Projects

Neither of us work in particularly creative fields, so we like to get out our creative sides in projects around the house. Most people may not know it, but Billy is a very good painter and has great artistic ability. I also love doing creative projects, most of which have involved photography or furniture as of late.

Here is a little sampling of our most recent projects...



We bought this cooler from a great little store in Driver, Virginia called Rio Grande Traders. They have all kinds of eccletic decorative items and furniture, so we love any excuse to go there! The store owner actually makes these coolers by hand! We noticed some of these coolers painted with Corona designs, but we wanted ours to have good ole American Budweiser on the front. So, we stopped by Michaels on our way home for some paint supplies and Billy went to work on his masterpiece, which I think turned out quite nicely. Now we just need some warm weather and cold drinks to put this baby to use!


I love nice furniture, especially when it's a good deal. My generous aunt passed our dining room furniture along to Billy and me when she moved and wanted to change the look of her new house, so we lucked out big time! We love the furniture, but the chair cushions were a little dark for the cheery look of our dining room. I had some leftover fabric from these two cute chairs I had made cushions for (with the help of my very artistic mother-in-law), so I decided to give the chairs a little makeover. With a screwdriver, staple gun, pair of scissors, and a couple yards of fabric, I was able to recover 6 of our 8 dining chairs. The other two are still in the darker color, which goes better in our living room (their current home). Maybe it's a faux pas to not have all matching chairs, but how often do we have 8 people eating in our dining room??



Here's a view of the chairs in the completed dining room...

My first chair project was with the bamboo chair below, which my mom bought for $23 in C-ville. At the time, it was a glossy, 70s-esque chair complete with white pleather and lots of grime I had to scrub off. To get the chair to its present state, I started by ripping off the cushion, stripping the existing finish, cleaning the chair, and then staining it dark brown (all in my apartment, which probably wasn't the best move for ventilation purposes). Then, the chair was ready for a new cushion. I selected a fabric with a bit of an Asian look to it that compliments the bamboo chair very nicely. I had the seamstress who had done my wedding dress alterations make cushions for the seat and back of the chair, and it was as good as new!!

This is Jefferson's favorite chair in the house too!