Kendall Boggs Fine Arts and Crafts: January 2016

Ever had a lamp that's just too short for your space?

You can't put a larger shade on it because that would look dumb and the scale would be all wrong.

So, what do you do?

You hack it.

On the cheap, I needed two matching lamps for our guest room.

My two daughters absolutely would NOT let me use the ones I had...

and I agreed.

I went to Tuesday morning (um...I like LOVE that place) and found two lamps that I liked.

They were not however tall enough for where I needed. But the price was right and I knew I could somehow make them work.

I think I paid 30.00 each for them (I'm serious)

I also had to paint them because I wanted gold.

So. After painting them, this is what I was left with.

a short squatty lamp. Not good. Not good at all.

So I went to a craft store and found a square box for oh about 5 bucks and painted it the same gold as the lamp.

I added a few table top books underneath it and voila!

Problem solved!

Have a great day y'all!

So how long HAS it been since I've blogged?

wow!

So much has happened in the last month that I honestly haven't had the time, or the energy.

So, back around Thanksgiving, "W" and I decided that we wanted a 2nd home.

In Birmingham, Alabama.

We were really, really sick of staying with everyone and their brother literally every week that we came here to visit. And I'm pretty sure they were pretty sick of US staying there as well.

I'm kind of a "high energy" person and when I come in to someone's home, it's kinda like "Gigi's here!!! Time to do crafts, or cook, or talk really loud, or get up at 4 a.m." I just bring a different element in to a family situation.

And it's okay, I'm comfortable in my own skin.

But I'm not the perfect house guest if you know what I mean....

Anyway "W" and I just happened upon THE MOST perfect place we could have found! It was available in January.

So, we took the plunge and decided that we would have two residences.

And I'm telling you guys, I could not be happier.

But, cleaning out 2 storage units, moving stuff from our place in Atlanta, furnishing a new home, then trying to replace the stuff that I stole from the condo and trying to work (a little) has been quite overwhelming....Leaving me with a week and a half of an upper respiratory/sinus infection, finally going to the doc and getting treated.

....i hate going to the doc....like hate it. (for some reason I think I can cure myself.)

Okay, that's the scoop on me (if you were interested ;)

Now, here is what I want to show you.

We had these two chairs that were in "W's" study at our lake house years ago. They had been in storage.

I decided I would paint the frame and then have them recovered.

Well, sister said to me, "why don't you paint the fabric?"

I never in my life thought that could be done, but she swore people do it all the time.

So, pinterest, google and my "up doer" friends to the rescue. Yes, it can be done.

So, I went to my local Annie Sloan retailer and got (my new favorite pop of color)

ORANGE

(don't mistaken me for liking that colour because of Auburn University)

Crimson just isn't in my colour palette right now.

Okay, so here we go.

Here are the chairs...

before

Well one at least.

Totally outdated in my humble opinion but great bones.

And here is what you need to get started

1) patience, patience and more patience

2) time (like 15 hours or more)

3) Paint (obviously) I first used a can of Annie Sloan Barcelona Orange but quickly realized that it would take about 6 quarts to do two chairs, so I matched the colour with Behr FLAT LATEX

(a whole gallon) and I used every bit of it.

4) Martha Stewart FABRIC MEDIUM. 1 part medium to 2 parts paint (this is an absolute must have)

For a gallon of paint I used 7 bottles of this.

4) Paint for the bones of the chair. I used Farmhouse Paint which I LOVE

Creamy Linen

5) Brushes....I used Annie Sloan big fat one but honestly was not all that impressed with it until the waxing stage, I also used a GREAT short handled angled brush from Home Depot and a small detailed brush. Believe me, when you are working with a chair that has wood surrounding it and welting, you will need a detail brush. Like ALOT

and, a spray bottle filled with water.

Now. I started with the cushions. I thought it would take oh, two coats.

nada.

More like 4. Maybe 5. And getting in the groves where the welting was was a total pain in the ass.

I'm serious.

Before you paint you MUST spray down the cushion with water

not a lot of water, just enough to dampen

then I painted the chair. This is the first or second coat, I can't remember

and painted the wood surrounding the upholstery.

Really, I'm not sure whether I should have painted the fabric first or the wood first.

oh well.

I think this was the 3rd or 4th coat.

patience my friends.

And since we all know it's been ridiculously cold, I had to use whatever resources I could to help the drying process along.

like the fireplace...

finally it got warm enough to take these outside. Let me tell ya, I painted orange, got it on the white, painted white, got it on the orange, I must have touched up these suckers for probably 2 hours.