I looked for a cheap pendant and canopy at home improvement and thrift stores, but didn’t find anything.  Soooooo, I decided to steal the $6 thrift store pendant from the dining room.  Ditched the shade, using only the guts.  We had a few metal down rods from other pendants, so I covered the cord with a small piece.

While it may not stay forever, I’m super happy with the open, modern, geometric shape.

I still might replace the top and bottom points, just to make the peaks a little more obvious.

While Ben had the supplies out, I asked him to install a new light in the boys’ room, too.  Snagged this one at ReStore for eight bucks.  A quick scrub and ready to go.  Wish I would have thought about this before and painted the gold canopy.  Ahh well.  Still better than the boob light that was there.

Bonus, we could raise chickens in here with a light like that.  Not that it’ll happen, but we could.  And I just might be able to start (and hopefully finish!) scraping the popcorn off the ceiling.  Handy Sammy will be out-of-town for a month, so we can shift the boys to his room, giving me a month of time to get it done.  Without disturbing him.  Woo to the hoo, I’m ready for this.  At least I am in my head, my arm might hate me by the end of it.

And here they are now, after an overall sanding, clear coat, thick neutral fabric, and satin nickel nail head detail.

Once I started sanding the wood down, I saw how blonde the wood was.  And liked it.  A lot, for a few reasons.  Lighter felt more updated, less reminiscent of the Brady Bunch kitchen color palette.  The pale wood also contrasted with the dark slate fireplace, instead of blending in.  After going through the trouble to sand to the unfinished wood, I didn’t want a dark stain that wouldn’t be an obvious change.  Also, I’m leaning toward natural finished wood, for a little variety.

Even though the chairs are neutral, I’m super happy with the go anywhere colors and subtle patterned fabric.

To bump up the comfort and color, I plan to find or sew lumbar pillows.

That  little footstool will get an update and jolt of color sometime soon, too.  Because paint is easier and cheaper to change than upholstery and stain.  These chairs work great in the family room.  Comfy, but light weight and open.  Can’t forget the price, either.  Only $32 spent on the chairs and materials ($18 for the fabric and four more for the nail head – we had the rest already).

I might fix the back of the seat because you can see the puckered fabric.  Not perfect, but not terrible for my first rounded corner cushions.

How’s that for a Cinderella story?  What do you think?  Have any plans for the upcoming long weekend?

Before I started anything, I took pictures of the upholstery detail.  Because this is my first time upholstering something like this, the pictures could jog my memory if I ran into a problem.

With the pictures on my card, I started pulling each staple out.  One at a time, prying with a flat screwdriver then pulling with a pliers.

Roughly one trillion times.  I counted.  Okay, I didn’t count, but there were a lot. of. staples.

At that point, I wondered what the h–e double hockey sticks I was thinking.  Too late now, I had to keep going.

So I did.  After pulling off the vinyl, I sanded the wood frame down using an orbital hand sander with 220 grit paper.  And loved the lightness against the dark fireplace and the subtle grain.  Two coats of Minwax Polycrylic in a satin finish brings out the grain and protects the wood.  Conveniently, it’s water-based which makes it a breeze to clean up.

Then my indecisiveness kicked in.  Upholstery time, but which direction to go.  I stopped in a leather shop, gathered samples and prices, and thought it over.

Leather is super durable and easy to clean, but far more expensive than fabric.  Not to mention I could only buy the leather as a full hide, roughly twice as much material as I needed.  Perhaps if I had another use for the leather I could justify buying it.  Instead, I hit up two fabric stores where I found a beige subtle herringbone pattern upholstery fabric for 9 bucks per yard.

I bought it, then stopped in the second store where I found a greige subtle herringbone upholstery remnant for six dollars per yard.  And bought three yards.  Now that I could justify.  Yes, I chickened out on a bold color.  Pillows can fix that.  Right?!

To get started on the upholstery, I used the vinyl pieces I pulled off as templates, tracing it to the front of my fabric to keep the pattern straight.  Don’t do that!  Add at least 1/2 inch around the sides for a little wiggle room.  I don’t have four hands, so I used a clip to keep my pieces straight while I worked.

First tacking the arms, folding the fabric under, wrapping around the back.

From the front, it looks like this:

With the arms secured, I stapled along the top and bottom, pulling tightly.  Then the sides and finally the slightly rounded corners.

That covers the front of the back rest, so now for the back.  Like the vinyl predecessor, I folded the fabric under, creasing it with my fingers.  Using that crease as a guide for the outer edge, I stapled just inside the crease and worked around the top.

The corners are tricky to staple under, so then I tacked the bottom of the fabric to the underside.

Satin nickel nail heads, placed using a needle nose pliers, hold the sides of the fabric in place.

I’ve upholstered chair seats before, so I thought the back would be more tedious than the seat.  As usual, I under estimated.

Turns out, the slight curves of the seat were a pain in the arse.  No matter how hard I tried, the fabric puckerd at the turns.  Finally I gave up and let the slight puckers stay.  So, if anyone has pointers, please share!  I’ll leave you with that, because I have to clean up the family room to take pictures of the finished chairs.  Let’s pretend it’s because there are already 17 pictures in this post, okay?

Then I looked at the pile of Everett’s costumes and set out to make cute hooks.  A stop to Michael’s and Home Depot gave me everything I needed:

1 inch wood dowel

Pre-cut wooden shapes (I chose conversation bubbles, but there are so many fun shapes, including clouds)

Dowel screws

Sharpie paint pen

Not pictured, you’ll need craft paint, clear coat, wood glue (or your favorite strong glue), a drill, saw, and pliers.  Cut the dowel to length, mine are 2 inches and sand any rough ends.  Then glue the wooden shapes the front, pressing firmly.  Once dry, paint all sides of the hooks.  Drill a pilot hole the size of your screw shaft in the end of the dowel.  Screw the in, making it tight.

I chose to write on the bubbles, to look like a comic books.  Gotta love a little onomatopoeia, right?  Seemed fitting since the hooks hold super hero costumes.  So I wrote words like Boom, Kapow, Zap, and Thud with the Sharpie pen and gave the hooks two coats of clear finish.  I screwed them to the wall (find a stud or use anchors, just to be safe) and showed Everett.

He thought they were “so nice.”  Mission accomplished.

I’ve got two more that I might add, but we’ll see.

Something similar could be fun and functional in an entry, too.  Maybe with names on them?  Maybe not, to look like little floating art…

Because it was dead, overgrown grass and weeds.

All over.

Then we took a weed whacker to it and tamed the beast.

Crazy to actually see the plants tucked behind that.

But it grows back, looking a little, nay, a lot like Donald Trump’s hair; long, thin, side swept, and unmanageable.  Because the hills are so steep and many large rocks punctuate the hillside, it would be impossible to maintain nice grass.  Factor in minimal rainfall and it’s hard to keep anything alive without an outrageously expensive water bill.  So we’re going with more rock.  Doesn’t need water or maintenance, and cuts down on the dust storms.

The past few weekends we’ve cut out the weeds, laid weed mat, and schlepped rocks.  Even yesterday when temps reached the mid 90′s.  Yes, crazy for this time of year.  Lots of water and lemonade.

Ahh, clean, blank canvas.  Maybe this fall we’ll be able to plant drought resistant plants, to green things up.

If I’m lucky, some flowers for color.

Most of the front side has been rocked, but we’ve got the other side to deal with.

Which included cutting back part of the railing-less, unsafe deck to the front door to get the Bobcat across.  Once the rock has been distributed, we’ll make a new walking path and steps up.

All that to say this: digging out weeds and hauling rocks is not fun, but we’re eager to get it finished and start on some fun projects.  Like a deck in the backyard.  Ben found a great deal on reclaimed wood, so we’ve nixed the concrete patio.  Instead we’ll have a low deck.  And we’re crazy excited about it.