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Tag Archive for 'bixby and ball'

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DIY Dining Chair Re-Do

DIY Dining Chair Before and After | Covet Living

Kar Bear and I hit the Rose Bowl Flea Market one steamy, swassy Sunday in November on the hunt for some vintage dining chairs to revamp for her sweet little Santa Monica breakfast nook.  We came home with these!

Rose Bowl Flea Market | Covet Living

These started out being priced with an enormous, matchy-matchy dining table that we did not need – I think it was $600 for the entire set.  We were prepared to pay for the whole set ($150 per chair), and just leave the table, but then we stepped up to the plate for a little haggling:  I told Mr. Dealer-man in the kindest and most charming way possible that this wasn’t Rooms-to-Go, and that people didn’t always want to buy matching sets anymore…  they wanted to cherry pick and make things their own.  Find the most elegant chairs covers for any occasion on this website.

Plus it was right before Thanksgiving, so we knew he’d have no trouble selling the table since people are always scrambling for them right around that time. We finally got him to split up the set and give us the chairs for $300 or $400 bucks (which, when you consider that flimsy plastic dining chairs from big box stores can run $100 each, that was a BIG score).  We loaded up these tragic-but-had-great-bones guys into my hooptie and headed back to the homestead.   Check ’em out, in all their butterscotch glory.  (“Buzz yer GIRL-friend…  WUF!“)

Dining Chairs, Before | Covet Living

We discussed painting them, but decided to leave the finish as is…  it’s in great shape.  That Werther’s Original fabric, on the other hand, had to go.  We knew we wanted to recover them in something colorful and fun, and while our styles are much different, the one thing we do agree on is the entire beachy, casual, cheerful vibe of the California Dreamin’ Pinterest board.  In the end, we decided that a vintage Bolivian blanket would be a perfect upholstery fabric.  Comme ça:

Bolivian Blankets, Solo | Covet Living

There happens to be a sweet joint in San Diego – er, on Cedros in the design district – called Solo… the same joint I purchased my vintage kantha that I made Euro shams for my bed out of…  Solo is also across from the Mothership, aka Bixby & Ball… never a bad street to ping-pong around if you’re down there.  So, I strolled into Solo post-dog beach one day to scout rugs/fabrics for Karrie’s chairs…  Gus helped.  That’s Ruby, the sweet lady who handpicks all the blankets & kanthas they carry in the shop.

Gus

Then we had to Face Time Karrie, so she could weigh-in on which rug she wanted. This is how she answered the phone… from the shower.  Sweet Jesus.

Face time shower time decisions

We figured this one was a keeper.

That one! | Covet Living #bolivianblanket

Yep.  Not ugly.

Bolivian Blanket | Covet Living

Fast forward 2 months, and I rolled up to Santa Monica this past weekend with my tool kit and that rug/blanket in hand.  Ready to take on these suckers.

Before Chairs | Covet Living

Here’s why just about anyone can do this DIY… because with these types of chairs, fabric is just wrapped around and stapled or nailed into the back of the seat cushions, which then screw into the chair frames.  So you just need a Phillips head screwdriver to remove them…  once they’re off, it’s just a matter of stripping that old nasty a$$ Werther’s Original bouclé (probably embedded with some kid’s boogers and old peoples’ toenail clippings) then recovering and stapling the new fabric in place, and screwing the seat cushions back to the frame to secure them.  BANG. (Keep this in mind next time you’re at an Estate Sale, or Goodwill, or a Consignment Shop.  Flip ’em over and see how they’re made, so you know if they’ll be easy to recover or not.)

Steph's DIY Dining Chairs | Covet Living

Before Chairs | Covet Living

So first…  while my favorite helper Karrie went shopping and my other favorite helper Teem cozily read a book with Dateline on in the background, I laid the seat cushions out on the blanket/rug/thing to make sure they’d fit.  Yep – plenty of room.

DIY Dining Chair Redo | Covet Living

Then I took a pair of scissors to that glorious blanket… and this is honestly how Gus looked at me.  I know…  it hurt me to cut it up, too.

Bolivian Blanket | Covet Living

Gussie | Covet Living

And now.  We wrap, we pull taut, and we STAPLE in place with a staple gun.  This part looks easy but it’s a smidge tricky…. cuz that “fabric” is actually a thin rug, so oragami-folding and wrestling the corners so they’ll lay down flattish – flat enough that you can still screw the seat cushion back into the chair frame – is a feat.

Steph's DIY Dining Chair Redo | Covet Living

And if you can’t get the corners to lay flat enough, then the seat cushion is going to sit up too tall on the frame and you won’t be able to screw it in without a go-go-gadget, daddy long leg screw.

wrap the bolivian | covet living

Bang bang bang!!  My work here is done complete.

diy redone dining chairs | covet living

Karrie’s little nook is still in progress – we still have to: refinish the little pedestal table in that room, which is currently the color of Tang… give the walls a fresh coat of paint… and pick out a fabric for the valances.  We’re leaning towards something in this vain – it’s another vintage textile, but we need something like this with a smaller, neutral print, because the chairs are so loud that they need to be the superstars in that space.  This bad boy is a great supporting cast – it complements the chairs but doesn’t compete with them.

Textile | Covet Living

We also recently hung THIS Jamie Young Lotus pendant that Karrie’s been coveting since this 2012 Nursery post, which looks amazing:

Glorious Nursery | Covet Living

We’ll let you know how it turns out!  Also, if someone could bring Karrie a Mai Tai and maybe give her a foot rub while she supervises me refinishing the table in a few weeks, that’d be great.  (Just kidding y’old skank!  Love you.)

PS: Etsy & eBay are great sources for vintage textiles like these.  If you like that same global/ethnic feel, try using search terms like: vintage hmong, batik, bolivian, kantha, suzani.  A few of my favorite Etsy shops are here and here.

xoxo,

Steph's Scanned Signature

Let’s paint this room… turquoise!

AERIN Lauder colors

{image via Aerin Lauder}

When I rolled back into town and into the home I affectionately call “The Frat House” yesterday, I saw it with a fresh set of eyeballs and realized some SURRIOUS things could stand to change.  This is tricky considering a few factors:

a) I have to respect the fact that it’s not my house and I don’t have free reign.

b) Budget constraints.

c) Anything I invest in is subject to ruin… at the paws of my roommate’s adorable dog whose favorite pastime is puking (…maybe I’ll just forgo rugs?) and/or beer & wings getting flung onto things.  Gotta love boys.  The dining room is still holding up okay (my stuff overtook this space on move-in day…  whoops they’re welcome.)

Frat House Dining Room | Covet Living

So, there’s all that.  Common areas will be a challenge, so I decided to hire the local painters to start in my room… and there is no way to get more bang for your buck than a fresh coat of paint.  Plus painting is always a doodle that can easily be un-did, if need be.  My room is about a 10′ x 10′ shoebox space, and currently looks something like this:

Steph's Room | Covet Living

All the walls throughout the house are a sort of “contractor beige” at this point.  My bedding is all white (with the exception of the lilac & coral euro shams I made from a kantha I bought at Solo on Cedros in Solana Beach – diy on that soon – and the John Robshaw Jammu bolster from Bixby & Ball).  AND I would foam at the mouth to see my vintage Gerald Thurston lotus lamps pop against some pretty jewel tone….  like TURQUOISE!!*$^#^#@!!  Cuz hey.  Why the &%^$ not?  I just flipped back through my Color Palette board, and everything remotely close to that color is emphatically labeled: “This color makes me so happy!”  So there you have it.  This shoebox is about to transform into a little jewel box.

Perfect shade of aqua, via Sara Mueller Instagram | Covet Living

 {image via sara mueller’s insta}

The tricky thing will be picking the right shade of turquoise/aqua/blue…  I do also have these fellas in my room to work with:

(VIOLET RUG)

Steph’s Dining Room | Covet Living

…and that rug worked great with turquoise painted on the ceiling:

windsor-overdyed-in-stephs-dining-covet-living-510x680

(BRIGHT EMERALD DRESSER)

Note: This is an old photo from my Columbus house.  Details on that dresser redo here.

green dresser

So I don’t want to go all Pee Wee’s playhouse…  then again, Monica & Rachel did it in their apartment, so I might just throw caution to the wind on this one.  Plus Jamie Meares says we should #daretomix, and when she talks, I usually listen.  If this were my house-house, I’d probably being doing much more neutral, grown-up things, and I’d probably save the crazy for the powder room.  But in the spirit of the new year and of this being a color that makes me giddy, I say let’s just do it.

Friends Kitchen | Covet Living

I’m trying to hit on somewhere between a Caribbean-esque turquoise…

Pool Aqua Color Palette | Covet Living via Rue Mag
Turquoise Teacup | Covet Living

Turquoise Vogue | Covet Living

…and a bright, perky, pool blue.  Because the dresser is green, so I don’t want it to blend in with the wall.  I wouldn’t go as deep as the blue Carrie did:

Carrie's New Apartment | Covet Living

Maybe something like this?

Perfect Blue, Lisa Corti's Milan Apt | Covet Living

This blue is stunning too…

blue tile

{Image source unknown}

Or the color of this tile, which is a (lot) watered-down:

Blue Subway Tile

{Image source unknown}

The color in this hallway of the new HGTV Dream Home is close, but maybe a bit too green Tiffany’s Box aqua still:

HGTV Dream Home Wall Color | Covet Living

This is just about perfect:

Perfect Blue | Covet Living

Aqua matches | Covet Living

I’ll let you guys know how it turns out!

xoxo,

Steph's Scanned Signature

*Click on images for photo sources, unless otherwise noted.