Sewing Desk Upcycle - Part Two

Remember the sewing desk I worked on last March?  It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to do with this desk.  I was inspired by this piece by Michelle Allen of Allen Design Studios

What I love about this is the white painting over a very colorful under painting.  So I did a very colorful under painting and left it for a while, unsure what to paint over it.  

When I started decorating my bedroom I knew I wanted to go with a night/star theme.  Up until a couple of weeks ago my sewing desk was in my dining room.  I started moving my art stuff out of there to make room for an actual dining room table and decided to make a little sewing nook in my bedroom, so I knew I wanted to paint start on the desk.  Simple stars with a lot of white, very little of the colors showing.  I drew stars in chalk and painted over them.  Here are some close ups.

I still need some cool handles.

Here's my little sewing nook, I am in love with it.  It's a lot more secluded and intimate than my former sewing space, and I am very comfortable creating here.  I even made a quick plywood chalkboard for ideas (or sweet little love notes to my hubby).

Some nice sunlight coming in during midday.  I also made a little ruffle curtain to cover my bookshelf.

So what do you think?  Could you create here?  Do you prefer wide open spaces to create in, or do you like to tuck away in a corner and make stuff?

Lula's Footstool - Reupholstery Project

My Inspiration

A felt pillow project I found on the Etsy blog from Anne Kyrro Quinn's book Felt Furnishings. You can find the project here.



My Project

A few weeks ago my big ol' pregnant self sat on my daughter's stool to paint her nails and it broke into several pieces. Lula was very concerned - about the stool, not Mommy falling in the floor. Since our king sized bed is so tall, she has to have a stool to get up onto it. So when hubby and I went to the thrift store and saw this footstool I knew it would be the perfect. It was just the right size and very sturdy, but not very pretty.  The total cost for this project was $25 - a bit more than I usually spend on an upcycle project, but well worth it.  The stool was $10 and I spent $15 on felt (I used acrylic felt).  I already had the thread and wire nails I needed to finish.

So I bought a bunch of felt and cut several circles (I think 350 of them) and sewed them onto a piece of felt large enough to cover the stool. I worked for weeks on this and finally finished a few days ago.

I took the top off and removed the old upholstery fabric. I was happy with the foam and did not want to buy and cut another piece, so kept it. 

I had to place a piece of thin white fabric under the felt to make the color look more solid. I just sandwiched the two pieces together and laid them over the foam, streched them, and nailed them to the wooden base with little wire nails (sorry, no photos of this step).


Here's the finished stool in my craft room. I like it enough to keep it in my craft room, but Lula loves it. She even told me it was pretty. So I guess it will have to move on into the bedroom.

Here's a close up of all the circles I sewed.

And I even made the bottom of it pretty with a piece of painted canvas.  I just screwed the top back on with wood screws, but since my felt was thicker than the original material I had to replace the original screw with longer ones. 

Lula liked it so much she became very territorial with it and sat on it every time I tried to take a picture. Worked for me because I actually got a picture of her sitting still long enough to snap a cute picture.

I am glad after all the work I put into it that she loves it so much.