My First Attempt At Slipcovering......An Exercise in Frustration

Good morning! Long time no see :) I have had a rather interesting last few weeks. I will get to the slipcover in a minute, but first I will fill you in on the happenings around here! My husband was in Japan on a business trip and I looked around and decided our current house was no longer working for us(mostly I mean me). I simply need(desperately want) a workshop space. I am constantly painting something in the dining room or have my sewing set up on the table. I have completely taken over the garage and am just feeling too crowded. What did I do? I simply found the perfect house for us to move to complete with a separate full two-car garage workshop for me! I was kind enough to tell my husband of our(my) plans when he checked in from the Dallas airport on his way home. Went over like a lead balloon. After much begging, pleading, and a tour of said new perfect home he got on board. What this means to my family is that I have been a crazy person for the last few weeks getting all those little projects finished that need to be done in order to put the house on the market. I am a perfectionist and it has been no treat for anyone living in this house I can assure you. We are done and the house is listed and our offer has been accepted on the other house(contingent on this one selling of course). The problem is the real estate market is still soft here and we need to sell our house before someone swoops in and buys the other house. God willing it will all work out the way it is supposed to. It will work out the way it is supposed to, I guess I mean the way I want it to :) Why do I have such a hard time putting thing in His hands?! Worst case scenario is we stay here. All the little nit picky things are now done :) I will just continue to park outside and paint and sew in the dining room. But I really want that workshop!!!!!!!!!!
Okay enough of that! Slip covering..........Miss Mustard Seed makes it look so easy. It is A LOT of work! I am sure that like anything it gets easier with each one you complete, but the first one is a bear!! It all started when I found this awesome wing back chair. I fell in love with the size and shape of it. The fabric not so much. As a faithful follower of Miss Mustard Seed (www.missmustardseed.com) I knew that I could do a slipcover and make it beautiful. She had more confidence in me than I did about an hour into the project. Step one: go to your local home improvement store and get a painters drop cloth. Awesome heavy duty fabric at a great price. Check. Step two: wash and dry said drop cloth. Check. Step three: measure cording for the piping on the chair and cover with fabric. Check. Arrogantly smile to my self thinking I have this in the bag. Check. Step four: cut pieces of the fabric similar in size to the various parts of the chair. Check. Step five: start to pin said pieces inside out with the cording in place. Check? hmmm maybe. Steps 5-100000000: keep working along continuing to pin and stitch pieces while turning right side out and trying each piece in place. Then turning wrong side out and doing adjustments and getting out your seam ripper and taking out said stitching time and time again. Then saying terrible thing about Miss Mustard Seed and her confidence in you. CHECK. So after taking it off and putting it on and adjusting and ripping out and sewing more about 1000 times it was done. The end result....not perfect but good :) I actually love it. I am sorry Miss Mustard Seed! You were right. Patience is the main ingredient needed for this project to be a success :)  The chair before:

Cute right? Very comfy too! Flame stitch? Uh no.

After :)

Way more cute!! Comfy cozy slipcover? Yes please!

Some cute little bows down the back, super cute fabric on the cushion, coordinating throw pillows, my blood sweat and tears........fabulous :)

 This little beauty is waiting at Antiques On The Prairie for someone to take her home.  See you soon! Really I mean it :)  ~Christy

Heavenly Seating

Today I want to share with you some "Heavenly Seating".......ok maybe it is a former church pew.  It is totally fabulous though!! Again I need to credit my friend Sarah with this find. This pew did not make the cut when they moved to North Carolina, and as always I am willing to give any orphaned piece of furniture a new home. Well at least a temporary new home :) Here is the really dark and pitiful before picture. It was night time. It was in my garage. I am very impatient.

It is a really awesome length. Not too long-not too short.  There was a kneeling rail attached to the back, but I removed it. The end had a cross engraved in it, but I filled it in. No offense to anyone. I love the Lord, and wear crosses all the time in jewelry, but it just wasn't the look I was going for.

Just realized neither one of these pictures show the cross. Oh well, trust me it was there :)  I gave the pew a really good sanding and a couple of coats of flat black spray paint. I then distressed and waxed it and gave it a couple of ticking stripe pillows.

Really cute, right? I love it! It would make a perfect entry/mudroom seating piece or even a great addition to a dining room harvest table.

This former "Heavenly Seating" is now at Market Antiques in Ottawa waiting to go home with you!! Oh by the way, please make sure to check out  the Market Antiques page on Facebook!! They do a really good job highlighting all the awesome booths there!!
See you soon! ~Christy

Left Behind Treasure

Hello! Hope you all are having a great day! I am loving the sunshine :) Spring is just around the corner and I can't wait!! Today I want to share a dresser that was left behind when my friend Sarah's tenants moved out. They are out of state now so I try to help out when they need anything done at the house back here in Kansas. The last tenants left quite a few things in the house that needed to be moved out and I was thrilled when Sarah told me to help myself!! Here is the dresser before:

As you can see it was missing the toe kick at the bottom. It also had some trim issues on the sides.

Oh but look what an awesome feature it had!!!

How cool is that?! So a new toe kick was added and new trim pieces applied. Those were then painted brown to match the stain color of the dresser.

Now time to give it a good sanding :)

I then decided to paint it in ASCP in Emperors Silk. It is a beautiful color or red. LOVE IT! I even loved the hardware, but gave it a coat of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint to update it.

So awesome! It didn't even make it to my booth. My lovely neighbor Holly bought it for her son's room. They are huge Husker fans so the color was great!  Here are a few more shots.

I have a feeling if the previous owners could see it now they would be sad that they left it behind!! I hope you enjoyed this transformation :) See you soon!! ~Christy

A Special Birthday Wish For My Mom

Today is my mom's birthday. It is a bitter sweet day for me. She would be 79 years old today. Sadly we lost her six years ago to Alzheimer's. My mother had a love for decorating and sewing that she passed on to me. I am very thankful she was such a creative lady! I want to share with you a bench/settee makeover that I know would have been right up my mother's alley :)  Barbara (that's my mom) had a love for all things fancy and Victorian. I can honestly say I didn't always appreciate her style when I was growing up, but I know she had a tremendous knack for putting things together to create just the right look. Unfortunately antiques are expensive and there was not a lot of extra money so that meant finding pieces in need of repair and getting your hands dirty. Thank you mom for teaching me how to strip furniture, paint, and see the possibility in "junk"!

This is Darlene's bench. She is the absolute sweetest lady ever! I met her through my booth at Market Antiques in Ottawa and I was happy to do this custom work for her :)  Here is the before. Very cute, but the wood was a little tired and the fabric was dated.

Darlene picked out her fabric and trim and I brought it back to life :) I used a wood refinisher and wax to brighten up the wood. Exactly what it needed!

I love the finished product!! You know who else would love it? My mom :) She so would have had this in her house. So today mom, I honor you and your wonderful sense of style!
See You soon ~ Christy

Fabulous Old Hutch

Since I am still on the road to recovery I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to blog about some projects that have been brought back to life that I have yet to share with you!  The first is a gorgeous old pine hutch that I was fortunate enough to buy from a friend's brother. It is a big awesome piece and very hard to let go of :)  Here is how it started out.

It was big and awesome, but it was rough! I hated the metal hanging strips holding the shelves so those were the first to go!

Already so much better :) It got a good sanding and thorough cleaning. I added wood pieces to hold the shelves. I then used a wood refinisher that softens the old finish and blends away all the old scratches and imperfections. The one that I used had a dark stain added to it so it just gave the hutch a beautiful patina.

Oh I love, love, love the finished product! I gave it a good coat of paste wax to protect its newly acquired beauty. This went to Market Antiques in Ottawa and I just got the call today that it sold :) Hope the new owners love it half as much as I do! Recovery is going well and I am feeling great! 3 1/2 more weeks and I will be off restrictions! See you soon ~Christy

Back From The Brink.........

Hey if anyone out there is still hanging around to see what is new at Accidentally Fabulous I would like to say "Thanks!!".  I am happy to be back and ready to enjoy life once again! Let me catch you up to speed on my journey to the brink over the last few months. If this is too much detail or makes you uncomfortable I apologize, but I am gonna put it all out there. Any female who has ever suffered "female" issues is going to know exactly where I am coming from. It started several years ago with really BAD cycles. BAD. Take my word for it that it was hideous. I was in my mid-to-late thirties and even though my Dr. suspected I had some endometriosis going on, we had to start with the least invasive methods to help with my symptoms. We decided the Mirena IUD was the way to go. I have to say in all honesty it really did help with a lot of my symptoms. I still dealt with a lot of pain every month, but I thought that was as good as it was going to get. Fast-forward 3 1/2 years later. Something was not right. In fact it was really wrong! I have had three kiddos so I am well versed in what uterine contractions feel like. Why was I contracting?! There was extreme pain involved and my cycles were coming every week and a half. Not good at all. My family Dr. referred me to an ob-gyn for evaluation. It was determined that a uterine ablation would be the route we should take. I was also having a tubal done sine the IUD was being removed. We were all hopeful that this would solve my problems and avoid what we knew would be coming next if it didn't. This was done in September 2012 and I really did feel some relief for a few weeks. I knew the Dr. had found several spots of endometriosis when he did the procedure and they were removed. When it was time for my first cycle post-ablation I knew I was in trouble. The terrible pain was back. I thought I should wait another month and see if things got any better. They did not. They got much, much worse. I was once again contracting and in pain, but now it was on a pretty much daily basis. I was done. I went back to the Dr. and told him I needed something done soon. My mental health was in almost as bad a shape as my physical health. He was very surprised that I was still in so much pain and told me he thought he could get me in for a hysterectomy before the end of the year. That didn't happen as I had hoped, but last week on the 8th I was finally able to have my surgery. No surgery is ever fun, and I was very nervous, scared, apprehensive. But, I was at the brink. I was at the point where I knew I couldn't go on any longer the way I was living. Fast-forward six days and here we are. I am sore from surgery. I am tired. I have been emotional some days. I am frequently suffering the wrath of my husband when I venture into the garage to peek at all my projects waiting for me. However......I am not in pain! I can't even begin to tell you how much better i feel. It is like a terrible, heavy, painful, bloated, angry mass has been removed. Oh wait! It has. It was my uterus!!!!! Which as it turns out was not only affected with more endometriosis, but full of fibroids as well. No wonder I felt so bad. So there you have it. The whole sordid mess. It has been bad for so long I can't wait to see how good it can be now :) I am back from the brink!! I am ready to bring some amazing furniture pieces back to life. I am ready to throw myself into creative ventures. I am ready to live life again, but first I must heal. I can't drive for another week. I can't lift anything right now. Honestly I would probably fall asleep in the middle of any project I tried to do. So hang in there with me while I rest and recuperate and I will be back at it in no time!
See you soon ~ Christy

Awesome Primitive Sofa!

I was on Craigs list a couple of months ago and found an awesome maple frame sofa that was in need of some love :) I can't resist a project that has sooooo much potential! I was excited too because the price was right and the cushions seemed to be in great shape. Here is the before picture.

Do you notice the absence of cushions? After a couple nights of storage in my garage they began to smell a wee bit like animal pee :(   guh- rroooos! They went in the trash promptly. Then the real work began. As you can see the seat was missing the webbing and center supports. New wood pieces were cut, clued, and screwed into place. I then sanded, painted, distressed, and waxed the frame. I went with black because I LOVE primitive black pieces! I just used good old Krylon flat black spray paint.  It was then time to do the webbing which is what gives support to the seat. You will need to have a webbing stretcher to get the right amount of tension and I would highly recommend a pneumatic stapler as well.

My stapler

Webbing stretcher

This is not a complicated process at all. It kind of like basket weaving only you have to pull tight with one hand and staple with the other.  Each of the seat areas was done separately and I chose to go with a single 3in foam cushion for the bottom.

Side view of how cute this sofa is!

 I chose a cute tan and black stripe fabric that reminded me of a grain sack. It is a nice sturdy material that goes perfectly with the primitive style. I did the cording for the cushions out of black and tan buffalo plaid. The back cushion hangs from the top decorative pieces by plaid tabs as well.

I used a nice big upholstery needle and thread to pull little tufts in the back cushion. I think it gives it just the right touch!

Fabulous!  This went to Market Antiques in Ottawa, but my dear friend Lori has already claimed it for herself :) I will get to visit it whenever I want!
See you soon ~ Christy