DIY Chairs

When I moved out of my sorority, I learned that they were selling their [nearly] 50 year old dining room chairs. They were selling them for $5 each since they were updating the dining room this past summer, and I thought they'd go great in any future apartment or home I may own, but they needed some work. They're old chairs, but they're in good condition, and I thought that someday if I had a daughter, she could use one in her room, or they could be used as spare seats if we had guests over. Below are the pictures and steps I took to spray paint the chairs, and bring them back to life.

So if you are looking to spice up some old furniture, here are 5 quick steps to doing so! I used spray paint I found at the Home Depot, and I chose the glossy finish instead of the matte. It took about 1 can of spray paint for each chair, so buy 2 or 3 just to be safe. 

Step 1:  First begin by sanding down all of the chair except the wicker seat. It doesn't need to be perfect, but roughing up the wood so the spray paint sticks is crucial. It's probably best to place the chairs on top of old towels or pieces of cardboard [in my case a couple empty pizza boxes] so you don't get too much spray paint on the concrete or grass. 

Step 2:  Next we taped off the corners of the chair seat as close to the wooden legs as possible using painters tape. It took about 3 pieces of tape on each corner to make sure none of the wicker was exposed. Be careful not to get any tape on the leg or you will have an unpainted spot!

Step 3:  We continued taping around the edges of the top of the seat until they were covered. We then flipped the chairs over and did the same thing [corners and edges] on the bottom. You can see the sanding job we did a little better in this picture, too! 

Step 4:  Once the edges and corners were covered, we took cardboard boxes [naturally the only cardboard boxes you will find at a college guy's house are beer boxes] and taped the edges of those down to make sure the top was fully covered. We did this for the bottom of the chairs, too. 

Step 5:  We then spray painted the chairs from top to bottom. After letting the paint sit to dry for approximately one hour, we flipped the chair upside down and sprayed the underside and inside edges we missed. 

After about 24 hours, we removed the tape and boxes off of the seating to reveal the finished product as seen above. Even my guy friend that helped me was anxious to see the finished product!

I love the contrast of the older wicker seat against the bright, glossy finish of the the chair legs and backing of the chair. I am very happy with how this project turned out.

Arm Knit a Scarf in 30 Minutes

Okay, I am really excited about this post. This week my friend taught me how to arm knit. Wait, what? About a year ago, I learned how to knit with needles; the most basic way though. However, this week I learned there was such a thing as arm-knitting, and arm-knitting scarves nonetheless, and, get this, it only takes 30 minutes once you get it down. 

Now, I had to cast on about 6 times before I finally got that part right, and even when I got that part down, I had to restart the actually knitting part 3 times. So, if you can do those first steps right, you'll be golden. 

Here's a picture of what the process looks like. I was measuring my scarf to see its length. I'm bummed I didn't have more pictures taken of the actual process.

Below are the pictures of me wearing the scarf, and then scarf up against a neutral background to see its actual color! 

I bought my materials (2 rolls of yarn - you need 2 rolls regardless of how big they are) at Walmart. I was able to get my 2 rolls of yarn (each about 64 yards, but I'd request longer if you want to double wrap an infinity scarf) for a total of $6.44, that's it! It's awesome for a gift idea, it's just too bad I learned how to do this right before Christmas. Next year I'll know.

I wore the scarf to my family get-together on Christmas Eve and my 30 year old cousins loved it so much they want me to make them each one. Hey, at least I'll get some practice in! 

Anyways, I watched this video before attempting to make the scarf to get a gage on how difficult it would be. She makes it really easy to follow along, however I don't think I could have gotten through it without the help of my friend since I kept messing up. So. Use this video as a tutorial, and anyone out there with remote crafting ability should be able to get it down better than I did! 

or here is the link to the actual video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eClB0RpGBlo 

Good luck!

DIY Wreath

The past couple years for Christmas, I have made my mom gifts I found on Pinterest. Last year it was coasters for the living room with pictures of my sister and I throughout the years mod podged onto them. This year, it was a DIY wreath!  I am so proud of the finished product. I cannot wait to make one for my future house/apartment I'll be living in next year!

Here's what you do. 

Go to Hobby Lobby (or a similar store) to buy the materials. I think that I spent about $20 total on this wreath since a lot of the stuff I needed was conveniently on sale, plus the weekly 40% off coupon you can use on an item of your choice! On this project I used the 40% off coupon on the flowers since the wreath and burlap ribbon were already 50% off, and everything else is pretty cheap anyways. Here's what I used (or something similar):

one 14" natural grapevine wreath | $3.99

one 23" white hydrangea bush | $15.99

one spool of burlap ribbon | $2.99

one wooden monogram letter | $3.49

one 2 oz bottle of cherry red paint | $1.09

1. I began by cutting the different flowers off of the hydrangea bush with about a 4-5" stem to stick through the wreath, plucking all of the leaves off the stem beforehand.
2. Next I stuck the flower stems through the wreath, and when they came out of the other side I bent them in an L-shape at the end so they wouldn't fall back through.
3. After that, I painted the monogram letter using the red paint, and about 3-4 coats on each side to make it a really vibrant red, letting it dry in between coats.
4. After the letter was dry, I used hot glue to attach it to the wreath. I chose a part of the wreath that had a sturdy, thick stick to attach the letter to.
5. Finally, once everything was on, I tied a burlap bow to the top of the wreath and hot glued parts of the bow onto the wreath to keep it intact. 

And...voila! 

She absolutely loved it!

Linking up withThat DIY Party - Holiday Time edition!

I hope your holiday was merry and bright!