Fun Features

I was recently featured on Apartment Therapy for our striped patio set - it was a very cool surprise to see our blog had suddenly had over 1000 views in a day.  I was so excited to hop on over to Apartment Therapy and see the post for myself - until I got there to see that my new name is Dana.  It made me giggle, my name is Brittney after all :) 

I was also featured on Better After last week - another fun blog!  I love visiting that blog daily to see all the before and after transformations!  At least I was featured with the correct name, just spelled wrong, this time ;)

And last but not least, check out my guest post of a Tuesday Tutorial over at The Notebook!

Let's Go Stripe-ing

We picked up this chair and table set for a few bucks on Craigslist and they are perfect on our cute little front porch. 

 

My original plan was to paint the chair frames white and either sew or buy new seat and back slings.  From afar, the white slings look pretty decent, but up close they were really dirty and stained.  I searched in town for some outdoor fabric to sew new slings, but I couldn't find any of the holey vinyl type fabric that was on the original chairs.  And I wanted the holey fabric so after rain, it would dry quickly.  Next I resorted to looking for new slings to purchase, but there weren't any affordable ones that I could find.  

So the hunt for new slings was a bust!  Moving on to plan c - spray paint! 

After removing the slings from the chair, I gave them a coat of primer and then white spray paint (on each side) to bring them back to their original bright white color.  I only painted one to begin with, to make sure after the paint was applied, the slings would still be plenty flexible.  It passed the test, I couldn't even tell they were painted! Then I created a template out of cardboard to use as my guide to paint yellow stripes. 

Here are all the pieces after painting

And as you can see, I decided to attack the table with that same yellow can of spray paint.

After painting the slings and table and putting them back on the chairs, I decided I kind of liked the look of wood.  Our front porch is already white, so maybe painting the chairs white would be too much.

The chairs were still kind of in rough shape though, so I used a sander to strip them of their original color.  Once they were sanded down, I stained them.  They ended up darker than I had intended, but that's OK, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  The final step was applying a sealing/protective finish to the wood since these are outdoors and will get wet. 

Now we just need to plant some flowers in front of our house, so these chairs aren't the only bright colored objects in our front yard! (Mom, please bring your green thumb back to visit sometime soon ;) )

Are doors necessary for a bathroom?

I guess the appropriate answer would be - yes!  But, it sure didn't seem like I realized that when it took me a good 3 weeks to complete this project.  I mentioned awhile ago that I was starting the long process of painting all of the trim in our house white.

I started in the bathroom, but I didn't stop at the trim.  I wanted the doors to match the trim and be white as well.  We don't have very fancy doors in our house, they are just flat, boring, hollow doors.  Instead of running out and buying all new 6 panel doors, I worked with what we had and fancied our doors up a bit before painting them white.

Here's the run down:

- Purchase 2 inch decorative trim
- Remove doors from frame and put your husband to work sanding the doors

- Measure the pattern on the door and draw a template with a marker.  I went with two simple rectangles evenly spaced above and below the door knob.  (didn't get a picture of this)

- Cut the trim to size.  We don't have any sort of an electric saw, so I cut my 45 degree angles with a miter saw box

- Once all of the trim pieces are cut to length, glue them to the door using wood glue. 

- Let the glue dry for the recommended amount of time - about 24 hours - or a week in my case
- Fill in the cracks between the trim corners to obtain a smooth finish.  I used nail hole filler because it is what I had on hand, but you could use caulk as well.  
- Prime and paint the door
- Hang the door back on the frame

- Accidentally break a vase in the process of hanging the door.  I highly recommend skipping this step!

- Step back and admire how much better the door looks
- Remember you have a long ways to go before all the trim and doors in your house are done
- Admire door and trim again to remind yourself it will be worth it once it is all done :)