Tackling Those Home Projects

For the past few months I've been itching to cross off two major home updates off my list but frankly haven't had the time to do so with Mara underfoot.  Having my mom around for a few days proved just the ticket to finally tackle them!

Cushion off!

First I wanted to recover an old stool we have behind our couch.  The stool itself is in great shape for it's age but the fabric was just so dated...and pink.  I found a fun fabric at JoAnn's Fabric that was on sale and quickly purchased a yard for this project.

I have never recovered anything but this was surprisingly easy.  I just unscrewed the seat from the base and then proceeded to pull all the staples from the fabric.  I found once I had removed the pink fabric that the original fabric and foam was still on the cushion.  Deeming it in good condition I just did what the former owner did and recovered over it!

I worked in opposing directions and stapled the new fabric on pulling it taunt as I went.  After I was done I simply screwed it back into the base.  I think the whole thing took 20 minutes.  It's such a fresh look and brings some color to our neutral living room.

The finished stool

The second project I wanted to tackle was the night stand in the guest bedroom.  Josh got this night stand free off of Craigslist before we were married and frankly it screams bachelor.  The wood is like three different finishes.  It's just kind of an eye sore.

Why not just get a new one you ask?  Well that's just too easy and the bones of this table were ok.  The shape was nice and it was pretty sturdy.  I mean I love our guests but it's not a major focal piece in our house so I didn't want to spend too much money on it.

I decided a fresh coat of paint and some new knobs would do the trick.  Again our guest room is pretty neutral so I decided a pop of color was the key.  Lately I've been into teal so I went with a beachy teal green with some silver knobs.

The sanding of this piece was really the most work.  It took forever to get the varnish off as there seemed to be layers upon layers of it on the table.  But once this was done and the sawdust removed the painting went quickly.  The table just soaked it up and after two cans of spray paint I was satisfied.

The color is bold and I think I need a little more time for it to grow on me but I love it in the room already.

A little blurry but all finished and ready to go in the guest bedroom