Paint and Cloth

So it is time for operation house upcycle.  Move over old home its time for a make-over. The aim is to transform our home for as cheap as we can. From re-covering chairs and painting tables to making curtains and painting the walls,...

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Finally finally finished the bear I designed myself! Only took 2 years!!! New one started...I wonder what it will be?

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First proper decoupage jewlery box made. Pretty happy and all for £3, Everything else was stuff I already had leftover in house. Now I know what I am doing, time to make my mum one!

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Quite happy with my first go at a decoupage jewelry box. I made the inside too. Very cheap way to upcycle. The box was £1. The pictures where from old magazines, the black edges are felt tip and the inside was made from scraps of foam and lining material from my mum's trusty sewing box. Next stop the larger hexagonal one. I want to get the next one looking more professional as I am doing it as a trial run for a present I want to make. Love crafting! Like gardening, so good for mental health.

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Departure from home crafts but tried my hand at my first silver jewellery workshop. Made a ring, not perfect and still needs a shine up but pretty happy for first attempt. Going to look into doing more workshops...

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Time to recycle the coffee table for a second time. Last time chalk paint and corks, this time satin furniture paint and photo decoupage. Weren't sure if the photos were going to work but they did! Used colour pop app to turn photos black and white and pick out colours. Photos don't do it justice as the light is reflecting on top but super clear defined photos. Less than £20 to refurb inc paint, glue, acrylic top coat, photos and brushes! ( really recommend sponge brushes for this type of project. All the photos are ones we've taken around England so memories too!

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The tapestries are to go with the paper animals we made a couple of years ago...

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A new tapestry I have designed myself based on the fox using the left over thread and some old wool I had. Any gueses what it is yet?

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A tapestry I did over the summer in the glorious sunshine.

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The finished product! Really pleased with the transformation

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So we decided we needed a filing cabinet and the elves kindly donated an old one. However it was a bit rusty and the colour didn’t go with the room so we decided to upcycle it. We used coloured contact paper on the drawers (a pin is the secret to smooth paper) and black everywhere else. On the side nearest the desk however we decided to use chalkboard paper so we can have a place for thoughts and ideas. See next post for the finished result.

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Finally got round to starting chair 2. Once again not a bad piece of material for a fiver. Very similar colours to the last chair which is good, can never quite tell from photos. We've cut the pattern out, pinned and tacked the top. That's all we have time for today, hopefully we will have time after work in the week to finish it.

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Thought we might as well paint the CD rack while we waited for the coffee table to dry. (yes we still have cds!). Next up the dining room table and chairs, but we'll fininsh these first.

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First coat on and drying, colour looks good so far. Next coat in 4 hours!

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Next up, while we wait for the next piece of fabric for the dining room chair covers, coffee table. Our coffee table has definitely seen better days, it's stained, scratched and we no longer like the pale wood (fake). So we are going to give chalk paint a go, we are aiming for a block look not a distressed one. We've cleared out the shelves and the baskets (which we will probably cover in orange material) and believe it or not there was so much stuff it took 2 hours! We have also given it a good clean and tomorrow we will start painting. We've chosen cocoa as it matches the first and hopefully second chair. Let's hope it works out well.

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So we had a little bit of material left after making the chair cover. Just enough to make a small envelope pillow for the sofa. We used the inside of an old cushion that had seen better days.The sewing machine wasn’t playing ball, but finally it came out OK!

Next piece of fabric has been ordered and off to buy paint today. So far we have spent £10 on 2 chair covers and hopefully 2 cushions, not bad.

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Nearly there, just need to tidy the corners and sew the Velcro on. We are also going to use chalk paint on the legs in a darker brown, let's hope the finishing off goes OK

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Have been working on the first chair today. After pinning and tacking we sewed the back and front first and then the seat was pinned and tacked, fiddly but getting there...