Union Jack Chair - sponsored by the UK Shoppe

Check out this before & after! 

She's a beauty!  This year's YMCA Chairs for Charity event is keeping me extra busy.  I love all the chairs, but gosh, they take a lot of time!  Hug an upholsterer today - they deserve it! 

My Union Jack chair is made from an old shower curtain (the black & blue stripe fabric), an old velvet shirt (red stripe) and some damask print white fabric.  The black fabric is left over from last year's event and is a lovely, thick and heavy, black fabric. 

Hours of sewing at my vintage Singer (oh yeah, I finally got a sewing machine that [mostly] works), lots of staples, and all new foam padding inside. 

Jolly good!

Oh, and the cute little pillow I also made myself using my trusty Mac-Tac paper-and-paint technique. 

Ta-ta for now!

2nd Annual YMCA Chairs for Charity Event

Another excuse reason why my blog posts have been few and far between, recently, is that I've been pouring lots of my time into the YMCA Chairs for Charity event.  Old chairs get new life and are auctioned off in a fun evening event. 

The event raises money for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign which helps to subsidize youth programming for families that need it and kids who want to play! 

I have a couple of 'before and after' photos to post for you, and also think you should check out my post on folding upholstery corners since it's still one of my most popular! 

Local businesses sponsor chairs (to cover the cost of the refurbishing process) and we create chairs that represent the 'feel' or 'theme' of the business. 

For more pictures and sneak peeks into the refurbishing process, visit the Facebook event page. 

DIY: Pine Farm Table

 

After a loooong hiatus (oh, you noticed that, did you?), I'm back!

We moved, in a bit of a whirlwind affair, back in August and I finally found a workshop space in October and got the keys on November 1st!  I'm busy setting up shop now - and getting ready for another custom table order. 

Here's the first table I built from scratch.

I used the plans that Ana White offers on her website.  She calls it a Farmhouse table and the instructions are amazing! I printed mine out and added inches when I needed to - planning is the most important part!  I plotted out all my cuts so I knew what wood I'd need to buy and then I headed to Home Depot to pick up what I needed.  Ana's got a whole list of 'materials' as well as 'tools' and even a 'cut list.'  Could it be any easier?  No, is the answer, in case you were confused.

I assembled the table, filled all the holes, bashed it up with a hammer, and sanded the heck out of it! I stained the top with two different colour stains - Minwax's Espresso and American Walnut.  The final finish for the table top was about 5 coats of Varathane Diamond Floor Finish. 

On a sad note, or biggest little lady, Olive, went missing on October 26th.  She hasn't turned up and we miss her every day.  When we adopted the kittens, 'Miss Thing,' as we sometimes called her, was a fantastic mother.  She had so much love in her little heart, and we hope someone else might be sharing it with her today...if not, we know she lived a life full of love (and lots of cuddles!)

Olive can best be remembered as needing to have everything 'just so,' and demanding to have her belly rubbed with her signature 'stretch and roll' move, at least twice, daily. 

We miss you, Olive-branch.

DIY Subway Art Coffee Table Set

This table set turned out just as I'd imagined!

OK...I'd like to recommend you try this at home, but I've got to say....only try it at home if you have a) loads of free time or b) a Cricut or Silhouette or similar type machine.  I'm not blessed with one of those fancy machines so I do everything by hand.  I use lots of Contact/Mac Tac paper (the kind you can get at the Dollar Store for lining shelves or covering books) and teeny tiny nail scissors (or sewing scissors - even better!)  And I have a really steady hand.  If I'd had higher aspirations, I guess I should have been a surgeon.  In my next life.  You can read about how to create your own stencils when I used them on burlap pillows or my reproduction coffee sack chair. 

I've had a crush on subway art dressers and plaques for a while and wanted to use the style on another piece of furniture, so this little set fit the bill. 

I live in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and decided to make a word map based on our city.  I love it!  At first I wasn't sure if it was worth the effort, but when I sanded and distressed the lettering I knew it would work out as I imagined (trust me, sometimes it doesn't!).

I'd love to sell these tables as a set, but I already have someone interested in the coffee table (seriously, minutes after I posted it for sale!), so I'm happy to sell the separately. 

The two end tables are $65 each, or $120 for both.  Get 'em while you can! 

I'm linking up here:
 

Make room for something new

I finally pulled it together to clean out my garage last Sunday.  I've been putting it off since the spring.  You'd be amazed at the creative excuses I could come up with to avoid it! 

"I couldn't possibly clean the garage, it's going to be dark in three hours!"

"15 degrees is still too cold to clean out the garage.  It's freezing!"

"Right after I finish Season 2 of 'Game of Thrones.'"

At any rate, it was getting out of control, and I have a custom order for a harvest table to work on, and it would no longer fit in the sunroom.  So, I bought a new lock for the shed, moved the bicycles out of the garage into the shed, and then started moving furniture and stacking wood! 

First, I moved this amazing bureau I got for free a few months ago:

 

I can't wait until I have a chance to work on it.  I've fixed some of the inner workings already - it needed a new drawer slide so I cobbled one together from some scrap wood.  I still need to plane the drawers a bit...and then painting!  Any colour suggestions?
 

Then I got some help to move this huge vintage cabinet into the house.

I work from home and have been storing my work equipment and folders in an old plastic tote. 

This is a much better solution!



Originally, I wanted to make this into a '50 Shades of Grey' cabinet, but I stalled out on it in the Fall and then the winter hit....and I was living in a landscape of shades of grey and wasn't inspired to finish it (plus it was freezing in the garage in minus 20 degrees!). 

 

 

 

I finished the coats of paint after it was moved inside (although most of them had been done in the garage), sprayed the long mirror (which has smoked over the years) with blackboard paint. 

 

I still need to do something with the smaller square mirror, but maybe I'll leave that to another season!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

I've collected quite a stash of scrap lumber on pallet wood and was finally able to finish these signs for a wedding later in August.  Just making things happen and getting things done!

 

 

 

And if you're looking for a unique, ultra feminine dresser and bedside table set, I've got what you need!  These lovely pieces are for sale for $295 (for the set).  

 

Vins et Spiriteux Set

I worked on a custom order a week ago.  The end of the story is fantastic, the middle....not so much.  It started out strong...I refinished a long coffee table and two side tables, sanded the tops, restained the wood, and drew the 'Vins et Spiriteux' graphic on the coffee table, and sealed everything with durable Varathane floor finish. 

Parfait!

Then I was asked to do a similar treatment to a pine desk and a 50s magazine holder.  The desk is where things started heading south.  I thought I'd strip the top and sand away some of the uneven paint on the legs of the desk and that would be the end of the story.  Not so. 

I should have sanded EV-ER-Y-THING down right from the get-go.  I have no idea why I didn't.  So, in a make-work project for myself, I finished the desk...but it wasn't right!  It looked pretty awful (or at least not as good as it could) and in the end I had to pull it all back to the pine.  I went through a lot of sandpaper. 

In the end...she's a beauty! 

The [very patient] customer was happy...she said this:

   

Emily, thank you so much for the lovely job you did on my "garage sale" find! 

We have received many compliments on the desk and are very happy with it.  I

 will be sure to recommend you to others.    Mary Lou R. (Ennismore, ON)

Ain't that grand?!

And here's where she's sitting pretty now

Au revoir!

Vintage Grain Sack and Antique Enamel-Inspired Nesting Tables

I didn't get a chance to blog about these gorgeous, adorable  (gorgable? adorgeous?), tables before they sold.  I absolutely love how they turned out - just like vintage grain sacks and aged enamel washbasins rolled into one! 

The pictures below are what the tables looked like before I finished them - a little distressing and some ubber-durable floor finish to seal everything in. 

And as I said, they're 'nesting' tables...so I'll leave you with a shot of everything pulled together!