Reupholstered Seat

On the very first day my mom and I set out to hunt for furniture for her new Grandma Apartment we found this...

... the perfect spot for the granddaughters to play with jewelry and cover themselves in makeup.  But we both agreed the seat needed to be reupholstered, so that is what I did!

Reupholstering can be very simple and in this case it was.  I know many of you have done it before but for those of you who are upholstery newbies let me quickly break it down.  Pull it apart, wrap it with new fabric, staple.  What...you want more details...OK.

So this is what I started with.

I flipped it over and removed a few screws.

And had this...

I pulled off the striped fabric.  Now this is not entirely necessary.  I could have worked right over it, assuming my new fabric was thick enough so nothing could be seen thru.  But in this case it was easy to see that the striped fabric was also a reupholster job and there was something hiding underneath that I just had to see.  And this is what I found, a sweet purple checked pattern...

...but still not what we were looking for so I continued.  I ironed the new fabric.  (Please take the time to do this.  There is nothing sadder then putting in all this work to only have a big crease going right down the middle of the seat.)  And then cut a square large enough to cover the surface and wrap around the back on all sides.  Then just like we did for the upholstered headboard, wrap and staple.  It really is that easy!

I had to be sure to not pull the fabric to tight otherwise the sober lines in the pattern would have turned out more like drunk lines.  But other then that it was simple.  And now my mom has a beautiful seat to match her beautiful headboard to entertain her beautiful granddaughters.  (I don't know what we will do if any of us ever has a boy!)

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Ms. Stewart I Expected More!

Dear Ms. Stewart (Martha to her close friends),

We have never had the pleasure of meeting.  I am not a viewer, a reader or a long time follower.  (I know... a great way to start off a letter.)  But recently I had my first encounter with one of your products and it was a total fail. 

I have been working on some old kitchen cabinets which I am trying to turn into something more and I wanted to try a crackle technique to give them some character. 

I was planning on following these directions but when I got to Home Depot I was informed that they did not have crackle medium but they did have this...

Martha Stewart Paintable White Crackle.  I was quickly sucked in by the pretty label and bright container (just like I am sure was planned) and I bought it.  As instructed by the directions on the back I also bought a putty knife for application.  I saw that it instructed me to apply the crackle over Martha Stewart Primer.  But seeing as how I had already sanded and primed the cabinets I figured I was good and was not about to be sucked into the "you have to buy my product and my product only" scheme.

So I got home and went right to work starting with my nicely sanded and primed cabinet.

I applied the Martha Stewart Crackle as instructed and let it dry over night.  But when I came back in the morning all I had was this...

Um, I am no crackle expert but this is not crackled AT ALL!  A total and complete FAIL. 

Needless to say, I am disappointed in our first adventure Ms. Stewart.  I was expecting so much more!  Or at least a little more...but I got nothing!  A perfectly good $6 down the drain.  Bummer. 

So now I go back to the sander and hope there is no permanent damage to the cabinet.

With Disappointment,

Jill at Mission Decorate

Side Note: I did not actually send this letter but if you have an address for Ms. Stewart please let me know!