Easy Furniture Revamp - Cedar Chest

My parents gave me this "hope chest" when I was in my teens...I can't remember which year exactly, but it's been around for awhile now. :) Now that I've been married for a few years and all my "hopes" have been unloaded from my hope chest and put to good use in our home, the chest now holds our extra coats, hats, gloves, etc. We've had two dogs since we've been married, both of which thought the top of the bench made an excellent bed and, as you can imagine, that kind of wear is hard on upholstery. I decided last summer (this got to be a sadly procrastinated project!!) that this bench needed a makeover, and set about it's transformation. 

Here it is in all of it's glory. :) It's sitting just inside our patio doors, and the sun has faded it badly...

One of our dogs thought (during the puppy phase) that this corner looked like a good chew toy. 

The upholstery was pretty shot, and out of date anyway. 

I started by removing the bench pad and hardware from the chest. All of these were very easy to remove...I just had to reach inside and unscrew them. :)

There they are! :) Make sure you don't loose any little pieces. I had intended to spray paint the hardware, but after a little more thought decided I liked it the color it was. One less step is always nice. :)

Next I found a black vinyl fabric to recover the bench pad. It's got a faux leather texture to it, and is pretty thick and soft...seems like it will wear MUCH better than the previous upholstery. :) Also, all the mud that gets dragged in will wipe right off! 

I laid the bench pad upside down on the back of the vinyl and trimmed the new piece to size. Make sure to leave several inches all around the edges. 

Then, using my husband's staple gun, I fastened the ends in place. 

Once the ends are securely stapled down, fold over the sides and staple them as well. 

Not all of the staples wanted to go thru the thicker vinyl very well, so I had to hammer them in the rest of the way. 

Now for the corners. You can really fold them over however you like, but this is how I did mine. Pull the extra fabric straight up...

...and then pull it down and spread out the sides. Sorry, it's hard to explain...hopefully you can follow what I did there. :)

Staple that in place as well. Repeat with each corner. 

Here's how they look from the finished side. 

Another angle...I think it makes a nice, finished looking corner. 

All done with the pad! :)

Already looking better!! :) 

Next you need to decide how you want to refinish you wood. If you're really ambitious you can totally strip it down and re-stain it. I HATE (not dislike....H-A-T-E!!!) sandpaper!!! I hate the feel, I hate the sound, I hate the dust...I just hate it all!! So I wanted to come up with a way of revamping my wood without having to use sandpaper. Here's where I made a very baaaaaaaaad decision. : \

I decided I was going to just use a chocolate brown spray paint on the wood. I mean, how much worse could it look? I started spraying it on and almost instantly realized that was NOT a good idea. It looked so tacky and gross and I was NOT happy. :( I stopped right away, and that is how the poor bench sat from last August till this week. Hey, I told you I procrastinated!!! :) I didn't want to continue with the spray paint, and I REALLY didn't want to have to sand the whole thing down and re-stain it...but what other options did I have?

Then, earlier this week, I discovered PolyShades from Minwax. Wow!! I wish I had found this stuff years ago!! :) It stains and polyurethanes all in 1step, and can be used on already finished wood. Awesome!! I did wind up having to sand all that stupid spray paint off the front of the bench (wearing my husband's heavy work gloves so I didn't have to touch the sandpaper!! Haha...), and you are supposed to lightly sand finished wood before applying the stain, which I also did over most of the bench...I did stain a couple of places without doing a thing to them first, and they turned out fine. :)

Progress!! :) The lid of the bench had never been finished, except around the edges, so it took a couple thick coats to look decent. 

Looking soooooooooo much better!!! :) 

After a couple of coats of my amazing PolyShades, I was ready to reattach the bench pad and hardware! Voila!! It looks soooooooo much better now, and fits in with the rest of my furniture much better. Now that I know how easy it is to refinish wood using PolyShades, I may just form a new addiction... ;) Good luck with your own revamps!!

Custom Canvas Wall Art

We recently repainted and redecorated our bathroom and I wanted to find a nice canvas piece for the wall. I really loved these (the first 3 below, found at www.notonthehighstreet.com) but they are (believe it or not!!) $338.04....EACH!! Yes, they're pretty....but not THAT pretty! :)

I figured I could do something similar for MUCH less than that. :) 

I found a 2 pack of 16x20" canvases as Hobby Lobby for $7.99. I also got the packs of chipboard letters there...they were $4.99 a pack, but were on sale for 40% off. :) I love Hobby Lobby's sales! I can't remember how much the spray paint was, but it was a few dollars. You will also need Tacky Glue or some other adhesive. 

I really liked the way the other pictures had different sizes of letters; however, I decided I wanted to do Psalm 19:14 and it was long enough I was worried there wouldn't be enough room if I did any words in bigger letters, so I used all the same size. I'd like to try one sometime that's more like the ones in the above pictures though. :)

I just started sorting thru the letters and laying out the words....

Lots of letters!! :)

Once I had them roughly laid out and knew how many lines I would need, I measured out the lines and used a level to trace them lightly onto the canvas with a pencil. 

Then I went along, one letter at a time, and glued them down, using the lines as a guide. I also used a ruler to try and space out the words, although I just "guesstimated" most of it. :)

I guess I didn't take any pics of this next step, but once all the letters were glued down and the glue had dried I took it outside and spray painted it all ivory. Make sure to spray the sides of the canvas as well. It may take more than one coat....once it's dried, check for any thin spots that need a second coat. 

Then get your sweet husband to hang it all up for you. :) I also made the smaller square canvas...the metal "H" I got for $3.99 at Hobby Lobby, and I think I also got the smaller canvas there, but can't remember the price. I just glued the "H" to the canvas and sprayed them ivory as well. :) The solid oak shelf I picked up for $2.99 at Saver's. :)

I was very happy with how it all turned out!! :)

Now it's your turn! Hobby Lobby has lots of different sizes of chipboard letters...or you could use wooden letters....I'd love to see what you come up with! :)