Simple Fix

Sometimes I really love a project that doesn't require a lot!

Case in point: this vanity bench, which was given to me.

The upholstery was nasty and dirty...

But the legs were actually quite lovely.
They were loose, but nothing a little glue couldn't fix!
I chose not to paint them, but I cleaned them up with Walnut Restore-A-Finish.

I bought a piece of 3" foam for the seat (just over $6) and
sewed a cover with fabric leftover from my living room curtains.

Voila!

So much better!

One more day to enter the giveway! Leave a comment here for a chance to win. Ends May 2.

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Custom Memo Board

My friend "D" wanted a BIG memo board to organize some of her office stuff--and make it pretty. Censational Girl posted some great instructions on how to make one here, so off I went!

"D" wanted her memo board to be 3 ft x 4 ft. I chose to use a thin sheet of Lauan, mostly so it wouldn't be enormously heavy! I covered the board in a thin batting, and then with a brown twill. The ribbon is a cream-colored grograin, and it took almost 15 YARDS of the stuff!

Buttons for decoration were going to be expensive--but then I was inspired. In the jewelry-making section of JoAnn's, I found two strings of flat beads that would work instead! I used exactly two strings, and they were buy-one-get-one-free. You can't see it in the picture, but they aren't just plain brown, they look like stone with all the pretty variations and colors.


I like this one so much, I think I need one for myself now, above MY computer! I'm thinking something big...and bright...with flowers!

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Benches

When I got to re-decorate (can you call it re-decorating when it's never been decorated before?), I knew I wanted a bench of some sort at the end of the bed. I couldn't BELIEVE how expensive benches were at furniture stores! $250 would have been cheap!

Thanks to the Internet, I found some transformations of coffee tables into benches. I found a coffee table on KSL.com that had pretty legs, and I talked the seller down from $30 to $15. At first I was going to paint it (that's always easier), but I had a serious paint mishap that meant I had to strip the whole thing anyway! After going through all that work, I decided to stain it the same as the tops of my dresser and chest of drawers. The fabric was a red-tag clearance from JoAnn's. The most expensive part was the green foam for the top!



A couple of months later, I found this coffee table for FREE on KSL.com. It was long and narrow, like the first one, and it had pretty details on the legs. I painted it white and distressed it. The handle is purely decorative. I painted it with ORB spray paint, followed by a light spray of silver--I think it gives an aged-pewter type look. I didn't splurge in as heavy of foam for this one, and the fabric came from a tablecloth I found at Savers.



Of course, the easiest benches to transform are the ones that start out as benches! This one I found for $5 at a garage sale. The legs needed to be tightened, but there was nothing much else wrong with it. I used a $2 can of "oops" paint on it, followed by a black glaze. Someday I would like to have benches at my table--it just seems simpler than trying to keep 3 chairs on each side neat. Unfortunately, I need something longer than 48". Maybe someday I will try to build my own!


Benches. Gotta love 'em!

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