Hello all! Check out my chairs now--

Jared and I decided on this blue, so instead of a kitchen that threatens to look sort of McDonald's ish with red and yellow everything, we have a more balanced red, yellow and blue, like this:

photo from the lovely blog Dear Daisy Cottage--this woman's house is the happiest looking place I've ever seen :)

In the store, the blue we picked was a little more dusty, not quite as bright, but of course paints tend to come out a little different in person than on the sample. They're blue, and they're kind of bright, but I love them! 

And this is the fabric I have so far for the seat cushions.

I found these on my family's annual trip to Shipshewana at Yoder's Department Store--they carry all sorts of fabrics, including lots of 1930's vintage styles that I am in love with! I could have probably spent all day there trying to eeny, meeny, miny, moe my favorite from the bunch, but fortunately my mom was there to patiently guide me and help me narrow down my selections :) I'm planning on using the yellow stripe as kind of a "default" cushion for all four chairs (once I have 4 of them) and the red for mix and match. I'm excited for the splash of color this will bring  someday to what I'm sure will be a very white apartment, and I can't wait to find more fabrics! I think the blue chairs will let me be pretty versatile, perfect for my flighty decorating habits :)

My sisters and I on our Shipshewana Trip

And to add some more excitement...meet my third chair! 

Jared's mom had a splash of luck when she found this in a used furniture store out near her. I gave it a little love this weekend---glued some joints all by myself!--and now it's stable and ready to paint. I'm still trying to decide whether I should prime this one with gray spray primer like I did the others, or just go ahead and paint it blue. The chilly weather isn't exactly appealing me to the primer method...but we'll see. So three down, only one more chair to find! Hopefully by the next post I'll have actually gotten a cushion or two made, somehow I've ended up with more projects than I bargained for, but I love it!

 

During my last post, you were introduced to my beautiful new chairs. This post, I'll show you the progress I've made so far.

Prep work: Chair 1

My first chair actually needed fairly little work. It was solid, fairly smooth, and hardly creaky at all.

 However, as you can see the seat caining had busted right through. So my first step was to take a pliers and rip that seat right out of there.

 Now, I know ripping isn't exactly the best way to get rid of these, but we're a little short on tools around our basement, so I use what I have :) That left me with a bunch of ragged edges around the seat though, which I then tackled with whatever sandpaper we had around.

 

The rest of the work, I did in Howell. For this chair, it involved just sanding off the finish with an electric sander.

Prep Work: Chair 2

The next chair, on the other hand, needed more than just a little work. It was creaky, cracked, and to be honest, I was a little afraid it might collapse any minute. We took it to Howell, where I could get help from a pro--Jared's dad, Jeff. 

We began with the most basic issue--fixing the structure. This involved adding screws, replacing screws, gluing, and regluing rungs. This was fun, because for me it was a major learning experience. One of the most valuable things I learned to do was to reglue the loose rungs. And it was easy--we pounded them out with a rubber mallet, reglued it with some Gorilla Glue, and then clamped the chair together and moved on.

Fixed rungs

With that fixed, the chair actually became pretty stable. All it took then were a couple new screws, and it was all set. Mostly. I was still pretty concerned by this cracked seat corner. Not only was it a gaping crack, but it was also kind of unstable.  

 So we used some wood glue and clamped it together, and then I filled the crack with some Plastic Wood. This is what it looked like after.

Once this chair gets a new coat of paint, it'll look like nothing was wrong to begin with.

Seats:

Now, just looking at these chairs, it's pretty easy to see what's wrong with them:

No seats!  So the next obvious step is to make them some seats. For this, I had a couple options, some complicated, some not so much. But what I wanted (and still want) is a seat that is solid, snug, and can be removed easily, with hopes that the final product will be a cushioned seat that I can lift off and change fabrics at a whim for a new look. Jeff came up with the design we ended up using--a fiberboard seat that extends to within an inch of the edge of the frame. This seat is attached to a wood insert that fits into the frame hole, preventing the seat from sliding and adding weight to keep it tight. 

I made a basic pattern for the seats using poster board, traced it onto the fiberboard, and then faced my greatest fear: the band saw. Ok, so it's not my greatest fear. It's just that everytime I think about an electric saw, I get images of severed fingers and hear echoes of those woodshop horror stories teachers like to tell students to scare them. But it ended up actually being pretty fun. 

So brave... :)

At the end of the weekend, this is what we ended up with:

Freshly glued, sanded, ready for painting, and now, including seats! The next step will be painting, and  adding foam padding to the seats to make a basic cushion. Thanks for reading!

 

Good afternoon, and happy fall everyone!
 Fall is always my favorite time of year, with its beautiful colors, crisp cool air and that back to school excitement. But this year, one of those things is missing from my list...no more school! In some ways, this is a major relief. No projects, no deadlines, no memorizing of names and dates and vocab. But in other ways, I can't help but envy all the students on campus--while their brains are kept busy concentrating on classes, mine keeps wandering over to Vancouver and the adventure that is just waiting there. So like most people who are stuck waiting, I've done my best to keep busy. This week, two things have been my distraction--you guessed it, sitting and reading.
Part I--Sitting:
I bring you my chairs!

Aren't they beautiful? Busted out seats, creaky joints, giant cracked corner. Well, they're not pretty now, but in a couple weeks they should be. I found these beauties last Friday at Heritage Architectural Salvage and Supply in Kalamazoo. I've been searching for chairs like these for weeks now, looking at Goodwill, antique fairs and scouring Craigslist in both Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo for any that add up to my expectations. Heritage was sitting there quietly in the back of my mind, nagging me to explore it, but until last Friday I hadn't been able to find a time that fit into their business hours to go. I walked into the store, and right there these two little guys were just waiting for me to discover them. And best of all, I got them both for only $14! I'll post later the adventures I've had with them so far, but here's my inspiration for this project:

This is a page from Martha Stewart Living magazine that, upon seeing, I immediately said those four dreaded words that keep popping out: "I could do that!" Thus was born this crazy, irrational dream for four unique, beautiful, mix-match chairs for my future kitchen table. And now with my two new treasures, I'm one step closer to that dream being a reality!
Part II--Reading:
 Now, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a reader. More than just a reader--I love books. I inhale them. I love all kinds of books, but for some reason, I love books written for teens the best.  And I never have anyone to talk about these books with, so I've decided to devote part of this blog to my number one hobby.
This Week's Bookshelf:
So far this week, I've wanted to adopt a dragon, suffered from anorexia, been part of the British secret intelligence, defeated a dragon, and rekindled a romance with my childhood crush. See, that's what I love about reading, it takes you so many places, so many new experiences! But here are my top three reads from this week.

Eragon (Inheritance) by Christopher Paolini:

Now, technically my first book this week is actually three books. And they're really long, so I've actually been reading these over the past two weeks. As soon as I opened the first book of the series, Eragon, I was sucked into the land of dragons, sorcerers, elves and dwarves that Christopher Paolini created. These books are beautifully crafted fantasy novels for young adults, following the story of a young boy, Eragon, who discovers a dragon egg and becomes the only existing rider in the land. After watching Eragon grow and mature over three books--Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr, I couldn't wait to see how the series turned out. Imagine my shock to discover that the fourth and supposedly final book of the series is not out yet! I guess that's something to look forward to!

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson:

Truly, this book was disturbing and difficult to read, but I couldn't put it down. If you've ever read a book by Laurie Halse Anderson, you know that she does not write lightly. This book is no exception. Anderson crafts a chilling story about a teen whose best friend has recently died, leaving her alone in her struggle to be the thinnest girl in their school. Watching and listening to the protagonist struggle with her eating disorder and cutting habit, I was so absorbed in her story that I couldn't stop reading. I needed to know that she had a happy ending. This book will force you to look at eating in a whole different way. And it will probably make you hungry too. 

Fat Cat, by Robin Brande:

From the cover and title of this book, I was worried that I had accidently picked two eating disorder books in one week. But much to my delight, I hadn't! While Wintergirls was a body image struggle that left me craving cheese and cupcakes, Fat Cat provided a refreshing story that promoted positive body image, healthy living, and wonderful friendship. Plus, it included a sweet love story, which I'm always a sucker for. In Fat Cat, Robin Brande tells the story of a teen who, for her year long science project, decides to revert back to the lifestyle of a caveman by rejecting all things modern, with the exception of hygiene of course. Following her through her journey, you get to watch her experience all the perks of eating natural foods, rejecting modern transportation, and eliminating the distractions of technology from her life--and later, reveling in the joy of her brand new body.