Zebra Chair Makeover

I originally made over this chair months ago for resale, which you can see here. After I finished my daughter fell in love with it and claimed it for her own. I bought it for her originally, but she didn't think she'd want something without wheels so I ended up redoing the chair differently. However, once she saw the finished product she realized how pretty the chair could be. Gee, this sounds familiar....she did the exact same thing when I made over the zebra nightstand for her room.  

This quick change didn't cost me much except time and about $6 in new fabric. My daughter doesn't like distressed furniture so I repainted over it with the white I already had on hand from her Tween Zebra Room Makeover. I did a bit more research on reupholstering seats since I wasn't all that sastisfied with how it turned out last time. 

I found some great suggestions from the Little Green Notebook on how to upholster corners. For the most part it worked for me, with a minor modification at the end. I removed the fabric and stapled according to her directions. 

I don't think my corners came out quite as nice as hers and I believe it's because my foam is much thicker. 

I modified my corners to accommodate my thick foam. I tucked in my fabric and folded it over almost like you're wrapping a present. This worked out pretty well for the thicker foam. When you're done stapling remember to hammer your staples in so they're not sticking up.

This is an easy update with just a little paint and new fabric. I hope to redo more chairs in the future.

Tween Zebra Room Makeover

ROOM REVEAL

FINALLY done with this tween room! My little girl is growing up and she wanted nothing more to do with Scooby Doo or her Barbie house. She also discovered she was female finally and requested a pink zebra room. If you've read all my other posts about her room you know the story :)

Without further ado here are the before and after pics of her room!

I did have a frame for her bed, but I started painting it prior to taking before pictures of her room. Then, we decided to upgrade her to a queen bed since she was getting so tall. I bought her energy efficient zebra curtains from the Wal-Mart website and hemmed them to a proper height for her room. I picked up new fashionable curtain rods at Ross. WAY cheaper than even Target or Wal-Mart. You can click on my links for the nightstand, dresser and headboard to see how I redid those.

Tween Dresser Makeover

The last piece of furniture is finally done in my daughter's room! I am so glad too. This year is flying by already and I've had little time to dedicate to finishing her room. It's time for a break!

This dresser is a home store find we got for $65 a few years ago. It's laminate and not real wood anywhere! So if you sand this before painting, you'd end up with either of two results:
1) Lightly sanded for nothing because the surface is still as smooth as a baby's butt or
2) Break out the sander to cut through and roughen the surface and you end up sanding the entire laminate surface off down to the cheap MDF underneath.

I have done this before when I thought a piece was "real wood". 

All is not lost though. You can still have beautiful results on laminate furniture. The secret is priming! I use Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer.

Canvas Silhouettes

I saw the idea for canvas silhouettes of facial profiles in a brochure from Lowes or Home Depot, can't remember which. I thought what a cool idea this would be to incorporate into the Tween Zebra Room?! My daughter is in love with all animals, esp exotic or wild animals; i.e., lions, tigers, zebras, wolves. 

The brochure had a very brief description of how to make a silhouette using spray paint: spray paint the canvas 1 color, lay down your silhouette and spray over it. Tada! Sounds easy enough right? Not. So, through trial and error I came up with my own way. 

I followed their short, indescriptive directions initially. I had no idea how to make the silhouette stay in place without blowing away with the first spray. So I thought to myself...painters tape. I put a little underneath the silhouette I had cut out and sprayed away. This was my result :(

Plenty of over spray AND you can see were the painters tape had been holding down the ears.

Disappointed, I stopped there and finished up other projects. I told my husband about my dilemma and he suggested weighing the image down AND I figured out how I had so much over spray initially. So here's my step by step instructions on what worked for me.

Zebra Desk Makeover

One more down. One dresser to go. Almost done with the Tween Zebra Room transformation. I will be glad to finally breathe a sigh of relief when it's completed. I plan to have the entire room painted and redecorated by February 13th. Thanks to the help of my husband we will meet that deadline!

This desk makeover turned out fabulous! The look on my daughter's face when she saw the stencil results makes all this hard work, worth it. I can't wait to see her face when the walls are painted and everything is moved back in. Oh I should video that!

Zebra Nightstand Makeover

I'm sorry that it's been awhile since I posted a furniture project. It's difficult to find time for projects with our crazy schedule. This ugly nightstand, I found for $20, started off as a different project. I intended to makeover this table for resale until my daughter laid claim to it midway through the project. I don't think I could have found an uglier nightstand and my husband could not understand why on earth I'd bring this thing home lol.

My original vision was to paint it off white, paint the drawers black, and stencil a chevron pattern on the top. I have never stenciled on furniture before so this was a learning experience for me. 

Chevron Wooden Monogram Letter - Door Hanger

This is such a simple inexpensive craft to spruce up any interior or exterior door. I found this monogram letter E in a clearance bin at Michael's for just cents. It's made of MDF instead of real wood, but for this tiny project who cares?

My daughter is in love with the new craze for chevron patterns and just had to have this in pink and black to match her new Tween Zebra Room, slowly but surely "under construction". 

For this project I used a stencil I purchased from Amazon. Way easier than taping off a million zigzag lines! I got 2x 12" stencils for $6, so definitely a good deal and worth it.

I used Valspar spray paint in black and hot pink. 

I spray painted the monogram letter entirely in black. Remember to spray the edges as they will be seen. Always spray in a well ventilated area or outside.

Once fully dry position your stencil where you want it and spray your secondary color.

I bought some zebra wire ribbon at Michael's with a 50% off coupon and used a hot glue gun to glue both ends to the back of the letter. If you have a staple gun you could use that as well as long as you use a short staple, approximately 1/4 inch. Snip the ends at the top of the ribbon so you don't have a blunt straight edge. Nice!

Headboard Makeover

Well, for those that don't know, after all that hard work on the twin bed for my daughter's tween zebra room we decided it was time to upgrade her to a larger bed. Next thing I know we bought her a queen size bed on sale around Labor Day. I learned afterwards from a friend - "uh yeah that's when all mattress stores have their biggest sale." Well I guess I'm a bit sheltered lol. If you're reading this, you know who you are and thanks for the tips about the linen sale in January haha. (I need to get out more)

So, new queen size mattress and no bed. Great. I bought the universal frame - easy enough - and remembered I have a queen size headboard that I had been trying to sell and could not give it away. Why? Because it's ugly and probably from 1985. This headboard came with my husband. I've always hated this headboard because it's so outdated. Guess there's a reason it never left my house lol.

This was a simple enough makeover. I had already chosen the black paint for the furniture pieces in her room (see her Tween Zebra Room colors here). I went with Valspar Satin Signature paint in shade New Black.

I added Floetrol to the paint (as directed on bottle) to reduce visible brush strokes. See these seriously awesome paint tips from Classy Clutter. 

I lightly sanded the headboard so the paint would adhere well and applied two coats of paint. I protected the new finish with a coat of polyacrylic.

Once I have all her zebra bedding I will update this post with a photo and her room reveal!

I think this really came out well and she absolutely loves her new headboard! The shelves are already lined with Beanie Boos and books!

Bed Makeover

For my first project for the Tween Zebra Room I chose to do the easiest and quickest piece of furniture in the room....the bed.

BOY WAS I WRONG. How hard can it be to spray paint a metal frame?? Well if you live in South GA where it's 100% humidity most of the time, getting paint to dry is a hassle. Not to mention this time of year is so hot and the afternoon brings nasty thunderstorms that leave even more moisture in the air in its wake. SO, this wasn't the easiest and quickest project as I expected!

Here's what I started with: plain white metal frame bed.

Our Tween Room Colors!

I am so ready to start this tween room makeover! Why am I sooo excited?? Because my daughter finally decided she's a girl!! My t-shirt and jeans wearing tomboy has changed. Now, will you find her with bows in her hair? Hahaha no way! If you could only see her facial expression if it was suggested. 

It's taken 10 years for this to come to fruition. And she wants to go all out! Even painting pink on her walls! Everyone who knows her....thinks they misheard what I said! 

I went through a lot of pink paint sample cards, with the help of good friends. We narrowed it down to 3 that I could live with on my walls and then I let my daughter make the final choice. 

The black is for her dresser and desk which I get to makeover too!

Tween Zebra Room

I am so excited about this room! I cannot wait to start! My daughter and I are in the planning stages. Stay tuned for updates on all the furniture makeovers and room reveal!