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!

Hook Racks!

An essential to every home is definitely a hook rack or two or three!  I recommend putting one by the doorway that is the main entry to the house (by you, not your guests).  Our main entry is the door leading from the garage into the laundry room.  This is the first stop by my kids every single time they come in the door.  First, to take their shoes off (like their mom, neither one can stand to wear shoes in the house!  Dad can wear his all day which we think is just plain weird!), and second to hang up their backpacks and jackets.  Sometimes I catch them throwing these things on the kitchen floor (which is the next stop in the house), and have to remind them about hanging them up.  Okay, so most days I have to remind them of this.  I am anxiously awaiting the day they actually do this without being told!  But I digress...
Hookracks are great for jackets, backpacks, purses, totes, hats, key chains, you name it!   Just make sure you drill it into a stud so you don't have to worry about weighing it down!  Then, I try to always hang a horizontal item above the hook rack to give it more style.  Hookracks can also be used in bathrooms for towels or bathrobes, in bedrooms for hats and necklaces...the possibilities are endless!

My chair fetish

I have a problem with chairs - I love them too much and have way too many.  We were in the process of packing up the moving van many years ago and my husband decided to count how many chairs we had - 36!  And this was for a family of 4.  Embarrassing.  Since then, I've tried to put strict controls on the chairs I have in my home.  My new rule is:  if I bring a chair in the house, another one has to go out.  When I found this chair at a secondhand shop, I loved the white paint (of course), but it was upholstered in a pink and blue fabric - think 80s.   My initial thought was to sell it through my antiques business, but I even told my sister I wasn't sure I could get rid of it.  And now that I've recovered it in a khaki fabric, I can't.  It now sits in my living room, having displaced a gorgeous, 100-year old leather chair with stamps marked "U.S. Department of the Treasury."  That chair will now be found at my next antiques sale!  And now my plan is to reupholster another similar white chair I have and place the matching pair in my living room.  For the love of chairs!

Creative Organizers

It's the smallest details that count, right?   Even in decorating, just because no one can see what's inside your drawers, cabinets, closets... does it matter what they look like?  Yes!  Because YOU see what's inside every day!  So, go to the extra lengths to make small, unseen details as great as the large, obvious ones.   Here, I've been brave enough to show you the insides of some of my spaces.  And no, not all my spaces look this great or organized!  The first photo is of a very old muffin tin repurposed as a desk organizer.  Each little indentation is the perfect size to corrall all my junk!  The second photo is of an old red painted utensil drawer divider.  Realisticaly, I could use a stainless steel or even a plastic one.  Blah!  This vintage red one is much more fun and matches my personality so much better.  So round up some fun and unique storage organizers and make those little details matter!