Projects - I Tackled Another One

I guess this might be another Domino Effect situation. 

When my Granny passed, she stipulated that her stuff could be given away but not sold. So, as my Mama and Aunt Mary went through Granny's estate, they took some furniture and various items home with them and gave some to relatives. One of the things I was given is a wingback chair. It is super-comfy and in its day was a really fancy chair I guess.

When I got the chair, it was already a bit faded and somewhat dated. The flamestich print in beige, light blue, and a pinky mauve had fit perfectly in Granny's house back in the late 1980s. It didn't clash with anything in our house, it just looked a little dated. I didn't care so much, though. I was just glad to get a comfy chair that had been my Granny's. I scooted it into our primary bedroom and it became a great place to read, watch the seasons change through the bay window, or just sit and relax.

In the twelve years that it has anchored the corner of our primary bedroom, it has been well-loved. I noticed a year or so ago that the piping had become threadbare and the cording was even peeking through in spots on the arm rests. So, when I located a good upholsterer during the Sofa Shuffle  and the domino effect of the ottoman update, I had a yen to also have this chair recovered as well. When the upholstery guy had the sofa, I began to think about what might look good as a new fabric for my Granny chair. I thought about using the remaining checked fabric from where I covered our dining chairs and I know it would have looked good dressed in that fabric. I even went digging through my fabric stash to get the checked fabric out and drape across the chair. That is when I found a piece of linen upholstery fabric that I had picked up years ago at Sirs Fabrics, a wonderful store that sold remnants and flat folds of fabrics at a discounted price. (The store burned in 2018 but was a regional staple for over fifty years.) I think I paid $1-2 per yard for the five-and-a-half yard piece of material. I saved it all these years not knowing what I would do with it but knowing that I love the print and the colors. 

I searched a fabric chart to see how much my Granny chair might need to have a new cover and saw that it would probably require seven yards. After thinking about it for a day or two, I decided that I would look online and see if I could be lucky enough to find a couple more yards. Soon, I was deep in online fabric store inventories searching. Finally, I took a photo and used Google Lens to search. Bingo! Several options popped up. The first one I saw offered a yard of the "vintage paisley" for a cost of $100. I kept scrolling. Finally, I found a two-yard piece for $40 and I quickly added it to my cart. The fabric arrived on the same day that the upholstery guy said the sofa could be picked up. So, I asked him if I could bring the chair and leave it with him. The Mister helped me load it up and off I dashed.

After a while, I got a message from the upholstery guy telling me that he needed another yard of fabric for the bottom of the chair cushion. So, I quickly went to Google Lens and searched again. I found a couple of yards that were listed at $20 per yard. So, I bought them, paid about the same amount to have it shipped to me and took the fabric to the upholstery guy. After a while, I got a message that the chair was ready for me to pick up. 

I trekked across town and picked up my Granny chair and when I got home, our grandson, Levi, helped me scoot it off the truck and into the primary bedroom. Again, the domino effect began...

A photo of my Granny chair made by the upholsterer at his shop

Another photo made by the upholsterer

I love the look of the chair from all angles. The fabric is really beautiful and the design has so much to look at and admire. Plus, the upholsterer did a wonderful job of centering and matching the pattern where it would enhance the chair. I sort of wish I had a place that I could just set it out in the middle of a room so that all the angles can be admired!

My Granny chair 'installed' in her space here at our home.

If you give a gal a newly upholstered chair, she's going to want to cover the stool beside it...

I looked at the scraps of fabric that the upholstery guy gave me and there was not a piece large enough for the footstool. Again, I searched the net for more fabric, found a reasonably priced yard, and ordered it. That piece of fabric came this past week. So, the next day I took it downstairs and pressed the creases and wrinkles away.

Then, I brought it upstairs and began to undress the footstool. The first step is to remove the staples holding the tired, dingy, sad fabric onto the stool. 

I like to use a screwdriver to pry the staples up out of the wood and pull them out with a pair of pliers. It is a bit tedious because there are a lot of staples and I didn't want to damage the wood bottom of the stool.

Once I had all the fabric removed, I laid the fabric out flat, right side down, onto the surface of our kitchen island. Then, I carefully laid the stool upside down onto the fabric lining it up to center it on the design. This is where the photo making stopped because I needed both hands to pull the fabric up around the stool and staple it to the bottom. At the corners, I folded the fabric much like the cover that was still on the foam was done. Then, I trimmed off the excess fabric. I wound up screwing three of the legs off of the stool to get a good close trim of the fabric. 

Now, my Granny chair has a mate that matches her beauty. I've used this stool with the chair for years. It was thrifted and had been a project fourteen years ago! So, to finally have the pair matched up, I feel is really an accomplishment. That corner of the primary bedroom is not only a comfy place to read, gaze out the bay window, or relax, it is also a bit of a jewel with the update. 

I could not be more pleased with the outcome and I think my Granny would like it as well.

Just Three Things | #7

I had the opportunity to take in a small town dinner theatre experience last weekend. One of our granddaughters, Lydia, was a part of her high school's drama production of "How to Host a Murder Mystery Dinner Party." Lydia played an attorney in the play and her light really did seem to sparkle and shine. (I'm sure it is not in the least because I could be a bit biased.)  

Who would have ever thought that this young lady who once had a crying jag when preparing for a fourth-grade 4-H speech or who had a huge melt-down after a middle school interview competition might take the stage and actually seem calm and ad-lib to the script to keep the performance flowing? Not this grandmother!

Lydia looking lawyerly 

This performance was followed up on Monday with a fall band concert where she dressed as a butterfly and played a couple of instruments during the middle school and high school performance. Luckily it was live-streamed and I got to tap along to every note. The meal was tasty, the service was wonderful, the performance was suspenseful and enjoyable and a good time was had by all. As always, it was truly enjoyable to be able to tag along and see the activities that the grandchildren seem to take in stride.

- What I'm Reading  -

I'm continuing to work my way through the Callahan Garrity Series by Mary Kay Andrews. I am starting on Book #6 in the series, Strange Brew. I sort of feel like I have a set of old friends that I visit with each day and they have interesting adventures! I'm also still enjoying that wonderful southern voice. 

via

I must admit, I've also been reading a lot of the news stories this week. Some of the stories were reassuring and some of them were concerning - like all news, I guess. At this point in the week, though, I feel hopeful.

- What I'm Loving -

When we moved my office to one of the rooms downstairs, I divided the African Violet that was sitting on my desk and brought the parent plant downstairs to sit on my desk as it had upstairs. Now the window in this room faces south and the one upstairs faced east; so, that may have had an impact on this plant as well as the division. At any rate, it has not bloomed since the move. Today, however, it burst forth with some tiny little blooms. So, I think it is on a comeback!

The violet was one in a dish garden that was sent at my Granny's funeral. I loved it because it bloomed her favorite shade of pink. I can remember when I was a young woman, Granny grew loads of African Violets using grow lights, in windows, and all sorts of ways. She gave me some for my college home away from home. She taught me to create a self-feeding system with a sock strip and Miracle Grow if I wasn't going to give it the attention it deserved. So, it really made me smile to see those tiny pink blooms and think of Granny.

- What I'm Working On -

I finally wrapped the chair project up this week. I had put off working on the last three chair seats but finally tackled them and got them done. Then, during a sunshiney day, I set them out on the porch and gave them a good spray down with Scotch Guard to help them repel liquids and dirt (hopefully). 

My hands and forearms were aching again from wrestling with them to get the fabric stretched taught and smooth. Some of them look far better than others, I'm afraid. But I am satisfied and pleased with them all. Below is a sampling of a few of them being lined up for the protective spray.

It makes me smile as I walk around the house during the day and see my handiwork and my beloved chairs. Plus, it feels so good to mark a project off the list

I hope your week has been productive and pleasing and given you something to smile about!

Today I Noticed...Motivation can come from surprising places.

I've said before that I am a procrastinator. I've also mentioned that often my procrastination is unfounded and whatever it is that I have been dragging my feet about really isn't so bad at all. So, when the motivation train comes along, I've learned that I need to jump on and take it for a ride.

I may have been looking for a short project that would fill an afternoon. It may or may not have been because I was enjoying a book I was reading and wanted to read until lunchtime. I may have promised myself and the project gods that if I could just enjoy reading until I finished my lunch, I would complete that short project and be done with it.

I may have also been motivated by the fact that the weather forecast for the end of the week includes rain and I am going to need to perform one step of a big project outside on the back porch without any rain.

I may have also been inspired to complete a project because I was browsing through a book and noticed how beautiful a room was in one of the photographs and I knew one of my rooms could look just as beautiful if I tackled a project.

I may or may not have been motivated to tackle the wrap of a segment of a project because I knew that the mister would not be underfoot.

I may or may not have been motivated by knowing that it was Tuesday and we've been enjoying Taco Tuesday by getting take-out for the last few weeks. So, I wouldn't have to cook.

Wherever the motivation comes from doesn't really matter. What really matters is that something nudges us forward and we find a purpose for the day. Right?

By the way, the Scotch Guard I ordered to spray the newly-covered chair seats has arrived. So, yesterday I covered the final three seats of the cane backed dining chairs. Tomorrow is the day I plan to drag them onto the back porch and give them a good protective spray.

The Chair Project - Continued

The Summer of Chairs may have ended according to the calendar which now says it is fall - even though the temperatures don't really uphold my idea of what fall is like. However, the chair project has continued. I discovered that I clearly had a thing for checked chairs. So many of the images I've saved include a shot of a checked chair. I kind of landed on selecting just the right checked fabric for all my chairs. In my mind this would make them cohesive and allow me to park them anywhere within our house. 

Since my chair mission would not be complete until all of the seat covers were the same, I began perusing online fabric stores for a checked fabric that would tie them all together. My thoughts were that I should use either a blue and white or a tan and white check. I cruised back through my saved images of chairs and decided that the tan and white check really did seem the most neutral and would fit with any room in our house. Plus, if I decided to change color schemes or placement of a chair, it would still blend. So, I figured up yardage requirements and ordered a tan and white check fabric. Ironically, the fabric purchase cost more than either set of chairs! 

Chair on left did have navy seat and chair on right had striped seat

To cover them, I simply measured and cut a width of fabric. For the urn backed chairs, I could cut the width of fabric in half. Then, I turned each chair upside down with the seat resting on the kitchen island. I loosened the four screws and removed the seat. Then, I set the chair frame aside. I wrapped the check fabric around the seat cushion. Since the cover that was already there is still in good shape and clean, I didn't even remove it. I just stapled the new fabric atop the cover that was already there. 

A before set between two afters

Changing out the seat covers was a relatively simple job. However, it is one that I broke up over several days because all of the pulling and holding and stapling was a bit tough on my old arthritic hands. I found that after wrestling with just a few, my hands and forearms would start to ache. I was using muscles with the screwdriver to remove the seat and gripping with my hands to pull the fabric taut and staple and I had not done that kind of thing in years.

By no means is the new upholstery job professional and perfect. However, it is smooth and fairly straight and I am in love with the new look. It really feels like a planned and coordinated grouping. All the chairs are nice and are sturdy and made by a reputable company. They are all matching. Plus, all fourteen new chairs and the fabric to cover the seats, as well as the splurge of a new electric staple gun cost less than this one chair or this one would, if I had bought it new. (I don't recall what I paid for the white chairs several years ago but they were a second-hand bargain as well.) 

Arm chair in one of the bedrooms

Like I had hoped, the tan check seems to be a neutral that fits anywhere in our house. The photo above is in a room with cream walls, maple bedroom furniture, and a green and blue quilt setting the color scheme. The other arm chair is in the primary bedroom with light blue walls, darker furniture, and a blue and ecru color scheme. Yet, both seem to fit in nicely.  

I'm hoping for a day in the near future that has a point that is not breezy so that I can set the chairs out on the back porch and give the seats a good coating with spray Scotch Guard to protect them a bit from spills, and drips, and drops. The spray coating protected some other chair seats pretty well. So, I will give these that extra protection as well. 

Our eat-in kitchen with some cheerful afternoon sun streaming in. 

I don't know about anybody else, but completing a project just seems to make me smile for days. The dining chair project has been a long and ongoing one but I can whole-heartedly say that I am so pleased at where we are with it right now that I feel full satisfaction. I think that is probably a rarity for most of us who are home-owners - to have a project that seems complete and provides complete satisfaction. I don't foresee wanting or needing a change for our household in regard to dining chairs for a long, long time! Something that isn't always the case for me is a project that really comes to fruition just as I envisioned in my mind's eye. These chairs really have, though; so, a big fat check mark can go beside that project that has been on my to-do list for quite some time.

The Summer of Chairs

I've mentioned before that I think I have a thing for chairs. When Mike and I first married, we simply combined household goods in an effort to furnish this house. Over time, we have culled some of those furnishings and added something new. Then, weeded those out and started again. Chairs seem to be one of those things that have come and gone the most in this household. 

We both had a version of an arrow-back or Windsor-type chair to start with. Mike had a couple that were a blonde wood finish and they were sturdy and pretty comfortable for everyday seating and dining. 

I had a set of four - two arm chairs and two side chairs - that I had picked up at a thrift store. The style was a wee bit different and the seat finish was a bit darker and the legs and bowed top was red. We blended the two together for a few years and made things work. 

It bugged me a little that they didn't match and things were a bit disjointed but they were close enough and fairly comfortable and, again, we made things work. Mike also had a set of four chairs that sat around the dining table. They featured a hand carved back and were antique and sort of small and not all that comfortable but when all the family came around, they were sturdy and worked out so that everybody had a place to sit and eat.

I always seemed to be on the prowl to find a big lot of matching chairs for a reasonable cost. I sold those four smaller chairs when I found a fellow selling a set of eight chairs that were just like the red ones I had brought except they were finished more like the blonde wood of Mike's. I bought the eight matching and we had a collection of chairs that were pretty similar then. Those worked for a short time but they began to drop a leg or just broke altogether. 

Just before Mike's mother moved into our basement, she gifted him eight ladder back chairs along with the lazy Susan table that had belonged to his grandparents. So, all the hodge-podged collected chairs were offered in a yard sale (but I think we wound up hauling them off to Goodwill at the end of the day). Finally, we had a matching set of nice and nice looking chairs.

After a week or so, Mike mentioned that now we don't have a single chair to sit in and eat that is comfortable. He was so right! While I loved the ladder back chairs and thought they were beautiful, I realized that they truly were some of the most uncomfortable sitting chairs I had ever plopped my fanny into. So, my chair hunt began again. Soon, I stumbled across four chairs that were exactly what I wanted. Sturdy, comfy, and attractive all wrapped into one.

They started off with burlap seat covers. However, even though burlap is a rugged fabric, it does not hold up well as a chair seat cover. So, I covered them with a lattice print after a while. We both liked the style and comfiness of those chairs. So, I always kept my scouting eye out for a few more that matched to add to the collection but never found anything that I thought was close enough to really pursue. So, the comfy chairs sat at the everyday small dining table and the ladder backed chairs sat at the larger table with the lazy Susan. Plus, Mike's mother had brought six more ladder backed chairs when she moved into the basement. So, we now owned a total of fourteen beautiful but highly uncomfortable chairs.

I continued to keep a look out for something that might coordinate or blend with the Queen Anne style cane backed chairs that we both loved. Of course, I was only scouting in thrift stores and second hand offerings at places like Facebook Marketplace. Plus, I was surfing the internet and gathering ideas and dreams for future decorating projects. One of the things I noticed was that the ideas I tend to gather often included chairs with a padded seat that was covered in a checked fabric. Then, one morning last fall on Facebook Marketplace I saw a set of eight urn backed chairs with Queen Anne legs and checked seats offered at a reasonable price. I waited till Mike came in to eat and asked his opinion on them. He was impressed and encouraged me to buy them. Sadly, that was just enough time that the seller had sold them. 

What that sad event did do, however, is open my eyes to look for something similar where I could cover the seats and blend them all together. So, the casual perusal continued. Then, one day in June, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. A lady who lived about forty minutes away was downsizing and offered eight urn backed chairs with Queen Anne legs. While they were not my first love of more cane backed chairs, they did look like nice, sturdy, comfy chairs that I could cover seats to match and have a set for visitors as well as us for every day that would be nice. Plus, they were really a bargain! So, I didn't even wait to get the Mister's opinion. I just took off.

Let me just say, that finding eight chairs alike felt like quite a coupe. I was determined that I would not settle for fewer chairs than we already have. Plus, I wanted something that would blend well with the furniture we already have. Those chairs filled those criterion and were a bargain - costing me less than one of the chairs would new. The chairs were made by Crescent in 1998 and the seat covers were almost like new. I really felt like I had hit the mother lode. We gifted the ladder back chairs to Mike's son because they had inherited a drop leaf table from Mike's mother that would match them well. So, I hauled them up the hill. 

I thought my chair searching days were over but Facebook Marketplace didn't seem to agree. Every now and then a post for dining chairs would pop into my feed and I would give them a look. However, I was in no hurry to replace the chairs downstairs and decided that if something wonderful popped up, I would take a look but I was not searching at all. Then, in late August, a cane back Queen Anne style chair flashed across Facebook Marketplace. Again, the drive was less than an hour away and the price was down right cheap. So, off I went.

This time, the six chairs were so close to the ones Mike and I had been loving and using for a few years and at the bargain price they were offered at, I just could not let that pass. The young woman said that she still really loved the chairs but had inherited some from her husband's family and didn't have room to keep these. Even though the seat covers are not the neutral beige that the urn back chairs are, the navy would fit right into my house, I thought. Four of the side chairs were covered in a nice navy fabric. 

I am a firm believer that we don't always have to have something brand spanking new and expensive to update and refine our style and our household. Part of the fun of furnishing this house and updating it to be our style is in the hunt for just the right thing and in putting forth a little extra effort to customize it and make it personal to our tastes. I must share that rarely does Mike say anything about my home decorating and styling. He will object at times to something he doesn't like or complain if he doesn't think it is to his taste. This is one update, though, that he has been very complementary of from start to finish. 

So, part of my summer was spent searching for chairs. A small part of the summer was just perusing what happened to pop up in front of me suggesting that I need more chairs. Then, part of the summer found me picking up chairs and hauling them home. I'm so pleased with all of our dining chairs and find myself just plopping down in different ones from time to time because I like them so much. Of course, just because we are now well into fall according to the calendar, that doesn't mean that the chair project is done. Stay tuned for a chair update coming soon!

Just Three Things | #2

One of the things I told myself I would do when I retired is to take on some of these projects that I've had in mind. It has been several months into my retirement, but I have tackled a few of those items on my project list this week.

What I'm Working On

I have a thing for chairs I think. When I'm out thrifting, I seem to find so many odd chairs that I really like. Or when I am surfing the internet or reading decorating books, I seem to notice chairs and odd tables and save those ideas for later. I guess this has sort of been the summer of good finds for me because I have picked up chairs that I really like - more on that at another time. I have tackled our new-to-us chairs lately and am changing the seat covers so that all of them will match. 

A before between a couple of afters...

These are all dining chairs with a padded seat. So, it seemed like a quick and easy project. My hands and forearms beg to differ about that summary, though! At any rate, we have a total of 18 dining chairs with padded seats - some are upstairs and some downstairs. I have eleven of the fourteen upstairs done!

What I'm Loving

When we visited a couple of our grands this past week, they were working on their pear trees. They have a handful of trees near their chicken coop and their Dad had decided the trees needed trimming up some. So, they were gathering the pears off the branches and picking them up off the ground. Abby Lee handed me one an I just bit into it right there. It was firm and so juicy and delicious! She and Easton were going to give us more to take home but they had set a goal to fill up one of their bins on wheels. So, I suggested that they fill their bin first, then deliver a bag or bucket of them to us. 

Abby Lee and Stephen and a load of pear tree limbs.

We came home but my mind began wandering to what I might do with those pears when they are delivered. So, I found several recipes and saved them to give a try.

     

Gingerbread Pear Loaf

Autumn Pear Bread

Butterscotch Pears

Caramel and Pear Pudding

I suppose I could use some of my apple recipes and substitute pears as well. At any rate, searching through the recipe offerings has really made me start to think about fall even though the weather around here is still summer-like.

What I'm Watching

I didn't get a lot of reading time this week because I was working on projects a lot. So, I'm still working on the same books from last week. We did do some evening television watching, though. We got hooked on the Amazon Prime series, Bosch. 

Image from Amazon

It is definitely an adult show with lots of violence and strong language. There were times when I even jumped and gasped while sitting on the couch and there were times when I had to look away because it was pretty graphic. We did get into the crime solving and had some lively discussions about the corruptness that the show brought out. Mike and I tend to try to find something that we can watch together besides sports and this one captured our brains a little bit. We've finished all the seasons and even the reframing, Bosch: Legacy.

Image from Amazon

If you are a police show buff, it is a good one but be ready for the adult nature of the subject matter.

Well, that's just three things that have been a part of our world lately. I hope you have had at least three meaningful things in your world as well!