Reupholstering the "Old Yellow Chair"

We are incredibly (perhaps foolishly) confident in our ability to "wing it" when it comes to home projects. There are a lot of things that "we" (ahem, Jeremy) legitimately know how to do. Upholstery was not one of those things. We had been wanting to have this chair recovered for years. Did we have any idea (pre-internet research) what we were doing? Nope. Did we do it anyway? Yep. 

This chair was dropped off on Jeremy's front porch as a joke 10 years ago. He had it in all of his bachelor pads and when we got married we kept it since it was such a neat, vintage chair. In the garage. Because it was ripped yellow vinyl. 

Before:

Micah enjoyed the "ripping" phase of the project. We found 97 cents, a golf tee, a soda tab and lots of candy wrappers. A bachelor chair indeed. 

We meticulously labeled all the pieces we removed so we could remember how they went back on and use them as patterns for the new pieces

We thought the chair was 30-40 years old based on fabric and wear-and-tear. Once we stripped it, we discovered another layer of fabric underneath. It was held on with upholstery nails instead of staples, meaning it's probably closer to 50-60 years old. Lots of butts on that chair. 

Yes. Your furniture has cardboard in it. Ours is cooler because it has repurposed blender cardboard leftover from Christmas. 

Micah is digging the extra padding we added

After:

We're pleased with how it turned out!

Christmas 2013

In a feat of epic procrastination I'm just now, on January 19, posting pictures from Christmas. No captions, since that requires extra effort and would inevitably require this post to be pushed back until Valentine's Day.

Kitchen Renovation - Before and After

We took a two-year break in renovating to, know you, have a baby and stuff. The kitchen was the last project we wanted to do in this house (Ok last big project, because if we're honest will we ever really be finished with projects?). We wanted to do it soon so we would have lots of time to enjoy it before a potential move (still years away). 

It took quite a bit of planning since it's pretty impossible to rip out an entire room with a crazy tornado-of-a-toddler on the loose. Also, the negative side of being real foodies/eating Paleo is needing a working kitchen to cook 3 meals a day. Jeremy enthusiastically sacrificially offered to eat pizza for 10 days while he worked, and Micah and I stayed with my parents in Houston to be out of the way.

While the old kitchen had been upgraded at some point by a previous owner, it wasn't quite our style. The tile counters were a beast to keep clean, not to mention uneven. The open areas on top of the cabinets was wasted space in our small-ish kitchen. There were several structural oddities that bothered Jeremy, and I wanted the space to look sleeker, cleaner and less cluttered.

Here is our progress:

Before:

After:

We wanted to keep the light cabinets with the open feel while maximizing our storage space. Jeremy custom-made all the upper cabinets and made new doors for the lower cabinets to match.

He created molds and poured concrete counters, then sanded them smooth and stained them. We found the granite slab for the island for fairly cheap in a granite "graveyard". We were pretty creepy about it - we picked it out after the granite supplier was closed while peeking through the fence in a sketchy part of Dallas.

Before:

After:

We changed the outside hinges on the cabinets to hidden "soft-close" hinges, which make it impossible to slam the cabinet door. VERY helpful with a baby!

To keep the backsplash "clean" looking, we mounted all the light switches and electrical outlets under the cabinets. Jeremy said this was one of the biggest pains of the entire project. I guess I'm lucky I got it in this kitchen, because Jeremy may never be willing to do it again!

Before:

After:

Jeremy created an appliance "garage" to use as a coffee bar. We mounted the microwave to create more space.

Before:

After:

The open shelves felt cluttery and invited baby hands to pull everything off onto the floor. We closed them in for another cabinet and drawer.

Before:

After:

One of my favorite parts of the remodel is my new sink. A fireclay apron-front farmhouse sink to replace my 60/40 stainless. I LOVE the single bowl, and having the sink mounted lower is much better for shorties like me.

Before:

This post was one of the structural things that bothered Jeremy.

After:

I'm a pretty lucky lady to have a man who can do work this beautiful!