flowers for friday #137

happy friday, friends.

today, i can hardly even believe it myself, it's going to be 80 degrees here in sunny kc.

i'll be sitting at my desk, longing for and daydreaming about the sunshine out my window at work today. but that's ok. at least it's here.

i can't wait to share my recent purchases with you...

first we have the most sumptuous, luxurious, yellow-with-a-hint-of-mustard, gorgeous velvet. 2 yards of it. and it's already sitting atop the chair it's going to cover very shortly. i have been searching high and low for the stuff for a long while now. it's hard to purchase over the internet because you can't feel it in your hands or see the true color...and yellow can be good, but it can also be very very bad. i'm glad i held out because yesterday i stumbled upon some at my favorite discount fab store for $6.99 a yard... marked down to $3. holler.

i even snagged 8 yards of another fabric to tackle my hand-me-down wingback. finally!! and it too was only $3/yard. the luck! and even though they aren't recovered yet, my front room has finally become what i want it to be. there's more satisfaction in holding out for the perfect fits, ya know. even if i takes 3 years.

can't wait to share.

can't wait to reupholster!

i think that's what i'll be doing all weekend long if you need me.

loves.

JILL

{image via martha} 

weekend progress.

this weekend i had high hopes of finishing my settee for the kitchen.

unfortunately i also had 37 other things on my to-do list and didn't get that far.

remember i just purchased this fabric for it, to go swimmingly in my pink kitchen. 

but here's how she started:

i got it from a consignment store a year ago, and the upholstery was perfect. just not cute.

so i started removing the arms so i could get at the gold fish scales.

and this where i had to stop friday after work. we had junk to go do, so i had to quit.

did a little more saturday afternoon:

i was starting to get rill excited. then i had more junk to go do and had to quit again.

and here's where we ended last night:

(took these this morning.)

{almost} ta da!!

i really like this fabric.

you can almost see it,

just squint a little.

i'm hoping to finish her up tonight.

fingers crossed.

the seat took me the longest because it required some sewing and i'm still moderately a beginner in that arena. there were a few try-and-re-tries. so i'm hoping the seat-back and the very back go faster-- no sewing necessary!

did you have a good weekend?

i kinda did. it was fun and productive.

those 2 things don't often mix and mingle for me and my weekends.

love.

JILL

caviar

my new fabric!

purchased for the pink kitchen.

going to use it reupholster my little 2-seater settee.

waverly's (sun and shade outdoor fabric)

'a new twist' in caviar. 

i just got it in the mail yesterday.

over the internet it looks like mostly gray and cream and black.

but in real life that darker gray stripe is actually a dark brown espresso color.

and the outdoor fabric should hold up better in my kitchen.

i don't have kids, but i do have a husband and a big brown dog :)

i initially found it online and new i'd like it with my newly painted walls. the colors online always make me nervous so i ran up to joann's where they had it in real life that i could touch. and feel. and hold in my hands. and the colors? loved them even more in person because i could actually see that brown stripe.

i could have just purchased it at joann's while i was there but it was $49.99 a yard. i did have a coupon that could have brought the price down to $19.99 which would have meant:

a total of $79.96 plus tax for 4 yards.

i knew i could sleuth out better.

went back online and found it on amazon and ebay, both listed for $22.99 a yard. not any better. amazon did have free shipping but ebay did not.

total $91.96 (plus tax. and shipping).

crossed my fingers and headed over to tonic living. ta da.

only $12.95 a yard and i had an online coupon for 10% off!

with shipping my total came to $60.87.

mucho better!!

so all in all...

i'm quite happy.

and this weekend imma reupholster that thing.

any good deals for you all lately??

JILL

flower power

found a new blog yesterday-- verandah house.

(thank you, pinterest.)

she likes every color of the rainbow, too.

she had this old chair reupholstered in a designers guild fabric, amrapali peony.

it's so pretty!!!

the striped arms are where its at.

best part.

no questions asked.

thank you for playing.

the wallpaper is just as great.

but i prefer it in smaller doses, like a chair.

that's all.

thanks for stopping by.

have a good day.

JILL

let's talk.

i loved domino, as we all did, and one of my favorite editors was rita konig.

i find her style right up my alley. she's a more-the-merrier type, with an eclectic, mixed, vintage-with-new, repaint, reupholster, and re-use, full on color and pattern style, and i loved her.

i recently found that she contributed to ny mag's blog, the t magazine, after domino. she did before and afters, some major insight to what she's thinking when she does it/why she likes it and why she doesn't kinda thing.

she doesn't do it any longer but i enjoyed going back and reading what she had written. you can do so here, if you so please. i recommend it.

here's her ny apartment that i love for its mix and color.

not to mention that dark pinky inky-purple velvet. delish.

while raving about a friend's beautiful monochromatic place, she said somthing that i seem to agree one million percent with, "...tom's taste is very tailored. all the upholstery is white, as is the fireplace and even his nonshedding dog. it is an incredibly controlled palette; even the art is almost entirely framed in white. personally i am terrible at this type of decorating. my mind is far too scattered and magpie-ish to keep myself to one vision. but for me, with rooms- as with people- it is the mix that makes it work."

love. that sounds like me to a t.

it makes me feel more confident about my scattered and magpie-ish self and style.

even her car is a fantastic orange and unapologetically retro.

her bedroom isn't one that i'd pick for myself but i find it charming and perfectly english, just like her.

some of her other before and afters in her own apartment:

this room she did for a client is exactly why i'm such a fan.

pattern and pattern and color. turquoise leather with a cozy white club chair.

ikat with damask.

glorious.

do you enjoy her as much as i do?

JILL

{images via domino, ny times, apartment therapy, plush palate}

$12.

this project cost me a whole whopping $12.

less than!

my dad purchased an office building a couple of months ago to move his office into. it came with some office furniture... midcentury modern gorgeousness actually.

and then there was this.

it was stuck back in the back, covered in dust and grime.

the original upholstery (prob purchased in the 80's sometime) was ripped in the front.

i told him i could try and reupholster it for him.

he said i could just have it.

so i took it home, and husband gave me one of those looks,

like- why are you bringing that into our house?

picures are actually making it look better than it did in real life.

months ago, i stumbled upon this fabric that was cute enough...

but it was only $3 a yard so i bought 10 yards of it. why not really? it was $3.

i thought i'd reupholster my grandma's wingback in it but i am saving up my courage and strength for that job. so i decided to use it for this project.

it took less than 4 yards to do the whole thing.

but more than a few weeks to do it.

i didn't take any photos during.

just painted and replaced the fabric.

i kept all the inside stuffs.

is it the best bench/setter thing in the whole wide world?

no, not really.

is the new upholstery job better than the previous?

light years.

it was my very first time making piping. it was kinda fun actually.

i used this and this tutorial for help.

it was one of those tasks that scared the you-know-whats off of me until i made myself do it.

made some green velvet pillows for it and now i quite like it.

it's now going to live at my dining room table.

we have a settee at the kitchen table (which is next on the list for some re-up) and now we have one for the dining room.

so comfy.

whatchya think?

at least better, right?

and certainly worth $12!

JILL

i need your help!!!

my mom just picked this stool up for me. it's pretty filthy but it was only $2 (!!) at an estate sale. i've been looking for one to go under the front table in my house for a bit.

she's always been destined for a makeover but i didn't have any exact plans....

i like stools that are covered in rugs............

so i remembered i had this one hanging out without a purpose as well.

it's outrageously awesome to me.

maybe not to you.

i'm aware a stack of neon animals on a rug isn't the most coveted but that's what made me like it even more.

that and did i mention it was neon?

i picked this up at a flea market years ago. it was $6 i think. and also pretty filthy.

just couldn't go home without it, though!!

you can't fully tell by these photos but that orange and that pink are BRIGHT.

so here's where i need your help:

the rug, a weird size in it's own right, is too big for my stool. i want to know if you think i should go for it and upholster my stool in this weird and crazy mexican rug while sadly cutting off the last mammal...

or if i should stick it back in the cabinet and hold onto it for a better use. where the bottom donkey? cow? horse? doesn't get chopped off. 

he half way makes it.

 i highly doubt that i will ever stumble upon such a find ever again. but it isn't that sacred.

besides, my favorite part is the neon rooster and i made sure he fit :)

again. i am aware not all of you think this is the best potential diy project i could show you. in fact some of you may be thinking what is she thinking?!!

but i kinda heart it.

spill em.

your thoughts.

don't be shy.

please.

love.

JILL

right up the middle

xoxo

elle.

perma-smile

i don't know why i felt brave enough to tackle this project but i'm sure glad i did!!!

my grandmother gave me this chair, that she had in her house since forever, when she downsized a couple of months ago.... i thought it was a cute enough chair but the maroon red wasn't my cup of tea. one day i was feeling restless so i took a flat head screw driver and popped a few of the old nail heads off (see bottom left of the seat). after inspecting i told my husband, "oh yeah. i totally have this." i think i was trying to convince myself more than him :)

here's the chair in it's blood red state. mmm. blood red.

and the back. it wasn't a full re-upholstery job so i thought it was a good project to start with. now i have my sights set on one of her old wingbacks... another story for another day! (cross your fingers.)


i figured if i screwed it up and it looked awful:
1) it couldn't look that much worse than before, right?
2) then i'd just take it to someone and pay for them to fix my mistakes.

the only loss would be the cost of the fabric and nail heads and my time. piece of cake.




i took plenty more befores documenting what it looked like so i could constantly refer back to get it right when i was putting her back together. i recommend this step.

i looked back. ALOT.

here is me starting to sweat. there was no going back from here!

i started with the seat. removing the old faux leather was the hardest part in my opinion. my hands got battered and abused, and stabbed (only once) by my screw driver.... oh and stabbed once too, by those unsuspecting but ferociously sharp little nails.

turns out the whole thing was put together with those nails and nail heads. that's it.

again, me starting to sweat. i didn't replace any of the insides. just the outsides.

my white faux going down. i got the nail heads here.

i used white and gold to bring her up to the current century.

once the seat was done and it looked far better than i thought i would have done, i had to remove the back, front and arms.

again, it was hard. and it hurt. but i felt like i was in the home stretch.

the arms finished. (and please excuse any messy bits you see on my carpet... nobody said it was a neat and tidy thing to reupholster a chair.)

(and while we're on the subject of the floor, please excuse the ugly carpet. the owners before us chose that lovely color and we're working on a replacement plan.)

et voila!!!

she's done!!!

and i know that i didn't take her photo without the blanket and it may appear as if i was hiding something, but i swear, it's perfect! i can't stop looking at her, or walking by just to make sure she still looks awesome.

or smiling.

i added a little mexican blanket i got on one of my trips down there. it was looking a little too white in that corner. but we're working on that too.

and here's a shot of the tools i used. all ones i had. i know there are specific upholstery tools but i didn't even need them.

total cost of the job: under $45.

now, i understand this isn't the cutest chair in the whole wide world but i like it because it was my grandma and grandpa's.

and i like it when a project works and doesn't flop :)

happy monday.

JILL