Filed In: My Home Tour

Velvety Goodness

05.01.13

chair1

chair2

You may remember that I scooped up these beautiful vintage club chairs back in January. Back then they were a little stinky, green, faded, snagged and needing a little ~~a lot~~ of TLC.

Since it was a bit of an investment, I took my time picking a fabric, which was hard because I tend to be a wee bit impulsive when it comes to decisions like these. I even ordered multiple fabric swatches before ordering the proper amount — go me! I think it paid off too. I might have chosen a different color based off the internet’s representation of colors. I landed on the shadow grey performance velvet from West Elm. It’s super soft and feels very sturdy and durable. A few days after the fabric arrived, my sweet little chairs were picked up and delivered to Covers Unlimited for their big makeover (thanks Jess for the suggestion!).

chair3

chair4

details: soaking up the comfiness / close-up of the tufting / my new plant / painted nails (seriously a miracle and needed to be documented)

I have to give a a big ole thank you to Cary at Covers Unlimited, they were amazing to work with and dealt with my indecisions on whether we should leave the back cushions attached or unattached and what type of legs to put on them. Eventually I was able to decide and then they were done in just a few weeks!

Imagine how thrilled I was to open my inbox on Monday to find an email from Cary telling me my chairs were finished! They were delivered the next day and are now sitting happily in my front room. I’m currently testing the pink ikat pillows from my bed on there now. What do you think?

chair5

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There was a little bit of fabric leftover, so I think I’ll sew myself some pillows to put on the couches to tie the whole room together. As for now? I’m going to go catch up on my favorite reads over a cup of coffee while sitting in these beauties!

I do feel like I should apologize for acting like a proud mama to a pair of club chairs. Can you believe this is only a few of the 68 pictures I took? #embarrassing

Shiny New Shelves

03.12.13

Several months ago I shared some a collection of bookshelves that got me thinking about what to do with mine. These bookshelves in particulars had back their backs painted a different color than the wall. What I loved most about these was how they made the items sitting on the shelves really pop.

before

After painting the entire living room from green to french grey, I had painted the back of the shelves white. Unfortunately the white didn’t make the shelves all that exciting. I eventually decided that I’d try out this darker paint trend I kept seeing on Pinterest. I picked up a can of dark grey paint and got to painting.

At first I was a little concerned that they were way too dark. Yet after they dried, I knew it was a good decision! All the items sitting on the shelves popped rather than blended in and it makes the room feel far more complete.

This is by far my most favorite room in my apartment and it just continues to get better! Speaking of getting better, my vintage chairs were picked up yesterday and will be back in here before I know it!

Fresh Coat of Paint

02.25.13

Two weekends back, I finally tackled those blue side tables. I’d bought the paint weeks before, but it took me a while to finally pull out the tarp and get to painting. I chose a light grey called Cathedral Grey from Behr and I think this time I really hit it out of the park.

After sanding, well, faux-sanding with this de-glosser stuff, I waited the recommended 10 minutes, and then got to painting. I did two coats and the project start to finish only took me about 2 hours, not including the dry time. The toughest part was keeping Oliver away. He did end up with a bit of that cathedral grey on the top of his head and ears, but fortunately he didn’t try to lick it.

The following day was more exciting. With help from my roommate, I put them back in my room to see if the color change was worth my Saturday afternoon. The answer? ABSOLUTELY. The grey makes the whole room softer, more grown up and still a touch girly, but not little girlish. You feel me?

I’m really not a girly girl and I’ve thrown in a few pieces to man it up a bit — my favorite being my antlers above my bed. And okay, there’s actually not that many man pieces now that I look around, but I guess grey is manly, right?

The next step was restyling. Which ended up being more fun than expected! How do you feel about the way I styled it? I’m no pro, but Pinterest has been a huge help. I’m still working on the table that’s on the other side of the bed, it’s looking a bit sad right now, and my second lamp from Land of Nod hasn’t arrived, so the college Hobby Lobby lamp is standing in right now.

I was sooo happy with the project that it ended up kick starting a few of those other dormant projects that have been piling up in my office. This week I’m hoping to get some photos printed from our France/Belgium trip and fill those frames as well as paint a smaller test version of my abstract piece. Eeek, sorta nervous about the latter.

In other exciting news, my velvet fabric came in! Time to get these puppies recovered!