Crate Coffee Table Thinking Outside The Box

Mr. Cottage brought home a large crate that a friend gave him.  Poor thing, he thought it would be used to store stuff in outside. :) Well sometimes you have to think outside the box with design and that is what we did here. 

The crate gives a rustic look to the slip covered white couches with their ruffled pillows and breaks up the white on white in the room.

I love it paired with this large flower arrangement that Mr. Cottage bought us on Valentines Day.

Here we have it with simple 1/2 Gallon Mason Jars filled with sand and candles and a small footed glass bowl with sand, shells, and a candle.

The pillows are covered with a blue and white striped pillow slip (tutorial here) that give it a simple nautical look that is understated.

I love these simple candles.  They make me long to walk by the shore with the sand between my toes




















Home Decor, Beach Designs, Nautical, Ikea, Slipcovered Couches, .

Sea Side Living Room

I have been working on a project in the living room since August.  I was trying to make the living room a bit nautical like a sea side cottage. Cool colors and white covered sofas and some home made wide striped cushion covers.  I may not live by the ocean anymore but I can pretend, right?  Well, life got crazy, then horrible, then sad and now it just sort of is. A blend of sad and hope that the future will be better.   Well anyway, I decided to finish what I started.  I am so sorry it is so late and now on the 2nd day of fall here in the U.S., I am doing my summer living room post.I actually started with the couches.  I found them on the Ikea website and loved them.  They are the Ektorp white slip covered sofa and love seat.  I had been looking for awhile on Craigslist for these sofas or something similar but I could only find a dark gray or a reddish color and that was not at all what I wanted for my seaside shabby chic kind of cottage feel. 

These sofas are great. The slip covers can be thrown in the wash and hung out to dry in the sunshine as they get dirty and it is as easy as can be.  The Table in the first photo is a set of wicker plant stands with a wooden shelve from the cabinet in the master bedroom that was extra.  It makes a great little table. 

The end table I got at an auction that friends of ours had when they moved to Africa.  I used Annie Sloan's paint on it and you can see the process that I used here.  The lamp I found at a thrift store and bought the plain lamp shade for it and dressed it up with fabric roses that we made and applied.  I have a post here about how we did it. The shell frame we bought at Ross and the photo coasters we got at Belk for my mom for a Christmas gift.  The slipcovers we made with white and dark navy blue striped fabric that we had in the house.  We usually use the fabric for bunting at the 4th of July but I thought I would use it for these to make the room a bit festive for the summer. Under the table is a fabric lined basket full of books to read as you sit and relax on the couch. The back wall is covered in 8x10 photographs of the family.  

I went through and picked the ones that made me smile or had a sweet memory attached to it.  The frames are mostly a mismatched batch of oak frames that I spray painted to look similar.  The last four are frames that we bought at Ross and painted. The oar we bought at Burke's.  We bought one for the baby's room as well but it is red and is holding his sailor hat and his nautical towels. The large brown side table is from a yard sale.  It is a restoration hardware table I believe.  On the table is a drink holder that looks like a large canning jar.  We bought this last summer at Sam's Club. There is a basket on the table with sea shells from a long past trip to the sea and a picture of our family apple picking in the orchard. The wall unit holds some of our favorite things,our love of many books and beautiful nests that we have found while gardening with blown out quail eggs.  

The jar at the top of the wall unit has blown turkey and chicken eggs topped with a nest of quail eggs. The table is a piece we found at a yard sale and the chairs we found a listing online on Craigslist.  The end large chairs we found at Ross.  The candle holder on the table came from Kirkland.                On the fireplace, we have a garland of shells and star fish that we got at Big Lots a few years ago.  On the mantle, there is a sailboat that we found at Burke's that added the sea side feel.  The large framed mirror above the fireplace we found at a yard sale in our neighborhood.  It used to be gold but I used Annie Sloan's paint and made it shabby chic. Click HERE for the post on how I did the mirror.  The paint on the walls is called Crocodile Tears and if anyone is interested in using it I will find out the brand name (I can't remember right now). We know that we use the no VOC paint.  

 
We bought a vinyl piece for the photo wall. It was sort of the inspiration for that wall.  We bought it at Hobby Lobby. You can sign up on the website for coupons and they will notify you of sales.  The coupons are on average 40% off.  Love that store! You can get some really beautiful things there on sale for great prices.  We have a couple of them locally so we have never used the online store.  This was our first time using the vinyl lettering and although we were a bit nervous it was really pretty easy to do.  Just make sure that you lay out the wording as it goes before you do it on the wall so you don't get confused as you are putting it up on the wall.  

 Tutorials:

Rose Lamp
Shabby Chic Table
Shabby Chic Mirror

DIY Shabby Chic Mirror Re-do

We found this great mirror at a yard sale for $5. Isn't it pretty? 

The only problem was that the gold didn't match the house... at all. So we decided to paint it. We took paper and spread it over the glass then taped it down to keep the paint off of it.

Then we took a dry wash cloth and dusted the frame just to make sure there was no dust or dirt on it. (don't worry we did put paper down under the mirror so we wouldn't get paint on the floor)

Closer shot of the details on the mirror

We used Annie Slones white paint, it took about two coats to cover the gold.

After the paint was dry we applied the clear Annie Sloan's wax to the frame and let it dry.

Here are some closer shots of some of the details on the mirror.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Annie Sloan, Shabby Chic, Chalk Paint, Furniture Make Over, White Mirror, Crafting, Decorating, DIY,  Furniture Re do, decor

DIY Throw Pillow Slipcovers

What you need:

Old Throw Pillows (The ones I was covering were 19"x19")

Tape measure 

Fabric Scissors

Fabric (in the shade, color, pattern etc. you are wanting to cover your throw pillows with)

All Purpose Thread (Matching your Fabric)

Pins

Chalk

Sewing Machine or Needle & Thread

A ruler or something straight

 We laid the pillows on the fabric and then measured them to just above the seams. Then used the chalk and ruler to draw a straight line on the fabric so we knew where to cut. Measure and cut (for my pillow) a 19x19" piece of fabric. Set this aside.  Then we cut out one 19" x 16-1/2 piece of fabric and a 19" x 8 pieces of fabric. This will be for the back of the pillow. Take your 19x 16 1/2" fabric and on the 16 1/2 " side fold over your fabric at 1/2 inch one time and press with a hot iron. Then fold over one more time and pin down and press.  Sew that seam on your machine or hand stitch with a running stitch across the fabric.  When finished knot and move on to the 19x8" fabric.  On the 8" side repeat the step and make another seam.  If you use a striped fabric like I did MAKE SURE YOUR STRIPES LINE UP!  Very important!

Pinned seam ready for stitching.

Sewing the pillow side seam.

After you are finished with the hemming of the back you are ready to grab your 19x19" front piece.  Set it in front of you on your table.  Make sure the part you want on the outside of the pillow is facing up to look at you.  Then grab your two smaller pieces.  Line up your corners and sides and begin pinning them.  Make sure the back pieces are facing down (meaning that you are now looking at the wrong side of the fabric.  The hemmed sides of the fabric will overlap (see below).  One side of the hemming will be tucked under, this makes an envelope for your pillow to slip in and out.  Pin all around the edges.  

When finished pinning take your machine and do a simple stitch 5/8" all the way around the pillow, removing pins as you go.  Make sure to make a knot at the end of your work to reinforce the stitches or go back and forth slightly at the end and it will do the same thing. 

Back of your pillow slip showing the "envelope" opening for your pillow to go in and

the wrong side of the fabric.  Note it is a more light color on the wrong side.

Here is the back view of the pillow pinned and ready to sew.

And that it! An old pillow with a new look! If you try this we would love to see pictures you can post them on our Facebook page here.

Shabby Chic Side Table

We bought this little table from our friend's auction when they were moving to Sierra Leone, Africa to become missionaries.  I liked the lines of the table but it was black and the room is a little dark so I decided to work on it a bit.

I found Mrs. Cottage's CeCe Caldwell Chalk paint in white and decided to use it.  I like CeCe Caldwell because it is easy to use, easy to clean up and is non-toxic.  I also love it because the paint names are after places here in America and that just makes me smile for some reason.  :)

I took the table and put plastic under it and began the first coat of CeCe's paint in a white.  It goes on sort of thin so I knew that I would need a couple of coats.  I was not wanting a solid white, though.  I was looking for a shabby French looking table.

From there I just let it dry and went into the kitchen to put on a loaf of bread.  Have to keep busy!

Then I did a second coat of paint.  After that coat dried I sanded it a bit to give it some age.

Here it is after I sanded through to the black in spots.  

A quick coat of wax to seal it and that's it! It was super easy and I really love the way it turned at. 

Shabby Chic Table and Chairs Makeover

So, here we are driving around in the country, can you picture it?  Well in my mind I see us in a convertible and the wind in our hair but no, not that picture.  This one we are in a minivan and there are yard sales everywhere!  We stop and stop and had about the best time. It was a treasure hunt to be sure!

  We picked up a pretty table and some chairs at another one.  The finish was messed up and the fabric... yuck! So, when we could fit no more in the van, uh I mean when we were tired and ready to go back home... we headed back to our "home sweet home" to check out our finds

We found a great table at a sale that was a great piece and also a set of chairs that had great character but not so pretty finish. 

We just so happened to have some Annie Sloan paint on hand.  Mr. Cottage had picked up some Citra Solv at the local Whole Foods which had our wheels a turning.  

One of our friends copied some great pictures for us that we had found on The Graphics Fairy blog. They have to be a reverse copy (backward) because we were doing words, and must be done on a special copier that uses a powdered toner or it will not transfer the image.

Then, off we ran to our local Home Improvement store for a canvas painters drop cloth (love these!), picked up some new foam for the cushion at Hobby Lobby, and we were ready to begin.

We unscrewed the screws that held the seat to the chair easily enough and started the long process of taking off 8 layers (yep 8!) of dirty nasty fabric, staples, nails and yes even huge screws (screws?) that were holding the (did we say old nasty?) fabric to the chairs.  Once finished with that we wiped down the chairs, got rid of any food and dirt and let the chairs dry.  

Once they were nice and dry we poured out the Annie Sloan's paint and added water.  For those of you that may have never tried Annie Sloan chalk paint, it goes far!  Anyway, we painted the chairs and just loved the way they looked!  We did a second coat (man chalk paint dries FAST!) We then began on the cushions while the paint dried

We made the old piece of fabric from the seat cover work as a pattern for our chair covers and the seat base (piece of wood that is the seat found under all 8 layers plus the very dirty foam cushion) as our pattern for the new foam cushion.  We cut the same size and then for the fun part.

We took the photocopies of our French graphics from our dear Graphic's Fairy made with the copy machine with the powdered toner.
We measured the center of our cushion and pinned the top, bottom, right and left of the copy face down. We then put the Citrasolv on a cotton ball and began in small areas to soak the back side of the photo copy where we could see the printing.  We then took a spoon and rubbed the printed places gently but firmly.  You can see the print get paler in the places as the picture transfers to your fabric.  Continue until your entire graphic is on your fabric.  :)  Awesome isn't it?

Then when we were finished we sat the foam cushion on the top of our wooden base, placed and centered our drop cloth covers on top of the foam and flipped them face down.  Then, with a staple gun we began to staple the right and left sides pulling firmly on each side as we went making even pressure so it would lay nicely (this is where it is really GREAT to be a twin!)  Then at the corners we gently trimmed them and eased them to lay nicely as we stapled.  We then simply replaced the screws at the corners that held the cushion on and it is finished.  We liked it so much we did the table from the other sale.  I LOVE how they turned out! How about you??

Fix Them Drawers! With Mr. Cottage