Cane Vase Bargain

I wandered into my local Target to find some cane baskets to store CD's in, for the new cabinet I have just revamped (which I will show soon), didn't find what I was after but found a quilt on special for $14 that I thought would be nice as a throw on the end of our bed.

So anyway, I was lined up in the queue, when staff started lining up all these cane vases at the entrance to the line.  I overheard one staff member say to the other "Is this legal?"  so of course I had to listen in.  The second staff member said "yes, just turn them round so that the price is showing, we want customers to see the $0.86 price".  I said "Sorry, what did you say" and checked the price tag for myself.  Thats right $0.86

Check it out

So I bought two (would have got more, but I didn't know what I was going to do with the two I got).  I would have only been robbing myself if I had left them there.

But wait, it gets better.  They scanned $0.64 at the check out.  I got two waist high cane vases for $1.28.  Puurrr leeeees. Honey, I was so excited.

The blue tones will go well in the dining room when I finish it.  But I do love a bargain.  What bargains have you found?

Reupholstering Dining Chairs

The improved chairs

This is a post I have been meaning to uhhhh... post.  It was my first major DIY job.  Well, over a period of 5 years, yes, you read correctly, 5 years, I have stripped and stained the chairs.  Last weekend I got enthusiastic and finished off the table.  Which I just love the look of, but frankly, the chairs were letting the table down.


I reuphostered the chairs.  The material is a grey/cream stripped material that I got from Spotlight.  It was an end of roll special.  Although located within the furnishing fabrics, I think that it is very lightweight, so it may not last the distance.  However with two toddlers, and at $8/metre I figured if it lasts me 5 years, I will just change it.

The material has given me direction for the rest of the dining room.  I am going with a majority black, white and silver theme.

The table, I stripped the top and stained it, then put Cabothane over the top.  I was going to strip the legs as well, but saw a table that I loved, that had painted white legs.  So I decided to paint the legs, and thought, if I don't like it I can strip it back, like I was originally  going to do.  When I painted the legs I was just so pleased.  I finally had a peice of furniture I love.  Unfortunately the original table colour was so uuurgly that I have no photos of it. You will just have to take my word for it, it was dark brown, and blurgh.  
couldn't be bothered

I just needed to get on with it and reupholster the fabric.

Dining room chair in progress

Reupholstering the seat is easy, I just unscewed the seat from the chair (from underneath) and stapled the fabric on.  With stripped fabric, just keep checking that it is straight.  and staple all the sides first, then tackle the corners. 

After I did all the chair seats, I tackled the backs.

One chair finished

The backs of the chairs prooved a little more difficult.  I had some staples showing where I had joined the back piece of fabric to the chair.  So, I added some piping to hide the staples. I think that adds a bit of "something" to the chairs.  I love the contrast the black piping adds, and it seems to break up the grey.  Love, love, love it.

The "After" table and chairs.

  

Before

and After

So there you have it.  My first real DIY.  And it is a success as far as I am concerned.   

 

Improving the look of your blog.

As I am new to this blogging caper, I have just taken a bit of time to play around and get to know a bit about my blog page. 

One such improvement is the adding of a signature.  I think it looks rather spiffy if I do say so myself.  One of the blogs I follow, Funky Junk Interiors, has some great info on blogs, and one of which was adding a signiture to your blog.

Rather than me give out all the details, you can find them here.

Good luck and enjoy. 

Original Wire Lightfitting

I have noticed a lot of industrial styling creeping into decoration just lately.  And co-incidently, I have just recently stumbled upon a blog site that I absolutely luuuuurve, The Painted Hive, and I was inspired by a light fitting Kristine did for her nursery, which you can view here.  I loved the look of it, but really didn't give it another thought.

That is until... I spotted this beauty in an op shop

It was some sort of basket, but it screams light fitting to me.

So using Kristine's wire ceiling light as inspiration I took to my new basket with wire cutters.

I measured the diametre of the hole, by using the old light fitting

Marked the hole with a permanent marker, and got snipping with wire cutters

and installed

I love how the wavy wire makes purdy patterns on the walls when lit up.  I love the lightshade and it was so cheap ($4) and so easy.

So here is the (boring) before

and (amazing) after

Love it
Love it
Absolutely love it.

Cheers Sarah