I told you I have a love affair with chairs...

This Louis XVI style chair is a great example of how easy it is to utterly transform something hideous into something gorgeous.  I found this chair with pink velour upholstery and pickled wood at my favorite antiques shop in my sister's little town of Hillsboro, KS.  It was so ugly that I purchased it for only $20, knowing full well that it had great potential!  Before I purchased it however, I made sure I knew how to remove the seat, back and arm pieces so I could reupholster them.  Thankfully, all pieces come out very easily either by unscrewing several screws or simply prying the back pieces off.  I painted the chair white, and this khaki fabric is actually the second fabric I've had on it.  When I first purchased this several years ago, I put a blue/gold striped fabric on it to match my living room.  The moment I used that fabric I knew it didn't do the piece justice.   When I recovered it just this past weekend, I knew I finally had a perfect match!  Fabric choices are so important.  Wrap the pieces needing to be reupholstered in the fabric and place on chair before you actually reupholster it, so you can get a good idea of what it's going to look like.  Then the only tools you'll need are scissors and a good staple gun!
As a side note, my husband and I hauled both this chair and it's almost twin (see one of my earlier posts) out to a hiking trail for a family photo shoot today.  It was so much fun to have these unique chairs out in the woods - can't wait to see the pictures!

A Splash of Color

I've known for a long time that my black and white bathroom has needed an accent color, and even knew what color I wanted (aqua of course), but didn't have the perfect accessories to add.  Then, at my antiques sale at the War Eagle Craft Fair last weekend, I came across these adorable berry bowls!  They had an assortment of colors and sizes, and I decided this one would be perfect in my bathroom to hold some items sink-side.  I then spraypainted this iron thingy (for lack of a better term) hanging on a wall to add in more pop.  Now if I could just think of something to go great inside it...

Pumpkins on a pedestal

I found a couple birdbath bases last year.  The actual basins had been broken, but the bases were being sold.  I purchased them for a buck apiece, intending to sell them.  But then I found a new home for both of them in my front flower beds.  I like to call them architectural art, and they add a nice contrast to all the colorful, rambling flowers growing around them.  Then in the fall, I can add pumpkins to the top to add some fall color when most of my perennials are done blooming.  Even more fun, is that most people don't expect to see pumpkins in a flower bed!
As a side note, we tried growing our own pumpkins this year, and they came up great, but WAY too early.  They all rotted before October even rolled around.  Next year, we'll plant them much later and see how they do!

Open Kitchen Cabinets

After painting my kitchen cabinets this past summer, I realized this is the 4th time I've painted cabinets in homes I've lived in.  It's not that I love painting cabinets - in fact I strongly dislike it (my mom taught me to never use the word hate ;)  ).  It's a ton of prep work and then you can't even use your kitchen for several days at a time.  And then you have to ask your husband to put all the doors back up - NOT his favorite thing to do!  However, it's been so necessary to paint the kitchen cabinets in my last two homes.  In our current home, the cabinets had a black glaze over oak cabinets.  Sounds interesting - but WAY too dark.  The home before that had mint green cabinets - and I lived with those for two years before I finally painted them!  ( And then moved one year after that - go figure)  So, all the work has definitely been worth it.  One of the things I like to do most is leave 2 or 3 cabinets open-faced (without doors back on) and painting the inside a contrasting color.  This way my pretty reproduction red and white everyday transferware dishes can be seen - and I can even lean a couple unique vintage pieces against the back of the cabinet for more visibility.  People always ask me - Don't your dishes get dusty?  Not when they are used several times a day every day!  The shelves do get dusty, but I just swipe it off with a wet paper towel every once in a while.   No biggie.  I've done this exact same thing to a cabinet that holds stemware, and another that holds pretty serving dishes and cake stands.  Creating open kitchen cabinets can be done without painting the outside of the cabinets.  Just remove the doors and paint the insides!  Definitely make sure you have pretty dishes to display though.  Nothing plastic or metal please!