Old to New..

As I stated in my previous post aside from sewing.. which I promise to post some of my sewn items soon.. I took on redoing antique/vintage furniture. I started easy but reupholstering a chair and bench that are over 80 yrs old and at $70 for both I couldn't pass them up!

I started by removing the 80 year old fabric on them.. what was under there.. well lets just say it wasn't pretty.. ever wonder what happens to foam after 80 years??

Well, it turns to dust! Eeeewww!! nasty. smelly. dust. at that!
I preceded by removing all the "foam" or lack there of and straw, yes straw.. that once made up the comfy cuchonie stuff someone once sat on. Removed nails.. oh boy were there nails! So after about 2 hours of removing fabric and nails and not to mention trying to keep all that "foam" from ending up all over my house, it was time to clean the wood and cut fabric! I had purchased a floral pattern that I liked at Walmart for about $4 a yard.. yup! that's all $4! I cut it and then put some foam (cant remember the name but, it was from Hancock's Fabric and it was about 8$ a yard) measured tugged and left some extra for you know "just in case" made sure everything fit and assembled both seats! What did I do with all the nails?! Well, I reused them to assemble my seats, I thought it would keep the pieces more true to their era that way.

I'd say they turned out great! They make great accent pieces in my new house and ice breakers when we have company..

Stripping +Staining = Beauty

After watching a few episodes of TLC's Cash & Cari, I developed a love for antique furniture that had been restored to its original beauty. Some pieces however, were painted in a shabby chick style, which personally I love so much that if I were single and living alone my pad would be decorated in such matter!! So after browsing the internet for these beautiful antique/vintage restored/ painted pieces I decided that I would take on the challenge of refurnishing a piece! I searched for days, weeks for a piece that I liked and that wasn't to pricey to redo and if it failed it wouldn't hurt my wallet as bad if I ended up tossing it! After searching I found this vintage dresser. I was smitten by its curves and elegant look. I called the seller and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it!



There it was, this worn piece with stickers on its face, scratches on it top, missing a detail piece from the bottom, missing knobs and I could help but to fall in love and look at its potential! I quickly offered her $60 and she took it! It was mine! Loaded it to the car and brought it home! I Google-d, YouTube-d and Yahoo-ed How-to videos on refinishing and shortly after I was out the door to buy my supplies. I worked on it for 3 days. Stripping it down to the bare wood. Filling in the chips and scratches as much I could, sanding and washing it to make sure the wood was clean and ready to absorb its new stain. I removed the bottom piece and knobs, left it as bare as I could get it. To my surprise I fell in love with the cottage feel it had and almost felt tempted to leave it as such.



I asked my friends what they thought, leave it or stain it. We all opted for staining! So, I stained it Mahogany Red. It quickly absorbed the stain and I let it sit for a while so that it would have a rich deep red color, later I removed all the excess stain let it dry for about 24 hours before applying the polyurethane to get it to the final gloss I wanted! It was beautiful!!!



It now sits in my office area, awaiting its now knobs which took me forever to find and its a piece in my house that demands attention! Not to shabby for my first time, huh?! :)