Small Home Solutions: Stool redo

For more photos and a short tutorial on the frames and hooks, head back over to Small Home Solutions: Coat area!

For our small 3 bedroom house, space is critical as we are beginning to figure out, even for things like a coat area! And with a small living room, seating is in short supply as well. So why not create a new space to hang our coats, personalize it, and fit in a cute stool? Challenge accepted and completed :P

A little background on the stool idea. I had pretty much decided what my plans were, I just had to find the right stool, pick the accent color I wanted for my living room (of which 4 walls are green as you can see), and then do the work.

Let's take a short break for a Pinterest funny find:

Had your laugh?! I did too hehehe.


Ok, seriously now! I found some cute ideas especially in the yellow region. Yellow and white seem to work well together. And when I thought about it, yellow would make a fantastic accent color in my living room even when I go to recover my couch cushions some time in the future.


After a long days search I found the right stool for the project. To me and every other DIYer out there, it was just beautiful. To others, probably hopeless. I snagged it up for $9 which is a tad more than I planned on spending but it was seriously the only stool I could find that fit my plans.

There is some sort of panel nailed in to the top to cover a hole that was once that webbed wicker stuff. I assume somebody fell through it and they "patched" it up lol.

I had to get really creative here... what to cover the top with in order to give it cushion WITHOUT buying anything? Oh yeah, how about that old pillow I found under my bed!

Let's say it together, P E R F E C T!! I didn't even have to cut it down or anything! 


Before putting the pillow on it needed a few coats of white paint, a little roughing up and a coat of Polycrylic to match my TV stand and Coffee table redo.


To get that perfect pillow on to my beautiful stool all it took was a hot glue gun and some toasty fingers.


And then of course I had to add the pretty yellow checkerboard fabric. Again just some hot glue and toasty fingers... I did not fold the raw edges under or anything, I let them hang over while I glued because hot glue does not really work through two layers. I wanted to make sure it had a good "stick." Once it was all glued on I took an exacto knife and cut all the excess fabric off.


Finally, thanks to a fun basket at Hancock Fabrics full of adorable flowers I snagged up a couple of these golden yellow flower pins and attached one to the corner.

This beautiful new "Small Home Solution" cost me approximately $15 for the stool, fabric, and flower!

Back to - Small Home Solutions: Coat area

Small Home Solutions: Coat area

This project is split in two posts so be sure to follow up with Small Home Solutions II: Stool redo. I felt the stool deserved its own post!

I am so excited to share this project. In my living room is a small space between our giant German shrunk and the wall along the hallway entrance. Typically it housed a plant, a vacuum cleaner.. other random things that fit there. Now it houses what you see above!


I wanted a more organized coat area that was not behind the living room door cluttering that wall and the full swing potential of the door. Plus where you find coats, shoes tend to gravitate further inhibiting door opening. So with the coat area I decided to go with a personalized touch. 

There is way more on that rack than you can see. Oh, and the wall isn't white anymore! That post to come eventually....

First, I took these old frames I inherited from my mom eons ago.

They got spray painted white. Eventually I decided to cover two of the frames with fabric.


To do the personalization I used Word 2011 and picked font "Parchment" then with the Word Art option I used whatever style it is that outlines the font. That made it to where I could use black marker to color in only what I wanted, in this case, just the letter. It's amazing what Word Art and enlarging a font can do... really gives you many different looks!


Lastly I took hooks from an IKEA wall-mounted coat rack (also given to me years ago), spray painted them white and, with long screws, hung them on the wall.

If ever there was motivation not to overload a hook with coats, them not being in studs ought to be it! I placed 2 up high for my husband and I, and one down low for our daughter to reach.

Technically the frame and hook project cost maybe a few cents. I bought a yard of the yellow heavy cotton fabric for $5 but obviously used very very little of it for the frames, and all of the other things I already had!

Take me to Small Home Solutions: Stool redo! 

Target TV Stand Makeover

While keeping in mind the theme of the coffee table redo, I went forth and shared the same love with my TV stand! When we first bought our house a few years ago we needed a new place to put our long gone big ol' flat screen tube TV. Target had the one I wanted... here is the before photo minus the doors.

 

It's hard to tell in this photo but that poor stand has taken a beating by following our daughter from 10 months to 3 1/2 years old. Amazingly she never smashed the glass doors out which was quite the fear of mine provided her immense level of activity!

A quick rundown of what I did: Started out sanding it down (by hand... I really need an electric sander) but I decided 1.) because I hate sanding, and 2.) because I wanted to have the original finish shine through at the end that I would not sand it down completely, just enough to allow the paint to adhere to the surface.

After about 3 coats of white paint I had fun roughing it up by sanding it down here and there to give it some character. Then came the Polycrylic. Oooh I really love that stuff! I only did 1 coat of it which they recommend 2 or 3. I didn't want it to look completely sealed up and also since this surface won't get a ton of use like the coffee table I figured one would be ok. And any extra nicks and booboos surely would not hurt a surface that already looks booboo'd. 

With some quick wire hiding and organizing it now looks beautiful and doesn't sink in to the dark floors anymore!

Linked!

 

Thrift Store Coffee Table redo!

Yay for the Habitat for Humanity ReStore! Thanks to them I paid $10 for a coffee table, and the money went to a good cause :) I knew the coffee table was ugly when I bought it but it was in good shape and had a lot of potential so it became a guessing game as to when I'd get off my bum and actually paint it. Well, I finally got off my bum!! Wish I could find a good before photo... If you can imagine a brown table with a faux wood look.

I'll be happy to tell you how I originally screwed this thing up and then made it all right!! 

I started with light sanding then proceeded to spray paint a gloss white on it. After a few layers I hated it so sanded it out a little and used Krylon primer spray. The spray painting to begin with was awful. I see so many people do great makeovers with spray paint but apparently I'm no good at it. I decided to whip out the only white paint I own, my interior wall & trim paint, and rolled it on all over. Looked MUCH better! After a little sanding in spots to give it the roughed up and worn look it was ready for the next step.

This is the expensive part: protecting the table with a clear coat finish. Obviously being a coffee table, at least in my house, I can expect it to get things spilled on it, sticky gooey things stuck to it and all that jazz that comes with a 3yr old so I really needed something I could clean without messing with the white paint. I did some research and found the best option for my project was Polycrylic (I chose to buy the satin finish... they also sell it in gloss). Unlike Polyurethane, Polycrylic won't yellow over time, is water-based, and has a faster drying time. The downside was the price. It runs about $15 for a quart at WalMart, however it'll last me through many many more projects! Here is a link to a short comparison of the two: Water-Based vs. Oil-Based Minwax Polyurethane. 

I am pleased with the final finish and admit that so far it seems incredibly durable despite my original painting flubs. Enjoy! I hope this has helped you in some way and maybe inspires you to attempt a furniture makeover! 

 

 

I'm linked up!!