Thanks to Fiskars for sending me a few items to complete my blog post. All opinions are my own. This post includes affiliates links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no cost to you.

I've always wanted to DIY my own furniture project. I once picked up a gorgeous round dining table and chairs from the dump with the hopes that I was going to update it. It sat around our house, in the way, for years, until a friend finally took it off my hands and seemingly transformed it overnight.

I just felt like I never had the time or energy. Plus I didn't want to just horribly destroy something that was fine as-is.

But we've bought a house, and while I'm perpetually exhausted, I do technically now have more time on my hands. So I bought a sander, and Fiskars was nice enough to end me a staple gun and some different supplies, and I set to work on stripping the paint off some old chairs and reupholstering the fabric.

My sister had bought this set of chairs secondhand, and then she passed them onto us. They weren't totally my cup-o-tea, but they were sturdy and functional. So I'm excited to knock "DIY a furniture project" off my 101 in 1001 list. See the total makeover below.












I first took apart the chair using a screwdriver and allen wrench. Then I used the thickest, grittiest sanding pad on my RYOBI corded sander to completely remove the old white paint, which was by far the most difficult, tedious part of the chair re-up.







Now I'll be the first to say that my sanding skills aren't perfect, but for the most part, I removed the white paint. Once all the paint was removed, I went back over any rough spots with the least grittiest sanding pad to smooth it down. Then I put the wooden frame of the chair back together, sans the seat and back cushions.





Once I had the frames back together, I used thread snips and shears to remove the fabric and staples from the seat cushion and back cushion, one at a time. I discarded the old, disgusting fabric. I then used the older seat cushion, folded in half to double pad the back cushioning. For the seat cushions, I went with high density 2" cushions from JOANN.

For fabric, I went with an outdoor fabric. I figured it'd hold up best in terms of being used in a kitchen type setting. These chairs are used at our breakfast bar, so I eat sitting in them and I am a bit of a messy eater. But the breakfast bar backs up to the living room, which is mostly blue accents. So the fabric I chose is blue and white, which I think looks really nice.

Anyways, I cut the fabric about 2 inches longer on each side than the actual wooden seat board. Then I just pulled that sucker around it and stapled, stapled, stapled. The underside of the seat is not seen, unless you were to flip over the chair, so my theory is that there can't be too many staples.

The back rest was a bit different, because I didn't go a sewing route, which means the staples are visible from the back. So with that, I stapled the top and bottom first, the folded in the sides for a visibly nice fold - almost like wrapping a present. I then tried to staple it in as nice and uniform a row as I could.

I think the most complicated part of wrapping the back rest was making sure there were holes in place to be able to actually screw it back into place.










For these chairs, I really liked the natural wood look, but you could easily repaint or even stain the wood. for a more cohesive look for your space.




So they're definitely not perfect, but I feel really proud of them. For my first DIY furniture project, I think it went really well. It was easy enough for someone with little experience in refurnishing, and this is definitely the kind of project I would recommend to someone wanting to start on a furniture project, even just reupholstering the seats without any of the sanding would be a great first project for others too!

I have this shirt I'm completely obsessed with. I honestly used to wear it probably twice or more a week. Until I wore it to the hair salon, thinking "Hey, it'll be safe. They know what they're doing here." I wore it out that night, and it wasn't until I got home that I noticed my entire back was bleached.

So, then it sat in my closet for months and months, until I decided "I'm going to fix this and make it wearable again." So, I did. Here's how.


What I used:

Shirt to "fix"
Concentrated bleach
A small tray or bucket
Rubber bands
Gloves
Scissors (optional)






What I did:

Step one. Figure out where the stain is and how to resolve it/cover it up. Mine was about halfway up my back, so I used a rubber band to separate the stain from the upper part of the shirt. 





Step two. Using gloves (because I'm not trying to bleach myself), I poured bleach into a bucket. I got this small bottle of Clorox at the Dollar Tree (for one dollar!), which was the perfect size for this activity.





Step three. Dip the shirt into the bleach below the rubber band you placed. Make sure it's fully covered. I rubbed bleach in places there weren't getting as wet to make sure it took. All it takes is 30 seconds or so to really take. Then I rung out the excess bleach, being careful not to get it on other parts of the shirt (if you do, though, don't worry - see below).






Step four. Lay out the shirt somewhere you don't mind bleach dripping, to allow it to dry. Tear or cut off the rubber band to keep the shirt evenly laid out. You may even want to use some of the excess bleach to splatter on the upper portion of the shirt. I honestly did it by dipping the gloves into the bleach and splashing it onto the shirt as it was laid out.






Step five. Once the shirt is dry or just fairly damp, through it into the washer by itself to wash, then dry. And you're good to go.


Results:

We used chalk markers and posterboards to make all the signage. The cutesy animal outlines were a big hit. We got the vases, faux flowers, and plastic animals from the Dollar Tree. The paper animal cutouts we got from Etsy for guests to write sweet notes to the babe, and will be doing something special with those for a guestbook alternative! The tiny elephant frame was from Party City, and we simply printed out a still from the 3D ultrasound (stolen off Facebook) to put in the frame for a bit of a special touch.










We were all ultra-excited about these mountains. We used foam board and metallic gift bags to make the mountains and mountaintops. The clouds are literally just cutout posterboard with skewers taped to them then stuck into the foam board of the mountains.












I'm obsessed with the zebra rug and giraffe bust, which we used for decoration then gifted to the sweet mama-to-be for nursery decor. We used animal crackers in the vases for an extra special touch that was both cutesy, and theme-related.









Overall, the shower went off without a hitch. Everyone really enjoyed it, especially the mama-to-be and her family, so no complaints here.


Have you ever hosted a baby shower? What worked best/worst for you?













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