Full Frontal

I blame the mailbox... not my design sense and the fact that I got the color wrong three - yes, three times.  First I painted it turquoise with a black lid and black medallion.  It seemed too sleek... too Chanel.  Then I painted it turquoise with a white lid and white medallion.  Just too crisp and jarring... too much white.  Then I painted it all turquoise with a white medallion.  The turquoise was too bright... it looked like a piece of candy stuck on the house.  Then I dulled up the turquoise, sanded off the edges so the black came through a little... and then it was right... I think...

So now it's time for the before and after pictures of my front door entry.  Remember?  I have been talking about it in my last post and here.  Well it's time to see if I could add some charm to this old house exterior. 

Here it is before.  Old house.  Weird steps.  I wish I would have taken the picture before we got our ucky black mailbox down and started changing the light, but that's when I thought of it.  Remember, I like color and first started with a possible pink door... no.  Then I debated between lime green and turquoise.  Well, drumroll please...

Lime green it is!  And having worked in a paint store, I knew I would need to bring down my lime color many shades from my original choice on the paint chip or it would be way too intense (hmmm... why didn't I remember that with the mailbox)... as it was, I still had to grey it down even more after the first coat until it was right.  The flower chair has grown a bit since my last post!  I made the window valance out of Waverly Sweet Spot fabric.  The door paint is a softened up version of Benjamin Moore's Kiwi green and don't you think Larry did a superb job painting it?  I made the daisy thing out of coiled grapevine from the craft store and a shallow basket from the thrift store.  The light is called the Petra Outdoor Downlight - it's cheap from our local Menards, but I liked the shape.  On the box the glass shade looked white and frosted, but when we opened it up - it was urine yellow!  I put it in the stationary tub in the basement and sprayed a stripper on it and with a toothbrush, the icky yellow came right off and left a beautiful frosted white.  You already now about the polka dot pots and the flower chair... what else?  Oh, the green flower in front is iron and rusted and I love it.  I bought it a number of years ago at The Garden Room in Shorewood.  If you live around Milwaukee, you should check it out.  Very cool store!

So that's it.  My front entry makeover!

Flower Chair Makeover

Ok, back to improving the curb appeal of our old house.

I thought with the age of my house, 

I might be able to pull off quaint and cottagey. 

I had an old chair and decided to make a chair planter.

I also wanted to reinforce my turquoise and lime green color scheme.

Remember my polka dot pots from a post ago?

 

 Here's the ladder back chair that had seen better days.

Time to send that seat completely on it's way.

We got the chair from a bare wood place and stained it ourselves -- at least 26 years or so ago.  That's our oldest son, Lars sitting on it in the first picture and he looks like he's about 2?  Maybe?  On the right is Lars currently and he's going to be 28 in a couple of weeks.  Where did that time go?  Anyway, that's how old the chair is.  And no, he didn't know he was flipping the bird in the toddler picture.  Totally an accident.  By the way, are any of you Elton John fans?  If so, you might recognize what's behind toddler Lars... but I'll come back to that later.

Here's what I did:  since I wanted a rustic look,

I didn't even sand the chair to start with - just slapped

on some craft paint (color mixed to my preference.)

Made sure not to get it into every crevice.

I rubbed the "wear" points until the paint came off

to give the chair a weathered look.

Then I wanted to have words on the ladder back.  I came up with something Emerson wrote that seemed apropos, printed it out on the computer (in outline to save ink) and taped it on the chair, cutting between the letters at intervals to go with the curve of the slats.

Then I inserted graphite paper under the words.  Graphite paper is like a pencil version of carbon paper which may be an old school reference now that I think about it.  Graphite paper is a tissue that has a pencil coating on one side and when written on, leaves graphite on the surface pressed.  And it's pencil so it erases if need be.  Graphite paper is available at most craft stores, drafting supply places and artist supplies.

Then I just painted in the words with a small brush.  You may not see it in this picture, but I also added a shadow on the left side of the letters because they needed to pop a little.  When all the painting was done, I took the chair outside and sprayed several coats of marine varnish on it in hopes of helping it withstand the Wisconsin summer rains.  Ha ha -  this year we are in the middle of a drought and everything is dying or dead.  Our grass is crunchy and yellow.  We need those summer rains pretty badly right now.

It was my goal to keep the chair planter from looking like a potty chair.  Sorry, but that's what I think of when I see some of these... especially if the flower buckets are deep... and show.  I purchased a shallow yet wide wire hanging plant bowl and spray painted it turquoise.  Then I used the chain (with hooks on each end conveniently) from the hanger and connected it across the seat forming a slack chain triangle and rested the bowl on it.  It worked perfectly.  The chair looks like flowers are spilling from the seat not growing from a potty chair bowl.  Yay!  Another thing... I could not find a hanging plant that I liked - colorwise.  Good thing, because all those have those deep bucket bowls.  Anyway, I ended up planting my own because I wanted LOTS of different colors.  As it is, you cannot see the blue lobelia and the orange marigolds.  I wanted tons of color and some ivies to twine up the back - which are headed that way.  

Anyway, I hope you like my chair planter.

And the thing behind little Lars?

It's a giant (at least six foot square) replica of an Elton John

album cover that we got from the front of

a local Peaches record store back in the 80s.

(Hubby has been a huge EJ fan since high school.)

UPDATE:  Here's how the chair looked about a month later.

Klaatu Barada Nikto!

Danger Will Robinson!  The robots are coming!

My friend, Laura, is having a baby.  Her first boy following two girls.  Since three of my children are boys, I'm pretty excited that she'll finally get a taste of boyhood.  She announced that she is decorating her nursery in grey, orange and a "pop" of turquoise.  And robots.  Ok, having noticed a few of her favorites on Pinterest and knowing that she keeps her walls bare until she's absolutely positive what to hang...  I decided to applique a robot for the nursery.

You all know I have just a few (sarcasm intended) vintage scraps (along with a million pieces of yardage) to choose orange, grey and a pop of turquoise from. That scrap stash has been growing exponentially.  These are some that fit the color profile.

I found some pictures of robots and combined elements that I liked.  Also, this had to be a sweet, friendly, gentle robot since he was going in a nursery - namely, he had to be smiling and I wanted him to find wonder in that butterfly I found.  After laying out fabrics, our little friend started taking shape on the ironing board.  Buttons would work for joints, huge snaps for eyes, rick rack for radio waves, and more buttons for knobs - all vintage.

Our robot was going to need a frame.  This is what I do for frames:  find one at thrift that works for size and paint it.  I do this because then I don't have to cut glass, cut a new mat sometimes, buy or assemble a frame, etc.  I used to be a custom framer and I often lament not having the tools, choppers, cutters, joiners, point guns, etc. that I had access to in the art gallery.  But I make do.  I found this frame at Salvation Army for around $5.  I decided to first slap some orange paint on it, and I mean slap.  Nothing fancy - just craft paint.

 Next, I took a votive candle and rubbed it on the beadwork and other edges.

 I chose matte aluminum for the frame - seemed mechanical, roboty and grey.

After the paint dried, I took a clean cloth and rubbed the places

where I wanted to see a little orange come through.

This took some elbow grease.

 But look at the payoff.

Some nice dimension to the frame, rather than just flat spray.

Next, the mat.  The robot needed a mat.  I took the existing mat from the thrift frame and made it narrower using a box cutter and metal ruler.  I didn't want a very wide mat - just narrow to add a border of color.  And it didn't have to be perfect because I was planning to cover it with fabric.

Time to prepare Mr. Roboto's word bubbles.

What would a happy little gentle nursery robot say?

Using a set of antique wooden letters, I stamped, "Beep! Blip! Bloop!"

 Ok, time to refine the pieces, check the layout, size, and border color...

our Gort is shaping up. Should I have his hand on his hip?

I really wanted him to be holding the butterfly!

 Covering the mat was easy with the old glue gun...

just like Carly's frames.

Now it was time to actually sew down the scraps onto the cotton ground.  I chose to do all the stitching in black.  Oh, by the way, before stitching, I tucked a little Stitch Witchery under each piece and stuck it down with a hot iron so it wouldn't shift during stitching.  I also could have done all the pieces with Heat 'n Bond, but I wanted to see raw edges and some fraying.  Heat 'n Bond, which I love,  makes things rather perfect.  I wasn't going for perfect.

Wanting to keep it three-dimensional, I opted for no glass.

Sure hope Laura's little guy likes his robby.