coffee sack burlap chair reupholstery

You last saw these chairs at Thanksgiving, 2011, when I repainted and upholstered them with some whimsical sheep fabric . . . it lasted a while, but it was pretty dirty and hard to scrub clean.

I recently reupholstered them again with the front and back of a coffee sack for a little change of pace.

 

Easy as pie, just like last time. You'll want to fold over the edge of your burlap, though, and staple through a couple of layers to keep the burlap from warping or unraveling.

 Here are a few more coffee sack projects I've tackled:

Coffee Sack Tree Skirt
Cushion
Lamp Shade
Wall Art

And here's where you can find a coffee sack or two if you're interested in trying this at home!

Thanks for reading!

chalkboard coffee / train table

Due to our kiddo's recent interest in jumping off of the couch, it seemed like a good idea to trade out the rectangular coffee/train table's corners for something round. I decided on a pedestal table, and I kept my eye out at thrift stores, estate sales, and yard sales for more than six months before leaping (almost literally) at this one a couple of weeks ago.

It had a mission-style base, little wooden casters, a scabbed-up top with peeling veneer, and someone had let their 24-hour reserve tag on it expire at St. Vinnie's. I paid for it on the spot; it was 50% off yellow tags day, and the table had already been marked down from $49.99 to $34.99. Too good to let it get away.

After running home to clean out my car and grab a screwdriver, the kiddo and I drove over to disassemble and load it up. It all happened so fast that I neglected to get a photo of the fully assembled table, but here it is, back home, after I'd started sanding and puttying the top.

I left the cracked veneer in place, but secured it with wood glue and putty. When the time comes to refinish it, this will hopefully make it easier to remove the chalkboard finish; I'll just have to peel off the veneer and start with the wood underneath. 

The table was dining table height, so after getting it home I had some further disassembling to do before I could cut it down by nine inches to make it coffee table height.

I measured and marked, then used masking tape along the line to help reduce splintering.

 

A circular saw, carefully used, took off the extra base, and after reassembling and a little more sanding, the kiddo and I rolled on two coats of zero VOC primer on the top.

That night, after the kiddo's bedtime, I painted on the chalkboard paint (tinted to the kiddo's specifications) in three coats four hours apart. I kept the windows open, a circular fan pointed towards it, the kitchen and bathroom fans on, and the central air circulating to reduce fumes. It worked really well, and by morning we were ready for the three days of curing time recommended on the label.

It was ready for chalk prep (rubbing with the side of a stick of chalk, then erasing) in time for the kiddo's birthday. Hooray!

We love it so far. The color isn't what I would have picked, but it's classroom-chalkboard-green so it doesn't offend me either. More important are the increased play area, improved traffic flow, and reduced risk of injury. Plus, super cute, in my opinion.

Thanks for taking a peek!

p.s. want to see these photos larger? just click on them.


Linking up to:

Coastal Charm

My Repurposed Life

thrift store finds: quilting hoop wall art

I find large, wooden quilting hoops at thrift stores all the time, and they're crazily inexpensive. I could have stretched any fabric in it to make some fun, fast wall art, but I chose to do another coffee sack project this time around. 

I loosened up the wing nuts . . .

then chose what part of the design to display, and cut around my hoop with a 2—3 inch border added.

After cutting, I triple zig-zag stitched the edges of the coffee sack oval to keep the burlap from unraveling.

Then I stretched the edged circle over my hoop, and used a large nail to hang it on the wall.

And there you have it! Fast and easy. You can use an iron on the steam setting to make the back lay down flat enough to hang on the wall, but some coffee sacks do fine if you skip that step.

As this project only uses the front of the sack, it's easy to find remnants large enough for other projects. Like maybe a cushion, a lampshade, some tassels, or the edging on a bike basket. You know; just for example. ;)

I have coffee sacks available in my Etsy supplies shop; drop in if you want to try one of these projects for yourself!

Thanks for reading.

Linking up to:

The CSI Project

make your own mercury glass lamp + coffee sack shade

I've been promising to get this tutorial up sooner rather than later because someone specially requested it. This is a fun project, plus a good way to upcycle some thrift store stuff or things you might already have.

Materials:

1) Tall Glass Vase (wide and a little curvy is good). Mine cost $4 with a 20% off coupon at the Village and is 15 inches tall. These can be really expensive new, so it pays to do some thrift store hunting and some garage sale-ing if you have the time.

2) Stainless steel pan lid (one with a screw-on handle and a steam vent) that kinda fits the vase top. Mine was $1 at Goodwill.

3) Lamp kit. I pulled mine out of a thrift store lamp. The lamp cost $3. A new lamp kit from the hardware store cost $12. Plus mine wasn't brass. Just make sure the thrifted lamp is modern and UL listed so you won't have to worry about fire risk.

4) Lamp harp. If your thrifted lamp didn't come with one, you'll need it to hold the lampshade on your new lamp. I found a bin full of these for $1 apiece at Bring. They're way more expensive new.

5) Drum shade. I bought this one for $2.99 at Goodwill. The shape was right, the fabric was horrible. I wasn't sure I'd make it work, but you'll see how I turned it all around. (This will work best if your shade has sides that are straight, and the diameter is the same at the top as at the bottom.)

6) Looking Glass paint (there's no substitute. Le sigh.)

7) Black acrylic paint.

8) Light bulb. I found a large supply of Edison-style incandescents over at the Habitat ReStore for a quarter apiece.

9) Hot glue gun and glue sticks.

10) Burlap sack.

11) Dremel tool or drill (to widen the hole in your metal pan lid)

How to Make it:
Shade

Let's do the shade first, because it's the hardest. If your shade is white or neutral colored, you can skip the tedious step of removing the fabric from the shade. If not, use an X-acto blade to carefully slit the fabric (but not the plastic shade).

Carefully puuuuuuuuullllll the fabric off the shade. It will probably be glued down well. It will probably come off in strips. It will probably take really strong fingers and a couple of hours to get it all off. Unfortunately, with colors this bright, covering over the top was not an option. Fortunately, most lampshades don't look like this one did.

Once your shade is blank, set it aside while you cut open and iron your coffee sack on a high steam setting. Get it as flat and smooth as possible. Line up your shade on one end and cut while rolling. Leave a seam allowance of an inch, top, bottom, and end. Once you have your piece cut to the right length, press flat a hem at each short end.

Hot glue one end to the shade, leaving the hem loose for now. Use as much glue as necessary to get the burlap to stick, without seeping through.

Once the glue has cooled, pull and smooth the burlap to test for fit. Attach the burlap to the shade as you roll it, adding glue as needed (especially at the top and bottom edge). When you get all the way around, glue down the starting hem, and glue the finishing hem over the top of it.

Wrap the top and bottom edge of the burlap over the top and bottom edge of the shade and glue to the inside. Where the support brace meets the shade, cut slits on the edge of the burlap for a proper fit.

Done! Yes, this is the hard part. If you've covered shades before or if you'll be using a readymade shade, it won't be that difficult at all.


Lamp

Don't settle for a nine-inch tall vase. Hold out for something the size of a nice, large lamp. Hit a few thrift stores, and you'll find one eventually; they get donated all the time. Once you have one, wash it inside and out. When clean, spray the inside with warm water, then a light layer of the mirror paint. Very light. This paint doesn't have much opacity to it, so you'll still be able to see through it to a degree even after several light layers.

Between layers, you can spray more water if you want a more aged finish. I wanted an extremely imperfect finish, so I was careless with the amount of water and how it pooled when I lay the vase horizontally. I wanted lots of age to it, and things don't age evenly.

Check from the outside to make sure your vase has a mirrored finish. There should be an unevenness to it where the water gathered and ran under the paint.

When everything is dried and cured, take a damp, folded paper towel and add some black acrylic to it. Lightly wipe and dab the inside of the vase with the paint. Some of the mirror paint will come off as you do this; you can control how much. More will be removed when wiping, less when dabbing. The black paint will help the imperfections in the mirror paint to be more visible from the outside.

I used some source images from Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware to inform my process; how much black did I want to show through? How much silver?

If you make mistakes and remove too much mirror paint, let the acrylic dry and then spray another layer of the mirror.

When you get it just right, set aside the vase and let it dry and cure.

In the meantime, take your pan lid and use a screwdriver to remove the handle. Use a drill with the appropriate size of drill bit for your lamp kit to enlarge the screw hole.

Wash the lid well, then assemble your lamp kit through it. You can use THIS tutorial from Aparment Therapy. Just make sure that the cord + plug runs from the top of the pan lid, down through the steam vent, then up through the screw hole as photographed. This way, drilling through the glass isn't necessary; the cord runs out the steam vent and down the back of the lamp.

You can use small adhesive clips to adhere it to the outside of the glass, but it's not necessary. As you can see in this next photo, the cord is pretty unnoticeable.

Once everything is wired safely and tightly and you've tested with a bulb to make sure it works, use a thin line of hot glue or putty to attach the wired lid to the vase. Use a lamp harp to attach the shade to your lamp. Then plug it in!

If you get stumped, leave me a comment below and I'll help you along!

Thanks for reading!


p.s. you can make these photos larger by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that, clever you!

Linking up to

Junkin' Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds

card catalog coffee table tutorial

I know, I know . . . this is totally out of order. This project did well over at So You Think You're Crafty this week, so I was asked to write up a full tutorial and I'm posting it here. You can check it out over there, too!

Materials you'll need for this project:

one row of card catalog drawers (call your local library if they've recently switched over to a computerized system, or stalk a thrift store or rebuilding store like Habitat for Humanity's ReStore or Bring. The set I used for this project came from Goodwill, and cost $10.)

four vintage wooden mill bobbins (mine came from the Pendleton Woolen Mills store outside of Portland; call them if you don't live nearby, and see if they'll ship to you)

four metal leg attachment plates/corner braces (I found mine at Bring for 50 cents to $1 apiece, and all four match--amazing luck--but you can probably hunt some down at your local hardware store)

one scrap of 3/16 or thicker plexiglass, at least the size of your card catalog (mine was a scrap I used to use for displays at my bookstore a million years ago, but you can buy this new or used at dozens of places)

vintage or new wooden printing blocks (aka moveable wooden type) (I've been a collector for a few years; you can find blocks for sale on eBay or Etsy, or substitute with another type of collection)

thin wood trim (from the ReStore; 25 cents for 3 feet. Unbelievable deal.)

sketch paper (for labels)

piece of heavy tag board or thin wood paneling the same size as your inset space (you probably have something around the house)

flat game pieces like checkers or scrabble tiles

wood screws and nails

Tee Juice dye pen or wood stain

sticky-back felt furniture pads


Tools you'll need

drill

drill bit for metal, just a little wider than your screws

hammer

X-acto knife

ruler

masking tape

typewriter (lacking this, you can also use a typewriter typeface on your computer)


How to Build It

Your bobbins should all be as close to the same length as possible. Drill three holes through each of your metal plates that align with the solid wood edge of your bobbins, and attach with screws.

Turn your drawers upside down and screw the bobbin legs onto the bottom. Add furniture pads to the feet.

Flip your table upright.

My card catalog drawers didn't have a top panel, so there was a built-in inset space once I cut a piece of heavy tag board to sit atop the drawer supports. If your drawers do have a top, you can call your table "done", or you can follow along and add a plexiglass top for a flat collection (see asterisk * below).

Measure twice, cut once. In fact, rather than measuring, you can lay your plexiglass right on top of your table and mark it in place. I marked mine with both tape and permanent marker. That way I could make sure that when I took it to the hardware store to have it cut, it would be as perfect a cut as possible.

You can try to cut the plexi yourself, of course, but it's messy and noisy and sometimes it cracks or splits. Know your strengths.

Fill the inset with wooden type. You can spell words or names or just randomly assemble your collage. I worked the word "Upcycle" into mine to showcase the week's theme.

I used game pieces (and/or old brass house numbers) around the edge to help support the plexiglass. You can use pretty much anything flat and non-perishable that will help the clear top sit and be supported level with your wooden type.

After the plexi was in place, I hunted down the thin, plain wood trim pieces and cut them to size with my X-acto knife. Drill a small finger hold at the back if you want to lift the glass out later to remove the top.

You could use fancier trim, if you wanted to; I kept my trim (and my cuts) simple, and attached the pieces to the card catalog with small wire nails.

To finish, stain to the color of your choice using a Tee Juice dye pen or some wood stain, and print up some paper labels for your drawers.

*If you do have a flat top on your card catalog drawers, you can still add the plexi top and either build up a frame to create an inset, or you can display print ephemera (labels, a poster, library book check-out slips, etc.) under the top for a cool effect.

Thanks a bunch for your votes, everyone! Send photos if you make your own table using these instructions; I'd adore seeing photos.

Linking up to:
Junkin Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds
The CSI Project