Rock With Me

I gotta tell you.  I am loving my green wicker rockers that I revealed on my Sparkling Porch.  I put off restoring them because I just couldn't decide what color to paint them. (that and the fact that I was lazy to clean them up.)   When I borrowed the power washer to wash off the back porch I finally cleaned them up so I had to make a decision. 

I purchased the hydrangea fabric for the crib day bed last year and I thought it would be a good idea to use it on the chairs as well.  Once I made that decision it was easy to to decide on green.

 

I really wanted to use  Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel because things on this porch take on a LOT of water and humidity.   Rustoleum has a limited in-store selection of colors in this product.  I did find ONE can of the color Fern at Lowes and I would have used this color if they had had enough.  I checked at Home Depot and they had zero cans

So I went to my second choice Rustoleum Ultra Cover - great color selection but not quite as durable.   I chose the color Eden in satin.  They also have gloss and flat finishes, but the color selection is not quite as extensive as the satin.  i absolutely love this color but now I have to find some sort of protective finish to put over them.  I am researching a clear protective finish to put on the chairs now.  

FYI I used 6 cans of primer on these two chairs and 6 (7?) cans of color on these two chairs.

This is the BEFORE of the smaller rocker.  The paint was very old and the exposure t the weather had loosened the paint to the extent that all the flakes you see either fell off or came off just by brushing my hand over the wicker.  

Power washing removed all of the blue paint and about 90% of the white paint or primer.  

This chair is very old and actually has a full set of springs under the seat lining.  I got this chair at an estate sale for $90 last summer.  Frankly I never would have paid this, but a friend bought it for me to pay me for some work I was doing for her.  It is very sturdy and well made - probably worth more than what was paid for it.

This is the before of the larger rocker - nice upholstery huh?  I got it last summer at another estate sale.  I think it was $12.00. 

I wish I had a picture that more accurately depict the weirdness of this back insert.  It contains a set of 6 springs that made the back stick out like the chair was pregnant. 

The  bottom seat comes completely out.  Pretty cool - makes it really easy to recover.  The metal braces settle into the frame of the chair making the cushion fit as if it was permanent.

I reused the cording to make the welting and recovered the seat pretty much as it was done previously. 

Recovering the back insert was weird and a big guessing game on my part.  Absolutely NO pics on this process, I don't want anyone to think I know what I was doing on this.  I tied the springs to make them less "springy" so they wouldn't bulge out so much and then replaced the original padding with foam in hopes that it would dry more quickly after the rain gets to it.  

I will be putting the black tacks all along the front and back edges.  Right now everything is temporarily attached with staples.  I also have to add some upholstery tacks to make sure everything gets attached to the actual frame and not just to the wicker.   I originally only purchased 50 tacks.  Looks like I will need at least 400!

The other chair was easy because the pads are just regular pads.  I just slip covered them for now.  I'm researching what foam I want to use to replace the 60 year old padding that is on them now.  I need something more outdoor friendly.

When I got this chair the cushions were placed in it like this - with the little back pad sitting down in the lower section.

I started thinking that maybe the cushion was actually supposed to be up high - like a real back rest.  It is slightly more comfortable like this. 

However, I think it is much cuter the other way....

It's not like it is uncomfortable with the cushion down.   Does anybody have an opinion about this?  Up or down, what do you think?

Anybody want to come rock with me?

Get up off your rocker and make something wonderful today!

Karen

I'm rockin' on over to:

Miss Mustard Seed

Too Much Time On My Hands 
Nutmeg Place

Sparkling Back Porch!

Whew! I've got one sparkling porch and one filthy, exhausted body!   You see, I'm a little lackadaisical when it comes to prepping my outdoor spaces for winter.  I hold on to every day of fall, refusing to believe that winter is going to come.  So instead of facing the inevitable and getting the furniture put away while the weather still allows for somewhat comfortable chores, I wake up to a patio full of snow covered furniture.   So I push all of the furniture closer to the center of the porch and hope for a warmer day to put a few things away.  This last winter I actually managed to get most of the wicker furniture into the garage, but only because they were "extra" pieces that had landed on the porch after I brought them home from estate sales and needed to be put away for restoration anyway.   

Our back porch needs some tender loving care - some of which will be relatively expensive and sweat inducing and take a little time.  This is not the spring that these things are going to happen.  So I tried to come up with a few things that would get us through "just one more summer."    

Exactly 14 days ago my back porch looked like this:

and I blogged about all the things I was going to do to freshen it up for spring and summer.   Well, I didn't get everything done.  But I did get a lot done and now my back porch looks like this:

And because this all made me really tired and hungry, I'm going to bathe and eat dinner and leave you with a bunch of pictures.  On another day I'll talk a little more about what I did.   

 

 

And after I've bathed and eaten dinner, this is where I will be sitting - in that rocker on the left.  Mister Quirky will be sitting in the rocker on the right.  There will be two glasses of wine hanging out on that little table.   I'm still working on what I will use to put my feet up on......

Make something wonderful today!

Karen

After we rest, we party so you will find us here....

Between Naps On The Porch

Knick of Time
Uncommon

Savvy Southern Style

From My Front Porch To Yours

At the Picket Fence

French Country Cottage
Funky Junk

A Reveal!

Remember my little $5.00 treasure from Monday's post?

Well it's all fixed up - Drab to Fab! - just waiting for you to click on over to Bella Nest and check it out!  Because, I'm hanging out with Holly today and that's that. So don't be shy.  Grab your coffee and come on over and join us.  There will be cake!

See you there!

Karen

Finally!

Estate and garage sale season is finally here in Michigan.  I have to be careful during this season because I have limited funds and in all honesty I don't NEED anything.   Most weekends I skip sales all together.  Occasionally though I just feel like having a day out at the sales.  Friday was one of those days.

Since my funds are limited and my eyes are bigger than my funds in most cases, I try to have some strict loose guidelines:  affordable (translation - cash in my pocket), immediately usable (translation - will not add to any of my stashes), or a significant contribution to an existing vision (translation - something on my pin board). 

First I hit up another Artful Solutions estate sale.   It was day 2 - so that means everything was 20% off.  Not as good as the 50% I could save if I waited one more day, but I was booked for Saturday and this was my only chance.

I found this chest for $5.00.  Perfect for a project I have planned for my patio.  I'm already halfway through the transformation - to be disclosed at a later date!

Ever since I had to take 3 inches off of the kitchen cabinet where I sore my herbs and spices I've been trying to come up with a creative herb management solution.  I'm hoping these will help.  I was totally charmed by these jars.  Too expensive, but I've never seen anything like them before.  I know I will use them.  The set ended up being about $25 with the 20% discount.  A splurge, but I think they are worth it.

I couldn't resist these two books.  $3.20 each.  Probably should not have bought them.  At least they are my favorite color.

I did a drive by to a few garage sales, only stopping at one.

I love David Sedaris' books.  I've only read one and they had a whole collection for $.50 each.  A pretty good investment I think.   The frame I bought because it is a deep set frame (don't know what those frames are really called - where there is about one inch between the glass and the mat).  Frames like that are harder to find and this was $1.    I'm pretty sure I can make something out of this in a matter of days weeks months - so I buy it.  Maybe I should do a giveaway on the poodle picture....I think the response would be overwhelming!  Don't you?  

Total purchase $3.50.   

I'm 3 blocks from my house and all my shopping urges are gone so I go home.  Done for the day.

Books are put away.  Spice jars are filled.   Chest is half completed.  Only one piece added to stash.

Good job Karen!

Make something wonderful today!

Karen

Sharing these over at Thrifty Treasures@Southern Hospitality
Thrifty Tuesday@Coastal Charm 
 Knick of Time

Testing, 1.2.3.

Do you remember when I was worried about my brain?  When I was freaking out because I was suffering from the urge to paint my living room white?  Well, the urge is still there and I've almost made peace with the idea that it will happen.  Not soon.  But later.  Not too much later though.  I just have to evolve.....and the evolution won't be quick.

See this white chair?

This chair is STEP 1.

It's a test.

I have to know some things before I just haul off and paint a room white for goodness sake.

You see my dining room is very dark - a paint color called Approaching Storm.  So purple it is almost black.  It was my 3rd attempt at getting a purple I liked in the room.  That is a long and ugly story which we won't talk about now.  I'm going to go all the way soon, and paint the room black.  Then it will match my bathroom.  It's going to be black to go with the white in the kitchen and what will be the white in the living room.

I have some furniture for the dining room that I'm going to paint white.  I don't know whether to use a straight white or a white more like Annie Sloan's Old White or CeCe Caldwell's Vintage White.  The woodwork is straight white and the kitchen cabinets are straight white.  Since the walls are so dark I'm afraid that using anything but straight white would be just the wrong thing to do.  

But I'm not sure.  So I had to make a test.  

I took this chair.  It was a free chair.  Nothing special except it came from a relative, so I held on to it and have even used it occasionally.

It was a little gross.  The protective finish, lacquer or shellac, had been ruined by something - probably heat(????).  I was not the least bit interested in refinishing it.  But...

I thought this grossness would look pretty cool under chalk paint.  So I painted it in Annie Sloan's Pure White.  Then I did a little test on the bottom of the chair with various waxes that I have to see what I wanted to do with the wax - not just for the chair but the upcoming projects. 

I ended up using the Annie Sloan Dark Wax over (and under) clear wax. 

I think this would be called medium distressing?

I think the Pure White is the way to go against the dark wall land white woodwork.  Even with the wax and distressing it doesn't look too yellow.

Then I took her out to play on the porch.  Notice I cleaned out a corner for the picture!

So for the next few months I will move her from place to place testing my tolerance for white furniture.  After that, I'm not sure what I will do.  I was thinking she would be lovely if the top third was painted red, or maybe she would like a few red stripes - vertical ones that is.  We'll see.

I hope everyone has a great weekend...

Make something wonderful today!

Karen

We'll be partying here this week:
Savvy Southern Style
Debbie Does Creations
Faded Charm
Between Naps On The Porch
My 1929 Charmer
Too Much Time On My Hands

Too Much Time On My Hands
Nutmeg Place

From My Front Porch To Yours

The Shabby Nest

French Country Cottage

At The Picket Fence

My Romantic Home 
Cherished and Handmade Treasures

Well, I've Been Sick....

That title is a self-indulgent phrase - a private joke between 3 or 4 family members.  I'm not going to explain it, which is what makes it self indulgent - 3 or 4 people will laugh when they read this title the rest probably won't read!

But it is true - I have been sick.  Last Thursday I started having abdominal pain SO bad - like on your hands and knees rocking back and forth bad - that I went to the emergency room.  After 6 hours, two bags of fluid, a little heavy narcotic for pain, a CAT scan, an antibiotic and probably a bunch of stuff I can't remember, I found out I had a kidney stone that was passing from my kidney to my bladder.  Whew!  Mr Quirky and I were REALLY relieved that we hadn't gone to the emergency room for a case of bad gas.  

Well, this was my 1st and I hope last (which won't be the case, because I found out today I have one on the other side as well) kidney stone.  Let me tell you they hurt like hell.  Pain medicine is an absolute must - like every 3.5 hours.  I slept for almost 2 days straight.  I won't go into all the indignities of this whole condition.  But I will say this - I didn't exercise for 4 whole days.  The last time I went 4 straight days without exercising was in 1990 when I got hit by a car (while bike riding), broke my shoulder in three places, and broke my jaw and had to have two surgeries on that.  There are two states of health for me - healthy enough to exercise, and NOT healthy enough to exercise.  The latter pretty much means my life sucks.

Now somehow I have been sucked into the blogger blahs black hole.  Not only do I feel lethargic and am in occasional pain, but I can't seem to write anything without complaining.  How boring is that?!!

I've got at least 15 projects started or need to be started and they are all screaming at me - PICK ME! PICK ME! PICK ME!  The winner will be the back porch, but that is no sigh of relief because it comes with at least 8 major projects.  I would like to have these done by May 27.  DON'T MY KIDNEYS KNOW THAT I HAVE STUFF TO DO?!?!?  It's got to be the kidney's fault.  Why else would I have watched the season finale of SMASH! 3 times already? I am now watching it for the 4th time and will try really hard to delete it from my DVR when it is over.  I know that it seems indulgent to watch it a 4th time, but it is my reward for sitting here with the computer and typing.  Yes. I have sunk to new lows.  But something has to be done....

Since the mood is already so festive, I'll take this opportunity to show back porch and garden realities....you can just sit back and enjoy the fun.  

You see, I'm one of those people who can live with a mess.  No only can I live with it, I can leave it like that for a long time.  Then after I have looked at it for a few days, weeks, months, (whatever) I have to stand there, stare at the mess, and systematically identify "what is wrong with this picture?" and "what needs to be done to fix it?"  And then I forget about it for a few days, weeks, or until I have company coming.  In this case, for several reasons, I would like to celebrate Memorial Day weekend with a refreshed and restyled back porch.   You will notice it (the porch) really needs it!

Note how I accidentally left two watermarks on this picture and just flat didn't have the umph to fix it.  I actually debated putting my watermark on any of these pictures.  I'm relatively certain no one would STEAL them... unless they wanted to use them for an "white trash of America" episode or Sanford & Son (if you are old enough to remember that).

This is my embarrassing back porch.  It isn't always this bad.  Often it is worse.  Sometimes it is better.  I have frozen this moment in time, with instructions for myself.  Now I am cracking the whip.

SNAP!

Some of these are BIG jobs!!!!  I'll call them Papa Bear projects.  (there is another chair in the garage....)

 

These are easy, but messy, Baby Bear projects.

and these...they are the Mama Bear projects.

 

It seems every time I think I am through removing damage from the hydrangeas and hostas, I find more.  And then there are the weeds, the seeds of which were not frozen and killed in our mild winter, and are now growing in by the hundreds.

Does anyone else dread doing their hanging planters like I do????

And of course the thousands of seeds from 100 year old elm trees that are very very fertile in our mulch when not cleaned up....

OK.  It is all spelled out.  Tomorrow is the day I stop feeling indulging my lethargy.  So I give YOU the night off as well.  So go to bed, get a good nights sleep and - tomorrow?

Make something wonderful!  I'm going to give it a shot!

Karen