Bright Yellow Kitchen Chairs

I did this refinishing project last fall but am just now getting around to documenting.  I decided it was time to pass along the old kitchen set that my parents had kept for years to my sister (who needed a table), and time for me to do something new! 

Before our big move I bought some vintage chairs with great potential.  They had upholstered seats (which I swore never to get as kids would destroy them), and wobbled quite a bit.  I loved the finish actually, but I knew I needed to add some screws for stability, and on half the chairs the finish was flaking.  So do I go safe and re-stain or bold?

 Bold of course!  I was refinishing the chairs in my parent's garage and after getting a coat of the sunny yellow on my mom casually asked me if I meant it to be so bright (probably thinking--eek!).  Yes I did mean it.  I love bright yellow.

After a lot of brainstorming I decided to try adding a thin baltic birch plywood to the upholstery frame.  I roughly cut out the seat shapes, used some wood clue and clamps to affix wood to the frame, and then used upholstery tacks to secure it in place.  Then I used a router to get the edges flush and pretty.

I am no carpenter but they turned out just as I hoped (quirky and bright).  I left them unfinished as I decided what to do, and then decided to leave them unfinished for fun.  I do wish I had put a clear acrylic on the wood to protect it from stains, I plan to go back and do that someday.

I still enjoy my silly sunny chairs.

DIY Fabric Napkins

I officially have two weeks left until my due date, consequently I've made a massive mental list of projects I would like to do.

One pressing item on my list:  fabric napkins.  Because that is what you need when a newborn is on it's way.  Just kidding.  My oldest has hit a phase where she hates being messy or having a drip of water on her while eating, as well my toddler is too cool for bibs but is a pretty messy eater.  We were going through a lot of paper and cloth towels at meal times.  I wanted something more fun than worn out dish towels and that we could reuse more systematically.

I'm sure it has been done before, but I decided to make my cloth napkins out of flour sack cloth.  They are my favorite towel to have around for drying and covering baked goods.  I grabbed a pack of four at the store and chopped each towel into quarters.  I rolled one edge over twice and stitched, then on the last raw edge I made some colorful bias tape out of fabric scraps (I love yellow in the kitchen!).  At the last minute I decided to add some twill tape so I could hang them if I wanted.

Each family member gets one at meal times and afterwards if it's clean we hang it up to use next time.  As a result of my adorable napkins I now want to build a skinny buffet table for our kitchen (I have the supplies, just need some tools) to house said napkins, cookbooks, and other kitchen things.  Also I want to make an ottoman.  And an over-sized wax canvas bag (wax is in the mail!).  Don't try to follow the thought process of a full-term pregnant woman, we do ridiculous things.