Super Duper Wicker Re-Do Deux

So, last week I teased you guys with a wicker re-do reveal, but to build suspense, I left you with a cliffhanger! Well at long last here is the reveal! But first I want you to say "Super Duper Wicker Ro-Do Reveal Deux" five times fast! Haha...okay enough funny business, on to real business. You remember the photos I showed you last week here? Sure you do! But here is a re-cap anyway....

Give me your old, your shabby, your sunburned wicker and I'll give you.......

............a  beautiful transformation that gives a worn out old wicker couch a new lease on life!

I printed the fabric myself which I will tell you about later, but for now just wanted to show the amazing difference some paint and coordinated fabric can make. I know we've all seen it a hundred times but it never fails to amaze, inspire and transform. The power of paint!

Here you can see the wire mesh, called Stucco Corner, I used to wrap the bottom edge of the couch and contain all the loose and fraying edge pieces. It acts like a 'bumper' and keeps any further damage at bay.

 And remember I told you I found this couch with two matching end tables? The tables were in near perfect condition and didn't need anything other than a coat of paint to match the couch.

BEFORE

AFTER

The tables had glass tops with a recess beneath the glass, presumably to put decorative items inside, under the glass. I had JUST SO HAPPENED to find two identical frames the same day I found the wicker set and they JUST SO HAPPENED to fit exactly inside the table lip, underneath the glass. I did not plan this, nor did it occur to me when I found the frames (at a completely separate location than the couch and tables) The tables just looked like something was missing when I finished painting them and the glass was placed. I looked around the garage and my eyes fell on those frames, among the pile of treasures I had rescued from the trash that day. I tried it, it worked. They added the perfect extra 'something' the tables needed to finish them off. I know some of you might be doubting that one could be so lucky, but I swear it's true!

My daughter put some of her artwork under the glass and I love it!

Cost to me? $24 for a gallon of paint (and I used the WHOLE gallon, painting wicker uses a lot of paint!) about $7 for 20' of Stucco Corner and less than $20 for the fabric on the cushion covers. All the rest was free and, at least for now, out of the landfill. I'd say a pretty good days work for a look like this........

And a big thanks to my friend Lora for the use of her home to stage these photos. Thanks Lora, you're awesome!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Linking up here

Super Duper Wicker Re-Do

Sometimes I'm shocked....yet thankful.....at what people throw away. Some of my very best finds have been roadside castaways and dumpster diamonds-in-the-rough. In my neighborhood, every six months is "Brush and Bulky" trash day. It's one of my favorite holidays! I ALWAYS find something of use to me that someone else has deemed unfit for residence in their home or outdoor living area. Amongst the usual items (yard clippings, mattresses, old tires) there is always some sunburned, fraying, shabby wicker patio set that is thrown away for obvious reason. The southwest sun is just too intense for wicker to last very long. Occasionally, however, you will find a wicker chair or table that hasn't met it's demise just yet. I was lucky enough to come across just such a piece recently and want to share with you how I turned this cast away into a keeper!

Behold exhibit A.....one Wicker Couch. Some water stains and a bit of fraying around the edges,but overall a pretty solid piece with some nice lines.

On it's way to ruin, but not quite there yet, I knew if I could stabilize the deterioration, I would have a sweet wicker couch for free!

Most of the damage seemed to be along the bottom edge. Needed to figure out a way to shore things up....I knew roaming the aisles of the hardware store would present a solution, so off to Home Depot!

These looked promising............

Hard to see in the pic, but they are U shaped, so I thought I could set the bottom edge of the couch in a 'trough' I constructed out of these....On second thought, too hard to bend around corners and sharp once cut. Plus, most of my tools are in storage, so I had to keep looking. Wandered around a few more aisles and pretty soon found this.......

It's called Stucco Corner and I guess it's used for....Stucco corners! It can now add to it's resume Wicker Couch Shorer-Upper, because it did the job beautifully! Plus it's only $3.29 for 10'. Nice Price! But before I show you how I did that, I have to retrace my steps a bit and show you the paint job. I love painted wicker furniture and I love Turquoise...the color, not the stone (although I do love the stone as well)  So wicker couch, meet your new color!

 

I guess technically it's Teal, since the color is called "Aracauna Teal' by Martha herself.

Oh, and did I forget to mention I found the couch with not one, but TWO matching glass topped, cube side tables in PERFECT condition? There wasn't anything wrong with the tables whatsoever.  I guess the previous owner thought them guilty of ruin by association, but there was not one thing wrong with them! Try not to hate, I'm just lucky that way :-)

This is the first coat of color....if you've ever painted wicker, you know ya gotta paint this stuff up, down, sideways, forward, backward, across and diagonal to get every. little. bit. covered with paint. My advice? Get your hands on a paint sprayer if you have to beg or borrow. You will thank me.

Now, on to the shoring up part......you remember the Stucco Corner?

Well, here is where I'll show you how I used it.

Using wire cutters and pliers I wrapped the mesh around the entire bottom edge of the couch, corralling the loose and frayed edges and when I was done, I had a double duty solution to the problem: loose parts contained and a neat metal mesh decorative element!

Here is where I'm going to leave you dear reader, because there is nothing like a cliffhanger! Actually it's time to get the kids wound down for the night which is a lengthy process and also because this post was getting long and I still have tons to show you. So, I'll be back later to show you the results! You won't want to miss it....Thanks for visiting!

Don't wake me, I want to keep dreaming...............

So, last week I mentioned to ya'll how thrilled I was to have been featured on some pretty cool blogs/sites, one of which (casasugar) had links to Martha Stewart, Apartment Therapy and Country Living, with a link to my blog sandwiched between them. I mean, who wouldn't be thrilled with that, right?! Hey, I'm not greedy and would have been happy to live the rest of my days riding on those credentials, *BUT* I'm certainly not going to complain if some-bloggy else wants to feature me as well.......I mean, if say for instance, Apartment Therapy themselves wanted to feature a project of mine, I would really be OK with that! And some of you may be familiar with a little 'ol blog called Someday Crafts? Well I wouldn't mind being featured there, either! I'm just sayin', so if anybody notices I was featured at Apartment Therapy and/or Someday Crafts, would you please let me know?

Ok, ok...I'm a total dork and I'm sure you've figured out by now, because of my *subtle* hints, that I have in fact been featured on the above mentioned sites ( I get  a thrill out if sayin' it so you know Ima say it again; Apartment Therapy and Someday Crafts!!!) I am absolutely amazed, shocked, stunned, thrilled, flabbergasted and above all, THANKFUL!!!! For Every. Single. Feature.

Source

 I'm going to go celebrate.......wanna join me?

Source

Allow Me a Moment to Pick my Jaw up off the Floor

Tuesday, July 5th I got an interesting e-mail.........

Click on Image to Enlarge

Uuummmm....yes, Yes, YES!! You know......as in AOL's The Huffington Post/ DIYLife/ShelterPoP sisterhood of websites?!

Yea, that's the one. Well, they featured me!!  Can you believe it?! Here's a screenshot............

You can see the feature here.

And a big thanks to Brie from The Huffington Post for contacting me!!

But wait, the excitement doesn't end there!  While checking my stats, I noticed a lot of visits coming from some site called casasugar.....;-)   Went over there and sure enough, there I was. OK, can I tell you I almost peed my pants to see my project thumbnail pic, right there, sandwiched between links to heavy hitters Apartment Therapy, Martha Stewart and Country living!!???!! 

Wow....just....wow..........

Thanks to Julia Walsh at casasugar for sharing my post.

See the feature here.

Now I know it doesn't seem like it could be any better, but oh yes, it does get better!!

In addition to those two fine features, there seems to be a lot of love flowing through blogworld. I'm feelin' it and puttin' it right back out there! *Mwuah*

Here are some of the people sharin' the love................ 

*

  Arks Endeavors

*

Call Me Martha

*

Homemade Crap!

*

Home stories A2Z 

*

The Funky Bear

*

Grosgrain Fabulous

*

Honey & Fitz 

*

All Things Thrifty

*

Tip Junkie 

*

Bromeliad Living

*

Extreme Personal Measures

*

Decorating Insanity 

 *
Remodelaholic
*

And feelin the international love all the way from La Brasilia!!

casadecoraoartesecoisitasmais

I'll let you pronounce it.................

 Last but not least, this one takes the cake of hilarity,

The Urethane Blog: Insider views and conversation about the polyurethane market 

That absolutely cracks me up!!

Well, I just don't know what to say....I'm all verklempt. Thank you all so very much for supporting my little corner of blogland. I am humbled.......

Lichenstein

And if you're reading this and you featured a project of mine on your blog, but don't see it on the list above, don't think I didn't notice....the link is buried somewhere and I can't find it! Send it to me and I'll add it :-)

Small Town, Big Family

This Fourth of July holiday, my kids and I went to Silver City, New Mexico, to visit with family..... it actually turned into a mini-reunion of sorts, as one of my brothers was also in town with his wife, their four kids, her sister, her sisters kids, her brothers kids, all kinds of kids! It was a veritable melee of Moms, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, Daughters, Sons, Nieces, Nephews and as someone was heard to say, it was  "all cousins, all the time!"  Some of us went downtown mid-afternoon to see about an Ice Cream Social going on, but decided to go to the local Gelato shop instead. As we were walking to get the Gelato, I was noticing all the little details of historic interest, things that set small towns apart from their cousins, big cities. In places like this, there is no Starbucks, no hustle and bustle, no mall......It seems to force you to slow down and really notice your surroundings. Here are some of the things I noticed on holiday with my big family in a small town.

 

A very cool Hacienda Door....I only just now noticed the Quail on the top beam!

Local Color

Here you see the stylized sun symbol of New Mexico on some street side planters....nice touch!

 One of the old building facades...that is original, antique purple glass in those transoms! What I wouldn't give to have a window pane of antique purple glass in my stash! And check out those corbels and the other whatcha-ma-jigs on the top! It was also a very nice red, white and blue colorway....fitting for the occasion.

A cute, colorful store front. Small towns seem to be so much more colorful than big cities.....can the same be said of the town inhabitants? ;-)

Cool architectural detail. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

A very cheery contribution....even the curtains inside look cheerful.

Mid Century Modern in tha House! Or rather, in the small town.

This is something I've always wanted to try....glass bottles set into a wall. This was at the top of a stucco courtyard wall and it was sooo neat!

My kids and I made a game of finding 'Art'

We found some.......

 

And this stunning piece of moulding on the side of a building, at eye level no less, was my favorite sight of the day.

Love Love Love Love Love this. Color, shape, detail. Did I mention I love it?

And of course, since it was the Fourth of July, there were plenty of flags lining the main street. 

I'm glad I 'stopped and smelled the roses' or, in this case, 'took in the eye candy'

I'm not a small town convert yet....I like my city with all it's fodder for distraction, but it was nice to slow down the pace just a little.......

Have you spent time in a cool small town recently? Do Share!