Before and After: A Love Story

"I dwell in possibility." ~Emily Dickinson

What I love most about this wacky hobby of mine is seeing the potential for fabulous in the unfashionable. For swan-like beauty in the ugly duckling. For greatness in dusty old junk.

I come by it honest. My parents are champion makeover artists. My dad once went out for a run and came jogging home carrying an old chandelier someone had thrown out. It's hanging in my folks' garage apartment right now. They always had creative ideas for ways to save money (and the Earth) by remodeling and reusing old stuff.

To this end, here are a few of my latest transformations (each item courtesy of my sweet mother-in-law and her amazing treasure trove of antiques!) After all, who doesn't love a good "before and after" photo montage?

Dreaming in Black and White

The humble little stool pictured above didn’t have much going for it – a roughed up finish, an icky horse hair cushion. (Wow. The days before synthetic foam were tough.) So I ripped off the cushion, gave the stool a quick coat of black satin spray paint, and sanded the bumps and curves with a medium grit block it to give it a lightly distressed look. I bought a remnant of black and white damask print fabric and a small piece of 1 ½” foam from a fabric store.

Once home with my materials, I cut the fabric and foam to an oval shape (about 3 inches wider for the fabric to stretch around the seat). Then I hot glued the foam to the seat and wrapped the fabric over the top. Flipped it upside down, staple-gunned the fabric to the bottom and trimmed off the excess. Now I’m not the most professional upholsterer (yet), so the bottom of the seat looked a little ragged. No biggie, I just got a yard of black grosgrain ribbon and hot glued it on for trim. Voila! Sad little stool > oh-so-stylish accent piece.

Country Strong Chairs

Remember the days when country style dominated decorating? Baskets hanging from ceilings, checkerboard stenciled borders and little wooden ducks sitting on the dining room table. Yep, there seemed to be a braided rug under every kitchen table in America.

These chairs were a hallmark of that downhome look, but they also are well made and solid wood. Just needed a little gussying up, as country folks say. So I sprayed them with primer and painted them a fresh yellow-green that just so happened to be in my Mother-in-Law’s garage. This light lemongrass hue gave them new life, and now the chairs are ready for any number of décor styles. Shabby chic … cottage sweet … or maybe even new country chic. Want 'em? Click here.

How Do You Define “Smashing”?

This three-panel screen had seen better days. It was supposed to look like it was covered in 1920’s jazz sheet music. But the yellowed, peeling paper just gave me the blues. My first thought was (no, not spray paint) – decoupage! And I know I’m an English nerd, but I have always loved dictionaries. I have an antique dictionary with some really fun (and surprisingly intricate) illustrations that I knew would be perfect for dressing up this piece. All I had to do was cut up this wonderful book (Eek -- Sorry Mr. Webster!), arrange and glue its pages.

So I used an art knife to cut pages out of the book and decoupaged them onto the screen with Mod Podge (although I hear Allene’s may be better -- stay tuned.) I started from the bottom of each panel and laid out the pages in a way that best showcased the drawings. I liked the way the title pages looked, with the big letter at the top of the page. So I placed those toward the top of some of the panels so they’d be really visible. When everything was in place, I added a coat of clear satin spray paint to provide a little protection.

From a distance the screen reads as a nice, neutral gray. But up close, the details of the words and pictures are smashing. No, wait … they define smashing! And better yet, it's for sale in my Etsy shop. What are your favorite transformations? I'd love to see them!