My New/Old Ottoman

It has been almost a year since I took apart one of my ottomans with the intent to recover it.  I've had all the supplies to recover it, it's just another one of those things I haven't gotten to that has been taking up space in my sewing room.  Trent's mom took the kids for me for about 6 hours the other day, so I figured it would be a good time to tackle this project.

This is the before picture I took, almost a year ago.  These ottomans used to have buttons on them at one time.  I think it took all of two weeks after buying them that the buttons started popping off.  And the fabric is horrible!  Everything snags it.  And since we repainted the inside of our house last spring, they don't match so well anymore.  We have three of these ottomans btw.  And a chair to match.  I eventually want to recover the chair, but since I am new to the whole recovering thing, I figured I better start with something... smaller.

So here goes.

This is what it looked like all torn apart.

I decided to beef up the padding a little bit.

This part was a PAIN IN THE BUTT!  Trying to get the straight line around the bottom of the ottoman was a bit tricky, but after removing staples and restapling a couple of times, I finally got it pretty even.

And here it is, all done, sans buttons.  Don't look too closely.  There are a couple of areas that could have turned out better, but I figure it's not too bad for a first try.

One down, one to go.  Well... two and a chair, that is.  But just one more in this fabric.  Hopefully the next one will go a little smoother now that I've done one!

Projects

We've been projecting this last week. Well, I guess I should say we've paid people to project for us. We had the whole inside of the house repainted, baseboards, trim, and everything. No more crayon colored on every wall, (until Preston finds a crayon that mysteriously hasn't been put back in its place), gone are the greasy handprints on all the walls around the kitchen table (until Colson leaves the table without washing his hands), and no more scuff marks on the baseboards (until four little children I know decide to run their Hot Wheels cars along them, etc., etc., etc.,). Yes, everything looks brand new (for the moment, anyway). We even rearranged all the furniture. I love changing things up in my house. What fun! The best part is that now we have plenty of space to do cartwheels in the family room:)

One Done... How Many More to Go?

Here are the pictures of the desk! I had done an earlier post, but then erased it because I had taken the pictures of it at night, and the color in the picture just didn't look like the original. So here are new photos (taken during the day) for those of you that haven't seen it yet.

I was so excited to finally be able to use my plaster and stencils on something! I've had the stuff forever, and haven't had anything to use it on, until this desk. It was super easy to do, and it added just that little bit of extra that I love. Now I just need to finish Vivi's bed, my bookshelves, maybe my bed...

Projects

I came into an old hand-me down desk recently ( I love hand-me downs!) and have been working away this last week turning it into something more my style. It was a cherry wood color before with brassy/gold handles. Well, after a week of hard work and many trips to Home Depot, it has a little more pizazz. Well, at least I think it does. We'll see what Trent has to say when he gets home. He is pretty quiet about my projects. He is never quite sure what to think. Unlike me, he is a little conservative when it comes to decorating and color. Me, I love color. The more the better! And I like putting all sorts of colors together, (which anyone who has seen my bags would know). So he hasn't seen said desk since I was halfway through painting. By the look on his face, I think he was a little... I don't know what the best word would be to describe the look on his face. So I asked him what he thought, and he replied, "Well, that color is a little wild for me, but I'll just have to wait and see the end result. I usually like it by the time you're done." He knows how I am. Usually there are many layers to my projects. I can't make it easy for myself and just go with one solid color or stain. Well, Trent will be home momentarily, so we'll see what he has to say about the finished product. I'll post some pictures soon.