brandi byrd >> design » re-use

completion #3: computer chair

bmbyrd — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:00:53 +0000

As I start to work more and more on my creative experiments my quaint little townhouse feels less and less spacious. I’ve decided that my next big project is going to be converting my office’s closet into a sewing/craft station. And what does every sewing/craft station need? A chair, of course. ha.

The back of our old computer chair broke a few months ago and I realized that the base of the chair was still in good condition. I decided to keep it and shoved it under the desk where it became my new foot rest for months and months and months. Then, when I decided to create my new office closet I realized, as my feet were comfortably perched, that I could make use of my old chair. I needed a chair to slide right under the desk that was in the closet so I could close the doors and hide all my mess. This was the perfect solution.

It was ugly. Really ugly. I thought I would try to tackle the task of recovering the top of the chair. Sometimes if I’m in the fabric store I’ll buy the scraps that are half off if I like the pattern. I went through my box of scraps and found the perfect fabric.

It actually was pretty easy! All you have to do place your fabric on the floor, flip your chair upside down, pull your fabric tight and staple! Seriously, that is all. It took me maybe a half an hour to complete. Seriously, that is it. I actually couldn’t believe it worked! A trick I found was to staple one side then pull it tight and stretch it across and staple on the opposite side. Keep doing that until you have a base stapled. Then you can go in and add more staples in between.

Also, for the corners I found it was easiest to stretch the fabric and twist it under the side. Then just staple the twist into the bottom. That will secure the corners without putting creases in the fabric.

Now on to re-doing the whole closet…

I’m pretty sure that will take longer than a half an hour.

completion #2: patio furniture

bmbyrd — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:36:15 +0000

finished product

This project had been lingering for a while. When we moved into our town home 2 years ago we acquired a back patio that faced out to nice private woods. Having a little piece of nature was a big selling point for us especially since your privacy is somewhat limited when living in town home communities. Never having any outdoor space before caused us to not have any outdoor furniture. We were given a wonderful hand-me-down dining room set so our little table and two chairs that we used to use as our dining room furniture were suddenly without a need. They sadly sat in our living room for months not knowing their purpose until one day while thinking about how expensive outdoor furniture can get I realized that I could possibly make those over into our much needed patio furniture.

Now my task was to weather proof these pieces. (Unfortunatley my camera broke and I lost all of my “before” pictures of this project) The metal of the chair frames and the table were different colors and were starting to chip away. I took apart the table and chairs and then sanded them down getting all of the old rust chips off. I then spray painted them with a black protective waterproof/rustproof paint. I sanded down and re-stained the top of the table with a weatherproof polyurethane stain. The part that has been hanging this project in limbo for a year are the cushions for the chairs.

The orignal chair was just an inch and a half thick piece of woven wicker which was very uncomfortable. I decided to reapolster the chairs with some padding and nice weatherproof fabric. Those supplies can be expensive at a normal fabric store so I decided to get a pre-made cushion on clearance and tear it apart for the cushion material and fabric. It ended up working perfectly! The only thing I had to purchase was cording that I sewed around the top and bottom.

You don’t have to do the cording but I thought it would put a nice finish to the chairs. I made the first chair almost right away because my motivation was high, but after the first chair it was very hard to get that motivation back. I had never made a cushion like this before and it was pretty difficult. A few weeks ago it was a beautiful weekend and my motivation came back to finally finish this project so we could enjoy our outdoor space this summer. I’m extremely happy and proud of myself and can’t wait to use them! And of course I have another idea to make our back patio even more exciting… more to come on that idea

completion #1: doggie bed re-vamp

bmbyrd — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:00:47 +0000

Don’t let the image above scare you away! This is a “good news” post… my first project is complete! It was fairly small, but still an item I can cross off of my checklist! This first looming project that needed to be finished was a “re-vamping” of an earlier project: my homemade over-sized doggie bed

Projects sometimes fail. In this case, the inside of the bed was the failure. Over the past few months the blankets that I used as the cushion for the bed started to wear down. I decided that I needed to find something to replace them. Luckily, I inherited a very useful trait from my mother when it comes to working with in a budget; resourcefulness. I purchased a new mattress and was about to throw away the foam “egg carton” top when I thought that may be something I could use to cushion cole’s bed. I threw it in my guest bedroom and it sat there for weeks… until now.

At first I tried to sandwich the old stuffing inside the foam but it did not fit into the cover. So I bagged that idea and realized that the size of the foam itself fit perfectly in my outer envelope that I made. Just a few folds and some smooshing and viola!

Cole is a very happy puppy these days!

The lesson learned from this first completion: Always keep a resourceful eye out for something that can be re-used and once you have the idea actually follow through! If you let it sit for too long your motivation will dissapear and the only thing that is left is clutter in your living space. I’m glad my motivation came back for this one (I know Cole is happy too!)