So remember how I said that we’re a family that doesn’t flip out over dirt and messes? Well, sometimes, it does bite you in the butt. Like when you have cream-colored chairs in your main eating area.

Side note: what do you call the area that’s NOT a formal dining room but not really a breakfast nook, either?

Anyway, my grandparents passed down this table and chair set to me when I moved into my first apartment … 10 years ago. Wow, I can’t believe that was 10 years ago. And it’s been my & our main eating table for that long.

The area doesn’t look like that anymore, though – there’s a light wood buffet on that wall under the painting, and the coat rack has been moved. And we’re going to replace that ugly brass light one of these days.

It’s a beautiful set (I love light wood), and I’m not going to replace it anytime soon. But the two chairs with off-white fabric were getting pretty yucky from spilled spaghetti and about 472 other different foods that never come out.

So I’ve been wanting to re-upholster them for a while, but it’s always been at the bottom of my “home improvement to-do list” – until I ended up with this fabric from Maine Cottage.

Now, I can’t let this post go by without telling you about the 90% discount I got on this fabric. I bought it at our local Garden Ridge and paid $5.99 for 2 yards. They have tables of 2-3 yard cuts of home dec fabrics for $5.99 – I’m assuming they’re just leftover cuts from furniture manufacturers. Finding anything good is like going to the thrift store, because you have to dig and dig and dig, but I’ve grabbed up a few cuts here and there just to have in my stash.

I was thinking about using this fabric in our bedroom, and I wanted to know if there were any coordinating fabrics from the designer. So, I looked up the designer that was printed on the selvedge and discovered that it was manufactured by Maine Cottage. And cost $50/yard! That’s a very average price for high-quality home dec fabrics, so I was shocked to find that I luckily grabbed it up for $3/yard.

I decided not to use it in our bedroom, because I don’t think polka dots is really the look I’m going for. Then I thought about the fact that the manufacturer uses it to cover furniture. And that’s when I decided to go ahead and use a little bit of it to re-upholster the [insert name of area here] chairs.

I didn’t do anything fancy – I just took off the cushions, covered the existing fabric with the new fabric, stapled it to the bottom of the cushion, and screwed them back onto the chair. Easy peasy!

I LOVE it!! I’m going to throw some lime green accents on the table and make it a fun little eating area. And then when I finally get around to painting our kitchen yellow, the fabric will still match perfectly.

The only thing I regret about this whole experience? Now, I want a lot more Maine Cottage fabric, but I can’t afford it!

I wouldn’t consider myself crafty – I don’t have a bunch of handmade stuff in our house, and Emma currently has 2 dresses that I’ve made her, even though I have enough fabric & patterns to make her entire wardrobe.

But in doing this office/playroom remodel, I’ve done everything I could to keep it as cheap as possible. I know cheap is often viewed as a dirty word, but I pay for good furniture and electronics and linens and then cheap out the rest. That’s how I roll.

So when I saw this tutorial for making super cute mousepads, I saved it in my delicious bookmarks for the day I would remodel my office.

Lo and behold, that day finally came, and I whipped this mousepad and coaster set out in less than 15 minutes.

And it was CHEAP!

cork boards – 4 for $1.00
fabric – free from my stash*
double-sided fusible web – $2.50

This set was made from one cork board (there were 2 coasters, but I put one on my bedside table) – and the fabric was stuff I already had, but *you could easily do a set of these from a fat quarter. Maybe even 2 sets if you squeeze everything really tight.

If cheap is a dirty word, then at least make something pretty out of it!

Today’s bench monday shot is a little different …

Here’s the same bench a few days ago …

I took the fabric and “cushion” (if you could even call it that!) off, which was a little sad b/c that green paint on there was from when we painted Emma’s room while I was 7 months pregnant. Awww.

Then, I sanded off all of that ugly red paint, primed it with Rust-Oleum spray primer, and then painted it with Rust-Oleum American Accents spray paint in “Heirloom White.”

Also replaced the padding with medium-density foam cushions, used some old knit fabric as batting and then covered with some Japanese import canvas fabric that’s been sitting in my fabric stash for over a year.

Staple gun? You are my new BFF.

I just have to thank Centsational Girl for her blog, because I would have never had the courage to do this without her tutorials and before/after projects. She is the one who turned me on to spray paint, which is the EASIEST thing ever.

I also made over a bookshelf for my office a few weeks ago, but forgot to share it here.

It’s just a cheap particle board bookshelf from Ikea that I’ve had for years – you can kind of see the before here in the left corner.

I just sanded off the particle “shine” and then primed/painted with the same paint I used on the bench.

Then, glued some orange/white polka dot scrapbook paper onto the back board, which doesn’t match up just right, but that’s okay.

I’ve decided that my office / Emma’s playroom / our front room is going to be spring green and orange. With yellows and aquas thrown in for fun. Bright and cheery!