Before and After - Antique Scallop Arm Chair

"You re-do furniture, right?"

"Yeah!"

"I kept seeing this chair on the side of the road, for weeks, and I finally picked it up with you in mind. Do you want it? Like, I'll just give it to you?"

"Really? Yes! Awesome! Where do you live? Can I pick it up?"

"Actually, it's in the back of my car right now. I had a feeling you'd be here. I'll go get it."

Do you have conversations like this?

Later that night I walked into my office at work and saw this waiting for me:

Yes. That's my name, written in ball point pen, on the upholstery, just to make sure no one else stole this treasure. I'm sure thieves were lurking in the shadows trying to get their hands on this gem!

Ivy and I got to work right away, pulling out about 300 staples. 

And oila! It looked like this!

Ok, it took a little more than just ripping out staples and taking off the upholstery to get it to look like this. 

1. I sanded it down

2. I removed the arms because they were loose

3. I painted it bright yellow

4. I chose a vintage Hawaiiana muu muu that I was going to use to reupholster it

5. I painted it dark grey and hated it

6. I painted it dark olive and loved it

7. I distressed it slightly

8. I antique waxed it and topped it with VOC-free furniture wax from Miss Mustard Seed

9. I went into Sew Special and found this upholstery grade mustard scallop certified organic cotton print and bought 2 yards of it! I love scallops! The muu muu will get used another time...

10. I screwed the arms back on, reinforcing them with wood filler and wood glue.

11. I reupholstered it.

I made that little Ivy & Co. sign for my first Craft Fair. One day I'll get a real one made.

It's for sale on craigslist and Etsy for $135. Come and get it!

Aloha, Rebecca

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Do unto your dining table as you would have your dining table do unto you

You eat here. You talk here. You might have "school" here. Your kids draw here. You sew here, iron here (well, at least I did, until I made our living room the sewing room). You entertain here. You LIVE here. It's your dining table and it takes a lot of flack from you! And if you're blessed enough to have a real wood dining table, you better treat it right! Do unto your dining table as you would have your dining table do unto you!

It wasn't too long ago that our table was just plain jane wood. Then it got black legs, and a cool antique finish on it's surface. (Click here to see that transformation a little over a year ago). 

Well, here we are a year later, and the awesome antiquing finish has become a little dull and our laziness of not using coasters ALL THE TIME has brought out the worst water rings in all of us. We LIVE at this table! It gets wiped with a harsh eco-friendly cleaner at least once a day! I'm not surprised that it is just tired and worn out. 

Here it is "before" I attacked it with some light sanding and Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil last weekend. See that bottom section with the light area (where I scrubbed too hard one day) and the water rings? Well, this is right where I photograph my Etsy products, and it was starting to show in my pics!!

Look at these actual shots I have up on Etsy… water rings! Random light spots! It's terrible!

Luckily I've been working with Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil for a few projects now, and was confident it would give a little revival to this table. 

I sanded a few problem areas and then I just "painted" on the hemp oil with a paint brush.

Ivy "helped" in her cowgirl hat, just before she and daddy headed out to an anti-GMO rally. 

It looks really wet when you first put it on, but after 30 minutes, you wipe off the excess oil. Then you let it "dry" for 24 hours. You can do additional coats at that point, or you can leave it be. 

I actually might add a coat of furniture wax to it for further durability, so the same thing doesn't happen in a year. As you can see on the bottom of the photo, those light areas are still there, because essentially, the antiquing wax was wiped off every time I scrubbed really hard. I should probably re-apply antiquing wax on those spots and then do the furniture wax over it. But other than that, I'm really happy with the new finish. 

So now we can get back to LIVING at our dining table, without staring at such ugly spots all over. 

Here's a shot of my latest Etsy listing, photographed in the same spot as the pictures up above. Much cleaner looking background! 

So, make sure you treat your table right this week. Even if you don't give it a Hemp Oil finish, maybe just give it a nice eco-friendly wipe down? :)

Aloha, Rebecca

(Here's some shots of us "living" at our table)

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