GOAL ACCOMPLISHED: The Pottery Barn Table and Chairs

On Christmas Eve, we got an awesome table and chairs from a family I work with. It was from Pottery Barn Kids, and needed some help. (Click here to see the original post and read the full story.) This is what it looked like:

It needed help. 

In March I started sanding the chairs and put some primer and paint coats on them and set a goal to finish the set. I was inspired by Shine You Light blog's Before and After Party. (See that post here.)

The table was next. It took some time. I don't know what was on that table, but it had to come off. (See that post here).

After 3 coats of Martha Stewart metallic paint, I finally finished it in April. It's been done for a while, and you may have spotted it in my chair cushion tutorial (click here), but I had yet to do a true "Before and After" post. So, 5 months and 4 blog posts later, the Pottery Barn Table and Chairs is finished!!

For some reason Ivy is planking on it in her underwear. This photo was taken just moments before nap time...

One more "before":

And here it is in Ivy's room "after"! 

Here's some other fun shots from our outdoor impromptu tea party we had with it.

And finally, I can say, I'm linking up to the Before and After Party at Shine Your Light!! Check out the party. I love Before and After photos, and they've got plenty over there! 

Aloha, Rebecca

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Tutorial: Kids Chair Cushion

Here's what I did on my day off: Kids chair cushions! 4 of them. 

Here's the adorable fabric up close:

Here's the chair I started with (see previous post here):

Those chairs (and the matching table) got a huge makeover. More on that in another post. 

Here's my template. Yes, that's Sonya Tayeh. No, I don't think she's a genius, (I know, disagree all you want), she was just on the back of my magazine which I used to make my "pattern." I just traced half of my chair seat, a little larger than the actual seat. The top edge is actually the "fold" of the fabric. You need two folded pieces to make the cushion. 

Here's what one cushion looks like (sideways) cut out. I used XL rick-rack (one of my favorite things right now) as the cushion holders. 

Place the two fabric pieces together (wrong side out).

Sew 3 of the four sides together. Don't sew the side where the cushion holders are going to go.

Because the rick rack was the huge kind, I needed 4 yards of it. Each cushion used two 18" pieces. 

I love these two colors. I couldn't choose just one... so I didn't.

I set the cushion on the chair and put the rick rack right where I wanted it on the chair. I put it inside, then sewed almost the whole side together, leaving a 4" section open so I could turn it inside out. 

Here's what it looked like:

Then I stitched a cross in the center to give it depth when I put the filling in. 

Filled it up...

I sewed the whole side together, not just the section that was open. Then I also sewed the rick rack together because I felt like it pulled the cushion to close to the back of the chair the way it was. 

Ivy's dressed it up with her Easter necklaces. :)

And those are the cushions. :) Details on the painting of the chairs will come later. 

Aloha, Rebecca

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This table... when will it be done?!!

 I'm desperately trying to finish the Kids Pottery Barn table and chairs...

I want it to be adorable and cute and FINISHED.

My original posts about this adorable set... (yes, posts is plural, because it's taking me forever!) are here and here.

Yesterday I worked on it. I'm proud to say that everything has a coat of paint on it. One coat. Two of the four chairs are completely FINISHED. 

But first, I had to do this to the table:

Thanks mom for lending me your garage sale find: liquid sandpaper.

I kept Ivy busy with a little bit of orange and purple paint, a box, and a paintbrush... well, the dog bowl ended up orange. Her slippers ended up purple. I asked her to look and smile for a photo, but she was too concentrated on her painting. 

Hopefully this never-ending (but enjoyable!!) project will be done by the end of the month so I can finally post my "after" at Shine Your Light blog's before and after party!

Aloha, Becca

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GOAL: the Pottery Barn table and chairs

My very first post (aside from our "Welcome" post) was about a Pottery Barn table someone had given to Ivy. It's a great set of furniture, and I want it to turn out awesome. Usually when I want things to turn out awesome, I fear starting on them until the stars align. Well, I really just want to do something with it, so I'm making a goal to finish this set by the end of March. I'm even entering this Before and After Party, so that I can't back out:




Here's my original post:

In December, one of my students' moms came up to me and said she had an old Pottery Barn kids table and chair set. She said, "It was a gorgeous set, but it's been used a lot and is more of a project, than a gift. We don't really want to give it to just anyone... Would you like to have it?" (Her daughter loves Ivy, and even named her American Doll "Ivy"... :) )


Little did she know that our car tent outside had been used by my brother and his wife to upcycle furniture for the past 4 months. Needless to say I gladly took the table and chairs off her hands. We started sanding it (see the green chair?), but haven't done much more than that. I'm dying to get my hands on it, but I think it is just a bit of a big project for me, so I'm reluctant to get started. I know what I want it to look like, but I'm procrastinating to get started. Here's some before pics. When I finally get it done, you'll see the afters.

Until then...


-Becca


Back to today...




Well, i've made a little progress... I sanded and painted two chairs. Here's the poor yellow one before:

Getting primed:

Godiva, our dog, lurking in the background: 

I have this oops paint. It's a metallic aqua. I also used it for the stripes on my mirror. See post here.

The first coat looked HORRIBLE (pic below). Really see-thru.

But the second went on nice. The one on the left has 3 coats. The one on the right has just 1. 

Kit jumped in too and is sanding the 3rd chair. I have no idea what to do with the table, cause i just want it to be AWESOME!! Anyways. Now I have a goal to get it done!

--Becca

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