New Old Chair

Monday, you got a peak at the reveal of my newly reupholstered antique chair, so I though today I'd show you the full transformation. We inherited our awesome chair from a friend.  It had been in his family for longer than he'd been alive, but he had no place for it.  After an unfortunate incident with the Queen (Daisy), the non-colorfast seat needed washing.  For 4 years, we've had the chair in our apartment, and then various rooms of our house in it's not-so-fresh red/pink state.

I was so excited when the waitlist I had been on allowed me to get into an awesome reupholstery class last minute at the Eliot School in Boston (not a paid endorsement, they were just awesome and if you live in the area, check them out and the classes they offer!  Do it!)

The first class was painful, where I started ripping my beloved chair apart, but the rebuilding was so gratifying!

I am not even going to pretend to be any kind of expert at reupholstering, but I will tell you that the key is to pay attention as you're disassembling and take note of how everything is attached.  Then do that with your new materials and fabrics.  Simple, right? ha!

Once the fabric was all attached and trimmed, the final steps were to glue on the double-welt (to hide the staples) and sew a cushion.

LOVE!

Sometimes it works to bribe furry models with treats.  Sometimes.

If you're anything like me, you love a side by side before and after.

How's that for a transformation??

I'm so pleased to be able to give the chair a new life!

Berkshires Treasure Hunting

I love and hate weekend trips at the same time.  Hate only because I come home to everything I wasn't able to do at my house over the weekend and then play catch-up, but weekend trips are pretty awesome otherwise.  This weekend was a girl's weekend (check off #3 on 30 before 30) with one of my best friends.  Antiquing in the Berkshires (Western Mass.) sounds like no fun to me.  None at all.  I hate antiques and treasure hunting and .....  yeah... needless to say, a good time was had by all.  AND we got to come home with a few fun treasures. I was a girl on a mission: end tables for my living room update.

Day 1 left me pretty high and dry mission-wise.  My only score was an adorable tea set (in less than perfect condition) for a whopping $5.  The set included only a teapot and a sugar bowl and I had plans for them the moment I laid eyes on them.

As you can see, the teapot-turned-planter is hanging out in the living room, while the sugar dish has found a temporary home on the kitchen window sill.

B made out like a bandit on day 1, scoring 4 awesome mid century upholstered folding chairs with brass hardware that I neglected to get a picture of.  I was too distracted by my dream lamps.

Since I didn't want to sell my kidney to buy them, I walked away and wiped off the drool.

Day 2 was kinder to me and and my mission and I ended up coming home with 2 very reasonably priced side tables.  One being EXACTLY what I was looking for, and the other was just too good of a deal to pass up.

This find was the best way to start out the 2nd morning.

Although not in pristine condition, thankfully this little table is only in need of some minor sprucing up.  Much to my pleasant surprise, even Hubby really likes it!  At $55 it was cheaper and in better condition than ones I had seen on Craigslist!

The other table is a small, oval flip top table.  It's most certainly not antique, but it was only $20 and I think I can Tim Gunn it (make it work!).

And here it is with my sexy reupholstered chair that I'm SUPER excited about.

Now I can't wait until the entire living room is at 100%!!

Rug Talk

Now that my antique chair is almost done being reupholstered (only the cushion left!) and back home in the living room, it may be time to revisit the rug. This is the current rug with the new/old chair (sans cushion), the sofa that I plan to purchase soon, and an IKEA lamp I'm contemplating (wall color and stripes shown as reference).

The existing rug's not terrible with the chair, but I think we can do SO much better.  I do actually love having a darker neutral on the floor- it doesn't provide high contrast with the floor, but it adds needed texture to the space.

I considered a larger scale pattern like a Moroccan trellis, but If I were to chose a rug right this second, I'd probably be buying this one:

Same neutral texture that I love, but with a larger overall pattern, it's not fighting with the ikat on the chair.  Having these neutral grounding pieces, allows me to go crazy have a little bit more fun with pillows and accessories.  But since I'm indecisive, let's visit a few more options.

I thought it might be fun to try one with a bit of color, but the jury's still out.

After my love/hate relationship with Clifford the big red chair, I'm paranoid that a rug like this will overwhelm this small room.

Following the theme of color, this one's not yelling as loud.

It may border on too traditional for me, but hey, if you had shown me the first rug a year ago I would have said the same.  My how tastes have changed in my old age!

I even toyed with the idea of a natural fiber rug with a small geometric, but that got swiftly nixed.

Even with a smaller pattern, the natural color just doesn't jive with a beige sofa.  Or maybe they jive too much.  Either way, no me gusta.

Time for you to weigh in!  Which one would you pick?

All rugs are from Rugs USA, but I was not compensated, nor do they even know who I am- they just have a great selection to peruse!  Beware, they'll suck you in for hours!