How to Recover a Butterfly Chair | Pretty Handy Girl

How to Recover a Butterfly Chair | Pretty Handy Girl

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Do you have a butterfly chair that is sun-faded or has hideous fabric on it? I bet you thought it was a lost cause, right? Nope! With a sewing machine, some new fabric and a little spare time you can recover that ugly butterfly chair and have a new one. Okay, so I didn’t recover it with green fabric in honor of St. Patrick, but what could be greener than a good old upcycling project! Believe it or not, this was a much easier project than I had anticipated, so don’t get scared by the curves. You can “sew” do this! 😉

How to Recover a Butterfly Chair | Pretty Handy Girl

I stumbled upon this chair at Goodwill for $9.99. Normally I wouldn’t spend this much for a sun-faded chair, but because I was working on the school library makeover project — and we needed more comfortable seating — I bought it.  After all, we would have had to pay at least double for another comfy chair.

How to Recover a Butterfly Chair | Pretty Handy Girl

Luckily, I had some soft leftover fleece fabric that I could use to recover the chair. I wish I had measured how much I used, I think it was a little less than 2 yards.

Materials:

  • 2 yards of fabric
  • Coordinating thread
  • Pins
  • Scissors
  • Old butterfly chair + old cover

Instructions:

1. Remove the old cover from the butterfly chair frame. Lay it on top of your fabric (both right sides up.) Read more

Boy's Red, White & Blue Themed Room | Pretty Handy Girl

Galvanized Tub Storage Bench for Kids | Pretty Handy Girl

Every month Lowe’s challenges me to create another unique project to share with you. This month’s challenge was creative storage ideas. Have kids? This is a unique storage solution using a galvanized tub and a furry upholstered lid. It’s the perfect place to store and corral all that kid clutter in your child’s bedroom. The storage tub doubles as a bench and a step stool. Don’t be deterred if you don’t have children, the storage bench could be used for magazine storage and much more!

Grab these materials and tools and follow along with me (and my 13 year old assistant.)

Creating the Galvanized Storage Bench and Lid

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Materials for the Galvanized Storage Tub and Lid:

Galvanized Tub Storage Bench for Kids | Pretty Handy Girl

 

Instructions:

Turn the galvanized tub upside down on the plywood. Use the sharpie to mark approximately 1/2 – 1″ out from the edge of the tub. Read more

How-to-recover-this-end-up-chairs

As a parent of two elementary school students, I always ask my kids’ teachers if they need anything for their room. Usually the answer is markers, wipes, or snacks. But, my kindergartner’s teacher knows about my secret identity after having taught my older son for a year. So, she didn’t hesitate to ask me if I could possibly recover a few really sad looking chairs that had seen their fair share of kindergarten butts. 😉

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

 

old_school_chair

These poor chairs were still very study, but the fabric was nubby, pilled and stained. I love a good challenge, so I took all three of the chairs home over the Christmas break.

The first task involved removing the seats. Before I touched the seats, I flipped over the chairs and marked the front side of the chair so they would fit together perfectly when I put them back together. Read more

Look up there! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no wait…it’s Madigan Made! That’s right, Shannon from Madigan Made is here and she leads a double life. She’s the Clark Kent of the blogging world. By day, Shannon is a pharmacist and by night she moonlights as a creative magician and blogger.  This creative genius casts magical spells on ordinary objects and turns them into extraordinary home furnishings and décor.

One thing I love about Shannon is that she never fails to amaze me with her transformations. They are always fresh ideas and the fact that she has the energy to complete DIY projects and hold a full-time job leaves me speechless. Check out just a sampling of her projects.

And now I see some sparks glowing in the distance. They are moving towards us at warp speed, which only means one thing…Madigan Made is in the house! Read more

We just got back from a very relaxing week at the beach. The weather was perfect and our boys really enjoyed playing in the surf. I think we brought back a bit too much of the beach with us (sandy sheets, hair and toes). But, at least we had fun!

My mom and I spent an afternoon shopping at the outlets in Myrtle Beach, but not before stopping at my favorite location in Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

A place where I can look at lots of this:

Admire plenty of this:

And go ga ga for this:

All these and more can be found at The Painted Cottage.

This eclectic shop is an adorable boutique with sherbert colored walls and oodles of antiques, art and shabby chic finds. I could spend hours browsing this store and still not see everything.

Here is just a sampling of what is inside:

Did you see that white oyster shell mirror on the wall?
How about the same mirror with black oyster shells?

Very chic in black, don’t you think?
Precious blue bottles with coral and starfish lids

I just love this summery beach wreath spray painted light blue
and accented with ribbon, coral and shells.

Don’t you just love this red floral wingback chair with the starfish throwpillow?
(Realistically I know it would only last 2 minutes in my house before being plucked off
the pillow by my boys or crushed during wrestling matches.
But, I can dream about it, right?!)

A Trio of Starfish on Burlap

Another unique way to decorate with an old window and wine corks!

Whoa! I just found Daisy’s twin? She looks fab in red.

Hey, another coincidence! A chair with the same P. Kaufmann fabric
as my daisy chair and bench in my guest room (only in a different colorway.)

Let me tell you, The Painted Cottage has the best decorative chairs.
Like this blue rattan chair.

Or this shabby chic floral detailed chair
I’m crazy about this child size rustic chair with the monkey fist knot ball
And just the aqua color of this chair has me hooked
More aqua color on this vanity and clear glass lamp
Catching my breath as I spot this gorgeous aqua armoire!
I’m only pulled away from the armoire by these glass beauties.
Am I part magpie? Why am I so fixated on shiny shinies?
 
 This dresser pulled me out of my aqua fixation.
Beautiful sea foam green.
Will you look at this lampshade?! Fabric flowers sewn to the shade. Heavenly!
I can’t wait for one of you crafty readers to write up a tutorial on this.
or how about this lamp? LOVE IT, right?!
A beautiful hydrangea painting
Upon closer inspection, the flowers are actually cut magazine photos.
How clever!
The store has an abundance of signs with clever sayings.
“Barefoot is Bliss” so true!
“At the Beach we live by the currents and follow the sun”
“Dogs have owners, cats have staff”
That black bench under the throws is another headboard bench.
 This sign just kills me…get it? KILLs me. Okay, sorry, that was corny.
The crab shack
More artwork and accents

So, if you make your way down to the  southernmost beaches of North Carolina’s unique barrier islands, (or even if you are in Myrtle Beach). Take the time to stop by and visit The Painted Cottage at 6692 Beach Drive, Ocean Isle Beach, NC. (Phone ahead for hours and directions: 910-579-5995). Be sure to tell them that I sent you. (I am not paid by the Painted Cottage, I only hope they remember me next year when I go back.)

Best of all, if you haven’t had your fill of eye candy from this post, visit the shop’s website: thepaintedcottageonline.com or blog: thepaintedcottageonline.blogspot.com