make me pretty – mid century modern chair

I recently had the chance to re-do this mid-century chair for a friend. She found it at a thrift store and the wood frame is in super good shape. The cushions needed some help. You know I’m not the biggest fan of sewing intensive projects but I do love a dramatic make over so I decided to take this on.

Here is the before:

If you feel intimidated by sewing projects just remember you can take apart the old cushion covers to make patterns for the new ones. Just take lots of pictures of how the cushions look before you take them apart. like this:

And here is the finished chair:

And part of the happy new chair family:

make me pretty – mid century modern bench

This bench was a super steal at Fantastik thrift. It probably had something to do with the wild bird velvet fabric but this is one of those times where you have to use your imagination. The shape of the bench is super cute and it is incredibly sturdy – it just needs some new fabric and a little love!

So my first stop was my favorite fabric store, u-fab, where I fell in love with this graphic flower fabric. I somehow managed to re-do this bench with only one yard but I was cutting it pretty close. I took the bench apart and used the old fabric cover as my pattern. The tricky part for me were the buttons. I have no idea how you are suppose to attach them but I covered the bench then used a crazy homemade contraption to pierce the fabric. I taped a piece of kitchen twine on the end of sharp wood kitchen skewer and it ended up working perfectly!

Here is the finished bench. Jasper said he really wants us to keep this one but I know it wouldn’t last a week in my house with the kids. So I hope I can find it a new happy home!

make me pretty – mid-century end table

I was in Charlottesville this weekend and I almost bought this little table to re-do at this awesome store, Circa. I was debating it and I asked Jason what he thought and he said something really insightful – “That table is already cute.” He was right. I know I could have made it better but it was cute just as it was. I think my strength is finding the pieces that really need help. The ones that no one wants anymore because they have lost all of their appeal.

I think this end table fits into that category. I found it at the thrift store and knew right away what I wanted to do. I have been dying to paint something green, it’s my favorite color, and I had this amazing Japanese fabric that worked with my plan. I knew I would need to replace the drawer pull and thought I would head over to Anthropologie and splurge on something really cool.

Here is the what the table looked like when I got it.

I made some small repairs, painted it green and put fabric on the front of the drawer. I painted the inside of the drawer a deep purple to match the fabric and the drawer pull. The table feet had metal caps on the bottom but they were in really bad shape so I had to pull them off but I decided to paint the bottom of the legs purple where the caps use to be. Check out the finished table.

Jasper says “That green table my mommy made is really cute! You got something to say about it?”

What he is really saying is “I know you just told me not to un-velcro my shoe but I am going to do it anyway. Whach you gottta say about that?” Little Bugger!