The Hutch Makeover

Or should I say ‘makeunder’ since I was going for a simpler look?  Or is it just weird that I’m writing a whole post about a hutch makeover in general?  Most DIY bloggers showcase entire room makeovers including hutches that they beautifully styled and primped.  Well, not me.  I’d show you our whole living room but the fact is it’s still a little bit of a smorgasbord of things and getting to a reveal is going to take a little bit longer for this tortoise.  But, you can see the mirror I painted here and the pillows hanging out here if you so wish.  :)

So, shall we move on?  Sure thing.

Here was the hutch a few weeks ago: 
 
Was.  It was filled with lots of hand-me-downs (that I truly love) like my grandmother’s milk glass, some frames with homemade art, some thrifted vases, and other random things.  Atop it was another jumble of things that gave the whole thing a little bit of a country vibe which is cool but which is also not my style.

Not on the agenda (or in the budget) though, was a change…until I got my very first issue of HGTV magazine a few months ago.  One page got me and got me good.
  
It was the after picture of a hutch they made over and it wasn’t really the hutch as much as the way they styled it.  As I was looking at all of the things inside it, I realized that I had a lot of similar items in my house.  So, that day during naptime, I took everything out of our hutch and refilled it with those similar items.

Here’s what it’s looking like today:


On top of the things I grabbed from amongst our own things to refill it, a bunch of little diy projects went into it, and also a few thrifted treasures.  Bear with me while I elaborate.  :)



Half of the hardcover books were recently thrifted; purchased based on the color of their spine and that’s it.  The large green and yellow vases were thrifted a long time ago as were the two gold candlesticks, the aqua vase, and the clear bubble candle pillar.
Some of the milk glass made the cut to go back in and the rest will be put elsewhere in the house.



The white storage box on the top shelf was the box my best friend sent last year holding inside it a request to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (this ‘gram).  I can’t part with it.


It used to be black.
 
You can see the rough section on the box where I ripped off the packing tape that held it closed on it’s journey here.  Off with the tape came the top layer of the paper the box is made out of.  I was hoping that, even though it wouldn’t make those spots smooth, a little paint would disguise that whole issue.

So, I gave it a quick coat of spray primer and then a coat of white spray paint.
 

Primed:


Unfortunately, the paint didn’t do the greatest job of sticking and not soaking into the paper where the tape had been ripped off.  So, after the spray paint dried, I painted the whole box with some white acrylic paint I had and that did the trick.


Then I grabbed my gold paint pen (purchased for this project but that failed) and added a little fun to the area where the tape was to further hide the roughness.


Now it fits right in.


The gray and white striped box on the right side of the hutch was a perfume box I’ve had pictures stored in forever.

 
It’s made of heavy duty cardboard.  I just spray painted it white and then laid some tape across it in strips.  Then I painted over the taped and un-taped stripes using some gray paint (leftover from this stenciled rug project), and then carefully removed the tape to reveal the new gray and white stripes.  The blue cut-out vase atop it was a Dirt Cheap find and the sea urchin was diy-ed (tutorial here).  The wood box on the bottom shelf is a bible box I’ve had since I was a wee girl.  I thought about sanding it down to get a more natural wood look but it has a few small latches and hinges to go around and just seemed a little too tedious of a project.

On top of the hutch I did some much needed restyling.  The mercury glass vase was diy-ed (tutorial here in yesterday’s post).  The orb-ish thing is just an embroidery hoop that I bought several months ago for a project that didn’t come to fruition.  The minty vase was a thrift find.  The large frame was an amazing thrift find a few weeks ago!  I got it for 50 cents!  It’s big and metal and it’s the same mint-green color as our sectional.  The print inside it was a thrift find from a few years ago but I just saw the same print on clearance at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago for under $2.  I cut it to fit the frame.
 

You might’ve also noticed the gorgeous knobs this sweet thing’s sporting.


I am in la-la-love with them.
 
[And I also have yet to touch up the paint the old knob scratched up behind them.]
I saw these beauties at Hobby Lobby many moons ago and wished I could snatch them all up and replace every knob in this house with them.  Then, a few months ago, I went through a big closet purge and sold a bunch of my dresses and with some of that cash, I went and bought my knobs.  They were 50% off the week I bought them so I got eight of them for around $16.  You probably don’t remember because they didn’t make the greatest impression, but the original knobs on the hutch were plain, stocky wooden ones that I spray painted with some hammered brown spray paint…blah.  These make all the difference in the world.


And that’s it!

But, for more kicks, let’s do a whole history.  Here’s what the hutch looked like when we first got it from a friend (we traded a twin mattress for it):


Then after we moved to Alabama, I painted it:


Then the knobs made things a little happier:

And last, HGTV happened:


What a journey, no?
 

I think I am so passionate for decorating right now because it’s really a challenge.  We don’t have it in our budget to spend much, if anything on home decor right now, so finding ways to make things pretty while only spending a little bit is so fun!  Call me crazy but it’s the truth.  This hutch is the perfect example of that!  But then again, that challenge puts these crazy ideas in my head too which don’t always work out like I picture.  For example, I looked into getting the cranberry-colored clubs chairs in our living room reupholstered and the cost was way, way, way out of our budget.  So, this crazy person is going to try to do it herself.  I haven’t found the perfect, cheap but quality fabric yet to do so, but when I do, look out…and wish me luck.  Lots and lots of luck…and wine, and help, and maybe advice?  :)

TGIF

Pillow Talk

Our living room has been highly neglected in the past few years.  It’s walls are pretty much bare with the exception of a cross and an off-center painting, the rugs I’ve had on the floor have always been too small for the space (until recently we walked on the one that I bought for Sebastian’s room…see pic below), the hand-me-down club chairs are a cranberry color that isn’t necessarily a bad color but just not what I’d like, the pillows are all mismatched…

I thought we’d get everything in order back when we turned our thirfted coffee table into an ottoman but then other things got the priority and so the mismatched room has sat and sat.  We did move the furniture around some time ago though, separating the sectional to allow for a play area in the back corner of the room.  It’s not my favorite set-up since separating a sectional basically means you have two funky looking sofas but, it’s the most functional set-up right now while the kids are little. 
  

All that is about to change though.  It really all started last year on Black Friday when I found an 8 x 10 rug at Old Time Pottery for $73 (on sale from $130 plus an extra 15% off).  Actually, I found three that day and brought each one home and Anthony and I settled on a colorful, pixelated one.  It wasn’t my favorite but, oh you should feel it!  It’s thee softest, cushiest, non-shag rug I’ve ever stepped foot on.  We don’t even need a rug pad to boost its comfort level, it’s that comfy.  But anyway, it really got the wheels turning on how I needed to decorate this room to incorporate the rug and I knew that that process would be a tough one.  The rug could easily look western-ish and that is the total opposite of what I want.  I want light, bright, and modern with a hint of eclectic and a dash of classic…okay, basically I’m just throwing out words to tell you I want anything but country and moody.  Our beige walls were the first to change a few weeks ago.  We painted them white (Delicate White by Olympic).  A Debbie Downer:  We purchased Olympic paint + primer to do the job as they had the color we liked the best but were sadly disappointed.  We ended up having to do two coats and didn’t have a drastic color change going on in the first place.  Boo.

The next update I made in the room was to the pillows.  I finally got around to whipping up some zippered pillow covers for the existing pillows and two more pillow forms I’ve had stored away for this room for months and months.  And, I love how they turned out! 

I used a golden yellow geometric fabric (found on clearance at Hancock Fabrics for $10/yard), a pin-striped fabric from Old Time Pottery ($5.99/yard), and this colorful Neo Toile ($18.95 and my splurge).  I got two pillows out of a little over a yard so in total I spent about $40 to make seven covers ($47 including the zippers).  All of the fabrics are medium-weight home decor fabrics with the exception of the geometric.  It’s a light-weight and was a little tougher to sew with.  I was a little nervous about incorporating the colorful Neo Toile (even thought I absolutely love the fabric!) because I thought it might clash with the rug but I think that after all is said and done in here, it’ll blend right in.  It’s the craziest I’ll get though; everything else will be nice and mellow.  :)

So, the pillows.  I started by cutting out two squares of fabric for each pillow cover.  I did this by laying a paper template I made over the fabric, making sure it was straight.  Then I used a heavy vase of flowers as a weight, holding the fabric and template in place and together while I cut around the template.
 
[Aren’t the flowers gorgeous?!  They were sent to me on my birthday last week from some sweet, sweet friends.]

Using a template helped me make sure all of my squares were the same exact size.

Side note:  My pillows measure 20 x 20 inches so I made a 20 x 20 template using a bunch of piece of scrap computer paper that I taped together (I couldn’t find any other paper around this casa that was wide enough for me to use one sheet).  I’ve read that, for the best pillow cover fit, you should make your covers one inch smaller than your form so that’s exactly what I did.  After sewing using a half-inch seam allowance on each side, each of my covers ended up being 19 x 19 finished.

In the past I’ve made envelope-enclosure pillow covers, which are great but this time I went with zippered covers (my second try at them – here’s the first) because I love how you can use an entire piece of pattern fabric on the front and back without having to worry about the envelope disrupting the pattern flow on the back.  I used this tutorial from Design Sponge.  I followed her directions word-for-word except for the last part of installing the zipper.  When you’re almost to the end of sewing on the second side of the zipper, if you started from the bottom of the zipper, you won’t be able to sew right up and past the zipper pull.  It’ll be in the way and since you’ve already sewn the other side of the zipper, you’ll have no way to get to it to unzip it out of the way because of the basting (baste?) stitches.  So, what I did was, about an inch before I reached the pull, I secured my straight stitch by backstitching and then I cut the thread.  Next, I removed my pillow cover from the sewing machine and ripped out the basting stitches.  Once all the stitches were gone, I unzipped the zipper a little ways past where I stopped on the second side and sewed that last inch or so of the second side of the zipper on, backstitching at the beginning and end of that small area of stitches.  You can sorta see what I’m trying to explain and the area I had to ‘patch’ in this close-up:
 
I don’t know a way around this but I know there must be one because I haven’t seen any store-bought pillow covers with the small patch I’ve had to insert.  If you know how to avoid it, please let me know!!

In the Design Sponge tutorial, she clips her corners once she finished (that makes your corners more pointed when your pillow cover is right-side-out) and calls it a day.  You can also finish hems by cutting them with a shearing scissors, which helps them to not fray.  I’ve sheared lots of finished hems with success but this time around, I thought I’d take things to the next level and get out my serger that’s been sitting alone in a closet for the past three years; me too intimated to take it out and try it.  But, thanks to the encouragement and help from one of my household sisters, Marina (seamstress EXTRAORDINAIRE…guys, she made her own wedding dress!), I now am a proud, not scared, owner of a serger!  I wish I had gotten it out long ago!



Just look at that things handiwork!

[The threads are all different colors because I didn’t change them after the initial threading – using different colors helps the threading process since it’s a little complicated (but totally doable and the worst part!) and involves four different threads.]
Having kids means messes and, even though we don’t allow food in the living room, messes still somehow sneak in so it is so important to me that I’m able to wash our pillow covers.  Now I know that because all the hems are serged, I can wash these babies a hundred times and it’s unlikely that they’ll fray and fall apart.

Let’s talk edges.  Because I only bought enough fabric for what I needed, I didn’t have the option of matching sides (this is especially apparent with the Neo Toile) which is totally not necessary but on many high-end pillows, you’ll see exactly centered designs and matching fronts and backs. 

With the geometric fabric, I tried as best I could to line up the top seam so that it didn’t look too disconnected.  In lining up the top seam though, I had no choice on what would happen on the bottom, zippered end.  It’s a little funky but my concerns are elsewhere.
 

With the Neo Toile, I had absolutely no say on where the seam would land and in the end, they don’t look half bad (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  ;)

With the pin-striped pillows, I just made sure the stripes lined up along the side seams and didn’t worry too much about the tops and bottoms.
  

I’m sorry I couldn’t write up a whole tutorial from start to finish but I scrambled to make these pillows during a few nap times so I didn’t take the time to take detailed pictures.  I thought I’d make it up to you by finding a good video tutorial I could share with you because I think they’re the most helpful when it comes to sewing and so I found this one by Sewing In a Straight Line that seemed to be the most helpful although I couldn’t find a super-detailed one that I thought a beginner could watch and get it.  Guess I’ll have to work on making my own one of these days.  :)

  

Next on the list, we have to deal with this issue that literally drives me crazy every time I prop up my footsies:
A pattern and color clash of interior designers’ nightmares that means we’ll be recovering the ottoman asap.  The rug looks a little darker in the above pic than in real life but even so, this is one relationship that’s not going to work.  I’m thinking a linen-esque gray or maybe a large-scale white and gray geometric (the rug has gray in it along with a gray edge-binding thread).  Originally I had my eyes set on this Portfolio fabric from OFS…

…but I ordered some swatches of it in two colors and I’m now thinking the two small-scale patterns might be too much.  What do you think?  I’m open to any and all suggestions!

I’ll be working on the living room little by little, actually I’m going wall by wall, and so I’ll share as I go but I’m also going to be working on a few other things here and there so I can’t promise a speedy reveal but it will get done and I’m so excited to get it there!  We’ve got lots of frames to hang, wall shelves to build, and (shhh…I haven’t announced this plan to Anthony yet) a possible mantel rebuild.  All while keep ourselves and the three toddlers alive, hence the turtle’s pace.  :)

What are you working on these days?  One thing or a few?

.           .           .

P.S.  Thank you for your sweet words and eagerness to hear the rest of our love story!  I’m so excited to type up more and to relive those moments via the blog! 

P.P.S.  It’s party time!  I’m linking these seven couch potatoes up with Ana’s Cabin Fever Creativity Link-Up!

Tuft Love

In case it’s your first time to casa de Bean In Love, here’s the nutshell about what this post is all about.  We had a rectangular coffee table, bought a sectional a few years later, rectangular coffee table didn’t jive well with new sectional, sought out new, round coffee table, found octagonal one at Goodwill for $12 in hopes to turn it into an ottoman for our footsies.  Got it?  Good.  :)

Here ‘tis:
 

Here’s how we did it and how you can make your very own.

Let’s start with…

THE FRAME
The coffee table came home with us from thrifting pretty beat up but I did the usual light sanding (because it was so worn I barely had to sand this piece), a couple of thin and even coats of white spray primer (Rustoleum from Walmart), and a few thin and even coats of white spray paint (Rustoleum American Accents).

THE CUSHION BASE/WOOD
The original plan was to cut a piece of wood that was the exact same size as the glass top, thereby fitting right into it’s spot.  Then we were just going to upholster the entire top of the coffee table; wrapping and stapling the fabric over and under the existing ledge.  But, to keep the ottoman from looking too much like a large mushroom, we (Anthony) came up with a better idea to upholster a piece of wood slightly larger than the existing glass but smaller than the top of the table. 

The red line in the picture below represents the size the wood was cut to and the red dots represent the holes Anthony drilled and how/where the screws that held the cushion on would go. 
 

We used 1/2 thick plywood from Home Depot and (bonus!) actually bought a large piece that gave us two wood bases instead of one.  The plan is to make a second cushion we can switch out with the first one when the need for change strikes.  But that’s on the back burner with baby #3 coming in a month.  We might add a 2x4 underneath and across the base and for added support but the 1/2 plywood was strong enough to withstand Anthony standing on the ottoman and will definitely hold up to our resting feet and the climbing tots.

Home Depot cut the plywood into two large squares for us so all Anthony had to do was cut off the corners to get the octagon shape we needed.  He used some fancy measuring and a circular saw and that’s all I know about that.  If you have any questions about cutting wood, inbox me or comment and I’ll refer them to the pro.  :)

THE FOAM
You might remember it took me forever to find foam.  Working on a budget, we didn’t want to spend the $44 it would have cost to buy a three-inch thick slab of foam from the fabric store (and that was during a 50% off sale!) so I scoured the interweb and after a few frustrating surfs, found this post over at The Shabby Creek Cottage.  Gina upholstered a coffee table using an egg crate mattress and it looked pretty darn good.  My friend Jenn also used the same thing to upholster a headboard and it too looked and still looks awesome.  So, my decision was made.  I made a trip to Walmart and grabbed two full-size foam mattresses (one-inch thick).  (Side note:  I couldn’t find “egg crate” mattresses so settled on the “5-zone” kind hoping it’d all still pan out the same, which it did.)  The plan was to layer the mattresses to give us the height and cushion we were looking for.

So first I traced the wood base onto the smooth side of the mattress with a sharpie.
   
I wasn’t sure if I was going to layer three or four together so I cut four just in case – two on each mattress.  I ended up using three layers.

For extra staying power, I glued two of the layers of foam “zone” or rippled sides together with some spray adhesive we had on hand.  (Side note:  Make sure to do this outside!!  It smells and surely you don’t want glue all over your stuff!)

Next I stacked the layers onto the wood base like so:

It was single layer, smooth side down first (or against the wood) on top of which were the two glued-together layers.
I didn’t glue the bottom layer to the wood because it stayed put well on its own and would even more so once the tufting was done and the fabric was over it.

THE BUTTONS AND TUFTING
We wanted our ottoman to be tufted and we wanted some deep tufting.  So I picked up a craft cover button kit from JoAnn fabrics (brand:  Dritz, size: 45 or 1 1/8 inch, direct link here).

Verses using a different, coordinating or contrasting fabric for the buttons, we used the same fabric we were using to upholster the cushion.

I won’t go into the details of how to assemble the buttons because the instructions on the button kit are awesome but I will say that, per the recommendation of a few experienced tufters in blogland, we added a dab of Liquid Nails to each button before securing the backs to keep them from popping off.  We let them sit and dry for several hours before we used them.
 

Behold, the buttons:
   

Next up, the tufting.  This is where I ran into a little dilemma.  I wasn’t sure how to pattern the tufting.  If you’re an Instagram or Facebook friend, you might’ve have seen my plea for help.  Which one?  The top pattern or the bottom?

Well, the majority went for the bottom pattern along with Anthony but my initial thought was towards the top pattern.  After deciding, redeciding, checking what y’all had to say, and redeciding again, we both decided we liked the top pattern best.  (A BIG THANK you to my good friend Lauren who supplied me with picture texts of their round, tufted ottoman during this whole process so I could see how it was tufted/constructed, not to mention for dealing with my panicked text pleas for advice.)  :)

So, once the pattern was decided upon, I carefully measured out where each button was to be placed, starting with the center and marking the spots with a sharpie.
 

Then Anthony drilled the holes where I marked.
 

(Side note:  We tufted before we upholstered/stapled the fabric around the edges so that we could get our buttons fairly deep into the cushion.  If you’re going for shallow tufting, I’d upholster first.)  Before we started installing buttons, we made sure the fabric was centered over the ottoman (and if you’re using batting, make sure you grab it and lay it under your fabric.  We were planning on using some and completely forgot!  It shouldn’t be a big deal though.)  Then we started with the center button and moved out to the circle, doing one button and then the one on the opposite side of it until all the buttons were installed.
 

Also, to make sure the fabric was evenly laid out around the ottoman and folds were where they should be, we pinned fabric together around the center button over the place where each outer button would be.  Make sense?  I hope so.
It’s probably not necessary to do this if you’re not tufting in a circle but we found it kept us from pulling too much fabric towards one button or another.

But, let’s backtrack a little to the how-to of tufting.  I mentioned above that we wanted deep(er) tufting.  (We used this tutorial on deep tufting at Sarah M. Dorsey Designs.  It was so helpful and we couldn’t have done it without it!!) 
Here’s what you’ll need to get in deep:
A long upholstery needle
Thick thread or twine (we used the same twine I wrapped these soap dispensers with)
Your covered buttons
A staple gun
Two people
 
With the entire cushion set on two of our dining room chairs acting as saw horses, Anthony laid underneath the cushion, working from the bottom as I worked from the top.

So…

First, thread the needle and push it up through the pre-drilled hole from underneath the cushion. 

Next, pull one end of the string up and out of the hole and remove the needle.  Make sure not to pull out the other end!


Then, thread on your button followed by the needle and insert the needle back down through the pre-drilled hole to person numero dos below.  I found that using the end of the screwdriver to push the needle down through the fabric and foam saved my fingers from distress.  You might too.  :)

Once person #2 has the needle and thread pulled all the way through, push on the button until it sits as deep as you’d like…

…until person #2 can tie a knot in the string and staple it to the wood to hold it in place like so:

(For even deeper tufting, you can also carve out a little more room into the foam below each button, like Sarah did.  We skipped that step.)

 
UPHOLSTERING
Like I noted above, we tufted before upholstering to get our buttons in deep.  Because of this, our foam and fabric were both now secured to the cushion so all that was left to do was staple the fabric to the underside of the wood base.

Before stapling though, I cut off the upper corner of the top layer of foam to make getting a rounded top edge of the cushion a little easier.
 

Then we set the entire cushion on its side and began working our way around.  Starting in the middle of one straight edge, we pulled the fabric tight and popped in a staple, then stapling towards the corners on the underside of the wood.  We placed the staples about 2-3 inches in from the edge.  The process wasn’t any different than upholstering a chair seat, like this desk chair we did a couple of months back.   

Staple the middle of one side, staple to each corner, staple at corner, turn to next side, repeat process x 8 until all sides were nice and tight.

When we were done, there was a lot of excess fabric hanging around, not to mention the excess string hanging from the tufting knots.
 

But, a little trim later and we had a nice, clean undercarriage and enough extra fabric to make a couple of throw pillows later.


Before we attached the cushion to the table base the next morning (because by this time it was close to midnight), I took the entire cushion outside and gave it a nice spray-down with Scotch Gard for protection from stains and spills, heaven forbid.
 
This is another must-do-outside because this stuff will burn your nose hairs right off. 

And finally, our new cottoman, coined by my bestie Megan Rose.  
Originally I loved the shelf underneath this particular coffee table and envisioned baskets upon it hiding toys but now I think it makes the whole ottoman look a little too “country” for my taste.  What do you think?  It comes off with a twist of a few screws and I think we’re leaning towards taking it off for a more open feel.  Stay tuned.

I know what you’re thinking, “Something’s off in the picture above…”.  Yep, we split up the sectional hence the lack of an arm that loveseat’s not sporting.  We rearranged our living room so the girls could have a larger space of their own in the corner (no more toys stashed everywhere; they’re all in that corner now) and we’re still not sure what we think of it.  Time will tell…

 

The cottoman is definitely the bright spot in the room and makes all of the undone decorating in the room even more obvious and, well, majorly wanting.  My first thought upon seeing it all set up in the room was how bad it clashed with our $35 rug.  I was tempted to run out right then and there to grab another.  Patience be with me though.  Change be acomin’!

I wrote a little post about our plans for this room several months back but just for another quick overview, here they are in a nutshell:

 
(photo of rug idea from here, chair fabric ideas from here)

You know I’ll keep you posted on progress.  :)

And last but never least, a budget breakdown:
Coffee table:  $12 (Goodwill)
Spray primer and paint:  $8 (Walmart)
Plywood:  $9 (Home Depot) We only used half; the remaining half is cut and stored to make a second cushion.
Foam:  $21 (mattress foam from Walmart)
Fabric: $29 (Dena Nadia Green Tea from eBay but originally found at JoAnn Fabrics) I still have 20 inches to use for a couple of throw pillows or whatever else I can come up with.
Button kit:  $5 (with a 50% off coupon at JoAnn Fabrics)
Twine, staple gun, staples, and screws:  already had
Liquid Nails:  already had
Scotch Gard:  already had (Walmart)
GRAND TOTAL:  $84
Not the cheapest project to date but definitely worth every penny (and because we spent it all over a long period of time, it didn’t seem so hard on our bank account).  Just ask our feet.  :)

Anyway, with the budget breakdown I’ve hit 2212 words so I think wrapping up is probably a good idea.  Like always, if you have any questions or if I need to explain anything better, just holler!  If you find this tutorial useful and create your own coffee-table-turned-ottoman or tufted whatever, we’d love to know and see what you’ve created!  Use the hashtag #heybeanlook on Instagram or email us (beaninlove@gmail.com) or find us on our Facebook page or leave comment.  I’ll get back to you asap!

That’s it…until we reupholster the extra cushion that is.  Let’s get this baby out first though and see what 3 under 2 gives us time-wise.  :)

Have a great Monday everybody!