The Luggage Project

For many years Ben has kept his magic cards in this old fashioned train case. He sold his cards but I wouldn't let him get rid of the case. 
It's a Relco brand, Joyce Lane style case from the 40s-50s. But it's in bad shape.

It's going to need a total overhaul. I don't have time to do it all at once so it will happen bit by bit (hopefully with updates).
Here's what I need to do:
Replace the mirror.
Reline the interior
Make a new snap on zipper pouch
Make new elastic strap
Paint and stencil the outside
replace the handle

Nightstand face lift

We don't have much bedroom furniture but we do have matching nightstands we got at Target several years ago.  They've served us well but I hate the dark color in the bedroom right now.

I found some remnant home decor fabric last year that was really cute. I had no idea what to do with it though.  A few months later I found the same fabric in another color...now I have it in pink and in blue.  I decided to do a his and hers nightstand makeover.

I've been planning to fix them up for a while and thought the blue and pink would be a fun touch.
This project doesn't require much and is great for a beginner.

Supplies:
Furniture to be painted
Paint (I love using a spray for this)
Fabric (I prefer home decor weight)
Adhesive (Mod Podge, spray adhesive, glue, whatever you prefer)
Q-tips (only if you are painting the drawers)
Sand paper
X-acto knife

There was certainly a bit of water damage on these

Take the drawers out, knobs off and sand paper any rough spots or edges. Any bumps are going to show when it is painted.

If you are painting the drawers:
Stick Q-tips in the knob holes and the ends of the knobs (if you are painting them). This will prevent paint from closing the holes up.  Since my fabric has some white and I didn't want the dark wood to show through I painted the drawer front. 

We did a couple coats to completely cover the dark wood

Spray paint your pieces.  I also spray painted the knobs so we didn't have to buy new ones.
Let the paint dry.

You can add the fabric to the drawers while the paint is still a little tacky.  Cut the fabric a little larger than the drawers. Apply your adhesive, I chose to apply it to my drawer and then put the fabric on.  You can cut off the extra fabric or fold it around the edges.  I chose to cut the fabric off and make sure it had plenty of adhesive so it wouldn't peel away.

Once everything is dry, poke through the knob hole and make a small hole in the fabric.
Put the knobs back on and the drawers back in.

It's an easy weekend project that adds some personality to your furniture.

I love our his and hers nightstands. They really brighten up the room.

Chair cushions

What was I making all that bias tape for?
Cushions!

I love our new set, but alas, no cushions

Our new dining room chairs have a hard seat and it made my butt hurt. The solution was easy, find a pattern and make some cushions.  I couldn't decide which fabric I wanted to use so I decided to make mine double sided so I could switch them over if I wanted a change. I used a third fabric for the piping and ties that matched the 2 main fabrics I chose.

The green and yellow are the 2 main fabrics. I used the raspberry as an accent

They're super stuffed and you can tell which chair I've been sitting on. I need to swap out my chairs to squish down the other cushions.

My butt is comfy now.

 I'm really happy with the way they came out. They're comfy and completely washable. 

So. many. boxes.

Last night I had a nightmare that I was being chased by rabid moving boxes that were trying to eat me.  Taking a look at the living room you can see why.

That black thing on the wall is actually right above a fireplace so you can get an idea of just how much is in the living room right now.

The craft room is even worse.  It is floor to ceiling with boxes and I can't even get in the door to take a picture.

I can't wait until we are all unpacked and can eat at home again.

Because you ottoman

It was ugly and poop brown, but it was free on Freecycle.  It had potential and I knew I could make something really cute out of it.

I started by taking it apart.  I took all the staples out of fabric and found the foam was still in good shape.

The drawer was out of alignment so I popped it back in place and added some glue to keep it there.

Once the glue was dry I took everything out to the yard and spray painted it white. I used an all in one spray and did 2 coats.  Since both the boys were sleeping when I did this I didn't get any pictures of this step.



Next I took the brown fabric and laid it out on top of my new fabric.  The brown fabric had 3 pieces but my fabric was wide enough to just cut the shape in one piece.

I sewed up the corners and put it on top of the foam piece.  Then I stapled the underside of the fabric to the ottoman.  This was a 2 person job, I held the fabric while Ben did the staples so again I have no pictures of this step.

I took the top and glued it back on the base so it didn't slide around.  Gorilla glue is great for this.

I love how it looks now.  Fun and bright.  I also love the fabric. It's perfectly tacky but ads the right amount of color.  

If I knew I could sell these things I'd keep refinishing furniture, but we're running out of room for things.  Which really sucks because I saw a great gossip bench at Goodwill that I really wanted to fix up.

A special place for my new machine.

Since we originally thought we were moving so much of our home has been in boxes.  It was only recently I let Ben convince me to take my sewing machine out of the box so I could craft and not go nuts.  We don't know if we're going to move so we're both reluctant to unpack but I got tired of look at my embroidery machine on the floor in its box.

Such a cool table

It was taking up space in between my fabric and our printer so I figure why not get a table for it and actually be able to use it.  We went to Savers (great store) and I found a vintage telephone table.

Can't beat the price

It was missing the drawers, the price was certainly right, but the color was all wrong.  The dark wood just didn't have the look I wanted and made the room more dingy.

Lucky me, I've got a ton of paint. Every time I see an offer for a free pint I snap it up.  I have about 6 small cans just waiting for projects like this.

I was looking for an excuse to use this color

Before I painted I sanded down some of the rougher spots and gouges that were in the wood.  Ben helped paint and then seal the table.  He used a clear spray sealer.

Ben is a faster painter than I am so he helped out

I found some clear contact paper in the closet and Ben put that on the top so I wouldn't scratch up the table.

Gratuitous butt shot

But since we had put a clear coating on the table the contact paper wouldn't stick.  I decided to coat the top with Mod Podge to help protect again scrapes.


I bought a basket at the craft store that came with a pattern to make your own basket liner.

I love things that come with patterns

I used one of the fabrics I bought recently at the Portsmouth Fabric company to make a liner that matched the table.

Fabric went perfectly with the paint color I chose

I found a simple basket pattern so I can utilize the spaces for the drawers (I hate wasting space). I matched the fabric to the lining I made for the large basket and used some solid blue for the inside of the basket.  The batting I used didn't provide enough stiffness for the baskets so I took a box top, cut it to size and put it on the inside of the baskets. I added some Velcro spots to make sure the box stayed put. It doesn't show from the outside and provides the stiffness the basket needs so it doesn't collapse.

Oh man I've had this box for a while

It provides a great spot for all my piping, bias tape and other notions. 

It's all done and I love it.  What a big change!  Now I'm itching to do more furniture finishing projects.