Grain Sack Bar Stools

In our previous home, we had a “peninsula” rather than island.  It was made for bar stools, but we never had any because it would have felt too crowded right next to our table.  In this house, we have a lovely island, and I spent MONTHS searching for bar stools that met my criteria of “cheap enough” and “cute enough.”  I was perfectly willing to re-make a set, but I kept finding sets of TWO and I needed THREE!  Eventually I purchased three stools from Pier 1, and I have been quite happy with them (you can see them in my kitchen here). 

And so, of course, MONTHS later…I came across three barstools that met the aforementioned criteria at a garage sale!  So even though I no longer needed them for myself, home they came with me...

I really like the way my own bar stools that are all the same style but different colors (it makes me feel quirky…in a good way) so I decided to give the same general feel to these.

Inspired by grain sacks and my love of all things numbered, I painted each stool white (Behr Ultra Silky White, I think) and then painted on stripes in green, blue and, red…

…finishing them off with a little number detailing just for fun.

I know oh-so-well how much abuse bar stools undergo, so I distressed these pretty heavily.  I like how the little round derriere-space shows up so nicely now 

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Linking up here:

The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Friday Remodelaholic	The Scoop!
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off Miss Mustard Seed
Beyond the Picket Fence	Coastal Charm
Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Perfectly Imperfect	No Minimalist Here
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	Mod Vintage Life A Little Knick Knack

Stripey Stool

Just a little “after” project to show you today….the “before” is not to be found!

I darkened this cute little stool with some antique walnut stain, and then used a little homemade chalk paint to “embellish” it a little.

   

Of course I sanded off some of the paint to make it look it’s age!

I guess it could be a flower stand or a little end table…

 

But you know what?  I wish I had kept it for my shop!

<sigh> 

Maybe I’ll luck out and find another cool stool for there someday!

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	The CSI Project
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

The Way They Were Meant To Be

I have tried my hand at a few different image transfer methods, but I haven’t been terribly successful.  After several failed attempts, I used my overhead projector method to make this set of bar stools:

…but I was never terribly happy with them.

THESE, however….

…turned out much more like what I had in mind!

The images all came courtesy of the Graphics Fairy.

I painted the bases of the stools with DIY chalk paint.

…and I made the image transfers with my inkjet printer and a transparency sheet!

…more on that to come!

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Linking up to these great parties:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	Redoux
Thrifty Décor Chick	Stylish Once Again
The Graphics Fairy	My Repurposed Life

It’s not a table

Hello, everyone! I am ‘back’ from Bella’s Vintage Market, and it was a lot of fun. And a lot of work. And a lot of HOT! This was only my second market, and I never really considered the whole pack-everything-up-on-a-hot-July-afternoon angle!

I promise there are pictures, but I haven’t even looked at them yet! So I thought I’d share another makeover that went with me to the market.

I found another set of three oak barstools (you can see my other sets here and here):

Since I’ve been on a French typography kick lately, I had a grand idea to transfer three vintage French ads to the tops of these stools. I had read about Mod Podge transfers and Citra Solv transfers, so I had high hopes of getting one of these methods to work!

It wasn’t mean to be.

I tried Mod Podge transfers at least three times, and I always ended up with something that looked like this:

or this:

Really charming, right?

When I tried the Citra Solve transfer…I got nothing.

So, it was on to “Plan C.”

Yes, I resorted to my now famous technique using the overhead projector!

I found three different chocolate ads from The Graphics Fairy. I pulled out portions of those ads that seemed to fit well on a stool top, and painted them up!

This one is my favorite. As with my other projects, I distressed the lettering to make it look old and faded. And to help hide my mistakes!

I think this one is my least favorite, although it may be growing on me. I was free-handing the various flourishes, and they could be better!

I think my flourishes were better on this stool! Actually, this one may be my favorite. I don’t know.

Here they are as one big happy family!

These went home with a great couple that drove two hours one way to purchase a French coffee table I haven’t shown here yet, as well as another not-a-table typography project yet to be revealed! I thought they had great taste!

Hope you like them too!

Linking up to these great parties!

Tres Chic!

This project has been featured at:

Thanks!!

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I have been caught up in the number craze for quite some time now.... I have put numbers on stools, dressers, and desks! And I haven't tired of them yet.

So when I was lucky enough to find two sets of stools just before the Spring Market, I decided to number those as well.

Here are three oak bar stools before:

...and here are the three oak bar stools after a little dark walnut stain, white paint, and number words...but in French!


The next set of bar stools intrigued me because of their metal bases:


If I were guessing, I'd say that these originally had puffy vinyl seats on them, but they had obviously been replaced with these boring wood rounds. I decided to make them a little less boring...and I am so sorry that I don't have better "after" pictures; that got forgotten in the excitement of the day!

So here's a glimpse. I painted the tops in aqua blue, and used silver paint for numerals in brackets. Then washed over the tops with diluted white acrylic paint.

The number craze...I'm a proud fanatic! :-)

Numbered bar stools

I found these two wood-and-metal barstools at Deseret Industries months ago. It's a well-established fact that I have a thing for barstools...which is silly, since I own exactly ONE, and it's not a work of art.

They were painted dark green from top to bottom, and it was darn near impossible to sand the paint off of the metal legs!


So I resorted to stripper...


Don't you love how the top gets all moldy looking??


I was in for a surprise when I started scraping paint.

For underneath the green, there was brown.
Underneath the brown, there was red.
Underneath the red...well, there was finally metal.

I sanded down to bare wood on the seats, but I never did completely get down to bare metal on those legs...even after multiple applications of stripper. But I did get down far enough (and smooth enough) to paint again.

So, after Rustoleum primer and black spray paint for the legs, and a little Minwax English Chestnut stain on the tops, here they are today:


I used my Cricut to cut cardstock stencils for the numbers. I squared the stencils up with the grain of the wood, but when I replaced the seats on the bases, I discovered that the grain wasn't squared up with the legs! That bothers me a little...but I am telling myself that for a "funky junk" style, it's OK.





Do I believe myself? That remains to be seen!

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