Chevron kid's chair (from a clearance find & a fabric remnant!)

I found this kid's chair on clearance at Home Goods a few months ago for five bucks.

Before

There wasn't anything wrong with it... except that it was ugly. (Seriously ugly.) And I do my best not to encourage the "princess" stuff too much.

I painted the body of the chair and started to do something decorative on the seat and the back, but I didn't like how that was turning out, so I primed over it. I thought about decoupaging it, but the seat is about 13 inches wide. Too wide to use a piece of cardstock like I did on this step stool makeover. So it sat for a couple of months until I figured out what to do.

Then I found this awesome yellow chevron patterned fabric remnant for $3. It wasn't quite a full yard, and I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it was so pretty, I snapped it up immediately. It wasn't until I got it home that I realized it would be perfect for my chair.

I cut two pieces of fabric, each slightly larger than the surfaces I wanted to cover: one for the back and one for the seat.

I flipped the fabric over print side down and spread Mod Podge all over the back of the fabric with a large paintbrush. The brush forced the Mod Podge into the fibers in a way that a foam brush probably would not. I just used regular Mod Podge and it worked fine, though they supposedly do make a version for fabric. (The Michael's I go to didn't carry it.)

It's important to note that I did this on top of a piece of plastic. You don't want your fabric to stick to your work surface! I used a plastic bag I cut open and spread out, but you could also use plastic wrap or something like it.

After the fabric had dried, it was still very pliable, but slightly stiff, sort of like oil cloth or vinyl. This made it very easy to apply to the surface of the chair. I covered the seat with a layer of Mod Podge and smoothed the fabric out. I wrapped it around the edges and trimmed where necessary. So much easier to work with than paper, actually! You can re-position the fabric and adjust as necessary without fear of peeling or tearing.

After that was dry, I top-coated with two more layers of Mod Podge and a layer of water-based polyurethane. The texture of the fabric is still there, but it's sealed and smooth-ish.

Don't tell Elise, but her "chair" also flips down and becomes a step stool. She might get ideas about using it to get a leg up into my craft/office wardrobe.

We have this tiny corner in our dining room behind the wardrobe where she likes to sit and hide behind the curtains, so I thought it was the perfect spot to tuck this tiny chair.

p.s. I had never Mod Podged with fabric before and this video tutorial at Mod Podge Rocks was really helpful.


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Fabric swatch clearance find

Last week I took a quick trip into Jo-Ann Fabrics to pick up some thread and walked out with 51 18" x 18" fabric swatches.

The store I normally go to is moving in a few months, so they had all their special order fabric swatches on clearance two for $1. The fabric normally retails for anywhere from $35 to $80 (!) a yard, so 50 cents is quite a bargain, in my opinion. I used a couple of swatches like these to make a pillow a few weeks ago, so I was elated to find more for so cheap! These will be so great for small projects.

I felt a little silly carrying my giant pile to the register, but I know I would have regretted not buying enough if the pile were much smaller. I just wish the moments where I feel so awesome for getting a great deal weren't so quickly followed by feeling like a crazy person.

p.s. Days later, I found my receipt and noticed that the 40% off coupon I intended to use for the thread I also bought came off the fabric swatches instead, making them only 30 cents a piece. Crazy.

Five pillows for under $15 total!

I know, I know... I make a lot of pillows. Truth is, pillows are so much cheaper to make than they are to buy, even from discount stores. I made these five for the same amount as one might cost.

This time around, I made a few for our family room, which was in need of a spruce up. A couple of pillows came with our new couch (in a fabric I chose), so I wanted everything to coordinate with them (in that non-matchy-matchy way, of course).

After collecting up some bargain fabric from different sources, I started with a couple of long and skinny pillows to go along the arms of the couch. I found this tan and teal zebra print that I would have normally rejected out of hand. I'm not really an animal print sort of girl, but that day it caught my eye. I carted it around the store, and it grew on me. The large-scale pattern in altered colors looks fresh and modern to me. Those two skinny pillows only used half of the yard I had, so I made a square one too.

I knew I wanted to inject some shots of golden yellow in the room. I had been hunting for some velvet or corduroy, but couldn't find anything in that color. Randomly, I ran across a half-yard drapery remnant in a sort of fuzzy textured microfiber. It had a rubbery lining on the back, but I didn't have any problems sewing through it.

Digging around at Jo-Ann, I found some discontinued samples and almost passed them over. But they were marked down to $1 each, and they were already the perfect size for a pillow.

And here's the breakdown for five under fifteen:

$3.00.....Teal/tan zebra patterned fabric, 1 yd @ $3/yd.
$2.00.....Light aqua fabric, two 18"x18" discontinued samples @ $1 each
$1.78.....Gold drapery remnant, just under half a yard @ $4/yd.
$2.83.....3 packs teal piping for zebra pillows
$4.58.....2 zippers (I was just messing around with zippers on the long zebra pillows.)
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$14.19.....Total (Yeah, it would have been less than $10 without my zipper experimentation.)

"Oh hi, I'm just chillin' by your pillows. Wait, were you taking pictures?"

Just to let you know, these are not one-time-only deals on fabric. These kind of bargains can be had any day of the week, if you look for them. You can make bargain pillows too! If anyone is interested, just let me know and we'll go bargain fabric shopping!

Where's the line item for the pillow stuffing? I re-used stuffing from old throw pillows I already had. I wouldn't do this if I were making them for someone else. But if you've got old pillows that are clean, there's no harm in re-using the stuffing for new pillows. No waste, no money spent. But if you don't have old pillows to poach from, new Poly-fil would cost approximately $2.50 per pillow.

Cheap craft supplies, part 2: Non-traditional sources

It wasn't until I was doing projects eight days a week that I really started looking for project materials in unusual places. Here are my tips for finding cheap craft supplies (that don't come from craft stores).

Clearance and As-is
Check the clearance or as-is sections of every store you go to. This has to be my best tip. I'm not just talking craft stores; I'm talking places like Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, hardware stores -- anywhere! Discount stores like Home Goods or T.J. Maxx are especially good for this. Nicked, broken, re-packaged or in pieces, you can usually find something that needs a little love for a huge discount. For example, I have found big picture frames for less than a dollar and fabric (in the form of sets of sheets and duvet covers) for less than $2, which is way less than a dollar a yard.

Oops Paint
"Oops" paint, or paint that has been mis-tinted, is a great value. Sure, you can pick up quarts and gallons for just a few dollars, but now that small eight-ounce paint samples are available at most paint counters/stores, there are also mis-tinted samples usually available. You will find these sitting out at the paint counter, the price marked on the top of the can. At Lowe's, I have found samples for 50 cents or $1 often.

In addition to using this paint for little projects, eight ounces is often enough to paint a small piece of furniture like a nightstand or an end table. You can even mix two together to create more of a single color. Mostly these samples are in non-glossy finishes, so if you are using them on furniture, you will have to clear coat with a spray or polyurethane.

Craft kits
If you happen to find craft kits marked down, don't pass them by even if they are projects you would never dream of making. This may be obvious, but craft kits can be dismantled! You don't have to make what the kit suggests; you can use the materials for other things.

Dollar store (or dollar sections)
The dollar store is a great place to find cheap items for crafting. They often have a stock of true craft supplies, but if you can also find a many items not necessarily intended for crafts that can be repurposed. (Dollar Store Crafts is a great blog with tons of ideas.)

Thrift stores / yard sales / flea markets
You can almost always find second-hand items that need refreshing. And making things from vintage items will ensure your end products are unique.

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For more tips, check out:
How to score a great deal on craft supplies (at craft stores)

Hunting for a bargain on a bench

I guess you could say I've sort of been on a furniture-buying spree lately (evidence: here and here). This should be the end of that (unless the perfect dining table and chairs plops itself into my lap for way too cheap).

I wanted a small bench for this wall to replace the single chair in the corner of our living room. The chair was looking a little lonely, and it didn't fill the space appropriately. And adding another seat to a room with so little seating is not a bad idea.

I searched a bit for something second-hand, but wasn't finding anything below $200. (And I didn't even like what I was finding.) I didn't want this to turn into another one of my open-ended furniture hunts, so I started looking online for a new piece.

I found a few options that were small enough for the space, but most looked more like park benches and less like something that should be in a living room. I thought this petite bench from HomeDecorators.com bridged the gap, but was simple enough not to draw too much attention to itself.

The color, an orangey oak, is not at all what I had in mind. As is, it would blend right into the floor. And the plain white cushion is kind of boring. But my decision was eased by the clearance price and the fact that it had free shipping.

Here's how the deal broke down:

$109 (on clearance, originally $219)
- $10 coupon
+ $9.18 tax
- $9.90 credit card cash back (from Discover)
= $98.28

With that kind of deal, I can afford to paint it and recover the cushion. Stay tuned for a post about that a little later.

Another great find: Mid-century dresser

In addition to the finds I showed you earlier this week, I finally finally finally found a new dresser for Dan! I have been searching on and off for a few years, but until now, what little I found was wrong. Wrong size, wrong style, wrong price.

Poor Dan has been using a dinky, too-small dresser for too long. (I suspect it may be intended for a child.) I painted it a few years ago, but it's laminate and particle board and I didn't prep right. So now it's all chippy and disgusting and not worth fixing because, really, it's just a piece of junk.

Anyhow, I stumbled upon this solid wood mid-century (?) dresser at my favorite antique mall. I don't know how old it is, but it's in wonderful condition and doesn't need any refinishing. But it gets better! The price? $98! (Well, $106 with tax.)

It's six inches taller and seven inches wider than the old dresser. That doesn't sound like a lot of extra storage space, but it is. Essentially, we gained about seven inches on the length of each drawer. (And an inch each on the height and depth.) Five drawers x seven inches = 35 more linear inches of drawer space! It's the equivalent of an extra drawer.

I vaccumed the drawers and wiped everything down (as I do with all the finds I bring home). But before I put the drawers back in, I rubbed a bar of soap on the bottoms to make them slide easier. This actually works! I've seen that tip in a number of magazines over the years, but hadn't had the opportunity to try it.

The knobs were already loose, and I thought it would be easier to wipe them down if I took them off. Eight out of 10 of them had dead spiders or webs hidden behind them. It was gross. (Sorry if that gives you something to be paranoid about.)

I'm so excited to be rid of the junky eyesore in our bedroom. Everytime I saw that chipping paint it reminded me of my mistakes! It's not healthy to have things in your home that conjure up negative feelings like that. Replacing it with a quality piece (that is surely worth more than the price I paid) is icing on the cake.

Bargain Hunting: SUPER cheap T.J.Maxx finds

I thought I would share some of my recent bargain finds with you from last week's trip to the clearance aisle at T.J.Maxx. Don't freak out! I would never use any of these items in my home as they currently appear. But for only 70 cents for each item (yes!), I couldn't pass them up.

First up, we have a lovely pair of "Desperate House Cats" plaques, measuring approximately 25 x 6 inches each. Seriously, who makes this stuff? Better yet, who buys it for more than 70 cents?

I am not sure what to do with them, but the frames are nice and deep, so they could be open shadowboxes among other things.

Next, we have this 11 x 14-inch "painting" panel of a Schnauzer. Sorry Schnauzer lovers, he will probably get painted over.

The last find will require your powers of visualization. What you're looking at is a table top, base and the post to hold the two together. It's little boy sports-themed now, but with a paint job, it could be anything.
 
p.s. Did you know that T.J.Maxx is known as T.K.Maxx in Europe? Bizzaro.
 
p.p.s. Do you enjoy posts like this where I share clearance / junk / antique finds? Just curious.

How to score a great deal on craft supplies

This is not my typical kind of post, but I'm a bargain shopper and I've learned all the ins and outs of scoring deals on craft supplies. This may not be new info for experienced chain craft store shoppers, but I've had several conversations with friends that suggest to me my knowledge needs to be shared! There's no sense in paying full price when you don't have to.

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Michael's

Michael's is my go-to store for most supplies, but I almost never pay full price for anything. They publish coupons in Sunday newspaper ads almost every week and also send printable coupons each week when you sign up for their e-mail list. You can only use the 40% / 50% off coupons on regular priced items, but occasionally they will publish 15% / 20% coupons for your whole purchase (sale items included) or an extra percentage off a certain category of items (like frames, beads, etc.). They also give you coupons along with your receipt when you make a purchase. On several occasions, my store has let me use more than one 40% off coupon (on separate items, of course), but it seems to depend on the cashier.

Michael's has a lot of clearance, some good deals, some not. It's usually scattered all over the perimeter of the store.


Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts

Jo-Ann is starting to rival Michael's in my frequency of visits. In addition to fabric and sewing-related stuff, they have a lots of paper crafting supplies and many other basic craft supplies. Jo-Ann also has weekly 40% / 50% coupons in Sunday newspaper ads. And if you sign up for their mailing list in the store, you will get mailers with coupons. And then there's the e-mail list coupons. Really, I have Jo-Ann coupon overload.

I don't know if it's a chain-wide policy or not, but my store will let you use one coupon per item as long as the bar codes have different numbers. It's worth asking!

Jo-Ann also has a remnant bin with fabric remnants marked down 50%, but that's really not much of a deal when you can use coupons to get the same price on fabric from the bolt. But I've discovered sometimes when that particular fabric is on sale, a remnant will ring up at 50% off the sale price.

At Jo-Ann, I've found clearance prices on non-fabric items aren't that great. You can find better deals on regular price merchandise and use a coupon. But they have a great selection of marked-down "Red Tag" fabrics, and sometimes even the Red Tag fabrics will be on sale at 50% off. That's where you can find the $2-3/yd. stuff.


Hobby Lobby

Hobby Lobby is a bit spottier than Michael's or Jo-Ann with their coupons. They usually publish them about every other week in our local newspaper. They rarely publish a stand-alone ad; it's usually buried in the newspaper itself. They also have coupons on their website sometimes.

Hobby Lobby does have great sales, though. And if something isn't on sale, just wait a week or two and it will be. They are terrible with their clearance mark downs though. Again, you can get better deals buying regular price merchandise with a coupon.