New Dining Chair Fabric

Ever since I bought my new dining set I've been busy thinking about the fabric to reupholster them with. I need a fabric that looks great but will hold up to the ultimate test: an 18 month old's sticky food hands.

I began by looking at Crypton Fabrics. Liquid literally just rolls off of Crypton Fabrics. It is mainly used in hospitals where it can stand up to years of abuse. See how the water just sits on top and doesn't soak in? Awesome!

Then looked at fabrics that had stain resistant properties in them that protect against food and oils. These are superior to fabrics that just have a stain resistant finish on them because the stain resistance never wears off. A lot of them are environmentally friendly and look great!

Then ordered a ton of samples to check them out at home:

I narrowed it down to a few choices, mainly bold patterns in greens and blues. And cost of course was a factor...

Earthy Flowery Leaves:

Abstract Tear Drops:

Spiral Circles

Large Circle-y Dots:

Small Flowers:

So that's the final five. Any thoughts, opinions or suggestions??

Valentine's Wine Weekend

Not much time for DIY'ing seeing as the Hubs and I had a weekend getaway in Texas Wine Country! We stayed at a little bed & breakfast- The Back 40. It was a little ranch that had horses, fishing, and cute little cabins.

Our cute little Texas Ranch Themed Cabin:

And of course on the Wine Trail we had wine! 

And Chocolate!

And check this out:

They totally copied my wine bottle pendant lights! Or maybe they had them first, I'm not sure. Either way I bet mine were a lot cheaper!

Hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day. I also got some fabrics in that I had ordered for my dining chairs. I can't wait to share them with you!w

Easy Update: Jewelry for Your Furniture

I have an old dresser that was given to us by my grandmother- inlaw. She graciously gave it to us when we got married and had zero furniture. It's so old and cool! It lives in our living room and houses our DVD's.

The wood is beautiful and in great shape.

It has a marble top.

Check out that dovetail joinery!

I really love it. But I felt bad for it because when she gave it to us it was missing a drawer pull. And during our last move another one fell off. Despite glueing it back on it has fallen off once again.

So I thought I'd give our dresser a little TLC with a simple update- some new Drawer Pulls! Of course this was an excuse to make the trek over Fancy Drawer Pull Heaven (AKA Anthropologie).

There are a ton of awesome drawer pulls there! I spent some time sorting through them trying to decide which color and style to go with. And trying to not fall in love with the $8 or even $12 (!>@#!) ones.

Green to match the curtains?

Blue to match the accent color in my new rug?

A mix of both?

I finally decided on these guys. They are kind of antique-y looking like my old dresser and had both the colors I was looking for.

I  unscrewed the old ones and put the new ones on. Quick, easy, and I think it looks great!

Hooray for easy updates! Have you done a quick update that makes a big difference?

Work It!

The weekends are usually when I get a long run in, but this past weekend I spent most of my time painting and didn't get a chance to. But I figured I got a pretty good workout anyway with all the bending and stretching painting involves. DIY'ing is a lot of work!

I've seen lists on how many calories you burn vaccuming and dusting, but I wanted to know exactly how good of a work out I got painting. I did a little research and came across this website: http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm There is a list giving calories burned for many activities including painting!



So according to the list Painting walls for 1 hour: 266 calories burned! Wow!

I started to wonder about other DIY activites and how they affect calorie counts. Here's a run down:

Welding: 207 calories

General Carpentry: 207 calories

Electrical Work/Plumbing: 207 calories

Tailoring/ General (like sewing I guess!) 147 calories

So what are you waiting for! Go DIY it up and Burn Baby Burn!



Master Bedroom RePaint

This weekend the hubs and I tackled painting our Master Bedroom. I often neglect doing anything in our bedroom since no one sees it. It tends to be the place I toss all the mess when company comes over and shut the door. I'm trying to change that little by little and I started with our ceiling fan update and now we finally repainted the dark brown paint in our bedroom.

Before the dark brown was on the walls and ceiling. It absorbed a lot of light and made our room feel dark.

I was also anxious to cover up some eyesores in the room. Like this space leftover from when we closed in the door to the kitchen during our Kitchen Remodel. I tried to cover the new gypsum board with leftover paint the previous owners left us, but it was so old it was discolored and gross.

And this beauty, our electrical panel a nice addition to any bedroom I'm sure...

We began by priming the walls and ceiling for paint. I didn't do this when we repainted our living and dining room and regretted it, the dark brown would show through and we ended up painting 3 coats! 

Painting any room in our house is a daunting task because of the crazy texture we have on our walls. On a scale of 1 - 10 our texture is an 8 at least. It's really hard to get into all those nooks and crannys.

But it's all worth it in the end when your bedroom is light and bright! We went neutral because I'm thinking about switching up our bedding and I wanted the room to feel as bright as possible. We used a satin finish for the paint to reflect light around the room.

And that electrical panel is barely noticeable anymore!

Anyone else tackle some projects over the cold weekend?