Bench Redo

A couple weeks ago I found this bench at the Salvation Army. That particular day they were having a sale- if you bought a piece of furniture and took it that day, you got 30% off. This baby was marked $7.99, and lucky for me, they considered it furniture. I got to take it home for just about $5. 

 

I purchased 2 yards of brown zebra print fabric (WAY too much) from Joann's, a button covering kit, 10 yards of nail head trim (didn't need that much, but that's how it came), and an upholstery needle. I spent approximately $40 on these supplies, but I have many things left over for other projects.

It look me a couple hours to remove the original fabric-- tons of nails, thumb tacks and staples holding that stuff on. 

Once I got that off, I was lucky to discover a rather clean and intact seat. The structure of the seat itself seems to be pretty solid, I was expecting it to be questionable. 

 

It only took about two hours to recover, make the buttons and put them on, and add the nail head trim. These steps were all very easy! I was surprised. Putting the buttons on was probably the most time consuming step. I tried to tuft it a little- it was hard to achieve the level of tufting that I wanted. I think its something I can rework in the future, perhaps with some stronger thread.

The last step was to paint the legs of the bench. I cleaned them first (gross!) and then sanded, and used a dark brown paint with a shiny finish. I am honestly considering painting the legs black now because I don't think the brown is dark enough. The zebra print is brown, and the lighter brown paint makes it look more black.

The last part of the project (save potentially repainting the legs) is to figure out where this beauty is going to go. Franklin and Eleanor are enjoying using it in the living room as an elevated bed, so it may stay there for now. There is also the option if it becoming a foot rest/table in my office (with the chair that I bought with the intention of recovering). Now that I have tried my hand at recovering something, maybe I will attempt the chair!

Apartment Tour: Living Room

The next installment of my apartment tour is of my living room. The living room has been subject to some of my most time consuming and in depth projects. There is only one thing in my living room now that I had when I moved here not quite two years ago. Needless to say, the living room has been one large project since I moved in.

This is the left side of my living room. In the window you can see three hanging planters-- they are small metal buckets I got in the dollar section at Target, hanging from clear fishing line. I modeled this project after a project I saw to hang plants upside down. I was originally going to make some upside down planters, with the intention of getting the plants out of the reach of Franklin and Ellie, but I wasn't sure how the plants would hold up upside down. Ultimately I think this is a better solution--and they came in this lime green color straight from the store, no other work for me.

The vase shelves behind the couch are from Target, along with the green vase and the sparkly picks in the vase. These picks were part of Target's Christmas decorations and I immediately decided I needed them upon seeing them. I was good though, and waited until they were 50% off before I bought any. The picture leaning against the wall is actually a little tile with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it, brought back from Paris from a good friend. The little animal next to the Eiffel Tower is from my boss at my last job in Chicago, from her trip to Mexico.
The silver lamp on the left side of the couch is a find from the Christmas Tree Shop. This lamp was originally in the office, but it has made its way out to the living room as I have rearranged lamps. It's hard to see in the above pictures, but the lamp on the right side of the couch is the Eiffel Tower!! I got this lamp as a Christmas gift a few years ago, but it is from Target. It started out with a red shade, but I recently replaced it with a white shade to match the other lamps in the room.

The table the Eiffel Tower is sitting on is one of my refinishing projects that I wrote about here. I got the table for a very small amount at the Salvation Army, brought it home and sanded, painted and polyurethaned it. I really like the shape of it and its clean lines.

One of the biggest projects I've done in the living room is the armoire. The armoire is really the project that started the blog. I bought it at the Salvation Army for under $75. It was cherry colored wood and had old, outdated hardware. It took me quite a while to sand it all, prime and paint the inside and outside, spray paint the existing hinges (because I could not find any others that were the correct shape) and replace the hardware. My apartment was literally taken over by this project for a couple weeks last summer. You can read more about this colossal project here, here here and here. Overall I am extremely proud of this project, and also it is a really functional piece of furniture. Not only does it hold my TV and DVD player, its also a great perch for kitties and an excellent place for my plants to get some sun.





On the other side of the room lives my my newest lamp acquisition (read more here and here), and my kitchen.

The bookcase was a purchase from a friend when he left Chicago after college (thanks Kenneth! I love it), and the other table is one I found on the side of the road. I love the detailing on the legs of the table. I actually had the table for several months in my office, unpainted. Then on the morning of this photshoot I decided I needed to paint and use it. I painted it black for this purpose, but I think one day I will do something a little more exciting with it. The Big Ben tower was a gift that goes along with the Eiffel tower. The plant is an African Violet-- I love how they flower, and I seem to be relatively successful in keeping them alive and happy. The basket is an inexpensive one from Target, and if you can see inside the basket- there are some glass orbs that were gifted to me as an 'apartment warming' present. I believe they are from the Christmas Tree Shop. The big awesome mirror above the table is a steal from Walmart. The mirror is about 2 X3, and I paid something crazy like $10 for it. I don't know if it was mismarked or just on sale, but it was an excellent find. This mirror was at one point my "headboard" but I like it much better in this location.

Well, I think that's all for the apartment tour! Rest assured I have many other things to share with you!

Apartment Tour: Kitchen

The next room in my apartment tour is the kitchen. The kitchen is obviously the center of the apartment, but also a difficult one for me to decorate. When I moved into my apartment, the cabinets were two toned- dark brown doors and tan frames. I lived with them for quite a while as-is before I couldn't resist the urge to paint them anymore. Inspired by the many posts I see on various decorating and renovating blogs with beautiful white cabinets, I decided to paint my own cabinets white. I feel that it worked as planned- it looks much cleaner and brighter.
Before:

 After:

In the after picture you can also see my collection of pink, flowery plates (although this was taken before the addition of the Liberty of London plate.

Welcome to My Home, Volume 1: Liberty of London for Target Mixing Bowls

On a recent Target trip, I found a selection of Liberty of London items on clearance, including a set of mixing bowls and several plates, along with jewelry boxes, trays, lampshades and pillows. The mixing bowls immediately caught my eye because I think they are beautiful, and I had recently decided that I needed some serving dishes. As a bonus, they match the "theme" of pink and flowery that I have going in my kitchen. Needless to say, these babies came home with me, and have made an excellent addition to my kitchen. 

Target's website lists these as available for preorder, shipping June 11th.I think they must be getting a new shipment of them. In addition, they have three other color schemes available.

 Another thing I picked up was a pink, flowery salad plate to add to my wall. I was originally hesitant because the plate is plastic and I was afraid it would be obvious. I decided to take the risk because the plate was only $1 and I was sure I could find another use for it if necessary. Lucky for me, when I added the plate to the wall display, you couldn't tell at all. I was very happy!

(all pictures from www.target.com)

Apartment Tour: Bedroom

The second part of my apartment tour is my bedroom. My bedroom has given me the most trouble of all rooms in my apartment. I've gone through several sets of different bedding, bed frames, layouts, colors, artwork on the walls, and yet nothing has really felt complete.

Previously I had a dark brown duvet with light blue/turquoise sheets, and some mirrored pillows that I made last summer. I also had a MALM bed from Ikea.
Since these pictures were taken,  I have replaced the comforter and duvet that was dark brown with a new down comforter and white sheets. I sold the bedframe and got a new metal one. I got the two bedside tables off of craigslist for $25 total, the down comforter and sheets from Target, and the rug from TJ Maxx. The dressers are actually from Ikea, I purchased them second hand when I lived in Chicago. I originally only had the tall dresser, but then later found both the long dresser with 6 drawers, and one with only 3 drawers. I used the 3-drawer dresser as a bedside table for a long time, but it felt very cluttered. I now have that dresser in the closet in the office, holding blankets and sheets. The cat here is Eleanor (Ellie). I got her from Animal Care and Control in Chicago about 2 years ago. She matches nicely, right?
The mirror on top of the dresser is from an awesome thrift store in Chicago called "Unique," and the necklace holder is actually a rack made for a closet, which came from target for about $8. I like to have my jewelry visible, otherwise I forget what I own and things don't get worn. The sconces on the wall were originally a gift from my Aunt for my living room, where they were for quite a while. I found sconces for the living room that better fit, and then had these in the closet for a while (and some canvases covered with fabric on the wall above the bed) until I was ready for a change. Honestly, I don't like the placement here-- they're too small for the size of the wall, I think it just makes the wall look even bigger and more empty. I'm still searching for the best thing to put on that wall.

One project that I have wanted to do for a while is to make an upholstered headboard. I did a post on this idea a while back (here) and haven't forgotten about it. I want to do it right when I do it, so I haven't jumped into it.

On the other side of the room, you can see a painting I did last summer and my map of Chicago. The map of Chicago was a gift I got as a sophomore in college for my birthday. It is laminated but came unframed, and I bought a frame separately from Michael's (of course using a coupon!). Finding a frame that really fit this poster was a challenge- it is slightly bigger than a normal movie poster, not a standard size.
The coat rack is something I've had for a long time--I got it for Christmas one year in high school. It has had various functions- for coats, purses, scarfs, etc. It has really been an awesome addition to my furniture. I used it in my room at home, in my dorm room(s) and in my apartment.
The vases on the dresser--the silver one is from Walmart-- I got it on clearance for $5. It matches a bowl that I actually have on my living room coffee table. The white vase is from Michael's. It was originally intended to be in the kitchen on the shelf with my other white ceramics, but it was too big. It fits much better in this spot.
And the cat pictured here is Franklin. He is also from Animal Care and Control in Chicago.

Apartment Tour: Office

I recently had a beginning photographer come to my apartment and take some pictures for me. It was an exchange-- she wanted practice taking pictures of architecture/homes, and I wanted some better quality pictures of my work. We took pictures of all of the rooms in my apartment, it took about an hour. It was really nerve wrecking to have someone taking pictures!
I decided I will share the pictures officially room by room. So today I will start with my office.

I spent some time last summer working on my office, to make it less of a dumping ground for everything random in my apartment to more of an actual office I could use for school work. I purged, cleaned, organized and purged again. I originally had two desks in the room situated in an L shape, and a hideous rug and wheely desk chair. I ended up getting rid of one of the two desks, repainting the remaining desk, replacing the wheely chair with one of my extra kitchen chairs and adding a few items.

I got the lamp at the Christmas Tree Store on a trip home to Vermont (although now one has opened up near me!), and made the paper flowers myself with a kit from Martha Stewart that I found at Michaels.

As you can see, the walls are vast and empty. I made an attempt at covering some of that empty wall space by framing some pretty paper that I got at Target.

You may remember that I also put up some shelves on the opposite wall for the cats to climb on. I didn't have the photographer (Willow) take any pictures of those, but you can see them  here.

Part of my purging was some serious reorganization of the closet in that room. I bought a bookcase to hold my binders and some office supplies, and added in a metal shelving unit I had and some plastic boxes to organize my sewing supplies and other craft supplies in a pretty way. I have a longer post about that project here.

I also added a chair that I found at a garage sale (here) At this point, I haven't actually done anything with the chair. It's waiting for a rainy day, I guess. Or waiting for me to find the perfect fabric and get brave enough to rip the thing apart. When my family made a visit lately, they brought along a bookcase I had as a kid. It's 3 shelves, and has a mirrored back. Currently it is unfinished, and I have sanded it in preparation for painting, but I haven't decided what color I want to use. I think I want to do something bold-- perhaps turquoise. But again, I'm not rushing into this project.

Dwell Studio Love

Dwell Studio is a company that designs bedding and other awesome home goods. You might recognize the name because Target carries a line of their designs. They're known for their modern patterns and amazing colors. Here's a couple of their patterns that I love:

Dwell Studio Favorites by aburlock on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
DwellStudio® for Target® Foliage Duvet Sets : Target, $60
DwellStudio Shower Curtains - Bath Time - KIDS, $66
Dwell Bird 7-pc. Kitchen Textile Set : Target, $30
Dwell Studio™ for Target® 5-pc. Kitchen Set - Black : Target, $20
DwellStudio Garden - Collections - BABY, $120

So imagine my delight when I discovered this morning that JoAnns fabric is now carrying a collection of Dwell Studio fabrics:

Dwell studio for joanns by aburlock on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Home Decor Fabrics-Dwell Studio Soft Scrolls Leaf :
 home decor print...
Home Decor Fabrics-Dwell Studio Mum Floral Hydrangea : fabric : home :...
Home Decor Fabrics-Dwell Studio Square Lattice Hydrangea : fabric :...
Home Decor Fabrics-Dwell Studio Maze Work Azure : fabric : home : Shop...
Home Decor Fabrics-Dwell Studio Soft Scrolls Espresso : fabric : home...

I'm already planning some projects that could utilize these fabrics. Particularly the fabrics that have green in them...stay tuned.

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen in my apartment came complete with some questionably painted cabinets. It was a good attempt at making them look clean and neutral, I'm sure, but it just wasn't doing it for me. The brown was too dark, and it looks they haven't been cleaned in 10 years despite that I do it often. So I decided it was time to paint them. Many people in my complex paint their walls, management doesn't seem to care, so I decided they wouldn't care if I painted my cabinets. Even if they do care, my security deposit was next to nothing. I went to my favorite Ace hardware and found my favorite paint guy. I wanted to paint the cabinets white, and I picked out a color called 'bone white.' Favorite paint guy pointed out to me that they carry that color pre-mixed, but they no longer had room for it on the shelf, so it was about 75% off. So, I got a gallon of this paint for $5, instead of spending around $20 to have it mixed. Awesome!
Here are my cabinets before:

And after a day or so of painting, here is the final product:

I will probably be making touch ups until I move out of this apartment-- every once in a while the lighting in the room will show a spot that needs some attention.  But, I'm very happy with how much brighter and cleaner the kitchen looks. Can you believe that's the same counter top as the first picture? I think its amazing how much nicer it looks. Next question-- do I paint the walls? It might need some color. And why stop now?

I'm a Cobbler

If you live in an urban area where you do a lot of walking, chances are you are aware of the damage concrete can  cause to your shoes. I don't think there is a good way around this, besides finding a good cobbler and visiting him regularly.
Moving from Chicago to Ann Arbor has been amazing for my shoe collection, but I still have a few pairs of shoes that are in need of repair (yes, almost 2 years later). I used to spend a not insignificant amount of money have my shoes repaired at the cobbler up the street. The Cobbler, Mr. T, was amazing- relatively inexpensive, quick, and also entertaining. Mr. T was about 80 years old and liked to talk.
Sadly, Mr T would not come with me to Ann Arbor, and the cobblers here are quite a bit more expensive. So I've been exploring other options--mainly, replacing shoes. But recently I discovered these little gems:

That's right friends. Three pairs each of heel tips in two different sizes (six pairs total) for less than $3. Even Mr. T can't beat that price.

The process is pretty easy. Start with a shoe with sad, worn down heels:

Use the pliers pictured above to twist out the tip (just like a screw!). Insert a new heel tip, and tap it in using the hammer. And you're done!

Voila! Now these shoes are back in circulation! It took about five minutes, and I still have five pairs of tips left. Maybe Mr. T needs an assistant.

It wasn't such a hard project but Ellie was sure tired after.

Cupcakes in Ann Arbor

Yesterday after a quick trip to the T.J.Maxx right near my house, I discovered something wonderful. A new cupcake shop, named Just Baked. Apparently it opened before Valentines day, but just got around to putting up a sign this week (??), and before the sign it was nearly impossible to notice. Of course I had to try out their creations, and decided I'd compare them to my current favorite cupcake bakery in Ann Arbor-- Cupcake Station.

Cupcake Station:

At Cupcake Station, my reliable 'flavors' are chocolate cheesecake and chocolate lovers. Cupcake station describes chocolate cheese cake as "Our signature Dark Chocolate Cake with our unique White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with Dark Chocolate Shavings." I describe it as: amazing. Their cream cheese frosting is really amazing. 

Another good choice at Cupcake Station is the mocha latte. The mocha latte is cupcake stations "signature" Dark Chocolate Cake with a rich Espresso Milk Chocolate Frosting, topped with Coffee Beans." Another yum from me. The Chocolate lovers is a very safe bet- chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. No explanation needed.


Just Baked:

The prices and menu sizes are comparable at the two shops. Just Baked happened to be out of most of their chocolate cupcakes when I was there, so I was forced to branch out a little. I bought two: a white chocolate raspberry, and a red velvet.

The white chocolate raspberry cupcake is described on Just Baked's website as "Shortbread bottom below our moist vanilla cake sprinkled with white chocolate then drizzled with a raspberry topping, white chocolate chips and a dollop of our delicious buttercream.." The cake was really moist, almost too moist, it just kind of fell apart. The raspberry topping was good, there just wasn't much of it to be had. Also, the buttercream frosting wasn't easy to bite into, I ended up taking it off the cupcake and not eating it. All and all, while the cake was good, the topping was just OK. I wasn't a fan of the buttercream.

The red velvet cupcake isn't as moist as the first, but this means its not going to crumble before I can eat it!. This was a good pick, because it has Just Baked's cream cheese frosting on it, so I can directly compare the two stores (there's the statistician coming out). The frosting on this cupcake is much lighter than Cupcake Station's frosting. While I can definitely taste the "cream cheese" flavoring, I think Cupcake Station wins in this battle.

Overall, I like Cupcake Station better at this point, but each bakery has distinct advantages. Cupcake Station is located in downtown Ann Arbor, so its unlikely to be a place you stumble upon while grocery shopping. But, it does have excellent cream cheese frosting. It's also right near the bus station, very convenient for those days when you miss the bus and have 30 minutes to kill before the next one comes. Also,Cupcake Station has three sizes- mini, normal, and large, to suit whatever appetite you have. The mini ones are excellent for just a taste, or trying a new flavor. Large ones are good for sharing. Also, many or most of the cupcakes here are baked on site, although once a flavor is gone, its gone for the day. Sometimes they close early because they are out of cupcakes!

What Just Baked has going for it is location. There is a lot of parking in that location, and it is near many other shops that people go to regularly-- grocery stores, office supply stores, the library, etc. Many people, like me, are going to pop in without planning. I don't love Just Baked's recipes as much, but there is potential. Finally, no cupcakes are baked on site. They are baked daily in another location and trucked in. Again, flavors will run out, like what I found yesterday.

(No, no, no one paid me to write this review. Although I'm open to the idea!)