Decorating

Via Pinterest from poppytalk.blogspot.com

I have been obsessed with this image from Poppytalk that I found on Pinterest a week or so ago. I actually made it my iPhone background so that I could see it all the time. For some reason, these colors with the chevron stripes are amazing to me. Exciting. Inspiring!

I’ve known that I would eventually incorporate something from this photo into my house. But first, I added a yellow and white chevron background to my blog header on Monday. I thought that might help satisfy my need to get yellow chevrons onto something that I own. But it only intensified my craving. So Tuesday, I ended up at Hancock Fabrics, thrilled that they still had this pattern in their upholstery section. Even better, upholstery is half off this week.

The fabric store ladies see me there constantly, and they’ve warmed up to me over time. I think they thought I was a little crazy yesterday, as I was completely GIDDY over buying a yard of fabric. I did everything but squeal with delight. If they did think I was insane, they were very sweet about it. They warned that if I want more of this fabric, I’d better get it soon, since there’s no guarantee they’ll carry it forever. The bolt is almost gone. Cue anxious dreams about fabric for me.

I am going to make pillows first. I bought two 16″x16″ pillow forms. As you can guess from the zipper in the photo, I’m feeling going to attempt to add hidden zipper closures. I’ve never done anything like that before.  This will actually be the first home decor sewing I’ve done since I learned to sew. While pillows are probably easier than clothes, I’m a bit nervous.

Well, I didn’t have any kids with me yesterday. So after the fabric buying, I headed to Lowes to look at paint. Blame Pinterest again. These images have convinced me that I don’t just need yellow chevrons. I also need to repaint some of my black furniture. Here’s my inspiration:

via Pinterest from Better Homes & Gardens

via Pinterest from Apartment Therapy

via Pinterest from Flickr

My first target for paint is the kitchen table. Our kitchen, entry, and living room are all one big open space. So pillows for the couch and paint for the table are all happening in the same room. I started out thinking I wanted to use spray paint, but even though we’re going to have a warmup this week, it will won’t be warm enough for painting outdoors. So I opted for using a brush, which gave me a lot more color choices. Here’s the table. I love the shape, but after cats skidding across it and kids banging forks into it, the paint was in really bad shape.

I came home with the paint, and immediately got to work sanding. Looks even ickier here before I wiped it off again:

Then, I primed it with Kilz Odorless Primer. In case you’re wondering, it’s not actually odorless. We smelled it all night, and I had to open the windows to let in the 20 degree air from outside. This primer was just tinted yellow. The final paint color is much brighter than this!

I’m not finished yet. It’s taking a while, sanding between coats. I just applied the third coat of paint, which should be the last. I’ll let it cure for a few days, and then I’ll apply a glossy water based polyurethane. Hopefully it’ll be able to stand up to everything that goes on at the kitchen table. So far, the paint is very sticky still. Makes me nervous, but I read it takes up to 30 days for latex paint to fully cure.

So here’s a preview. Once the kitchen is all done, I’ll take better photos and show you the whole shiny table.

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