Category Archives: decorating

Unofficially it’s here

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Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning of summer in the great US of A.

Last month I picked up some new furniture for our front porch from IKEA (yes, I love that store) which needed assembled.  The assembly could not take place until Mr. Aitch power washed the front porch.

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Ta-da!  38 feet of clean emptiness.

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Four hours later, after some semi-easy assembly and 64 hex bolts.  Those babies are time-consuming when hexing space is limited.  I still need to get some flowers of other plants in the window box.

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I love the ottoman/table which is not connected at this time to the rest of the sofa so it’s easily moved.

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I’m planning on making new cushion covers as I don’t see the ivory staying clean even though it’s just Mr. Aitch and me.  The covers are machine washable but I’d rather make new ones “just in case”.

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Plus I can make new seat covers for the swing and rocking chair as well.

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Red and white planters.

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New front door decor.

Over and under

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Alas, in my quest to remember to take before and after pictures I did remember to take an almost before picture of my kitchen stool.

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I bought this stool when we moved into our first house almost 37 years ago.  The wood was unfinished and since those kitchen cabinets were a dark walnut stain, I stained the stool to match.

The seat was a woven material that looked like rush.  It was actually paper!

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The paper/rush rubbed against the stool frame on the edges and eventually cut through making the seat a bit of a risk when sitting.  All my grandchildren loved to undo the seat so I would have to hide it when they came to our house.

My plan to repair the seat involved cotton webbing.  Only the local Joann’s store didn’t have two colors of cotton webbing so I used nylon webbing in Paprika and Steel Grey.  I had two 50% off coupons and used them both.

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Then the fun began.

First I cut off the original seat and stapled the grey webbing to the rung underneath.  Here’s the website I used as reference. and tightly wrapped the webbing for the warp.  When the top was covered, I again stapled the webbing underneath.  I seared the cut ends of the nylon by holding a flame close to the edge to melt it so it wouldn’t fray.

I inserted a thick pad of batting between the top and bottom to give the seat some stability as I didn’t have any foam.

Then I attached the paprika webbing to the stool and wove the weft over and under.  Over and under.  Over and under.  Over and under until I got to the end.  Then I wrapped this piece of webbing around the rung and repeated the over and under on the bottom of the seat until all the weaving was finished.  The paprika end was seared and stapled.

The finished stool.

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Greening up

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With St. Patrick’s Day coming up (and hopefully Spring as well)  I thought I’d freshen up an old wreath for my front door.

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I found this wreath at a yard sale in Ohio when I was visiting my BFF in 2000.  It was a nice big 24″ grapevine wreath but very sad-looking.   The colored baby’s breath, eucalyptus branches, dried statice, and faded red paper bow were original.  I added the yellow and dark red flowers and the leaves with blue berries.  It was my late-August/early September front door decoration.   I removed everything from the wreath and started over.

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I was inspired by this lovely refreshingly green wreath at my local Joann Fabric store.  It was on sale for $24.99 but just didn’t have the heft I wanted.  I’ve discovered that with a red door that bigger and more contrast are better.

So I purchased some green and white fake dogwood, some green shiny stuff made from tiny Styrofoam balls, and a couple of bunches of a small white flower.  I cut some apart and stuck them in between the branches of the wreath util I was satisfied.

Then I hung it on the front door and took a picture if it.

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First attempt.  Even though this photo is straight on, the wreath looks lopsided.  I didn’t notice it until I saw the photo.

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Second attempt.  I moved some things around.  Better but still not quite there.

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The finished wreath.  I love it.  And yes, I always add the USA flag to my front door.  Except at Christmas.

I think this looks fresh, green, springy, and ready for St. Patrick’s Day!

Are you ready for Spring?

The snowman on my door

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I promised a picture of the five-foot snowman hanging on my front door if it was above zero and still light out.

It was above zero (4 degrees F to be precise) when I took this picture.

But not light enough.

Sorry.  There’s only so much I know how to do with Photoshop.

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He’s really a creamy white color though looks yellow in the porch lights.  He’ll hang around till the end of February or March or when I remember to change him out for something more seasonably appropriate.