The $10 Mirror

I think this mirror may be my new favourite piece in the condo :) And it cost $10, which makes me love it even more. It's hard for others to understand just how much I love a good deal...

I love pretending what it would be like to actually have people read this blog. When doing a new project, I'll say to my boyfriend "Wait! Let me take a photo of this step!" And he'll look at me with an almost pleading look of "But it would go so much faster if you didn't have to do that..." to which I reply "But my readers won't understand how to do it if I don't capture this step!". Then he gives me a look that is a combination of "Aww.. it's cute that you think that" and "Maybe one day..." but he says "Okay, let's take the photo" and I win :)

This project took about 30 minutes and I did it on my own, so I didn't have to make anyone stop to pose. Maybe next time.

A few weeks ago I was driving to visit my Grandma. I stopped at a Goodwill on the way because it's not one I normally go to, so I was hoping for a good find. And I got one! This mirror was $20, but it just so happened to be a 50% off furniture day! I couldn't believe that nobody else had snatched it up - the lines were perfect!

Here's what it looked like before:

My wonderful future sister-in-law let me spray paint it in her garage.

You can tell from the holes in the side that it used to be a part of a tri-fold mirror that probably sat on top of a dresser. They only had the middle part, but that's all I needed! gave the whole piece a quick sand using 80 grit sand paper, and then filled the holes with wood filler.

After I had sanded the wood filled areas and wiped the mirror down, I taped the inside of the mirror so that I wouldn't get any spray paint on it.

And then I covered the mirror with newspaper. One layer is enough, it won't leak through to the mirror. If when you're done you realize there was a spot you didn't cover, don't worry, you can use a razor blade to scrape it off.

I lay the mirror down on newspaper so I wouldn't ruin their floors (although there were a few spots that I didn't cover perfectly - sorry Stacey!)

*TIP! Make sure you raise whatever you're painting slightly off the ground. I put two little cardboard pieces underneath so that I could get good coverage on the sides and I wouldn't have to worry about the mirror sticking to the newspaper underneath.

I used this spray paint:

I already had it from a previous project, it's just $8 at Home Depot, not bad!

I did two coats and let it dry in between, but it dries super quickly. I wouldn't leave the newspaper on for too long, because you don't want the paint to adhere to it, and then pull off parts of the paint with the newspaper.

(Please pardon the poor quality iPad photos).

Here's the before:

And after: 

I like that the wood grain almost gives it a gold-leaf-ish finish.

I couldn't be happier! The gold ties in perfectly with the coffee table I just painted for the living room, which I'll show soon :).

I'm linking up with:
Remodelaholic
My Turn for Us
Creations by Kara

How to Recover a Parson Chair

After I bought and refinished my kitchen table, I started looking for chairs. I knew I only needed 4 because the condo is small - only 651 square feet! When I have company for dinner, I figured I'd make it work somehow.

After visiting several stores and not finding anything I loved, I decided to search kijiji. After a few options I liked fell through, I decided on a set of four parsons chairs. They were a dark brown pleather and had little tears in them - the owner must have had a cat! She was asking $80 for all four, but when I mentioned I'd be reupholstering them she dropped the price to $60 - so $15/chair wasn't too shabby!

Here's what I used to reupholster the chairs (plus a sewing machine)

I took the chairs apart and enlisted the help of my favourite seamstress - my Mom! Here's what they looked like before (with the back already taken apart from the seat):

As you can see, they were in pretty rough shape. After discussing our options, my Mom said that it would be easiest to cover right over the pleather as opposed to taking the pleather off and completely reupholstering them. Plus, if stains get on the fabric they won't sink into the chair. Seeing as I've already spilled red wine on one, easy stain removal was important!

I bought this fabric from Designer Fabrics downtown Toronto for $12/meter.
The first thing we did was measure the width of the back of the chair. We then measured the fabric and pinned it so that we'd know where to sew. I'm using the term "we" very loosely... It was mostly my wonderful seamstress who figured all of this out. She even made sure that the pattern matched up perfectly on the seam down the sides.

The plan was to cut a long piece of fabric and fold it in half so that we could sew the fabric together like a pillow case down the sides and to slip it over the back part of the chair. This meant we had to sew it perfectly so that it was snug enough not to wrinkle, but not too snug that we couldn't slip it over the top. Luckily Because my Mom is so skilled, it was perfect on the first try, but we had extra fabric just in case. (Notice that they were sewn with the fabric inside out).

Here's what it looked like after step one of the process. I cut the extra fabric off of the bottom and the back and stapled it to the wood (just where the staples were in the pleather). You can see that it was one long piece of fabric that started at the front on the bottom, and went over the top of the chair and down the back. That way we only had to sew the sides.

See how perfectly the sides match up?! She's amazing.

Above you can see one chair that I had already finished (cut off the extra fabric and stapled) and the two beside it still need to be finished.

Here's a close up of what it looked like with the staples. It didn't have to look perfect because the bottom half of the chair would fit right in and cover all of that. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of how I recovered the seat of the chair, but it was just like wrapping a present! I made sure the pattern was straight and then folded the sides around the bottom and stapled them.

And here's what they look like now!

Budget Breakdown

Chairs - $60 for 4

Fabric - $68

Staples and staple gun - already had them

Total: $128 - $32 per chair

This post is linking up with:
 A Blossoming Life
House of Hepworths
Remodelaholic
Give me the Goods Monday
Thrifty Decor Chick
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Painted Pedestal Table

I figured my first DIY post should be the first big DIY project I ever did! I bought my condo pre-construction, so after the initial purchase, I had almost a year to plan and get everything ready.

The first purchase I made was this solid wood pedestal table. I searched kijiji for a few weeks until I found one I liked for a price I loved ($40!). It also came with two leaves which was a bonus. You can see it had a few water stains and scratches on the table surface, but it was easily fixed with sanding and wood filler.

The inspiration for this project came from Kate who is the author of the amazing blog, Centsational Girl. I followed her post Painting a Kitchen Table to a T! It was the first time I had ever refinished any piece of furniture, so I wanted to make sure I did it well. I even bought the same primer (Zinsser) and paint. Check out her step-by-step instructions if you're looking to do a similar project!

Here's what the table looked like before:

And here's what it looks like now :

Some more before photos:
(Sorry for the crappy phone shots!)

You can see from the photo above that the table top was in rough shape. I sanded the table with 100 grit sand paper and an electric palm sander. I also sanded the base and legs with a sanding block, but only found out later that Kate only sanded the top. That would have saved time, but you learn as you go, right?

I tried each step of the process on the leaves first, because I figured if I completely messed it up, it wouldn't be as big of a deal as ruining the table top. You can see them (already sanded) leaning against the wall in the above photos. Like Kate, I used a combination of rolling and spraying to get an even coverage over the table.

I rolled as much as I could on the base, and then sprayed the rest with the spray paint primer to make sure it covered every nook.

And here's what it looked like after I had finished! I left the table slightly apart so until it dried. I didn't want to close it and then chip the paint if I were to open it. I didn't go into detail about the steps I took because whatever I say, I'm sure Kate says it better!

Budget Breakdown

Table - $40

Zinsser primer (spray) - $9

Zinsser primer (quart) - $12 (half left)

Paint (Benjamin Moore Advance in Swiss Coffee) - $29 (half left)

Minwax Furniture Wax - $8 (almost all of it left)

Sandpaper - already had it

Orbital sander - borrowed from a friend

Total: $98

It may seem like a lot for a DIY, but I have lots of materials left over for the next project!

This post is linking up with Remodelaholic.