Furniture Makeovers & Building Stuff
A Four Color Process
Remember how we envisioned modern and cheerful green leather parsons chairs around a chunky wood table from pretty much the moment we moved in? And how we decided that dyed-green slipcovers were pretty much the same thing when we found chairs for $25 and slipcovers for $23? Well, we were wrong. I dyed two of the chairs green and they were just not “it” (even if we altered the shade of green, we just knew it was the wrong way to go for us as soon as we saw these babies):
Especially considering that there would be seven or eight of them around the table at all times (and we have the bold built-ins going on in the background and dreams of chic patterned curtains, a huge cut out opening to the kitchen, a giant chandelier above the table, etc). It suddenly dawned on me that of all the things in the room that there were going to be there, the chairs were not the things that I wanted everyone to be staring at. In fact, I decided that I wanted the chairs to blend in. To become best supporting actors items to a few other things that we’d love to be the stars (namely the built-ins, the bold patterned curtains, and the showstopping chandelier that we can’t wait to bring in).
But let’s rewind to two of the four colors that we considered before we reached for the dye at all. First we thought long and hard about whether we wanted to dye them in the first place. We mentioned that the off-white tone of the covers looked dingy in contrast to the glossy white trim and built-in shelving, but even so we still wanted to live with them a while before doing anything rash.
So we did. And we definitely didn’t like the clashy off-white tone any better after the weeks ticked by. It was time for action.
Next we considered trying to somehow bleach them white. That way they wouldn’t look dingy and would tie right into the white trim and those white built-in shelves. But the more we thought about one of our major goals (for this house to be kid-proof and not make us into uptight fearful hosts) we realized that even though white slipcovers can be bleached they’d still show dirt more on a daily basis. Even dark denim could leave a blue tint behind on them (which is something that we never thought of, but some light googling brought to our attention). And if something a little darker could hide a bit more dirt (resulting in less frequent washings and kid-related heartburn) we’d take it. Function first. Plus we felt like white covers would stop the eye and call attention to themselves since they’d be so contrast-y next to the table (which wouldn’t fulfill the blend-right-in goal that I’d eventually come to reach anyway).
So it was back to the green chair idea that John and I thought would be just the ticket (and later learned… not so much). I’m actually a dye novice. In fact I’ve only dyed one thing before (besides my hair throughout middle school and high school- yes I once was a blonde). That thing that I’ve dyed? Oh yeah, it was my wedding dress (so I could wear it again, like to other weddings):
I can’t believe I had the guts but it worked out so I guess I have a soft spot for dye. It hasn’t let me down yet. Anyway, here’s how I dyed those two slipcovers just in case you’re about to take the d-y-e plunge. It was actually really easy thanks to the type that I used this time. A bunch of readers and even a few relatives recommended iDye (we found it at JoAnn). It was under $3 for each pack (and I could use each pack to dye two slipcovers at once). It’s meant for natural fibers like linen and cotton and silk (jackpot: our slipcovers are linen and cotton). When it came to picking the color, there were a ton to choose from (which is soooo much nicer than just one tone of green or blue, which is the case with a few other dye brands). In fact there were at least five different green tones (green, olive, kelly green, emerald, chartreuse, etc) so we narrowed it down to these two:
We liked that chartreuse would be modern and fun, but worried that it might end up looking a little too neon and highlighter-ish. And we liked that kelly green would probably be a bit more green and less yellow, so we ultimately decided it was the way to go for that apple green look that I wanted from day one.
Although there were some simple directions on the pack, I’m waaaaay too neurotic to settle for those. So I went to their site for a lot more instruction (aka: hand holding). The fact that this dye worked with front loading washers was a huuuuge perk for me. And it was simple. Burger could have done it if he could reach the dryer buttons.
First I put two cups of hottest-possible-from-the-tap water into a big bowl. Then I dropped in the dissolving dye envelope from the dye kit. And I stirred it up.
Then I added one cup of salt (since that’s what they recommended on the dye site for cotton & linen fabrics, which is what the slipcovers are).
Then I stirred again. Oh and I used a paint stick.
The next step was to pre-wet two slipcovers before adding anything to our front loader (this shot shows how not-white the slipcovers were – sort of oat-meal-ish in person).
Then came the heart-stopping step. Pouring my bowl of hot water and dye and salt into the bottom of our front loading washer. Is it weird that it made me a little queasy?
Then I tossed the pre-wet slipcovers into the washer and started things up right away. The dye instructions on the site said to wash them in hot water and mentioned that adding an extra rinse cycle would help the color develop more. So I set it on “heavy duty” (which used hot water) and clicked the “extra rinse” button before hitting start.
About an hour later things were looking pretty green! Happily they were super even and there weren’t any streaks or dark spots (which was my worry). They looked like green slipcovers you’d buy in a store. Sidenote: how much fun would a store completely devoted to slipcovers be? I’m picturing roaming aisles of every color and shape imaginable. Like the big wall of flip flops at Old Navy.
Oh but before I could take them out and dry them, I did one last wash with cold water and a bit of mild detergent (as recommended by the dye site) which basically entailed clicking it to “normal” (and making sure it was cold water) and adding a smidge of Seventh Generation detergent. The second wash with cold water locked in the color and rinsed out any excess dye. Then I dried the covers on delicate (low heat) so they didn’t take too much of a beating since they were originally dry clean only and I didn’t want to press my luck (like I did here).
As for the color that they came out vs. the color on the pack, I thought it was a pretty good representation. My vision was flawed, but the kelly green pack really did produce a nice kelly green-ish (or apple green-ish) color.
Sadly it just wasn’t “the one.” Onward!
The fourth (and final!) color that we contemplated was good old fashioned mocha. Or as the dye pack called it: brown. We went back to JoAnn and stared at about twenty options and it just seemed like the best way to go. They’d hold up to stains and fall back nicely to let other items in the room be the stars. And the contrast of a chunky wood table and upholstered chairs is a sweet little casual choice (we worried the room would look too formal with eight wood chairs pulled around a matching wood table). So even though it would be brown covers with a brown table we knew the plush chairs vs. hard carved table would be a nice pairing. And by going with the same tone as the table they’d slip in and have less of a “hiya-we’re-a-whole-bunch-of-chairs-so-look-at-us!” vibe (which would have been an issue with green, off-white, or white in the end).
When it came to the actual dying process, again it was the same dealio. Except I used a brown pack to dye two slipcovers at a time instead of a kelly green one.
In went the dissolving pack into two cups of hot water…
… followed by a cup of salt…
… which was then mixed and tossed into the wash with two pre-wet slipcovers. One hot wash and one cold one later, I had yummy mocha covers to enjoy. Oh and it’s worth noting that many fabrics take to dye better than the most-likely-synthetic stitching (which often remains the color it always was). Luckily, white stitching with the mocha = cool with us.
Once again our covers came out looking completely even and didn’t have any dark or light spots or streaking. And after the warm and cold wash the color was set (the color doesn’t rub off at all or anything, even if you’re wet and you sit on the chairs). Oh but one quick note about cleaning your washer after you’re done dying everything: mine was sparkly clean (after one extra rinse cycle as advised by the iDye folks) except for the rubber ring that’s right next to the door, so I just ran a few paper towels across it until they were no longer slightly tinted brown.
Ta da (don’t mind the wrinkles, I let them sit in the dryer far too long before tossing them on the chairs and quickly snapping these pics this morning):
We love how they tuck right into the room (no more of that look-at-all-the-chairs thing is going on) and how they don’t blend too much thanks to the subtle variation in color and of course the hard vs. soft thing thanks to the carved table and the fabric slipcovers:
Most of all I think we’ll love how much dirt they’ll hide when compared to lighter slipcovers.
What about those two “extra” slipcovers that we dyed green (remember we got ten even though we only have eight chairs thanks to John’s genius suggestion since he worried about dye issues)? Well, we figured we had nothing to lose by trying to overdye them with brown (thinking they’d probably turn out a muddy olive tone, but it was worth a shot).
In a sweeeet turn of dye-related events, the brown totally took over and produced the identical color to the other brown covers (even with the green dye under it). So we have two extra brown covers on hand in case something catastrophic (sharpie, scissors, blood…) happens to any of the eight everyday covers that we have. Oh happy dye day.
In the end, it all came down to some basic math. Bold built-ins + patterned future curtains + a large view into the office + a large future chandelier/pendant + a large future punched out view into the kitchen + bright chairs = too ca-razy. So we’re down with brown. And we’re excited to let things like the built-ins and the future curtains/light fixture steal the show. Speaking of which, check out the designer fabric we snagged at a deep discount thanks to a slight imperfection that we can work around:
We love that it has brown tones (to tie into the table and chairs), white tones (to tie into the trim and built-in shelving), deep teal tones (which relate to the back of the built-ins) and pops of cheerful apple green (if it wasn’t right for the chairs, at least I’ll get it in the curtains). So it’s safe to say that we’re excited to get down to curtain making business soon. But most of all, we’re thankful that our chairs don’t look like this anymore:
Hallelujah. Oh and when it comes to the whole chair budget breakdown, here we go:
- Each chair: $25 (for a total of $200 spent for eight of them)
- Failed painting supplies: $10
- Each slipcover: $23 (for a total of $232 spent for ten of them)
- Six iDye packets from JoAnn (one green one and five brown ones): $18
- Total cost per chair: $57.50 (which also includes two spare slipcovers)
Have you guys dyed something around the house? Curtains? Pillow covers? Cloth napkins? Or are you a dye virgin who dreams of giving it a shot? I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to (or what you’ve been dyeing to do – har har).
Psst- We’ve had some pretty weird adventures with our $25 chairs. Here’s the post where we found them and here’s the post where I tried to paint one, and here’s the post about finding and shrinking the slipcovers.
Update: Check out how our dining room is coming together thanks to those curtains that we finally made here. Woot.
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Because Nobody Sells “Ikea White” Paint
It feels like a theme lately to remind you guys that we mentioned that we were going to do fill-in-the-blank a while back and then exclaim that we finally got around to doing it. So this time fill-in-the-blank is finally painting the bedroom finials to match Ed The Bed. See how they’re a bit too white in this pic?
It definitely wasn’t rocket science (not much of what we do around here is, haha) but we wanted to share the super easy process when it comes to matching paint to any existing item of furniture, like if you’re planning to add legs to a painted dresser that you already own for example. The first step is to grab a bunch of white (or whatever color your item is) swatches.
We weren’t brand loyal at all (we wanted to get the widest range of white tones). Then we came home with all of them and held each one up against one of Ed’s posts to see which one almost “disappeared” when we held it up (meaning it was the closest match). The winner was Parchment White by Glidden.
So we got a tiny test pot of it in satin for a few bucks and I prepared to get my paint on. I had saved the cardboard packaging from the guest bedroom mirror that we picked up from Target (large cardboard pieces like that always come in handy since I’m so paint obsessed, and I’ve actually already used it a few times now) so I stuck each finial through the raised part of the packaging so they would “stand up.” That way I could paint all sides of them without worrying about having to touch/smear them to spin them around. And yes, of course I was watching some evening TV while I got ‘er done (The Apprentice if you’re wondering).
The result? Well they look pretty much the same color as Ed.
Oh but we’ve noticed that many items from Ikea vary when it comes to how white they are (for example, some of their white frames are brighter than others) so it’s not necessarily safe to assume that Parchment White by Glidden will be a perfect match to every white Ikea item. But bringing home some swatches, holding them up, and then buying a tiny test pot of the one that blends in the best for a few bucks is a pretty painless process.
The only problem? Little paint projects like this leave me itching to find other small things to paint. What’s wrong with me? It’s a sickness I tell ya.
The Console Returns
It’s official, the console is like Rocky and Batman movies. The sequels keep coming. Maybe instead of The Console Returns we should call this post “Console: The Final Chapter” or “The Console Strikes Again” or “I Still Know What You Did Last Console.” No? Fine. We’ll stick with The Console Returns.
Yes, after many (many) posts about our big console build, this is the official finale. And this one is the most exciting for me because it’s all about the fun stuff I put on it. Haha. I’m deep, what can I say? I’m sure it’ll constantly change, but here’s what it looks like today:
The lamps were more than we’ve ever spent on lamps (I have some sort of imaginary $50-a-pop maximum and these were $59 each) but from the moment I saw them at Marshall’s I couldn’t. walk. away. I even texted a picture of them to my friend Cat and she said “You’re a magpie, gotta have ‘em if they’re shiny.” So I said to myself: “Self, what’s $18 extra bucks when it’s true lamp love?” It did help that they were marked down from $125 each (for a total savings of $132). And it was even easier to swallow when I reminded myself (and my cheap hubby) how much loot we saved by building our giant behemoth of a console table ourselves (around $900+).
We also picked up that big capiz-topped black lacquered box from HomeGoods (on clearance for $15, down from $36) because I knew it would be awesome for stashing nearly all of the clutter that seems to collect on the sofa (a few magazines, books, notebooks, pens, remotes, and even my brush and lotion). And the sleek glammy vibe worked with the blingy lamps to bring some modern chicness to our rustic ol’ console beast.
Other than that I just brought in some stuff that we already owned, from a few stacks of pretty hardcover books that I love to flip through (which are also functional thanks to a handy coaster that I stacked on top for my nightly cup of tea and the smaller white capiz box that’s secretly full of my smaller sofa essentials (lip gloss, vitamins, nail clippers, etc).
And this cute $3 thrifted quatrefoil tray is perfect for all of the jewelry that I like to remove as soon as I sink into my special spot on the sectional (the chaise in case you’re wondering).
And here’s what we have going on in those hidden baskets in the middle compartment. The left side is full of board games since this the room where we usually get our game on. And the basket on the right has a lesser used remote (for the DVD player) as well as some books that we got for Clara from the library (we try to keep them all together so we’re not looking everywhere for one last book on the day that they’re due).
And of course we have a little ceramic animal action going on thanks to my old ZGallerie rhino friend. Probably just for a bit until Clara gets bigger and he becomes endangered. Then he’ll go live on the built-ins in the dining room again:
For some reason this shot kills me. The little ceramic rhino butt in the background gets me every time.
As for the bookshelf sides of the console, we found three of these $5 baskets at HomeGoods, so the one on the close side of the console on the bottom shelf is full of a bunch of Clara’s board books while the top shelf has some of our books and a fun little Cardboard Safari rhino going on.
… and two more baskets on the far side of the console have blocks and other small toys stashed inside.
We’re sure everything that we have on/in the console table will be constantly changing. For example, once Clara’s a bit more mobile I don’t think my beloved ceramic rhino will get to live up there anymore. Unless I want him to meet an untimely end like my ceramic pooch.
Heck, she might even try to murder the cardboard rhino on that side shelf (so far, so good though) so we’re just going to play it by ear. We might decide that we’d like more empty space for putting stuff down on the top of the console (we have that big expanse in the center for a large bowl of chips or something, along with plenty of room for more coasters for drinks, but you never know if we’ll want even more). So it’ll be fun to tweak it and watch it evolve as the rest of the room comes together over the next year or two (still on the list: breezy curtains to add softness, a larger and more balanced looking media cabinet, etc).
And now for the weirdest video we’ve ever made. We were in sort of a quirky mood so we thought it would be hilarious to make a sexy stroking-the-console-video of the whole thing in action (we even throw open that middle compartment for ya to see how it opens and closes in “real time”). The music kills me. And the slow motion. Yup, we’re still laughing about it:
Strangest video you’ve ever seen. Am I right? Oh and we have one more pic for ya. At night it’s all sorts of magical in the living room now that we removed all the weird ceiling fans and that off-center corner pendant light and use the console table lamps along with the desk lamp to illuminate the room.
This photo doesn’t even do it justice, but in person it’s so cozy and glowey and charming. And we can only imagine how the right curtains and a bigger and more proportionate media cabinet will take this work-in-progress room a whole lot further. Someday…
Psst- Wanna flip back through the whole console building journey? Here’s the first post, the second post, the third post, the fourth post, and the fifth post.
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Making New Wood Look Old
As promised, here’s the more detailed scoop on how we got our pristine store-bought whitewood from Home Depot to look worn and aged on our completed console. This was our first time really going for a weathered look, so it was a kind of an exercise in “we’ve seen this done before, so let’s hope it works out for us.” The good news: it worked.
The better news: it was pretty easy to do. It was sort of a one-two punch of distressing + staining that really did the trick. So let’s start with the first punch – courtesy of my fists. Well, at least my agression. The starting point, as you probably recall, was a pristine pile of freshly bought 1 x 4″s that I cut into 2 foot lengths.
Knowing that I had some extras, I tried a bunch of things on a spare plank before really landing on a process (well, “process” is too strong of a word in this case, since it was pretty much a random exercise in let’s-see-what-happens). Basically, I winged it by trying a handful-ish of techniques that looked cool and then used them sporadically throughout my pile. That way I’d end up with a mix of weathered looks, almost as if the boards had been scavenged from a few different sources after lots of character-creating trials and tribulations.
Oh and if you’re someone who likes all the details, I managed to capture a lot of my weathering “process” on video (so watch this if you want the “bonus stuff” that’s not all outlined below):
For those who can’t watch the vid (perhaps you’re at work and trying to keep things on the down low), here’s a quick rundown of the various tricks that I used. For starters, I picked out as many pieces of wood from Home Depot that already had flaws or interesting details to them – knots, chips, dark stripes, whatever.
But before I got to beat any of them up, my first step was sanding the four edges on the top of each board using my palm sander. This wore down the crisp edge into a rounder and smoother one, so they looked older right off the bat.
Then I smacked it with a bag of screws. I actually did this to each piece (besides sanding, it’s the only thing I did on all of them). It gave each board some very subtle dings that I thought wouldn’t hurt across the board (literally, har har). I must admit that throwing a bag of screws against the wood was kinda cathartic. Oh and I’ve heard that some people do this with chains, which sounds equally fun.
Because I know it’s a bit tough to see the damage being done, I thought I’d show you what these distressing techniques looked like once the boards were stained (aka: punch #2) so you can see them more clearly. Since stain catches and collects in all of these dents and dings, it tends to accentuate them (which is a good thing, in this case). So here’s a board that I hit with the ol’ bag of screws a bunch of times so you can see the final effect:
On some boards, I also hit them with my hammer. Whitewood is relatively soft, so it’s easy to leave some dents with just a few light bangs. I liked to concentrate my hits in one spot because it looked more organic than having a few evenly spaced out hammerhead impressions. I was all about the cluster.
Once stained, they looked a little something like this:
In the shot above you can also see some of the fake nail holes that I made using an improvised nail punch (check out the video for more clarification on that method, which I couldn’t photograph since it took two hands). I also used the same tool to make some line impressions across the boards. I just laid it down and hammered on top of it to create a nice long ridge. I though it created the effect that some hard edge had bumped into it over the years.
I especially loved this effect once it was stained because it was so distinct. Why hello character, nice to meet you.
Using a big screw that I found in the basement, I dragged the thread across the board which roughed up the grain. After sanding it down again it really started to look like the wood was slightly rotted, just like some of the spots on the pallets that we couldn’t use (more on that here).
On a couple of boards I did this all the way up and down the length of the board, giving them a really cool and distinct look. Definitely far from the store-bought feel that they started with:
If you watched the video, you can also catch a couple of techniques that I forgot to photograph: namely dragging a paint can opener to make long smooth scrapes down the length of the board (another effect that I really liked after stain was applied) and making those nail punch holes that I mentioned earlier.
I’ll be the first to admit that I probably overdid it when it came to trying so many different tricks – not to the detriment of the final result, just my own time. But since this kind of thing is my idea of fun, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. And after I had taken out all of my aggression worked my new-to-old magic and had given everything one last light sanding (to ensure a smooth and not splintery finish), it was time for Sherry to take over for the staining portion of The Console Table Show.
Our materials included rubber gloves (because stain is messy), a cheap $1 paint brush (because stain is messy and tends to ruin good brushes) and spare rags to wipe up excess stain (because stain is… well, you know). And for more of that varied and timeworn feeling, Sherry tag-teamed the boards with two different stain colors – Ebony (which we picked up for $4 in a tiny can at Home Depot) and Dark Walnut (which we already owned and had used for staining the bottom of the console). After it all dried, we sealed it with with an eco water-based non-toxic poly alternative that we had on hand (Safecoat Acrylacq).
We made a video of this process too, in case you’d prefer to save yourself all of this pesky reading (and want all the deets instead of just the highlights). Plus Sherry’s gloves make a fart sound, which is always a crowd pleaser.
But if you can’t watch the video (or you prefer words to moving images), here’s a quick rundown. Keeping in mind that we wanted a fair amount of variation from board to board, Sherry did a few tests first to see what each of the stains looked like with a light coat of stain (wiped off quickly) and a heavy coat (which was allowed to penetrate for a bit longer). Here are the test boards with the light coats on the left and the heavy coats still soaking in on the right:
We actually ended up liking both stain colors. We thought the dark walnut would help it relate to the bottom of the console (as well as some of the other dark woods in the room) while the ebony would be a closer match the the gray pallet boards that originally inspired us. In reality, on a lot of the boards Sherry actually ended up using a layer of each color to achieve a tone somewhere in the middle so nothing looked too jarring.
The only thing we didn’t like was that we wanted to get some boards even lighter than the stain seen on the above left (which was applied thinly and then wiped away immediately). So Sherry pulled some weird technique out of her you-know-what and it ended up working perfectly. Basically she pre-washed the board with a light coat of plain water, let it soak in for a couple of seconds, and then went over the still-damp board with a light coat of stain (that way it soaked up less color thanks to the water that it absorbed first). For those who’d like more info, you can see this entire technique in action on the staining video.
It was by far the closest that we got to replicating the look of the pallets (you can see a random pallet board on the left in the picture above for reference). But we’re glad that it wasn’t a perfect match, because we realized that the pallets were too blue-gray for our living room (since it’s already dominated by a huge gray sectional with gray walls and gray beams we wanted to add some warmth and balance). So we were thrilled with the colors and the variations that we landed on, thanks to staining some and allowing the stain to penetrate a while, wiping it down right away on other boards, and using the water technique above to get some lighter variations. In the end, those brandspankin boards were all looking nice and old.
Do you guys have other staining and distressing techniques to share? We’ve heard of some pretty cool aging methods with household items like vinegar and baking soda. Anyone try those?
Psst- Sherry wants me to tell you that we’re going lamp hunting this weekend. So we’ll hopefully have pics of the fully styled console by early next week (and by styled I mean full of stuff that we actually use like coasters for Sherry’s tea and a box for remotes along with those aforementioned lamps – and maybe a ceramic animal because my wife is crazy for flair).
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