Cushion Covers in 10 Minutes

Feeding my Buffalo check addiction has been SO gratifying with these super fast & easy cushion covers. It literally took me 10(ish) min from start to finish, and once you make one, your next one will be faster.  Let's get started!

First things first, you are going to need fabric.  I just eyeballed it and grabbed a yard of this gorgeous teal flannel buffalo check.  If you want to be sure, measure your cushon sizes first. I knew from making the cushion cover for my Front Entry Reno that I was definitely good with one yard for 2 of these covers.

You will also need:
*scissors
*pins
*measuring tape
*iron & ironing board
*your cushions or inserts to cover (I have these GORJ cushions from Urban Barn that I am covering just for the holidays)
*matching thread

HOW TO MAKE COVERS:
Hold your cushions taut from corner to corner and measure across the top (width).  Do the same down the sides (length).  This will give you your base height & width measurements.
My cushions are 22" wide x 12" high.

Height - Add 1" to the height. (Mine: 12" + 1" = 13")
Width - Multiply the width by 2 then add 6 inches (Mine: 22 x 2 = 44, then + 6 = 50")

This is the size of the piece of fabric you will be cutting. Mine was 50" x 13".
NOTE: My cut fabric in pic below is folded in 1/2.

 With fabric right side down facing ironing board, press shorter ends in 1/4", then press them over again 3/4'.  Pin in place.  Repeat on opposite end. Stitch both ends.

With the fabric right sides together, overlap your hems about 4 inches.  I really just eyeballed where the center would be, but if you want to be precise, measure the halfway point.  After you have this overlapped, pin together, and your total width should match your first initial pillow measurement, as you can see below in pic.  Pin the other side as well.

Stitch across uppper and lower raw edges with a 1/2" seam.  Clip your corners, turn cushion cover right side out, and press.

Here is the back flap once pillow is inserted.

 Annddd, again, full view.

This is a really FUN way for me to add a bit of fuzy warmth in my living room on the cheap.  Plus, I will probably keep these up all winter, just because there can never be enough Buffalo Check in my life!

I freaking LOVE how it looks with my vintage ochre velvet cushion covers.
Have you made these? If so, did you find them easy?

Stay weird ;-)

Wendy

PS: I got my inspo from My Childhood Treasures

Pompom & Pinecone Garland DIY

OK so let me start by saying, technically these are NOT pinecones, but they are cones from my daughter's Hugh Jass evergreen tree, which I think is a blue spruce.  They are cones...they work.  Where I live the pines are few are far between, so I subbed in the next best thing! Real pine cones would be FAB!! 

Let's carry on shall we?

Ok so I have been obsessing over all the Pompom things this Christmas and everything is RE.DIC.U.LOUS.LY overpriced for my budget, so when met with a challenge...Martha comes out to play in the sandbox.  

I am feeling over the top creative this holiday season and because we all need a bit more glitter and fuzzy things in our lives, I decided to make this garland.  My kitchen window was looking sad and lonely and this was the perfect accoutrement. 

I bought this yarn a few years ago at Michaels and found it in my stash and throught it was about right for the task.  And Ohhhh, those pompoms are sooooo fluffy!

I didn't resort to rocket science.  I wedged a piece of thin jute between my center fingers to tie the pompom, then wrapped my hand 40 times (It sounded logical in my head) and then tied it off, cut the loops, then gave it a good jhuzzing (aka: fluffing) and trimmed it into a pretty shape.  

Onwards to the bling.  Glitter...the glue that hold my life together.  #notkidding

So I dug in my craft box for glitter I already had and found my Martha stash.  I got this a few years ago, and honestly, I am not even sure it is still in stores.  Since copper is the hot trend right now and the perfect compliment to the teal yarn, the choice was easy.

 *CAWWWW, CAWWWW*

 I simply brushed on some white paint...I had Behr Swiss Coffee for another project so I cracked open the can, brushed paint on the bottom half(ish) of the cones and then while the paint was still wet I sprinkled the magical glitter over the paint.

 I propped the cones up on a little piece of wood I had to dry.  

So here is the deal on assembly:  I made 7 pompoms and 6 pinecones.  I roughly measured the length of garland to my window so it went across the top and down both side. I used a thin jute string.  I spaced out the pompoms evenly on the jute, and simply tied them to the main piece of jute string I cut. I grabbed some thread from my sewing box for the cones, because jute was too heavy to tie around these as they are more delicate.  I tied the thread around the cones, knotted twice, then tied one cone between each pompom.  EASY, PEASY! That's it.  

I hung it above the window, giving it a little bit of a drapey swoop in the centre.  I think it is a fun addition to my holiday decor and it really took no time at all.  Because I had all the materials in my stash, this project cost me nothing, which to me is winning!  :-)

Do you love to create your own holiday decor?  I'd love to see what you are making.  If you have a blog post, drop your link to your creations below in comments.

Stay weird,

Wendy

Pallet Coffee Table DIY

After seeing all the pallet projects over the years I decided it was about darn time that I hopped on the bandwagon. The project most appealing to me was a coffee table.  I found ONE pallet, but needed 2 the same for what I had in mind.   I had faith I would find another one.  I checked Home Depot every week till another one showed up.  Seeing these were odd size pallets and I could only fit one in my car at a time, it worked out.  

NOTE:  DO NOT I repeat NOT buy pallets.  These were free and all you need to do is head to any hardware/building supplies store and they will actually serenade you and throw rose petals at your feet for taking some of these off their hands.  NEVER Dine & Dash though.  ALWAYS talk to store first before absconding with the goods.

I started in by sanding...and sanding some more. When I was done sanding...yep...I kept going.  Now if you have ever done pallet projects you will know that if you are going to bring them into your living space and touch them and actually USE the pieces, they will need a TON of prep to get to the "touchable" point.  I wanted to be able to run my hand across it without splinters so I just kept sanding til that happened.  BUY LOTS of sandpaper in varying grits.  Start big, and work your way down to the finer stuff. 

I then decided I was going to give some visible texture to my top pallet.  So, I grabbed my son's torch and gave a light burn to the boards.  After burning, I sanded down.  It really made the grain pop and I loved the effect.  I found some spare pallet boards down the street at our local building supplies store out back (just ask them first if they have any for free) to fill in the gaps of the top pallet.  My hubby & son ripped them down for me, so you will need a table saw for this. The gaps were varying widths and I was happy they decided to do this for me while I continued, oh wait for it....sanding!!!

I did several test swatches for stain color and finally settled on Minwax Classic Grey.  Now on it's own, I was not a fan, BUT....after applying and letting it dry...I sanded it down REALLY well and I ended up with a fantastic aged greyed wood look and it was perfect!! Surprisingly, I only needed this tiny can of stain for the 2 pallets.  I used a rag to apply and kind of rubbed it over, not really wanting to deeply soak the wood.  This gave me a TON of mileage with this teensy can and I finished BOTH pallets with not a drop to spare.  If you are more liberal in your appplication, you may need to go up in the can size.  I was hell bent on getting the job done with the small can.  

HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THIS?? It is coming together and now you can see the vision, right? :-)

After the stain dried overnight, I sanded that sucker like a mofo til it was really worn looking and a ton of the grain was popping through.  It looked amazing and now the fun begins...applying the Poly and making all that killer grain & color come to life.  The finish coat of any project is really the frosting of wood working! I used Minwax Polycrylic in Satin finish.

I applied the first coat, which really as always, soaks in and sucks up a lot.  I let it dry over night, gave a light sanding with fine grit sandpaper, and then wiped down with a damp cloth and went in with coat number two.  The pallets really were looking beautiful at this point and I was happy to be getting close to finish.

I decided to do one last coat on only the top surface of the table.  So I gave the final light sand, wiped down again and applied the last coat of Poly.  The sheen was most excellent and the look I was going for. 

NOTE:  I used 1/2 of this can of Poly to complete the table.  YAY...leftovers for more projects! 

I used 4 screws on each side to join the 2 pallets together.  I basically just lined up the pallets (NO, they are NOT a perfect match, but the rustic imperfection is what makes this piece the best) and then screwed in from the bottom pallet up through to the top.  BAM...ready for the wheels.  

Now comes the jewelry.  LE SIGH!!!  I chose industrial style wheels from Princess Auto but are just like THESE in case you don't have a local Princess Auto near you. These wheels are metal but there are also plastic options if that is not your jam. I used bolts which were about 3/4" and predrilled the holes first to prevent the boards from splitting.  I did another console piece last year with these wheels and they are BOMBASS! I screwed the 2 pallets together first, then the flipped the table over and screwed on the wheels.

DISCLAIMER:  I did NOT measure the pallets, nor did I bring them inside first to see if they fit my living room.  I TOTALLY eyeballed it and knew it would work.  I would recommend measuring though to be sure...haha.  #dontbeaWendy

I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out.  It is the texture my living room needed and it was an update which was super budget friendly.  It requires elbow grease but hey, you can consider that sanding a nice little workout.  #WINNING 

It was well worth the effort!

Have you ever done pallet furniture??  I'd love to see it.  Share a link to your blog post below with me.

Stay weird,

Wendy

Front Entry Facelift

Ok, I am not overly proud to say this but my entryway has never really been anything exciting since I moved into this house. It is not my favourite area, simply because it is wonky and doesn't flow, but I am getting out of my own head and I decided I needed to make the most of it (instead of ignoring it).

The floor tiles need to be replaced, but I am holding out for a budget friendly find at ReStore, which I have faith that I will eventually come across. But for now...I am controlling the controllable and taking the dark and uninspiring space and brightening it up and bringing it into this decade.

BEFORE: BLAH tan walls, white doors, and the infamous "boob" light. UGH...I loathe these light fixtures and slowly we are replacing them in this house. And not sure WHY, but I always get so DAMN EXCITED that I forget to take proper BEFORE pics...what the what?? Anyhow....here is a bit of what it looked like after I already had kind of started disassembling and rippping the space apart.

At this point, I just had one side of the closet doors painted black and started working on the other side.  Why the heck did I wait so long to paint them.  They are GORGeous!!  :-)

 

Now the fun begins...cutting in the white paint...which **GASP** I never thought I would be doing because I LOVE color, but I wanted to try white on white somewhere and this seemed like a great place to give it a go.  I chose Behr Chenille Spread as it was a warm white that went perfectly with our trim color.

The first coat ALWAYS looks like crap.  But, onwards and upwards! It took 3 coats to cover the dark tan and thankfully this was a small space.  

I installed the light fixture and my hubby replaced the outlets and switches.  WHAT a change!!  This sweet little cage light came from Canadian Tire and was $40!  How could you not love that? 

Insert hot hubby helping with switch replacement.  <3 <3 

**CUE ANGELS SINGING** How is it that something so small makes such a HUGE difference? 

DONE...now time to get the decorating for the holidays underway.  

Enter some Buffalo Check and some vintage finds.  The little MCM telephone bench I got at our town flea market for $5 this spring.  It was covered in gold vinyl (the seat had a small hole) but I decided because fur is WAY more fun, so it shall be on this bench.  I intended to do white fur, but they were all out at the fabric store.  I have to say I think the black fur works here! I gave the bench a fresh coat of paint too, with my most FAVOURITE GOLD paint ever!! 

 I also got some buffalo check fabric and made a quick envelope cover for one of my existing pillows.

 I bought this swag last year and it seemed like this was a better spot for it.  *SWOON*.  So.  Pretty! Here are a few pics of the rest of the holiday jewelry for the entry.  I wanted it to be fun, simple and the buffalo check is my signature move...haha...and it ws a perfect fit here and contrast to the creamy white paint.  I love the whole space and I'm happy it is complete! It didn't take that long and why the heck didn't I do this before?

This little sign came from the Dollar store, people.  How awesome is this? ;-)

I grabbed a birch branch from my daughter's yard and hung it it the window with thin jute string from Michaels.  I had these little gold, white and silver stars for years and thought they would be a cute and simple addition.  I used sparkly gold string which also came from Michaels and was a great contrast to the natural birch branch.

Do you have a small entryway or space that you struggle with?  I'd love to see pics or hear from you in comments below how you are jhuzzing (yes I say this is a word) up your space.  

Stay weird ;-), 

Wendy