Finally Cool

Chic Little House is finally Cool - we are now on Facebook & Twitter!!  I thought it was time to finally join both of these Social Networking sites, to better get to know my readers / connect with my readers and other blogs. Plus this will allow all of you to get up to quick updates on all the happenings here at Chic Little House. I'm super new to social networking, so this should be lots of fun!

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Now lets get the conversations started on Facebook & Twitter :)

Project Nursery: Vintage Ottoman { Upholstery In Progress }

Last Thursday I popped in our local St. Vincent DePaul thrift store in Sacramento. Just looking around with nothing in particular in mind, just looking. When I came across a must buy item, my heart started racing. I had just came across the perfect vintage ottoman for Avery's nursery. Back when we finally decided on going with the Luxe Chair from World Market, I decided against buying the matching ottoman. Even though the frame was $ 40.00 (the slipcover is sold separately) I didn't really want the ottoman and the chair to be 'matchy matchy.' I wanted an ottoman with more personality. Here's the ottoman we didn't buy.

So when I came across the vintage ottoman I was thrilled, it was a nice size and heavy. I liked the feet and the piping and could see all the potential. The Thrift Store was asking $ 12 bucks for it, I was SOLD. When I asked the sales clerk about buying it, she marked the price done to $ 10 bucks, even better. During check out, I may have hummed finders keepers, losers weepers in my head like I was six again :) Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like this when they find an amazing piece for their home. I'm not sure how old this ottoman is but given the weight and old gold flowered fabric I'm guessing its from the 60's or 70's I could be way off. When I got home I placed the ottoman in Avery's nursery -- perfect fit for the Luxe Chair .

For the fabric I knew I wanted a print and a solid color piping. Then I remember I already had the perfect fabric, I bought a long time ago for Euro pillows for our bedroom. I'm so glad I never got around to using this fabric. The fabric is Cross Section by Waverly in Grey. A few years back BB { before blogging } Mr. CHL and I reupholstered a vintage, the project was pretty easy mostly stapling and sewing piping. So I was pretty confident I could diy this project, it just involves more sewing.

Starting the Re-upholstery Process.

I flipped over the ottoman and took off the bottom fabric. The bottom fabric was so old it fell off. Next I used a seam riper to open up the corners on the ottoman, to loosen up the old fabric. Then I cut into the piping on the bottom and pulled it off using needle nose pliers. Then started to carefully pull back the fabric off the ottoman.

After looking closely at the ottoman I could tell it was sewn on, so I used my seam ripper to separate the the cushion from the bottom portion. The cushion was completely covered in the old fabric, so I plan to do the same when I recover it. Next, I carefully removed all the fabric from the bottom of the ottoman. I planned to use the old fabric as my pattern to cut my new fabric out with.

I pinned the old fabric on top of the new fabric and then cut it out. Thankfully the fabric is small pattern so I didn't have to be careful about placing the old patterns on the new fabric. After the four sides out I carefully pinned the fabric on the corners, I also marked the fabric with a pencil to use as a guide for sewing. I sew two sides at a time then attached them together. Once all four sides where sewn together, I placed it upside down to make sure it fit properly. Once the fit was good, I turned it upside down. The fabric was looking really good on the ottoman.

Next up, I'll be sewing piping for the bottom of the ottoman and the pillow cushion. Then spray painting the feet of the ottoman and sewing a cover for the cushion. So far its turning out really good. I think the pattern will look great in Avery's nursery. Can't wait to finish up this project.

What do you think? Have your re-upholstered anything?

Follow Along: As we create a nursery for our baby boy due in June 2011 (He arrived early 6/3/11) From the beginning; Nursery Bare Bones, Paint Makes the Difference, Bye Bye Boob Light &Hemming & Hawing, Crib Notes, To Rock or Not To Rock? Nursery Artwork

Sew Many Pillows

Last Friday night and early Saturday morning was all about sewing pillows to re-freshen our living room. I've sewn 7 pillows in last couple of weeks. Yep, 7 pillows. It's been pillows madness around here. In the past I've said pillows can add a ton of impact, well I need to say it again! Changing out pillows is a must. Every since we refinished our hardwood floors in our home, I've wanted to freshen up our living room. This deep indigo Robert Allen Ikat print was the starting off point to begin the change. I made these two pillows a few weeks back and adore how they look in our living room.

Here's a reminder of how our living room looked a few months ago. Our living room had a blue accent wall, on our sofa were pillows I bought from Target, we had the pillows for over two years so it was time for a change. On the our armless chairs were two lumber pillows, I got the fabric from Calico Corners and made pillows covers. Along with two white pillows, also sewn by me.

While out at Joann's buying invisible zippers for the Ikat pillows I came across Vibrant Vines Waverly fabric, which Mr. CLH and I both liked. Which can be rare, he's not into flowers. He prefers geometric and Ikat prints. So finding a fabric we BOTH liked without compromising makes me smile. I ordered the fabric, and waited patiently 14 + days, which is not cool, Joann's needs to work on the shipping process . I ordered the fabric on a Tuesday and it wasn't shipped until the following Wednesday, again not cool. I'm in love with this print and love how it looks turned into pillows.

For our armless chairs, I still love the lumbar pillows I made, but decided to up-cycle them into 18x18 pillows with turquoise piping. Using leftover fabric I had of the key west print. I retired the lumbar key west pillows. The goldenrod yellow and the turquoise look amazing together.  Well I have one pillow done, and am working on the other one. Like I said on Tuesday 'Piping Ain't Easy' :)

Both the Yellow Key west pillows, Ikat and  Vibrant Vines all have invisible zippers. I'm getting better at sewing with an invisible zipper, the key is pining the fabric to the zipper as close as possible. While shopping at a Joann's further form my house, I came across an invisible zipper foot. Sadly the foot doesn't work with my Singer sewing machine.

This is how our living is looking as of Sunday morning. The blue wall has been painted over and we moved our living room furniture around. We have a bare wall badly in need of artwork above our chairs. I love the smaller Ikat lumbar pillows I made, the actually have better back support then the Keywest pillows had. I really like the additional colors in the new pillows add in our living room.

Next on my living room agenda, Artwork (we are in serious need), More lamps, maybe a dresser? I'm loving the new color the pillows additions and pillow re-dos in our living room. These small changes already are making a huge impact.

What do you think?

Piping Ain't Easy

Ok, I'm cracking up over my blog title today, blame it taking care of a newborn and getting little sleep last night. Anyways I love how  tweaking a song title, works for a blog title :) Today I'm finishing up a sewing project that's taking a little longer than expected. Remember my beloved { to me } Key West print lumbar pillow covers I made for our armless chairs in our living room? If not here's a reminder. I'm still loving the print, just wanted to add a twist.

So I've been sewing new pillows with left over fabric I have and adding an unexpected pop of color to this already colorful print. Yup, I'm adding turquoise green piping to the pillows!

The turquoise green piping looks works well with the new fabric I bought for living room. I'm loving how the piping is looking so far and I'm sewing invisible zippers to, so its requiring a whole bunch of extra work. Piping ain't easy, lol. Hopefully I'll be a piping pillow master by pillow # 2 if so, I'm so adding piping to the cushion I'm making for our outdoor dining room bench.

Hopefully I'll have these pillows along with the new ones I just finished up, can't wait to share the amazing { to us } fabric I just bought and turned into pillows.

What do you think so far of the color combination?

A Household Must

Recently we installed a Carbon Monoxide Detector in our home, and just got around to blogging about it now. I think Smoke Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors are a MUST in every home. In our small rancher we have five smoke detectors { 4 inside and 1 in our garage } Yet we didn't have a Carbon Monoxide Detector until recently, because it was on our 'To Do List'

It was put on our done list asap, when California passed a law requiring Carbon Monoxide Detectors in home and rentals. We bought a First Alert Carbon Monoxide Detector from Lowes for $ 17.99 and included batteries and is good for seven years.

We installed the Detector in our hallway next to our Thermostat. It took Mr. CLH less then three minutes to install it, and I like how easy the batteries are to locate and replace.

If you haven't installed a detector remember this is a household MUST { they even sale plug-in detectors } because they call Carbon Monoxide the silent killers, meaning many people die in their sleep from the poisoning or don't recognize the symptoms of being poisoned before its to late. You can read more about Carbon Monoxide here

Do you have a Carbon Monoxide Alarm in your home?

Work In Progress

Right now we are ping-ponging between three projects around our home: our living room update, finishing up the nursery and our patio. All while taking care of the little guy. Yup, life is busy, but oh so much fun. We recently made some progress on our patio in our backyard. We have a good size backyard and a nice size patio. We guess the patio is about 300 square feet. Until recently our patio and backyard haven't seen in love since our wedding in September 2009. That's all changed recently because we really want to extend our usable living space, by creating an outdoor space to enjoy in the many warm months we have in Northern California.

We have a lot of work do to, yup its a big work in progress. But progress is being made. Last weekend we finally purchased a dining room table set. After looking all over, we settled on a wood set we found at Cost Plus. We both loved the size of the set and style, it seats six and has a bench, two arm chairs and regular side chairs. The dining room table is a nice size and fits our patio space nicely. We also got a super deal on the furniture only paid $ 300 bucks for the entire set! We got the set on clearenace and used a $ 10 offf coupon too. We weather proofed the set after it was put together. Here are some pictures of our patio furniture, in this light our house looks blue but its really grey. Our cement patio still needs a good cleaning, we want to fix the cracks in the patio and eventually paint it.

I plan on buying some outdoor fabric to add color, pattern and fun to our outdoor living space. I plan on sewing a few pillows for the bench, arm chairs and cushion for the bench is a must. Cost plus sells a bench cushion below for $24 bucks that fits the bench perfectly, I would simply recover the fabric.

The bench seating is my favorite thing about our outdoor diningroom set.

I came across some great outdoor fabric, that I think would look great in our space. I like thcolor combinations and find the patterns fun. Here are some contenders.

For outdoor lighting we plan on using lanterns placed on the table and buffet table we wanna build. Not sure if the current lanterns on the table will go or stay. We also re-hung outdoor string lights we used for our wedding.

We have a lot of short term and long term goals for our outdoor space, and know this will be a slow process but so worth it. Here's our list in no particular order:

Resurface Patio and Paint It
Buy or Build Lounge Seating - love this idea
Create various zones on patio - Cooking Area, Dining Area, Lounge Area
Replace grass with Sod, like we did in our front yard
Large terra cotta pots with plants
Add color and fin with pretty outdoor fabric.
Build a Buffet to make outdoor dining easier
Outdoor Rug (big maybe)

That's our list so far, I'm sure over time well add to it. A while ago I came across this picture below, and its really inspired our work in progress backyard. I love the various zones, lots of seating and how colorful the space looks. The fabric was also a fun choice, and love the outdoor bolster pillows. Too cute.

Of course our space is very far from being completed, but we are so happy how the outdoor dining furniture looks. It has already made a big improvement and is already getting lots of use.

What do you think? What are your work in progress around your home?