Office Chair Makeover

Every year before school starts back I like to spruce my school desk up by covering it with new fabric. My desk/bomb shelter/ intruder shield is an a huge chunk of indestructible metal. It has big drawers and lots of room to organize all of my things. It however is sooooo ugly. So I try to cover it up and give myself a new look each year. Last year it was purple fabric on the bottom and the desk top was covered with grey chevron. The first year I did it was brown and pink polka-dots. This year I tried to just replace the desk top fabric to save money. 

I also had a terrible office chair which sat me to forward every time I sat in it. I hated it. So my friend and next door teacher offered up her office chair. It was super comfy but a little aged. So I started to think what could I do to give it a little life as well. I started looking on pinterest for tutorials on how to cover office chairs. They are out there but nothing to show how to cover a chair like this that has dents. So I decided to just buy fabric and adhesive fabric spray used in basting quilts to cover my chair. I needed a big staple gun so I drove my chair over to my friends house and she had the best idea. She had an old memory foam mattress for a twin bed and she suggested making a cushion from the foam to even out the dents! Genius! So we took the chair apart and got started. Sophie had to help!

After we got the chair taken apart the best we could We cut two squares of the memory foam out of the big mattress and then made closer cuts into the shape of the cushions. We the sprayed the cushion with the adheasive spray and then we sprayed the bottom of the memory foam and placed the foam on the cushion and pressed heavily on the foam to try and seal the foam to the cushion. It is forgiving and can be reajustied if you don't get it on just perfect. There is probably a better more permanent adhesive spray but I was in a hurry to get this project wrapped up.

I used the adhesive spray to spray the fabric a little bit at a time smoothing as I went until the fabric was draped and glued over the cushion The back of the chair had a hard plastic cover that I could not get off so I had to use the long screw driver to push the fabric behind the plastic and then a small pry bar when I was ready to staple it to the piece of wood that is behind the plastic. I would pry the plastic back with the pry bar and then staple with all my strenght and then let the pry bar go. When I would staple I would have to press really hard into the wood to get the staple in. 

I went through the same process with the bottom cushion and did not realize until I was finished with the bottom cushion that there were a couple of screws I could have unscrewed to take the plastic part off the bottom and it would have went so much faster. I am not sure how I missed them. Uhhhhh! Oh well now I know. 

After we wrestled with the chair for a couple of hours we decided the base needed a nice wash so that we didn't put a nice new covered chair on a dirty frame.

The only supplies I needed plus the fabric to cover the chair.

• Adhesive Spray
• staples
• staple gun
• long flathead screwdriver (to push the fabric behind the back plastic cover)
• Scissors
• allen wrench
• mini pry bar

I think it turned out beautiful and the memory foam really was the saving grace in this project. Love reusing something that would have probably gotten thrown out
to make something new!

So next I cut a piece of fabric to cover the top of the desk and uncovered my sewing machine and went to hemming.

Here is what my first desk was covered in. I painted this 5 dollar lamp shade years ago and decided I would give it a new look to match the new fabric.

 I little black grey and purple paint and its all new.... I think I need some yellow to make it really pop.

I finally got it all together and I am so happy with it... I feel at home sitting here..... It is going to be an awesome year!

And I couldn't resist a picture of my sweet girl ready for her first day of first grade!

             

 

Charleston Pt. 2

Okay... just a few more pictures from my trip to Charleston....

These last two are my favorite of the trip..... These two have their place.... Their place is in Tennessee.... I am lucky that they don't mind visiting the place I love over and over and together we find new reasons to come back....

A Little Bit of Charleston

    If you know me personally... you probably know that I have an undying love for everything that is Charleston, SC. My love for this town seems to grow after each visit. I gave this love a great deal of thought this trip. I tried to look at what it is that really draws me to this town. After thinking about it I realized that I never had that place where I could say this is where I am from.  My husband has that. He is from East Tennessee. He's a real country boy. It is part of what makes him who he is. It is part of his identity. He cherishes his roots and respects and honors the traditions of the Appalachian people. I love him for that. I understand his love of his home.
    As a child I moved schools almost every year until I was a sophomore in high school. I moved towns almost as many times. My dad was in the military and that was just part of the military life. When I come to Charleston I just feel like it is "my place". There are so many parts of the Charleston area that I love from the architecture, the food, the art, and especially the beach. There's a art of me that feels complete when I'm here. So I wanted to share what it is I love. I could have taken lots of good food pictures to share with you but I know that is obnoxious. I could have taken lots of beach pictures by I just didn't want to get me camera sandy so I will just stick to my favorite pictures of historical homes around the French Quarter area of historic Charleston. So here it is.... some of my favorite pictures I took this trip... p.s.  Thank you Soph and Adam for being patient and walking with me as I took all this pictures.... It was hot and you guys were very sweet to hang in there with me!

Photography

     I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't drawing or painting. It's just something I have always loved to do. In college, my emphasis was art. I took Art History, Drawing, Painting and several other art related classes. While attending college I was also able to take several photography classes where I worked with film cameras taking color and black and white photos. I was able to work in the dark room developing black and white photos that I had taken which for the record, was an amazing experience. It is something I will never forget. I loved taking pictures but when I discovered that I had a passion for photography, I was already on the career path to become a teacher.  I have decided to revisit that passion for art and photography. I will be taking some online as well as some local photography classes to help me develop as a photographer. I love teaching kids. I love to see that moment when the light bulb clicks on. However, there has been something missing. I have poured so much of myself into my professional life that there just wasn't anything left that helped me deal with the pressures and stress of daily life.

     I don't know where photography will take me or quilting or painting for that matter but if it makes me happy and helps me feel like I am whole again then it just can't be bad. I have created a Facebook page and designed a logo just to show what I am working on. If my friends want to see what I am working on they can follow me or they can choose to not do so. Some days I might share pictures I have taken and some days it might be a painting. I might make the most amazing recipe or visit the most amazing quilt shop and share it. It's all art to me. Art is relative. That is the beauty of art. I don't know if I want to develop my photography to help me build my blog or if I want to work on portrait or nature photography but that is the what I love most about this journey. I love getting to discover what it is truly makes me feel fulfilled. I refuse to listen to negative comments or to anyone that doesn't support my dreams. For way to long I have doubted myself.  That is officially over as of today.... I know I have an eye for photography, I know I love to paint, and draw, and cook... and when I combine that with experience.... I think that there is no limit to what I can do. From here on out I am going to listen to my heart and do what I love. It's long overdue in my opinion. I plan to spend the next couple of months working on my blog and rediscovering my artistic side..  Since I will be posting lots of pictures on my blog and on Facebook of things I am working on I decided that having a watermark was a must! So.... here is the  official first look at One Square Inch.....