Concrete Bandwagon

All aboard for the Concrete surface Bandwagon! If you aren't a big diy blog reader, you probably have approximately zero idea what I'm talking about, so allow me to explain.  I am now the proud owner of a 10lb bag of Ardex Feather Finish, and I can not wait to give it a try!!!!!  Introduced to the DIY blog land by Kara Paslay, Ardex Feather Finish is like frosting for your countertop.  Essentially it allows you to create the look of a polished concrete surface by simply covering up your old surface.  No demo of your old countertops, no pouring messy concrete into makeshift forms- only a thin coating of concrete that result in pretty surfaces that look substantial, textured, and just all around awesome.

via Little Green Notebook

I've been dying to find a project to try this out on and I've finally found it!  I'm going to make you wait until probably next Wednesday or maybe even the following Monday to tell you cuz I'm mean like that, but I will tell you it's not my countertop, or Millie's countertop, or a floor, or a table..... You'll just have to wait and see!

Until I perfect my hand at the Ardex amazingness, I'll show you a few of the projects that lured me to the dark side into wanting to try it.

1. I have to start with Kara Paslay.  Not only is she pretty much the one that started it all with this countertop redo,

but she's also used Ardex for just about everything- like creating this pretty sweet patterned table top.

2. John and Sherry jumped on the bandwagon not all that long ago by DIYing the countertops in their latest home.  It's not their long term solution since they have hopes for an eventual full kitchen renovation, but it's worlds better from where the kitchen started!

3. Jenny's laundry room on Little Green Notebook is my personal favorite for several reasons.  First of all, I love the concrete look as part of the whole room composition- so successful!  Second of all, I'm insanely jealous over pretty laundry rooms since my own is a corner of my unfinishable 100 year old basement... and lastly..... gold hardware.  I'm a sucker.

What I really love about all these projects is that the Ardex looks like it belongs.  It doesn't look like one of those countertop refinishing kits that just makes your laminate look a little bit less bad (I'll be ripping one of those out very shortly at Millie).  These just show that DIY doesn't always have to look it.

I can't wait to start my own Ardex project!  It's. going. to. be. epic.... ok, maybe a little bit of an oversell, but still, I can just picture the end result and it'll be happy-dance-inducing at the very least!

DIY 101: Recovering a Chair

Let's start at the very beginning- a very good place to start.  When you read you begin with A B C, when you DIY you begin with... recovering a dining chair.

I know I often do more involved DIY's but sometimes I forget to share the basics.  So I figured let's start with DIY 101.

Recovering a chair can seem intimidating to start off, but once you realize how easy it is to recover the seat, you'll want to keep doing it!  Maybe that's the root of my chair addiction.  As you can probably guess with this chair, I've already attacked it with a vibrant blue spray paint.  No matter what color the frame, however, that orange velour seat would need to go.  Far away.

First you need to remove the seat.  Normally it's held on with a few screws from under the chair.

Once your seat is free, go ahead and grab pliers and a flat-head screwdriver and start prying out the old staples.  If your seat is in decent condition and the cushion is still adequate, you can always skip this and cover right over the old fabric.  If that's the case, skip down to the fabric step.

You'll need to take the staples out to free both the fabric and the underlying foam.  I promise, this is the most tedious part, so if you can make it through this- you got it!

Now for the fun part- putting it all back together!

I used 2 layers of dacron batting for my cushion.  If you want something squishier, you can use a layer of 1" foam with a layer of batting over it to smooth it.

Start by stapling the top, bottom and 2 sides about 1" in from the edge.

After stapling the 4 sides, go ahead and staple all the way around and trim the excess batting.

Next you'll need to position your cushion on the back of your fabric.  Make sure if you have a directional pattern like a geometric or stripe, that you have the pattern oriented as you'd like to see it on the chair.

Now, with the fabric, you'll want to first staple the 4 sides as before.  Staple in just a bit from where you stapled the foam so that the fabric will cover it.

Once you have the sides stapled, work inward from each staple.  You want to make sure not to pull the fabric tight otherwise you'll see the stretching.  Instead, use your full hand to smooth the fabric tight like so.

Create pleats in your fabric as necessary as you go.  You won't see these on the finished product, but it will help your pattern sit properly.

Continue this all the way around until your entire seat is stapled.

Once the stapling is set, trim your fabric at least a half inch from the staples- any closer and your fabric may fray.

Once trimmed, you get to turn the cushion back over an admire your handy-work.

Reattach it to the chair and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Now you're ready to give your dining room a whole new look!

Revived Luggage Rack

On Monday I showed you the "before" a beaut of a luggage rack that was mid-makeover.  I was planning to fix it up to put out for sale at our tag sale this weekend, but a friend offered to adopt this little guy instead.  I hope she loves how he came out as much as I do!

I rescued it from an estate sale several years ago- I think it was $15.  I loved the shape and the potential history, I just couldn't let it end up in the trash.  But it did need some love.

In addition to obviously needing new ribbon and refreshed stain, the bottoms of the legs were coming apart and had some severe chipping.

Using wood glue, clamps, and wood filler, the legs were all patched up.

*tip* I prefer using Dap Plastic Wood to fill blemishes on stained pieces.  I tried both that and Minwax's Wood Filler (since I ran out of Plastic Wood mid-project) on this and I confirmed my previous ideas that the Dap is easier to work with and takes stain better.  It'll never act like real wood, but I've found this to be the closest.  Not sponsored, just wanted to share my experience.

Once everything was patched, I stained just the parts that had been patched so they'd blend more once I applied the final coat.

For the final coat I decided to try a new stain- Varithane Wood Stain.  There was mixed reviews online, but I found it to be exactly what I was hoping- thicker than regular stain, but not as annoying to work with as Polyshades (which acts more like a translucent paint).

Now for the fun part- putting the new ribbon on.

I used staples to secure the ribbon, knowing they'd be hidden when I folded the ribbon over and put on decorative brass nails.

Because they didn't go in 100%, I hammered them flat so that there would be no bumps when I folded the ribbon over them.

So, a little DIY admission here- this was my first time ever using decorative nails and it wasn't as easy as it looks. With the hardness of the wood I was working with, they did want to go in without bending.  After much trial and error, I ended up creating the holes with an awl first, then hammering in the nails the rest of the way.

I'm glad I made it work, because look at him now.  All nautical and sexy.

Just look at him in action!

Fun fact: the blue case is actually an accordion.  My dad's from when he was little that was rediscovered when cleaning out his Aunt's house a few years ago.  Priceless.