Green with Envy

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In the past couple days I've become obsessed with green couches. Believe me - obsessed. 

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 I love the burst of boldness, yet in a soft, watercolor kind of way. 

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Before this obsessive love affair began I believed couches should be neutral. Blank canvases, if you will, to be accessorized with throw pillows and a soft blanket.

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Now I find myself wondering why the couch can't be the main accessory in the larger living room.  Throw pillows are fabulous, but they are like a ring...pretty but not quite enough to make a large statement. 

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Not too long ago I shared that I really wanted to do something about the dark tan slip cover I had made for my large couch.  I think I've decided I need a green couch. In fact, let me rephrase that: I am wild with desire for a green couch. I simply need to decide on a shade.

So, what do you think about the green couch?

The Scary World of Bleach

My very first home decor project in our current apartment was dealing with a very ugly couch.  You can read about my need for a cheap and quick slipcover here.  Our couch, after experimenting with sheets and draping methods looks like this currently:

Note that this is an old picture before we painted our end tables white.  The quick and cheap slipcover has held up for eight months and is still hiding the ugly couch like a pro.  The only complaint I have is the color of the sheets. When I visited Target to buy the flat sheets necessary for the project, they were out of the pretty oatmeal color I wanted so I purchased this green-tinted khaki color instead. In the picture it looks fine, but in real life it has more of a brownish-greenish tinge to it and I haven't been a fan since the day I stood in the Target aisle.

Now, why am I complaining about the color of our slip covered couch after living with it for eight months? I have a project in mind for the floor lamp (you can see it in the picture above) but I need to change the color of the slipcover for it all to really work.  The lamp project is still a secret for the time being, but I do need your help with the slip cover.  Ideally, I would like to find a way to simply tone down the darkness of the brown and lighten it up a little. In comes my idea of bleaching the slipcover. 

I've never really worked with bleach - I always seem to ruin things whenever I try to bleach out a stain so I'm a little frightened of the idea of bleaching the slipcover.  What do you think? Do you think it would lighten the fabric uniformly or do you think I'd get weird splotches of uneven color?

New and Improved End Tables

 Yes folks, I finally found the courage to paint some furniture! First on my list of desperately ugly furniture were our living room end tables. I complained talked about them earlier in A Makeover About to Happen when I shared why I purchased them despite disliking them so.

During this makeover, my very first painting experience, I learned quite a lot such as not to paint when yard work is being done (even when it's three floors below you), paint in hair is quite difficult to remove, and dog hair is an epidemic.

Before we did anything, we knew we needed to sand the end tables well in order to ensure the paint would adhere well and not chip or peel easily.  Let me just tell you, sanding is tough business!  We purchased 60 grit sand paper and attacked those suckers.  Next time we need to sand we will be investing in a sanding tool. 

John wasn't 100% convinced that the tables would look better white. He is more of a natural wood kind of guy and didn't see anything wrong with the 1970's orange finish.  After sanding both tables and taking a step back, he recognized how ugly they really were.  (now I'm trying to get him on board with our dressers)  

Just sanding them made them look better than before.

I didn't really care much about these tables before so I wasn't adamant about people using coasters or particularly careful with them.  You can see the massive water damage to the above table.  We tried to sand out the damage but unfortunately we couldn't completely erase the two years of neglect. 

 We used water-based primer (it was leftover from our DIY Desk) and put on a coat.  I wasn't expecting it to go on as evenly as it did.

 After the first coat of paint I became giddy - they looked so pristine and clean and updated.  The legs were a pain to paint as were the details along the sides (you can't see them very well in these pictures).  In the end they needed about three coats of paint.

I love how bright and happy they look in our living room which tends to be dark after the sun leaves the eastern sky in the morning.  In the past when I would glance around the room, my eyes would always focus on the tables.  Now, the tables serve as a bouncing off point as I glance around.

 

Now that I've had a taste of a painting makeover, I'm dying to do more. I find myself glaring at our TV stand, coldly lovingly referred to as Ursula.  She is a big, black, monster of an eyesore. I have a color in mind...now I just need to wait for John's memory of sanding to dissipate.   

Oh, and while I was high off paint fumes and the power of paint, I also painted some old Ikea plant stands.  I ordered a free sample of paint from Valspar a couple weeks ago thinking I was choosing a fabulous gray color to try out for our bedroom furniture. When it arrived I was very disappointed to find a baby blue paint on my doorstep. I guess my computer screen doesn't show colors accurately.

I'm linking this to:
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Coastal Charm
Tip Junkie
Creating a House of Grace
I'm Topsy Turvy
The Nester 
Today's Creative Blog

Let Me Slipcover into Something a Little More Comfortable

If you've looked at pictures towards the beginning of this blog, you'll have noticed that our living room was bare. John and I have been living with the teeniest love seat as our only form of living room furniture for almost two years. Two years of insisting guests sit on our love seat while we make them uncomfortable by sitting on the floor, two years of uncomfortable attempting to cuddle and watch a movie (it was impossible, believe me), and two years of dreaming of a couch that we could stretch out on. Let's see if I can't remind you of our living room before...

Luckily, it was my birthday recently and I received a birthday check in the mail. The first thing I did upon opening the card was search craigslist for a couch.  It must have been my lucky day because I stumbled upon the perfect couch within my price range with nice bones and in excellent shape.  The only thing was that the upholstery was...not my style.  "No biggie," I thought, "I'll just get a cheap slipcover."

Slipcovers are expensive, my friends! The cheapest I could find at Target and Ikea were still more than I paid for the couch...and not only would my birthday money not cover that expense, I couldn't fathom spending more on what would cover the couch than I spent on the couch itself. So, I began thinking...and thinking...and thinking.

Then, I remembered that in college, my roommates and I had used a sheet to cover the hideous apartment furniture. It looked horrible and trashy, but it worked to cover the stained cushions and wooden frames.

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Not really want I wanted, but it fit in our budget. I picked up two queen size flat sheets from Target for $12 each and brought them home to play with them and see what I could do.

What I was able to do resulted in the above. I simply draped one sheet across but it only covered 3/4 of the couch so I draped the other sheet on the other side and overlapped them. I then tucked the sheets into all the crevices and gingerly sat down. Of course, my husband promptly came over and plopped himself down which untucked some of the sheets. Over the course of the week, I found myself re-tucking the sheets every time I walked by the couch...it was driving me crazy. The sheets were too loose and nothing was keeping them tucked in.  I decided that I needed to create a more sturdy slipcover that withstood a dog, a husband, and a perfectionist wife.

I took off the cushions and stared for a long time...then set to work. First I thought I'd use one sheet to cover the base of the couch and one sheet to cover the cushions. As you can see in the above picture, the first idea didn't work.  Taking a different perspective, I decided to see just how much of the couch I could cover with one sheet. As you can see, it covered the majority of the couch leaving the arms and sides uncovered.

I laid out the second sheet to see how much of it I would need to cover my cushions.  Ideally I wanted to be able to wrap them completely with the sheet and sew a cover over the three of them...but after measuring, I didn't have enough sheet to do that and also cover the arms and sides of the couch.

I know I could have gone out and bought another sheet and my problems would be solved....but where's the challenge in that? So, I measured how much I needed to cover each arm all the way down the side to the floor and cut that out. 

The sheet that was left was a mere 2 inches shy of wrapping completely around the cushions. I decided that it would work if I safety pinned the sheets to the bottom of the cushions to keep my plopping husband from untucking them each time he...well....plopped.

Then came my secret weapon to keep this bad boy tucked: upholstery pins.  I stuck those suckers into the back of the couch along a seam so that the sheet would stay in one place....I stuck them into the seat of the couch before putting the cushions on to keep the sheet from slipping around...I stuck them everywhere.  That sheet is not moving.  Here is the back of the couch where I stuck some pins to keep the sheet from riding up and showing the bottom of the couch.

 Let me present to you the new and improved couch.  It is perfectly smooth, perfectly taut, perfectly tucked, and perfectly pinned to ensure that it will stay this way forever and ever. 

 We've been lounging and plopping on the couch for a week and it still looks taut, tight, and tucked.  I am happy to announce I have not re-tucked the sheets back into a crevice.

 The best part, aside from being able to walk by the couch and smile instead of tuck, is how much more we love our living room. We had guests over last weekend and everyone had a place to sit (hi Marty)! 

Thank you Nana and Pops for a wonderful birthday present!