Projects · Chatfield Court

Kristi / Monday,July 25, 2016

Fix Sagging Sofa Cushions

When the hubs and I got married and bought our first house, a million years ago, we were excited when the time came to buy new furniture (oh how things have changed). We needed new everything to furnish our home and that included a sofa. Neither one of us had ever purchased furniture before, and we were young and broke, so we went for cheap and as close to good looking as we could get for the money. We eventually learned that when you buy a cheap sofa it doesn’t last long, so, when it was time to buy the next sofa, we did a little research first and spent a little more. Long story short, we gradually worked our way up to a well-made sofa that would last many years.

How we fixed our sagging sofa cushions (in 75 seconds)…

Flash forward to the present day and our Pottery Barn sofa. We’ve had it for 13 years now and it’s moved with us, from Florida to Illinois and now to North Carolina, and has held up very well. Recently though, I’d noticed that my back was hurting when I sat on it.

It’s gotten a lot of use from our family and the result was sagging sofa cushions, 13 years of butts plopping down on it will do that. Once I figured out it was the cushions I knew it was time to get them replaced. Of course, being the ~~cheapskate~~ DIYer that I am, I wanted to try to figure out a way to do it myself and I’m glad I did because it turned out to be an easy fix.

This project was actually done a few months ago when we lived in Illinois but, because of the move, I wasn’t able to put the post together until recently. Little did I know when I did this that we would move into a house with a living room that was too small to accommodate my beloved sofa, so my loss will be someone else’s gain.

Anyway…the old foam was wrapped in a down cover but I decided to go with batting wrapped foam. Upholstery foam is expensive but new down covers were outrageously expensive, and I was tired of pulling feathers from the old ones, so I went with a high quality batting wrapped foam.

Shopping for the foam took some time. I researched and looked at a lot of websites and once I settled on a shop that I liked, I made exact measurements from the sofa cushion covers and had the foam cut to size and wrapped in batting. They were delivered to me all ready to go. Like I said, it was expensive, at $173 for two cushions, but I got a really good quality foam that should last years.

So, how did I get that big, cushy piece of foam in the cover, you ask? Painter’s plastic and a vacuum. Yup, that’s it. 20 seconds and the foam was in the cover. I figured that a video would show the process better than photos so, with the help of my trusty assistant, we made one.

If you’d rather have a blow by blow, here is how we did it.

Step by Step Instructions:

Take the painter’s plastic and spread it out.
Place the foam on on half of the plastic and pull the other half over to cover the cushion completely.
With your hand, push all of the air out and tuck the plastic around the cushion.
Next, take your vacuum and put the nozzle under the plastic against the cushion. The cushion will quickly compress.
Remove the vacuum nozzle and quickly place your compressed cushion in the sofa cover.
As the cushion inflates to its original size, work with the cushion to get it in the cover so there are no lumps or bumps.
Pull the plastic out, it will rip and tear but it will all come out, and zip it up.

Voila…a new cushion that looks like it was professionally done.

Can you believe how quick that was? And super easy, too. The cushions look like new again and will last for years. Now it’s ready to go to a new home (sniff, sniff). Anyone in the market for a sofa with brand new cushions? 😉

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Kristi / Wednesday,March 30, 2016

DIY House Numbers

This is a sponsored post with Walnut Hollow, who provided the product (a medium basswood round) free of charge. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hey there! After our exhausting move to North Carolina last weekend, I’m so excited to share with you that I’m joining in with some talented bloggers today for a DIY challenge called Create and Share. It was created by Stephanie of Casa Watkins and it’s a monthly challenge that gives a group of bloggers a DIY project that has the same theme or item.

For this month’s challenge, 30 bloggers were given a choice of three products from Walnut Hollow, a pallet tray, a medium basswood round and a large round clock, and we were asked to give them a new look.

I chose to go with the medium basswood round with the perfect project in mind, DIY house numbers. When we moved into our house 3 years ago, there were no house numbers anywhere to tell new visitors where we lived. After getting too many random strangers knocking on our door looking for a certain address, I finally ordered a house number plaque. Once the holes were drilled into the brick and the plaque was hung, we realized we should have put it under the porch light so that you could see it at night. The mister wasn’t thrilled about putting more holes in the brick, so the plaque stayed put. I’ve wanted house numbers under our front porch light ever since and I knew that the wood round would be the perfect starting point.

I’m glad I went with it because it turned out to be a quick and easy project with just a few supplies, and who doesn’t love quick and easy?

Supplies:

medium wood round (*affiliate link)
wooden house numbers
Provincial wood stain
wood glue
grommets
faux leather cord
drill
spray polyurethane

I was going to stencil the numbers on the wood round but found some wooden numbers and decided to go with stain instead of paint. I just brushed the stain on the top and sides using a foam brush and wiped it off with an old rag.

Next, I took my wood round out to the garage and drilled two holes, for the faux leather cord, so I could hang it. I made sure to make the holes big enough to fit a grommet, which was purely decorative and only added to the front holes.

When the numbers were dry, I used wood glue to attach them to the wood round. I also glued a grommet into each hole and tied my faux leather cord.

To protect my newly constructed house numbers from the elements, I gave the front and back 2 coats of spray polyurethane.

Once fully dry, it was ready to hang under the front porch light, where it could be seen day and night.

It probably would be a good idea to screw the sign to the house to prevent it from blowing around in the wind, but I never got to it before we packed up to move to North Carolina.

I love it…just wish I would have done it sooner.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be sure to visit all of the other bloggers that took part in this fun challenge and see how they transformed their items.

Create and Share Challenge in collaboration with Walnut Hollow. | chatfieldcourt.com

Pallet Tray Projects

Casa Watkins: DIY Succulent Garden Dry Erase Board

Pocketful Of Posies: DIY Military Coin Shadow Box

Vintage Romance Style: Easy DIY Laptop Stand

Shabby Grace Blog: Herb Garden Tray

Vintage Paint and More: DIY Vintage Pallet Tray

Domicile 37: Electronics Tray

Iris Nacole: Bohemian Tray

Lovely Etc: Simple Pallet Photo Display

The Southern Couture: How To Decorate Your Home For Every Season

Green With Decor: Decorating The Bathroom Walls

Medium Basswood Round

Run To Radiance: Faux Succulent Centerpiece DIY

A Shade of Teal: DIY Clock

One Mile Home Style: Golden Home Sweet Home Wall Art

Flourish & Knot: Monogrammed Cheese Board

Lehman Lane: DIY Rustic Boy’s Room Sign

Knock It Off Kim: Rustic Treat Stand

Farmhouse 40: Wood Open Sign

DIY Beautify: Wood Slice Clock

Creatively Homespun: DIY Children’s Step Stool

Chatfield Court: you’re here!!!

Large Round Clock

Monica Wants It: Gold Polka Dot Clock

The Twin Cedars: DIY Lazy Susan

Tastefully Frugal: DIY Drum Clock

Uncookie Cutter: Tabletop Clock

The House Down The Lane: Kid’s Art Cheese Tray

Refashionably Late: Stenciled Clock

Homeology: Rustic Modern Wall Clock

My Life From Home: DIY Baseball Clock

Old House To New Home: DIY Stenciled Clock

Check out some other fun projects I’ve shared.

DIY Mason Jar Lamp

Fun and Easy DIY Garden Markers

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Kristi / Monday,August 24, 2015

Easy DIY Trash Drawer for the Kitchen

I am so excited to share another project with you from the kitchen renovation today. Yes, it’s another job crossed off the list, but it’s one of the things that was on the top of my must have list from the very beginning of the kitchen reno and it’s a great solution for some of the kitchen storage issues we face…a DIY trash drawer.

Right now we have a stainless steel garbage can and a very ugly plastic recycle bin sitting out in the kitchen. They are always in the way and I hate looking at them, so I really wanted to be able to hide them away. I have always had my garbage cans out in the open, and it’s never been a problem, but with space at a premium, we didn’t have a good place to put 2 bins.

Kitchen storage has been a huge problem in this small space since the day we moved in, so the only way to move the bins from out in the open to hidden away would be to construct a custom cabinet on the empty window wall.

Once the cabinet was constructed and installed, we built a wooden box to house the garbage and recycle bins and attached a soft close drawer slide on either side. There’s even some space in the box to store garbage bags and recycled plastic bags.

The door for this cabinet was a lucky find on our very first trip to a local ReStore, at a whopping $2. Not only was was the door the exact size we needed, but it was made of solid wood and it was a pretty close match to our existing cabinets. On top of that we found a second door that we were able to use on the cabinet next to this one (also for $2).

All I had to do was putty and sand the knots, then they were ready for primer and paint.

To attach the door to the drawer, we just screwed it on from the inside of the drawer.

Instant garbage/recycle drawer…well…not exactly instant but it’s done pretty close!

Now I don’t have to look at my trash and recyclables every time I go in the kitchen. Plus it opens up the space where the cans were and keeps the dog from getting in the trash. I love how it turned out!

What is your opinion on garbage/recycle bins? Are you ok with them out in the open or do you need them hidden away?

You can see how the whole kitchen remodel turned out, here, and check out a recap of projects and sources, here.

Kitchen Remodel Reveal

Kitchen Remodel Projects and Sources

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Kristi / Monday,August 17, 2015

DIY Mason Jar Lamp

Creating a DIY mason jar lamp for the kitchen.

As you may, or may not know, we are in the middle of a kitchen reno. One of my big dilemmas has been lighting. Not only have I been struggling to find a ceiling light fixture for the center of the room, but I’ve also been trying to find the perfect little lamp for the counter.

I searched high and low for the perfect small lamp but couldn’t find what I wanted. One trip to the thrift store gave me my answer. I found this large 1/2 gallon mason jar for $1.99, and I knew it would make the perfect mason jar lamp.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the jar when I started this project. It would be cool to fill it up with something pretty, or I could paint it…but, because I had so much fun turning an old window into a mirror a while back, I decided to use Rust-Oleum Mirror Effect Spray again to turn it into a mercury glass mason jar.

First I worked on creating the mercury glass look by giving the jar a thorough wash and dry. Then I sprayed the first coat of mirror effect spray. I immediately followed that with a light spritzing of a mixture of 1 part vinegar to 1 part water all over the outside of the jar (you want the water to bead up and not run down the sides). I set the jar on cardboard to dry a few minutes and then took a wet but well wrung out paper towel and lightly blotted the beaded water up.

This is where you get the antique, mercury glass look. It happens because the water mixture prevents the spray from adhering to the glass. I had to spray, spritz and blot 3 times before I was satisfied with the coverage. It’s a really quick process but you need to be sure the jar is dry before adding more coats.

After I was sure the jar was completely dry, I sprayed a coat of clear enamel to protect the finish.

With my jar finished, it was time to add my lamp kit. I’ve posted the steps to working with a lamp kit before so, to keep this post from going too long, I won’t go through the step by step again.

We used a regular mason jar lid, with two lid inserts for extra stability, and quickly wired it all up. I thought about drilling a hole in the jar to bring the cord through but I didn’t want to do that. Instead we drilled a second hole in the lid, added a rubber grommet and brought the wire back out (as shown in the picture above).

That’s it, 5 minutes and the lamp was ready for a shade. I was going to make a burlap shade but I found a really inexpensive one at World Market. Not only did I get a discount (yay!), but I also saved myself some time. I did add some black ribbon that I had in my stash to style it up a bit. I’m not sure if it will stay, but I liked it better than the plain burlap.

I love how my mason jar lamp turned out. I think it will look great in my new kitchen, if we ever get it finished.

Mason jars have so many uses. Have you ever turned one into something useful, or something pretty?

There are 4 more DIY lighting projects to check out. I hope you’ll visit my friends and see what fabulousness they’ve come up with this month.

An InLinkz Link-up

Check out some of my other DIY posts…

DIY Platform Bed

Rustic Nightstand Makeover

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Kristi / Monday,July 20, 2015

No Sew Pillow Tutorial

Happy Monday and welcome to our second Dose of DIY blog hop. Last month we tackled summer front doors and porches and this month’s theme is pillows. I have to tell you, I was more than a little nervous when the group chose this theme. I’m not someone who is able to or even likes to sew…I mean, I can sew a button, but only if I have to, and I’ve certainly never made a pillow before. I’ve never even used a sewing machine so I knew that whatever I made was going to have to be simple and no sew.

There’s no shortage of tutorials online for no sew pillows, so that’s where I started (this is a good one and one this one was very helpful). I decided to try fusible tape to “sew” my pillow and after walking around the fabric store trying to get ideas for the style of pillow that I wanted to make, I came across some tie dye and knew I found the direction for my first no sew pillow.

The materials I used for my pillow are:

cotton fabric
fusible tape
no sew glue
rope cording
tie dye kit
iron

The first thing I did was to wash my fabric in the washing machine and dried it until it was still damp (make sure you don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets). Next I cut my fabric to size. I was making a 20×20 inch pillow so I used a pre-made cover in that size as my template and added 1 inch to 3 sides and 2 inches the 4th side. I only wanted to tie dye one side of the pillow, so that was my next step.

After my fabric was dyed and done (I will be posting a tutorial on how I did it), it was time to make my pillow. Instead of just doing a regular pillow, I thought I’d add some rope cording to it. Because I added this extra step, the way I joined my fabric together was a little more involved.

To start, I ironed both pieces of fabric to get all the wrinkles out. Next I folded my fabric up an inch on each side and ironed it flat on all 8 sides (cutting a diagonal on each corner of the folds).

Then I used the fusible tape to glue down the one side, that we added the extra inch to, on both pieces of fabric (make sure you follow the directions on the fusible tape package). The other 3 sides on both pieces of fabric do not get glued down yet.

Once that’s done, it’s time to add the cording with the fabric glue. I started about an inch from the corner and put a bead of glue and the flat part of the cording on the glue. Make sure that the cording sticks out over the edge of the fabric.

When you get to a corner, simply cut a few slits in the flat part of the cording and work your way around the corner.

When you have gone all the way around, use a little extra glue and overlap the cording just a bit. Let your glue dry as per the instructions.

Once the glue is dry, it’s time to add the velcro to the side that we used the fusible tape on earlier. Make sure your pieces of velcro line up with each other and glue them onto your fabric. Use something heavy to weigh down the velcro until it dries.

When that’s dry, we’re ready to join both pieces with the fusible tape. I placed the tie dyed piece on top of the back piece with the cording, laid the fusible tape in between and ironed the edges.

I was really nervous adding my pillow form. All I could see in my mind was my pillow cover ~~exploding~~ falling apart completely, but it held strong. This was an easy and inexpensive project to do and I ended up spending less than $20 on all of my supplies. There was a bit of a learning curve for me because I’ve never used these materials before but if I ever make another no sew pillow, I’ll have a better idea of what I need to do and not do.

Ok, after checking out everyone’s awesome summer front door/porch projects last month, I know that we’re in for some killer pillow projects today. Make sure you visit these 5 talented ladies and see their take on our pillow theme for this month’s Dose of DIY…Kim from Exquisitely Unremarkable, Jill from Sew a Fine Seam, Michele from Shelstring, Tammy from One More Time and Sarah from Creative Ramblings.

I hope you have a great week. I’ll be back later in the week to share how I tie dyed my pillow cover.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Kristi / Monday,June 29, 2015

Kitchen Reno Update: New Cabinet

Hello and happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great weekend. Before we get started on the kitchen update, I just want to say thank you for all of the great comments and emails I received on my 2 year blogiversary post. I know that life is busy and I’m truly thankful that you not only take the time to read what I post, but that many of you comment as well. Thanks again!

Ok…I know, I know…it may seem like it’s taking forever to do our kitchen and that’s because it is. LOL We are tackling a lot of big jobs in this kitchen reno, like a new plank ceiling and a custom cabinet around the refrigerator, so it takes both Mr. C and I to do the work, which means we only have weekends.

A few weeks ago we finished the stove hood that we built out of our old stainless steel hood.

Our latest project is the new cabinet we are building on the window wall. We are extending the cabinets that were already in place, which will double our counter space and storage on this side of the kitchen. Everything is being built from scratch, except for a couple of cabinet doors that we found at ReStore, and it is an old house, so trying to fit a custom cabinet on walls that aren’t square has been a challenge. This is what we started with…

An empty wall with a low window sill and a wall vent. After we moved the window sill up and rerouted the vent, we began the build of the cabinet.

Isn’t it looking great? Well, besides the mess of tools all over. We found an old desk top and stuck it on top to use as a makeshift countertop. Let me tell you, having that much more counter space to cook on has been fabulous. Love it! Here’s a view of the whole thing.

The cabinets on the left, against the wall, will be slide out. I’ll use them for my pantry items that have been stored in an armoire. I can’t wait to fill them all up but we still have quite a bit of work to do.

Next up is to prime and paint, inside and out, and then we have to decide on countertops. Ugh, not looking forward to that but I have been gathering samples and I’ll tell you all about it next time.

I hope you have a great week.

Fix Sagging Sofa Cushions

How we fixed our sagging sofa cushions (in 75 seconds)…

Step by Step Instructions:

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DIY House Numbers

Supplies:

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Easy DIY Trash Drawer for the Kitchen

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DIY Mason Jar Lamp

Creating a DIY mason jar lamp for the kitchen.

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No Sew Pillow Tutorial

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Kitchen Reno Update: New Cabinet

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