Office Chair and Living Room Makeover

We've had this office chair for about seven years now.  It was a five dollar DI find (DI is a store like Goodwill).  It's a very sturdy chair- all metal and wood.   I imagine it was someone's really nice office chair in about...oh 1991 or so. 

BEFORE

They probably made it to match computers back when they looked like this.  See how the blue cushion complements the shading of the power button?  It's symbolic.  Really I have no idea if that's even the power button...


 For years we've put up with it because it is very functional, but I've been working on redecorating my basement living room.  The blue didn't match at all, so it was time for a recover.

I found this chevron fabric at Hobby Lobby when I was in a larger town last weekend.  I bought 1-1/2 yards of it, and it was just enough for the chair.  I used some foam I had around to replace the seat foam.  It was harder to do than I hoped.  There was a sale on staples in 1991, so they used all of them on this chair, I'm sure.  I ended up cutting the blue fabric off the seat instead of removing them all.  I also couldn't figure out how to take the back off, so it has a slipcover instead.  That will come in handy next time something is spilled on the back of the chair.

 AFTER

But all in all I'm happy with it.  It matches my new green living room much better.

Remember my living room?  This is what it looked like shortly after we moved in.  The previous owner had most of the walls in the house painted this shade of brown.  They also left us this old brown couch.

BEFORE

Here's what it looks like now.

AFTER

The main colors are green, orange, grey, black, and light purple.  I tried to find a paint color that I liked that also coordinated with the red curtains, but I just couldn't.  I went with Glidden's color "Prairie Sage," but I had it matched to Dutch Boy paint because I like it better.  I think some day we'll switch to a grey couch, but for now I like having a couch that the kids can jump on and make forts out of without me worrying about it.

Make Your Own Downton Abbey T-Shirt

If you're a fan of the PBS show Downton Abbey this shirt is for you.  If you haven't seen this show yet, you're missing out, and this shirt has a spoiler...sorry!

I made this one for my husband, and yes he likes the show.  What a catch, right?  I know I'm a lucky girl.  The best part?  It only cost five dollars to make.  The shirt was three dollars on clearance and I already had the paint that cost about two dollars.  It's Tulip brand fabric paint.  I wish I had drawn this myself because it is pretty awesome, but I found this design online on flickr (via pinterest).  You can get your own copy here or here.  I would not try selling this shirt without contacting the owner of the image. 

To put this on a t-shirt, you need to use the freezer paper stenciling technique.  Print out the image, trace it onto freezer paper, and ever so carefully cut it out with an X-ACTO knife.  Because there is a bit of shading in the original image, you need to use artistic judgement in simplifying your tracing just a bit.  Make sure that the eye area especially still looks like an eye.  I also simplified the tie area a bit.

If you have a dark shirt and want to use light paint, remove all of the sections of freezer paper that you want to be white.  If you have a light shirt and plan to use dark paint, then you will cut out the opposite of what you see in this picture. Iron the paper onto your shirt and paint on as many layers of paint as you need.  This took three layers of white.

If you want more detailed instructions for freezer paper stencling, check out this previous post or this tutorial.

Freezer Paper Shirt Stencil

I followed this tutorial on the blog Just Another Day in Paradise to make a Chicks Dig Me T-Shirt.  I made it with a freezer paper stencil and Tulip Slick fabric paint.  I think the paint is supposed to be for a puff paint look, but it works well for this kind of design.  Since it's yellow on white, I also decided to paint in the words so they are easier to read.

I've made a couple of freezer paper stencil shirts before. 

Here's a flying pig that my daughter loved.  It was made with Tulip brand sparkle paint.

And here's a robot on a onesie for my son.

And a Trogdor shirt for my daughter.

ModPodge Canvas Bird

I picked up some Mod Podge at the store so I could work on using some of my scrapbook paper I picked up on my last trip into town.  I have two bird silhouette pictures in my bedroom that I purchased, so I thought I'd make another one on a canvas to put on the wall.

It's my 2nd only ever decoupage project, so please ignore the wrinkles.  I like the way it turned out.  The bird silhouette can be downloaded here.  I think it's a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, for those who are interested in birds.  For the twig I used paper that had printed scribbled writing on it.  I like how it made the twig look like birch bark.