My Couch Baby

Ever since the screened-in porch on the back of our house was just an idea, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a great wood or bamboo couch to settle in back there.  The tough thing though, is having the idea and then actually finding something that would be perfect, only to realize that you have zero room in your house to store a couch to put in a space that may or may not happen.  Sometimes I feel like that’s the story of my decor life, I find something that would be perfect in some space in my mind but a space that I don’t have or don’t have yet in my house.  Womp.  Two years ago when we were searching for the perfect entertainment center to turn into the girls’ play kitchen, we stumbled upon the coolest wood frame couch in a thrift store in town and man, I wanted it for the porch we had just started saving up to build.  Like, I wanted it bad.  It was marked at $60 and it had clean lines and a concentric, cut-out circle pattern in wood on each side and in white, it’d would’ve been amazing!  I left a piece of my heart with it when I walked out those thrift store doors that day.

But it all turned out okay and I have no regrets because right after the screened-in porch was built, I was at another of my favorite thrift stores here and out on their front stoop they had a wood frame couch with a piece of computer paper taped to it that said “Please take.  I’m free!” 
I guess they had tried and tried to sell it but nobody wanted it.  I can’t imagine why…

It wasn’t my style at all – too many big curves – and the springs holding the bottom on were broken.  The fabric was awful (but I planned on reupholstering whatever I bought anyway) and the wood faded and in need of a good sanding and paint job.  But, it was FREE.  I was so torn.  Either way, at the moment I saw it, I had all the kids with me and no way to get it home so I snapped the picture above and home I went to later bring it up to Anthony.

Then, as fate would have it, we drove by a few days later on our way to church and the couch was still there.  We decided that, since we really wanted to get our porch put together, that’d we’d go grab it and see what we could do about making it look more ‘our style’.  Better than in a landfill, right? 

Here she was, home and in all her vintage glory:

And this is the story of how we made her a little, or a lot, happier…

First, Anthony removed all of the springs/metal rails that held the bottom in.  Like I said above, many of them were broken which made sitting in this thing impossible or dangerous at very best.  Then, I unscrewed all of the metal loops that held the springs in place along the inside of the couch. 

Now since there weren’t any springs, there wasn’t anything besides the two support bars left to hold seating.  This is where holding onto pieces of construction material for long periods of time comes in handy.  We have had a sheet of plywood stored away from our previous home (yes, we moved down the country with it) just in case we ever needed it.  Well, that day came.  Anthony cut it to fit down into the recess of the couch seat where it sat snugly atop those two wood support bars.

It’s so much more firm and sturdy than springs; nobody’s falling through now.  Stay away Dumbo.

To reign in slivers and to keep up appearances though, I grabbed some thin cotton fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and upholstered the side of the plywood that would be facing up.  It was as simple as laying my fabric out on the floor, cutting it so that I had a few inches of extra fabric all around, wrapping it around the plywood, and stapling it down.Since no one was going to see the underside of the couch lest they were a feline or pup, I wasn’t too particular about making straight cuts.

Lazy?  Maybe.  Efficient?  I vote yes.  ;)

Next up was prepping for paint.  After I had all of the looped screws out, I had to pry the fabric-covered piece off the front of the couch.  I didn’t know what it looked like underneath but there was no way on God’s green Earth I was keeping it there so find out, I would.

A flathead screwdriver did the trick nicely followed by a needle-nose pliers to get any remaining nails pulled out.  Luckily, all that remained was the flat piece of curved wood at the front of the couch and some nail holes.  After filling all the holes left behind by those nails and giving the entire couch a good sanding (a workout, let me tell you) to roughen it down to a matte finish, I was ready for paint.

Because it was wood and wood can bleed through latex paint, I opted to prime the couch with two cans of RustOleum spray primer in white.  Spray paint is typically oil-based (or maybe it’s all oil-based?) and better at inhibiting wood-bleed.  (Don’t ask me where I read this little rule but I’ve found it to be true in both following and not following that direction.  I’ve seen wood bleed through latex paint and primer and so I’ll stray from that combo as long as I live.)

To paint, I used a latex paint (Swan White by Glidden in an eggshell/satin finish) sprayed on using this paint spray gun*.  My friend Jesse let me borrow her Critter paint gun I had read great reviews about and then, at Christmas, I used some gift cards to buy my very own on Amazon.  It’s really as awesome as I had heard!  My favorite part is that it uses mason jars to hold the paint so, if you’re doing a big job, all you have to do is have a few mason jars lined up to be screwed on and you’re good to go until you’re done.  There’s no stopping because you have to refill the paint canister.  My other fave part is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg…it’s under $50 (I paid $41.97).  (However, it does need an air compressor to run so if you can’t borrow one from someone, you’ll have to tack that onto the cost.)

A few days after painting, I ruined the paint job.  Okay, not really.  I just upped the ante by distressing it a tad.  This part was the most fun of all.  I grabbed a hand-sander and some light-grit sandpaper and went around sanding down some of the edges of the couch.  Nothing to crazy.  Just a slight distressing for a slightly old piece.

So, the couch was painted and distressed and looking quite jolly but the cushions?  Even though the white couch made them look like they might convert to a cute outfit (distressed white jeans below with a plaid button-down up top), they did absolutely nothing to help aesthetics on the couch.  Plus, they were so old and worn that if you rubbed them, they’d start crumbling into tiny pieces.  Ewww…

I’d never reupholstered couch cushions before so the task ahead of me was very (very, very, very, very…) daunting but then I found this tutorial on how to sew box cushions by Christy from Confessions of a Serial DIYer.  I ordered 5.5 yards of this Robert Allen outdoor fabric (it’s says chocolate but after seeing it in person in JoAnn Fabrics, I’d say it’s more of a charcoal gray) from fabric.com and I followed Christy’s directions almost to the T; the only difference is that I wanted to make mine zipperered so I removed the zippers from the old cushion covers using a seam ripper and re-inserted them into my new covers.  I inserted the zippers first and then sewed the side seams and corners.  The foam cushions were in good shape, albeit a tad smelly and minus a large stain one had that looked like a big glass of wine was spilled (or at least I hoped it was just wine or coke or something not gross).  Oh the foam; cleaning it all was an ordeal.  I scrubbed and swelled with soapy water and squished and repeated that process with each individual cushion in our bath tub and then, when I was done scrubbing, I threw each one into the washing machine with some clorox.  My guess is that they had never been washed (because who washes couch cushions?  I know.  Not me.) and, even though they still held their shape, I didn’t want to recover them with brand new covers much less sit in them without knowing they were oh-so-fresh-and-so-so-clean.  Washing those was a labor of love, let me tell ya.

After washing, I cut the top cushions so that they were a tad shorter and only just hit above the back of the couch by sawing a few inches off the bottoms with a serated knife.  The bottom cushions, even though in good condition, had seen fluffier days so I wrapped some one-inch thick batting (from JoAnn Fabrics) around them to fluff them up.
Butttt also, I made the mistake of sewing the covers for the bottom cushions a little too big so the fabric was really loose and wrinkled once on.  I tried to figure out a way to resew and take them in so that they fit more snugly but, with the zippers, I couldn’t, so batting was the answer for that too.  Win, win.

Anyway, in case I lost you on all the details ten paragraphs ago, here’s the 1000% better after:




It’s not pictured outside in the screened-in porch because, in the time that’s passed since I finished this piece, we found a bamboo set for $40 on a resale sight and that couch and loveseat are currently waiting to be snazzed up.  I love you old, vintage, wood couch, but the bamboo really has my heart and so my heart I must follow.  We don’t really need the loveseat from the set so my plan is to fix that up and sell it but the couch will be my resting place all summer so you can be sure I’ll have all the details on that makeover.  I’ll be sure to write some better tutorials on how I sew the new cushions and wash the foam (if need be) on that since my first try was successful and now I kinda know what I’m doing...kinda.  Stay tuned.

As for this wood couch, we staged it for a blog and sale picture and sold it within four hours of listing it.  It’s a little bittersweet but the sweet lady who bought it is putting it in an old building in her backyard that she’s fixing up to be a little retreat; pinterest-style.  It sounds so delightful and this mom’s happy my couch baby went to a good home.  Okay, couch baby Sheena?  I know, forgive me of my unhealthy attachments to furniture…

But, it’s yet another furniture project in the books; quite possibly the most demanding furniture project to date.  I’ll be taking a short break from those to recover and working on some simpler stuff.  If you’re sitting back wondering how I got this thing done with three four kids under my belt, know that this took me weeks to finish.  I know it all looks like I did this in a day or a weekend but let’s be realistic, shall we?  Things around here happen slowly.  Just ask Dwija.

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So, let’s talk Labor of Love’s:  Home Edition?  What’s been yours recently?  Maybe painting a room?  Sewing?  Remodeling?  Give me all the details!  It’s my love language.  This week I’m deep-cleaning the kids’ bathroom and you know what that means…project in the bathroom time!  Here’s a sneak peek if you’re interested.  :)

Have a fantastic week eeerbody!

*affiliate link to paint sprayer gun I purchased

The Kids’ Room–Before & After

Done in my best game show host voice…

IIIIt’s time for another rouundd of BEFORE ANNNND AFTER! 

We’re zooming in on the room that was our home office prior to kids and became the very first room of each kid once they came along.

Back when it was our home office, it was made up entirely of hand-me-downs except for the duvet (a $7 TJ Maxx clearance find) and maybe some of the diy-ed pillows.  I put in under $100 to get it to girly status for the girls and then maybe another $50 to de-girlify it for Sebastian.  Those numbers would be a lot higher if it weren’t for the numerous hand-me-downs and thrift store finds that fill the room.
 

So basically, over the past three years and from left to right, there’s a $150 difference.  I used a lot of stuff I had on hand, like the paint for the wall stripes, to get it from start to currently, but even if I had to buy the on-hand stuff initially, it would still be under $200.  I know it’s not something that you’d see in a home magazine but I love that it’s cute and I didn’t have to spend an arm and leg to get it that way.  :)

Twin Frames

Last year at our church’s yard sale, I snatched up these two big, brown and tan frames…
…really I didn’t snatch them because they were left when the whole thing was over, lonely, and wanted by nobody.  Crazy since they’re so awesome, right?  I know, they’re so ugly and because of that, I paid only $3 a piece for them.  But, wait for it, wait for it…

Look who’s crying now!  All the people who passed them up, that’s who!

And I’ll tell you who else is crying…me.  I’m crying because I was in such a hurry to get them painted one day last week while Diego and baby Jaguar entertained the kids that I didn’t take progress pictures of that part of the makeover.  Sorry!  One of my biggest pet peaves is when a DIY blogger doesn’t post enough pictures of the process and here I am, making my peave real.  Way to go, Sheena.

I will tell you though that, after I gave them a good wash-down with a damp cloth, I took the glass and mat out, took them outside, and gave them a coat of my favorite spray primer* in white:

Then, since I didn’t have any white spray paint on hand, I brushed two coats of  latex paint from a sample jar I had on hand onto them.  I’ve been struggling with finding a white spray paint that is more of a creamy white lately so this was just perfect anyway.  I love their chunky edges all covered in white.

After painting the frames, it was onto the mats.  They were layered with three different pieces – the two bottom pieces were brown and tan and the top had an ivory, woven fabric laid over the top.  I loved the woven texture of the top mat but the color…not so much.  So, I tried to paint it gray.

First, I carefully peeled the top and middle layers apart from each other. 

Then, I took the two fabric-laden mats outside and gave them each a couple of light coats of this spray primer:I found it for $1.99 at Dirt Cheap and didn’t recognize the brand or know what exactly it should be used for (turns out it’s mainly used for metal), but it was gray and gray was what I wanted.  Paint is paint, right?  Maybe…

Well, it went on fine but it left the fabric looking a little, ummm, furry?  However, I think it was the fabric more than the paint that caused the furriness.
Brushing the mats with a small cleaning brush post-paint seemed to help a little though and I really wasn’t bothered by it not looking exactly like it did before, so I continued on after bedtime one night…

Originally, I had wanted to just cover up the old fabric with new fabric.  I had fabric leftover from this desk project:But sadly,  I didn’t have enough leftover to cover the mats seamlessly and thanks to a spending freeze last month, I couldn’t just go grab some.  But I loved the gray and white, hence my desire to turn the fabric to gray.

Anyway, I digress…

For the white, I grabbed the same sample jar of paint I had used to paint the frames and a painting sponge, laid the frames on an old sheet in the living room so I could watch Flea Market Flip while painting…
…and very imperfectly sponged on a cross-hatch design.

I’m talking very imperfectly.  No measuring here folks.  And really, to be honest, I was going for a herringbone pattern at first but messed up on the first dab of paint so cross-hatch was born.  First rule of DIY:  Always be open to improvising…or something like that. 

The next day, when all the paint was nice and dry, I used some plain ‘ole Elmer’s glue to reattach the top mat to the bottom two.
Oh but I shouldn’t forget to tell you that, when I spray primed the frames white, I also used the same primer to paint what could be seen of the two bottom mats.  No more tan and brown.  Just white.

Reattaching the frames with the glue was super easy except I did need to be careful to make sure the top one went on straight and that there was equal spacing all around the inside of the mat.
Last, I put everything back together and the frames back up where they were days before.

I think these might’ve just bumped themselves up to Favorite-Frames-in-the-Whole-House status.
And lucky Sebastian gets to have them in his room.


I also had plans to fill them with a few blown up pictures of Sebastian but, yep, there’s that spending freeze again.  Dang it.  Plan B was to whip up some watercolor art with stuff I already had but then the week ended and this week began and they’re still just hanging empty.  But it’s okay because the corner they’re in just got a little happier and time will fill them with something I’m sure.

On a side note, I pulled out that old, black and white poncho/blanket of Anthony’s from the window where it’s been hiding (he got it in Mexico while on a mission trip there in high school) and laid it over the chair and either it looks great or the brown slipcover just looked so blah that anything helps, but I kinda love it.

My favorite part is the fringe along the bottom.

The string lights hanging across the corner are another project that I can’t wait to finish (think unconventional lamp) but probably won’t finish for a bit (how I roll around here, if you’ve noticed) and here are the posts for some of the other things you can see when you peep into his room:
ceiling fan shade // greek key design on the window seat // stenciled curtains

It’s a happy little boy’s room that I’ve probably poured all of $50 into (if that) since he evicted the girls and it’s also the room that stays the cleanest in this house so I kind of love it.  All that and the fact that every afternoon the sun comes pouring into the window making it light and bright might make it my favorite room in the house.  :)

Bean Refashioning: Military Jacket

Hand-me-downs.  Love them.  Half of my closet was my mom’s and sisters’…and then there’s one piece from my Grandma.  Yep, you read that right.  This jacket…
…was my Grandma’s.  She asked if anyone wanted it over Christmas and it took me a minute, but I knew it had potential, so I grabbed it. 

But, obviously, something had to give if I was ever going to wear it in public.  First, I took out the sleeves to make them a tad longer.  I took out this seam…
…and that’s it because there was another seam underneath that kept everything nice and finished.
 
I’ve never taken in a jacket before so I was a little intimidated by this refashion, I’ll be honest.  But, since it was free, I didn’t have much to lose if I messed up.  A bunch of seam ripping and another try was Plan B and donating it was the worst case scenario.

First, I zipped it up and turned it inside-out.  Then I laid it out so that the side seams were right at the sides and the jacket was flat along the edges.
There was a litte more fabric in the front of the jacket than the back so that’s why the above picture shows a little buckling on top.  It was more important for the sides seams to line up since that’s where I’d be sewing than for the jacket to be laying perfectly flat…if that makes any sense.

For sizing, normally I might just try it on and figure it out from there but with a belly and no waist, there’s no figuring out anything that way.  So, I grabbed my favorite white blazer that I know has a great fit and used it for sizing.

First I marked out how much I wanted to take the sleeves in.
I lined the two sleeves up along the top and used a white sewing pencil (technical term?) to draw a line onto the military jacket that followed the bottom of the white blazer’s sleeve.

Then I lined the armpits up, starting at the point where my line for thinning out the sleeve ended at the armpit seam, and used the same pencil to draw a line down the military jacket that went right along the edge of my white blazer.

I made sure to press down the white blazer with my hand along the place I was penciling so that it was totally flat while I traced its edges.

Next, I pinned everything into place, making sure my edges and armpit seams were lined up, and sewed a straight stitch right along my white line.

A repeat on the other side of the jacket, a pinking shears to cut off the excess fabric (eventually I’ll serge the edges), and that was that.

military jacket:  hand-me-down – $0
sequin-embellished top:  hand-me-down (mom’s) – $0
maternity jeans:  hand-me-down (friend – thanks Grace!) – Old Navy
boots:  Target (purchased on sale 2-3 years ago but here’s a similar pair* on clearance!) – $22
grand total:  $22

I can’t exactly zip it up at the moment but that’s totally fine by me – spring and summer don’t necessite zippers unless it’s the fly really, so looks like this chick is in the clear. 

I’ve had a military jacket on my wish list for awhile now so I’m happy I came across one for free, even if it did cost me a little bit of time.  :)

Thanks again Grandma B!

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*affiliate link similar to combat boots I purchased from Target

Bean Refashioning: Ruched Tunic

I’m back with another $1 thrift find! (Read the backstory in Monday’s post.)

I was really excited about this tunic:
I thought it’d be perfect for spring with this growing belly and since it’s a size larger than I normally wear and a loose fit to boot, it will hopefully fit up until b-day (and then post-post-post-pregnancy maybe I can take it in a tad).  Also, I’m a sucker for pieces that have a little bit of unexpected or added detail and so this one was right up my detail-loving alley with the side and front ruching/gathering…only after I put it on, that front gather didn’t sit well with me.  It was kinda awkward.  If the tunic were a little longer on me, it probably would’ve been fun but it just hit me weird.

So, away it went.  No sewing necessary with this one, just like Monday’s sweater dress.  All I had to do was rip out the threads holding that ruching together in front using my handy-dandy seam ripper.
It probably took me ten minutes to get all the thread out and that was going pretty slow, making sure I only grabbed the thread and not the tunic so as not to make any holes.

When I had all the thread out, this is what I had going on:
A quick spray with some water and an ironing had it looking like the ruching had never been there.

Tad-da!

(Kinda random but I keep trying to figure out what that raised line to the right of my popped belly button is and my only guess is that it’s part of little lady’s leg or (rather large) foot?  She’s head down so that’s the only thing that makes sense since I didn’t swallow a whole hot dog for lunch that day.  So weird.  Guess she wanted to make an appearance…)

In the South, you go bold with colors if you want to look like you’ve been here your whole life so these bright purple leggings/tights were the obvious choice.  ;)

tunic:  Goodwill – $1
jean vest:  Target – $7 (clearance find)
tights:  Dirt Cheap – $.75
necklace:  no clue/had it forever
purple pointies:  Gabriel Bros. – $1
grand total:  $9.75 (not including the necklace)

See the side detail? 

I lawv it.

Without those side gathers, I could probably get away with wearing Electric Blue here as a dress but I love them too much to take them out so tunic it shall be forever and ever.

I also tried a belt ‘round the waist upper belly but I wasn’t sure if it made it look like I had one big, blue oval going on in the middle of my person so sans belt might be a better choice for a second colorful outfit:
scarf:  Dirt Cheap – $1 (originally from Target)
belt/whip?:  JCPenney (came with another top) – we’ll just say $.75 since the top cost me $4 on clearance
tights:  Dirt Cheap – $.75
booties:  eBay* (I got the Tan (FV) and psst, they’re having a BOGO 50% off sale right now!) – $25
grand total:  $27.50

It works really well with my favorite pleather leggings too which is great since these tights probably won’t work for much longer (they’re non-maternity and I tried rolling them under the belly but they’re pretty restricting even so). 

I’m not huge on or good at capsule wardrobes but, if I was, this would be in mine. 

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*affiliate link to products I purchased – purchasing through my link won’t raise your price one penny but it will give me a few pennies in commission to probably buy some spray paint with…  :)

Quick heads up – I updated the virtual Target clearance rack in the sidebar under ‘affiliates’!  All of those items are under $10 on clearance right now and they were all hand-picked by yours truly.  Target didn’t ask me to post them but I will get a small commission if you click and/or purchase from those links.  Really though, I love rifling through Target’s clearance racks and a ton of the clothes I own are from those racks so I enjoy being able to bring the racks to you too!