A Chair with Flair

Yes, I realize the post title is kind of dumb. But I have a head-cold, and it rhymes, ok?? I am lacking in brain power, the phlegm is crowding it all out;)

Anyhow...yesterday I wasn't feeling well (see head-cold above) and Ty was working...but it was such a gorgeous day and with the clear blue skies overhead I felt inspired. So I decided to re-do one of the bargain chairs I had bought when we first moved to Texas (remind me to tell you all about how I went a little nuts with the furniture. Can we say 7 pieces? AND this is before we had bought all the formal kitchen and living room pieces you've already seen! I have a problem...) Anyhow, the chair wouldn't mind if I was hacking, sneezing, and snotting while I put it together, right? Better the chair than a person!

I am pretty thrilled with the results, so thought I'd share, but I'm warning you - it's kind of a long post, so sit back and enjoy or just scroll to the bottom for the final product:)

The pair - painted a metallic silver and covered in a brown and black chenille! Ugh. Hideous. But for only $20 for the pair, it was worth it!


Since this was my first attempt at re-doing a piece of furniture, I decided to just tackle one chair, here the culprit and my materials wait for me in the sun:


I removed the seat pad and primed the chair:


While the primer dried, I removed the old cover to find the original (plaid) and used the cover as a pattern to cut out my fabric of choice. The new fabric was gotten on clearance too, hooray!


The new cushion, covered with a fabulous new fabric:


I painted the chair with a warm gray and then slightly distressed it with a glaze. The glaze was definitely the hardest part because I'm not a huge fan of heavy distressing, so I wanted it to be ever so slight, so it took a little patience but in the end it was worth it:


A little before and after action:


All done!


In its final resting spot:


I plan to finish the other chair next weekend and then will be on the hunt for the perfect little side table I can put between the two! OR even better - perhaps I can score a little vintage tea cart, wouldn't that be cute? So check back later...I'm sure I'll have more to share:)

Our First Christmas in Texas

Before we get too far along into the New Year, I figured I owed you all a Christmas re-cap. But rather than create a crazy long blog post with a slew of pictures, I figured a slideshow would do the trick! I'll let the pictures do the talking and leave it at that:) Enjoy!

Some New Year's Inspiration...

So, it's official. The new home = obsession with all things home related.

It's a new year, so I might as well come clean: I am a "House Beautiful" addict. The magazines spill over from every room in our house with dog-eared pages making the issue look ten times more full than it really is. I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday and looked down and I had 4 magazines (two of which were British, what good does that seriously do me?!?!) that I had picked up and had convinced myself I needed to buy, meanwhile I was holding a copy of Regency Redux in my hands and was also convinced it needed purchasing. Thankfully, a little thing called "two mortgages" persuaded me against such a decision:)

But in the meantime, we are working on putting the "magic" in our house and we have stumbled across a few steals and deals that were totally worth the splurge! For a long time I've been dreaming of entryways that look like this:

Design by Windsor Smith

Design by Kelly Wearstler

Design by Ashley Whittaker

Design by Jonathan Berger

So then this last weekend, while at Home Goods (really, to all who know me - when am I NOT at Home Goods?!) Ty and I found this steal of a mirror on clearance. Perfect amount of Asian influence, ornate detailing, and G-O-L-D! Midas ain't got nothin' on me;) Can we say the perfect start to our entry, yes we can! Here she is:

I figured I'd share my inspiration pictures and "blogument" my artistic trial and error as we really delve into getting the house put together. Let's keep our fingers crossed that my inspirations match up to my aspirations - I'll keep you posted!