishwasher – incomplete due to lack of funds
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash – incomplete due to lack of funds
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall – incomplete
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER! – IN PROGRESS

Some of these goals are definitely going to hit the 2012 list, so you’ll see them again, and hopefully this year they’ll get finished!

For some reason, I never got around to doing a big reveal on #2, painting the kids’ bathroom, which is complete and looks lovely.  Perhaps I’ll try to share some pics here soon.

My 2012 house goals are going to be just as ambitious, so stay tuned…I’ll be posting them in the next day or two, and you’ll be able to place some cash wagers with your friends to see if you think I’ll follow through on any/all of them!

spinning a yarn

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In the office of my home there is a large and boring wall that’s been crying out for help for some time now.

It really needs some paint, but that’s not happening this week. I already started to give the wall a bit of flair with this fabulous frame…

…but there’s still a lot of wall left.

So I decided to spin a yarn.  Or at least use a skein of yarn to create a wall hanging.  Here’s the yarn…

It’s some seriously gorgeous yarn, and I wish that I could knit a throw with it, but I don’t have enough and it seems that they’re not making it any more. So a wall hanging it is.

This was a really quick & easy project. I used embroidery stretcher bars that I already had at home. They are pretty inexpensive – a couple of bucks each at your local craft store.

I tied the yarn around the stretcher bar…

…and started wrapping the yarn haphazardly around the stretcher bars…

…and when I was just about out of yarn, I knotted the end of the yarn around the stretcher bar…

And that’s all it took to create this…

I love it!  Adds some color, texture, and visual interest to an otherwise boring wall!

And cheap to boot!  While this project was free to me, since I had everything sitting around at home, if you had to go out to buy the pieces and parts, you could probably make this for between $10-$15.  Not bad! Perfect for decorating on a tight budget.

This project even won the seal of approval from my 11-year-old son, who said it’s “really cool!” Can’t beat that!

simple & inexpensive art work

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This year a friend and I agreed that while we would exchange Christmas presents, since we’re both expense-ridden single moms, we would pick or make presents from something we already have at our houses.  Terrific idea!

I’ve been thinking about a couple of different ideas, and if you’ve learned anything about me by reading this blog, you’ve come to realize that I’m a professional procrastinator.  So it wasn’t until tonight – the night before I’m delivering my gift – that I finalized my plan.

For several years now, I’ve been hanging on to this fabulous fish-themed paper.

In fact, it moved from California to Ohio with me, curing, waiting for just the right moment and project. I got it for free, from a fabulous shop called Tuvalu, in Ladera Ranch, California, where they used it to wrap fragile purchases. I can’t recall what I purchased, but I loved the paper and asked if I could purchase some, but they gave me a pretty good length of it for free.

My friend and I both work as editors in our day jobs, and we both love anything with numbers or letters or handwriting.  Plus we both love anything nautical or fish-themed. And anything with a hint of antique. This paper has all of that and then some.

It’s just gorgeous paper, but not over-the-top, hit-you-over-the-head theme-y.

Quite perfect, in fact.

So, for her Christmas gift I decided to wrap a canvas with the paper so she can have some new artwork for her new home.

I used a 12 x 24″ canvas that I already had at home.

I used the high-tech technique of gift wrapping the canvas and taping with Scotch tape.

Resulting in a perfect wall hanging!

I have to admit that I did have a moment of Grinchliness, because I loved this wall hanging so much I thought about keeping it for myself. But then I got over my momentary selfishness and decided that it’s the perfect gift for a dear friend! Hope she likes it!

little things – boot tray edition

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Today I went shopping in my basement, where I knew I had a stash of river rock. I decided to fancy up my boot tray. It’s a small thing, but it’s so nice to spice up run-of-the mill household items.

Here’s the recipe…

Take 1 standard ugly black boot tray (black standard poodle optional).

Add black river rocks.

(You can find them pretty cheap at your local craft store or discount store that has a craft section.)

Add boots and other dirty shoes.

Another little thing that makes a big impact in your home!

little things – switch up the knob edition

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It’s not just the big stuff that makes for great decor…it’s also the little stuff.  The little stuff personalizes your home in a way that shows you pay attention to every little detail. Plus the little things are quick and easy – and usually cheap!

My latest little update is to this table at the base of my stairs…

Nothing wrong with it. In fact, it’s one of my favorite vignettes in the house. But thought it could benefit from a little improvement. So I switched out the boring black wooden knob…

…and added a vintage-look clear acrylic knob…

For a more vintage funky look that I love! 

Best of all, this project only took about 5 minutes to complete and cost me a mere $4.19, paid for with a Home Depot gift card that I already had burning a hole in my wallet! My favorite kind of project!

 

take it out on your home

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Feeling frustrated? Life got you down? Things just going wrong? Take it out on your home.

No, I don’t mean that you should punch a hole in the wall or run around tossing breakables to the floor.

Instead, after you’ve tried your usual coping methods – mine is napping my troubles away – if you still feel like crap, don’t throw yourself out the window, throw yourself into a project in your home!

It doesn’t have to be a major project. Any old project will do. And if money is what’s causing your angst, no need to spend more…just start cleaning. Decluttering is free and most people have cleaning supplies hanging around.

Throw yourself into a project and something interesting may happen. You may just get into “the zone” and forget about your problems…at least temporarily, and every little bit helps.