The Art of Failing: Slipcover Gone Wrong

Sometimes thing just don’t go the way you expect, or want, them to. Take these homemade brownies I tried to make with a can of black beans. Definitely a mistake. Thankfully, most of these things aren’t disastrous by any means, just mistakes. Well, my friends, I have come close to disastrous with this new little experiment I tried. As you all know, I am working to make our carport room into my Mego Cave. You can see its progress when I began making it over by starting with this fabric artwork project, then got this steal of an antique door desk, and changed around the layout. When I got the new, super, awesome FREE chair, it kind of changed the direction I was going in the room. Originally I was going to get a chair that complemented the blue loveseat. Now that I have this electric blue chair, I think the combo with the soft blue loveseat is just a little too…blue. And you know we don’t want any blues in that room!

So I had this super-great idea (or so I thought). I would bring the blue loveseat to the basement to complement its blue walls down there and bring the more modern lines of the basement loveseat upstairs. The only problem was this loveseat was horribly ugly. It is a hand-me-down from the in-laws (from a looong time ago) and hopefully there are no hard feelings that I just called something they bought ugly. Although I am pretty sure I have told them that before. Moreso in the words, “It’s just not my style.” Anyways, we were planning on slipcovering this guy anyways, so I thought, why not bring it upstairs and slipcover it to fit my Mego Cave?! Makes sense right?

 

 

I know, I know. You are thinking, “Duh, Megan, slipcovers always end in disaster.” Well, I’m not a believer in that. I just have a really hard time getting rid of something that is in perfect shape just because it’s not pretty/my style. There has to be something I can to do it to make it pretty! I thought perhaps going with a high-end slipcover (aka me not cheaping out!) would be a good solution. Then, if it didn’t work then I would feel slightly better shoving the old loveseat out the door. So after quite a bit of research, I settled upon this slipcover.

Boy was I excited when this came in the mail. So excited that I don’t even have pictures of the packaging. After I found it waiting on the front porch for me after work, I ran into the house, ripped it open, and practically flew down the stairs. Soon cushions and covers were flying around the room as I worked to get the new slipcover in place. Although, I did have a little inkling in my head that this wouldn’t work, so I had picked a place with free shipping for both delivery and returns. I also made note of the packaging before opening it, so I could best replicate it and get my money back if I returned it. Weird that I had that foresight but didn’t actually take pictures of it. Did I mention I was excited?

 

Before I knew it the seat cushion covers were off and the t-cushion slipcover was on. It looked promising, right?

Then came the more challenging part of fitting the second cover over the loveseat. You had to find the tags marked “Front Center”, “Back Center”, “Left Arm”, and “Right Arm”. Then it really wasn’t that hard. Just push and pull a little bit. Then it was time to sit to see the result.

 

It was wrong. All wrong. It wasn’t even a Band-Aid solution. It just wasn’t a solution at all. Although I knew this was a real possibility it also made me sad. I let it sit on there for a few hours, but I knew it wasn’t the perfect solution. I didn’t want to settle for “okay” or “it will do”. I wanted to scream and shout for joy at the result. Done are my days of filler pieces. I want everything brought into the house to make me oh-so happy and be absolutely right. So off it came and back to the store it went.

I guess it’s just one of those live and learn moments, right? Although, I still haven’t written off slipcovers for good. I think this loveseat was a challenging fit, especially with the t-cushions, which are a lot harder to find slipcovers for than the box cushions. I think slipcovers would also work better for more plush couches. This one had thinner arms and a straighter back, so it didn’t fill out the slipcover enough (even though the packaging said the slipcover would fit the size). It's sort of like baggy pants on a really skinny person. It's just an odd look.

So what's the plan now? To save up for a loveseat that I not only love now, but will love for many years. I am looking for an investment piece, one that will make me jump up and down for joy every time I see it. So that's what I will be doing for the next few months: saving and searching for that right piece. Gosh, it feels good to not cheap out for once. Some things are worth the wait.

What about you? Any mistakes you made that eventually led to something better? Or taught you a lesson along the way? Or just made me you at its ridiculousness?

Craigslist Find: Entertainment Stand

After we have spent so much time in the kitchen these past days, I am going to throw you for a loop and switch to the basement. Under full disclosure and all, this is a project that happened a while back but got interrupted with all the excitement of the kitchen. So while there is a slight lull in kitchen renovation (well it will be happening but I will just be in lovely California visiting my sister) I thought it was the perfect time to show some of the progress in the basement. There was just one thing bothering me. Can you guess what it was from the picture?

No? How about now?

Yup, you got it! We were in dire need of an entertainment stand to hide our cords and provide some needed storage for the exercise and game DVDs. I wanted something modern looking, low to the ground, with storage space, but enough open space to make sure Eric’s X-Box didn’t get overheated. So where did I turn? Craigslist of course. I did not want to spend full price on an entertainment stand (or the like – I am all for using a dresser, trunk, chest, etc. for an unexpected entertainment stand). Now when you start looking for an entertainment stand on Craigslist, be prepared to wade through many, many old school stands. You know those types that used to fit the old, boxy TVs? They were a lot of wood and usually not so pretty. Just big. So when I stumbled across a sleek, simple entertainment stand I got so excited and emailed them immediately. They still had it and would hold it for me!

Here is where I learned a Craigslist lesson. The time to negotiate is before you meet them in person to pick up the item. I waited until we were in person and asked if there was any movement on the price, but it didn’t work. I also had a hard time asking because they were this super cute young couple that had a baby on the way and were moving. So I handed them my $50 and away we went with our new find. I would bet you anything if I had negotiated over email before meeting I could have moved the price $5-$10. Oh well. Lessons learned.

Introducing…our new entertainment stand!

Beautiful, except for that odd oak looking thing in between the stand and the TV. That is the swivel that is absolutely essential for us down there so we can watch TV while working out if we would like. That was an old swivel we had from another old entertainment stand which we were excited to reuse. So hubby got out his guns, well his spray guns, and changed the look of that in minutes.

Let's do a before and after for good measure, because who doesn't like one of those?

We just love it. It serves all of our purposes for being modern, simple yet stylish, and provides the storage and cable-hiding that we need. It makes is look a little more styled and finished down there. The basement is kind of on hold while we finish up the kitchen (for now) and style up the Mego Cave. Eric does have some pretty cool car part up-cycling projects slated for the basement though. Can’t wait to share those when they’re done.

Any of you out there who did something neat with an entertainment stand? Do you have some un-traditional serving that purpose? Or how about any Craigslist scores out there that you have found? It is definitely my favorite toy right now (hello online discounted shopping!).

Big Basement Reveal!

Finally it is here: the after shots of the basement. These are a little belated because I have been taking my time getting everything organized and reorganized to make a fresher and more functional space. Since this is basement week (okay, it's a loose interpretation of week) you will remember seeing the full before basement tour and the basement shelving redesign that gave you a sneak peek of the new color in the basement.

So let me tell you my process in picking a paint color, that I may revise based on what I termed a "paint emergency" later on in this project. My process begins with this:

I find all the paint colors or color families that I am interested in and lay them all out on the floor (or bed or table depending on which room it is). Then I stare at them for a long time; meaning sometimes they stay there for weeks. I go in and look at them at random times and different lighting. I reorganize them depending on my preference. Sometimes I use painters tape to put them on the wall. I also move them all around to compare them to all the furniture/curtains in the room. After that ridiculous process a color usually speaks to me and will jump out of the pack. I thought that had happened this time. So I took my color swatch and picked up two gallons of paint the night before my scheduled painting weekend. As soon as the paint was mixed and I had it in my cart, I knew something was wrong. But it was too late. Duh duh duuuh! So I went home, ripped open the can and splashed some on the walls. ALL WRONG! I hated it! I had wanted a blue grey and all I got was white. My plan for tackling this big project was to do it a weekend Eric was gone to keep me busy. Since he was on his way out the door, I needed to call in backups to help me fix the paint calamity. Who else would I call? My friend and painting helper scheduled for the next day, my wonderful friend Clélie.

She came right over, helped me pick a new paint color from my many swatches, and after an ice cream break headed to the store to change it out. Fun fact here: you can't return paint. After many amusing minutes at the customer service counter, we were headed back to the paint counter to attempt a re-tint. Since it pretty much came out white I thought that was a pretty good plan B. It also resulted in a very amusing half hour with our new friend Rick who hooked us up with my new tint of paint. Also anxious to see this on the wall I once again ripped off the top and splashed some on the walls. Perfect! My blue-grey (well mostly blue) paint color was perfect. Here you can see the two colors, the original (left) and then the tinted (right).

So we were all set to start on Saturday morning! Oh yes, but prior to that, I had tackled painting the trim.

Here is a tip if you are painting trim next to a textured ceiling (meaning painter's tape would not stick with all the texture): take an old magazine cover or piece of card stock and stick the edge between the corner of the trim and the ceiling. Wah-la! It gives you a guide. And if you are lucky (sarcasm here) someone would have done a DIY job and there may be spaces you can physically stick it and not have to hold it!

So with the trim all done, I just had to unscrew all the outlet covers, vents, etc.; tape a few places; and move the furniture away from the walls (no small task!). Here I am ready to go!

Chaos! Which is why I wanted to get the whole room done in one day so I could restore order to the house.

Next, we cut in all the corners. We actually decided to do one half of the room first and then the other, so the furniture could be shifted to the side not being painted.

Now, here goes the first coat!

So much brighter already! Here is the first coat done. The paint color went on so well, it almost didn't need two coats, but it my opinion a paint job done well is with two coats.

Coat number one done! While that was drying a lunch break, buy another gallon of paint break, and another ice cream break was done (yikes! we eat a lot of ice cream together!). Then came coat two. By the end of coat two, we were exhausted, so I sent Clélie home to get some R&R.  But two doing a paint job made it so much faster! There was still the other half of the room left. Being the stubborn person I was (and hey - I didn't want to have to wash off the brushes) I started on the second half of the room pretty late at night. Hence the darkness in the pictures. There it is with all the coats on the wall!

Then Sunday was all about putting everything back together. Sunday then turned into all week, as I didn't want to just slop all the piles and furniture back in its old places and piles. I actually want to think about design and place items where they should be. So my goal was to use only things we had and to make the room look a little more "done up". It is by far from finished, as there are a lot of projects and furniture needed, but oh it does make me happy.

Just as a reminder here is the before (you can see extensive before photos here):

Here is the after!

Yay! SO many pictures (sorry!) but I am just so excited! This is by far the biggest room in the house and now it is painted! Now it is just time to play with the decorating!

What do you think? Favorite part?

Basement Shelving Redesign

Welcome to the second installment during Basement Week! You have already seen the basement tour and the reveal of the new basement curtains and now I have another reveal for you. No, it is not the whole room reveal. I am still working on putting the room back together, using all the same furniture but in a way more decorated and put together way. It is turning out to be a slow process. This post shows a project in the room and also gives you a sneak peek of the new color. Sigh, can I tell you how great it is? I can't wait to show you.

Anyways, the project that I tackled were the corner shelves by the fire place. As you will see in the pictures, the shelves are a very old style with their braided edges. They just aren't the most appealing in our taste. What we really want is to do a built in bookcase, string some rope light in it, trim it out so you can't see the rope light, and have a softly lit built in. Add that to the project list, because this is what it looks like.

These pictures show a hint of the new color - especially when you look at the corner where you can see the contrast. You see, I decided not to paint around the shelves because we are planning on ripping them down and because that would just a lot of work. I hope this project will jump to the front of the list so it doesn't leave an unfinished corner for a while. I did think it was worth it to try and dress up the shelves just using everything we have. As you can see, it is kind of just a stashing place to all of Eric's car magazines.

When I do these reorganizing projects I like to just take it all off so I have a fresh start.

It does create quite the mess in the process though. I just like it because it allows you to look at the space differently - and also at the items. It isn't just moving things around on a shelf, it is placing them carefully. Seriously, it is just like playing!

So after perusing around the items I took off (with the challenge I gave myself to utilize all the magazines in a stylish way) and the ones in other storage places around the basement I just started placing items on the space. I usually start with the big items and then fill them in. If it doesn't gel with your eye, just move it. So after my "playing" this is what it ended up looking like. A stylish corner using only things we had!

We don't like to keep wood in our house unless we are going to use it that day (it eliminates possible bugs) so when I had this huge stack of magazines that I couldn't make look "pretty" on the shelves anymore I thought I would put them in the log holder. This may be my favorite part of the who she-bang!

Now, a play-by-play of the shelves.

Just to recap, here is the before and after shots again.

Not too bad for a temporary staging!

Are you doing any staging projects or have any tips on how you like to do these types of projects?