Our Family Unit
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  • August27th

    Guess whose couch is featured on Pink & Polka Dot this Friday??  Kristi’s site is full of slipcover inspiration and great DIY projects that will get you dreaming of your next trip to the Flea Market.  Take a minute to check it out!

  • August21st

    It was time to make a decision about our couch.

    On the positive side:

    • It was comfortable, very comfortable
    • It was the right size for our room
    • I liked the shape and style of it, and so did Kyle (he’s surprisingly opinionated about furniture sometimes)
    • We already owned it (meaning I didn’t need to fork over $1000 to relax while watching TV)
    • It was NOT the couch pictured above

    On the negative side:

    Back to the positive side – it is covered in memories!  I mean look at those pictures!  We’d bought the couch used from some friends almost 7 years ago.  We’d moved it over 6000 miles, taken it apart and put it back together 5 times.  I just couldn’t kick it to the curb!  I had looked at slip covers, but none seemed able to fit our removable pillows without looking like a sheet had been thrown over it.  I found a book about making custom slip covers – basically it’s suggestion was to reupholster the couch, but at the very end, not attach it to the actual frame.  This apparently deemed it as a slip cover and was supposed to make the project less intimidating.  It worked – I started shopping for fabric.

    I found some great fabric at Discount Fabric Store in San Francisco – only $6/yard, as long as I bought the whole roll.  So I ended up washing and ironing 20 yards of HEAVY fabric.  It was almost the exact same as the current fabric, just a shade lighter (and with no sun fading or stains).

    So I started…

    I made one pillow case and then restuffed it with the old stuffing.  It was lumpy and still saggy.  We found out that if I shredded and fluffed the old stuffing, it brought it back to life and I could avoid having to buy more stuffings.

    Each cushion held about 2 trash bags of stuffing – I don’t even want to tell you how many hours were spent shredding!

    Then I made the remainder of the cushion covers and filled them with the old stuffing.  I could finally toss those stained covers!

    With the original cover still on the couch, I sewed my new cover upside down, piece by piece.  Then I trimmed off the old welting, so it wouldn’t create bumps and lumps underneath my new one.  I turned mine around, ironed it and pulled it down over the couch.  That was it!  It was complete.


    A new couch, covered in just memories, no stains!  And all for less than $200 (for fabric, welting, thread and zippers)

    I’ll try to get pics posted of the new living room arrangement soon.  I finally got to move my other reupholstered chairs into the lime light, not to mention make some room for a rocker that needed moved out of Kade’s room.

  • August17th

    OK, so I feel like I owe you an explanation.  We have not died or fallen off the planet.  Things just seem to keep coming up.  (These are not excuses, possibly blog topics as soon as I get around to it, but not excuses.) :)

    After Kade’s birthday party, we went to CO for a great time with grandparents.  Then after we got home, we had friends visit from Atlanta.  I came up with the crazy notion that reupholstering our living room couch would be a good idea, which of course led to rearranging the entire living room. The girls threw me a “baby sprinkle” and we all went to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco.  Brice, Kyle’s brother, came to visit for a few days.   Kyle has been working all along on the activity table for Kade and it’s now all together (I can’t wait to show it!!!  I absolutely LOVE it!) But we still need to stain it and paint the inside which means I’ve been researching ideas on how to do that.  We also came up with an idea to use the table for a few felt board games – so I have been cutting out felt pieces for what seems like weeks.  The garden is doing great – mainly the zucchini.  I haven’t been keeping track, but I think I’ve made somewhere around 14 loaves of zucchini bread and our freezer is stocked with zucchini!  My sister, Megan, sent me the most ADORABLE doll patterns for my birthday, so I’ve also been trying to sew a couple dolls in my spare time.  A girl doll for Fritz, of course, and a little boy doll for Kade so that when Fritz comes and mom seems to always be taking care of Baby Sister, Kade will have a baby to take care of too.  (He really likes doing what I’m doing).

    Meanwhile, Kade has apparently learned the entire English language.  He has gone from saying about 50-60 words to talking about everything he sees, everything he remembers, and what he wants to do that day.  It’s super cute to here these complex sentences come out of a tiny little mouth!  He’s also decided that “Duck T-T” (DuckTales) is a great past time, along with Buzz Woody (Toy Story).  He asks for them every day by saying “Duck T-T, OK!”, as if I’ve offered and he’s agreeing.  He’s also learning his ABCs, but instead calls them “BBCEs).  Potty training is going GREAT and I have high hopes that we are on track to be in really good shape when Fritz comes.  When you ask Kade where his baby sister is, he points at my tummy – SO precious!  Kyle and I are trying to figure out what to do about Kade’s new bed as he’ll obviously need to get a bigger one so Fritz can have the crib.  We’d like a white Captain’s style single bed, but we’re trying to decide if we buy a new one, make our own, or buy some crap-tastic one off Craigslist and modify it to be exactly what we want.

    As far as little Fritz, the pregnancy is going great.  She is really kicking up a storm now and is old enough to get the hiccups.  (I know she’s got them when I feel really rhythmic soft “kicks”).  I’m still feeling pretty good, although for a while there I was SUPER exhausted.  The doctor said that I was apparently very low on iron and so now that I’m taking an iron supplement, I’m feeling much better and have more energy.  We think we have a first name picked out, but still working on the middle name.  We’re keeping both a secret as we’ve got to have something be a surprise or no one will bother to take our phone call when she’s born.  :)   We’re in the final leg though, officially the 3rd trimester.  A week or so ago, one of Kyle’s coworkers who has 2 little girls, was getting rid of her baby girl clothes and gave us A TON!  That really got me in the mood for baby girl – all those ruffles and pink and lace!  I can hardly wait!

    I’m sorry I haven’t been updating this as regularly.  I promise to do better…scratch that, I promise to TRY to do better.  It seems that I can’t really predict my capabilities as well as I used to before pregnancy.  :)   Thanks for understanding!

  • November18th

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    As you know, I’m in the process of revamping my living room.  I was pleased with how the Love Seat Replacement – Part 1 had turned out and apparently drunk with enthusiasm when I decided to purchase Love Seat Replacement – Part 2 (above).  This little beauty was on Craigslist and I took it home for only $25.  Initially, I was thrilled about this piece.  I love the style and it goes well with our other pieces of furniture.  I felt confident that not only would I be able to turn this chair from a fire hydrant (see pee stain below) into a show-stopping centerpiece; I had visions of how I would soon be starting my own re-upholstering business which would, of course, bring in millions.

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    It started out with this odd orange-y stain on the wood that was speckled with black spots, as if someone had dipped a toothbrush in black paint and then spritzed it all over the chair.  The fabric was, to say the least, shot.  The only thing I was really able to salvage was the inner springs.  It needed new cotton batting, cushions, trim, wood stain and, of course, fabric.

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    Taking the chair apart wasn’t difficult at all.  The trim was just glued on and since there was no need to save the fabric, I just pulled it out from around the staples.  I stripped and sanded down the wood and then gave it a very dark stain.  I wanted to get it as dark as possible without actually painting it black.  I then gave it 3 coats of deft and left it to dry on the patio.

    That night, my love affair with the chair started to come undone.  It looked like it might rain that night, so I went out to bring “my pride and joy” into the garage.  I tripped over a toy, fell backwards into the sandbox, and landed on the firepit; all the while trying (and failing) to protect the chair.  No longer did it have that perfect finish.  But my bruised knee and ego were in too much pain to fix it.

    Next task was finding new batting and cushions.  This wasn’t difficult either, just a bit shocking at how quickly costs were adding up.  But the chair was so cheap, I figured things would average out.  Finally, I was ready for fabric.  I had looked and looked online but really couldn’t find anything that was “right”.  Then, I randomly hit a 50% off sale at JoAnn’s and bought this perfect smokey light blue faux suede.  It had great texture!  I was falling back in love.

    I took everything home, whipped up some cushions, and sewed pieces for the front and back of the chair.  Things were going smoothly and I was excited to use my brand new pneumatic stapler.  However, the more I stapled, the more I realized my career as an upholsterer might be short-lived slash non-existent.  My new blue fabric was not nearly as “stretchy” as the old gold.  Only with much pulling, cursing under my breath, and extra hands and finger strength from Kyle did we miraculously get it to fit.  Then came the problem of the trim.  The combination of fabric glue and suede texture does not leave ANY room for error.  As I’m sure you could have guessed, I am not error-proof.  My fabulous texture was quickly marred, over and over again.

    In the end, the chair is finished and in my living room.  I still love like it and I will sit in it; however, I’ve learned some valuable lessons:

    • Pride goes before a fall
    • Pick up toys BEFORE nightfall
    • Never combine glue with suede type materials
    • It’s only a chair…not the end of the world.  This project did not deserve as much frustration as I heaped upon it
    • Even a scuffed chair with marred trim will hold you up of the ground

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