Tuesday, June 30, 2009

turquoise and reupholstering and too many books

i had a kitchen table that i got for 149 dollars .... it came with four chairs ... in the early 90s .... it was my new husband's and my first big purchase for our tiny new house ... we eventually bought two more chairs to go with it ..... so it was a seat six table ... fast forward to twins .... and i had countless art projects with them on that table ... the finish starting rubbing away ... the red dot paint didn't come all the way off even with bleach .... and there was glitter ground into the no-finish-left grain .... and it was our kitchen table up to a few weeks ago .... we ate off it in the brown house ... and considered not bringing it back into our new reno house ... it was such a wreck of a table .... but ... i needed a table for my library .... so ... i gave it to painter wendy and she worked her magic .... she refinished the top in a dark walnut ... and she put the bottom-used-to-be-white-part and put it in her spray booth ... and sprayed on a lovely dark turquoise ... and now .... my sad sack, old, cheap table is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house ... it is in my library (really what most people would call their formal living room ... but since i'm not formal ... and little living happens in living rooms ... we call it the library ..... )so ... it's the table in the library ... near our wall of books ... surrounded by the chairs that used to be my parents' dining room chairs ...well... and mine too, for that matter .... we had them as hand me down dining chairs until we upgraded to a different set of hand me down chairs ... from mr.e.beck.artist's grandmother .... 

so ... boy.beck.artist and i spent a day reupholstering the seats .. six library chairs .. and six dining room chairs .... it took longer than we wanted ... largely because ancient screw are hard to remove ... and hard to put back in .....

here's the front hall mid project .... with a glimpse of the turquoiseyloveliness table .....
and here's a close up of one of the fabrics ... i chose two for the library ... 

and here's the chair, the table, a different fabric , and some shelf ...
and the final shot .... a like new library .... my pal dana helped me pack and unpack a zillion and three boxes ... and she indulged my peculiarities and helped me alphabetize my library ... i'm not compulsive about much ... just the important stuff ... like good books ....


as i unpacked and alphabetized i found tons of books that i need to reread .... 
do you reread books? 
do you upholster your own stuff? 
do you like painted furniture? 
do you know how tired i am? 

i sold a pear painting this week .... it was mostly the color of that table there .... good karma ...







7 comments:

shrink on the couch said...

love the chair upholstery fabric ! and bravo, doing the job yourself. no, I have not upholstered anything myself, unless you count the wicker rocking chair on my patio .. I used tape. It's lasted a few years, undetected, so I guess tape IS a valid option.

cath c said...

i love the table's new colors and have a similar table that is now honey's desk. you are an inspiration...i used to paint a lot of furniture to give it a facelift, but these days, i can't. allergic to paint. sad, i know. so i live vicariously through your happy life in colors! i've reupolstered a lot in my day, too. i love home done projects. there's a real satisfaction that comes from them.

cath c said...

and i love rereading books and yes, i believe i know how tired you are. kick back for a bit, then hop back to it.

artmom said...

yes, yes, yes, and yes!!! to answer your questions!
Those old chairs do not look so bad now that they have a new lease on life! After all they are probably almost 100 years old as they came with the house that wss built in 1912!
Library shelves look magnificent! take time to read one of those meant to be re-read books now!
hugs.....

3rdEyeMuse said...

that table looks smashingly FUNtastic! ... and I love seeng all the books on all the shelves (I aspire to having a library - one with globes and an oversized world atlas, too)

yes - my favorites nearly yearly
no - don't have stuff worthy of fresh fabric
yes - though I didn't realize it till uber-spouse shocked me
yes - I wish you a really good relax

congrats on the good karma. :)

aimee said...

i am drooling with envy over your bookshelves and turquoise tables. and those chairs in the last post... wow!

Jodi Ohl said...

I love what you did with your old family table, it looks so bright and cheery again. No wonder you are tired! You've been on the go nonstop since I can remember!!! Congrats on the sale, I say you have lots of good karma coming your way!