Craft Area Revamping Part I

I've been working (for a while) on redoing, adding and getting rid of some things in my craft area. It's been a longer process than I thought but I'm pretty happy with the results so far, I still have a long way to go!

First up, the chairs. I guess the chairs are what started the whole thing. I've been wanting to do something different, something more fun and something that matched, lol, but I am an awful interior decorator so it was easier to keep putting it off than try to actually start doing it. My friend Carolyn, who is extremely knowledgeable about really awesome places off the beaten path to find goodies, took me to a place where I found very affordable used dining room chairs.  

So, here is one of the chairs before I started doing anything to it. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to take pictures until I had already cleaned all 5 of the other chairs and this one was not even close to being the dirtiest one! It actually looks really clean but let me assure you, the chairs were gross. I had to scrub all 6 down with Brillo pads, wipe them all clean and let them dry before I could even begin the sanding. Sanding is not fun. Not even an electric hand sander, which my husband assured me I would like. Nope, sanding is not fun, electrically or not. The cushions to these chairs were an awful green plastic fake leather with not much padding.

After many, many, many hours sanding electrically, sanding by hand, sweating, feeling like I was going to cry, painting, painting again, painting again, and painting again, along with scrubbing the cushions and reupholstering them, this is the final result:

Not too shabby, eh? The fabric is outdoor fabric, in hopes that it will stay clean longer and will be easier to clean than indoor fabric, and of course it was doused with Scotch Guard before I even began. Several coats of that stuff. The chairs are painted a semi-gloss gray. I originally wanted a glossier gray so that they'd be easy to clean and wipe off but the kid at home depot said the semi-gloss would be fine and I believed him. I wish I had stuck to what I wanted because while I love the way it turned out, I was going for something with a little more gloss. The pattern of the fabric was chosen to bring color to the room and also to provide several colors with which to coordinate the rest of the decor for the room since as stated above and also very obvious, I'm far from an interior design whiz. 

I absolutely love the color gray and I'm really happy that I've been able to make it a main color in the room. There's nothing dreary about gray in my opinion and it matches pretty much everything. 

And of course, I wasn't the only one in my house in love with the new chairs........

After attaching the cushions, I would turn and set the chairs off to the side and I barely had time to turn my head away before Deucalion jumped up and staked his claim on my new, wonderful, CLEAN chairs. I hollered for him to get down but instead he turned his back to me and continued to sit in the chair, because if he can't see you, he thinks you can't see him. He knew I was behind him though cause his ears are half down, not sticking straight up like normal. They're called the 'trouble ears'. He ignored me for a minute before switching positions.....

I guess he started feeling a little safer and thought he'd show his face. Still staying on the chair of course. And then he appeared to be feeling extra bold and decided he needed to be more comfortable....

It's such a rough life, isn't it? 

You could almost believe it was he who put in all that hard work with the chairs, he looks exhausted!

There are a few more additions to the craft area, I'll post again later!