Our New Cheetah Chair

 The Cheetah Chair is our new

addition to our 

bedroom.

Here is our finished chair,

the following pictures are the process by 

which we re did this chair.

It originally bought it at a second hand store for $25.

We then found our fabric in a wonderful, I think, one of the best

home fabric stores ever, in Mesa, Arizona.  I think it was about $20

a yard, and we used about 2 1/2 yards for this chair.

 Original Chair

We took every thing off the chair, and brought it down to the

raw, some things needed to be glued and fixed,

but Dana did this.

I took us about 2 - 3 hours working together

to get all the staples, tacks, and fabric off the chair.

I then painted the chair.

First, I spray painted  the chair with a wonderful metallic gold paint.

Then, the next day I painted all the parts of the chair I wanted

black, with black paint and a foam brush.

I just used a small bottle of paint from Lowes,

Satin finish, some places I had to used a very small brush

so that the details of the roses and leaves on the 

chair would stand out.

We then started

(this was many months later, as the chair

sat in our bedroom looking like this for quite a while)

to add the parts back to the chair.

To put the chair completely together it took us about 3 hours.

I used the original fabric pieces that came off the chair

to be the pattern for the new fabric.

This was amazing, and I was wondering if instead of using large brass

tacks to hold the fabric down, could we just use the staple gun?

I cut the fabric for the back of the chair, and then

made piping to go around the edge of the fabric

so that we could staple in between the fabric piping.

This did work, but with the silver staples they showed brightly,

We then used a permanent felt pen to color the staples.

Then when we stapled everything on.

I love it when Dana and I work together to get a project done.

He is such a smart man, and we have been able to make some of the

most wonderful and beautiful things together.

Admittedly, I think up all this stuff,

but as I explain my ideas to him, he is able to 

figure out how to make the project work, and make it come to life!

Finished chair, 

Dana looking at his fine work.

The back of the chair has a stripe fabric on the back.

I sure love how this turned out!

And again the finished chair.

Have a great day!

Robin

Our $27,000 Home

Today, I have decided to start a blog

that follows the things that we

have done to our home.

In 1991 we bought our home for $27,000.

It was a mess with nothing to really love in it.

I had been going to house after house after house

for months.  My agent had to look at a house

to make sure things were ok at it, as there

had been many break-ins, and by the time

I went to look at it 

everything inside was gone.

No light fixtures, no appliances, no anything,
just walls and floors.

We pulled into the driveway 

and the driveway was full of weeds to my waist.

I really didn't know it was a driveway! until later when

I came back to look at it with Dana.

Oh, Dana is my better half, I'm Robin.

We walked through the home, it wasn't locked, and talked

about it's potential.  Then left, and I kept looking

at more homes.  

This same ugly worn out brown house kept coming into my

head.  It had been on the market for years, it was now

owned by the bank, and there had been many, many offers

on it but they never came to be.

I then went to the house and drew the floor plan on a

scratch piece of paper, looked at what could be

and started to work on a new improved floor plan.

Well, we bought the home.

We weren't sure if we were going to live in it or fix it up

and sell it.  At the time, we were renting a 4,000 sq ft

home at a killer deal, since rent was cheap, cheap, cheap

at the time, and so we didn't have to be quick.

We had a family council, and asked the kids what 

they wanted to do, fix up the house and move into it,

fix up the house and sell it then find a nicer house,

or what?

The consensus was, fix up this one,

and move into it.

Well, what a time we had,

and all the things we learned!

I will start sharing with you these fun, frustrating, and intense 

things we found after we bought our home, and 

as we started tearing out and rebuilding the each room 

into our home as we know it today.

Here it is, the house we bought,

the back side of the house.

I think we were working on the back deck 

in this photo.

Here is Dana, Josh, and Naomi.

The house was sun burnt on this side of the home,

but here is what we looked like when 

we bought our home.

Brown, simple, and in need of love.

For today,

Hugs,

Robin

Distressed Pilars

I decided to work on our

family room.  It seemed so dark

and I know I chose a paint color

that was just took dark for the room.

So after months of paint chips

attached to the pictures on the wall

I chose a color and started to paint.

Well, of course it was too pink, 

or it looked that way after it was on the 

walls, and there was no way it

was staying.

So back to the paint store for the shade darker, 

which turned out to be perfect.

Then on the same paint chip,

I chose the next color darker to paint

the pillars and the crown molding.

This was a great choice,

and I simply love my room again.

I decided to antique the pillars

and here is how they turned out.

I left the original darker color on the wall that has the Come follow me, 

that way I didn't have to find a way to paint around the

saying.  I painted the pillars the same color as the crown molding.

Dana built the pillars for me many, many years ago,

and I had painted them a dark grey, then I was going to faux marble

them.  Well, I never got them marbled, it was always a

thought in the wind I guess.

But I went to a web site called Secrets of Segreto,

and loved how the designers were faux painting and decorating 

the rooms they designed.  So I decided to learn

from their beautiful work and change my pillars.

Dana put molding on the pillars to create the rectangles.

I then painted them to match the new color,

then distress them.

I read blog after blog, trying to figure out how to distress

 the pillars how I wanted them.

I was a bit daunting, and intimidating, even though

I have done tons of painting over the years.

I also decided to keep the intentions of the crown molding

the original grey color, with just a touch of new paint. 

So I began.

I used Ralph Lauren glaze in sienna shade.

And I used a sea foam sponge.

This sea foam sponge has large holes in it, so it isn't quite so 

even when distressing as regular sponge.

I then put the glaze on with the sponge  LIGHTLY.

This is the look it creates, and just a light rub around the top

crown molding and even lighter on the flat section of the  pillar.

Here is my first finished pillar.  

Yea!!! I did it!

The other pillars became less intimidating,

and I got all the way around the room, 4 pillars in all.

These are the 2 pillars that stand at the bottom of our staircase.

Here it is stairs and all.

The long wall of the family room to the 

kitchen, with the finished pillar at the end of the wall.

And a close up of the finished pillar.

I made it through this project,

and oh, boy do I ever love it!

This is a great way to add depth to your room,

and to add and upgrade to your home.

Ciao,

Robin

New Pantry Door

In our kitchen,

years ago we had new cupboard doors

specially made by a special friend of ours. 

We left them natural, and we haven't done anything

with the kitchen for years.

Designs and styles have been changing over the years, 

 and I am contemplating making some changes in the kitchen.

I finally decided to step off the cliff,

and make a change.

We had truck problems, after our truck was fixed

and ended up staying home for 4 days we had 

planned on being gone helping others.

So during this 4 days I took advantage of the time home

and work on the pantry door.  I have pinned lots of pictures

of different ideas, mostly I wanted the pantry door to stand out

from the cupboards in the kitchen. 

Dana thinks it is a sin to paint nice wood.

Sometime it is, so I have hesitated on doing anything

because I wanted it to be painted.

I went through my pins on pintrest, and I found something

very interesting about myself.  

I love white, cream, natural wood, and diamonds.

I also love ochre yellows and black.

So how do you put all of that together?

Well, here is what I ended up doing.

Enjoy.

Here is the original door

I painted inside the panels white.

I wanted a contrast of white and cream,

the rest of the door is painted cream.

I painted the insides of the panels cream as well.

I then made a pattern for the inside panels of diamonds

the pattern is the white paper taped to the bottom of the

edge of the door.  I measured and marked where my lines should

go, and drew them with a ruler.

I then taped the diamonds, I had to use an exacto

knife to get the excess tape off so all the diamonds to be

painted would show.  It was a little more work than I had

anticipated, but loved the results.

I then distressed the inside of the taped diamonds with Ralph Lauren 

sienna colored glaze.  After I pulled off all the tape, here is my result.  I decided to paint

the molding around the door the same color as my window moldings.

I also distressed the newly painted door.

I used sand paper and a very stiff bristled brush

At this point, I decided the door looked pretty bright in my

natural kitchen, so I decided to antique the entire door.

Again I used the Ralph Lauren glaze.  With a cloth

I wiped the glaze all over the door, following the grain of the wood.

Here is the finished door.  

I am in love with it.  I took a little more time than I had

anticipated, but the result made me very happy.

Distressed, antiqued, and painted.  

I will share more pictures later, as I start decorating 

for the seasons.  My seasonal wreaths will hang

here for sure.

I have more changes to go to finish the kitchen the way I want it.

This is the first of many projects.  

Until next time.

Robin