Happy Coincidences

A few weeks ago we saw an L-shaped couch that seemed perfect for our new home. It was somewhere between our old and new home, pretty high in the hills. It wasn't as soft as I hoped it would be and it turned out to be brown not gray as it seemed in the pictures. However the same lady had also this coffee table and when I said I liked it, it turned out she was selling that too so I didn't leave empty-handed.

Of course, I loved its legs and bought it to turn in to a big statement ottoman.
The top was of course very securily attached like everything that needs to be removed. The top was the exact right side for a table we have, I still need to paint it but it is already attached.

The legs I sanded and then painted in a distressed gray and then varnished it.

I had to do everything twice as things didn't go as planned first time around.
But with many layers, linings it finally worked out.

Deciding last finishing touches.

Tadaa! The top is made with a kilim we bought this Summer during a small local auction, the size was PERFECT for it (just like its original top was perfect for another table.

I love the color combo, and the happy coincidences of all the perfectly sized things were extremely satisfying.

Although it seems just gray it also has the same pink and mint green as the kilim in its paintwork, but very vague.

I upholstered the foam first with gray fabric as the kilim has weaving holes, the gray fabric now pops through giving it an extra pattern.

This one of a kind beauty is available at StarHomeStudio.

With all the moving this will most likely be our last furniture project for this year, but we have plenty of pieces in the shop.

Kitchen Update

I finally got a little visible progress in the kitchen.

Removing the protective stickers already helped a lot.

The table is another project that I hope to finish this week. It is a gorgeous table which was our table in the Netherlands but it has been in the house in Kütahya for 22 years to it got some water damage. You'll see soon how that turns out.

I bought a special tile paint, it shines like tile and keeps the texture.

Ahhhh so much better, wish I had cleared things up before taking the photo but I had been painting for 4+ hours by then and just wanted to go home. The kitchen feels much more like it belongs to us. The shiny handles wouldn't be our choice either but we can live with those :) In the future we want to move the kitchen to a room that for now will be our office, a closed kitchen will be more practical with the dogs, but that is a big (expensive) change that will have to wait some years. The kitchen is also not designed very practical, I think there is like 8-9 meters between the fridge and the stove :D The kitchen is the only place we are not happy with of the house, but it is huge so that makes it up quite a bit.

A Few Make overs

It is Spring, or here almost Summer, we don't really have Spring here. Which means all doggies are having a make over :) I've already done 8 of the 10 and Lulu is so funny, before and after, that I thought to show you :)

Lulu has naturally a mohawk, which I find hilarious. She is a sausage/ terrier mix and both sides you can see in the most fun way.

Her under hair is brown, so once trimmed she has a totally different color.

But where the mohawk was, is now black, creating a wide stripe. We find her adorable each way:)

The other make over are these tables.

They had a very tough varnish on them which took ages to remove and they were crooked and wonky.

After they were stabilized I painted them in white with turquoise.

To match marbled paper I had made during my course this Winter.

They are a set of nesting tables and I painted them to match in a fun way.

I love how they turned out, very beach cottage :) They are available at StarHomeStudio.

And in case you wondered what I did with the remaining of the spoon, I turned it into a very cool keychain.

From Trash to Treasure

This chair was really almost trash, its legs was very gymnastic, something that chairs should not be able to do :)

Despite how it looked, nothing was broken, the connections were just separated, the glue was dried out and some connections were just not done properly back in the day.

After peeling off all the fabric and foam the entire skeleton needed to be separated and re-glued and re-attached properly to make it strong again.

Already looking better once the legs were back in the correct yoga pose :)

I sanded and painted the wood work, which was a little different due to the fun mid century style arms.

And it was time for new foam. Originally it had a cushion but we usually prefer direct upholstery as cushions slide, get out of shape and just don't look that good in our humble opinion.

With each chair the seat always is the first to upholster.

Then the inside arms and wings if it has wings.

And then the inside back, outside arms and finally the outside back and under the chair.

Inside each chair is a mess of fabric, foam and filling, each fabric has its purpose to keep everything in shape and place :)

I cut and sew strips of the gingham fabric for fun striped piping.

And tadaaah! The inspiration for this one was of course the striking rice bag.
Unlike what you would think this bag and the rice was produced in the USA for the Saudi Arabia market. They choose an interesting image for the packaging but that was also the reason why we choose to use it. The chair was not made to offend anyone, we just love the portrait and of course the exotic writings.

We used colors to match the rice bag, with vintage embroideries on the side.

Black and white piping for the red parts...

...red piping for the black and white fabric.

The back side of the rice bag became the back of the chair, with black and white piping to keep it fun.
It turned out very unusual and we love it :)
The chair is available among other one of a kind furniture in our shop.

Tender Loving Care

This sad little ottoman had quite the make over with some TLC. All four legs were wobbling, its filling all out of shape, fabric faded, staples rusted all in all a sad little pouf.

You might remember this photo were I had already removed the fabric and the guts of the ottoman and started painting.

I love stripes but every time I want to paint stripes I remember how much I do not enjoy them, but I love the result so these won't be my last stripes :)

The vintage black and white trim is to cover up the staples that hold the kilim to the pouf.

I'm so happy how this one became! Only the filling and the under fabric is new, everything else has a history.

Love how the kilim colors and stripes come back at the legs, of course this was the reason why I painted those stripes for hours in the first place :)

Look how sad the top was, the fabric was actually very bright in the inside it was now pastel from years of sun exposure.

The filling is higher than it was to accommodate the kilim without cutting it, not an inch went to waste :)

Here another sad detail of ripped fabric, dried out wood and rusted staples, the original upholstery was never well done but years did not help it either.

The completely made over pretty kilim ottoman is available at StarHomeStudio among other one of a kind furniture pieces.