Painting a Chest

One day Grandmama Stitches showed up on my doorstep with this lovely hand painted chest from a Chelsea House sale. How lucky am I ? It was really pretty but Everything in my LR is gold/brown and it was just feeling way too dark. It had a heavy crackle finish on it and there was no way it was coming off without some serious sanding. So I decided to go for a leather looking finish.

It was missing one pull so, I'm on the look out for another one....... or 2 matching ones for the top drawers.
Step 1: Spray with Rust-oleum Heirloom White (which was probably a wasted step because the crackle was so heavy)

Here are my helpers.......... and by helpers I mean my son carrying one side of the chest saying, "Mommmmm, why do you have to paint everything!"

Step 2: Paint with some BM semi gloss white I had for another project.
Step 3: Lightly sand edges.
Step 4: Rub with Minwax Bombay Mahogany stain and Valspar Mocha glaze.

Here it is with it's new aged leather finish. I brought in some cream pillows and a cream throw to help lighten the room.

I'm linking this with Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Friday so head on over and look at all the projects. She even has a prize for the winner, how sweet is that ?

I'm Back From Paradise and Fabric Giveaway Winner !

We spent Halloween on a cruise with 100 of our closest friends. It was a lot of fun but it sure seems good to be back home. Here is Mr Stitches saving me from monsters ! I missed my bloggy friends and I'm still trying to get caught up with all of your posts.

I said I would do a fabric giveaway on Halloween but I was in Paradise with no phones and no internet so I'm a few days late.

I started this blog 3 months ago with no idea what I was doing and it has been such a rewarding experience to teach myself and to learn from all of you.

I am so blessed and grateful to have 59 followers that I am doing the fabric giveaway now !

By roll of the dice, the winner is .................... Its So Very Cheri !!! Congrats, I know you will do something fabulous with it. I will email you your choices.

Upholstered Walls

This weekend I decided to finally work on a project that I have been putting off since January. When I redecorated my study I ordered extra drapery fabric to upholster the wood panels below the chair rail. I decided to use the back side of the fabric because it had more of the green color. My first idea was to cut and cover boards to attach to the wall. I think that is what was holding me up so I decided to do it this way instead...............

I cut pieces of batting and pieces of fabric the exact size of the opening and stapled it right to the wall with my staple gun. One day I'm sure I'll regret that but I'll deal with that when the time comes ! I had to cut out holes for the outlets and phone jacks.

Then I glued a decorative cording along the edges to cover the staples and finish it off.
Here are more photos of the room........



I'm not completely finished with the cording but I wanted to post this at BNOP for Metamorphosis Monday. You can get an idea of what it will look like.

Pillows

Here are the finished knife edged pillows. Knife edge pillows have two sides that are the same size and usually have a corded edge. I made a self covered welt for these pillows to give a clean look. Other options to finish a pillow are braid, tassel fringe, brush fringe or a flange. When you are making pillows with a print or pattern always pay attention to center the design on the pillow. Also consider what will fall on the edges when using stripes and plaid fabrics.

Now, if I were only hand delivering these to Palm Beach.........