Revamp an IKEA Chair

Two years ago this Poang IKEA chair was on the curb outside of someones house, hours away from being trashed.  I pulled over and quickly shoved the chair into my teeny Toyota Celica and drove home. When I got the chair home, I was able to take a closer look at its condition. Aside from a missing screw and minor wear and tear, the chair was prestine. By bleaching the fabric cover and with a new screw I had a new comfy chair.

Here's how the chair looked in my home...

I was stoked about my curb side find and I've been very happy with the chair, but I recently got an itch to spruce it up a bit.  With several coats of wood stain left over from my powder room makeover, I was able to change the look of the chair to this... 

It's been awhile since Roxy has made her way into my pictures.  But on this day, she wasn't moving for anything.  Since I think she's so cute, I let her sit right in the middle of my picture. 

 

See how nice the chair took to the stain.

Here's some pictures of what I did...it was so easy!

This is what the wood looked like before I stained it.

Here's a super close-up of the wood while I was sanding.  In order for the wood to absorb the stain properly, it's important that you use a rough sandpaper to take off any protective coating from the wood. 



I took the chair apart to make painting the base easy breezy.

 

Here's the base of the chair as I began to paint the first coat of wood stain.  I painted a total of three coats, allowing each coat to dry overnight. 

Don't you think the dark wood looks so much better?

This tutorial is linking up with the best of them at:

Poster Bed Find

This may sound weird to a non-DIYer...but this poster bed find made my year! 

I consider myself lucky for two reasons.  One, because yours truly actually stumbled across this.  And two, I found this ON MY LUNCH BREAK!!!  I know, I know...you're jealous :)~  I rarely leave the office on my lunch break so I consisder myself super special.

When I laid eyes on this bed I would have bet money that someone else had already bought it.  I thought to myself, "There's NO WAY that bad boy hasn't been purchased yet.  It's waaay to special!"  It was sort of off to the side too- almost as if someone had intentionally tried to keep it out of eye sight.  Well my friends, I scored this beauty for $54 buckaroos.  I know, I know...you hate me!




Here's the poster bed at Impact Thrift Store at the time it caught my eyes.  It's hard to tell from this picture but the bed was actually off to the side a ways- seperated from the other bedroom furniture.

At first, I debated painting the bed becase the wood was in such great condition and had so much shine.

 

Here's the bed  when we got it home.  I had to go back to the thrift store with Rob and pick it up several days after I purchased it because it wouldn't fit into my teeny car.



This is the bed after one coat of paint.  I'd like to apologize for the awful cellphone picture quality.  As I mentioned somewhere on my blog before, at the time I started alot of my DIY projects I didn't know I'd be blogging about them today- otherwise I'd have nicer pics to share :)

 To check out the poster bed, in its finished glory, click here and scroll down.

Rob and I sanded the poster bed with a medium coarse sandpaper until the surface was roughed up pretty well. Then, we used a finer sandpaper to smooth out the wood surfaces. Finally, I painted the poster bed with a black semi-gloss paint. I wanted the bed to really look nice and thought that by using a paint with some shine would do the trick.

When I bought this bed I was so excited I didn't realize that the bed frame was sold separately.  I snagged a frame at the same thrift store for $10.00.  All said and done, our guest poster bed only put us back $97 with materials.  Actually, that's way ahead in my book- my budget loves me!!! 

Not too shabby, right? I hope you like.

THIS DIY PROJECT WAS LINKED AT The DIY Showoff,  HERE

You're Painting WHAT???

That's how the Lowe's employees at the paint counter reacted when I told them, "I'm painting my carpet." As I write about it now, and actually process that statement, I totally get why they reacted the way they did. To some, that's just CRAZINESS!
If you're like me, always searching for thrifty ways to spruce up dated household items, I want you to know that painting a carpet is a piece of cake.

I first got the idea when I came across a post, here, on ApartmentTherapy. Stacie is the name of the talented woman who used spray paint on her area rug. Several weeks later, I came across another woman who blogged about painting a carpet. Only this woman used actual paint.

After reading up on this, and seeing that lots of folks have successfully did it, I set out to paint my very own carpet. And lucky for me, Rob's mom gave us an IKEA hand-me-down rug several months prior that I used as my blank canvas. I didn't feel bad about painting the carpet because it had minor stains and spots on it - which actually is a perfect excuse for you to paint your old area rug, too!

So, here's what I did...you won't believe how easy (and inexpensive) this was.

Here is the carpet in our family room BEFORE I painted it:



An employee at Lowe's recommended I use "Porch & Floor" paint. She said this type of paint is more durable, made to be walked on, and that it will last longer. And since I had never done this before- I took her word for it!

 Materials:

1. Paint (shown above) $10.98
2. Painter's Tape $3.28
3. Small Roller $2.18

Fortunately, the rug has small squares and a border that is woven on it- so the pattern was super easy to follow.


I outlined the squares and border with the painter's tape and painted away!

 What a difference! And what a great way to liven up the room, don't you think?

After I completed this project, I came across some awesome area rugs, here, by Thomas Paul that I think I'll have to replicate one day in the future. Check em' out for yourself - these are great inspiration patterns.

I linked up at Amanda's Weekend  Bloggy Reading from Serenity Now, check it out HERE.

First Things First - Part III

Hey Everyone!  I know it's been awhile since I last blogged about my living room makeover.  I've been keepin' busy, now that summer is in full swing, with yard work, refinishing patio furniture, painting dressers and a laundry list of other fun projects. 

I thought I'd post recent pics I took of our living room to show the great progress we've made.  This room makes me so happy every time I walk through the front door.