Thrift store love & my new chairs

A few weeks ago Handy Andy and I took a trip to a local thrift store. He was looking for some new flannel shirts (oh yeah), and I was looking for anything I could use in a scrapbook and maybe a picture frame. I found a few fun things, including Scrabble tiles, some vintage-looking cards and an excellent frame.

While I was rummaging around, I passed by the furniture section and came across these chairs that I instantly loved. There were three of them, but I only bought two. They were $5 each.

Ok, so they don't look like much, but I loved the look of them and I had been looking for another little something to put in my living room. I had seen a chair I really loved from Target:

The problem? For starters, it was about $200 over budget. Also, it was a little too big for the open spot in my living room.

So, back to my thrift-store chairs. I had read Centsational Girl's blog post about refinishing a thrift-store chair, so when I saw these chairs I thought (in true Handy Andy fashion) "I can do that!" I brought them home and prepared for the refinishing. I gathered the following supplies (most from Handy Andy's collection):

1. Spray paint
2. Staple gun
3. Scissors
4. Sandpaper
5. Amazing fabric (that I bought from JoAnn's - on sale!)

Next, I took the seats off by flipping the chairs over and unscrewing the four screws that held the seats on.

I lightly sanded the chairs all over and wiped them down with a damp cloth. Then spray paint. My mom was visiting, so that was her job while I worked on painting another project I'll share later.

While the paint dried I cut two pieces of fabric for the seats. On Centsational Girl's post, she added some padding, but I actually thought the seats were comfortable enough. I covered the seat as they were, old fabric and all. I folded the fabric around the seats tightly and used the staple gun to secure the fabric on the underside of the seat. All that's left is screwing the seats back on to the chair frames, and...

Done! Well, this was taken before they were actually done, because I had to go back and fix a few spots with the spray paint. After that I moved them to their rightful place in my house...

They are perfect for the space and it only cost me about $30 total. I call that a success! What do you think?

P.S. Linked up to The Idea Room's linky party. Check it out to see more fun projects!

Pinterest Thursday: I tried it!

The room where my craft table is located is affectionately called Sparty's Room due to the Michigan State decor and the large MSU Spartan fathead on the wall.

Sparty's room is my craft room as well as our office. There's a lot going on in Sparty's Room and it's not a very big space. I'm always trying to figure out good organizational methods to make the most of the space I have in there, so when I saw this on Pinterest I got inspired:

Cute. Simple. Cheap. Now it's my turn -- I think I can make that!

Over the course of about two weeks I gathered eight empty cans and peeled the labels off and washed them. I decided that I didn't want to put the cans directly on the wall so I picked a piece of wood from Handy Andy's wood scraps to mount the cans onto. After that, I got some green and white spray paint and gorilla glue (from Handy Andy's adhesive collection). I painted the board and four of the cans white. The other cans got painted green. Once they dried I used the gorilla glue to mount the cans on the board. Gorilla glue expands, so it was good for the skinny bottom edges of the cans. This glue  takes between 4-6 hours to completely dry, so I patiently waited and then...

 Eureka!

If you look closely, you can see where the gorilla glue expanded outside of the cans and I was too lazy to fix it didn't fix it because it gave it more personality...or something. I still need to do something with my ribbons, but this lovely can creation cleared up some space on my table, so I'm happy!

Well, maybe you can't tell that it helped to organize my table, but it did. I promise.

P.S. To see more Pinterest-inspired projects, head over to By the Book Paper for Pinterest Thursday posts.

Meet Handy Andy

Handy Andy is my husband. He can make anything. Want some proof? Here it is...

Handy Andy's little sister got married recently. When she got engaged he told her he would build her anything she wanted for her wedding present. She decided she wanted an arbor made to use in her wedding ceremony. The picture she showed him as an example of what she wanted was this:

So, he started building...when it was almost done it looked like this:

And this is what it looked like on her wedding day:

 

BEAUTIFUL!

Another great thing about Handy Andy is that he is creative and he likes to make things that solve problems. Proof? Fine. Handy Andy finds my hair ties and bobby pins everywhere. Why? There's no good place to store/organize them all. This was a problem in Handy Andy's eyes. So, for Christmas a few years ago he put this in my stocking:

 

Brilliant.

It has hooks for my headbands and hair ties, and flat metal pieces in between for my bobby pins. Love it!

These are just two examples of the excellent things that Handy Andy has come up with. There are many many more impressive projects (including our entire remodeled house, maybe I'll post some pictures later). And this is the inspiration that has led to me to create this blog as a way to record the projects that I undertake as I adopt Handy Andy's [slightly edited] mantra, "I [think I] can make that!"